Experience points

Experience points (abbreviated XP) are a measurement of a character's advancement towards a new level. They are gained by killing enemy AI, completing missions, or through an experience tithe. You gain one level and five skill points every 1000 experience points, unless you have skill point debt or credit. If you have skill point debt you gain 4 skill points per level until the debt is cleared; if you have skill point credit you gain 6 skill points per level until it is cleared. There are items in the game which allow you to discover how many experience points are needed for the next level. For the most part, these items are not frequently used, because the distance from one level to the next is not large. Additionally, your event chat tells you how many XP points are needed to level every time you gain XP.

Ways to Get XP

• The most common way of gaining XP is through defeating AI opponents. If you are equal to their level you will gain 200XP per kill, being below their level gives you more (up to a maximum of 510 per kill, unless you are killing AI from an experience boosted zone like subspace), being above gives you less (as low as 0).

• Missions have a set level that determines how much experience you receive. If you are below that level you get more, if you are above you get less. Missions do not get bonus XP.

• Gear can be obtained with Intelligent and Super Intelligent mods that give +?% and +(1.5+.15*techlevel)% XP, respectively.

• Some items can give you experience when used, most notably epiphanies from subspace monthly missions. These items are neurobound and give exactly 1 level when used, and are not affected by XP bonuses. They also have a maximum use level beyond which you can no longer use them.

• Pan-Universal Neural Artificial Plasticizers are an item that, when used, gives a global 5% XP bonus that can stack with other bonuses and other Pan-Universal Neural Artificial Plasticizers. They can be purchased from Free Market for 1 space point or very rarely scooped from random spawns in random galaxies.

• Some events involve a global XP bonus, usually a double XP bonus. Such events are a good time to level up new characters.

To Calculate Experience Points

If in any case the formula gives a number higher than 510, only 510 experience will be gained per ship doing the attacking. The exception is when the AI had an XP bonus attached to it, this increases the cap by the same amount of the XP bonus. For example, subspace AI have a 5 times XP bonus. The maximum XP you can get from a subspace AI is 2550, not 510.

If you are lower than level 10

• Killing something lower level than you:
  • 200*((target'slevel+1)/(mylevel+1))^2

• Killing something higher level than you:
  • 200*((target'slevel+1)/(mylevel+1))^.9

If you are level 10 or higher

• Killing something lower level than you:
  • 200*((target'slevel+1)/(mylevel+1))^5

• Killing something higher level than you:
  • 200*((target'slevel+1)/(mylevel+1))^.9

Squad Experience Bonus

The Squad Experience Multiplier is 1x for a group of 1, 1.5x for a group of 2, 1.8x for a group of 3, and 2x for a group of 4 or more. So, for example, if a kill gives 100xp to the highest member of a squad when he is alone, it will give 1.5*100/2 = 75 xp to each him and his squadmate in a group of 2, and will give 2*100/4= 50 xp to each of him and his squadmates in a group of 4.

This bonus is applied before Intelligent or Super Intelligent gear is taken into account.

When an AI is killed by multiple people, the shout for experience given is dependent on the percentage of damage dealt by each person. Someone who did over 80% will get "the lion's share", over 50% will get "the bulk", over 20% will get "some", and less than 20% will get "a smidgin".

Mission Experience

Missions can be thought of as giving the xp that a kill of a certain level would give. To get this "level", simply use the experience formual above in reverse.