Guide · chapter 5 of 12

Heroic 15 → 20 (also the iconic route)

To do: At level 15, play Myth Drannor or the Gianthold walk-ups (§5.1). At 16, play the rest of Gianthold, Subversion and Litany of the Dead (§5.2). At 17, play Sharn 1 then Cogs (§5.3), then Sharn 2 (§5.4). After that, turn in sagas (§5.5). Without these paid packs, follow the free list in §5.7 F15. Route source: the "Level 15 to 20" thread on forums.ddo.com, opened by Zao on Oct 18, 2026, 3 pages, 47 posts, read in full F15. This is the best-sourced part of the route. Quest levels come from the DDO Compendium quest and pack pages. Most were edited before U81. Three were edited after: Roll Call (Sep 12, 2026), Times Long Past (Sep 21, 2026) and The Lords of Dust (Oct 6, 2026) R89 R75 R97. Their level may have changed with balance updates.

How to read the levels. Two different levels are in play.

• Character level: the step given by the forum posters F15. Example: "Sharn 1 at 17".
• Quest base level: the level printed on the quest's Compendium page. Example: the Sharn 1 quests are level 15 R86.
• Gap (calculation): character level minus base level. Full delving bonus needs a gap of 2 or less in Heroic. Above that, it is halved for the whole group W-XP. Almost all the forum steps land on a gap of 1 to 2, which explains their order (inferred).

Consensus (at least six posters): Myth Drannor or Gianthold at 15-16, then Sharn 1, Cogs, Sharn 2, then turn in sagas, then filler quests F15.

Access. Almost everything below is paid. Packs and their prices in DDO Points: Magic of Myth Drannor 2,995 (Update 69) R71, Ruins of Gianthold 950 (Update Module 4) R78, The Devil's Gambit 450 (Update 28) R83, The Necropolis, Part 4 850 (Update Module 5) R85, The Mines of Tethyamar 725 (Update 36) R77, Masterminds of Sharn 2,495 (Update 42) R87. The pages for three of these packs date from 2019 (Gianthold, Necropolis 4, Devil's Gambit), so check prices in the store R78 R85 R83. These pages do not say whether VIP unlocks these packs R71 R78 R85 R87. A quest marked "Free To Play" in the Compendium is not always free on its own. The field does not tell free quests apart from quests reached through a patron R97 R98.

5.1 Character level 15

• Who says so: axemania, Jaspar, Rusty_helmet and Enoach put Myth Drannor and/or the Gianthold walk-ups at 15 F15.
• Vooduspyce also puts the Gianthold walk-ups at level 15. Their guide ("Last update" header of Aug 2025) is written for Reaper and assumes an XP potion, VIP and Monster Manual R01.
• The forum mentions Mines of Tethyamar alongside Myth Drannor. Mines of Tethyamar is a separate paid pack, levels 15 and 31, 725 DDO Points, Update 36 R76 R77.
• At character level 16, Myth Drannor and the Gianthold walk-ups have a gap of +3. The delving bonus would be halved (calculation on W-XP). This is why you finish these quests at 15 if you want the full bonus (inferred).

5.2 Character level 16

• Who says so: Dandonk, Talzor and mikarddo put Gianthold, Grim and Barrett, Subversion, Necropolis 4 and Litany of the Dead at 16 F15.
• Talzor recommends starting Gianthold with Madstone F15. That "Madstone" means Madstone Crater is a deduction (inferred). The quest page does not cite Talzor R81.
• Necropolis 4 is the name of a pack. The quest to play is Litany of the Dead R84 R85.
• No Grim and Barrett quest page was found in the Compendium (404 on the URL tested, not checked elsewhere). Only the forum thread cites it for the route, and the U81 notes mention it in a bug fix (traps) F15 R113.
• TavernTails's opinion (Jun 14, 2026, before U81, pack buying guide): The Crucible is very good for XP per minute R04.

5.3 Character level 17

• The Sharn 1 quests are level 15. The 17 is the character step. The Masterminds of Sharn pack lists levels 16 and 32 R87.
• Consensus order: Sharn 1, then Cogs, then Sharn 2. Cogs level 15 before Cogs level 16 is inferred F15.
• Who says so: most posters F15.

5.4 Character level 17 to 18

• The Roll Call page was edited on Sep 12, 2026, after U81. The level may have changed with balance updates R89.
• Who says so: most posters F15. The quest names come from the Compendium C-SG.

