Quest Rewards
Winning a quest pays gold and, sometimes, an item drop. That's it. No avatar XP, no soldier XP, no currency besides gold. The gold amount is shown on the quest card before activation; the item drop is a surprise on the result screen.
Gold Is Shown Upfront
Every quest card displays its exact gold reward before you activate. That number never changes - the same quest always pays the same amount on victory. Gold is deterministic.
The amount depends on:
- Timer length. Longer quests pay more. Duration is the primary reward driver.
- Quest tier. Multi-phase quests carry a bonus multiplier on top of boss-only, compensating for the soldier-selection overhead and longer timers.
- Your level. Gold scales up slowly with avatar level.
- A floor. There's a minimum gold payout so even a short boss-only quest feels worth doing.
Approximate ranges:
| Tier | Timer | Early-game gold | Later-game gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boss-only | 5–20 min | Small | Modestly larger |
| Multi-phase | 20–60 min | Medium to large | Noticeably larger |
Gold is granted only on victory. A defeat pays nothing.
Item Drops - A Surprise
Item drops aren't shown on the quest card. They're surprises on the battle result screen.
Drop chance declines as you level up. Brand-new players get drops almost every fight; later-game players get drops less often. The design intent is that new players gear up fast while veterans maintain a stable motivation floor without becoming over-geared from routine quests.
There's a floor - drop chance never goes to zero, even at high levels.
Drops only happen on victory. A defeat never drops anything.
Rarity Distribution
When an item drops, the rarity roll tends toward common but includes meaningful chances at higher rarities:
- Common - the most likely.
- Rare - a solid minority of drops.
- Epic - occasional.
- Legendary - rare but real.
See Rarity Tiers for what each rarity means in terms of stats and price.
Drops are picked uniformly from the full item catalogue with no class-affinity filtering - a Wizard is just as likely to get a shield as a Knight is. Unwanted drops can be sold via the shop for a fraction of their buy price.
How Level Scales Rewards
Gold scales up by a small percentage per avatar level - enough to feel like you're earning more as you grow, but slower than shop prices scale. The gap is deliberate: early game feels abundant, late game demands choices.
Item drop chance scales the opposite direction - down with level, because your inventory is already filling in at high levels. The combination keeps rewards interesting across the full level curve.
Dungeons vs Quests on Drops
The two systems complement each other:
- Quests are the reliable daily source. You'll get lots of drops over time; most will be common.
- Dungeons are the concentrated high-quality source. A dungeon first-clear guarantees a Rare or better drop.
Both matter. Quests feed your inventory steadily; dungeons shape your gear spikes.
No Avatar XP, Ever
Quests grant zero avatar XP. This is intentional and worth repeating because it surprises people.
Why quests don't grant XP
Avatar XP is the game's signal for real-life progress. Habits, journals, tasks, goals, infocards, and achievements grant XP because they're real-world actions. Quests reward you for fighting - a very in-game activity. If quests granted XP, the avatar's level would drift away from your real behavior, and level would stop being a meaningful signal. Keeping XP out of quests preserves the meaning of levelling.
First-Quest Checklist Bonus
The first quest you ever complete also triggers the "complete first adventure quest" checklist entry, which has its own small gold + XP bonus. That's a one-time onboarding reward, separate from the quest's own payout.