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Experience

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Revision as of 19:19, 13 June 2024 by TitanstringEnjoyer (talk | contribs) (→‎Completing quests and quest steps: add an example of step quest that grants 30 xp during the quest Find the Blood of Lathander)
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Experience (commonly abbreviated exp. or xp) is a central gameplay mechanic in Baldur's Gate 3.

Characters

All characters start at level 1, and level up when they receive enough experience. Leveling up allows a character to take another level in a class. After reaching level 12, no further levels are gained.

The experience cumulated at each level and the experience required to reach the next level is described in the following table:

Level Cumulative exp. Exp. for next level
1 0 300
2 300 600
3 900 1,800
4 2,700 3,800
5 6,500 6,500
6 13,000 8,000
7 21,000 9,000
8 30,000 12,000
9 42,000 14,000
10 56,000 20,000
11 76,000 24,000
12 100,000 N/A

When gaining experience, it is usually earned by all the companions who have joined the player, whether they are in the active party or at the campsite. The only exception is when a character is succeeding a background goal, in which case only that character earns the experience.

If the player's main character has more experience than one or more party members, the player can remove them from the party and add them back, their experience will now be equal to the main character.

Sources of experience

There are 4 sources of experience in the game:

In many occurrences during the game, the player has the possibility to side with a NPC for the purpose of succeeding a quest, then kill them afterwards. In doing so they effectively gain the experience from succeeding the quest and the experience from defeating the NPC. For example, the player can side with Nere for the purpose of succeeding Free True Soul Nere, then kill him and his minions afterwards to obtain the maximum of experience as possible (in addition of obtaining both the quest rewards and his items).

The amount of experience rewarded by defeating an enemy, discovering a location or completing a quest is not visible in the user interface until the task is completed. Once completed, the amount of experience gained will briefly appear on screen, as well as in the combats logs.

Defeating enemies

The amount of experience obtained by defeating an enemy is determined by:

  1. the enemy level (see below for an exception)
  2. the reward category assigned to the enemy

There are 7 reward categories, which are assigned internally by the game and are not visible anywhere in the user interface. From less to most rewarding:

  • Zero
  • Civilian
  • Pack
  • Combatant
  • Elite
  • Miniboss
  • Boss

Defeating "Zero" and "Civilian" enemies grants respectively 0 and 1 experience at any level. "Pack" enemies are the next weakest category and will provide much less experience than "Boss" enemies. For example, Nere is a level 5 "Elite" enemy, so defeating him rewards 90 experience. His minions are level 5 "Combatant" enemies, so defeating them rewards 75 experience each. Enemies of level 13 and above will provide as much experience as a level 12 enemy.

If the enemy level is lower than the area level, then the game uses the area level instead of the enemy level to choose the reward. For example, when defeating a level 1 Goblin in the level 3 Blighted Village, the game will grant the experience for a level 3 "Combatant", i.e. 20 experience instead of 10.

Examining an enemy doesn't provide its reward category, preventing the player to determine the precise amount of experience it will reward. However, the player can approximate it using the enemy level, visible in the Examine window or while hovering the enemy. The area level is not provided in the user interface either.

The experience granted by each level and each reward category is described in the following table:

Reward categories
Level Zero Civilian Pack Combatant Elite Miniboss Boss
1 0 1 3 10 15 20 30
2 0 1 5 15 25 40 75
3 0 1 10 20 40 50 100
4 0 1 20 40 75 100 150
5 0 1 40 75 90 150 250
6 0 1 50 90 150 230 320
7 0 1 60 110 180 280 400
8 0 1 75 140 220 350 500
9 0 1 110 200 315 500 700
10 0 1 135 250 400 640 875
11 0 1 170 320 510 800 1120
12+ 0 1 210 400 640 1000 1400

Defeating an enemy can reward no experience if the player already resolved the encounter without fighting. For instance, if the player peacefully talks their way out of an encounter, they will gain the same experience as if they had killed the enemies. Killing them afterwards will not earn the player any more experience. This is to prevent the player to double up on experience. When resolving the encounter peacefully, the player gets the experience for the NPC they interacted with, as well as the experience for all the nearby NPCs who would normally join the fight if the player decided to attack. For example, when entering the Crèche Y'llek and attacking Far'aag, the 3 other NPCs in the room join the fight. Killing them grants 75 each, since they are level 5 "Combatant" enemies, for a total of 300 experience. Instead of attacking, the player can talk with Far'aag to avoid a fight, in which case they are granted 300 experience too. Killing the 4 NPCs afterwards grants 0 experience.

