Melting's Manual: Powerleveling in HellMOO

Gotta go fast.

Powerleveling is the practice of getting as strong as possible in as short a time as possible. This is a guide on how to do that. This guide is intermediate-level, and assumes a fair amount of HellMOO knowledge. If you're still accidentally attacking Care Dog or wondering where Weezer is, then go play the game, read some other guides, and come back later. HellMOO isn't going anywhere, and despite its bluster, it's a very forgiving game. It will wait for you.

Philosophy

The idea of powerleveling in HellMOO is usually to reach maximum practical strength in a very short time. Powerleveling is not interested in maximum theoretical or numerical strength. As a rule of thumb...

If you are interested in:

• Grinding and maxing skill levels
• Brags and other cosmetics
• ERP/sexhaving/shitposting/other social play
• Pit PvP
• Long-term, non-rerolling characters (>1 real life year)

Then you should check out Nyll's Grinding Guide, which can be considered an opposing counterpart to this one.

If you are interested in:

• Practical PvP
• Helping newbies
• Learning about the game mechanics and world
• Intensive endgame PvE (Skydock, Das Kochenhammer, Cerb cycling, Nullpack cycling etc.)
• Experimental builds and rerolling characters (<6 real life months)

Then this is the guide for you. There's nothing wrong with either approach; they're just different ways of approaching the same problem.

Starting at 0 XP: Join a Corp!

FAQ: What is boosting?
A: Boosting is higher level players helping lower level players to level quickly. The term has a negative stereotype from other games but in HellMOO boosting is incredibly effective. HellMOO lacks things like hard level requirements, and thanks to global XP reward decay, front-loading all of your XP gains is by far the most best way to level.

This is not required, but it makes leveling a lot easier. Once you're in one, figure out who is active and who just sits around ERPing, and try to find someone who will boost you. If you don't want to join a corp, that's OK, but you will need to make good use of your wristpad's pager. HellMOO was not designed to be a solo game, and besides, it's a lot more fun playing with other people most of the time.

This guide assumes you are fresh out of character creation and starting at zero XP with no items - if you're not, feel free to skip ahead. Rerolling is very powerful!

The rest of this guide lists lots of tasks for you to complete to reach maximum XP in a hurry. This list is an "ideal world" set, and completing them all is completely unnecessary. Pick and choose according to your means and how much help you can get. Your build will not fall apart if you don't max out shyster.

The tasks are also color-coded, as follows:

• Green tasks are easy items that even the most hopeless bumblefuck should be able to achieve.
• Gold tasks are either tricky or build-specific. If you're not sure, bring a friend to these.
• Red tasks are jobs that you'll almost always need help from someone to complete at their relevant level.

If you happen to be a zombie, don't worry about this as much. Zombie is a huge crutch that makes the game way easier; while brainy stuff is mostly off-limits to you, you can just throw yourself at many red tasks until the game hands your retarded brain XP on a plate.

Hitting 60k

60k is your first big milestone - once you're there, a lot more PvE opens up to you. Never grind mobs at this level, it's not worth your time. Bouncing between journals and staying on top of job cooldowns should carry you up to 60k no problem.

Note that 0-60k is a huge range, so the color codes are a little vague here. Someone at 5k has zero chance of surviving an arachno encounter, but it should be a cakewalk by 55k. The reason this range is so wide is because it follows the state of mind you should adhere to (not grinding mobs, pumping weapon skill, etc.) that you should follow, which is the same all the way up to 60k.

Jobs

Jobs are a solid XP source, and have extra value tacked on because they give bonus skill IP, so spam them as soon as they come off cooldown. Exact guides on jobs are outside this guide's scope; see the relevant page and ask your corpmates. Jobs that are good for early leveling include:

• Abortionist. Get a hanger from Doctor Slepian, between Shoreline and Freedom City.
• Corpse Grinder.
• Deliveryboy.
• Fisherman. Learn one raw from Salty Pete before you head out, and fish in either North Beach or the Gulf of Stockton (with a float vest).
• Gambler. Spam the slots with a trigger, blackjack's a waste of time.
• Medic. Rewards doctor's mirror (+2 medic hat) on max completion.
• Office Worker.

FAQ: What is this "contributes to?"
A: There are some achievements available for getting several journals of a certain type, which give you even more XP. These are worth grabbing early when you can. Mad Scientist is particularly important; without it, you can't learn brainy skills from several key NPCs.

• Orphan Exterminator. Tedious but worthwhile. Max completion awards a 150 XP journal and contributes to Satanist.
• Prank Caller.
• Pusherman.
• Socializer. Some people like to keep these for free clone updates, but cycling it now nets you 1500 XP. Your call.
• Whore. Do this job in between doing other jobs; just use your horny whenever it's off cooldown and you're passing through the city.
• Chud Hunter + Sewer Butcher. Use the meats from the former for the latter. Wait until you're comfy taking on chuds/chobos.
• Prisoner Hunter. One step up from chuds/chobos. Watch out for powerattacks.
• Racist Hunter. Wait until about 45k or bring a tough friend if you're not sure about this, racists are much more dangerous than prisoners.
• Dexter. Like prisoners, but they have a lot of dodge. Bring 23 to-hit for consistency and pow on cooldown.
• Moonshiner. A little tougher than chobos. Make sure to wear armor or bring dodge.
• Ghostbuster. If you have an elemental weapon in your class, this is easy. If not, use EMP grenades, you'll just about break even. Awards Polycarbonate Goggles (+1 Science mask) when maxed out.
• Scam Artist. Requires about 14 persuade; bling helps a lot.
• Shyster Requires about 17 persuade.
• Utility Worker Requires about 12 repair.
• Icehammer. Rushy dodge-guns builds can start soloing ice yetis somewhere around 50k, but it's still a bit dicey. Best to wait.
• Leechbane. Rock lampreys got buffed out of their skull a while ago, and their damage is brutal now. I don't think it's worth the risk at this level when there's so many other good options, but the choice is there.
• EEE Deliveryman. Depending on how good your mobility is, you may be able to start this job. If Memphis happens to have a package for Lurleen, it's practically a freebie. If you can't do this, come back to it later when your mobility is better.

There are also some jobs that your corpmates can boost you through quickly, though you have little hope of doing them on your own.

