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* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has three ways to do this, at least one of which is completely intentional on the part of the developers. You can use face-to-face trading or in-game email to transfer unbound items between characters or even between accounts, and you can buy account bank slots to transfer account-bound items to alts. The latter include everything from some types of currency to the Reputation tokens introduced in Season 8, which are explicitly meant to be created on one character and handed over to an alt (to speed the alt's progression in the Reputation system and [[AntiFrustrationFeatures alleviate the grind]]).
* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in {{P|layerVersusPlayer}}VP.
** The above tended to have unusual effects on the economy. Example: the best weapon available for a lv.19 rogue, the rare world-drop Assassin's Blade, would sell on the auction house for over a thousand gold, higher than some max-level weapons.
** Blizzard later introduced an intentional version with Heirlooms, gear that can only be purchased with currencies earned at max level. Heirlooms are account-bound, so you can send them from character to character at will, they scale with level (until you hit 5 levels below max, i.e., current expansion content), they will always be as good as or better than the gear you could normally get at that level, and they also grant an XP gain bonus. Their entire purpose is to let low level alts of high level players tear through the content they've already beaten at least once, so they can get to the good stuff faster.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'', since a single account can have multiple characters (three before you even need to spend money), most of a given player's characters will have gear that their earlier characters leveled up enough to [[ItemCrafting craft]] or saved up to buy. However, this only takes you so far, since most of a character's combat power is intrinsic and the weapon functions more as a focus than a source.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Elsword}}'' the LevelLockedLoot system is in effect, but only with equipment, so you can trade everything else with all your characters. Newly-made accounts cannot send items or access the market for their first five days, but they can still receive items from everyone else.
* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in {{P|layerVersusPlayer}}VP.
** The above tended to have unusual effects on the economy. Example: the best weapon available for a lv.19 rogue, the rare world-drop Assassin's Blade, would sell on the auction house for over a thousand gold, higher than some max-level weapons.
** Blizzard later introduced an intentional version with Heirlooms, gear that can only be purchased with currencies earned at max level. Heirlooms are account-bound, so you can send them from character to character at will, they scale with level (until you hit 5 levels below max, i.e., current expansion content), they will always be as good as or better than the gear you could normally get at that level, and they also grant an XP gain bonus. Their entire purpose is to let low level alts of high level players tear through the content they've already beaten at least once, so they can get to the good stuff faster.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'', since a single account can have multiple characters (three before you even need to spend money), most of a given player's characters will have gear that their earlier characters leveled up enough to [[ItemCrafting craft]] or saved up to buy. However, this only takes you so far, since most of a character's combat power is intrinsic and the weapon functions more as a focus than a source.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Elsword}}'' the LevelLockedLoot system is in effect, but only with equipment, so you can trade everything else with all your characters. Newly-made accounts cannot send items or access the market for their first five days, but they can still receive items from everyone else.
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* In ''VideoGame/{{Elsword}}'' the LevelLockedLoot system is in effect, but only with equipment, so you can trade everything else with all your characters. Newly-made accounts cannot send items or access the market for their first five days, but they can still receive items from everyone else.
* ''Videogame/{{EverQuest}}'' originally had few limits on what gear a player could equip, but no easy method of transferring goods from one player to another. This lead to things like players trying to find a hidden spot to ''drop'' the item they wanted to transfer where the other player could pick it up. And yes, occasionally another player would find the item before the former owner could get the new character to the gear - and the [=GMs=] were unsympathetic to players who lost gear doing this. Asking a third party to hold onto the item and transfer it was another way, but it had the same problem, and the same downfall if the transferring friend's greed overcame him. Over the years Everquest gradually became more friendly to players trying to speed their alts to high level, and added the shared bank. However, it also added a feature in which gear equipped on a player much lower than the intended level would have reduced stats. It also introduced the attuning system, where gear became locked to a player so they couldn't pass it on to ''anyone''.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'', since a single account can have multiple characters (three before you even need to spend money), most of a given player's characters will have gear that their earlier characters leveled up enough to [[ItemCrafting craft]] or saved up to buy. However, this only takes you so far, since most of a character's combat power is intrinsic and the weapon functions more as a focus than a source.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has three ways to do this, at least one of which is completely intentional on the part of the developers. You can use face-to-face trading or in-game email to transfer unbound items between characters or even between accounts, and you can buy account bank slots to transfer account-bound items to alts. The latter include everything from some types of currency to the Reputation tokens introduced in Season 8, which are explicitly meant to be created on one character and handed over to an alt (to speed the alt's progression in the Reputation system and [[AntiFrustrationFeatures alleviate the grind]]).
* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in {{P|layerVersusPlayer}}VP.
** The above tended to have unusual effects on the economy. Example: the best weapon available for a lv.19 rogue, the rare world-drop Assassin's Blade, would sell on the auction house for over a thousand gold, higher than some max-level weapons.
** Blizzard later introduced an intentional version with Heirlooms, gear that can only be purchased with currencies earned at max level. Heirlooms are account-bound, so you can send them from character to character at will, they scale with level (until you hit 5 levels below max, i.e., current expansion content), they will always be as good as or better than the gear you could normally get at that level, and they also grant an XP gain bonus. Their entire purpose is to let low level alts of high level players tear through the content they've already beaten at least once, so they can get to the good stuff faster.
