Prestiging is a core feature of Project Ascension’s Mystic Enchanting system that has been a staple for years in Classless gameplay. It represents a way for players to reset their character’s level in exchange for permanent rewards and progression benefits.
How Prestiging Works
When you prestige in Project Ascension, you reset your character back to level 1, similar to prestige systems in games like Call of Duty. However, unlike simply starting over, prestiging comes with significant benefits that make your character permanently stronger.
Do note that to prestige, you’ll need first to hit at least level 60, and talk to Chromie, usually near a Call Board in Major Cities.
Your Active Specialization is prestige locked
Players often encounter an issue when they scroll to the bottom of the Prestige tab, receiving an error message that states, “Your active specialization is prestige locked.” This problem is easy to resolve, but the solution isn’t well documented. To find the fix, I had turned to the community for assistance; the solution is provided below:
To unlock Specialization 1, press ‘N’ to access the Character Advancement tab. On the right side, you will see three tabs: ‘Spells,’ ‘Specs,’ and ‘Loadouts.’ Select ‘Specs,’ click the lock icon, and confirm the prompt to unlock Specialization 1.
Talk to Chromie again, and the button should be clickable this time.
Prestige Rewards
Once prestiged, what you’re wearing will be added to your inventory, and your character will be returned to the starting area of your race. You should see a new icon next to the minimap, indicating that you’re now participating in the Prestige Challenge. Massively increasing all Experience – and a daily quest, for example, complete 5 dungeons.
There should be a level 70 Prestigious Chest in your inventory; this is the reward for reaching level 70 again.
The character should be in free-pick; however, you can revert back to an Archetype using the ‘N’ Key and choosing a class from the featured, which has all the classes you’d been able to choose from the character creation menu, or alternative builds made by the community.
Mystic Extracts
Prestiging grants you 3 free Mystic Extracts, which are the premium currency needed to save Mystic Enchantments to your account-wide collection permanently. Mystic Extracts are used to delete enchantments from scrolls, but in return, learn them permanently for future use. These extracts allow you to unlock powerful enchantments that will be available to all your characters on that realm.
While you can also obtain Mystic Extracts by reforging at Mystic Altars (earning one extract per level of your Mystic Enchanting skill), the other way is to buy Mystic Extracts straight from Nozdormu for 150 runes or gold each, which is a very inefficient method to get them but also incredibly fast. Prestiging provides these valuable extracts as a free reward, making it one of the most efficient ways to expand your enchantment collection.
Prestige Tokens and Heirloom Items
Heirloom items are unlocked with prestige tokens, which are obtained whenever you decide to prestige. These items can be purchased from Chromie near the callboard in capital cities. This gear scales with your level and only grants stats that scale depending on your level, but does not grant experience bonuses.
Heirloom items provide a significant advantage during your next prestige cycle by giving you consistently powerful gear throughout the leveling process. Rather than constantly replacing equipment, heirlooms grow with you, ensuring you’re always appropriately geared for your level.
Enchantment Presets
Every time you use a Tome of Specialization, you’ll unlock an enchanting preset, letting you save and store an entire enchantment set for later use. When using enchantment presets, you won’t spend any Orbs, allowing you to use enchantment sets to quickly swap specializations, archetypes, and playstyles.
This is particularly valuable because it means you can maintain multiple complete build configurations—perhaps one for PvP, one for raiding, and one for solo content—and switch between them instantly without having to reapply individual enchantments or spend resources.
Marks of Ascension
All quests grant Marks of Ascension when you complete them, with the amount of Marks gained scaling based on the level of the quest completed. While this is available during normal play, prestiging allows you to earn these marks again through quest completion, providing another stream of valuable currency for purchasing items and upgrades.
Enhanced Loot Opportunities
Even if you’re locked out of loot from a boss, you’ll still receive mystic orbs, runes, and marks of ascension when you kill that boss. This means that during your prestige cycles, you continue accumulating valuable resources even when repeating content, making each run worthwhile.
Permanent Account-Wide Collection
One of the most important rewards from prestiging is building your permanent Mystic Enchantment collection. Saving a Mystic Enchant to your collection permanently unlocks it for all characters on this realm, allowing you to apply that enchant from an Altar whenever you want without needing a scroll.
This means every prestige cycle adds to a growing library of power that benefits not just your current character, but any future characters you create. The more you prestige and collect, the more options you have for building creative and powerful character combinations.
Prestige Tokens
Those are currencies that most people prestige for; they are the primary reason people prestige – each heirloom can be worth between 500 and 1000, and prestiging can award 100, while prestige dailies can award an additional 100 prestige tokens and 25,000 Runes of Ascension.
What this means is that there are two methods of obtaining heirlooms, one through the Rune of Ascension and the other through prestige tokens, which are obtained through the daily quests.
Additionally, the experience bonus can also reward players for playing in specific styles daily. For example, one day it may increase open-world experience gain, while another day it may increase PvP experience gain. This is only available to those who have prestiged.
Strategic Benefits
Build Flexibility
Prestiging allows you to experiment with different builds and playstyles while maintaining your progress. Since your Mystic Enchant collection is permanent and account-wide, each prestige cycle lets you try new combinations while keeping access to all the enchantments you’ve previously collected.
Power Progression
The prestige system creates a long-term progression path beyond simply reaching max level. Each time you prestige, you’re working toward unlocking more of the collection and gaining permanent benefits that make future leveling journeys faster and more powerful with better gear and more build options.
Multiple Builds
With the enchantment preset system unlocked through prestiging, you can maintain multiple complete build configurations and swap between them freely, making it easy to adapt to different content like PvP, PvE, or solo play without losing progress.
Faster Subsequent Leveling
With heirloom gear scaling with your level and access to your full enchantment collection from level 1, each prestige cycle becomes smoother and faster. You’re essentially leveling a much more powerful version of your character each time.
When Should You Prestige?
Players typically prestige when they want to:
- Try a completely different build or archetype
- Unlock more Mystic Extracts to expand their enchantment collection
- Gain prestige tokens for heirloom items
- Participate in fresh server experiences where everyone starts together
- Challenge themselves with the leveling experience using their enhanced collection
- Build up resources like Marks of Ascension through repeated quest completion
- The Current Build is not optimal for the player
The Prestige Cycle
The prestige system creates an engaging gameplay loop:
- Level to max while collecting Mystic Enchantments and completing content
- Prestige to gain extracts, tokens, and preset slots, then reset to level 1
- Level again with access to your expanded enchantment collection, heirloom gear, and multiple build presets
- Experiment with new builds using your growing collection of permanent enchantments
- Accumulate resources through repeated content with guaranteed mystic orbs, runes, and marks
- Repeat to continue expanding your options and power
This system ensures that even after reaching max level multiple times, there’s always meaningful progression and new ways to experience Project Ascension’s classless gameplay. Each prestige makes you permanently stronger and gives you more freedom to explore different character fantasies.
