Experience point

The concept of Experience Points, aka XP or just "experience", is a way of measuring a character's improvement and development as they progress through the game. As they gain "experience", they become more proficient and powerful by attaining higher "levels". All characters, all races and classes, gain experience in an identical manner.

Gaining/Earning Experience Points (XP)
There are several methods to earn experience points:
 * Quests
 * Wilderness adventure areas
 * Sagas
 * Monster Manual rewards
 * Daily Dice experience rewards
 * Otto's Boxes

Some XP adjustments apply equally to all members of the party, others are calculated individually. XP awards are not split among party members and are not affected by party size.

Quests
This over-level penalty does not apply to epic quests.
 * Complete optional objectives inside a quest. Common optional objectives include slaying a boss or named creature, exploring certain areas of a map, or clearing side areas of threats. Some optional objectives are shown from the start of a mission, while others remain hidden until triggered. Optional objective XP is granted instantly.
 * Complete all main objectives inside a quest. Some main objectives remain hidden until triggered. Main objective XP is usually higher than that of optional objectives. The main XP is bestowed upon completion of the quest and can be modified by the following conditions. Changes to these conditions that occur after the main XP is awarded don't affect the amount (though they may incorrectly change the amount reported in the quest log - see below).
 * First-time completion of quest: (Individual) Completing a quest on hard or elite difficulty the first time it is run gives two possible bonuses. The first is an extra 10% if running on hard or 20% on elite. The second is an additional 5% for a hard streak or 10% for an elite streak for running multiple quests on hard or elite for the first time up to a maximum of five times, i.e. tops out at 25% for hard and 50% for elite. See Bravery Bonus for more information.
 * First-time difficulty completion: (Individual) Completing a quest for the first time on Solo/Casual or on Normal grants a +25% bonus. Completing a quest for the first time on Hard difficulty grants a +40% bonus Completing a quest for the first time on Elite difficulty grants a +80% bonus and Completing a quest for the first time on Reaper difficulty grants a +120% bonus.
 * Tome of Learning bonus: (Individual) (Lesser/Greater) Tomes of learning offer +25%(lesser)/+50%(greater) for first time through quest, and thereafter a +10%(lesser)/+20%(greater) bonus.
 * Daily bonus: (individual) Completing a quest for the first time during a day grants a +20% bonus. You must wait a full 24 hours after the last completion of the quest and then enter the quest in order to obtain this bonus.
 * Quest ransack penalty: (Individual) Each time you repeat a quest, the amount of experience the quest grants decreases by 20%, to a minimum of 20%. 18 hours after the most-recent completion the penalty is reduced by 50% (and again 18 hours after that). This 18 hour timer restarts each time you run a quest, so if you never leave a full 18 hour break between runs of the quest you will never get any reduction in the 80% penalty, and if you never wait a full 36 hours you will always have some penalty. Typing /ransack into your Chat Log will show you the ransack levels of the quests that you've played. (U19) This penalty (including the 20% minimum) is waived if there is a "first time" difficulty bonus and that completion DOES NOT COUNT toward increasing the penalty on later attempts. This penalty also applies to characters on the level cap.
 * Level of quest vs level of highest character in quest: (Party) Compare the quest's equivalent level* to the level of the highest-level character to have entered the quest (even if they left after entering!). If that character's level is...
 * ...below, equal to, or +1 level above the quest's level*, there is no adjustment.
 * ...+2, there's a -10% penalty.
 * ...+3 = -25%
 * ...+4 = -50%
 * ...+5 = -75%
 * ...+6 = -99%
 * ...+7 or higher there is no XP regardless of any bonuses.

Note: Bravery Bonus does not use these modifiers! BB is determined based solely off the "Normal" level of the quest!
 * * For purposes of determining equivalent level of a quest for XP penalty, take the base ("Normal") level of the quest and adjust as follows...
 * Casual subtracts -2 (to a minimum adjusted Lvl 1)
 * Normal = basic quest level; ✅
 * Hard adds +1
 * Elite adds +2

