Certain portions of Watopia are level-locked, meaning you must be at a certain level as a Zwift rider in order to access them. (Learn about levels, XP, and unlocks here.)
Level-Locked Routes/Areas
The Mayan Jungle is locked at level 5+, and Alpe du Zwift is locked at level 6+.
Because these areas are level-locked, routes which access these areas are also level-locked:
- Big Loop (level 5+)
- Bigger Loop (level 5+)
- Dust in the Wind (level 6+)
- Four Horsemen (level 6+)
- Jungle Circuit (level 6+)
- Mega Pretzel (level 5+)
- Quatch Quest (level 6+)
- Road to Ruins (level 5+)
- Road to Sky (level 6+)
- Tour of Fire and Ice (level 6+)
- Über Pretzel (level 6+)
Note: these level locks all make sense except for Dust in the Wind, which should be locked at 5+ since it accesses the Jungle but not the Alpe.
If you don’t meet the level requirement, you will be unable to select the routes above from the route picker menu. But there are still ways to ride these routes even if you don’t meet the level requirement!
Accessing a Level-Locked Route
- Group Event: you can join a group event even if it is held on a level-locked route. Pro tip: if you want to filter events by route, use the ZwiftHacks events tool and enter the route name in the “Search Route Name” field. For example, here are all upcoming events on the Jungle Circuit route.
- “Ride With”: at the ride startup screen, you can select a rider who is on a restricted portion of the course and click “Ride With” to be placed in the game with that rider. This even works if the rider hasn’t yet entered the restricted portion of the course!
- Meetup: a rider with access to the restricted route can create a Meetup to ride that route, and invite you to it. You have to be a follower of the Meetup organizer in order for this to happen. Learn more about Meetups >
A note about Meetups: there seems to be a bug in Meetups for certain routes. In our tests, if we chose “Road to Sky” or “Jungle Circuit” as the routes, our riders were placed at the correct spawn points but facing the wrong direction, taking us away from the restricted portions we wanted to test. And there are no u-turns in Meetups!
Some routes seem to work, though: Tour of Fire and Ice started us in the right direction. It just takes longer to get to the restricted Jungle/Alpe from there.
The Best Solution: Level Up!
Of course, the best solution is to just level up. Based on our calculations, it should take less than 8 hours of riding to reach level 6. So stop reading, and start riding!
Hi, do you know if the “Road to Sky” Meet Up bug has been fixed, or does it still send you in the wrong direction? Cheers.
Pretty sure it’s still broken, but I haven’t tested it in a few updates. Try creating a Meetup and testing it, then report back! 🙂
I’m on level 13 but don’t see alp du Zwift on my Watopia list? Help? Any suggestions?
Steve, if go to Watopia and open routes, the following all include with Alpe du Zwift:
Road to Sky
Tour of Fire and Ice
Quatch Quest
Four Horsemen
The Uber Pretzel
Ride on!
Im on level 7. I could access road to sky even at my level.
That’s because Zwift’s last update lowered the level from 12 to 6. Enjoy the Alpe!
Im a level 10 rider but was able to create a meetup on Fire and Ice – hope it works
Great map. just a question on locked routes. I am only on level 7, and on my choices of route there were several that were locked but not at present, I have the jungle route open to me as well as uber pretzel etc. open, and rode the tour of fire and ice this morning.
It is a bug that Road to Sky can’t be setup as a route in a meetup even though they’ve lowered the Level to 6?
Hi, I rode Tour of Fire and Ice solo when I was at level 7 last Sunday. Created a meet up with a buddy who was level 12. He accepted knowing he was not able to ride that evening so never showed up for the start time. Away I went, passed through the locked sections without restriction and rode to the top of Alpe Du Zwift…. 🙂
Alpe and Jungle limits have been lowered to 6/5 (from 12/10 respectively) as of a couple updates ago. I’ll update this post!
Oh, I thought I was being clever but read below they’ve lowered the route to min level 6 LOL!