Character development in World War Z World War Z guide, tips

Character development in World War Z is an important gameplay mechanic, with impact on the entire game. With each level, the character gains more abilities, increasing his/her effectiveness in combating the undead. Properly developed character is also important when playing on higher difficulty levels, especially Very Hard and Insane. In this chapter you will find the explanation of the character development system.

• Gaining experience points for the character
• Leveling up and unlocking perks
• Tips on how to quickly level up

Gaining experience points for the character

The game rewards the player with Performance Bonus, but it does not states clearly what it is exactly.

Experience points are gained through completing missions. Each time you make to the end of the mission, you will receive a set amount of experience points, depending on the difficulty level you chose. The higher the difficulty, the more experience points you will receive. Additionally, you will receive a performance bonus XP, although the game does not explain what the bonus is for. What is more, even if your team is defeated in combat and the mission is failed, you will still receive experience points.

Note - contrary to the first though, the game does not reward any character with experience points for killing enemies. You will still receive the same amount whether you killed 100 or 1,000 enemies.

Leveling up and unlocking perks

On each level, you will need to acquire a specific amount of experience points in order for the character to level up. Once the experience bar is filled, the character will advance to a higher level (up to level 30) and the whole process starts from the beginning. Additionally, leveling up a character unlocks a level-specific perk - a unique passive ability that will either increase one of the aspects of a class (more melee damage for the Slasher, more effective explosives for Hellraiser and so on) or give an entirely new piece of equipment (like, for instance, swapping the C4 for Claymores in the case of Hellraiser).

However, unlocking a perk does not immediately give you access to its benefits - you will still need to purchase it to activate it. In order to do so, you need to go to the class customization screen (it can be accessed in the party lobby, before the game starts), select the perk you want to unlock and purchase it with Supplies. You can unlock all of the perks of a character, but it will require you to farm Supplies for dozens of hours, as the high-level perks are absurdly expensive, especially in comparison to the low-level ones.

Tips on how to quickly level up

To sum up, we present a list of hints that will make leveling up quicker, easier and more effective:

• If you can, play on harder difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty level, the more experience points you will receive upon mission completion.
• Losing the mission will also net you a nice chunk of experience points. Paradoxically, you will receive more experience points for losing an Insane difficulty mission than winning a Hard one.
• Killing enemies does not increase the amount of character experience points you receive at the end of the mission. It does, however, increase the amount of experience points your weapons receive.
• Good places to farm are Episode 1 Hell and High Water and Episode 4 Final Call. Both of them can be completed in less than 10 minutes, giving you the highest amount of experience points per hour.