Levels and prestige

How levels work in TAPCO, and what prestige actually costs you

Updated: 2026-09-10

Every figure on this page is read from the service that awards it. Levels come from experience, experience comes from tapping, and the curve is steep on purpose — prestige waits at level 100, and this page says exactly what it takes to get there and what it takes away when you use it.

The TAPCO main screen with the level row lit and the rest dimmed: "Level 46" on the left, "1,143 / 1,279 XP" on the right, and a part-filled bar beneath them. — The level and its experience bar, on the main screen. The player's name and wallet address are painted over; nothing else has been changed.

How levels work

Levels are one of the systems the game is built from; how the game works as a whole introduces the rest. Why a progression curve is set steep rather than flat, and what a game gives up when it chooses either, is the subject of our note on designing fair progression.

Level 2 costs 100 experience. Every level after it costs six per cent more than the one before, compounded a level at a time — which is gentle at first and merciless later. Level 10 asks 155, level 50 asks 1,522, and level 100 asks 27,925 on its own.

What that adds up to is the number worth knowing. Reaching level 100 from a standing start takes 492,393 experience in total, and since experience comes from tapping, that is roughly half a million taps — a little over three months of committed play. Level 120 is 1,581,153, which is three times as far for twenty more levels. The cap is level 500, and the curve reaches figures there that no player will meet.

The six per cent is not a round number picked for looks. It is the highest rate that puts prestige inside a run of play somebody might really finish while keeping every requirement on the curve inside the range a computer can count exactly, all the way to level 500.

Levels do more than count: your energy regenerates faster and your tank grows as you climb, and both feed straight back into how fast the next level arrives.

What prestige is, and what it takes

Prestige is the decision to start the climb again in exchange for a permanent multiplier on every point you will ever make. It opens at level 100, and the level it asks for rises by twenty each time: 100 for the first, 120 for the second, 200 for the fifth, 480 for the twentieth and last.

Each one pays five per cent more points, for ever, and they add up rather than replacing each other — one prestige is ×1.05, five is ×1.25, ten is ×1.50, and the ceiling of twenty is ×2.00. Each also carries its badge, P1 through P20.

The game shows you the whole bargain before you take it, in three plain lists, and the page below sets out the same three.

The TAPCO prestige confirmation, headed "Begin Prestige 1?" with the line "This cannot be undone" under it, then three lists: what resets in red, what you gain in green - +5% points permanently, a total of ×1.05 and the P1 badge - and what stays untouched in blue. — The whole bargain, as the game states it before you take it. The three lists on this page are these three.

What resets: your level goes back to 1 and your experience to zero; your energy returns to its starting value; the basic upgrades, AutoTap and passive income go with it; boss progress and the points balance itself are cleared; and every boost currently running stops.

What you gain: five per cent more points permanently, a new total multiplier, and the badge for the prestige you have just reached.

What is untouched: your points, your TPC and your wallet, and your referrals and the friends who count towards them, along with your weekly limits.

One temporary refusal is worth knowing about: prestige will not run while a challenge is active, because resetting the level mid-challenge would take the challenge with it. Finish it and come back.

There is a further system behind it. The prestige tree — three branches of skills, in power, economy and energy — does not appear at the first prestige or the second: it unlocks at the fifth. It is not pictured here because reaching it is five full climbs, and a screenshot of a screen nobody in this account has opened would be a screenshot of nothing.

The numbers, as the server awards them

Experience
Value	Amount
Level 2 costs	100 XP
Each level after it	+6%
Level cap	500
Total to reach level 100	492,393 XP
Total to reach level 120	1,581,153 XP

Prestige
Prestige	Level it asks for	Your multiplier	Badge
1st	100	×1.05	P1 ⭐
2nd	120	×1.10	P2 ⭐
5th	200	×1.25	P5 ⭐
10th	300	×1.50	P10 ⭐
20th, the last	480	×2.00	P20 ⭐

The prestige tree
Value	Amount
Unlocks at prestige	5
Branches	3

Common questions

Do I lose my progress when I prestige?

You lose the climb, not the value. Your level goes back to 1, your experience to zero, your energy to its starting figure, and the basic upgrades, AutoTap and passive income go with it — along with boss progress, the points balance and any boost running at that moment. What you keep is everything that is actually worth something outside the climb: your TPC, your wallet, your referrals and the friends who count towards them, and your weekly limits. And you keep the multiplier for ever, which is the whole point of doing it.

Why do levels slow down so much?

Because each one costs six per cent more than the last, and six per cent compounded is not a small thing: level 10 asks 155 experience, level 50 asks 1,522 and level 100 asks 27,925 on its own. Reaching 100 takes 492,393 in total, which is a little over three months of committed play — and that is deliberate, since it is the distance prestige is priced against. The rate is the highest one that keeps that distance finishable.

What is a high level actually worth?

Two things, and they compound. Your energy regenerates faster and your tank is larger, so more of every minute is spent tapping rather than waiting. And at level 100 prestige opens: five per cent more points permanently for each one you take, up to twice your rate at the twentieth. The prestige tree — three branches of skills — opens at the fifth prestige, not the first.