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.
Unabsorbed vs absorbed experience
When one does something that awards experience, 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 absorption of this pool of experience is what counts toward gaining levels, and absorbed experience is for all intents and purposes permanent, while any unabsorbed experience is lost during the process of death and resurrection, unless a chrism is used.
The metaphor of short term vs. long term memory is fairly apt in describing the difference between the two types of experience (unabsorbed vs. absorbed).
Size of pool
The size of one's pool for unprocessed experience is determined by one's DIS and LOG stats. The formula 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 a creature one has significantly participated in killing is looted, SEARCHed, or decays on its own.
The amount of experience gained by a character is based on the differential between their own level and the level of the creature killed, as shown here:
| Creature Level | Experience Gain |
| 10 or more below character | no experience |
| 1-9 below character | 100 - 10x level difference |
| same as character | 100 experience |
| 1-4 above character | 100 + 10x level difference |
| 5 or more above character | 150 experience |
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.
Multiple characters can gain experience from killing the same creature, and you need not be present when the creature actually dies (though you must still be in-game).
Guilds
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.
The same is true for the profession guilds.
Experience can also be awarded as part of a reward by the Adventurer's Guild.
Profession-Specific Methods
Empaths can gain experience during the process of transferring wounds from others to themselves. There is no experience granted for transferring blood while the patient is still bleeding, nor for transferring from another empath.
Clerics and Paladins can gain experience from raising others from the dead.
Wizards can gain experience when casting Enchant Item (925) successfully, with the amount being variable based on the item's status within the enchanting process, and the level of enchantment.
Rogues (and others) can gain experience when opening treasure boxes.
Bards can gain experience when loresinging, under certain circumstances.
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. However, once the pool is filled, any excess amount added by bounty system reward is divided into two halves. Half is absorbed immediately (and is not subject to any multipliers) and the other half is added to the ppol, even though this will be above the normal capacity.
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.