• Organ Repo. Requires about 20 medic, but someone else can extract the organs on your behalf. If you rush Brains, you may be able to do this alone.
• Samuel Cumming. Requires a quest completion first.
• Ronin. Has a soft level requirement of about 110k.
• Drug Runner. If you've got musk and big balls, you can do this yourself, but be careful.
• Furrier. Requires a trip to Weezer.
• Entomologist.
• Herpetologist. Good luck finding anyone willing to do this.
• Reactor Tech.
• Oil Baron.

Travel Journals

Travel journals are quite safe; just walk into a zone to get the XP for visiting. Occasionally, you will have to run past or avoid dangerous mobs; in these cases, just play it safe (or use musk) and you should be alright. All of the zones listed below can be briefly visited without fear of danger (consider them labeled as green tasks), and with the exception of the noted ones that require a quick piloting job, can all be visited solo at less than 10,000 total XP.

These are roughly organized in clusters of related, adjacent zones, so you can go through them like a checklist in a hurry. Don't worry if you die during an exploration mishap: clones are cheap. At this stage the game is almost comically forgiving; there's an achievement or clone update around every corner.

• Das Kochenhammer.
  • Needs a pilot. 200 XP for just walking onto a safe platform. Whoop.
• The Islands: Stormfront, Refinery, Coventry Island, Exxon Valdez, Kakuri Island, Kakuri Monastery, Devil's Towers.
  • You'll need a pilot for most of these, though you can take a taxi to Kakuri and Devil's Towers.
  • To access the monastery, you'll need to either be strong enough to kill him or have enough common sense to tell him what he wants to hear (spoiler!).
• Heaven and Hell.
  • Both of these are spoilers, ask around.
• The Necropolis:Necropolis El, Floodplains and Heart, Southern Necropolis, Camp Benjamin.
  • Get a pilot to bring you to these. Skip the Gate for now unless you spot an opportunity.
  • If you've got sufficient map knowledge, testicular fortitude and a float vest, you can also hit the ruined arcade while in the floodplains. Watch out for fearsome beasties.
• The Southern Expanse: Wasteland, Vault 4, New Clearwater, New Clearwater Sewer System, SpaceOrg HQ, Diablo Seco, Birchwood, Birchwood Heights, Glass Mesa, Cybus Industries, Sea of Dunes, Fry's, Gas town.
  • Knock all these out at once with a radiation suit and a camelback of water.
  • If it's summertime, be careful of heat, especially in the Sea of Dunes. Buy some keffiyeh in New Clearwater while you're passing through.
  • Watch out for sandworms, radscorpions, turtles, rompers and deathbots.
  • Cybus Industries is on the northern edge of Glass Mesa.
• The Shoreline Set: Shoreline, the Bay of Freedom, Rupture, the Aphotic Grotto.
  • Wait until you can kill Gator Boy, and don't go too far into the Grotto.
  • Rupture is underwater in the channel that leads into the sewers.
• The Eastern Expanse: Crater Rim, the Decrepit Farmhouse, the Dilapidated Doublewide, Mountainside, Ashen Valley, Mount Fisty, Screaming Chasm, Maas Neotek, Maas Subway, Glowstiller.
  • Watch out for hepcats, and rednecks if you're very low level.
  • Don't wander into Glowstiller beyond the first tile.
• Greater Freedom City: Weyland-Utani Building, Weyland-Utani Building 14th Floor, Our Dear Lady of Lust, the Sewers, the Subway Tunnels, the sub-sewers, the Cave Complex, the Watery Fissure, the Warehouse, Bradbury Basement, Sharpton Projects, Sharpton Projects Interior, The Maze, The Bombed-Out Building, the Final Rest Home, the Mall (in Gangland), the Nukem Academy, EAGLE HQ, St. God's Memorial Hospital, FUN HQ, James Wood Plaza towers 1 and 3, Lanyard Court Fire Station, North Beach, the Toxic Dump.
  • Watch out for karnivores, giant crabs and possibly zombies.
  • Getting to the sub-sewers will require killing the bug queen. Bring your highest-DPS weapon, a pack of smokes, and a lighter.
  • The Warehouse, the Maze, Weyland-Utani 14th floor and FUN HQ can be tricky to track down. Te warehouse is in Slagtown, visible on lmap; the Maze is behind Sharpton Projects, all the way west; W-U 14th floor is reached by taking the elevator to the 13th floor and then going up the stairs; FUN HQ is the bar-type building next to Ammu-Nation.
  • The Cave Complex and Watery Fissure are spoilers, so ask around in-game.
  • EAGLE HQ is hidden somewhere in Nukem Academy.
  • JW towers 1 and 3 grant 75 XP each for visiting each of their floors. For whatever reason, tower 2 only grants 5 XP per floor.
• The Western Road: Chemical Plant, Country Road, Edith's House, the Model Home, Abandoned Highway, the Truck Stop, Lurleen, Lurleen Estates, the Remote Church, the Acres, the Impound Yard, Mountain Pass, Open Prairie, Beatrice Acres, Colossus Silo, Weezer Dam, Takotech Ruins, Cargill Beach, Haaskel Dormitory, Adamant Canyon East.
  • Watch out for Open Prairie bandits and accidentally pissing off prchr.
  • Don't go north of the waterfall in Mountain Pass yet, the yetis will fuck you up; come back later.
  • Bring 2 bedrock shelter suits to keep you warm in the cold, and some money for a flight back to FC.
  • Have at least 13 climb to get in and out of the Colossus Silo, or else you'll get stuck.
  • Cargill Beach is reached by going south along the top of the weezer dam instead of jumping down into the river. Keep following the path and you'll reach it.
• The Jedocean: Shipwreck Cove, Pangu Island, Pangu Mine, Macero.
  • This requires a boat, which means either grabbing a float vest and stealing one or borrowing one from someone else.
  • Don't fuck with the big crab on Shipwreck Cove.
  • Watch out for drunken sailors, big cats and angry tribals on Pangu, and angry farmers and molemen on Macero.
  • Do your best to not die while doing this. If you lose anything out here, getting it back is very taxing.
  • If you're lucky, you might also find the Hei Zhenzhu at sea, which also has a travel journal.
  • Using a boat, you can also reach Stormfront and the refinery without a plane, but watch out for the racists.

