Your character now grows on the Crystal Gate — an open, branching stat grid. Six stat lanes (STR · ACC · DEX · DEF · INT · SPI) run down the grid, woven together so you can move down or sideways to any connected node. From the origin you choose where to go: dive straight down one stat, weave between two, or spread wide. Every node has a set stat, and the route you walk is your build — you'll never have enough points to light everything, so every choice counts. Late-game, the cross-links let you reach into any stat you like.
You earn 1 point per level, and each node costs 1 point to light. But not every node is equal — most grant +1, some +2, and a rare few +3, so hunting the richer nodes along your route is its own reward. Click a glowing node next to one you've already lit to activate it.
Your class Traits now appear as auto-lit milestones down the left of the Gate (they're still free and automatic), and your Paths of Power Crossroads live there too — each shows both options side by side so you can compare before you pick. Everything about your character's growth is now on one screen, so the separate Traits and Paths menus have retired.
Changed your mind? A Reset Crystal resets your whole Gate — it refunds every stat node you've lit and clears your Path choices, so you can walk a brand-new build. Buy one straight from the Gate panel for 200,000 gold. Expensive enough to matter, cheap enough to experiment.
Level-up stat points are now spent only in the Crystal Gate — the old + / Max buttons on the Attributes panel are retired. You earn 1 point per level (the points still show on your stat panel, with a link straight to the Gate). Your auto-grown stats — the base growth you get from your race and class every level — are unchanged; the Gate only governs the points you choose to spend.
With the Gate going live, the stat points you'd spent the old way have been refunded into the Gate so you can re-walk your build from scratch. No power is lost — it's yours to re-spend however you like.
Your race quietly boosts your stats every level, but the Altar of Rebirth was only ever swapping a single level's worth — so a race change barely moved the needle. It now re-scales the racial portion of your stats by your level, the way it always should have, making a rebirth a real, meaningful swing. The altar now shows the exact projected change for each race before you commit, so there are no surprises.