Level and map progress do not move together
57,121 players cleared the Forest. 20,176 reached level 10. Whatever the level curve is, it is slower than the map curve — and that mismatch is part of the wall.
Up to 36,945 players cleared the Forest without holding the level-10 badge. If you are one of them, your deck is carrying you and it will stop working in Frostfang Pass.
Two of Arcane 101's badge ladders measure progress: clearing lands, and gaining levels. Put their counts next to each other and they do not line up — and the way they fail to line up explains the game's biggest difficulty wall.
All counts are awardedCount from badges.roblox.com, fetched 15 November 2026.
The two ladders, compared
| Map progress | Players | Level progress | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleared the Forest | 57,121 | Reached level 10 | 20,176 |
| Cleared Frostfang Pass | 13,742 | Reached level 20 | 5,454 |
| Cleared the Sunken Dunes | 6,601 | Reached level 30 | 1,959 |
| Cleared the Drowned Tide | 3,702 | Reached level 40 | 743 |
| Cleared the Galecrag | 2,198 | Reached level 50 | 285 |
| Cleared the Ashen Caldera | 1,157 | Reached level 60 | 41 |
Read the first row. Clearing the first land is nearly three times more common than reaching level 10. If level 10 were a natural milestone on the way through the Forest, those numbers would be the other way around.
What that gap actually is
The straightforward subtraction: up to 36,945 players cleared the Forest without holding the Adept badge.
The direction is what matters, and it survives the caveat: the badge that requires the least map progress (level 10) has a third of the players of the badge that requires the most (clearing the Forest).
Why this creates the wall
Here is the causal chain, and it is the most useful thing on this site:
- The Forest is possible to clear under-levelled. It is generous with health and enemy damage.
- So players clear it, and read that as "I am ready for the next land."
- Frostfang Pass assumes a level the Forest never demanded.
- The player's deck — one card, few upgrades — cannot survive fights that last long enough for enemies to act repeatedly.
- They lose, and 76% of them stop. See the retention curve.
The mismatch is not a side observation. It is the mechanism behind the game's biggest cliff.
The level curve after that
Once past level 10, the level ladder retains fairly consistently: 27% to 20, 36% to 30, 38% to 40, 38% to 50, then a sharp 14.4% to 60.
| Step | Retention |
|---|---|
| Level 10 → 20 | 27.0% |
| Level 20 → 30 | 35.9% |
| Level 30 → 40 | 37.9% |
| Level 40 → 50 | 38.4% |
| Level 50 → 60 | 14.4% |
The 10 → 20 step is the harshest in the level ladder apart from the cap, which supports the same reading: the transition out of the opening band is where players fall away.
Practical use
Check your level before you check your deck. If you are under level 10 and evaluating whether you are "ready" for Frostfang Pass, you already know the answer.
| Your situation | Read this |
|---|---|
| Under level 10, about to enter the second land | Level pace — the routine that closes the gap |
| Level 10–14, stuck in the second land | The wall guide — it is a card problem |
| Level 20+, still on the campaign | You are ahead of 90% of players; you are not under-levelled |
| Level 30+ | You are in the top 3.3%. Mythic and Insane is your next step |
What the level curve says about the game's length
41 players at level 60 out of 59,582 who finished the first quest. If you assume the cap is the intended end of the level ladder, the game is currently completed by seven hundredths of one percent of its players. That is either a very long grind, a very new game, or both — and it is worth knowing before you plan around reaching it.