Kill Journals

Many of these are supremely dangerous and will definitely require someone to boost you through them. If you can't hit them all, don't worry, just stick to travels. The mobs aren't going anywhere, and you can always come back and smack them later.

The list below is written based on the perfectionist assumption that you will have a competent and reasonably dedicated endgame player boosting you. In reality, your actual booster may be less competent, less dedicated, and/or decidedly less endgame. Trust your booster's judgment; if they say they're not sure about something, don't push the issue. There are also other mobs that could technically be targets but aren't listed here because of their massive impracticality. Nobody is going to do the radome dance or cook up a jetpack just to get an N-tag a kill journal. Finally, play it safe; a mob that's safe for someone at 50k is more than likely not safe for someone at 5k.

• Greater Freedom City: Cultists, Slagtown Scumbags, Ganglanders, Stoners, Citizens, Crackbabies, Crackheads, Crackfiends, Hospital Patients, Hospital Nurses, Molegulls, Clowns, Carnies, Mimes, Chuds, Red Chuds, Sea Chuds, Crocodiles, Alligators, Caimans, Old People, Satanists, Stray Dogs, Giant Rats, Small Rats, Sharpton Chobos, Sewer Chobos, Slagtown Monkies, Fuck Chickens, Orphans, Bully Orphans, Otaku Orphans, Babymommas, Poltergeists, Spammers, Bradbury Zombies, Mall Zombies, Celebrity Zombies, Phagelab Zombies, Boomer Zombies, Nerds, Pregnant Teens, Mutant Babies, Mr. Bungle, Toxic Freaks, Sharpton Thugs, Firemen, Karnivores, Tankboys, Chomoninjas, Racists, Moss Monsters, Tentacle Rapers, Grindroids, Drilliacs, Jigsurgeons, Arachno Queens, Arachnotrons, Master Vampires, Footballers, Karnivore Seniors, Lord Belding, Stranglevines, Deep Ones.
  • Moss monsters, tentacle rapers, and deep ones are all in spoiler locations.
  • Be careful about killing stranglevines! They spawn in a relatively benign spot on the Necropolis El, where that vending machine for X-Ray glasses is (requires a pilot).
  • Do not underestimate Mr. Bungle. Every time I see him in the early game, I think "Ah no worries, this build is good enough...", and then BAM! -25 health beat crit out of nowhere, while my best weapons hit him for 20% health. There's a reason he gives a unique 250 XP award!
  • Getting tankboys, chomoninjas or racists will require that special contracts be signed.
  • Chobos and Otaku Kids have associated boss mobs that spawn very rarely, so killing them is luck of the draw.
  • Master Vampires can be kind of hard to find, thanks to the supremely industrious Tyrone Belmont. Keep an eye out for them; 400 XP is a big reward. You can find them in Slagtown at night.
  • All sewer tiles are dark, so bring belt lights.
  • Killing arachnos, arachno queens and arachnotrons will require getting past the bug queen again, but you should really be bringing help anyway if you're going down there.
  • Killing a poltergeist will require locating one or creating one and then using ghostbait.
  • Killing Projects Thugs can be a challenge, because they wander all over a fairly large and labyrinthine zone. If you can't find one, don't worry about it.
  • Stay away from Grindroids, Drilliacs and Jigsurgeons unless you've got a tough booster. They have an ability that can steal your weapon, and the ability has no cooldown, so they can spam your fancy gun right out of your hands.
• The Islands: Devil's Towers Residents, Kakuri Islanders, Kakuri Gatekeeper, Kakuri Initiates, Roshi, Savage Michael, Small/Medium/Large Dinosaurs, Sundews.
  • Kakuri Islanders are, strangely, a lot more dangerous than the guys in the monastery. This is because they do beat damage and can feint. Watch out!
  • Savage Michael is somewhat hidden, rely on your boost buddy to find him.
  • Technically, basilisks and bossilisks are eligible for this, but they are both way too unpredictable for boosting.
  • Be careful about the sundews, having more than one on the tile can confuse people.
• The Southern Expanse: Juicers, Armordillos, Beefalo, Chukkas, Kittens, Rednecks, Hepcats, Chutneys, Mountain Rams, Observatory Zombies, Radscorpions, Scorpions, Rattlesnakes, Chomologists, Scavvies, Apparitions, Great Old Ones, Rompers, Deathbots, Chomo Paratroopers, Doofsnakes, Bootleggers, Flesh Golems, BONGHITZ, Thunderbirds, Lammergiers, Rocs, Ash Beasts, Sandworms.
  • Doofsnakes are a new mob in Death Adder Ravine. According to Doof, they are balanced for around 50k or so (lamprey level), but according to player reports they are a lot harder. I haven't tested this yet and also don't know how many varieties there are, so I'm putting them as yellow for now.
  • Killing Thunderbirds, Rocs and Lammergiers is quite an ordeal and involves lots of climbing and cold gear.
  • Killing an observatory zombie is easy; reaching them is something even endgame players often don't know how to do, because they're in the observatory, which is part of an obscure quest. Ask around to try and find someone.
  • Killing bootleggers and flesh golems will require protection from radiation.
  • Great Old Ones can be found in other places, but Birchwood Heights is the only place where they can be found with a consistent, easy-to-find spawn. They and their neighboring apparitions must be found with a PK illuminator and then coaxed out with ghostbait.
• The Shoreline Set: Molegulls, Mutant Sharks, Master Vampires, Molegulls, Grues, Monstrosities, Chimaera.
  • These are the same master vampires as in Slagtown, Shoreline is just another place to look for them.
  • I'm counting the Grotto as part of Shoreline here. Some tiles in there have radiation and fear and all are dark, so come prepared with alcohol, belt lights and a radsuit.
  • Fighting a shark will require swimming, so grab a float vest.
• The Western Road: Tuskers, Porcuswines, Abandoned Highway Dogs, Mountain Pass/Open Prairie Bandits, Cave Spiders, Chumans, Cave Chukkas, Cave Slugs, Giant Rats, Giant Bats, Botany Pirates, Yeti, Bunnies, Googlepedes, Beatrice Acres Residents, Apparitions, Ice Yeti, Screamers, Jiang Shi, Rock Leeches, Rock Lampreys, Takotech Freaks, Jacob Sheep, Vampire Bats, Shoggoth Spawns, Chuman Guards, Molemen, Ripperscrubs, Grizzly Bears, Treemen, Silicate Treemen.
  • The Forest Heart, Ants/Antos and the Ant Queen are all very bad boost targets thanks to their AoE damage and supreme unpredictability.
  • I would advise against boosting the Burninator journal, those guys can swarm pretty quickly. Smack a farmer and then get out.
  • The mobs in the mine and the hellbore are in a dark zone; bring a belt light.
  • Getting to Botany Bay will require about 20 climb or a pilot.
  • Navigating the Crater Forest will require radiation protection.
  • Killing a googlepede requires a trip into the Colossus Silo, which needs at least 13 climb.
• The Jedocean & The Necropolis: Boosting noobs through either of these locations is way more hassle than it's worth. It's better to just wait until you can take them on naturally.

