Martial Arts World realms: stages and the first realm gate

Foundation Establishment comes after Qi Refining in Martial Arts World. Qi Refining is your starting realm and covers levels 1–10. You progress through its four stages before reaching the breakthrough into Foundation Establishment.

Qi Refining stage order

The stages within Qi Refining follow this order:

Early Stage → Middle Stage → Late Stage → Peak Stage

These labels track your progress within Qi Refining. The breakthrough after Peak Stage takes you into the next realm, Foundation Establishment.

At the early bottleneck before Middle Stage, open Cultivation and select Advance to Middle Stage. Press E or click when the timing indicator reaches the center. Completing this advance changes your cultivation display to Middle Stage and awards two attribute points. This is an advance within Qi Refining; the realm gate has its own requirements.

For more on cultivation progression, see the Martial Arts World cultivation guide.

What the first realm gate requires

For the breakthrough from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, prepare:

• A full cultivation bar.
• A Foundation Establishment Pill, listed as the core pill.
• Scarback's Broken Tusk, the boss-key item dropped by Old Scarback.

You can identify the required tusk in Old Scarback's entry in the Index.

The first breakthrough checklist also includes offerings, with room for up to three treasures. Offerings are optional; the full bar, core pill and boss key are the required parts of this gate.

Use the Martial Arts World breakthrough guide for pill and boss-key preparation and foundation-quality checks.

How foundation quality fits in

Human → Earth → Heaven → Dao is the foundation-quality order, from lower to higher. These grades describe the quality of your foundation, while Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment name your cultivation realms.

Higher foundation quality increases the stat points gained from a breakthrough, so the quality grade matters alongside reaching the next realm.