* ''Videogame/{{EverQuest}}'' originally had few limits on what gear a player could equip, but no easy method of transferring goods from one player to another. This lead to things like players trying to find a hidden spot to ''drop'' the item they wanted to transfer where the other player could pick it up. And yes, occasionally another player would find the item before the former owner could get the new character to the gear - and the [=GMs=] were unsympathetic to players who lost gear doing this. Asking a third party to hold onto the item and transfer it was another way, but it had the same problem, and the same downfall if the transferring friend's greed overcame him. Over the years Everquest gradually became more friendly to players trying to speed their alts to high level, and added the shared bank. However, it also added a feature in which gear equipped on a player much lower than the intended level would have reduced stats. It also introduced the attuning system, where gear became locked to a player so they couldn't pass it on to ''anyone''.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'', since a single account can have multiple characters (three before you even need to spend money), most of a given player's characters will have gear that their earlier characters leveled up enough to [[ItemCrafting craft]] or saved up to buy. However, this only takes you so far, since most of a character's combat power is intrinsic and the weapon functions more as a focus than a source.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has three ways to do this, at least one of which is completely intentional on the part of the developers. You can use face-to-face trading or in-game email to transfer unbound items between characters or even between accounts, and you can buy account bank slots to transfer account-bound items to alts. The latter include everything from some types of currency to the Reputation tokens introduced in Season 8, which are explicitly meant to be created on one character and handed over to an alt (to speed the alt's progression in the Reputation system and [[AntiFrustrationFeatures alleviate the grind]]).
* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in {{P|layerVersusPlayer}}VP.
** The above tended to have unusual effects on the economy. Example: the best weapon available for a lv.19 rogue, the rare world-drop Assassin's Blade, would sell on the auction house for over a thousand gold, higher than some max-level weapons.
** Blizzard later introduced an intentional version with Heirlooms, gear that can only be purchased with currencies earned at max level. Heirlooms are account-bound, so you can send them from character to character at will, they scale with level (until you hit 5 levels below max, i.e., current expansion content), they will always be as good as or better than the gear you could normally get at that level, and they also grant an XP gain bonus. Their entire purpose is to let low level alts of high level players tear through the content they've already beaten at least once, so they can get to the good stuff faster.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare {{Macrogame}}, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare LowLevelAdvantage, {{Macrogame}}, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus.
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[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki Wiki/TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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This tactic [[BaseBreaker tends to be controversial]]; [[{{Scrub}} some see it]] as [[LoopholeAbuse a cheat or an exploit]], others as a valid part of the {{Metagame}}. And of course different games handle it differently. Some discourage it by throttling LeakedExperience and using strict LevelLockedLoot. Others encourage some amount of it by giving players a [[BagOfSharing shared item stash]] accessible by all characters or allowing small bonuses earned by high-level characters to apply to low-level characters on the same account. Still others [[ZigZaggingTrope do both at once.]]
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This tactic [[BaseBreaker tends to be controversial]]; controversial; [[{{Scrub}} some see it]] as [[LoopholeAbuse a cheat or an exploit]], others as a valid part of the {{Metagame}}. And of course different games handle it differently. Some discourage it by throttling LeakedExperience and using strict LevelLockedLoot. Others encourage some amount of it by giving players a [[BagOfSharing shared item stash]] accessible by all characters or allowing small bonuses earned by high-level characters to apply to low-level characters on the same account. Still others [[ZigZaggingTrope do both at once.]]
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare {{Macrogame}}, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
to:
A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare {{Macrogame}}, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus.
[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
** Specifically, when in the forms of reading to children and introducing them to art, music, and manners, this is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_capital Cultural Capital]].
** Specifically, when in the forms of reading to children and introducing them to art, music, and manners, this is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_capital Cultural Capital]].
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* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
** Specifically, when inlevels. In the forms of reading to children and introducing them to art, music, and manners, this is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_capital Cultural Capital]].
** Specifically, when in
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** Specifically, when in the forms of reading to children and introducing them to art, music, and manners, this is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_capital Cultural Capital]].
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** The above tended to have unusual effects on the economy. Example: the best weapon available for a lv.19 rogue, the rare world-drop Assassin's Blade, would sell on the auction house for over a thousand gold, higher than some max-level weapons.
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Deleted without explanation.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
[[/folder]]
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*** The Auction House was flooded with [[DiscOneNuke powerful Reduced Level Requirement gear]] in the 1.X version of the game. By the time it started dropping, the character finding it no longer needed the reduced requirements, and the attribute took up a slot that could be filled with something useful, so there was no incentive ''not'' to sell.
*** The 2.0 patch [[ObviousRulePatch closed the Auction House]] and increased the quality of RandomDrops to compensate.
*** Whether any of the above was a good idea tends to be a giant BaseBreaker.
*** The 2.0 patch [[ObviousRulePatch closed the Auction House]] and increased the quality of RandomDrops to compensate.
*** Whether any of the above was a good idea tends to be a giant BaseBreaker.
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*** The 2.0 patch [[ObviousRulePatch closed the Auction House]] and increased the quality of RandomDrops to compensate.
*** Whether any of the above was a good idea tends to be a giant BaseBreaker.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
[[/folder]]
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** Tower attacks where a stack of characters attack an enemy ForMassiveDamage. This mechanic makes it possible for high-level units to help lower-level units catch up as [[LeakedExperience all the units in the tower get full experience]].
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** Tower attacks where a stack of characters attack an enemy ForMassiveDamage.for massive damage. This mechanic makes it possible for high-level units to help lower-level units catch up as [[LeakedExperience all the units in the tower get full experience]].
