Skill-Based Gear Limiter

EM10 Change

As of EliteMobs 10, the old guild tier loot limiter has been replaced by the skill-based gear restriction system. Guild tiers no longer exist. Instead, players level individual weapon and armor skills by killing elite mobs, and their skill levels determine what gear they can equip.

How It Works

In EliteMobs 10, each player has independent skill levels for every weapon type and armor:

• Armor (levels at 1/3 the rate of weapons)
• Swords
• Axes
• Bows
• Crossbows
• Tridents
• Hoes
• Maces
• Spears

When skillBasedGearRestriction is enabled in AdventurersGuild.yml (enabled by default), players cannot equip gear above their relevant skill level. For example, a level 30 sword cannot be equipped unless the player's Swords skill is at least level 30. Armor pieces are checked against the Armor skill.

If a player tries to equip gear above their skill level, they will receive a message indicating the required skill level.

Note: Items at level 20 or below can be equipped by anyone without any skill restrictions. This allows new players to use early-game gear freely before the skill-based gating takes effect.

Loot Drops Are Not Restricted

Unlike the old guild tier system, loot drops are no longer downgraded based on player progression. Elite Mobs will drop items at their natural level regardless of the player's skill levels. However, players will not be able to equip items that exceed their current skill level, which acts as a natural gear gate.

How Skills Level Up

Players earn skill XP by killing elite mobs. XP is awarded based on:

• Weapon XP: Determined by the weapon type held in the main hand when the mob dies. XP earned scales quadratically with mob level (a level 50 mob gives 2,500 XP, a level 100 mob gives 10,000 XP).
• Armor XP: Always awarded on every kill, but at 1/3 the rate of weapon XP. This means armor skill naturally trails behind weapon skills.
• Damage contribution: In group kills, XP is distributed proportionally based on each player's damage contribution.

XP-to-Next-Level Formula

The XP required to advance from one skill level to the next follows a cubic progression:

• Levels 1-100: XP to next level = 8.5 * L^3 (where L is the current level)
• Levels above 100 (soft cap): XP to next level = 8.5 * L^3 * (1 + ((L - 100)^2 / 100))

The soft cap multiplier is continuous at level 100 (1.0x) and grows quadratically beyond it, making progress increasingly difficult. For example, at level 150 the multiplier reaches approximately 26x, making further progression nearly impossible.

Boss kills also receive an XP multiplier based on the boss's health and damage multipliers. The health component is sublinear (hpMultiplier^0.6) and the damage component is heavily dampened (1 + (dmgMultiplier - 1) * 0.15), so a 10x HP boss gives roughly 4x XP and a 25x HP boss gives roughly 7x XP (at normal damage). Reinforcement mobs and mounts award no skill XP at all.

Combat Level

A player's overall combat level is calculated as: (highest weapon skill + second highest weapon skill + armor skill) / 3

This combat level determines what natural elite mobs spawn near the player, replacing the old guild-tier-based mob level cap.

Health Bonus

Armor skill level provides a max health bonus: +1 heart (2 HP) per armor skill level above 1. For example, a player with Armor level 50 receives 49 bonus hearts (98 bonus HP) on top of the vanilla 20 HP.

Level Difference Protections

• Mobs more than 5 levels above your combat level have their XP and loot reward level capped as if they were only 5 levels above (effective reward level is combatLevel + 5).
• Weapon-skill XP additionally requires the mob to be at most 5 levels below that weapon's skill level; otherwise that skill earns no XP from the kill.
• The lootLevelDifferenceLockout setting in ItemSettings.yml (default 10) blocks the coin/loot shower when the absolute difference between the mob's level and your combat level exceeds the value — this prevents farming mobs that are far below (or far above) your gear level.

Procedural Item Tiers

Procedurally generated items receive a visual skin tier based on their item level. These tiers affect the item's 3D model and worn texture appearance via the resource pack. The tiers are:

Tier	Minimum Level	Description
Bronze	20	First custom skin tier, applied when gear restrictions begin
Palladium	40	Mid-progression tier
Corrupted	60	Advanced tier with corrupted visual theme
Living	80	High-level tier with organic visual effects
Ultimatium	100	Endgame tier, the highest visual tier

Items below level 20 use the default vanilla material appearance with no custom skin applied.

Powerleveling Prevention

Combined with the soulbind enchantment and the skill-based gear restriction, powerleveling is naturally prevented. Even if a player obtains high-level loot through group play, they cannot equip it until their skill levels are high enough. Additionally, all procedurally generated items are soulbound to the player who receives them, preventing gear trading.