Experience point

Experience Points (also known as experience or XP) are awarded for completing quests, objectives and miscellaneous goals. Gaining sufficient XP allows a PC to advance their Character level.

= Effect of XP =

XP are not "spent" to advance. Instead, each character level requires at least a particular XP total. The XP total continues to accumulate until the character gains sufficient XP for the maximum level.

DDO divides levels up into Ranks, 5 per level. Achieving sufficient XP for the next rank (but not next level) awards an Action Point.

The XP bar at the bottom of the screen indicates how close you are to reaching the next rank or level. Every time the bar fills a rank is gained and a pip is filled. When all 5 pips are filled the character has sufficient XP to advance to the next level.

Epic levels tweak these mechanics slightly, but the basic principles are the same.

Key Clarifications
Players coming from pen & paper D&D or other computer RPGs may have certain assumptions about how experience works. These are the key points for DDO:


 * DDO experience is awarded for specific achievements (usually completing quests and objectives). Generic activity (e.g. killing foes, making checks, performing actions, finding treasure) does not award XP unless it contributes towards a defined objective.
 * All races, classes and class combinations earn experience in an identical manner.
 * Experience awards are affected by character level (relative to the level of the quest or objective) and by various situational bonuses.
 * Experience is never "lost" or "spent" from a character's XP total.
 * Exception: when a character's level is reset via reincarnation, the character's XP is reset to the start of the character's new level.
 * Experience is awarded as soon as the relevant objective is met. Gaining experience has no immediate effect on the character, even if it is sufficient to grant a reward.  PCs must speak to an NPC Trainer to advance in level, and must be in a public (non-adventure) area to spend Action Points.
 * A character is not required to gain a level upon obtaining sufficient experience. Any further experience gained is applied to the character's XP total, but provides no benefits until the character chooses to advance to the next level.  If a character would gain sufficient XP to allow them to advance more than one level, the extra experience is (usually) lost.

= 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.

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.

Note: Many veteran players do not care to absolutely maximize their XP by taking the time to complete every last optional objective, and instead try to consider the "experience per minute" that a quest can give, i.e whether it's more XP to do 2 quests with minimal optionals vs. taking the time to squeeze every last experience point out of one quest. Not a consideration for every player, but be aware that it is for some.

Quest: main objectives
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. 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).

The main XP is bestowed upon completion of the quest and can be modified by the following conditions. These bonuses are additive, not multiplicative, i.e. they don't give bonuses to other bonuses. (So, for example, three +100% bonuses would equal 4x the base XP (base + 100% +100% +100%), not 8x ([{base +100% = x2} +100% = x4] +100% = x8).)

Bravery bonus (Individual)

 * Once per life, you can get extra experience equal to 100%* of elite XP as your bravery bonus. If your first run through is on elite or reaper difficulty, you receive the full 100% bonus immediately. If you run on hard, you receive half of the base XP, a 50% bonus. The other half is not lost**; if you later run on elite/reaper, you get the other +50% to that base XP.


 * * Warning! In order to be eligible for the full Bravery bonus, all characters in the group, including hirelings and summons, must be no more than:
 * 2 levels above the base quest level (in heroics), or
 * 4 levels above the base quest level (in epics)


 * If you have a player, hireling or summoned character in your group that does not meet these criteria, Bravery bonus is halved.


 * (** The math does not actually work out the same; the base XP for Hard is less than it is for Elite, so a 50% bonus for Hard + a 50% bonus for Elite is less than a 100% bonus for Elite... but it's usually close.)

First-time difficulty completion (Individual)

 * When you complete a quest on any particular difficulty for the first time ever (per life), you receive a "first time" bonus to the base XP for the quest. This includes Casual, Normal, Hard, Elite, and Reaper* each as "separate difficulties" for this first time difficulty bonus. It does not matter what order these are run, "separate" is separate.


 * This first-time bonus varies with difficulty:


 * If a quest can be run on both Heroic and Epic difficulties, then all Heroic difficulties count as separate difficulties from the Epic ones; e.g. if you run a quest on Heroic elite, and later on Epic elite, you will get the 45% first time difficulty bonus on both runs.


 * When running multiple Epic Reincarnations, one right after another, "first time" bonuses are kept track of (since it's the "same life"). Careful planning (and some book keeping) can allow a character to spread out different first-time bonuses across multiple ER's despite this.


 * (* Reaper difficulty is considered all one difficulty regardless of the number of skulls; i.e. running once on 1 skull and later on 10 skulls will not give a new "1st time" bonus for the later run. However, as stated above, running on any number of skulls on Heroic and then any number of skulls (same or different) in Epic will give a new first-time bonus, since Heroic and Epic Reaper are considered separate.)

bonus (Individual)

 * (Lesser/Greater) Tomes of learning offer +25%(lesser)/+50%(greater) in heroic and +15%(lesser)/+25%(greater) in epics for first time through quest, and thereafter a bonus of +10%(lesser)/+20%(greater) in heroic and +5%(lesser)/+10%(greater) in epics. NOTE: for quests with both heroic and epic versions, there is still only one "first time" bonus even if you have both Heroic and Epic Tomes of Learning. For example, if you do the heroic version with a greater Tome, you will receive the 50% first-time bonus, but the first completion of the epic version will only receive a 5%(lesser Epic)/10%(greater Epic) bonus.

Daily bonus (Individual)

 * Completing a quest for the first time during a day grants a +25% bonus for heroic quests and 40% bonus for epic quests. You must wait 18 hours after the last completion of the quest and then enter the quest in order to obtain this bonus.

Group bonus (Party)

 * 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.

Killing monsters (Party)

 * Killing a large portion of the monsters present can confer
 *  bonus
 *  bonus
 *  bonus


 * On the flip side, completing a mission while slaying very few enemies can grant
 *  bonus
 *  bonus
 *  bonus


 * Note that the "not-killing-monsters" bonus isn't listed in the XP log until after quest completion, while everything else is.

Destroying breakable objects (Party)

 * Destroying a large portion of the breakable objects (barrels, vases, caskets, etc.) present can confer
 *  bonus
 *  bonus
 *  bonus

Disarming traps (Party)

 * Disarming a large portion of the traps present can confer
 *  bonus
 *  bonus
 *  bonus

Finding secret doors (Party)

 * Finding a large portion of the secret doors present can confer
 *  bonus
 *  bonus
 *  bonus

VIP Bonuses

 * VIP players get an extra 10%
 * Update 46 Patch 3 Release Notes VIP players and Season Pass holders now get a small group bonus to experience. The bonus is per person in the party other than yourself, and provides a +1% XP boost per party member or member in your raid group, for a maximum bonus of +5% for a party and +11% for a raid group. This bonus is not applied for hirelings or other NPC companions in your group. This bonus stacks with other boosts to XP, including weekend XP bonuses, DDO Store elixirs, and Buddy Boost weekends. This is in addition to the standard +10% XP provided to VIP players.

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 effective level (depends on difficulty) 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 effective 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.
 * This over-level penalty does not apply to epic quests.

Power-leveling penalty (Individual)

 * You receive no penalty if questing with characters 3 levels higher (or less) than you are.


 * If you are questing with characters 4 levels or more higher than your character, you will suffer an individual penalty:


 * 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 -87% penalty.
 * 7 or more levels below, you receive no XP regardless of bonuses.
 * Note: Epic and legendary characters (level 20 or higher) do not receive a power-level penalty.

Death (Individual)

 * There is a  if you don't die. (Unconsciousness is not death unless you release.)

Reentry (Party) + (Individual)

 * (Party) There is a  if no one leaves the quest (for any reason, including death and release to bind point, recall, or exit) and reenters.
 * (Individual) Each of your reentries confers a -20% penalty to you, to a maximum of -90% for the fifth. Reentry penalties do not apply on Solo or Casual difficulty, although you still lose Persistence Bonus.

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 )
 * 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.

XP example

 * Jungle of Khyber Reaper 1
 * Base XP = 8,686
 * First Reaper Completion (95% of 8,686) = 8,251 (total 16,937)
 * Never played, played on reaper, Bravery Bonus (100% of 8,686) = 8,686 (total 25,623)
 * Group Bonus 6% per person other than you, 12% this group (12% of 8,686) = 1,042 (total 26,665)
 * Onslaught (15% of 8,686) = 1,302 (total 27,967)
 * Ingenious Debilitation (30% of 8,686) = 2605 (total 30,752)
 * Ransack (15% of 8,686) = 1,302 (total 31,874)
 * Persistence Bonus (10% of 8,686) = 868 (total 32,742)
 * Flawless Victory Bonus (10% of 8,686) = 868 (total 33,610)
 * Lesser Tome of Learning (25% of 8,686) = 2,171 (total 35,781)
 * Daily playthrough bonus (25% of 8,686) = 2,171 (total 37,952)


 * Subtotal (dungeon scorecard): 37,952)


 * Voice of the Master (5%) + Ship Buff (5%) + 30% XP Pot (30%) = 40% of 37,952 = 15,180
 * VIP bonus (10% of 37,952) = 3,795


 * Total Awarded XP: 56,927

Quest: optional objectives
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.

Optional XP can be affected by penalties, but not the bonuses; the only exceptions to this are quest XP bonuses granted by:
 * Special DDO events (global 10-25% XP bonus during Festivult on Bonus Days)
 * The ///
 * Airship experience shrines
 * Experience Elixirs purchased from the DDO Store
 * 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.

Since Update 42 Patch 4, optional objectives ransack when repeated.


 * The first, second, and third time you achieve an optional objective, you will receive 100% of the experience.
 * The fourth time you achieve an optional objective, you will receive 80% of the experience.
 * Fifth: 60%
 * Sixth: 40%
 * Seventh: 20%
 * Eighth: 0%
 * Optional Objective ransack does not reset over time. An Epic, Racial, True, or Iconic Reincarnation will reset your Optional Objective ransack.

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). Again, this will NOT carry over to Legendary Experience.

= Tables =

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 in raw text format
This may be helpful to copy into your Biography (on your Character Sheet) during a TR chain.

= 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).


 * 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.