Quests

Giving exact instructions on quest completion is against the wiki rules; just ask about them by name on corpnet or chatnet. All the quests in this list can be completed by a noob with a good booster. There are some other viable quests and bosses that are missing from this list (and this guide in general); I'm still working on filling it out.

• Missile Commander. Requires two people, some combat strength, a little climb, and someone with 10 brains.
• Gleaming the Cube. Have at least 9 total science unbuffed before attempting. The Cube takes some know-how to run easily, so if you need help on specifics, ask someone who's experienced with it.
• Edith's Dolly. Bring a ghost trap and three EMP grenades.
• Turing Award. Requires 10 brains to use the machine.
• Neutral Observer. Requires good climb or coordinated friends.
• Redneck Nuker. Newbie need not survive; clones are cheap.
• Matter Compiler. Requires about 15 climb; contributes to Mad Scientist.
• Gun Dealer. If you are guns, it's really easy to do this early.
• Cousteau & Sealab Flooder.
• UFO Mechanic. Contributes to Mad Scientist.
• Furnace, Shoggoth Tunnels & Agnes' Secret. Knock these out at the same time.
• BrundleCHUD. Requires a friend to cross the bridge.
• WOPR. Requires someone with Hyperimmune or a good medic; make sure you gym all your IP first.
• Planetarium Tourist.
• Nodachi.
• Crack Bomber. Contributes to Mad Bomber.
• Egg Harvest.
• Belly of the Beast.
• Apotheosis. Grab this before you get Twitchy Nerves; watch out for rads.
• Charnold.
• Intern.
• Demon Killer.
• Bounty Hunter. Don't bother progressing the job beyond this, it's not worth your time. Contributes to crime boss.
• Hobbyist.
• Out of my World. Needs a good hacker to unlock and is also very obscure; don't worry if you can't get this.
• Sackmaster.
• Geocacher. This takes some know-how, some climb and some scavenge; ask around, and stamp a funny meme for me!
• Demolition Man. Be ready to heal afterwards. Contributes to Mad Bomber.
• Eureka! Requires 18ish science. Contributes to Mad Scientist.
• Soulthief. Contributes to Satanist.
• Red Chud Genocide. Wait until you can kill chuds fast and have OK track.
• Chud Genocide. There is also a blue chud genocide journal, but it seems to be bugged.

XP Spending

If you want to level quickly, it's critical that you're smart with your XP spending, or else your ability will very quickly fall behind the ability that your targets require. Here are the essentials:

FAQ: What's the difference between 15 Climb and Climb 15?
So far as I've noticed, when HellMOO players (including myself) speak of skills, saying the skill before the number ("climb 15") refers to having 15 raw in that skill, whereas saying the number first ("15 climb") tends to mean 15 total in that skill.

• 10 raw weapon skill is every build's first general priority (except rifles and pistols, who can be content at 6+ until endgame/PvP time).
• Get 12 total Scavenge. You need at least this to butcher stuff consistently and find cache boxes and other hidden items. Scavenge is an extremely high value skill and is super cheap to boot; points in it are almost never wasted, though you shouldn't need more than 8 raw at this stage.
• Get 20 Climb, or rush Leapfrog. If you're getting frog anyway, you might as well rush it early in your build, though this will require some help. If you're not, make sure you get 20 climb to navigate the world. Salamander helps with this.
• Get 16 Pilot and a mosquito if you can! Some builds can't easily manage this, but early access to a plane saves you a ton of headaches and time, and I sometimes tag pilot specifically for this purpose.

After those, start investing in Dodge. Dodge is an immensely powerful skill, and dodge 15 is much more important than weapon skill 15. However, if you're fists or brawny spears, focus Wrestle instead; dodge is still important for these two builds, but substantially less than with others.

Mutation Choice

Comprehensive coverage of all mutation options would be a whole guide in itself, but here are some general guidelines:

• Stat-buffing perks should be your #1 priority. If you're fists, for instance, you should be grabbing Brute Strength in a real hurry, quite possibly as your first mutation.
• Iron Liver should come early if you're planning on getting it. This perk is ridiculously OP, and provides a ton of mileage both in the early and late game, so you may as well get maximum value out of it.
• Get Leapfrog if you're planning on going leapfrog and flight at some point. It gets a ton of extra mileage if you take it early.
• Don't take Fibrocartilage. It's very tempting, but it's a noob trap. If you get hit seriously enough that your life is in danger at this level, you're either fighting something you shouldn't be or you made a misplay, and that means that you're dead anyway. 30 health is fine until you hit 50-60k.
• Don't get High Density. Or any soak mutations, for that matter. Even if you're getting Nimble Fingers, don't worry about taking HD to offset the weakness, you'll be okay.
  • There are two exceptions to the "no soak mutations" rule. Carebears should consider rushing Rubberskin and Silicone Skin, because Silicone + Carebear is essentially a license to print money and use tons of implants, and that makes the game a lot easier. Secondly, rushy Vampires should get Firewalker to help shrug off the sun.
• Racials. Zombies, Chromemouths and Chuds usually take their respective racial mutation somewhere in this XP range. Freaks usually wait until a little later, and only the most frenetic rushpires take Vampire this early.

Other Considerations

At this point, money will be tight, and you'll need to keep an eye out for armor and weapons. If you're a tanky brawn/endurance kind of build, grab some tire armor and tank up. If you're dodgy, just go naked. If you're neither, you want triple-layered leather armor. For your weapon, ask around your corp and just use the best thing you can get your hands on; consult your weapon class's wiki page for specifics.

60k to 110k

This is where running mobs really starts to be worthwhile, so go get 'em. You may well still have some journals leftover from before, too. Also note that at this stage, once you've got 50+ health, you're about ready to join an experienced and well-populated basilisk stack. Lisks are a great learning experience and good XP, and they can't fatality, so just have fun and pay attention.

More Jobs

Some tougher jobs open up to you now. Good candidates include:

• Dam Repairman. Requires about 17 repair.
• Weezer Feeder.
• Supply Runner. Do this if you've got the chops to fly to Coventry. If you can only boat there, don't bother.
• Lumberjack. See the notes on treemen below. This will require some climb or a plane to get to Botany Bay. Some builds will also need help with the fights.
• Furrier and Icehammer. See notes below on ice yetis and grizzlies.
• Leechbane. You're "supposed to" complete this in the 0-60k range, but lampreys got buffed a while ago, and these days they can one-shot newbies through sky commisar dusters. It's just not worth the risk. They should be safe by this point.
• Drug Runner is good if you're confident in running past or killing the bootleggers.
• Cluster hunt/fuck. By now, you're ready to start poking around Necro. Stay safe, and watch out for junkers. Chuds and Zombies get double credit for doing this.
• Sleeper escort. This job is a total pain in the ass, but it's worth doing. The first completion also nets a journal.

More Killing

Some one-off kill journals that were previously off-limits to your small N-tag self are now within your grasp, though you will still need some help. All of these are calibrated with the idea that you have at least 45 health (i.e. halfway through endocrines) in mind. Enjoy!

• The Western Road: Ants, Antopotami, Ant guards, .
  • The Forest Heart is a boss, and should be tackled with a friend or two. He does AoE damage, traps people on his tile while in combat, and will be assisted by any surviving treemen in the forest (so kill them all first).
  • Ants and antopotami are extremely dangerous mobs. Ballsy fists and brawn-spears builds can solo them early; otherwise, cling to a booster.
  • Ant Guards and the Queen should be handled as part of a coordinated party; join some people who are doing ants.
• The Necropolis: Spectres, Necro Zombies, Necro Boomer Zombies, Sky Pirates, Hideous Freaks, FCEF Scouts, FCEF Commandos, Treasure Hunters, Abominations, Usagi Yojimbo, Hellboy Sky Raiders, Junkers, Seekers.
  • Junkers are brutal, and will massacre even endgame players who are improperly prepared. Requires a tough booster. Riflers and brass-balled fisters can start soloing these now if they know the right armor and strats.
  • Sky Raiders and Commandos demand full bullet armor because they use guns, shoot fast, and have great to-hit.
  • FCEF mobs also use guns sometimes, but a quick pow will take them down fast enough that it doesn't matter.
  • Seekers are in the labyrinth, which is cold and dark and does not exist. There's several of them, all named, and each drops a 400 XP kill journal, plus 600 XP for killing any one of them for the first time. On the whole, they're not so hard, but I've marked them as read because gear dropped in the labyrinth will disappear and that's really bad.
• The Jedocean: Macero farmers, macroticks, jungle cats, Pangu pirates, Pangu islanders, macroticks, shipwreck cove small crabs.
  • None of these should pose any threat to you by now, but again, try not to die out here.
  • Strangely, oil rig workers on the refinery don't have a kill journal, so don't bother going there.
• Chupacabras are in the sky! Knock them out if you have Flight, but otherwise don't bother.

More Quests

A few more quests are available at this stage. Again, they're all spoilers, so ask about them by name.

• Enlightenment. You might be able to do this earlier, I don't actually know what the cut-off is.
• Null's Salvation. This is really awkward to boost earlier because of spoilers, so just do it yourself.

Mob Grinds

FAQ: What is cycling?
Cycling mobs is quickly killing all of the mobs that spawn in a given zone, then running to another zone, killing all the mobs there, and so on. Upon returning to the first zone, it will have respawned its mobs, creating a "cycle". This requires good movement skills and map knowledge, but it's great for leveling quickly and is also superb at guarding against ganks. I'll write an in-depth guide on this in future.

Below are some good mobs worth smacking around. Hopefully by now you'll have the mobility (either a plane or Flight) to start cycling spawns. If you can, dinosaurs to treemen to engineers is a superb way to progress in a hurry.

• Treemen in the Crater Forest scale off hard from 90k to 100k. They're a big jump in difficulty from all previous mobs, but after you get some practice and good beat soaks, they should go down easy. Don't use burn damage on them, it's bad juju.
• Ice Yetis in Weezer Village. If you can hit about 24+ dodge after your weapon's weight penalty, start killing these. They're weak to fire damage and cannot be parried, only dodged.
• Bootleggers are really scary. The shotguns do a mix of bullet, beat, and wasting damage, depending on what kind of shell you encounter, they can't be dodged, the zone's radioactive on top, they have no elemental weakness but lots of health, there's no job attached to them, and they only give 64 XP each. Avoid these unless you really have no other option.
• Dinosaurs can be started as soon as you hit 28 dodge while holding your AR. This only applies to rifles, but it can carry you way up from 60-70k to 150k or so. Avoid the large ones unless you want to do the cover dance (which is trivial if you have Stench).
• Grizzly Bears are an option for anyone who can tank them with tire armor, parry them (great for spears), or dodge their PC0 attacks (28+ dodge). They're weak to burn, peter out around 110k, and give a lot of money, but are still somewhat undesirable: they're slow to kill due to their health pools and the amount of walking involved and are in a very high-traffic zone.
• Diablo Seco Engineers give no money, but they're squishy and quick to cycle. Some of them wield blasters, and Marco can feint, so bring a screech, a frenzy, or a big brain.
• Molemen are your first gunner mob, terrifying! These are only viable if you are rerolling and have a ton of money or can borrow armor from someone, but they're shut out almost completely by caballero armor layed with reinforced kevlar/plasteel. They do feint, so bring a screech or frenzy. Karnivore Seniors are essentially the same thing.

XP Spending

By the end of this segment, you want all of your critical skills to be well on their way.

