User:Zuke/Sandbox

Introduction
The formula for the number of experience points you get after defeating an enemy is complicated and it depends on a variety of factors. But it is a good idea to be familiar with it in a general way to get more experience points for the time you spend leveling. At first you might think that the best strategy is to go after the highest level monsters you can without getting killed. The gives you the most experience points per monster but you may lose valuable chain bonuses and spend so much time healing between battles that your experience over time may be relatively low. On the other hand, battling monsters that have levels that are too low will result in experience per monster that is so low that bonuses and less time healing will not make up for it. The idea is to be like Goldilocks and find the level that is just right.

Some of the information below was obtained from an FAQ “How Solo and Party Exp Works” by Original_Red_Monika, some of the terminology has been changed slightly.

General Features
In many role playing games the number of experience points you get for a certain monster is fixed. For example, if you get 5 experience points for defeating the Fluttering Butterfly at level 1, you still get 5 for defeating it at level 11. The game encourages you to go after tougher monsters at higher levels by making the gaps between level exponentially larger and larger. For example it might take 50 exp to get from level 1 to level 2 but 2000 exp to get from level 11 to level 12. FFXI uses a different strategy, the gaps between levels increases moderately but the number of experience points you get for a certain monster decreases as your level increases.

In terms of how you play the game the formula accomplishes several things:
 * Discourages most types of power leveling
 * Encourages 6 member parties with members relatively equal in level
 * Makes it impossible to level by killing hundreds of very weak monsters (no exp is given)
 * Makes if impossible to level by killing 1 very strong monster (exp is capped)

The experience point formula has the following steps:
 * Base exp – determined by your level and the monster’s level (see table below)
 * Adjustment for party size – percentage based on the size of the party (see table below)
 * Experience cap – no gain in experience for killing monster that are beyond a certain level
 * Bonuses and penalties – Miscellaneous additions or subtractions based on various factors

Base Exp (Solo)
A monster’s level can be defined as the level of player to whom the monster checks as ‘Even Match’. If the monster’s level is below yours then the monster will check as either ‘Easy Prey’ or ‘Too Weak’. Similarly, if the monster’s level is higher than yours then it will check as either ‘Tough’, ‘Very Tough’, or ‘Incredibly Tough’.For the purposes of this guide, the monsters Tunnel Worm (E. and W. Ronfaure, N. and S. Gustaberg), Wild Rabbit (E. and W. Ronfaure), Huge Hornet (N. and S. Gustaberg), Bumblebee (E. and W. Sarutabaruta) and Tiny Mandragora (E. and W. Sarutabaruta) will have level -1.

The Base Exp for monsters that are your level or less is determined by the difference between your level and the monsters level according to certain tables. Which table you use changes every 5-10 levels but the differences between them are relatively small.

If your level is between 1 and 5 then the table is

For example, Ding Bats in the Zeruhn Mines have levels 1, 2 or 3. If you are level 5 then the difference between your level and the Ding Bats’ level will be 4, 3, or 2. Looking this up on the chart, this means your exp will be 30, 40, or 50 each time you defeat Ding Bats.

As another example, Huge Hornets in South Gustaberg have level -1. If you are level 1 the difference between your level and the Huge Hornet’s level will be 2. According to the table your exp will be 50 each time you defeat a Huge Hornet.

If your level is between 6 and 10 then the table is Difference 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 or more Exp 100 72 50 40 35 30 25 20 15 0

If your level is between 11 and 20 then the table is Difference 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 or more Exp 100 72 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 0

If your level is between 21 and 30 then the table is Difference 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 or more Exp 100 72 50 46 41 37 33 29 24 20 15 0

If your level is between 31 and ? (more research needed here) then the table is Difference 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 or more Exp 100 72 61 50 46 41 37 33 29 24 20 15 0

Notes ‘Difference’ in this table is Player Level – Monster Level These values changed in 2005, guides published before then will be different.

Each of these tables has the property that exp falls rapidly from 100 to 50, then falls less rapidly for a few entries, and then picks up speed until it reaches 0. What this means is that you get good exp relative to the difficulty of the monster at the mid easy prey range and when close to even match (assuming you can kill it without risk of dying yourself).

Base Exp (Party)
When fighting in a party, the base exp is based on the difference between your party's level and the monster’s level, where the party’s level is the highest level of any member. This is the main reason all the members in a party should have more or less the same level. For example, suppose you party has member will levels 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 20. Together you might be able to defeat monsters with levels up to 24. Your party’s level is 20 and the difference between that and the monster’s level is 4, giving few exp. On the other hand if all your party's members have level 16 then you might still be able to defeat monsters with levels up to 24 but now the level difference is 8 (24-16), giving almost triple the exp.

There seems to be only one table for monsters that are higher than your level. Difference 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 or more Exp 100 120 140 160 200 350 450 550 ?

Note 'Difference' in this table is Monster Level – Player Level

The main feature of this table is the whopping 75% increase between 200 and 350. What this means is that you should pick monsters so that the majority are at least 5 levels above your party’s level. In other words, most of the monsters should scan ‘Very Tough’ or higher to the highest level party member. If your highest level player levels when you’re already touching the 200/350 boundary, be prepared for a significant drop in exp and consider moving on to tougher prey. If you are joining a party as the highest level member and are close to leveling, you should consider holding off on using exp enhancing items in order to delay leveling, since this will bring everyone else’s exp down.

