What Is Perfect World

Perfect World (often shortened to PW) is a 3D adventure and fantasy MMORPG with a traditional Chinese setting. It was made by Beijing Perfect World and launched in China in January 2006. The game draws heavily on Chinese mythology and takes place in the mythical world of Pan Gu.

Perfect World International (PWI) is the English version, published in North America by Arc Games. It opened as an open beta on September 2, 2008. Because characters were not wiped when the beta ended, that day counts as the official release date. Other regions had their own publishers, as the table shows.

In the game's story, Pan Gu, the first god, broke his own body down into five elements: fire, metal, wood, earth and water. From them he shaped the air, land, mountains, rivers, seas and plants. The first creatures he made from his shadow turned on each other and spoiled the land, so he saved the few untouched ones in the floating city of Heaven's Tear and washed the rest away with a great flood.

He then made three races: Humans from his spirit, the Untamed from his body and the Winged Elves from his blood, and gave them free will. Humans and Winged Elves went to war over Heaven's Tear, and while they fought, the wraiths, half-living beings thought lost in the flood, came back to corrupt the world. The full story is in the lore of Perfect World.

Your role in the game depends on the race and the class you pick. Today there are 17 classes split across 6 races; each class belongs to exactly one race. See Races and Classes for what each one does.

You explore a large fantasy world, take on quests and dungeons, and join both PvE and PvP content. Characters level up mostly through quest rewards, learn skills over time and use and upgrade physical and magical weapons. You can team up with others against monsters in instances, bosses in the open world and other players.

• Level up to the cap of 105, then go through Reawakening twice to grow even further.
• Join a faction, the game's guilds, and fight for land in Territory Wars.
• Clear Dungeons with a squad for gear and materials.

PWI runs four servers. They are named after cities in the game, except Twilight Temple, which takes its name from a dungeon. There used to be nine servers, but they were merged over the years.

All four are PvE servers: players can only attack each other after switching to PK mode, which stays on for at least 10 hours, apart from a few areas where PK is always allowed. Regular maintenance happens on Tuesday nights from 11 pm Pacific Time and takes about 2 to 4 hours. For how to pick one, see the Beginner's Guide.

Since 2008 the game has grown through a long line of named expansions, starting with The Lost Empire in December 2008. They added new races and classes, areas, dungeons and progression systems; the newest, Soul Resonance (October 2026), brought the Bloodspirit class. The full list is in Timeline and Expansions.