| abstract | - Ever since the first Role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, most RPGs have used the system of simply leveling up once you have hit enough Experience Points. But that doesn't mean that some companies haven't tried to make an alternative to simple leveling to try something a bit different. One of the most common is Stat based grinding. In an RPG that uses this system, there are no actual "Levels" to gain, per se. Instead, you are playing to increase your stats. As opposed to leveling up the character overall and giving them a boost to every stat, you level up each stat individually, or can work on multiple ones. How do you do this? It's actually rather simple, use the stat more and then you gain it. So you would gain more strength and accuracy by landing successful damaging hits on enemies, and vice versa for other stats. This is based off of real life workouts. If you want to boost your overall strength, you practice lifting more and more weight, but if you want to boost endurance, then you practice bigger reps. One of the pros of Stat based grinding is that you can customize characters a little more this way, and it can give that feel of immersion to it. (Such as say, Morrowind.) It also gives some strategizing because you need a certain stat but you don't just go out smacking enemies to level up your magic stat. This may or may not take less time than level grinding, but sometimes a notable difference can be whether or not the stats are either gained a bunch of times, but you only get small boosts, or just gain one or two big boosts every now and then. Now it seems instead of just leveling, you're trying to build up stats. This is not without its drawbacks, however. As mentioned before, this could actually take longer than simple Level Grinding because you might find a Peninsula of Power Leveling in a Level-based-grinding game. Stat-Based-Grinding doesn't really work that well with a Peninsula of Power Leveling. Another drawback involving gameplay would be a potential Catch22. You need to build your defense and health/stamina by getting hit, right? Well, that will not help you can't take any hits since you need to survive the hits to gain any stats. You need accuracy to hit enemies, but without accuracy, you can't hit the enemies. Finally, it is not only dependent on what the player does in battle but what the enemies do. In a party-based game, a player would find themselves putting someone out right in front of an enemy in hopes they decide to attack the character, that way the character will gain much-needed defense and HP. And if they don't, the player could wind up with characters who are extremely powerful but have little more HP than they actually started with, creating a true Glass Cannon. Another minor drawback may be that with the absence of levels, it can be a little harder to gauge how strong you should be by a certain point. Levels give you an idea on what level you should be before attempting a certain sidequest or starting off an event. But if the enemies scale with you, this wouldn't be a problem. In practice, it often falls into a Violation of Common Sense. The enemies may not always attack who you want them to, so a good way to level up your characters' health and defense? Intentionally place them in harm's way, and let enemies beat on them. Other games do actually combine simple Level Grinding with Stat based grinding. Since statistics and percentages are the bread and butter of the RPG Genre (don't let those fanboys prove you wrong) and it is your statistics that rule the battlefield, you may not start off automatically knowing how to use an axe as effectively as a sword. Some games instead make you train an individual skill in a weapon or armour proficiency by using it, or commonly, trade skills. These may often not require grinding, or at least as much as stat-grinding. (Commonly, MMORPGs have this type of grinding with professions.) Examples of Stat Grinding include:
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