Experience Chart - June 2012

The maximum level was increased from 75 to 85 sometime during June 2012.  At the same time, the buildable Tier 8 units were released.

Just prior to the above changes, the required levels for the Tier 7 units were decreased.  There is now an overlap between the required levels for the standard Tier 6 and Tier 7 units.

Level	XP	To Level	Units Unlocked	Tier
1	0	0	Cadet Soldiers	1
2	7	7
3	20	13	Cannon Artillery
4	43	23	Vintage Tank
5	66	23	Ironclad Gunboat
6	93	27	Vintage Carrier
7	175	82	Vintage Battleship
8	257	82	Vintage Fighter
9	341	84	Zeppelin Airship
10	427	86	Vintage Bomber
11	516	89
12	610	94
13	711	101
14	818	107	Grunt Soldiers	2
15	934	116	Torpedo Gunboat
16	1,059	125	Mustang Fighter
17	1,196	137	Field Artillery
18	1,345	149	Light Carrier
19	1,508	163	Light Airship
20	1,686	178	Armored Tank
21	1,881	195	Light Battleship
22	2,094	213	Flying Fortress Bomber
23	2,326	232	Bazooka Soldiers	3
24	2,580	254	Howitzer Artillery
25	2,856	276
26	3,157	301	Sherman Tank
27	3,483	326	MiG 17 Fighter
28	3,838	355	Chinook Airship
29	4,221	383	B-52 Bomber
30	4,636	415	Submarine Gunboat
31	5,083	447	Assault Carrier
32	5,565	482	Assault Battleship
33	6,083	518	Rocket Soldiers	4
34	6,639	556	Harrier Fighter
35	7,201	562	Seawolf Gunboat
36	7,769	568	Heavy Artillery
37	8,341	572	Apache Airship
38	8,919	578	Heavy Carrier
39	9,502	583	Abrams Tank
40	10,092	590	Strike Battleship
41	10,687	595	Supersonic Bomber
42	11,288	601	Mechanized Soldiers	5
43	11,895	607	Rocket Artillery
44	12,508	613	Crusher Tank
45	13,128	620	Raptor Fighter
46	13,754	626	Comanche Airship
47	14,386	632	Stealth Bomber
48	15,025	639	Hunter-Killer Gunboat
49	15,671	646	Supercarrier
50	16,325	654	Railgun Battleship
51	16,986	661
52	17,658	672
53	18,337	679
54	19,023	686
55	19,717	694
56	20,456	739	Advanced Soldier	6
57	21,278	822	Advanced Gunboat
58	22,263	985	Advanced Drone Fighter
59	23,569	1,306	Advanced Rocket Artillery
60	25,202	1,633	Super Dimensional Carrier (6), Kodiak EXO Infantry (7)	6 & 7
61	27,166	1,964	Osprey Airship (6)
62	29,463	2,297	Talon Tank (6), Narwahl Submarine (7)
63	32,106	2,643	Advanced Battleship (6)
64	35,098	2,992	Hypersonic Bomber (6), Tiger Moth Fighter (7)
65	38,446	3,348
66	42,152	3,706	The Bison Halftrack Artillery	7
67	46,223	4,071	Albatross Carrier
68	50,663	4,440	Gemini Helicopter
69	55,477	4,814
70	60,671	5,194	The Griffin Tank
71	66,248	5,577	Man O' War Battleship
72	72,216	5,968	Sparrowhawk Bomber
73	78,578	6,362
74	85,513	6,935
75	93,204	7,691	Dragon Infantry	8
76	101,834	8,630	Mermaid Assault Sub
77	110,536	8,702	Djinn Fighter
78	119,312	8,776
79	128,163	8,851	Sleeper Artillery
80	137,960	9,797	Grimm D7 Carrier
81	149,611	11,651	Voodoo Gunship
82	163,137	13,526
83	181,288	18,151	Beast IFV (Tank)
84	205,029	23,741	Shaman Battleship
85	234,419	29,390	Midnight Bomber

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.