Your level is behind your map progress — here is the fix
20,176 players reached level 10. 57,121 cleared the Forest. Those two numbers together say most players beat the first land before they hit level 10, then run into a wall built for a higher level.
If you cleared the Forest under level 10, stop pushing maps and re-run the Forest until you are level 10–12. The Frostfang wall is partly a level wall.
Here are two badge counts that should not be as far apart as they are:
- 57,121 players cleared the Forest (Bramble Breaker).
- 20,176 players reached level 10 (Adept).
Even allowing for the badge-creation caveat below, that gap is enormous. The first land is clearable by a large number of players who have not yet hit double-digit levels. That is not a bug in the numbers — it is the shape of the game, and it is half the reason Frostfang Pass stops people.
The two progress bars
| Progress | Badge | Players | Share of first-quest completions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleared the Forest | Bramble Breaker | 57,121 | 95.9% |
| Reached level 10 | Adept | 20,176 | 33.9% |
| Cleared Frostfang Pass | Frost Hunter | 13,742 | 23.1% |
| Reached level 20 | Magus | 5,454 | 9.2% |
| Reached level 30 | Archmage | 1,959 | 3.3% |
| Reached level 40 | Grandmaster | 743 | 1.2% |
| Reached level 50 | Loremaster | 285 | 0.5% |
| Reached level 60 | Living Legend | 41 | 0.07% |
The map bar falls off a cliff at land two. The level bar starts behind and never catches up: only a third of first-quest finishers ever reach level 10, and only 41 players have reached level 60 out of 59,582.
What this means for you, practically
If you are reading this because Frostfang Pass is beating you, check your level before you check anything else.
- Below level 10? Your deck is carrying you, and it will not carry you through the second land. Re-run Forest content until Adept fires. This is the single highest-value thing you can do and it costs nothing.
- Level 10–14? You are in the normal band. The problem is probably card tiers, not levels — see raising a card to Tier V.
- Level 15+ and still stuck? Then it is a deck-composition problem: one element, one damage source. Fix coverage, not numbers.
- Level 20+? You are ahead of 90% of the player base. You are not under-levelled; read Mythic and Insane instead of this page.
The routine that closes the gap
This is the loop to run if your level is behind your map progress. Do it in the Forest, not in Frostfang.
- Pick the Forest encounter you clear fastest — the one where you know your turn count.
- Run it repeatedly, not the map's hardest content. Fast clears per minute beat hard clears per hour for experience, and you want volume here.
- Bank every upgrade into your carry card between runs — see card tiers. Levels and upgrades should climb together; doing one without the other wastes both.
- Re-test at each level. Use the three-fight test: clear a Forest fight, count turns. When a routine Forest fight takes three turns or fewer, you have outgrown the Forest.
- Then, and only then, walk into Frostfang. Not before level 10; preferably at 12.
The endgame level wall is real
For context, so you know what you are climbing toward: 41 players hold Living Legend (level 60). 285 hold level 50. If you are level 30 (1,959 players), you are already in the top 3.3% of everyone who finished the first quest. The level curve is not gentle at any point — which is why the level system should be treated as the spine of your progression, not a side effect of map pushing.
Related
- Frostfang Pass — what the level gap costs you, in one page.
- The 27-badge funnel — the full data set these numbers come from.
- Level vs map — the analysis page.