Note: Characters that are level 20 or higher do not receive a power-level penalty, even when grouped with level 28 characters. (Verified: level 20 had no penalty with a 28 in quest.) This is not entirely accurate - the late entry also seems to be tied to quest progress and not just time. For example, you can enter several quests over 10 minutes late, and even though the quest will complete in under 2 minutes you will get no penalty.
 * Power-leveling penalty: (Individual) If you are questing with higher level characters (i.e. 4 levels or more higher than your character), you (only) will suffer an individual penalty. If you are...
 * ...4 levels below the highest-level character in the party, you receive a -50% penalty.
 * ...5 levels below, you receive a -75% penalty.
 * ...6 levels below, you receive a -99% penalty.
 * ...7 or more levels below, you receive no XP regardless of bonuses.
 * Death: (Individual) There is a +10% Flawless Victory Bonus  if you don't die. (Unconsciousness is not death unless you release.)
 * Re-entry:
 * (Party) There is a +10% Persistence Bonus  if no one leaves the quest (for any reason, including death and release to bind point, recall, or exit) and re-enters.
 * (Individual) Each of your re-entries confers a -20% penalty to you, to a maximum of -90% for the fifth. Re-entry penalties do not apply on Solo or Casual difficulty, although the Persistence Bonus can still be lost.
 * Late entry:
 * (Individual) If you first entered the dungeon ten or more minutes after it spawned there could be a late entry penalty. If you end up being in the quest for less than a 1/4 of the time it took to complete you'll have a -80% penalty, if more than a quarter but less than half you'll have a -50% penalty instead. (Explained by dev Phax ).
 * Killing monsters: Killing a large portion of the monsters present can confer
 * +10% Aggression  bonus
 * +15% Onslaught  bonus
 * +25% **Conquest**  bonus
 * Not killing monsters: On the flip side, completing a mission while slaying very few enemies can grant
 * +5% Discreet  bonus
 * +7% Devious  bonus
 * +10% **Insidious Cunning**  bonus
 * Disarming traps: Disarming a large portion of the traps present can confer
 * +10% Tamper  bonus
 * +20% Neutralization  bonus
 * +30% **Ingenious Debilitation**  bonus
 * Finding secret doors: Finding a large portion of the secret doors present can confer
 * +8% Observance  bonus
 * +10% Perception  bonus
 * +15% **Vigilant Sight**  bonus
 * Destroying breakable objects: Destroying a large portion of the breakable objects (barrels, vases, caskets, etc.) present can confer
 * +8% Mischief  bonus
 * +10% Vandal  bonus
 * <font color='green'>+15% **Ransack**  bonus
 * Note that the not-killing-monsters bonus isn't listed in the XP log until after quest completion, while everything else is.
 * All bonuses are added together and can make a quest worth the time and effort to complete even if there are penalties. However, there are two cases where a quest's main XP reward will be 0 regardless of bonuses. The first is if you meet a condition that explicitly prohibits XP. The second is if there are enough penalties to reduce the reward to a subtotal of 0 XP before bonuses are applied. Due to roundoff issues, you may or may not get XP if your penalties total exactly -100%. You definitely won't if they go below that.
 * Bravery Bonus and Streak Bonus: If the highest level character is no more than 2 levels higher than the quest on normal difficulty, and it is your first time in the quest, you get a +10% bonus on hard and a +20% bonus on elite. In addition, for each time you qualify for bravery bonus and continue to use it, you can get +5% bonus to a maximum of +25% on hard streaks, and +10% bonus to a maximum of +50% on elite streaks. See Bravery Bonus for more information.
 * Group bonus: When the event DDO Buddy Weekend is active, receive an extra +10% experience per extra player (+50% max) at quest completion. This only applies to regular quests, not wilderness or raids, and only applies to the end XP, not any optionals. There is a separate raid bonus that gives +5% per extra player (+55% max) in raids. These bonuses can be toggled either separately or together.

Example
Misery’s Peak Elite XP = 1660
 * Ransack (15% of 1660) = 249
 * Onslaught (15% of 1660) = 249
 * Tome of Learning (50% of 1660) = 830
 * 1st Elite Completion (80% of 1660) = 1328
 * Never played, played on elite, Bravery Bonus (20% of 1660) = 332
 * Elite Streak (50% of 1660) = 830
 * Daily playthrough bonus (20% of 1660) = 332
 * Flawless Victory Bonus (10% of 1660) = 166
 * Persistence Bonus (10% of 1660) = 166

Subtotal: 6142


 * Ship buff (5% of 6142) = 307
 * 30% pot (30% of 6142) = 1842
 * VIP bonus (15% of 6142) = 921

