I joined the open beta today and got up to level 10. What are some rules of thumb to optimize my build, gear, loot etc.? It is very important to take the time to level up at the beginning of the game. Whenever you need Soulworker Dzenai, you can turn to U4GM for help. We has cheap Soulworker Dzenai.

Upgrading weapons: its safe to +4. but it can still fail, which means some money is lost, but the item wont break. only upgrade a good unique weapon (see above). once you have a good unique upgraded to +4 it will last you anything from 5 to 10 levels. example, my lvl 21 weapon has around 600 or so attack. a yellow lvl 35 has a base of 900-1000. my +4 lvl 21 weapon has roughly 1500 attack. i playn to replace that one at lvl 28 and at 26 i still have great kill speed with that upgraded lvl 21 weapon.

Money is scarce in the beginning, so dont upgrade too many items, it relatively expensive. after lvl 20, quests and dungeons are shitting money. on the other side you wont have to replace your weapon that often as you level more slowly. so money will pile up. i suggest to NOT waste money on the market. most good items are around 20-70k, the expensive 200k+ items arent needed while leveling.

Xp farming: most often (in 90% of all cases), killing the boss does not yield a lot of exp in comparison to all mob kills in the dungeon. the energy system works like this: it takes half of the needed EP when you enter the dungeon and takes the other half AFTER beating the boss. so for an efficient xp/EP ratio, you should do the highest mob xp dungeon you can and just die at the boss and abandon the dungeon. you wont really need the loot as the market has everything one would need, a good upgraded weapon also lasts for a couple different dungeons. the only exception to this rule are the daily quests (green marker) starting in the 2nd city.

If you have to pick between a dungone with 100k mob exp and one with half ep cost but only 60-90k mob exp, then its clear that this one will net more exp overall as its cheaper. also you actually need the FULL ep cost to enter, even if you leave at the boss to half the cost, as the game wont just let you "kill the mobs", it always assumes you do a full run before you enter. so a dungeon that costs 10 can be aborted at the boss to only cost 5, but if you have less than 10 in total, you cant enter.