5 easy ways to level up your Steam profile | PC Gamer
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We all love to level up. Scratching the XP itch feels good, so much so that Steam itself got in on the action. Every Steam user has a level, with higher levels granting bonuses like extra slots on your friends list and higher drop rates for booster card packs (more on those later). My Steam account is sitting at a measly level 13, paling in comparison to the 1000+ of those at the top of the Steam user leaderboard. Determined to salvage my Steam cred, I reached out to StrikeR, The Cpt Froggy, and ROFL, three levelling experts with levels of 1052, 903, and 515 respectively. They had plenty of advice for a rookie like me, but before we dig into their strats, let’s run through the afting badges awards are crafted from trading cards, which drop as you play games. A game will only drop half of its full set; you need to trade for or buy the rest on the Steam crafted badge nets you 100XP, and you can level it up four times by collecting and crafting the same cards again, for a total of crafted a game’s badge, you will occasionally receive booster packs containing three random cards from its set. The higher your Steam level, the better your chance of scoring a booster pack—every 10 levels grants +20% to their drop owing these basics, I assumed that the way to get a high Steam level was to simply buy and play a boatload of games. After talking to the experts, I quickly discovered how wrong I was. You don’t actually need to own a game to craft its badge; you can simply trade for or buy the necessary cards on the Steam marketplace. Considering the size of my Steam backlog, I was very glad to hear this. But how do you know what cards to buy? Steam Tools is your first stop for all things badge-related. Full card sets are listed with their average purchase price on the Steam marketplace, with plenty of filters to find the cheapest sets and hide ones you’ve already crafted. Simply sort by price, click on the cheapest set’s marketplace link, and you’ll be taken straight to the current Steam listings for the relevant cards. From searching to buying, the whole process takes a fraction of the time it would directly through Tools also features a level-cost calculator for approximating how much you’d need to spend buying cards to reach a particular level. It doesn’t factor in XP earned from non-card badges or Steam sales, so it’s a bit of a high-ball estimate, but it still puts the cost of Steam levelling in perspective. For example, if I wanted to join the ranks of The Cpt Froggy, StrikeR, and ROFL, I’d only need to fork out a mere $100, 000. Chump change! Another useful site is Steam Card Exchange. Here you can trade your duplicate cards for ones you actually need by using the site’s automated Trading Bot. Just remember that bots are forbidden by the Steam Subscriber Agreement (“You may not use cheats, automation software (bots), mods, hacks, or any other unauthorized third-party software, to modify or automate any Subscription Marketplace process, ” it reads), so use at your own salesAfter collecting a full card set, I expected the next step would be to craft some badges. As The Cpt Froggy explained to me, though, it’s actually better to save your uncrafted sets for the big Steam Summer and Winter sales. All badges crafted during these sales events award you with bonus Steam event cards that can be crafted into event-specific badges, each of which can be levelled up endlessly during the period of the sale. This is where The Cpt Froggy focuses his efforts, saving every four out of a game’s five card sets for crafting during the next sale. ROFL and StrikeR echoed the importance of going all-in during sales, with StrikeR telling me ‘seasonal sales events [are] hands down the best way to level up your profile. ‘Turning fodder to fuelWhen it comes time to craft, XP won’t be your only reward. Every badge you craft drops three random items, stuff like emoticons and profile backgrounds that I’d always written off as junk. But as StrikeR pointed out, it’s junk with monetary value. In fact, at one stage The Cpt Froggy was making an average of between $25 and $40 a day just selling the drops from badge crafting. By reinvesting that money in more badges, he was able to boost his level to the massive 903 it is you’re badging the latest and greatest games, most of your item drops will fetch only a couple of cents on the marketplace, but they’re cents you can put to more cards, and more badges. And if nobody’s in the market for your baseball-bat-swinging cupcake emoticon, you can break it down into gems which you can then use to craft booster packs for even more cards—and the cycle of crafting continues. Avoid foilsAs shiny as they are, foil cards are a bad investment. A badge crafted from foils earns the same 100 XP as a normal badge, but foils sell for much, much more on the marketplace. StrikeR advises selling foil cards and using the funds to buy multiple cheaper, regular cards badgesBeyond buying up cards, there are a couple of special badges good for a few easy-ish hits of XP. The Game Collector badge is automatically awarded when you own a certain number of games, beginning with your first purchase and levelling up at various milestones along your way to owning every Steam game in existence. The Pillar of Community badge can be crafted by performing simple actions on Steam, from reviewing a game to voting on Greenlight, and it can be levelled up twice for extra XP. You can find a list of all the tasks you’ve yet to complete in the Badges section of your profile. Huge thanks to The Cpt Froggy, StrikeR, and ROFL for their valuable insight. This article wouldn’t have been possible without them.
