Experience Points

Abbreviation: EXP, XP

You obtain Experience Points through killing Easy Prey or above monsters, or through certain Quests, Battlefields or events.

Once you have obtained a certain amount of experience points, you are granted your next job level.

Experience Points needed per level
‡ The amount of experience needed to gain levels post-level 51 was lowered in April 2005. For details of the change see Experience Points/April 2005 Reduction.

Experience scrolls
There are several varieties of experience points "scrolls" which can be obtained from quests or defeating certain monsters. The amount of experience earned is random within a certain range depending on the scroll.

Limit Points cannot be obtained by these items. If a scroll is used which gives experience points that brings a player beyond an experience point cap, excess experience points are lost.

Experience point battlefields
ENM-class battlefields reward characters with experience points when the battlefield is won. Only characters which are not in K.O. status when the victory coffer is opened will receive experience points.

Limit Points can be obtained instead of experience points if a player is on Limit Point accumulation mode, or if they are at level 75 and their experience points are already capped. If neither of these conditions exist, the player will receive experience points and any experience points given beyond an experience point cap are lost (excess EXP does not "roll over" into limit points).

If a player would earn limit points that would cause him to exceed the limit point cap (10 Merit Points and 9999/10000 limit points accumulated), limit points earned beyond the cap are lost.

Furthermore, it is not possible to gain more than one level from ENM experience points. Instead, the player will be capped at 1 experience point short of the next level. For example, if a level 1 player with 0/500 experience points wins 3000 experience points from an ENM, he would only be awarded 1249 experience points leaving him at level 2 and 1 experience point needed for level 3.

The amount of experience points earned by an ENM is particular to that ENM and the number of players that enter. Although almost all ENMs can be entered by a full alliance of 18 players, each ENM has a "recommended" amount of players that should enter. If the number of players that enter the ENM is equal to or below the recommended amount, all players will receive the base amount of experience points. If the number of players that enter the ENM is above the recommended amount, the experience awarded to each player will be reduced by (recommended player count) / (actual player count)

For example, Like the Wind has a recommended player count of 3 participants. If the battlefield is cleared with 1, 2, or 3 players, everyone will receive 2000 experience points. If the battlefield is cleared with 4 players, everyone will receive 3/4 * 2000 = 1500 experience points. If the battlefield is cleared with 6 players, everyone will receive 3/6 * 2000 = 1000 experience points, and so forth.

Besieged
Upon successful defense of Al Zahbi from invading beastmen, all players in Al Zahbi who are not in K.O. status will receive experience points proportional to their contribution in the battle. This value is capped depending on the level of the beastmen attack and, generally, players who are active during Besieged will contribute enough to receive the capped amount.

Limit Points can be obtained instead of experience points if a player is on Limit Point accumulation mode, or if they are at level 75 and their experience points are already capped. If neither of these conditions exist, the player will receive experience points and any experience points given beyond an experience point cap are lost (excess EXP does not "roll over" into limit points).

If a player would earn limit points that would cause him to exceed the limit point cap (10 Merit Points and 9999/10000 limit points accumulated), limit points earned beyond the cap are lost.

Static experience point bonuses are also given if the Al Zahbi defense is successful in defeating mega bosses or beastman leaders that accompany the beastman forces. See the Besieged page for more details.

Campaign Battles
Campaign Battles are similar to Besieged but on a smaller scale in the Wings of the Goddess expansion areas. Experience points or limit points will be earned during the course of the battle and are awarded at the conclusion or when a player manually requests an assessment from a Campaign Arbiter. Switching between experience points or limit mode is possible at any time. Unlike Besieged, death at the conclusion of the battle does not mean no experience points are gained. 1/2 of the accumulated experience points will be awarded when a player is Raised from K.O. No experience points are gained if the player returns to his or her Home Point or otherwise zones (including via Tractor) during or after the battle.

Campaign Operations
Campaign Ops are available after signing up for a nation's army in Wings of the Goddess areas. These missions will grant small values of experience points upon the successful completion of the objective.

Experience Points from killing monsters
You can obtain Experience Points through killing monsters which con Easy Prey or above to the highest level party or alliance member. However, monsters which are killed while called for help on, or monsters which did not fully recover after being Charmed will yield no experience points. Monsters that did not fully recover from a previous battle prior to you engaging/defeating it may have their experience point yield reduced, depending on how many members were in the party that attacked it previously, and what their own job levels were.