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** In Gen 6 games, ''Pokemon Bank'' allows players to transfer whole boxes of Pokemon to another game, where they can be accessed as soon as you get to a Pokemon center. Keep in mind that it's possible in the postgame to breed low-level Pokemon with perfect stats and endgame moves. [[PokemonRubyAndSapphire ORAS]] somewhat compensates for this by having ''aggressively'' low level cap for traded Pokemon -- without any badges, traded Pokemon start disobeying at level 10.
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** In Gen 6 games, ''Pokemon ''Pokémon Bank'' allows players to transfer whole boxes of Pokemon Pokémon to another game, where they can be accessed as soon as you get to a Pokemon Pokémon center. Keep in mind that it's possible in the postgame to breed low-level Pokemon Pokémon with perfect stats and endgame moves. [[PokemonRubyAndSapphire [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire ORAS]] somewhat compensates for this by having ''aggressively'' low level cap for traded Pokemon Pokémon -- without any badges, traded Pokemon Pokémon start disobeying at level 10.
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** In Gen 6 games, ''Pokemon Bank'' allows players to transfer whole boxes of Pokemon to another game, where they can be accessed as soon as you get to a Pokemon center. Keep in mind that it's possible in the postgame to breed low-level Pokemon with perfect stats and endgame moves.
to:
** In Gen 6 games, ''Pokemon Bank'' allows players to transfer whole boxes of Pokemon to another game, where they can be accessed as soon as you get to a Pokemon center. Keep in mind that it's possible in the postgame to breed low-level Pokemon with perfect stats and endgame moves. [[PokemonRubyAndSapphire ORAS]] somewhat compensates for this by having ''aggressively'' low level cap for traded Pokemon -- without any badges, traded Pokemon start disobeying at level 10.
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** In Gen 6 games, ''Pokemon Bank'' allows players to transfer whole boxes of Pokemon to another game, where they can be accessed as soon as you get to a Pokemon center. Keep in mind that it's possible in the postgame to breed low-level Pokemon with perfect stats and endgame moves.
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* ''Franchise/{{FireEmblem}}'' games often give you a high-leveled character at the start of a game to support your weaker units, but it wasn't until ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', which introduced a mechanic to join two units in a single team, that Twinking helped lower-leveled units grow faster. Stronger units have a chance to help in an attack or defend from a potentially fatal blow while still giving the brunt of EXP to the weaker character, as long as the weaker character is the lead. Naturally, the chance to assist increases as the level increases, so mid-game leveling strategies (especially on harder difficulties) often pair the most proficient character with the least.
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* ''Franchise/{{FireEmblem}}'' ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games often give you a high-leveled character at the start of a game to support your weaker units, but it wasn't until ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', which introduced a mechanic to join two units in a single team, that Twinking helped lower-leveled units grow faster. Stronger In ''Awakening'', stronger units have a chance to help in an attack or defend from a potentially fatal blow while still giving the brunt of EXP to the weaker character, as long as the weaker character is the lead. Naturally, the chance to assist increases as the level increases, so mid-game leveling strategies (especially on harder difficulties) often pair the most proficient character with the least.
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* ''Franchise/{{FireEmblem}}'' games often give you a high-leveled character at the start of a game to support your weaker units, but it wasn't until ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', which introduced a mechanic to join two units in a single team, that Twinking helped lower-leveled units grow faster. Stronger units have a chance to help in an attack or defend from a potentially fatal blow while still giving the brunt of EXP to the weaker character, as long as the weaker character is the lead. Naturally, the chance to assist increases as the level increases, so mid-game leveling strategies (especially on harder difficulties) often pair the most proficient character with the least.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
[[/folder]]
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** ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' has more strictly LevelLockedLoot to prevent this from becoming too much of a GameBreaker, but many players still found it worthwhile to create mule characters to accomplish this.
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** ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' has more strictly LevelLockedLoot level locked gear to prevent this from becoming too much of a GameBreaker, but many players still found it worthwhile to create mule characters to accomplish this.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
[[/folder]]
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** The Crystal Cove event that occurs periodically has a variety of rewards including ML4 trinkets and customized hats (with ML depending entirely on their enchantment) both of which are often good enough to be useful all the way up to the highest levels. In addition, one can buy an effectively unlimited quantity of cheap single-use gems (ML 4) that summon various Air Elementals and Water Elementals as temporary pets. The Greater Air Elemental summoned like this isn't normally available to a single-class pure caster until level 15, at which point it's situationally useful. At level 4 it can render large portions of content trivial by itself.
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** The Crystal Cove event that occurs periodically has a variety of rewards including ML4 ML 4 trinkets and customized hats (with ML depending entirely on their enchantment) both of which are often good enough to be useful all the way up to the highest levels and real game-changers at lower levels. In addition, during the event one can buy an effectively unlimited quantity of cheap single-use gems (ML 4) that summon various Air Elementals and Water Elementals as temporary pets. The Greater Air Elemental version of this is normally summoned like this isn't normally by a spell only available to a single-class pure caster until level 15, 15+ pure caster, at which point it's situationally useful. At level 4 it can render large portions of content trivial all by itself.
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** Green Steel items, wearable at level 11 12 for accessories, are extremely powerful and often useful beyond level 20. Under normal circumstances they can't be transferred, which means getting one onto a level 11 character requires either using true reincarnation as mentioned above or transferring all the ingredients to the lower level character and using a crafting altar on a guild airship. In either case, the power boost from a good set of green steel gear can be immense.