Total: 9212

Optionals

 * Optional XP can be affected by penalties, but not the above-listed bonuses; the only exceptions to this are quest XP bonuses granted by:
 * special DDO events (such as a 10-25% bonus during Festivult, for example)
 * Tomes of Learning
 * The ///
 * Airship experience shrines
 * Experience Elixirs purchased from the DDO Store
 * Basically, any modifiers listed "above the line" in the quest log, other than "First time completing <X> difficulty," counts towards calculating the Optional XP.
 * "Base XP," for purposes of Optionals, consists of the listed XP for that level, plus possible game-wide bonus, minus any penalties which apply. This number is then further modified by any personal experience bonus gained from equipped items, airship shrines, or elixirs.
 * For example, the base modifier for doing The Mystery of Delera's Tomb on Normal is 1,742 XP. If the quest is done without incurring any penalties, this would be the Base XP used to calculate XP from optionals... even if it's your first time through on Normal.
 * With a small/medium elixir (+10% XP) in effect, the base is now 1,916 XP (110%).
 * With a 25% game-wide bonus, it's now 2,177 XP (125%).
 * With *both* in effect, the base XP is 2,395 XP (137.5%), rather than the 2,351 XP (135%) if they were added together before application.
 * Note that the repetition penalty is specific to the optional, and not based on the quest's repetition penalty (e.g., in Walk the Butcher's Path, if you survive the ambush several times without having completed the quest, you'll start to lose XP for it... even though it's technically your first time through the quest.) The reverse is also true; if you complete a quest several times, but one of the optionals just once (for instance: while farming a, you complete Durk's Got a Secret five times before spawning Muck), you won't have a repetition penalty for the XP gained by completing the optional. The repetition penalty is not removed for the first time on a certain difficulty.
 * Optional XP which has already been awarded will not be changed by subsequent penalties (from death, re-entry, or a higher-level character joining the quest); the amount listed in the XP Log will lower if there's a change, but you won't actually lose the XP. Any uncompleted Optionals, however, will be affected.
 * On Casual, optionals are worth the listed percentage multiplied by 1.67; this is not the case for Solo-only quests.

XP Log
Bonuses and penalties are calculated and locked in when the main quest is completed, which may not be accurately reflected in the quest XP log. The XP log bonuses/penalties continue to be updated after the XP is locked, so you may see some bonuses/penalties listed that you didn't actually get (e.g., you may see a re-entry penalty reducing your listed XP because you finished-out and re-entered after the quest was completed: you actually got the full XP, but it now displays less than that). This holds true to optional XP as well.

The XP log is updated when: (Explained by dev Phax )
 * 1) (individual) YOU log in
 * 2) (party-wide) Player Dies
 * 3) (party-wide) Henchman Dies
 * 4) (party-wide) Monster Dies
 * 5) (party-wide) Chest Looted
 * 6) (party-wide) Secret Door Discovered
 * 7) (party-wide) Trap Disabled
 * 8) (party-wide) Breakable Smashed

Wilderness Areas
Wilderness areas have different XP adjustment rules than dungeon quests. Each wilderness area has a range of levels it supports. If all party members are within the area's range, they all receive normal XP and objective progress. If any characters are above the area's maximum level, no one except that character can make progress toward objectives. The ones above the limit can still complete objectives, but they receive reduced XP: 1/2 if they're one level over the maximum, 1/3 for two levels, 1/4 for three, 1/5 for four, and so on. Characters below the area's minimum level never make progress toward objectives (if they are allowed in at all!), and are completely ignored when determining XP for the other members in their party.

See main article, Wilderness Adventure Area, for more information.

Monster Manual
Monster Manuals grant relatively small amounts of XP based on the number and variety of a certain (sub-)type of monster that you or your party kills. Each MM has a different selection of "target" monster types. The XP granted is modified by any XP boosts.

The Monster Manual Prologue is free to all players, Premium players also enjoy MM 1, and VIP have access to all Monster Manuals.

See main article, Monster Manual, for more information.

Banking experience
A character does not have to level up as soon as they have enough experience to do so. If they choose, they can stay at their current level, and earn up to as much as {one point less than enough XP for 2 levels}. This is called banking experience. Some players use this process to extend the time that lower-level quests provide full XP, or to stay at the same level as others you are questing with. This is especially common in a chain of popular quests that are all at or close to the same level, but give more than enough experience to level multiple times.


 * Example: A Level 6 character gains enough experience to make Level 7, 72,000(+) xp (see table, below). However, they have not yet run Waterworks, a quest chain that starts at base Level 4. If they took Level 7, they would 1) not get Bravery Bonus experience, and 2) find fewer groups who would want a level 7 in a Level 4 dungeon. So, that player stays Level 6 and "banks" Level 7, joins a "Level 4-6" group for Waterworks, and earns full xp plus bravery bonus - as does the entire party. Before parts 3 and 4 (which are level 5), the party agrees to take a break and "level up", so the player can then take level 7.


