Meaning

(intransitive, video games, slang) To play so as to advance levels in a game as quickly as possible..

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive, video games, slang) To play so as to advance levels in a game as quickly as possible.
2. (transitive, video games, slang) To cause (a game character or another player) to advance levels in a game as quickly as possible.

Example Sentences

Returning to the convention area later we find EQ and its players have reclaimed the PCs, presenting a row of T-shirt prints ranging from gangsta rap to Ghost In The Shell. Some play side by side, some frantically text distant servermates; others are powerlevelling with near-catatonic detachment.

Whilst fighting close to your mentor (who must be around 5 levels higher than you) your attack and defense ratings are boosted - temporarily making you of a similar level. XP is still proportionate to your “real” level though, so don’t expect to be able to powerlevel this way.

Trying to explore the Garden of Madness when you first enter it can be deadly if you haven’t been powerlevelling. […] The best way to powerlevel is usually to go find something big and dangerous, like a Stolas or a Final Guard, and pick on it until you level up.

Though she’s a Level 100 character, she can be beaten if your troops are as low as Level 30. It’s a good idea, however, to take this battle on only when you really want to get drawn into a Dark World stage that you know you can beat. This is because once you’ve defeated her, certain normal stages may automatically pull you into a Dark World stage that you are too weak to clear, thereby blocking repeated access to that normal stage until the Dark World variant is cleared. This can be a problem if you’ve been using a certain stage to powerlevel.

MMORPGs with experience of point and level system are susceptible to ‘powerlevelling’ and ‘grinding’, which are terms relating to the highly goal-oriented, repetitive play style aimed to make the character more powerful as quickly as possible.

Fourthly, powerleveling is a key issue in which the moral order of the game is contested. For instance, when powerleveling, lower level players advance swiftly through 60 levels because higher level players accompany them, making quest completions much easier.

But they did all shell out big bucks to have simulated lives in place of actual lives. They just don’t want to do this in PUBLIC. Which is what an on-line game is. You can find plenty of geeks willing to justify publically^([sic]) powerlevelling an orc avatar, but how many will you find willing to admit that their virtual girlfriend is the closest they’ve ever been to the opposite sex?

If you’re busy trying to “powerlevel” your Sims out of their social rating slump, then you’re not likely to sit and watch conversations or dramas unfolds, and if you just want to pump up your environment score then it makes sense to randomly cram your Sim houses with all the highest rated stuff, even if it produces a scene that would make the Queer Eye team fall to the ground clutching their heads.

Word Forms

• powerlevels
• powerleveling
• powerlevelling
• powerleveled
• powerlevelled
• power-level

When Should You Use Power level?

Use power level when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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