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** Green Steel items, obtained by completing a level 17 raid numerous times but wearable at level 11 for weapons or 12 for accessories, are extremely powerful and often useful beyond level 20. Under normal circumstances they can't be transferred, which means getting one onto a level 11 character requires either using true reincarnation as mentioned above or transferring all the ingredients to the lower level character and using a crafting altar on a guild airship. In either case, the power boost from a good set of green steel gear can be immense.
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Also note that you might still need to have access to Meridia to craft GS on a non-TR character, I don\'t remember
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** Crystal Cove trinkets (level 4), and customized hats (around level 9) have the potential to stay useful up to and beyond level 20. Also, one can buy cheap single-use gems (level 4) that summon a friendly Greater Air Elemental -- a spell you will not ''normally'' see until level 15, at which point it loses its usefulness.
** Green Steel items, from a level 17 raid but wearable at level 11, are ridiculously powerful and often useful beyond level 20. When Green Steel is available, the power boost upon gaining level 11 is immense.
** Green Steel items, from a level 17 raid but wearable at level 11, are ridiculously powerful and often useful beyond level 20. When Green Steel is available, the power boost upon gaining level 11 is immense.
to:
** The Crystal Cove event that occurs periodically has a variety of rewards including ML4 trinkets (level 4), and customized hats (around level 9) have the potential (with ML depending entirely on their enchantment) both of which are often good enough to stay be useful all the way up to and beyond level 20. Also, the highest levels. In addition, one can buy an effectively unlimited quantity of cheap single-use gems (level (ML 4) that summon a friendly various Air Elementals and Water Elementals as temporary pets. The Greater Air Elemental -- summoned like this isn't normally available to a spell you will not ''normally'' see single-class pure caster until level 15, at which point it loses its usefulness.
** Green Steel items, from ait's situationally useful. At level 17 raid but wearable at level 11, are ridiculously powerful and often useful beyond level 20. When Green Steel is available, the power boost upon gaining level 11 is immense.4 it can render large portions of content trivial by itself.
** Green Steel items, from a
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** Green Steel items, wearable at level 11 12 for accessories, are extremely powerful and often useful beyond level 20. Under normal circumstances they can't be transferred, which means getting one onto a level 11 character requires either using true reincarnation as mentioned above or transferring all the ingredients to the lower level character and using a crafting altar on a guild airship. In either case, the power boost from a good set of green steel gear can be immense.
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** Some players attempt this by trading in a high level mon and using it to sweep the early gyms. However, the game discourages this by having an obedience mechanic: higher leveled mon that you didn't personally train to that level will often disobey you. Not until you get a certain number of badges will they respect your authority, and by then they will be on equal levels with the enemy mon.
to:
** Some players attempt this by trading in a high level mon and using it to sweep the early gyms. However, the game discourages this by having an with the obedience mechanic: higher leveled mon that you didn't personally train to that level catch will often disobey you. Not you until you get a certain number of badges will badges, by which time they respect your authority, and by then they will should be on equal levels with the enemy mon.less overpowered.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare {{Metagaming}}, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
to:
A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare {{Metagaming}}, {{Macrogame}}, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare MetaGaming, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare MetaGaming, {{Metagaming}}, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare MetaGaming, SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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** Blizzard later introduced an intentional version with Heirlooms, gear that can only be purchased with currencies earned at max level. Heirlooms are account-bound, so you can send them from character to character at will, they scale with level (until you hit 5 levels below max, i.e., current expansion content), they will always be as good as or better than the gear you could normally get at that level, and they also grant an XP gain bonus. Their entire purpose is to let low level alts of high level players tear through the content they've already beaten at least once, so they can get to the good stuff faster.
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* ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' has minimum required levels on its equipment, but sometimes far too low. Particularly large offenders are:
** Crystal Cove trinkets (level 4), and customized hats (around level 9) have the potential to stay useful up to and beyond level 20. Also, one can buy cheap single-use gems (level 4) that summon a friendly Greater Air Elemental -- a spell you will not ''normally'' see until level 15, at which point it loses its usefulness.
** Green Steel items, from a level 17 raid but wearable at level 11, are ridiculously powerful and often useful beyond level 20. When Green Steel is available, the power boost upon gaining level 11 is immense.
** When [[NewGamePlus true reincarnating a character]], all of the character's old items are placed into a Reincarnation Cache to be recovered and used at leisure. Before true reincarnating, some players deliberately collect a hoard of unique gear so it'll be in this cache. Even without all this, anyone with enough platinum can peruse the auction house and brokers, and buy exceptional randomly-generated items long before they'd have a realistic chance to loot it themselves.
** Crystal Cove trinkets (level 4), and customized hats (around level 9) have the potential to stay useful up to and beyond level 20. Also, one can buy cheap single-use gems (level 4) that summon a friendly Greater Air Elemental -- a spell you will not ''normally'' see until level 15, at which point it loses its usefulness.
** Green Steel items, from a level 17 raid but wearable at level 11, are ridiculously powerful and often useful beyond level 20. When Green Steel is available, the power boost upon gaining level 11 is immense.