• Weapon skill can remain at 10 unless your mutations are gimped somehow; if your tohit feels a bit lacking, bump it up to 12. If you're whips, don't worry about it, your damage sucks from this level on anyway.
• Dodge should be steaming towards the teens by now, but it's a very expensive skill, so don't worry if it lags a little.
• Wrestle for spears and fists is similar to dodge for the other builds, but a bit cheaper. Spearmen have the option of mixing more main weapon skill with wrestle investment, since they get extra oomph out of having good to-hit with their parries.
• Focus should remain neglected by all except focus-heavy freak builds and empath builds. If you're focus whips, start thinking about getting enough focus to use your magic well. Check the mutation pages on this wiki to get a feel for their requirements. If you're rushing empath, get 30 dodge total, drop everything else and then pump XP into focus; you're gonna need it.

Mutation Choice

• Mobility mutations. You'll want to get this nailed down within this range, if you didn't already get it earlier. Travel mutations are some of the most powerful perks in the entire game, and the choice is so critical that it will shape your entire playstyle, so think carefully! Review the relevant pages on the wiki for an overview on these; I'm planning to write a separate guide on the topic later.
• Freak builds usually take the leap and mutate freak somewhere inside this XP range.
• Vampire. In my experience, there's two kinds of vampire: the 80k-or-sooner rushpire, or the 170k-or-later turtlepire. Both approaches are fine, there's no hard rule on it. If you're experienced enough to be playing vampire well, you can trust your judgement.
• Fibrocartilage is a must somewhere in this range, preferably earlier rather than later.

Other Considerations

• Mobility. If you don't have a mobility option by now, you need to invest in the Pilot skill and a plane; walking around takes way too long. Chuds are exempt from this thanks to their speedy sewer travel.
• Max HP. It's time to start investing in endocrines after you've gotten Fibrocartilage. Yes, they're expensive, annoying, and a pain in the ass, but please don't whine in corpnet about it. Literally every single endgame player in HellMOO has gone through it, and you can too. This bears repeating: skipping out on endocrines is not okay. You need that extra 30 health, and endgame parties will downright turn you down if you haven't been investing in it.

110k to 220k

The heart of the midgame. This is where your build really starts to take shape, and is one of the most instructive parts of your progression, as you learn the limits and capabilities of your character.

Hit those endos. You should be approaching 60/60 by now. Asking after endgame parties with less than 50 health will usually get you a flat "no".

More Jobs

Jobs start to lose value in this range, sometimes quite quickly. XP falloff kicks in after 100k, which tips the XP value of some jobs (like Weezer Feeder) into being less than worth their while. Still, some new jobs aren't affeced by fall-off and others are still worth doing:

• Junker Hunter. See notes below on Junkers.
• Herpetologist. See notes below on Turtles.
• Hellbound Hunter. See notes below on Nullpacks.
• Entomologist. See notes below on Ants.
• Ronin. Anyone can get boosted through this, but you now have enough XP to do it on your own; at this level, the intsec guards will cower from you. Max out the job and then help newbies complete it themselves.
• Ham. Technically you could do this job as an orphan, but you'll now have a lot more resources to make something that's actually good. This job is brand spanking new so it may still have some kinks to iron out.

More Killing

The last of the unique kill journals are here.

• El Doggo. See notes below.
• The Guzzoline Fiend used to be here, but he's broken right now.
• The Kraken is a race fight: bring 3-4 people (or 2 dudes with needle rifles) and kill him as fast as possible. He does unsoakable AoE damage and drops his hides, which are useful for specialized exosuits (great for El Doggo), as well as tentacles which are used for bleed damage on whips.

Travels/Quests

There are no new travel journals for this XP range, save for Blink mutants, who would do well to teleport to River Island, Martinez Hills, and Pitcairn Island. If you have great scavenge (37+) you can also do the EOD journal, which is 100% spoilers and contributes to the Mad Bomber achievement.

