Variant

Basic Vegetable Stew and Appetizing Vegetable Stew, two variants within the same category

Most monsters, skill nodes, and items in Brighter Shores come with a number of different possible appearances, each with their own different name, profession level requirements, recipe materials, products, or value. These are referred to as Variants, also referred to by Fen Research as Skins, and are a core part of the profession level progression in Brighter Shores. Higher profession levels unlock variants with more experience, stronger potion effects, or higher coin value.

Criteria

To count as different variants, the key criterion is that the two objects (monsters/nodes/items/activites) must have different profession level requirements. This allows us to differentiate between objects which are different variants, and objects which are functionally the same but have only cosmetic differences. For the example pictured, Basic Vegetable Stew and Appetizing Vegetable Stew are different variants as they require Chef profession level 8 and 25 respectively.

An example of a difference which is not counted as a variant is Recruit Sparring Guards. There are 4 different appearances of this monster that all have equal stats and levels, so the guard with a moustache is not counted as a different variant to the guard with a goatee.

Naming

Most objects with variants (although there are exceptions) feature their name split across two lines on their info card. The bottom line names the category of the object, and is usually coloured to show the profession that the item is most associated with. In the example pictured above, this category is Vegetable Stew, coloured in brown to assoicate it with the Chef profession. The top line of the name shows the individual variant of the object, which are Basic or Appetizing from the same example.

Passive objects often have the passive icon next to the name of the category.

Past actions

When reaching the level to access a new variant of a skill node or monster, these will replace the previous variant in their locations. The " Past action" option from selecting the node or monster allows players to collect from the lower-level variants of the node, or fight the lower-level variants of the monster.