5.5 Character level 18 to 20

• Who says so: Jaspar, axemania, Talzor and Enoach for the sagas and filler F15.
• With no paid pack at this stage: play the free list in §5.7 (base levels 15 to 18), then replay on Elite R96 SG.
• The Compendium places level 15 quests in Eveningstar, for example Records of the Past and Search and Rescue R76 R93. It is not established that the thread means those.

5.6 XP banking, sagas and differing opinions

• Bank XP and sagas to shorten 18-20: Blerkington banks XP through all of Heroic, dozensnakes presents banking as the usual strategy, and Rusty_helmet keeps sagas from earlier lives F15. Talzor turns in his sagas without going above level 18, for an iconic life on R1, with about 3 hours 30 minutes of potion F15.
• Useful sagas here (XP N / H / E / TE) C-SG:
  • Heroic Masterminds of Sharn (15-16) and Heroic Cogs (15-16): 16,000 / 22,000 / 35,000 / 46,000.
  • Honor of the Huntsilver (16-19): 26,000 / 36,000 / 56,000 / 74,000.
  • Perils of Cormyr (15-19): 38,000 / 53,000 / 83,000 / 111,000.
  • Heroic Vecna Unleashed (level 18 quests): 21,000 / 29,000 / 45,000 / 59,000.
• The wiki gives the same level ranges: Heroic Cogs and Masterminds 15-16, Heroic Perils of Cormyr 15-19, Honor of the Huntsilvers 16-19 wiki, not cross-checked R217.
• Turning in a saga wiki, not cross-checked R217:
  • One point per quest on Casual or Normal, 2 on Hard, 3 on Elite or Reaper. Hard tier: 1.75 times the number of quests (rounded down). Elite tier: 2.5 times. True Elite: all quests on Elite.
  • A quest done on Normal can be replayed on Elite before the turn-in.
  • XP elixirs apply to the saga reward, so drink one before you turn in.
  • A VIP can skip one quest, which counts as Elite. Anyone can skip one for 5 Astral Shards. 15 Astral Shards raise you one reward tier.
  • The 100-hour cooldown applies to four lower-level Heroic sagas (Pirates of the Thunder Sea, Saltmarsh, Feywild, Isle of Dread). No saga on this route has a timer.
• Differing opinions F15:
  • Solarpower (Oct 26) finds Necropolis 4, Eveningstar and Vecna useless. Others keep them.
  • Trampturd (Oct 24) recommends Hard over Elite for Sharn and Morgrave while you have neither Reaper Points nor gear (2 to 3 times faster, in his view). This is Trampturd's opinion.
  • jrazumich and dozensnakes find 17-20 poorer in XP than 20-30. Others find it fast.
• Ying (Oct 23) points out that any judgment on the 15-20 pace depends on boosts (Master's Gift, guild buff, potions) and on banked sagas F15.
• No official source documents a leveling slowdown. The U81.4 notes (Oct 7, 2026) and U82 notes (Oct 14, 2026) mention no change to XP or quest rewards R155 R156. The U82.1 notes do not touch elixirs, tomes, XP shrines or Voice of the Master R191. The U81 notes say only that Rare quest XP is increased at higher difficulties. They mention neither the first-time bonus nor past life XP R113.

5.7 F2P at 15-20

To do with no paid pack: play these quests in order of increasing base level, keeping your character at most 2 levels above the quest to keep the full delving bonus W-XP SG. This list comes from the SG series, checked quest by quest on the Compendium. The table shows quest base levels. Your character level is a separate number.

• Only part of the Lords of Dust chain is free. The three quests The Lords of Dust, Servants of the Overlord and The Spinner of Shadows are in the Web of Chaos pack (levels 16 and 21, Update 13). The Compendium says the pack "offers three free quests" R97 R98. Beyond the Rift is marked Free To Play separately R97.
• The pages do not say which quests in the pack are the three free ones. The wiki names these three quests as the only ones that give Tokens of the Twelve to F2P players wiki, not cross-checked R216. You can infer that these are the three free ones (inferred).
• The Lords of Dust exists in two versions (inferred): the level 16 Heroic version R97 and the Epic version in §6.1. The quest page was edited on Oct 6, 2026, after U81. Check in game which one you are launching R97.
• Gap (calculation on W-XP): level 13 quests lose the full delving bonus from character level 16, and the level 14 quest (Tower of Frost) from level 17 R69 R70 R91.