Mob Grinds

• Grizzly Bears and Dinosaurs are still OK here; grizzlies go up to 120k tops, and medium dinos are good until about 150k.
• Ants are the first real "party mob"; bring 3 people for your first try and make sure one of them has solo'd ants before.
  • The trick to fighting ants is to make sure they never get to powerattack; wrestlers should grab them as soon as they try (they have very bad brawn and dodge), or else everyone should pow before the ant pow hits (it's very slow).
  • If you're soloing, radsuit+leech is the classic gearset. If you're in a party and not tanking, a radsuit alone is fine. Consistently dodging ants takes about 38-40 dodge, and consistently grabbing them takes a little under 30 wrestle.
  • Never engage more than one ant at a time! Ants get way, way more dangerous in groups. If you're a wrestler, grab any interfering ants and shove them out of your tile.
  • Sometimes you will encounter an antopotamous; these are slower than regular ants, never powerattack, and do great beat damage. They're even less brawny than regular ants, so either grab them or just burn them down.
  • The ant guards are just before the queen's room. They don't aggro unless another ant on their tile does. Either use a wrestler to grab and shove them to split them up, or carefully manage cover and powerattacks to take them down safely.
  • Ants drop ant carapaces and carapace polyps; these are both used for doing the entomologist job and making some niche armors.
• Nullpacks in the Necropolis' Heart are one of HellMOO's premier XP sources. They require at least 28 dodge (or spears 13+). Armor beyond a gas mask is not necessary, though some people like to run cold gear for the gulf bites.
  • No matter the strat, a null tank should have at least 38 dodge, good brains, or a reliable frenzy (Bleeder or a carefully managed scare, because Nullianacs can feint.
  • The classic null strat is to focus down the null. Have 3 or 4 guys, attack the null, attack it again when the gulfs interfere, then kill all the gulfs when the null is dead. You'll probably lose some health to gulfs when they frenzy after the null dies.
  • The wrestle strat is much better, but harder to pull off. You need a tank with good dodge (40+) to open the fight, and then a wrestler grab the null. Once the null is pinned, both fighters kill all the gulfs and leave the null locked in a grip. This prevents the gulfs from ever frenzying. Once all the gulfs are dead, finish off the null. If the null breaks the grab, just pow him and keep him busy until grab is off cooldown again.
• Basilisks are also great. They require a tank with 40+ dodge and at least 8 brains or a frenzy. They are weak to bleed and radiation damage; bringing an AR-17 with blacktalons makes them a lot easier.
  • Duoing basilisks is very viable; a dodgy tank and an AR-wielding DPS is a good combo. Soloing them is a lot harder and will sometimes result in bullshit deaths.
  • Bossilisks can one-shot you through any armor in the game, and regular basilisks will just pow, stun you, and then finish you off. Armor is a waste; just dodge or parry them, it's much safer.
  • Be careful not to run into the dangerousest mob of all, who wanders around the island at night. He will fuck you up if you walk onto his tile.
• El Doggo is a massive spoiler, but so long as you have 120k XP or so, 60/60 health, and firewalker, you're ready to join a party to fight him as a DPS. He's great XP and has a mixed loot pool: some excellent endgame items and then a bit of junk.
  • Tanking the dangerousest mob is much more demanding, and requires good endurance (20+) and truly excellent armor. Full deathgear and a double-kraken exosuit is a good set.
  • El Doggo has his own special set of mechanics and considerations; it's best to take him on with someone who's got plenty of experience with him beforehand.
• The guzzoline fiend is broken, at the time of writing, which is a shame because he used to be really good.
• Das Kochenhammer requires a good picker (30+ locksmith/hack) and some detailed knowledge; the Das is its own little dungeon with several mobs. The pirates inside will give you some supplementary XP, but the real prizes here are the bosses, which give unique XP awards and items on death. It's a spoiler to go in-depth on the place, but as soon as you have sufficient bullet soaks and a good brainy, you're ready to take this place on.
  • Don't confuse the Das with the Skydock. They're both in the sky and full of sky pirates, but Skydock is way, way harder.
  • Each Das boss will only give its item and unique XP reward to one player in the party, so you'll have to come back here multiple times to earn all the rewards. Most people don't bother coming back here after that unless it's to help someone else earn the rewards or just for fun.
  • Vampires can run the Das during the day. There's only 3 exterior tiles, and all 3 normally have little to no combat in them.
• Turtles are a chore, but they're worth doing for the shard drops, which are used to make studded armordillo armor and fuel the herpetologist job. The best way to fight them is to wrap up in double leech (or double ceramic), have good endurance, and spam them with a fast weapon. Don't bother prioritizing damage over speed; you're just fishing for a headshot. Even the beefiest vampire powerattacks can only hit them for about 20% damage through their shell.
• Junkers give great XP right up until about 220k, considering that they're one of the few solo-friendly mobs available. They do great beat damage and are very fast and accurate, but are also weak to beat damage, as well as shot damage.
  • If you weren't able to source AnimaCores earlier, you can cut them from the junkers you hunt now and use them for the job.
  • For wrestle builds, Junkers are shockingly vulnerable to grabs. Their dodge and brawn is unimpressive, so a strong fists or spears build can hold them in place and beat them.
  • Good armor sets to tank junkers include double studded armordillo plus MK gear, or double-titanium exogear.
  • Builds which have Nimble Fingers without High Density/Lithodermis and builds which have low Endurance will have excessive difficulty with Junkers, and generally shouldn't bother with them.
• Ash beasts in the Screaming Chasm are viable targets, but they have a ton of tricks up their sleeves, and are able to spew, feint (with good brains), powerattack, grab, and throw people down cliffs. In my opinion they aren't generally worth the trouble.
  • Ashies do lots of burn damage plus some largely unsoakable suffocation damage, so leech armor with firewalker is a good choice.
  • Ash beast feints are no joke, and they have focus enough to resist most people's screech, so definitely be either brainy or frenzied while fighting them.
  • The Screaming Chasm itself is very hot and has lots of climbs, so bring hot gear.
  • Ashies are tanky to everything except the rifles trump card, iceblox.

XP Spending

FAQ: Why do all my stats suck?
If you have bad wrestle and dodge, you're a support build, so get dodge to 30 just to keep yourself basically safe and then pump either your focus or your brainy skills.

• Dodge and Wrestle. Dodge is brutal, but it must be focused all the way up to 15. Wrestle is more forgiving; wrestlers can call it quits at about 32 total. Eventually you'll want to max it out for PvP and endgame PvE, but it can wait.
• Gun builds should be done maxing dodge somewhere in this range. After dodge 15, the choice depends on your build. If you're brainy, start pumping Medic/Hack/Locksmith. If you're anything else, riflers should focus on hitting 10 for the SCAR-L, while pistols wants 15 for the Shorty and dual-wielding accuracy.
• Weapon skill. Once you've gotten the requisite dodge or wrestle skill, switch back to getting your weapon skill to 15. Some builds struggle to find teachers for this, especially fisters and spearmen. Keep a weather eye on the TV and lean on a medium or Johnny Fiveaces, and you'll get there eventually. If you're not a combat build, weapon skill is less important, so feel free to focus on focus, medic, hack, locksmith, or whatever else you want to invest in.

There are three exceptions to the above:

• Spears builds can get away with a little less wrestle (about 28) in favor of focusing on maxing weapon skill, since their parry bonus does a really good job of keeping them safe. You'll want wrestle 15 at some point, but you can afford to bounce between wrestle and weapon skill.
• Focus whippers should still be balancing dodge investment with some focus. Once you max out dodge, forget about weapon skill and put XP into focus instead. Your power comes from focus, and you can bring your weapon skill back up to speed later.
  • Similarly, Empaths should just worry about focus until like 13 raw. They are the most supporty support build of them all, so there's no need to worry about weapons or dodge as much.
• Blader's mid-life mid-game crisis. Around this time, bladers will start to see why blades suck so much. If you are a brawn blader, you've probably learned a lot from this experience, and now is a good time to reroll with your newfound knowledge into a better build. If you're senses, just pretend you're whips with bad focus and pump XP into dodge, then get good weapon skill. If you're brainy, give up on combat entirely, get scavenge 15, and go craft stuff. If you're endurance blades, you'll be alright: get 30 dodge, then focus on weapon skill and torture while having fun with chromemouth's zero and your innate tankiness.

To infinity 220k and beyond!

Things will start to slow down here, but that's alright: you're probably reaching maximum strength by now anyway.