** When [[NewGamePlus true reincarnating a character]], all of the character's old items are placed into a Reincarnation Cache to be recovered and used at leisure. Before true reincarnating, some players deliberately collect a hoard of unique gear so it'll be in this cache. Even without all this, anyone with enough platinum can peruse the auction house and brokers, and buy exceptional randomly-generated items long before they'd have a realistic chance to loot it themselves.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot.LevelLockedLoot and NewGamePlus. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
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* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in [[PlayerVersusPlayer PVP]].
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* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in [[PlayerVersusPlayer PVP]].{{P|layerVersusPlayer}}VP.
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** Tower attacks where a stack of characters attack an enemy ForMassiveDamage. This mechanic makes it possible for high-level units to help lower-level units catch up as [[LeakedExperience all the units in the tower get full experience]]
** There are also the Magichange (in every game but Disgaea D2) and Mounting (replaces Magichange in ''[[VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea D2]]'') mechanics, which allow a monster unit to become [[EquippableAlly a weapon]] or [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a mount]] respectfully for a humanoid unit. Both units get full experience. ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'' adds [[MakeMyMonsterGrow Fus]][[FusionDance ion]] and DualWielding Magichanged monsters, allowing players to twink 4 monster units at once.
** There are also the Magichange (in every game but Disgaea D2) and Mounting (replaces Magichange in ''[[VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea D2]]'') mechanics, which allow a monster unit to become [[EquippableAlly a weapon]] or [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a mount]] respectfully for a humanoid unit. Both units get full experience. ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'' adds [[MakeMyMonsterGrow Fus]][[FusionDance ion]] and DualWielding Magichanged monsters, allowing players to twink 4 monster units at once.
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** Tower attacks where a stack of characters attack an enemy ForMassiveDamage. This mechanic makes it possible for high-level units to help lower-level units catch up as [[LeakedExperience all the units in the tower get full experience]]
experience]].
** There are also the Magichange (in every game but Disgaea D2) and Mounting (replaces Magichange in''[[VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea D2]]'') ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea D|imension2}}2'') mechanics, which allow a monster unit to become [[EquippableAlly a weapon]] or [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a mount]] respectfully for a humanoid unit. Both units get full experience. ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'' adds [[MakeMyMonsterGrow Fus]][[FusionDance {{Fus|ionDance}}[[MakeMyMonsterGrow ion]] and DualWielding Magichanged monsters, allowing players to twink 4 monster units at once.
** There are also the Magichange (in every game but Disgaea D2) and Mounting (replaces Magichange in
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Due to the SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness, the most dirt-common item in the late game would be a DiscOneNuke if you could [[SequenceBreaking just get a hold of it before the endgame]]. Alternatively, what if you could bring your whole endgame character "back in time" to effortlessly kill early-game {{mooks}}-- or better yet, midgame {{mooks}} who would be far beyond your Level 1 character's ability to kill-- while your low-level character sits back and soaks up the LeakedExperience?
Well, some games let you do just that, either explicitly or implicitly by letting you use "mules" (dummy characters that ferry items back and forth in multiplayer) or other workarounds.
This tactic [[BaseBreaker tends to be controversial]]; [[{{Scrub}} some see it]] as [[LoopholeAbuse a cheat or an exploit]], others as a valid part of the {{Metagame}}. And of course different games handle it differently. Some discourage it by throttling LeakedExperience and using strict LevelLockedLoot. Others encourage some amount of it by giving players a [[BagOfSharing shared item stash]] accessible by all characters or allowing small bonuses earned by high-level characters to apply to low-level characters on the same account. Still others [[ZigZaggingTrope do both at once.]]
As a slang-y neologism, the grammar surrounding the use of the term is rather fluid. As a noun, a "twink" usually refers to a player that makes a habit of this, but it can also refer to an in-game character that has benefited from it. The verb "to twink" refers to the practice itself, and players sometimes refer to "twinking out" or "twinking up" their characters. The term was popularized with the rise of [=MMORPGs=] in the early [[TheAughts aughts]], but its use in pen-and-paper [=RPGs=] [[OlderThanTheyThink dates back as far]] as the late [[TheSeventies seventies]] / early [[TheEighties eighties]].
Some form of this tends to be possible in any game with both RandomlyGeneratedLoot and multiplayer that allows item trading, such as most [=MMOs=]. When designers don't make provisions for it but players find a way to do it anyway, it's NotTheIntendedUse. When designers ''do'' make provisions for it, it's typically in the form of [[AntiFrustrationFeature Anti-Frustration Features]].
A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
----
!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Action RPG]]
* ''Franchise/{{Diablo}}'':
** Thanks to rampant item duping glitches, hacks, and exploits in ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'', in the game's heyday you couldn't wander into a public online game without being offered a full set of the most powerful non-LevelLockedLoot available.
** ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' has more strictly LevelLockedLoot to prevent this from becoming too much of a GameBreaker, but many players still found it worthwhile to create mule characters to accomplish this.
** ''Videogame/DiabloIII'' deals with this in various ways:
*** Players have a BagOfSharing across all characters on the same account to [[AntiFrustrationFeatures obviate the need for mule characters]].
*** Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Mystic upgrades carry over between characters.
*** As of version 2.0, Paragon points, bonuses unlocked after reaching the level {{Cap}}, apply between characters.
*** Loot is [[LevelLockedLoot level locked]], with certain particularly-prized items being flagged "account bound" to allow them to be traded between characters but not players, to keep Twinking from being too much of a GameBreaker. However, the possibility of a "Reduced Level Requirements" attribute on gear means that [[LoopholeAbuse characters can still equip gear orders of magnitude more powerful than what "should" be available at their level.]]
