Level

Level (レベル, Reberu), commonly abbreviated as LV and LVL, is the measure of how far a character has progressed in their personal growth potential in the Suikoden series.

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Gaining levels is the main method for the player characters to advance and increase their stats throughout most of the games in the series. Characters advance in levels by gaining Experience Points. Both enemies and player characters have a level, but most times the opponents' level is fixed.

Gaining a level is called 'leveling up'. Gaining levels generally augments stats and can unlock additional rune slots in some games. The party's level may also influence the enemy's stats. The typical highest level is 99 for most games in the series. In Suikoden Tactics, the maximum level for player characters is 50.

In most titles, the lowest level is Level 1. However, in Suikoden IV, characters technically begin at Level 0 and are given a 'free' level up to Level 1 in order to add variance to their starting stats.

Several character recruitments in the series are also gated by the level of a character or the average level of the party. Eikei in Suikoden is one such example. The level of the main character often influences the level of new characters also, with initial levels being calculated as the main character's level, plus or minus x. Georg Prime in Suikoden II, for example, will join at the level of the hero +10.

The first six Suikoden titles with character levels (Suikoden through Suikoden V, and Suikoden Tactics) have characters gain increments in each stat selected from a certain stat range than varies per character archetype. That is to say, magic users are more likely to gain an increment in magic stats on level up than physical stats and vice-versa. Suikoden Tierkreis, meanwhile, features a fixed, static stat growth for characters on level up.

In most main Suikoden titles, leveling provides its most tangible benefits between levels 1-20 before beginning to slow down. After Level 60, stat gain through leveling up tends to drop off with the possibility of achieving low or even zero stat growth increasing.