Experience
Experience is the way that progress toward advancement in levels is measured. One gains experience, or "learns", in a variety of ways and based on a number of factors.
Absorbed vs unprocessed experience
When one does something that awards experience, (ie. looting a kill, enchanting something, etc) an amount of experience is placed into a character's pool of unprocessed experience. This pool has a finite size, and the amount of experience that goes into this pool is dependent not only on the task that one has just completed, but also the degree to which that pool is filled. The absorbption of this pool of experience is what goes toward gaining levels, and absorbed experience is for all intents and purposes permanent, while any unabsorbed experience is lost on death.
Size of pool
The size of one's pool for unprocessed experience is determined by one's DIS and LOG stats. The formua is:
- 800 + LOG + DIS = Pool
So a character with a LOG and DIS stats of 100 would be able to hold 1000 (800 + 100 + 100) experience in their pool while one with LOG and DIS stats of 75 each would be able to hold 950 (800 + 75 + 75).
Gaining experience
There are a variety of ways to gain experience, only a few of which will be mentioned here.
Hunting
The most common way of gaining experience is hunting. When hunting, experience is gained when one loots a creature one has participated in killing. The amount of experience gained is in proportion to one's level with respect to the creature;
- If the creature is more than 10 levels below the character no experience is gained
- For creatures within 5 levels of the character, experience is awarded based on 100 + 10 × (creature level - character level)
- For creatures more than 5 levels above the character, 150 experience is gained
One continues to gain experience in this way until one fills the pool to its limit, which is determined as described above (800-1000). Continued experience-gaining activities will not add to this pool, though as experience is absorbed, it can obviously be replenished.
Artisan's Guild
When one is learning an Artisan's Guild skill, such as fletching, forging, or cobbling, one earns experience each time they earn a rank in that skill. This rate is based on the number of ranks of the skill the character already has, as well as other skills known. More detailed information will be available on the Artisan Guild page.
Enchanting
For each completed step in the process of an enchant, a set amount of experience is gained. This is based on the difficulty of the enchant as well as the step of the enchant. More detailed information can be found on the Enchant Item page.
Exceptions
These rates that are described in the above sections are all ideal rates, and based on the character gaining the experience with a fairly empty unabsorbed pool. As the amount of experience in the unabsorbed pool increases, the efficiency of adding to it decreases. For example, if one were to kill 2 rats at level 1, one would expect to (and would gain) 200 experience. However, if one kills 8 rats, one would add less than 800 experience to the pool. The precise rate of accrual decline is:
- ACCRUED = N × (1 - .05 × trunc(InBucket ÷ 100))
- Where N = nominal amount, InBucket = amount in bucket, and the final number is truncated.
The bounty system is another exception in that one is able to greatly exceed one's unabsorbed pool capacity. Also, the awards of experience from the bounty system are not subject to the diminishing returns effect described above. Gaining 1000 experience from the completion of a task with a completely full unabsorbed pool will simply add 1000 experience to the experience that must be absorbed.
Absorbing experience
Experience absorption is affected by a number of factors, including one's physical location in the game, one's status with regard to a group, and even health.
On-node
- Base rate - a number dictated by one's LOG stat
- Pool size - for every 200 unabsorbed exp in one's pool, one absorbs an extra experience point per pulse
- Group - if you are a member of a group, you get one extra experience point per pulse
In town off-node
- Base rate - a number dictated by one's LOG stat, usually a few lower than the on-node base rate
- Pool size - for every 200 unabsorbed exp in one's pool, one absorbs an extra experience point per pulse
- Group - if you are a member of a group, you get one extra experience point per pulse
- Weapons - carrying a weapon or shield in one's hands decreases the rate of experience absorption
Other areas
- Base rate - a number dictated by one's LOG stat, usually a few lower than the in town base rate
- Pool size - for every 200 unabsorbed exp in one's (pool - 200), one absorbs an extra experience point per pulse
- Group - if you are a member of a group, you get one extra experience point per pulse
- Weapons - carrying a weapon or shield in one's hands decreases the rate of experience absorption
The "other" rooms are normally out of town, though strangely, some rooms (such as the courtyard of the Warrior's Guild in Wehnimer's Landing) that are in towns count as if they were out of town.
Other factors
- Injuries - for major head injuries or nerve damage, the rate of experience absorption is severely diminished
- Death's sting - if one has decayed or suffered a spirit death recently, then only a fraction of the experience is absorbed from your pool
- Hard cap - there is a hard cap of 40 experience per pulse that was implemented once the bounty system allowed characters to get very extreme levels of saturation. This cap is of course before Gift of Lumnis or other experience multipliers are taken into consideration.
Mind states
Thresholds for mind-status changes are here as a proportion of (experience in your pool)/(pool capacity).
| Phrase | Threshold |
| Completely saturated | > 1.0 |
| Must rest | 0.90 |
| Numbed | 0.75 |
| Becoming numbed | 0.62 |
| Muddled | 0.5 |
| Clear | 0.25 |
| Fresh and clear | > 0.0 |
| Clear as a bell | 0.0 |
Therefore, a character with a capacity of 1000 will hit "must rest" above 900 unabsorbed experience.