 * If that player had wanted to run parts 1 and 2 again later (as a Level 6), or run some other popular base Level 4 quests (perhaps the Depths chain), they might not take 7 in the middle of Waterworks, stay at Level 6, and continue to bank experience up to their max of 224,999 xp (1 xp less than needed for Level 8, 225,000).

Once you have Experience Points beyond your current next level, when you do level, you will immediately have 4 Action Points to spend. If you wait until you are "capped" and then level, gaining any experience will allow you to immediately level up again.

The exception to the cap for banking is when you get to Heroic or Epic cap (Level 20 or 30); then you will get that last point of XP. This means that a level 18 character can bank 19 and 20, and take both simultaneously.

Usually, once you reach "cap", the max allowed, all other xp earned is wasted. However, it is possible to bank more than two levels. Experience from Daily Dice, Monster Manuals, and Saga rewards is known to exceed banking cap, but even regular quests sometimes allow you go beyond the cap.

Otto's Boxes and xp cap
es: Stone of Heroic Experience, does not grant experience beyond the heroic experience Cap (the start of Level 20). All xp beyond the heroic experience capped will NOT carry over to Epic Experience and will be lost.

es: Stone of Epic Experience, caps at the epic level cap (Level 30), but if capped, the xp will still go to active epic destiny and destiny karma up to their respective caps.

Experience Points to Heroic Level
Experience needed after True Reincarnation(s) is increased, view the charts here or mouse-over numbers above to see 1st life, 2nd life, and 3rd life+

This experience increase only applies to Heroic Levels (levels 1 - 20) and not Epic Levels. The experience requirements for Epic Leveling do not change, no matter which life you are on.

Experience Points to Epic Level

 * Values above are listed in 1,000's (k's) of experience points. E.G. "+1,050k" = +1,050,000 xp.

Experience Points to Epic Destinies
All experience gained towards an Epic Destiny is permanent for that character, and will persist through True Reincarnation(s) to be available again upon reaching level 20.

The Rank in which you gain a level does not increase the rank.

The "Art" of Gaining XP
There are many opinions on the best difficulty order to complete quests to get the maximum amount of XP. Note also that this very rough analysis doesn't take into account how long it takes to complete each run, assumes everyone can handle Elite difficulty with no deaths, and doesn't necessarily extend to longer repetitions.

Here are a few examples of various five-run methods using "The Kobolds' New Ringleader" and a party of level 1-2* characters. This is one of the most-run quests at level 2 (good XP, good loot, fast enough) so it makes a good example. The following computations only include the Base XP, first time bonuses for bravery and first time bonuses for difficulty. Earned XP may differ due to optional XP goals and other XP bonuses (see above).
 * * On Normal difficulty, characters over "Level 2" (Quest base level +0 for "Normal") would decrease the XP due to characters being too high. If on Hard, characters could be Level 1-3 (Quest level +1), and on Elite 1-4 (QL +2).

</CENTER>
 * Notes:
 * 1) Only taking first time bonuses, basic bravery and repetition penalties into account
 * 2) Basic means persistence, flawless victory and aggression (probably the most common quick-run for this particular quest)

Note that the commonly-suggested method of "three times on Normal, then once on Hard and once on Elite" yields close to the maximum but not quite the absolute greatest XP possible. It tends to be quicker than any method that gives more XP, though, which often makes it the most efficient plan, and it can be done solo by all players.

If making more runs, the rule of thumb is, that it's better to repeat sooner than later, i.e. EEEEEEHN is much better than NHEEEEEE because you don't get the repetition penalty on first-time difficulty runs.

Methods that don't start with Normal difficulty require a V.I.P. subscription (which allows a character to start on Elite) or a character to be Heroic True Reincarnated (once for Hard and twice or more for Elite) or a party member who can open elite.

Bravery Bonuses and Dungeons with both Heroic and Epic Versions
Bravery Bonuses can be significant adding up to 75% XP bonus on a 'Max Hard Streak' and up to 150% XP on a 'Max Elite Streak' for the first time through a given quest on Hard or Elite difficulty as required. For quests that have both Heroic and Epic versions, these Bravery Streak bonuses can be further leveraged by choosing to run the Epic versions the first time completing quests. For example, leveraging a max Epic Streak by running the Epic versions of The Druid's Deep quests instead of Heroic versions the first time through the series can result in more than 400% XP as shown by the following example:

These bonuses would be even higher with other XP boosts like XP potions or XP boost items and does not include the quest optionals which would further increase the XP gain. If you have used a Tome of Learning the difference between Heroic and Epic gains will not be as high as the Tome will apply to your Heroic content but not your Epic content as you need to be level 20+ to run Epic dungeons and the Tome stops giving bonus XP when you get to level 20.