*** The Auction House was flooded with [[DiscOneNuke powerful Reduced Level Requirement gear]] in the 1.X version of the game. By the time it started dropping, the character finding it no longer needed the reduced requirements, and the attribute took up a slot that could be filled with something useful, so there was no incentive ''not'' to sell.
*** The 2.0 patch [[ObviousRulePatch closed the Auction House]] and increased the quality of RandomDrops to compensate.
*** Whether any of the above was a good idea tends to be a giant BaseBreaker.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: First-Person Shooters]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' {{lampshade}}s this when you gain access to your [[BagOfSharing shared stash]]. Claptrap tries in vain to come up with a [[GameplayAndStorySegregation story-friendly]] explanation for where the items are coming from and going to before giving up and saying, [[BreakingTheFourthWall "It's for twinking items between characters, okay?"]] The game also introduces Badass Ranks, small bonuses, usually unlocked by high-level characters, that apply to all characters on the same account.
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': certain weapons are unlocked via achievements, and as such are untradable to discourage giving them to unexperienced players who have yet to earn then. However, since every weapon is ([[GameBreaker/TeamFortress2 in theory]]) equal in strength to each other, it's not much of a cheat. Not to mention that one could get an achievement item early via lucky random drops.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Hack and Slash]]
* In some ''Videogame/DynastyWarriors'' games, thanks to LeakedExperience and equipment acquisition, you can play a high difficulty mission in split-screen multiplayer mode and have the weaker player hang out somewhere safe while the stronger player finishes all the mission requirements to obtain weapons and horses for both of them.
* In ''Videogame/WarriorsOrochi'', the game's "Experience pool"(gathered XP goes to a shared pool as if it were money, which you can then use to "buy" levels for characters) system and three-character TagTeam gameplay (you select three characters for a mission, but you can only use one at a time, you can "tag" the others a la a FightingGame to play as them) allows you to select one strong character and two weak, then play a HarderThanHard mission with only the strong one, and get strong weapons and lots of experience for all of them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: JRPG]]
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** In every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game since the second generation, the Exp. Share item serves this specific purpose, giving half of the experience points earned from a battle to either a weaker party member who holds it or the entire team, depending on the game, when ordinarily it would only go to those who actively participated in the battle.
** Some players attempt this by trading in a high level mon and using it to sweep the early gyms. However, the game discourages this by having an obedience mechanic: higher leveled mon that you didn't personally train to that level will often disobey you. Not until you get a certain number of badges will they respect your authority, and by then they will be on equal levels with the enemy mon.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' gives [[LeakedExperience full XP]] to any character that takes part in a battle, even if they only swap in, defend once, and swap out again. It's not terribly common for a character to get significantly underleveled, but if it does happen, it's easy enough to twink them back up by using stronger characters to "carry" them through tough battles.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' averts this a little too well by doling out proportionately less experience to lower level characters, regardless of battles fought. Classes with steeper experience curves will take that much longer to level up at later levels, as teammates who end up leveling up faster due to lower XP requirements siphon off even more XP from their lagging colleagues. The difference can be somewhat offset later on with Elevating Shoes, which give a 5% XP boost to anyone who wears them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: MMORPG]]
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has three ways to do this, at least one of which is completely intentional on the part of the developers. You can use face-to-face trading or in-game email to transfer unbound items between characters or even between accounts, and you can buy account bank slots to transfer account-bound items to alts. The latter include everything from some types of currency to the Reputation tokens introduced in Season 8, which are explicitly meant to be created on one character and handed over to an alt (to speed the alt's progression in the Reputation system and [[AntiFrustrationFeatures alleviate the grind]]).
* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in [[PlayerVersusPlayer PVP]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'', since a single account can have multiple characters (three before you even need to spend money), most of a given player's characters will have gear that their earlier characters leveled up enough to [[ItemCrafting craft]] or saved up to buy. However, this only takes you so far, since most of a character's combat power is intrinsic and the weapon functions more as a focus than a source.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Elsword}}'' the LevelLockedLoot system is in effect, but only with equipment, so you can trade everything else with all your characters. Newly-made accounts cannot send items or access the market for their first five days, but they can still receive items from everyone else.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Roguelike]]
* Technically, this is what the "rogue-lite" ''VideoGame/RogueLegacy'' is all about. Every time you die, you choose one of your character's children to play as. They inherit [[EquipmentBasedProgression their parent's castle and all of their stuff]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* As with so much else, the viability of this in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and other tabletop [=RPGs=] [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on the DM]]. Given a sufficiently cooperative group, there's nothing preventing a player whose character has been KilledOffForReal from showing up the next day with [[ReplacementGoldfish a freshly-rolled Level 1 character]] who is offered [[PlugNPlayFriends all of the dead character's gear and told to hang back for a few fights]] until LeakedExperience gets them back up to a usable level. [[RuleOfFun Particularly understanding DMs]] might just [[AntiFrustrationFeature let the player roll up a new character of the same level]] to save time. Of course, a KillerDM will punish players harshly for attempting this.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Turn-Based Strategy]]
* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'':
** Tower attacks where a stack of characters attack an enemy ForMassiveDamage. This mechanic makes it possible for high-level units to help lower-level units catch up as [[LeakedExperience all the units in the tower get full experience]]
** There are also the Magichange (in every game but Disgaea D2) and Mounting (replaces Magichange in ''[[VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea D2]]'') mechanics, which allow a monster unit to become [[EquippableAlly a weapon]] or [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a mount]] respectfully for a humanoid unit. Both units get full experience. ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'' adds [[MakeMyMonsterGrow Fus]][[FusionDance ion]] and DualWielding Magichanged monsters, allowing players to twink 4 monster units at once.
