How levels gate on badges

On a points-only ladder, a level means "has been busy". In ROK a rung can also require badges — a named badge, or some or all of a badge group — so a level can mean "is qualified". By the end of this page you will know how a member's level is worked out, why points alone sometimes do not move it, and exactly when it changes.

A rung is points and badges

Each rung has a name, the points needed to reach it and, optionally, requirements on top: A badge, or A badge group with a number of its badges (or All of it). A rung is reached only when the member has its points and holds every badge it requires.

• Group requirements use the track as your agency sees it — ROK's badges plus yours, minus anything switched off or inactive (how tracks resolve). "All" keeps meaning all as the group changes, and a number larger than the track needs the whole track.
• Level 1 is everyone's floor. It needs no points and no badges.
• Your ladder replaces ROK's default outright. The two are never merged. The default ladder requires no badges, so until you add a requirement, levels are points only.

The climb stops at the first rung missed

The database walks the ladder from the bottom and stops at the first rung whose points or badges are not met. Banking the points for level 5 does not skip a locked level 4 — otherwise a badge requirement would gate nothing.

Members see this on their badge wall (Account settings → Badges): the next rung, the points still to go, each requirement with a lock or a tick (and "held of needed" for a group), and a reminder that points alone will not unlock it.

Worked out from what is held now

A level is not a record of the highest rung someone ever reached. It is recomputed from their current points and current badges every time their totals are refreshed — on every points event, every award and every revoke.

• A revoked badge demotes at once. Revoking a badge a rung requires drops the member below that rung in the same moment, and the points the badge carried are taken back too.
• A lapsed badge demotes within a day. An expiry date passing is not an event the database can react to, so a daily job recounts everyone whose award has lapsed since their totals were last written, so a lapse is still caught if the job missed a day.
• Earning it again restores the level. A fresh award refreshes the totals, and the climb resumes.

Saving the ladder re-levels everyone

Save ladder on Levels (opens the admin console) stores the rungs and then re-levels every member against the new ladder, reporting how many members it re-levelled. Use the ROK ladder does the same against the default. Both need Manage badges, and the database refuses the ladder change and the re-levelling from anyone without it. If the ladder saves but re-levelling fails, standings catch up as each member's points or badges next change.

Changes elsewhere do not re-level anyone on the spot. Switching a badge off, deactivating one, or adding a badge to a required track takes effect for a member the next time their points or badges change, or when the ladder is next saved.

One deliberate exception

A group requirement whose track has no badges your agency can award stops gating, rather than freezing everyone at the rung below it. Switching off every badge in a required catalog track therefore removes that requirement in effect. An inactive group is different: it is hidden from badge walls but still gates the ladder.

What this means in practice

• Check who holds a badge before requiring it. Saving drops everyone who does not hold it below that rung immediately. The Awards roster and the Groups page counts show you who will move.
• "I have the points but not the level" almost always means a requirement on the next rung up — the badge wall names it.
• Levels show outside ROK. A shared badge names the lowest rung it helps unlock — see How shared badges work.