Steam Levels and XP – Steam Support
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How To Level Up On Steam – Online Tech Tips
Steam is a great platform for finding and playing all your favorite PC games. If you frequent yours or other’s Steam profiles, you might notice the “Level” section. Steam created this levelling system as a way to intertwine the platform and the games you play on it.
The process is pretty simple: You earn XP through various tasks, the main one being badge crafting, and once you earn enough XP you level up. There are, of course, strategies you can follow in order to level up quickly. Here are the basics on how to level up on Steam.
The Quickest Way to Earn XP: Badge Crafting
When you start out on Steam, all you need is 100 XP to get your first level. For each subsequent level until 10, 100 XP will level you up. From then on, you’ll need 200 XP per level, and when you reach level 20, 300 XP, and so on.
The fastest way to earn XP is crafting badges. Badges are created by collecting trading cards through your games, as well as buying or trading them. You can see all your current badges and trading cards by going to Your Account Name > Badges.
To do this, you’ll first need a game which supports badge earning. You can find these on Steam search by using the filter with the Steam Trading Card modifier. Once you’ve bought and downloaded one, playing it will give you card drops.
You need a certain amount of cards from a game in order to create the game’s level one badge. After you’ve played the game and reached the max amount of card drops, you’ll have to either buy the rest of the cards or trade with others for them. You can buy cards on the Marketplace.
A single card usually only costs a few cents, so it’s not very expensive to complete a badge. And if you received duplicates in your card drops, you can sell them to buy the ones you need on the Marketplace.
There are also Booster Packs. These are given to you randomly, and include three cards from a certain badge’s set. To get these, you just need to make sure you use Steam at least once a week to stay eligible.
Upgrading Your Badges
Each badge has the ability to level up on Steam multiple times, at a max of 5 times. So with just one game, it’s possible to get 500 XP. You can see how this can add up fast when crafting badges for multiple games.
Each time you craft a badge, you get three random items for doing so. You can then sell these items in the marketplace, and use those funds to buy even more cards. Or, if you have an item that nobody seems to want to buy, you have the ability to transform it into gems. Gems can be accumulated and then used to buy Booster Packs.
For more popular games, Booster Packs usually cost around 1, 000 gems, so it might take a bit to collect enough gems for that. But if you have a lot of extra, unmarketable items, it may be worth it.
Craft Steam Sale Badges
Besides amazing game prices, Steam sale times are exceptional for leveling up your account. This is because for all badges you craft during a Steam sale event, you are given the sale’s specific trading cards which can also be crafted into a badge.
These Steam sale badges can be upgraded an unlimited amount, so it might be worth it to wait until the next sale comes along to start actually crafting your regular badges. Then, you can put them towards Steam sale trading cards as much as possible.
Taking advantage of this can help you increase your level immensely. And, it’s the perfect time to buy more games to get even more craftable badges.
Other Ways To Gain XP
There are a few other ways you can gain XP besides crafting badges, and these can be great things to do at first to get your level up on Steam.
First of all, there is the Pillar of Community badge. This is a badge you can get by completing certain tasks on Steam, such as adding a friend, playing a game, or posting a screenshot. Once you do some tasks you’ll get the level 1 badge for 100 XP, and you can upgrade it to level 2 for another 100 XP.
There are also Game Collector badges. This badge gives you XP whenever you buy a certain amount of games, hypothetically until you buy every game available on the Steam store. The more games you buy, though, the less XP is awarded each time, but it’s good for the first few games you get.
You can also get XP just by having a Steam account for a certain length of time. This is your Years of Service badge. For every year you have an account, you’ll earn 50 XP.
Rewards For Leveling Up
What’s the incentive, then, for leveling up on Steam? Well, there’s actually some good benefits to every level you gain.
Every time you level up, you get five extra friend slots. So, with each level you’ll be able to add more friends to your account. At level 10, 20, 30, and 40, you get a +20% chance of receiving booster packs, making it even easier for you to move up the ranks.
So if you’re feeling a little burnt out with all your Steam games, you can always take some time away from playing games and do some leveling up on your Steam account instead, and get some nice perks in the process.
Frequently Asked Questions about level up in steam
How do you go up a level on Steam?
Anyone who is not a limited user will earn a Steam level based on their account’s current badges and games. You must create your Steam Community profile to view your Steam level. Limited users do not qualify for Steam levels and will remain at level 0.
How do I raise my XP level in Steam?
The fastest way to earn XP is crafting badges. Badges are created by collecting trading cards through your games, as well as buying or trading them. You can see all your current badges and trading cards by going to Your Account Name > Badges. To do this, you’ll first need a game which supports badge earning.Oct 23, 2020
Can you level up on Steam for free?
Another quick way to level up your badge is to participate in the Steam Sale. You don’t have to buy games during the sale if it would raise your level too. All you have to do is participate in the free events that Steam usually holds during the occasion.Sep 7, 2020
