Soulframe Grind & Progression Loop Guide – XP & Faction Standing

Welcome to our Grinding & Progression Guide for Soulframe.

The aim of this guide is to introduce newer players to the best ways to rapidly progress their character towards levelling up, unlocking new abilities and obtaining more powerful equipment and new classes. This serves as both a general grind guide for Soulframe, and an introduction to the ideal gameplay loop to follow. You can use this guide to Power Level your character level, Pact Bond, crafting level and faction ranking.

It will take some time and effort, but by following this guide, you can unlock just about everything available in Soulframe, except for armour that drops from special boss encounters or from completing special events, like the puzzles in the Crypt of the Circade.

Please note: If you just want to farm XP as fast as possible and don’t care about Faction Standing, Blacksmith levels and getting crafting materials, then you should use the Endless Arena XP Farm instead.

This guide is up to date with Soulframe Preludes 11.

Soulframe Progression Overview

Before we explain the optimal grind method for Soulframe, we’ll summarise what you must do to improve your character towards an endgame level.

Player and character progression in Soulframe currently has the following elements:

• Pact Levelling – You must level up your Pact (class) to unlock your skills and passives. This is done by earning XP from defeating enemies, completing quests and mini-events in the world (releasing animals, destroying Moaners, etc).
• Weapon Skill Levelling – Each weapon belongs to a weapon type, for example Short Blades, Bows and Polearms. Each one comes with a passive tree similar to your Pact passives. These passives will apply to all weapons of that type. Earn XP with a weapon type equipped to level up that weapon type.
• Weapon Levelling – Individual weapons are also levelled up by wielding them. Levelling them up will gradually increase their damage and stagger values. This is done by earning XP with a weapon equipped.
• Blacksmith Levelling – Level up your Blacksmith by crafting items. You need to obtain sufficient item fragments and crafting materials to craft the items. (See also: How to Recruit Tuvalkane in Soulframe)
• Faction Standing – The most “grindy” aspect of Soulframe at the moment is Faction Standing. Faction Standing is earned by completing Tales (randomly generated repeatable quests from your Faction). You must earn a large amount of Faction Standing to increase your Faction Rank several times, enough to unlock all of the items sold by your faction. You then have to farm enough Faction Standing to buy the items you unlocked. Several Pacts can only be unlocked via Factions. When you have unlocked everything offered by your faction, you may want to switch to another Faction and start the process over again to unlock everything offered by them.

Soulframe Grind Guide

We will now explain the best method to quickly progress in all of the aforementioned aspects of Soulframe.

Currently, there is only one activity in Soulframe that allows you to do all five of these things at once, and that is Faction Tales.

Step 1: Pick up a Faction Tale Quest

Ensure that you have joined a Faction in Soulframe. Soulframe’s main quest usually guides you to your Faction automatically within the first couple of hours of gameplay. If you pledged to Spirit, your starting faction will be Alca’s Children. If you pledged to Courage, you’ll get Kith of Kings, and if you pledged to Grace, you’ll get the Silent Rose faction.

After joining your faction, you’ll often see icons appear on your compass or map, with your Faction’s icon and one, two or three stars. These mark the location of an NPC from your faction offering a randomly generated Faction Tale quest.

I recommend prioritising quests with three stars, because they are longer, give more Faction XP, and sometimes take you to locations with more loot. It’s okay to do one or two-star quests when no three-star quests are available, though.

Step 2: Completing the Quest

Follow the objectives in your Faction Tale. Avoid fighting avoidable enemies, because they don’t drop much loot. There will be a lot of enemies that you have to fight to complete the objectives, so there’s no need to add more.

Along the way, loot everything – every container, weapon rack and treasure chest, harvest all plants and pick up the bags that fall from slain enemies (especially heavy enemies and bosses). Destroy all barrels and crates along your path and pick up the Dracs and crafting materials that drop from them. When you are in dungeons, you might want to take a moment to solve the dungeon’s puzzle (if it has one) to get an extra rare treasure chest. When you are finished in a dungeon, keep following your Sparrow Soul. It will guide you to an exit area with another rare treasure chest. The rare treasure chests are important for obtaining rare crafting materials and fragments.

Not all Faction Tales lead you into a dungeon. Some are only in the overworld, and these typically lead you to an enemy encampment. Treat these in the same way – avoid unnecessary fights, loot all containers, break everything and pick up the items that fall out. It’s impossible to get a full inventory in Soulframe, so you should loot as many crafting materials as you can.

Step 3: Repeating the Quest

Once you’ve completed the final objective in your Faction Tale, it will automatically complete. You will receive some Faction Standing. The amount seems to depend on how many stars were on the quest and the level of the area you found it in (the same level as the enemies in that area), although there is no way to see the enemy level on the map. The northern and eastern parts of the map are typically higher level. Faction Tales typically award between 50 and 500 faction standing each, depending on these two factors.

After finishing the quest, explore the world for a little while, stand still, or even AFK for a few moments. A new Faction Tale should appear within a couple of minutes.

Step 4: Crafting Items

After every few quests, visit Tuvalkane in the Nightfold and see if there are any items available for crafting. Keep crafting items as much as you can to level up her skill level. It’s okay to craft cheap, duplicate items if that’s all you have available.

You should soon begin acquiring new weapons and better armour for your character.

Step 5: Faction Rank Up

After acquiring 5,000 Faction Standing, head to your faction leader in your faction enclave and ask them where you stand. You can now ask them to rank up. You need to rank up several times to unlock the majority of the items available, including new Pacts.

Soulframe Grind & Progression Summary

The process outlined above might not be very glamorous, but it is the best way to rapidly increase your character’s power in Soulframe.

The Faction Tales feed into everything else by gaining XP and faction standing that can be used to unlock new features and make your character stronger. They also lead you to locations that get you the crafting materials and equipment fractions that you need to level up your blacksmith, and ultimately begin crafting powerful items after some ranking up and material farming.

More Soulframe Guides: