Experience

An utterly ubiquitous mechanic in many role playing games since Dungeons and Dragons, the primary progression metric for players in Everquest are experience levels, a.k.a. levels. In contrast to more modern MMOs which have a greater focus on equipment and other forms of advancement, classic Everquest's progression is much more heavily weighted towards experience. What determines the capabilities of your character is chiefly their experience level. In later expansions, the alternative advancement system supplemented a character's experience level for additional capabilities and equipment became more important.

To attain higher experience levels, characters (or their groups) must defeat NPCs or complete quests to gain experience points. When a character gains sufficient points, they attain the next experience level. Pursuit of higher experience levels is the primary goal for most of a character's career on classic Everquest.

When a character dies, they lose experience points and if enough are lost they can lose levels as well. High level Clerics and Paladins have the ability to resurrect players which may return a portion of the experience lost (up to 96%). GMs have a special ability to return 100% of experience lost when they rez a player due to bugs or unfair play.

Group Level Requirement for Experience

• http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22310

If the level difference within a group is too great the lower level member will not get experience. The criterion is:

Lowest Level * 1.5 (Round down) or Highest Level * 0.667 (Round up) and always at least 5 levels.

Generic Examples

• Level 1 can group with up to a 6
• Level 20 can group up to a 30 (20 * 1.5 = 30)
• Level 30 can group down to a 20 (30 * 0.667 = 20)

Rounding Examples

• Level 33 can group up to a 49 (33 * 1.5 = 49.5)
• Level 50 can group down to a 34 (50 * 0.67 = 33.34)

Zone Experience Modifiers

See Recommended Levels and ZEM List and Per-Level Hunting Guide. Also for spawn timers see Zone Spawn Timers.

Race/Class Experience Modifiers

By Race:

• Troll -20%
• Iksar -20%
• Ogre -15%
• Barbarian -5%
• Halfling +5%

By Class:

Depending on where your server is at, these may or may not be present. On Red, Green and Blue class penalties have been removed.

• Paladin / Shadowknight / Ranger / Bard -40%
• Monk -20%
• Wizard / Magician / Enchanter / Necromancer -10%
• Rogue +9%
• Warrior +10%

By Combination:

Exp modifiers are multiplied not added. E.g. Troll SK would be 1.4 (class) x 1.2 (race) = 1.68 or a 68% penalty. (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=89056&postcount=39)

• BAR ROG = +4.45%
• BAR WAR = +5.5%
• HFL ROG = +13.55%
• HFL WAR = +14.5%
• IKS MNK = -44%
• IKS NEC = -32%
• IKS/TRL SHD = -68%
• IKS/TRL WAR = -8%
• OGR SHD = -61%
• OGR WAR = -3.5%

See also:Sortable Race Class Matrix

Server Notes:

GREEN: Class experience penalties are no longer in effect as of 8/10/2021, though bonuses should remain.

BLUE and RED: Class experience penalties are no longer in effect as of 9/21/15, though bonuses should remain.

Experience Requirement by Level

The formula for the amount of total (cumulative) experience at the end of a level is as follows. Note this is not the same as the experience needed to complete each level:

Total XP to complete a level = L^3 * C * R * H

Where:

• C = Class Multiplier
• R = Race Multiplier
• H = Hell Multiplier (based on level)

Level	Level/Hell Mod ref	Hell Strength
1-29	1.0
30	1.1	1x
31-34	1.1
35	1.2	1x
36-39	1.2
40	1.3	1x
41-44	1.3
45	1.4	1x
46-50	1.4
51	1.5	1x
52	1.6	1x
53	1.7	1x
54	1.9	2x
55	2.1	2x
56	2.3	2x
57	2.5	2x
58	2.7	2x
59	3.0	3x
60	3.1	1x

"Hell Levels" are determined entirely by the difference in the Level/Hell Mod from the current level and the previous level. Since the XP required to hit the next level is based on the difference between the previous level's and the current level's totals, large changes in the required xp totals results in the level feeling like "hell", hence the name.

For example, to go from lvl 39 to lvl 40 is only 5,336,400 xp, but to go from 40 to 41 is 12,017,200 xp, over twice as much! Then when you go from 41 to 42 it drops back down to 6,397,300 xp, which is only half the requirement of the previous level.

The important factor here is not that the level mods themselves are high, but that the difference between each mod is high. For instance, the Hell Level Mod for level 52 is 1.6, and the level mod for 53 is 1.7. Both of these numbers are substantially higher than the levels of your 30's or 40's, but that isn't what matters most. No, 52 and 53 are only "single hells", because the difference between them is 0.1. Conversely, the difference between 58 (2.7) and 59 (3.0) is 0.3, which makes it a triple hell. If the level mod for level 59 was the same as level 58 (2.7), it would not be a hell level at all. But alas, it increases by 0.3, making it a triple hell.

Here is a glimpse of what the experience table would look like for a class mod of 100 and a race mod of 10 (base values) applies:

Level	Class Mod	Race Mod	Level/Hell Mod	Total XP at end of level	Total XP needed to complete level
50	100	10	1.4	175,000,000	10,291,400
51	100	10	1.5	198,976,500	23,976,500
52	100	10	1.6	224,972,800	25,996,300
53	100	10	1.7	253,090,900	28,118,100
54	100	10	1.9	299,181,600	46,090,700
55	100	10	2.1	349,387,500	50,205,900
56	100	10	2.3	403,916,800	54,529,300
57	100	10	2.5	462,982,500	59,065,700
58	100	10	2.7	526,802,400	63,819,900
59	100	10	3.0	616,137,000	89,334,600
60	100	10	3.1	669,600,000	53,463,000

The formula for the amount of XP earned for soloing a dark blue or higher mob is as follows:

XP = L^2 * C

Where:

• L = Level of mob being soloed. (If the mob is light blue or green, the xp earned will be 50%, 25% or 0% of the stated value.)
• C = The Zone Experience Modifier (ZEM) with base 75. In most outdoor zones it is 75, in most dungeons it is 80, in some newbie zones it is 100.

