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The Dissonance Ladder

Once you've opened the worlds you can reach, the climb continues within a world through Dissonance — the difficulty dial. This page is the strategy; for the mechanics of the dial itself, see Run Mode → the Dissonance dial.

The dial in one breath​

You set a single Dissonance number, saved once and applied to every run. Each level makes enemies +4% stronger (Level n = ×1.04ⁿ), and the number sits in a named band: 1–20 Normal · 21–40 Hard · 41–75 Nightmare · 76+ Cacophony. Set it, and the band follows.

Cacophony (76+) is the deepest push — past the Harmonize ceiling, where the run stops handing out higher-tier gear and starts paying the push itself: more materials, more Frequency, and prestige. It's the "how far can your team go" band, not a new rarity of drop.

Why push — the payoff climbs with you​

Higher Dissonance isn't just harder; it pays more, which is the whole reason to climb:

  • Higher-rarity loot. A clear rolls its drops at the band it's in — D21+ pulls from the Hard loot tables, D41+ from Nightmare — so rarities that a plain clear never rolls start showing up.
  • More drops. You earn roughly one extra loot roll per 20 levels of Dissonance.
  • Richer chests — and Frequency you keep. A Dissonance chest remembers the level it was earned at: the gear inside comes out with +that many points of Frequency on top of its normal roll. A Mythical from a D30 chest carries roughly +30 Frequency — a lot of extra room for Notes, which is exactly what turns a good piece into a great one.

How high should I run?​

  • You climb it by clearing it. You can push up to five levels past your best clear in each world — beat D10 in a world and you can attempt up to D15 there; clear D15 and D20 opens. Each world is proven on its own.
  • A sweep only auto-repeats a level you've already beaten by hand — you can't sweep your way up the ladder.
  • The right number is the highest you can reliably clear. Push until a level starts costing you runs, then settle one below it and farm — the loot at your ceiling is the best you can earn.

How far the ladder goes — Nightmare is farmable now​

Dissonance used to compound at +8% per level, which lapped even the best gear so fast that a fully-kitted team walled out right around Dissonance 41 — the first Nightmare tier. That was too steep: Nightmare was meant to be the reward you farm, not a cliff the best gear couldn't climb. It's been re-anchored to +4%, and the ladder now lines up with your gear the way it should:

  • A properly-geared team farms Nightmare. Bring the deepest world's Mythical gear with Notes loaded and D41+ is a place you live, not a wall — you'll push comfortably past the first Nightmare tier and keep climbing.
  • The deepest Nightmare is a Harmonize check. Reaching the far end of the ladder — think around Dissonance 75, the top of today's climb — expects gear that's not just Mythical but fully Harmonized and Note-loaded. A maxed-Mythic-but-not-yet-Harmonized team sits above D41 and below that ceiling — exactly the gap Harmonizing is there to close.
  • Your team is the real limit. There's no hard cap on the dial short of 100; where you wall is set by your gear band, your Notes, and your Ascension — so the climb always has somewhere to go as you invest.

Harmonize — the player-power axis​

The Dissonance ladder only works if player power scales to meet it, and the axis it scales along is Frequency → Notes → Harmonize:

Harmonize is rolling out operator-first

Harmonize is being dogfooded on the operator account first — if you don't see it yet, it isn't switched on for your account. We'll update this page with final costs the moment it opens to everyone.

Spend Essence to raise a gear piece's Frequency capacity — +10 Frequency per Harmony level (shown as H1…H10 beside the piece, up to +100 at H10). More Frequency is room for more Notes, and the Notes you etch into that room are the power that carries you into deep Nightmare. It's raise-only, so no earned progress is ever lost — and the deeper you climb Dissonance, the more Essence you earn to fund it, so clearing higher funds Harmonizing, which holds more Notes, which lets you clear higher. That loop — harder content → more loot → more power → harder content — is the whole point of the ladder, and Harmonize is the rung that keeps it turning past Mythical gear. It deliberately reuses the Frequency/Notes system you already know — one number to grow, one choice (what to etch) — rather than adding a new stat.

See also​

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