Limit Points can be obtained instead of experience points if a player is on Limit Point accumulation mode, or if they are at level 75 and their experience points are already capped. If neither of these conditions exist, the player will receive experience points and any experience points given beyond an experience point cap are lost (excess EXP does not "roll over" into limit points).

If a player would earn limit points that would cause him to exceed the limit point cap (10 Merit Points and 9999/10000 limit points accumulated), limit points earned beyond the cap are lost.

The following is a detailed description of how experience points are calculated computed when you defeat a monster. For a summary and hints on how to apply this information to get better exp see Experience Point Calculation Guide. If you plan on actually carrying out these computations yourself, a spreadsheet or other form of computerized assistance is highly recommended.

The experience point yield from a single monster is:
 * min(base * level_modifier * player_share * monster_bonus, per_monster_cap) * chain_bonus * experience_bonus * pet_penalty

Decimals should be truncated after each multiplication step. (Because of this, changing the order of multiplication may make a 1 or 2 point difference in the final result.)


 * When in level-capped areas, this value will be calculated twice: once using actual player levels (calculation A), and once using player levels under influence of the level cap (calculation B).
 * If the player is accumulating experience points, the greater of calculation A and 50% of calculation B is awarded as experience points.
 * If the player is accumulating limit points, the greater of the two calculations is awarded as limit points.

Base Experience
base is the base experience value the monster gives, with respect to monster level and party level.

Party Level or blvl is the highest level player or pet to have acted on the monster since it was at 100% health with no debilitating status effects. If you are playing solo then party level is usually just your level. If you are in a party or alliance then the party level is usually the highest level of any member.

To find base, find the row in the table below corresponding to the difference between the monster level (mlvl) and (blvl), and the column corresponding to your Party Level.

Example 1) 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 table, this means your exp will be 30, 40, or 80 each time you defeat Ding Bats (assuming you are solo and there are no modifiers). These values need to be updated when the new exp has been determined for level 5 characters

Example 2) Huge Hornets in South Gustaberg have level -1 (see note below the table). 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 80 each time you defeat a Huge Hornet (again assuming you are solo and there are no modifiers).

Example 3) Sand Beetles in Eastern Altepa Desert have levels 36 - 40. Your party has members with levels 30, 30, 31, 31, 31, and 32. Then your party's level is 32 and the difference between the monsters' level and your party's level will be between 4 and 8. According to the table your base exp will be 300, 400, 450, 500 or 550 each time you defeat a Sand Beetle. Exp in parties always has modifiers so you must read on to compute actual exp.


 * since the latest major update it seems EP mobs now give xp in a range from 30XP to 75XP and DC 80XP - 95XP at lower levels
 * 9/9/2008 Update increased experience for EP and DC mobs. I have received 63 exp on an EP mob as BLM 75 / WHM 37, so exp increase is for high levels also


 * For the purposes of this table, 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.


 * Some of these values increased as of the July 2005 Update.
 * As of the September 2008 update less than even con mobs now give much more experience, slowly updating chart as I find out what the new values are.


 * The level a monster checks as depends on your level, not your party's level. So, for example, a monster which checks as IT to you may check as VT to one of the other party members.

Level Modifier
level_modifier is a modifier which adjusts the amount of experience earned based on the level difference between the player and the maximum level participant in the battle. The effect of the modifier is to penalize grossly underlevelled players which join a party. level_modifier is dependent on the player's level (plvl) and the player or pet level used to calculate base above (blvl). If blvl > plvl + 7 or blvl > 50, then level_modifier = plvl / blvl. Otherwise, level_modifier = TNL(plvl) / TNL(blvl), where TNL(x) is the experience points needed to obtain the next level at level x. For example, if the highest party member is 20 and the player is 18, level_modifier = 4200 / 4600

Player Share
player_share is a modifier which adjusts the amount of experience earned based on the number of people in the party or alliance. When in a single party, player_share depends on the maximum number of people in the party at any time while fighting the monster. The value of the variable is listed below in the normal share column.

For example, if you and a partner (both having signet) kill a monster that is Even Match to both of you, then you both get 75% of 100 exp or 75 exp each (before other modifiers).