** Weapons and other equipment are not LevelLockedLoot, so one can give a new unit an InfinityPlusOneSword (and there are many ways to get many of those) and equally powerful armor and watch them blaze through the levels.
** These tactics are all [[InvokedTrope necessary]] as the games allow you to reincarnate your units for better stats, but the reincarnated units RestartAtLevelOne so they can't handle enemies that they would have usually {{Curb Stomp|Battle}}ed beforehand without ''obscenely'' good equipment or help from other units.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Real Life]]
* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
[[/folder]]
Well, some games let you do just that, either explicitly or implicitly by letting you use "mules" (dummy characters that ferry items back and forth in multiplayer) or other workarounds.
This tactic [[BaseBreaker tends to be controversial]]; [[{{Scrub}} some see it]] as [[LoopholeAbuse a cheat or an exploit]], others as a valid part of the {{Metagame}}. And of course different games handle it differently. Some discourage it by throttling LeakedExperience and using strict LevelLockedLoot. Others encourage some amount of it by giving players a [[BagOfSharing shared item stash]] accessible by all characters or allowing small bonuses earned by high-level characters to apply to low-level characters on the same account. Still others [[ZigZaggingTrope do both at once.]]
As a slang-y neologism, the grammar surrounding the use of the term is rather fluid. As a noun, a "twink" usually refers to a player that makes a habit of this, but it can also refer to an in-game character that has benefited from it. The verb "to twink" refers to the practice itself, and players sometimes refer to "twinking out" or "twinking up" their characters. The term was popularized with the rise of [=MMORPGs=] in the early [[TheAughts aughts]], but its use in pen-and-paper [=RPGs=] [[OlderThanTheyThink dates back as far]] as the late [[TheSeventies seventies]] / early [[TheEighties eighties]].
Some form of this tends to be possible in any game with both RandomlyGeneratedLoot and multiplayer that allows item trading, such as most [=MMOs=]. When designers don't make provisions for it but players find a way to do it anyway, it's NotTheIntendedUse. When designers ''do'' make provisions for it, it's typically in the form of [[AntiFrustrationFeature Anti-Frustration Features]].
A favored tactic of TheMunchkin and to avert EarlyGameHell. Can easily be a DiscOneNuke and/or a GameBreaker. Compare SequenceBreaking, LeakedExperience, and EquipmentBasedProgression. Contrast LevelLockedLoot. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] TheTwink; the two words may share some etymology (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking the article]] on TheOtherWiki for details) but are otherwise unrelated.
----
!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Action RPG]]
* ''Franchise/{{Diablo}}'':
** Thanks to rampant item duping glitches, hacks, and exploits in ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'', in the game's heyday you couldn't wander into a public online game without being offered a full set of the most powerful non-LevelLockedLoot available.
** ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' has more strictly LevelLockedLoot to prevent this from becoming too much of a GameBreaker, but many players still found it worthwhile to create mule characters to accomplish this.
** ''Videogame/DiabloIII'' deals with this in various ways:
*** Players have a BagOfSharing across all characters on the same account to [[AntiFrustrationFeatures obviate the need for mule characters]].
*** Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Mystic upgrades carry over between characters.
*** As of version 2.0, Paragon points, bonuses unlocked after reaching the level {{Cap}}, apply between characters.
*** Loot is [[LevelLockedLoot level locked]], with certain particularly-prized items being flagged "account bound" to allow them to be traded between characters but not players, to keep Twinking from being too much of a GameBreaker. However, the possibility of a "Reduced Level Requirements" attribute on gear means that [[LoopholeAbuse characters can still equip gear orders of magnitude more powerful than what "should" be available at their level.]]
*** The Auction House was flooded with [[DiscOneNuke powerful Reduced Level Requirement gear]] in the 1.X version of the game. By the time it started dropping, the character finding it no longer needed the reduced requirements, and the attribute took up a slot that could be filled with something useful, so there was no incentive ''not'' to sell.
*** The 2.0 patch [[ObviousRulePatch closed the Auction House]] and increased the quality of RandomDrops to compensate.
*** Whether any of the above was a good idea tends to be a giant BaseBreaker.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: First-Person Shooters]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' {{lampshade}}s this when you gain access to your [[BagOfSharing shared stash]]. Claptrap tries in vain to come up with a [[GameplayAndStorySegregation story-friendly]] explanation for where the items are coming from and going to before giving up and saying, [[BreakingTheFourthWall "It's for twinking items between characters, okay?"]] The game also introduces Badass Ranks, small bonuses, usually unlocked by high-level characters, that apply to all characters on the same account.
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': certain weapons are unlocked via achievements, and as such are untradable to discourage giving them to unexperienced players who have yet to earn then. However, since every weapon is ([[GameBreaker/TeamFortress2 in theory]]) equal in strength to each other, it's not much of a cheat. Not to mention that one could get an achievement item early via lucky random drops.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Hack and Slash]]
* In some ''Videogame/DynastyWarriors'' games, thanks to LeakedExperience and equipment acquisition, you can play a high difficulty mission in split-screen multiplayer mode and have the weaker player hang out somewhere safe while the stronger player finishes all the mission requirements to obtain weapons and horses for both of them.
