Monster Scaling
Why it exists
Section titled “Why it exists”Large parties would trivialize every encounter if the game didn’t respond. Monster scaling makes encounters tougher the more party members are nearby.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”When a mob group spawns (from a POI entry, an ambient roll, or a quest trigger), the game counts how many of the triggering player’s party members are online and within 80 blocks of that player. That count becomes a monster level bump:
- Party of 1 (solo): no bump.
- Party of 2: +1 monster level.
- Party of 3: +2 monster levels.
- …and so on, up to a cap of +6.
A higher monster level means higher mob HP and damage, via the standard monster-level curves. The bump is baked into the spawning mobs and is preserved across chunk reload: once the group exists, its difficulty is fixed for the lifetime of those mobs.
What scaling doesn’t affect
Section titled “What scaling doesn’t affect”Monster scaling adjusts mob stats (HP, damage) only. It does not:
- Change the number of mobs in a group.
- Change the mob types that spawn.
- Change the item level of mob loot drops.
Loot rolls continue to scale off the zone’s regular item level, independent of how many party members were nearby at spawn.