How to gain experience quickly

Does it seem to take forever to gain a level?  If you’re already at a high level—say, mid 50’s and on—part of the problem is the exponential growth in experience points (XP) needed to level.  At the higher levels, there’s around a 15% growth rate in the additional XP needed to gain a level.

The thing you need to focus on is energy use.  How are you using your energy?--farming, harvesting resources, collecting from houses and government buildings, clearing terrain, or fighting?  Each type of activity has certain rewards, but each costs energy.  Depending on your goals at the moment, you may want to emphasize use of your energy on certain activities.

It turns out that fighting is the most energy-efficient way to gain experience.  So if your goal is to level up quickly, but you’re spending lots of energy farming and collecting rent from your real estate empire, then you’re doing it wrong!  Get your neighbors to help tend your empire while you focus on waging war. 

There are 2 reasons why fighting is a good way of converting energy into XP: critical kills and Campaign Mastery.

Critical Hits

Critical hits that result in the kill (“critical kills”) of an enemy unit will usually earn you 3 XP.  Also, critical hits usually give back energy, thus helping to make fighting more energy-efficient.  You score critical hits randomly, but there are some factors that increase the probability of getting them. 

For any battle, you should always use the fighting units that are “great” versus the enemy units.  For example, if you select to use your land army versus the enemy’s land army, you should use tanks versus soldiers, artillery versus tanks, and soldiers versus artillery.  Obviously, you should use the highest tier of units you can (Talon Tanks, not Vintage Tanks), not just because it’s common sense but because it affects the rate of critical hits.  Make sure your units have the “Increase Damage” and “Increase Accuracy” upgrades.  It seems that the final upgrade, “Increase Strength,” also helps with critical hits. 

Accuracy power-ups will almost guarantee critical hits, so use them often but wisely.  Note that with an Accuracy power-up active, even units “poor” versus an enemy unit will score critical hits (however, I’ve seen it not happen a few times).  Make it a habit to constantly build (or buy) Accuracy power-ups.  Ask for Hand-held Gas Detectors and Laser Sights from neighbors at a steady pace.  You can post to your Wall to request a total of five Power Supplies and C4 Detonators every 4 hours.  Don’t rely on the kindness of strangers to click on your requests; coordinate with allies to click each other’s links.  You can also get parts by clicking on others’ links.

Accuracy I, II, and III last 3, 7, and 11 rounds; require 7, 14, and 24 parts to build; and are unlocked at levels 10, 25, and 40, respectively.  Stockpile the ones you use the most.  Choose the one(s) that fit your battles, keeping in mind that you’re after critical kills, not just critical hits.  Personally, I prefer Accuracy I’s.

Campaign Mastery

If you play Campaign Mastery and fight for the third star of any battle (or repeat them), you gain double XP for every blow plus one extra XP at the end of each battle.  Combining this with the tips above will give you the most bang for your buck!  Note, however, that these third-star battles don’t give energy rewards from critical hits or liberty bonds at the end of battle.  Despite the lack of energy rewards, third-star battles are still better for gaining XP than other battles.  This is because you’re usually more constrained by your rate of critical hits and how many Accuracy power-ups you have rather than by your energy.

There are many good battles in Campaign Mastery to choose from that you can repeat over and over.  For low-level players, the very first battle of the very first island, Cape Pleasant I, is a nice choice.  Here, you choose two land units to fight a single air unit.  On the third gold star, that air unit is an A-10 Warthog, an airship with only 100 hitpoints.  Bring your best, upgraded soldiers to battle.  You don’t get to choose allies in this battle, so there won’t be any free power-ups; on the other hand, you won’t be limited in how frequently you can fight this battle by the number of neighbors you have.  Because there’s only one enemy unit, it’s not wise to use Accuracy power-ups of your own. 

If you can one-hit kill the A-10 Warthog, you’ll get a total of 3 XP or 7 XP for the cost of 1 energy (ignoring use of power-ups to make the kill).  Two-hit kills earn you 5-9 XP and cost 2 energy (2.5-4.5 XP/energy).  Three-hit kills earn you 7-11 XP and cost 3 energy (2.33-3.67 XP/energy).

There are, of course, many other battles in Campaign Mastery to choose from.  Choose battles with more enemy units to make use of Accuracy power-ups.  This is slightly counterbalanced by the fact that it will take more energy to earn that single XP reward at the end of battles.  Choose battles with allies to get free power-ups (hopefully Accuracy ones!).  Look for battles that help you fulfill quests at the same time.  Fight more advanced units to earn more Coins and ores from hits, especially critical hits.  Don’t be too greedy or ambitious, however—you don’t want to lose units or waste too much energy.

At a high-enough level, this strategy can help you earn over 1000 XP/day easily, if fueled by enough energy.  Optimally, you can earn near 2000 XP/day and even more...

More to come later...  I'll also write up a guide on how to level up quickly for new players.