Use this Rift leveling guide to start off running, and fully enjoy your game play in Rift.

The point in Rift, as in any other MMO, is that you start a character at level 1, and subsequently level it up to the maximum. In Rift, the highest level possible is 50.

You can see your level beside the picture of your character. There is an experience bar over your toolbars on the User Interface. It shows your progress towards the next level and, when this experience bar is filled, you gain one level and then begin to fill the next bar.

There are different ways to quickly level up in Rift:

* Quests

Throughout the game, you will meet quest givers. You can recognize them because there is a big exclamation mark (!) Over their head. They will give you quests to do.

A quest can be to talk to someone; to gather different things; to kill monsters; to acquire a unique loot from special monsters – and many other varying tasks.

The quests can be handed back to the original quest giver, or to another quest giver somewhere else (generally this is to guide you into another zone of the game). When you hand in the loot, you receive a reward. Your prize will be money and experience points (XP), and sometimes even a piece of equipment.

* Kill, kill, kill!

Endeavor to kill as many mobs as possible on your way to and from your quests.

Mobs drop money and sometimes even awesome pieces of equipment. Even other items such as clothes (or skin if you have butchery and kill a skinable animal) can later be sold to the Auctioneer.

* Potions and Rest

When you go into an inn situated in the main or smaller cities, you can see you that are "resting".

Check the top right corner of your screen, where you should be able to see a little black and green icon indicating this.

When you are sufficiently rested, you will notice that your XP-bar has changed color and there is a little vertical bar on it (unless you have rested for a long period of time, in which case it might be on the "next" XP -bar).

Each time you kill a mob, he will count for 200% XP and you will move towards this little vertical bar. When you hand in a quest, you "only" get 100% XP, and this will be similarly indicated.

Therefore, it's a good idea that, before you finally log off, to initially log off in an inn or city where you can rest. This is especially important if you want to take a break with a particular character.

When you buy Rift for 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, you accrue "veteran rewards".

These include XP-potions, which last 2 hours (even through death) and give you 100% extra of every kill you make. If you only have a few, keep them for the last levels, which can sometimes seem to go on forever

* Rifts

All through the game, you will meet Rifts. These will give you attractive rewards, called planataries, enabling you to buy better gear and obtain XPs. Take as many as you can while questing.

* Dungeons

Commencing from level 15, you can click on the Looking for Group icon (bottom left part of your screen) and join a random dungeon. This will be a cross-server, so you can be with people from other shards. Dungeons give interesting rewards, such as gold and XP. Take at least a couple each day so you can acquire these valuable items and XPs.

* Warfronts

Warfronts are PvP (Player versus Player) battlegrounds where a team of Defiants and a team of Guardians are opposed to each other.

You can take your first warfront, The Black Garden, at level 10 (but you generally don't survive very long as the actual bracket is 10 – 19).

In each main city, Sanctum and Meridian, there are quest givers that will offer you special warfront quests. You can recognize them because of the color of the quest icon over their head. The exclamation mark (!) Is of a different color than the standard one: The icon is blue for Guardians and red for Defiants.

Most of the warfront quests are daily, repeatable quests, so you can begin your day by picking them up. They give desirable rewards; they give you favor, which are special points you can use to buy PvP gear with and then, of course, XPs.

So, unless you are with a faction, or on a shard that always loses (which obviously then is a waste of time continuing), then doing the daily warfronts is a very good move for your XPs.