Reaching level 36 in Blade and Soul NEO marks an important turning point in your progression. The game doesn’t always make it clear what your next steps should be, and many players find themselves confused about where to get their first meaningful gear upgrades. This guide covers everything you need to know about gearing up at level 36, including soul shields, weapons, accessories, and card farming. By following these steps, you’ll set yourself up for success and be fully prepared for the content ahead.

 

Step 1: Get Your First Soul Shield Set

 

Your first priority at level 36 is acquiring a reliable soul shield set. Head to the desert east of Yara’s Mirage, where you’ll find the Desert Scorpion Field Boss, Pinchy. Defeating Pinchy rewards you with essences, which you can use to spin the wheel for a chance at a soul shield box.

 

If you’re missing just one or two soul shield pieces, you can purchase them directly from the merchant.

 

Buying costs more (around five to six essences per shield), but it’s a faster way to complete the set.

 

This soul shield set will give you a solid foundation for both survivability and damage output.

 

Step 2: Securing Your Weapon

 

A strong weapon is essential for smooth progression. At level 36, you have two main options for acquiring one:

 

Faction Dailies and Tokens

 

Join a faction as soon as possible. Doing faction dailies will reward you with red tokens.

 

With eight tokens, you can buy a weapon from the faction merchant.

 

For a faster path, save 30 tokens and exchange them at Yara’s Mirage for a box that gives you 10 extra materials, making the grind much quicker. Having a lot of BnS NEO Classic Divine Gems will also help you farm monsters faster.

 

Crafting Through Salvaging

 

Farm the small dungeon north of Jade Stone Village. The boss there drops green accessories that can be salvaged into white powders.

 

Once you collect 30 powders, purchase the crafting material box from the Yara’s Mirage merchant.

 

Transmute your weapon (requires 1 gold).

 

Important Tips:

 

Don’t waste resources crafting a weapon blueprint—buy it directly from the faction merchant.

 

Weapon stats and sockets are RNG-based, so you may need to try multiple times to get the perfect roll.

 

Aim for one with crit or HP bonuses, and ideally a socket for your soul stone.

 

Step 3: Farming Accessories

 

Accessories play a huge role in boosting your stats and opening up skill slots.

 

Blue-tier Accessories: Dropped in Daggerbreak Rookery (blue dungeon). These can have one or two skill slots.

 

Purple-tier Accessories: Obtained from Tomb of Exiles (purple dungeon). These can roll one to three skill slots and will be your eventual goal.

 

While farming, salvage extra drops you don’t need to earn in-coin, which you can spend in the marketplace. Always check the market—sometimes valuable accessories are listed cheaply by other players.

 

Step 4: Preparing for Tomb of Exiles

 

Before you can comfortably clear the Tomb of Exiles, spend time in Daggerbreak Rookery. This dungeon drops useful gear, plenty of skill books, and accessories you can sell for currency. Once you’ve built enough DPS and survivability, you’ll be ready to tackle Tomb of Exiles.

 

In Tomb of Exiles, you’ll:

 

Farm purple accessories for optimal builds.

 

Acquire your Soul Stone, an essential early-game upgrade.

 

The Infernal Lord Soul Stone is particularly powerful at this stage. It applies a strong damage-over-time burn debuff, which compensates for the generally low damage output of early-game builds. It’s also extremely useful in PvP encounters.

 

Step 5: Soul Shields and Stats

 

Unlike Blade and Soul Live, in NEO you can roll crit and crit damage on all eight pieces of your soul shield. This means even your early sets can significantly boost your damage if you roll well. Make sure to keep farming and rerolling until you get the stats you want.

 

Step 6: Maximizing Skills

 

If you’re still missing crucial skills for your class, you can purchase them using Valor Stones at Yara’s Mirage. Focus on securing skills that boost your DPS before investing heavily in Tomb of Exiles farming.

 

Avoid these mistakes:

 

Don’t buy accessories with Valor Stones—they’re not worth it.

 

Don’t spend gold on boxes that claim to give extra Valor Stones; the drop rates are too low.

 

Step 7: Card Farming

 

Cards add another layer of progression and should not be ignored. At level 36, you’ll start building your first major card set.

 

Hakan Card – Easy to obtain and part of your first meaningful set.

 

Golden Diva (purple card) – The rarest and hardest to farm. Its drop rate from the wheel is low, so many players prefer to buy essences with in-coin and spin until they get it.

 

Desert Scorpion & Bulbar (blue cards) – Much easier to acquire than Golden Diva and still provide strong bonuses.

 

Before you secure the full Golden Diva set, rotate between smaller sets to boost your stats while farming.

 

Step 8: Don’t Forget Gold Sources

 

Running out of gold is a common issue at this stage. Fortunately, completing card sets and achievements often rewards you with significant amounts of gold. Make sure you’re completing these regularly to sustain your transmuting and farming activities.

 

Final Thoughts

 

The level 36 bracket is where Blade and Soul NEO really opens up in terms of gearing. By following this progression path—starting with soul shields, then weapons, accessories, and finally cards—you’ll be well prepared for the level 45 patch and beyond. Having sufficient BnS Classic Divine Gems will make you more prepared.

 

Focus on:

 

Farming Pinchy for soul shields.

 

Securing a strong weapon through faction dailies and salvaging.

 

Collecting blue and purple accessories from dungeons.

 

Preparing for Tomb of Exiles as soon as your DPS allows.

 

Building your first strong card set while maintaining a healthy gold supply.

 

With patience and consistency, you’ll be able to gear efficiently and keep up with the progression curve. Stay tuned for the upcoming Level 45 Gear Progression Guide, which will dive deeper into advanced gearing options.