* In ''Videogame/WarriorsOrochi'', the game's "Experience pool"(gathered XP goes to a shared pool as if it were money, which you can then use to "buy" levels for characters) system and three-character TagTeam gameplay (you select three characters for a mission, but you can only use one at a time, you can "tag" the others a la a FightingGame to play as them) allows you to select one strong character and two weak, then play a HarderThanHard mission with only the strong one, and get strong weapons and lots of experience for all of them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: JRPG]]
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** In every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game since the second generation, the Exp. Share item serves this specific purpose, giving half of the experience points earned from a battle to either a weaker party member who holds it or the entire team, depending on the game, when ordinarily it would only go to those who actively participated in the battle.
** Some players attempt this by trading in a high level mon and using it to sweep the early gyms. However, the game discourages this by having an obedience mechanic: higher leveled mon that you didn't personally train to that level will often disobey you. Not until you get a certain number of badges will they respect your authority, and by then they will be on equal levels with the enemy mon.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' gives [[LeakedExperience full XP]] to any character that takes part in a battle, even if they only swap in, defend once, and swap out again. It's not terribly common for a character to get significantly underleveled, but if it does happen, it's easy enough to twink them back up by using stronger characters to "carry" them through tough battles.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' averts this a little too well by doling out proportionately less experience to lower level characters, regardless of battles fought. Classes with steeper experience curves will take that much longer to level up at later levels, as teammates who end up leveling up faster due to lower XP requirements siphon off even more XP from their lagging colleagues. The difference can be somewhat offset later on with Elevating Shoes, which give a 5% XP boost to anyone who wears them.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: MMORPG]]
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has three ways to do this, at least one of which is completely intentional on the part of the developers. You can use face-to-face trading or in-game email to transfer unbound items between characters or even between accounts, and you can buy account bank slots to transfer account-bound items to alts. The latter include everything from some types of currency to the Reputation tokens introduced in Season 8, which are explicitly meant to be created on one character and handed over to an alt (to speed the alt's progression in the Reputation system and [[AntiFrustrationFeatures alleviate the grind]]).
* In the "vanilla" times (i.e. the time before expansions) of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', a popular form of twinking was to stop leveling after you hit level 19 and get the most effective gear possible. This included [[DungeonCrawling farming dungeons]] for certain items, choosing the Engineering profession just so that you could get an item in the helm slot as early as in level 19, and getting high-level enchantments for your weapons (which back then didn't have any level limitations, so you could have level 60 enchantments in your level 19 weapons). Since most low-level players don't have money for stuff like enchantments (and they don't stay level 19 for long anyway), this made you an unstoppable killing machine in [[PlayerVersusPlayer PVP]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'', since a single account can have multiple characters (three before you even need to spend money), most of a given player's characters will have gear that their earlier characters leveled up enough to [[ItemCrafting craft]] or saved up to buy. However, this only takes you so far, since most of a character's combat power is intrinsic and the weapon functions more as a focus than a source.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Elsword}}'' the LevelLockedLoot system is in effect, but only with equipment, so you can trade everything else with all your characters. Newly-made accounts cannot send items or access the market for their first five days, but they can still receive items from everyone else.
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[[folder: Roguelike]]
* Technically, this is what the "rogue-lite" ''VideoGame/RogueLegacy'' is all about. Every time you die, you choose one of your character's children to play as. They inherit [[EquipmentBasedProgression their parent's castle and all of their stuff]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* As with so much else, the viability of this in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and other tabletop [=RPGs=] [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on the DM]]. Given a sufficiently cooperative group, there's nothing preventing a player whose character has been KilledOffForReal from showing up the next day with [[ReplacementGoldfish a freshly-rolled Level 1 character]] who is offered [[PlugNPlayFriends all of the dead character's gear and told to hang back for a few fights]] until LeakedExperience gets them back up to a usable level. [[RuleOfFun Particularly understanding DMs]] might just [[AntiFrustrationFeature let the player roll up a new character of the same level]] to save time. Of course, a KillerDM will punish players harshly for attempting this.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Turn-Based Strategy]]
* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'':
** Tower attacks where a stack of characters attack an enemy ForMassiveDamage. This mechanic makes it possible for high-level units to help lower-level units catch up as [[LeakedExperience all the units in the tower get full experience]]
** There are also the Magichange (in every game but Disgaea D2) and Mounting (replaces Magichange in ''[[VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea D2]]'') mechanics, which allow a monster unit to become [[EquippableAlly a weapon]] or [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a mount]] respectfully for a humanoid unit. Both units get full experience. ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'' adds [[MakeMyMonsterGrow Fus]][[FusionDance ion]] and DualWielding Magichanged monsters, allowing players to twink 4 monster units at once.
** Weapons and other equipment are not LevelLockedLoot, so one can give a new unit an InfinityPlusOneSword (and there are many ways to get many of those) and equally powerful armor and watch them blaze through the levels.
** These tactics are all [[InvokedTrope necessary]] as the games allow you to reincarnate your units for better stats, but the reincarnated units RestartAtLevelOne so they can't handle enemies that they would have usually {{Curb Stomp|Battle}}ed beforehand without ''obscenely'' good equipment or help from other units.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Real Life]]
* Every species that rears its young is engaging in a form of this. Your parents were probably feeding you items and experience for at least the first ten or twenty levels.
[[/folder]]
