Experience and level

Gaining XP

Experience points can be gained in the following ways:

1. Making a melee attack. The attack doesn’t have to hit, and you can even swing at thin air. However, attacks from the back row marked “CAN’T REACH” don’t count.
2. Dealing damage with a melee attack.
3. Making a ranged attack.
4. Casting a spell.
5. Throwing an item by picking it up with the mouse and clicking on the screen. The XP for this is granted to the character currently wearing the Helmet of Justice. Throwing a heart at the Spring of Life does grant the XP for throwing an item.
6. Taking damage from an enemy. Bumping into walls or the Sprig of Life doesn’t count. The character gains the XP even if the damage kills them.
7. Killing an enemy. All living party members receive XP.

Using an weapon or wand in hand grants XP to the class associated with that item. A character can level up in all six classes this way. For example, it’s common for characters to gain Adventurer levels early on from unarmed punches and throwing baseballs.

Clicking on the screen to throw an item grants XP to the Adventurer class regardless of the item. All other sources of XP are granted to the character’s original base class.

Level

Each character has a level in all six classes. Internally, this is stored as a 16-bit integer, with each named level (e.g. Novice, Tenderfoot) representing 4 level increases. However, you only gain stat increases at named levels. Each character starts at level 4, Novice, for their original base class, and level 0 in all other classes.

XP is stored for each class as a 32-bit integer. Once XP goes above a threshold equal to 2^((level/4)+6) (i.e. 64 at level 0 and doubling at every fourth level thereafter), the level increases by one and the XP resets. XP gained above the threshold is not lost.

The following chart shows the internal level number, level title, amount of XP to reach that level title from the previous level title, and the total amount of XP necessary to reach that level title:

Levels go from Novice to Master. For example, a total of 256 Adventurer XP will grant the rank of Novice Adventurer. After Master, each additional level adds a number after the title; e.g. Master Adventurer 1, Master Adventurer 2, etc. After Master 14, the XP cost for each level is fixed.

XP awards (WIP)

The amount of XP awarded is not fully explored yet. Early observed values:

• Attacking with a level 1 weapon attack or unarmed (e.g. punch, kick, penknife swing grants 3 XP.
• Attacking with a level 2 weapon attack (e.g. penknife stab) grants 4 XP.
• Melee damage seems to deal 17 XP.
• Casting a level 1 spell (e.g. Open, Confuse, Rem) grants 7 or 9 XP. The difference may be that it grants only 7 it fails, e.g. for running out of Magic or if the spell fizzles. A level 2 spell (e.g. Glow, Fitness) grants 9 or 11 XP, and casting at increased level by clicking on the number at the top of the list will add another +2 to that. A successful level 6 Fitness grants 13 or 21 depending on if it succeeds.
• Throwing a Ball gives between 8 and 11 XP.
• Taking a hit from the rebound of your own ball gives 2 or 3 XP.
• Throwing items by clicking in the main area grants different XP depending on the item, probably based on weight. Most grant 10 to 14, but throwing the rabbit pie gives 20 to 22 XP.
• Taking damage seems to grant an amount of XP which correlates with the amount of damage taken.