Experience point

Experience Points to 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.

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.

Banking experience
For Heroic levels, a character can earn up to one point less than enough XP for 2 levels. For example: A level 8 character can obtain up to 439,999XP (1 point less than the amount necessary for the character to attain level 10). Some players use this process (called “Banking”) to extend the time that certain quests provide XP. (For example: A level 17 character can attain 1,709,999 XP. This allows the character to run all of the Vale of Twilight quests on Hard with no XP loss except from repetition). It also extends the length of time characters can spend with leveling groups (for instance, a level 17 can run quests with level 20 characters with no XP loss and can run quests with characters as low as level 14 without penalizing the XP of the level 14 character.)

If you're level 18 you can go straight to level 20 and beyond, as the game doesn't cap the xp after you attain enough for level 20. (in other words, you can attain 8,500,000 XP at level 18, rather than stopping at 1,899,999). Once you pass 1,900,000 XP, the XP display resets to 0 and starts counting Epic XP, which has no cap. (Needs more testing: at least you can go directly from 18 to 21 and I'm currently sitting at level 18 with 11K Epic XP.)

Occasionally, you can bank more than two levels. Experience from Monster Manual is known to exceed banking cap, but even regular quests sometimes allow you go beyond the cap.

Gaining/Earning Experience Points(XP)
There are several methods to earn experience points, in two different places: quests and Wilderness adventure areas. 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
Reportedly Update 19 (or earlier) changed the penalty formula for Epic quests. Table needs updating. Discussion.
 * 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.
 * 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 (U19)
 * 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 level to the level of the highest-level character to have entered the quest (even if they later left). If that character's level is below, equal to, or one level above the quest's level, there is no adjustment. If it's +2, there's a -10% penalty. +3 = -25%, +4 = -50%, +5 = -75%, +6 = -99%, and at +7 or higher there is no XP regardless of bonuses. Casual difficulty subtracts 2 from the quest's level (if possible) for purposes of this adjustment, Hard difficulty adds 1, and Elite adds 2. ✅


 * Power-leveling penalty: (individual) If you are exactly 4 levels below the highest-level character in the party, you receive a -50% penalty. If you are 5 levels below, you receive a -75% penalty. If you are 6 levels below, you receive a -99% penalty. If you are 7 or more levels below, you receive no XP regardless of bonuses. Characters that are level 20 or 21 do not receive a power-level penalty, even when grouped with level 24-25 characters.
 * Death: (party) There is a +10% Flawless Victory Bonus  if there are no deaths. (Unconsciousness is not death unless the player releases.) There is a +5% Survival Bonus  if there are one or more Hireling deaths but no player deaths.
 * Re-entry:
 * (party) There is a +10% Persistence Bonus  if no one leaves the quest (for any reason, including death & 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 here). 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.
 * 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
 * +8% Tamper  bonus
 * +10% Neutralization  bonus
 * +15% **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
 * <font color='orange'>+8% Mischief  bonus
 * <font color='blue'>+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 a 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.

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 Voice of the Master/Mantle of the Worldshaper/The Master%27s Gift/Pale Green Ioun Stone
 * 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 ____ 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 Muckbane, 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 here)
 * 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

 * Complete Slayer objectives by killing increasing numbers of enemies anywhere in the zone. Each objective requires more kills than the last, but is also worth more XP.
 * Complete Explorer objectives by visiting locations of interest scattered throughout the zone. Each location is worth XP the first time it's visited, with a one-time bonus for visiting all of them.
 * Complete Rare Encounter objectives by killing rare named bosses. Bosses are worth XP (and a loot chest) every time one is killed, with a one-time bonus when they've all been killed once. After the first time a rare is killed, each successive kill takes a 67% repeat penalty to XP. Each individual rare boss has only a set chance of spawning every time the area is entered. If the rare is not spawned, a regular spawn will take its place.

Wilderness area objective quests are granted automatically the first time the area is entered. They do not have a difficulty setting. Their progress is tracked between visits, and they cannot be reset or abandoned.

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 but them 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 and are completely ignored when determining XP for the other members in their party.

Monster Manual

 * Complete character deeds: Slayer (killing many monsters of a certain type) or Hunter (killing different types) earns XP. The XP granted is modified by any XP boosts.

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 (level 3 characters would decrease the xp a bit). This is one of the most-run quests at level 2 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 be differ due to other bonuses (see above). </CENTER>
 * *Only taking first time bonuses, basic bravery and repetition penalties into account
 * **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 True Reincarnated (once for Hard and twice or more for Elite) or a party member who can open elite.

Bravery Bonuses & Dungeons with both Heroic & Epic Versions
Bravery Bonuses can be significant adding up to 75% XP bonus on a 'Max Hard Streak' & 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 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 & 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 & 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.