When in an alliance, player_share = 1.80 / alliance_player_count, where alliance_player_count is the maximum number of people in the alliance at any time while fighting the monster. (Some sources list the numerator as 1.85. This would rarely result in a noticeable difference in exp.)
 * As of the March 2007 update, players in conquest areas use an alternate formula to obtain player share, listed under the signet share column below.

Monster Bonus
monster_bonus is a beneficial modifier to reward the party for defeating exceptionally difficult monsters. monster_bonus is 1.0 except on particular monster types which are listed below.

Experience Cap
per_monster_cap is an upper-limit placed on the base amount of experience that can be gained per-monster. The cap depends only on the player's level. If base * level_modifier * player_share * monster_bonus exceeds the cap value, the cap value is used for further calculations instead.

Bonuses and Penalties
chain_bonus is a modifier which rewards successions of quick kills. It is signified by the notification "EXP chain #XXX!" or "Limit chain #XXX!" in the experience point / limit point message when a monster is defeated. See Experience Chain for more details about experience chains.


 * chain_bonus only applies to monsters whose level is equal to or above the player
 * chain_bonus is calculated per-player. Thus, it is entirely possible to have 2 players in the same party on a different chain number

experience_bonus is a beneficial modifier that increases the amount of experience earned. By default this modifier is 1.0. The following effects can increase the modifier:
 * the status effect Dedication
 * the presence of Sanction while Al Zahbi is in posession of the Astral Candescence and the party is in an Aht Urhgan location
 * the Roll Effect Corsair's Roll.

pet_penalty is a modifier that decreases experience earned when there is a NPC helper aiding the party. Pet penalty is normally 1.0. When a player has his Adventuring Fellow present, the modifier is 0.7 for that player only.
 * The penalty applies only to the player with the Adventuring Fellow. Other members of the party without a Fellow will not experience a penalty
 * Beastmaster charmed pets and pets called with Call Beast do not trigger this penalty. Since the August version update, there is no pet penalty except for Adventuring Fellows. The only penalty to EXP from pets that can still result is if a Beastmaster is controlling a charmed monster that is higher level than all party members (in which case you would use its level as the blvl variable.)

Examples
These examples were taken from an experience party fighting Sand Beetles in Eastern Altepa Desert. The monster levels were inferred by applying the formula to the possible values (36-40) to see which result was correct.


 * 1) Player level is 32, the party has 6 members and the highest level is 32, fighting a level 38 Beetle, no exp chain bonus.
 * 2) Level difference is 6 and Base Exp is 450.
 * 3) Level modifier is 1, since player level = party level. 450 &times; 1 = 450.
 * 4) 6 member party gives player share of .35. 450 &times; .35 = 157 (rounded down).
 * 5) No other bonuses or penalties apply so final exp is 157.
 * 6) Same as previous except exp chain #4
 * 7) The first three steps in the previous example are the same giving 157.
 * 8) Exp chain #4 gives a 40% bonus, 157 &times; 1.4 = 219 (rounded down).
 * 9) No other bonuses or penalties apply so final exp is 219.
 * 10) Player level is 30, the party has 6 members and the highest level is 31, fighting a level 36 Beetle, exp chain #2, dedication in effect.
 * 11) Level difference is 5 and Base Exp is 400.
 * 12) Level modifier is 5800/5900. 400 &times; 5800/5900 = 393
 * 13) Player share is .35. 393 &times; .35 = 137
 * 14) Exp chain gives 25% bonus. 137 &times; 1.25 = 171
 * 15) Dedication gives 50% bonus. 171 &times; 1.5 = 256
 * 16) No other bonuses or penalties apply so final exp is 256.
 * 17) Same as previous except exp chain #4 except a level 40 Beetle.
 * 18) Level difference is 9 and Base Exp is 600.
 * 19) Level modifier is 5800/5900. 600 &times; 5800/5900 = 589
 * 20) Player share is .35. 589 &times; .35 = 206
 * 21) This number is more than the experience cap, reduce to 200
 * 22) Exp chain gives 40% bonus. 200 &times; 1.4 = 280
 * 23) Dedication gives 50% bonus. 280 &times; 1.5 = 420
 * 24) No other bonuses or penalties apply so final exp is 420.


 * Note that the intermediate values are rounded down on each step, in example 2
 * 450 &times; .35 &times; 1.4 = 220 which is off by 1.

Links

 * http://ff11.vanamon.com/exp07.php (in Japanese)