• Basilisks and Nullpacks are your bread and butter here; ants will have mostly scaled off by now. Soloing either of these is suboptimal even at maximum strength; duo them for perfect consistency and maximum gains. Basilisks scale off eventually, and after that it's nulls all the way.
• El Doggo never stops being good. If you have excellent endurance and a lot of healing behind you, you can solo him, but three or four endgamers can stomp him with no real trouble. He gives 400 XP per solo kill, and 240 if you're part of a 4-stack. His drops never go out of style, either.
• Das Kochenhammer? I'm honestly not sure how the commissar XP scales! The pirates will have long since stopped giving you XP by this point but the bosses might still give you a good hit. This dungeon is also just really fun, and a great way to help noobs learn party combat.
• Basilisks, Ants, Junkers, Turtles and Treemen give you next to nothing now, but they do have their uses if you can solo them in good time. Cutting sufficient drops from them to satisfy the job (barks for Lumberjack, carapaces for Entomologist, etc.) and giving them to your budding corpmates is a great way to help them reach max strength quickly. This isn't an entirely selfless effort: by this stage in the game, you will be starved and crying out for strong people to play with.
  • Pick your targets for this, and don't give stuff to people you don't know who have demonstrated no proficiency, especially N-tags. Half the time, random noobs are either someone's sexhaving alt or some stoned college student who will play the game for a week and then forget about it.
• Plane crafting is a big part of the very late game. HellMOO's craft system is very simple, conspicuously powerful, almost risk-free and (frankly) a bit dull. If you aren't a brainy build, you probably haven't done any crafting before now, but it's a sufficiently OP strat that many builds go outside their normal scope to do it. Here's a quick run-down; I'm not interested enough in this to write a comprehensive guide.

1. Get the schematics for what you want to make (turboprop engines, cessna skywagons, patton supa-liftas).
2. Scavenge the constituent parts to make the item. Some items are broken down to get their parts, while other times this just involves visiting a zone and searching it until you get what you want. The scavenging is the only possibly-dangerous part of this.
3. Put all the items in front of an aerocrafting console.
4. Buff up to the requisite 20 science and 20 brains, using implants, caffeine, lab coats from the Weezer shop, carapace scrubs from J'Ink in Crater Rim, and Polycarbonate Goggles from maxing out the Ghostbuster job (may require some XP spending).
5. Buff up on both Peyote and Psilocybin mushrooms for a 10% XP bonus (the Iron Liver perk has a hidden, very high resistance to psilocybin, so IL mutants can stick to peyote alone for 5%).
6. Craft the engine/plane and then sell it, either to Bosco in Corpclave or on tradenet.

• Skydock! You can do this earlier, really, but chances are you won't have enough armor and contacts to do it until now. Skydock is a dungeon in the sky, which awards several unique rewards, plus a deathsuit.
  • Much like the Das, the Skydock's rewards only drop once per person per kill, so you'll need to return several times for everyone to get the rewards.
  • Skydock has tough armor requirements: both beat and shot soak are a must. I'm still working on nailing down the specifics of some top-tier compositions, so watch this space. Opportunities to run this dungeon don't come up very often. For now, here's a couple sets I've tested and confirmed:
    • Triple MK I tac vests and jorts, double plasteel greaves, double studded armordillo gauntlets and galoshes, turtle shredding helm, Lithodermis.
    • Caballero jacket and pants, studded armordillo doublet and trousers, studded armordillo gauntlets and galoshes, reinforced kevlar gloves and boots, double-ceramic exohelm.
  • Skydock requires a Flight mutant to enter practically; the mutant must land on the skydock, check the FoF indicators for the FoF code and then relay that to everyone else, who can fly in and dock with the skydock using that code to avoid the flak.
  • Bringing 5 endgame people to Skydock is totally reasonable. So many guns in one place, each dealing unsoakable, undodgeable damage, is very scary! Take it slow.
  • The final boss fight is one of HellMOO's toughest fights, and it's significantly tougher for anyone who took Nimble Fingers without going HD/Lithodermis, so be careful. The lead guy is pretty mean with his crime sticks.
  • The tube taxi thing in Skydock is dubiously coded, so be careful with it. It's possible to both start an infinite nausea chain with it and to get stuck in its transition tile indefinitely.

XP Spending

The game is almost completely open by this stage, and you should have your weapon and defence skill (dodge or wrestle) pretty much cleaned up by now. What you invest in now is up to you: what do you want?

• Spears builds may want to invest in Dodge now. This makes parrying easier by subtracting from your enemy's to-hit, but don't worry about maxing it out. About 10-12 raw is fine.
• Focus is a big one for PvP builds. You want about 20 focus for Screech, Clairvoyance, Fuck Machine, Salamander and Writhing Smoke, 26ish for Carrie, 17 for Phaser and 32+ for Blink. Medium and to a lesser extent Clairvoyance never stop getting additional value from high focus.
  • If you're very brave, Chiller needs 50 effective focus to be worth casting. Yeti Fur gives +10 effective focus to this, so 40 focus and Yeti Fur is fine.
• Torture is a sorely underrated skill. Crits are so, so good and Torture is super cheap. Whips, Spears, Blades and possibly Fists should max out Torture for the crit bonus. Rifles, Pistols, Medic and Clubs get no real value out of Torture.
• Medic should be a priority for brainy builds, but everyone wants to hit 15 medic eventually for defibbing and general doctoring. Brainy builds should seriously consider getting medic 15. My heart melts every time I meet a maxed-out medic with a medigun.
• Locksmith and Hack are key for brainy builds. This is even good for carebears, who can use the skills to get into the Das and Ricardo's pad. For PvP builds, having the threat of an active picker in your corp is enough to make a good 70% of the HellMOO player base shit itself at the sight of a yellow zone.
• Teach is always a good one to have. If you're not brainy, you'll want to get this to 15. You still probably won't be able to teach fists 15, but hey, you tried.
• Scavenge is a good investment for any build that has good focus, since they rely on the same stats. If you can hit 37+ scavenge, it's a good time; you can do EOD, scavenge with extreme efficiency, and break just about anything.

Mutation Choice

By this stage, you should have all of your really important mutations. If you haven't gotten your soak mutations by now, you might as well get those. Beyond that, it's just minor bonus mutations like Xray Vision and Plant Whisperer.

What Now?

Nice going. Hit 220k and you're ready to go, for the most part. After that, it's a matter of gaining as much XP as you want to max out accessory skills or whatever else you want to invest in. From here on, the game's your oyster. Check out the Scoreboard if you want to fish for brags, hit up some yellow/red zones to fish for PvP, explore the game world and its plethora of fascinating content and fascinating bugs, spend obsessive and unhealthy amounts of time writing guides for other players, or just sit around ERPing and talking about how very experienced and strong and good you are. Have fun!