Note: As of July 2013, there is now a maximum XP gained from a single mob of 11%.

Luclin Era XP smoothing

In the Luclin era, the Hell Levels were "evened out":

September 4, 2002 3:00 am
** Experience Changes **
- We have smoothed out level progression from 50-60. This should mitigate the "penalty effect" that occurs in levels 51, 54 and 59. Note that it will cost the same experience to level from 50 to 60 as it did before. Also, death experience loss will appear different in some levels. This is an unfortunate side effect that must remain to prevent some experience exploits.

Despite these changes not applying until luclin, the numbers from these changes were previously stated here on this page, misinforming the playerbase for nearly a decade. This patch is not planned on the P99 Development Timeline and will thus, always be incorrect.

How Experience Works

Death and Experience exp lost.

The amount of exp you lose when your character dies is based on a percent of the total experience the previous level took. So the exp loss at 31 will be greater than at 32 due to 30 having been a hell level. similarly 36 exp loss on death due to a percent of 35's total exp required.

Draft 1.0 by Dumesh Uhl'Belk (ref)

First, I'll describe a sample party and use a tasty pie analogy to help make the mechanics easier to understand. Then, I'll get more number and formula based for those who want the nuts and bolts. (coming soon... when I feel like updating)

Think of each mob that gets spawned in EQ as a pie, a very tasty pie. When a PC kills a mob, he gets to eat the pie. When players group together and kill a mob, they have to split the pie. However, through the magic of the group bonus, for each person in the group beyond the first, the pie gets a little bit bigger (2% bigger in fact) before we pull out the knife to divide the slices.

Well, how do we slice the pie? How big will each slice be?

The answer is that we measure all the pie that each player has ever eaten (his total xp). Then we cut the slices in proportions matching those relative values. So, let's say our sample group is a simple trio of Bob the Bard, Chris the Enchanter, and Diane the Druid. Since Bob came into the world of Norrath, he's eaten 150lbs of pie. Chris has had 100lbs of pie, and Diane has also eaten 100lbs of pie. Our sample group has just killed a mob. This mobs' representative pie magically grows to be 4% larger than if a solo player killed him. Then the pie is split with 3/7 of it going to Bob, 2/7 to Chris and 2/7 to Diane. The classes of these characters makes no difference at all. The only thing that determined how big each slice of the pie would be was the net total xp that each of them had earned since character creation.

But what about xp penalties, you say?

They most certainly exist. The penalties change the amount of pie that a PC has to eat to gain each level. Human warriors have to eat 90% of the pie that Human Druids have to eat to level up. Troll Shadow Knights have to eat 68% more pie than Human Druids to level up.

The important and painfully obvious consequence of this is:

• A level 30 Human Monk has 20% more total xp than a level 30 human cleric.
• A level 50 Ogre Shadowknight has 60% more total xp than a level 50 dwarf cleric.

Or to look at it a different way...

• A human monk with 10,000,000xp is level 20.
• A halfling warrior with 10,000,000xp is level 22
• A troll shadowknight with 10,000,000xp is level 18

If the three characters above where to group together, they would all get equal slices of the pie.

But, But, you didn't say anything about the penalties when you talked about how xp is split!!! why not?

When the tasty pie is cut into slices for the group, the levels of the various PCs are not consulted (not directly anyway), only the xp totals for the PCs. The game code doesn't care if Bob is a human or an elf, a bard or a monk, level 10 or level 15... the game code only cares what Bob's total xp is.

What about zone modifiers?

Zone modifiers shrink or expand the pie before the slices are cut.

What is the maximum distance to receive XP?

According to some parses, the maximum distance to still receive XP from a kill is 500 units, although it was not properly tested if the Z axis (height distance) plays a role on the equation.

What does this all mean?!?

1. Group with people who have similar xp totals to you
2. Group with people who have similar xp totals to you
3. Group with people who have similar xp totals to you

See, it was so important, I had to say it 3 times. Please note what that really means. Race/Class combos with no penalty but who are 6 levels higher than you nerf your xp more than the hybrid who is the same level as you in most cases, especially at levels below 30. In your teens, a player 6 levels higher than you has 300 to 400% of your xp total... obviously much worse than the 140-168% of your total that a equal level hybrid has.

So, final thought...

Group with good players. An equal level group with multiple hybrids generally takes no more than 16% more kills to gain a level than a similarly leveled group that has no hydrids. Good groups kill at least 16% faster than bad groups. So, group with good players regardless of class.

Overkill / Pet Exp

Overkill is when a stronger or higher level player kills a mob that's low life, which was being damaged by a weaker or lower level player. Thus stealing the exp from the weaker / lower level player.

Care to elaborate? - e.g. player does 15 damage to a decaying skeleton - taking it down to around 7% hp. Another party then hits the decayed skeleton for 40 damage to kill it. Even though the player caused 93% damage to the decaying skeleton, the other party gets the credit for the kill as they did more actual damage (40 is a larger number than 15).

Pet Exp: Pet_Guide#Pets_and_Experience