Summary
- Some RPGs offer unique progression without a traditional leveling system, focusing on skill, strategy, and equipment upgrades instead.
- Games like Terraria and Chrono Cross enhance characters through consumables, boss battles, and crafting materials.
- Hyper Light Drifter emphasizes player skill over leveling, requiring mastery of combat mechanics and weapon use.
Leveling up is a key element of role-playing games, where a character starts with nothing and gradually grows into an unstoppable and almost godlike being by the time the credits roll. That kind of progression is one of the most satisfying experiences in gaming, enduring great hardship early in the proceedings, but ultimately blitzing through everything up to and including the final boss when characters have been leveled up.
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It seems oxymoronic to describe an RPG as having no leveling system, since it’s such a pivotal part of the genre, but some crafty developers have concocted ingenious ways to find new avenues when it comes to improving and upgrading playable characters. Here are some of the best RPGs with no leveling up, ranked based on a combination of their overall quality and popularity.
8 Shadowrun Returns
Turn-Based Cyberpunk Role-Playing
Shadowrun Returns
- Released
- July 25, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Violence, Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Tactical
Following up the SNES game Shadowrun and the tabletop RPG of the same name, Shadowrun Returns is a Kickstarter-funded turn-based RPG. Mixing science fiction with fantasy, the game is set in Seattle in the year 2054, when megacorporations dominate the world and machines coexist alongside humans, elves, and trolls.
There are six character classes to choose from, each with their individual strengths in combat, exploration, and NPC interactions. In terms of improving the player-characters, a limited amount of ‘Karma’ is given as the story progresses, so players must spend it wisely in specific areas, since not everything can be fully upgraded during one playthrough.
7 Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Efficient Spending Of XP Yields The Best Results
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
- Released
- November 16, 2004
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Wasting experience points can really harm a playthrough of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, which is based on a tabletop RPG. Playing as a recently deceased human turned newly formed as a vampire in 21st-Century Los Angeles, the goal is to survive in the gritty underworld of the dark city, battling rival vampire clans and sinister mortals along the way.
There are seven clans in the game, each with their own individual strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the right clan for the player-character and then focusing XP on the right attributes for that clan is crucial for success, since XP can only be earned through completing quests, and there are a limited number of quests. It’s best only to enhance two or three skills and play the game based on those, such as going all in on melee combat, magic, or hacking skills, as a jack-of-all-trades build will struggle mightily in the late-game.
6 Terraria
Use Consumables To Permanently Upgrade Stats
Terraria
- Released
- May 16, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
Over a decade after its initial launch, Terraria continues to attract new players every year, and it’s no surprise given the endless hours of compelling content it offers. In a vibrant 2D pixelated and procedurally generated world, players must mine, fish, craft, battle, and more if they have any hope of surviving.
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Rather than feature a traditional level system, Terraria places more emphasis on equipment and player skill. Some consumables grant permanent boosts to stats, such as the Life Crystal increasing maximum health or the Gummy Worm giving better fishing skills. Defeating bosses increases the amount of items available to purchase from NPCs, too, and buying more powerful weapons and armor can make a huge difference.
5 Final Fantasy 2
Gain Stats By Repeating Actions
Final Fantasy II
- Released
- December 17, 1988
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
1988’s Final Fantasy 2 is something of a rarity in the long-running franchise, in that it does not contain character levels. The story of four orphaned youths who join the rebellion against the Palamecian Empire is generally considered enjoyable, and although the dialogue options may seem primitive by modern standards, they were revolutionary at the time.
Removing levels was a bold choice, instead granting bonuses based on repeated actions, such as permanently gaining HP by being attacked more, or increasing effectiveness with a specific weapon or magic spell by using them frequently in battle. Later games reverted to the level-based system due to the messy implementation of this system, but for this entry, it did decrease the difficulty significantly and meant that players didn’t have to grind to get results.
4 Hyper Light Drifter
Brutal Action RPG Where Skill Matters
Hyper Light Drifter
- Released
- March 31, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood and Gore, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Inspired by the lead developer’s own health issues, Hyper Light Drifter stars a protagonist haunted by illness, who must traverse the lands of Buried Time to find a way to keep their disease under control. Given the main character’s frailty, it’s difficult to survive in this dangerous world, with skill playing a major role for anyone wishing to take down the game's many enemies.
Learning to utilize the energy sword properly is vital, as it also reloads weapons when used. Exploration also rewards players with new weapons, upgrades, and even new skills. Bosses become more difficult and enemies more numerous as this unforgiving game progresses, so mastering equipment and gameplay mechanics is essential, and it’s recommended to always keep a lookout for secrets.
3 Chrono Cross
Defeat Bosses To Increase Stats
Chrono Cross
- Released
- August 15, 2000
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Animated Violence, Mild Language
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
Originally a PS1 exclusive, but now available on modern hardware through the Radical Dreamers Edition release, Chrono Cross is often ranked among the greatest video games ever made. Featuring a complex plot involving parallel worlds each impacting one another, and over 40 potential party members, it’s one of the few JRPGs with very little grinding.
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Breaking from conventions (and even its predecessor, Chrono Trigger), this game contains no leveling in the traditional sense. Boss battles increase the stats of the entire party, even those who are yet to be recruited, so many find that encounters with more minor enemies are essentially pointless. However, these scuffles do serve a purpose later in the game when materials dropped by foes can be used for crafting.
2 Monster Hunter Wilds
Craft Gear, Hunt Monsters, And Exploit Wounds
Monster Hunter Wilds
- Released
- February 28, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
Exploring the large open world of the Forbidden Lands is particularly dangerous, considering the ever-changing weather conditions. Monster Hunter: World presents players with these harsh environments and asks them to track and eliminate the various beasts inhabiting the area, introducing some new features to the long-running series in the process.
Instead of leveling, players gradually upgrade, purchase, and craft better equipment as they progress through the game and battle more difficult foes. Their Seikret mounts can now also carry extra gear, pop-up camps can be created, and the wound system allows specific weak spots on hostiles to be targeted for greater damage. As updates and expansions are added to the game, it will surely only get better and will strive to be among the best games in the franchise.
1 Monster Hunter World
The Game That Brought The Monster Hunter Franchise To The West
Monster Hunter World
- Released
- January 26, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Everybody has their favorite Monster Hunter game, but the general consensus is that Monster Hunter World, complete with its Iceborne expansion, is the best of all. Largely responsible for popularizing the niche franchise in the West, World is more accessible than its many predecessors without losing any of the series' core mechanics or charm.
As always, players receive loot from the monsters that they slay, crafting it into more powerful gear that can then be used to slay more difficult beasts, and continuing that loop onwards. Weapons and armor each possess their own upgradable skills, granting more powerful boosts as players progress through the game. Flora can also be cooked up into meals to provide bonus buffs in battle.
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