Discovering new locations

The amount of experience obtained by discovering new locations (internally referenced as "Exploration Reward") is determined by:

  1. the area level (see below for an exception)
  2. the reward category assigned to the area

There are 4 reward categories, which are assigned internally by the game and are not visible anywhere in the user interface. From less to most rewarding:

  • Small
  • Medium
  • Big
  • LevelBoost (which is not actually assigned to any area)

Similarly, the area level is assigned internally and is not visible anywhere in the user interface.

If the area level is lower than the main character level, then the game uses the main character level instead of the area level to choose the reward. For example, when discovering Crèche Y'llek, which is a level 5 "Big" area, if the main character is level 5, it will grant 240 experience; if the main character is level 6, it will grant 280 experience; and if the main character is level 7, it will grant 300 experience.

The experience granted by each level and each reward category is described in the following table:

Reward categories
Level Small Medium Big LevelBoost
1 5 10 15 100
2 10 20 30 200
3 30 60 90 300
4 40 75 130 500
5 80 150 240 1000
6 95 180 280 1100
7 115 210 300 1200
8 150 275 370 1500
9 210 400 530 2000
10 260 500 660 2400
11 330 630 850 3400
12 420 780 1000 5000

Completing quests and quest steps

The quests on themselves don't grant experience on completion, but their steps do. All the quests are divided into steps (internally referenced as "QuestStep") and each step has its own experience reward. The steps are shown in the user interface, inside the quests journal. By clicking on a quest on the left side, the current step in progression and all the completed steps for this quest are listed on the right side. The amount of experience granted by a step is not visible in the user interface until the step is completed. While a quest step might not be required to complete a quest, it still can grant some experience, usually a small amount.

The amount of experience obtained by completing a quest step is determined by:

  1. the level of the area that triggers the completion
  2. the reward category assigned to the quest step

There are 11 reward categories, which are assigned internally by the game and are not visible anywhere in the user interface. From less to most rewarding:

  • CombatCloseBooster
  • CombatCloseMajor
  • ProgressBooster
  • ProgressMajor
  • CloseBoosterEasy
  • CombatCloseMain
  • CloseBoosterHard
  • ProgressMain
  • CloseMajor
  • BypassedCombatMedium
  • CloseMain

There is actually a 12th category, "BackgroundGoal", but as its name suggests, it is not assigned to completing quests but to succeeding background goals.

For example, in the quest Find the Blood of Lathander occurring in Act One, one of the quest step is "We learned that a powerful holy relic, the Blood of Lathander, could be somewhere nearby. We should keep an eye out for it as we explore the monastery.". Its reward category is "ProgressMajor" and its completion triggers inside the Rosymorn Monastery, which is a level 5 area. So completing this quest step grants 30 experience.

The experience granted by each level and each reward category is described in the following table:

Reward categories
Level Combat
Close
Booster
Combat
Close
Major
Progress
Booster
Progress
Major
Close
Booster
Easy
Combat
Close
Main
Close
Booster
Hard
Progress
Main
Close
Major
Bypassed
Combat
Medium
Close
Main
1 5 5 5 5 5 15 5 5 20 30 50
2 5 10 10 10 10 30 15 10 30 50 50
3 5 10 15 15 15 30 35 30 45 70 75
4 5 10 20 20 25 30 50 60 60 100 100
5 10 20 30 30 35 60 80 120 120 200 200
6 10 25 35 35 40 70 95 145 145 240 240
7 10 30 45 45 50 80 115 175 175 290 290
8 10 35 55 55 65 110 145 225 225 360 360
9 10 40 65 65 90 160 200 320 320 525 525
10 10 45 75 75 110 200 250 400 400 400 650
11 10 50 85 85 140 250 320 500 500 500 840
12 10 60 95 95 175 300 400 640 640 640 1000

The category "CombatCloseMain" is actually never used in the game, and the category "ProgressBooster" is the most used one, it is assigned to 240 quest steps.

The following table shows how many times each reward category is used in the game:

Combat
Close
Booster
Combat
Close
Major
Progress
Booster
Progress
Major
Close
Booster
Easy
Combat
Close
Main
Close
Booster
Hard
Progress
Main
Close
Major
Bypassed
Combat
Medium
Close
Main
Quest
steps
2 4 240 121 114 0 63 51 167 9 23