Guides
Faction Grinding
How to raise standing with a hostile city. The slow path to acceptance.
Most cities on Norrath have at least one race that cannot enter without being attacked. Faction grinding is the slow work of flipping that hostility to neutral (or better), one quest or kill at a time.
When to grind faction
- You want to bind in a city whose guards currently kill you.
- You need to turn in a quest at a hostile NPC.
- You're targeting a rare drop from a faction-specific camp.
Typical grind patterns
Kill enemies of the target faction
If you want Knights of Truth to like you, kill Freeport Militia members, Bloodsabers, or undead. Each kill gives a faction hit to every opposing faction the mob belongs to, for good or ill.
Complete faction-specific quests
Repeatable low-level quests are the mainstay of faction grinding. The Knights of Truth have multiple repeatable undead-head turn-ins; the Coldain have dwarf-related tasks.
Avoid friendly-fire
Killing members of allied factions tanks the target faction too. Before committing, read the faction log on each mob you kill.
The progression
- Scowls → Threatening (many hundreds of kills).
- Threatening → Dubious (more hundreds).
- Dubious → Indifferent (easier, can talk to some).
- Indifferent → Amiably (most quests unlock).
- Amiably → Kindly → Warmly → Ally (rare drops, unique quests).
On Crushbone
Factions are fully canonical. No "auto-faction" features. Grinding Kael Drakkel from Scowls to Ally is a weeks-long commitment.