Adjustment for party size
In many role playing games, if a party defeats a monster then the experience points are shared out equally among the members of the party. In FFXI your share of the exp is somewhat larger, according to this table

Number in party 1 2 3 4 5 6 Alliance of n > 6 Share of exp 100% 60% 45% 40% 37% 35% 185%/n

Note The March 2007 update includes a small increase to these values for 2-5 member parties if you have signet set.

For example, if you and a partner kill a monster that is Even Match to both of you, then you both get 60% of 100 exp or 60 exp each. Note that the total 60 + 60 = 120 is more than the 100 base exp the monster would be worth if either one of you soloed it. This is one way that you are encouraged to form a six member party; the total share reaches a maximum of 210% when you have 6 members.

Experience Cap
Once the base exp has been computed and the party size adjustment is made, an overall experience point cap of 200 is applied. One thing this means is that even if you manage to defeat a Very Tough monster solo, you won’t get the 350 base exp listed in the table above. However, the 200 exp cap is applied before the various bonuses that are listed in the next section, so it is possible to exceed the cap. Combining the base exp table with the 35% exp share for 6 member parties and the 200 point level cap produces this 6 person party exp table.

Difference 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 or more Exp 35 42 49 56 70 122 157 192 200

This means you get very little more exp for defeating a monster that is 8 or more levels above your party level than one that is 7 levels above. Meanwhile, tougher monsters take longer to kill and require more healing time between battles, so fighting monsters that are 8 or more levels above your party actually decreases your exp over time. What this means is that you should pick monsters so that the majority are at most 7 levels above your party’s level.

Combining this with the result from the Base Exp (party) section, there is a “sweet spot” for the level of monster you should hunt relative to your level. Namely, the average level of the monsters should be between 5 and 7 levels above your party’s level (provided of course that your party can defeat these monsters. For example, Clippers on Qufim Island have level 25 – 29, which averages to 27. The best party levels for these monsters would be between 27 – 7 and 27 - 5, in other words levels 20 and 22. Note that this is the level of the party and not the individual member, assuming the party is well balanced, the members would be between levels 18 and 22. If the average monster level happens to come out to a fraction then round up or down depending on the situation, well-balanced with several members having advanced jobs round up, poorly-balanced with few members having advanced jobs round down.

Bonuses and Penalties
For the last step, various additions and subtractions are made, they are given as percentages and when there are more than then the effects are multiplied together.

For example your party defeats a monster that is 5 levels above you and your highest level member. You get exp chain #1 and you have dedication status but no other bonuses or penalties. You final exp is then 122 (Pre-bonus/penalty exp) x1.2 (20% bonus exp chain #1) x1.5 (50% bonus dedication) =219 (plus or minus rounding error)

Penalty If Your Level Is Lower Than Party’s Level
If your level is not the highest level in your party then you get a penalty based on your level and the party’s level. The actual formula is rather complicated but in a well-balanced party it should amount to no more than a few percent and so there is no need to go into details. All you need to know really is that if your level is lower than the party’s level then your exp will be a few points less than that given in the table above. The main purpose of this penalty seems to be to keep parties balanced by keeping out members with low levels compared to the rest of the party.

Bonus for Experience Chains
If you defeat monsters in quick succession you get an exp bonus of up to 50%. It works like this, the first monster you defeat has no bonus, but if you defeat a second monster within a certain time limit you get a bonus of 20%. If you then defeat a third monster within a certain time you get a bonus of 25%. This continues until you break the chain by not defeating the monster within the specified time. The bonus only applies to monsters that are your level or higher, defeating a lower level monster will break the chain. So under normal circumstances you would only get the bonus in a party. But the monster just has to be at least your level, not the party’s level, so it’s conceivable that you could get the bonus when other members of your party don’t. The amount of each bonus and the time limit is given this table:

Chain number 1 2 3 4 5 or more Bonus 20% 25% 30% 40% 50% Sec. (level 1-9) 50 40 30 20 10 Sec. (level 10-19) 100 80 60 40 20 Sec. (level 20-29) 150 120 90 60 40 ...

Notice that the amount of time you are given increases with your level so this bonus becomes increasingly important as you progress through the game. Also notice that the longer you can keep a chain going the more exp you get while the time you have to defeat each monster is less and less. This means, assuming you can’t keep a chain going indefinitely, that at the beginning of a chain you should conserve MP, TP and job abilities so you can use them at the end of the chain when time is of the essence. The specifics will vary according to your job and may get quite complicated. Finally notice that fighting monsters that are above your sweet spot makes is more likely that you will lose this bonus.

Pet Penalties
If you defeat a monster with the help of a summon, charmed monster, etc. (i.e. a pet) you get a 30% penalty. However this only applies to the player who is controlling the pet and not to any other party members.

Exp Enhancing Items and Spells
Some items and spells give you an exp bonus when you activate them. For example, activating an Empress Band gives you the Dedication status, this gives you an automatic 50% exp bonus until the effect wears off. Corsair’s role gives a similar status but with a smaller bonus.

Summary

 * Fight the right level of monster for best experience over time, not the highest level you can defeat.
 * For soloing this usually means fighting monster in the mid-Easy Prey range.


 * Form 6-member parties with members having more or less equal levels.


 * For 6 member parties it’s usually best to fight monsters with an average level between 5 and 7 levels higher than the maximum level of your party.


 * Use strategy to keep experience chains going.


 * Use exp enhancing items and spells when possible.