Experience

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:

• defeating characters
• discovering new locations
• completing quests and quest steps
• succeeding background goals (which also grants inspirations)

In many occurrences during the game, the player has the possibility to side with a character 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 character. 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).

Discovering new locations is the only source of experience that scales with the main character level. As a result, the amount of experience granted for visiting an area will be different from one player to another, depending of when each player visits the area for the first time.

The amount of experience rewarded by defeating a character, 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 characters

The amount of experience obtained by defeating a character is determined by:

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

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

If the defeated character level is lower than the area level, then the game uses the area level instead of the character level to choose the reward. For example, when defeating a level 1 "Combatant" Goblin character in the level 3 Blighted Village area, the game will use the area level and grant the experience rewarded by a level 3 "Combatant", so 20 experience.

Examining a character 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 character level, visible in the Examine window or while hovering the character. 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	1,120
12+	0	1	210	400	640	1,000	1,400

Defeating a character 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 characters. 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 character they interacted with, as well as the experience for all the nearby characters 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" characters, 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	1,000
6	95	180	280	1,100
7	115	210	300	1,200
8	150	275	370	1,500
9	210	400	530	2,000
10	260	500	660	2,400
11	330	630	850	3,400
12	420	780	1,000	5,000

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 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 step is determined by:

1. the level of the area that triggers the completion
2. the reward category assigned to the 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 steps 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 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	1,000

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

There are also 2,728 quest steps without reward category. They effectively grant 0 experience on completion.

Succeeding background goals

The amount of experience obtained by succeeding a background goal is determined by:

1. the reward level assigned to the background goal

The level is related to the story progression, so goals that trigger later into the game usually have a higher level than goals that trigger at the beginning of the game. The level is assigned internally and is not visible anywhere in the user interface For example, the goal "Honing the Darkness" for the background Acolyte is a level 6 background goal, so it grants 60 experience.

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

Level	Reward
1	15
2	20
3	25
4	30
5	50
6	60
7	75
8	95
9	135
10	170
11	220
12	275

The level 1 is actually never used in the game, and the level 10 is the most used one, it is assigned to 92 background goals.

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

	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6	Level 7	Level 8	Level 9	Level 10	Level 11	Level 12
Background goals	0	2	8	1	63	65	40	8	54	92	57	3

Succeeding background goals also grant inspirations.