Experience(Elemental Reforged)

Experience and Leveling

In Elemental Reforged, units gain experience points (XP) through combat and other activities. When a unit accumulates enough experience, they gain a level, gaining improved stats and potentially new abilities.

Experience Sources and Distribution

How XP is gained and distributed can be generally thought of as "killing enemies and doing quests gives the participants an even share of XP" but for more advanced players, this section describes the nuances of how the game calculates and distributes experience.

Combat Experience

The primary way units gain experience is by defeating enemies in battle. When an enemy unit is killed, the victorious army receives experience points based on:

• The defeated unit's Combat Rating , which is calculated from its stats and other modifiers
• The defeated unit's Level
• A global Combat Rating to XP Multiplier

The formula for experience awarded when defeating a unit is:

AwardedXP = max(CombatRating × CombatRatingMultiplier × sqrt(Level), Level)

The minimum XP awarded is always at least equal to the defeated unit's level.

Other Sources of Experience

Beyond combat, units can gain experience through:

Stationed in City: Units garrisoned in a city gain passive XP over time:

• Champions gain 1 XP every turn while stationed
• Trained Units gain 1 XP every N turns (configurable in game settings, default 10 turns)

Quest Completion: Quests can award XP through game modifiers when completed

Events: Certain game events can trigger experience gains

Experience Distribution

When an army defeats an enemy, experience is distributed among the army's units:

• Champions in the army share the experience equally among themselves.
• Trained Units receive the full experience amount, albeit with a significant penalty.

Example: If you have 1 champion and 3 trained units and they defeat a unit worth 100 XP, before modifiers the champion would get 100 XP and each trained unit would also get 100 XP. If you instead brought 2 champions, each trained unit would still get 100 XP, but each champion would get 50 XP due to how experience is distributed between champions. Note that the experience gained by trained units is unaffected by how many champions are in their army.

Experience Modifiers

Several factors can modify the amount of experience a unit receives:

Experience Bonus Stat: Units with the EXPBONUS stat receive a percentage bonus to all experience gained. For example, a unit with +25 EXPBONUS gains 25% more XP.

Trained Unit Penalty: Non-champion units (trained/designed units) receive reduced experience based on the ExpMultiplierOnDesignedUnits setting. This ensures champions level faster than regular troops. Trained units always receive at least 1 XP per combat.

Difficulty Modifier: Higher difficulty settings increase the XP required to level up (see below).

Map Size Modifier: Larger maps reduce XP per kill to balance pacing.

Major Faction Penalty: Defeating units from major factions awards only 50% of normal XP.

Level Requirements

Units start at Level 1 with 0 experience points. The amount of experience required to reach the next level follows a quadratic progression formula:

XP Required = (9 × CurrentLevel) + (Multiplier × CurrentLevel^Base)

Where:

• Multiplier = 1 (default)
• Base = 2.1 (modified by difficulty)

Difficulty Impact on Leveling

The base exponent increases on higher difficulties, making leveling slower:

Difficulty	Base Exponent	Effect
Novice through Challenging	2.1	Standard progression
Hard	2.15	Slower
Expert	2.20	Slower
Ridiculous	2.25	Slower
Insane	2.30	Slower

Experience Table

The XP requirements for early levels (at standard difficulty):

What Happens When You Level Up

Level	XP to Next Level	Cumulative XP
1	10	0
2	22	10
3	37	32
4	54	69
5	74	123
6	97	197
7	122	294
8	150	416
9	181	566
10	215	747

As levels increase, the XP requirements grow significantly, creating a natural progression curve where early levels come quickly but later levels require substantially more effort.

Effects of Leveling

When a unit accumulates enough experience to level up:

1. Experience is spent: The required XP is subtracted from the unit's total
2. Level increases: The unit's level increments by 1
3. Stats are recalculated: The unit receives new stats based on their unit type's level milestones
4. Perk selection (Champions only): Champions get to choose a new perk

Stat Progression

Each unit type defines stat milestones at certain levels. When a unit levels up:

• Hit Points: Increase by 2 per level (plus any global HP bonus)
• Combat Stats: Attack, defense, dodge, and other combat values update based on unit type milestones
• Movement: Total moves are recalculated
• Sight Range: Sight range is updated

Stats between defined milestones are interpolated, providing smooth progression.

Multiple Level-Ups

If a unit gains enough experience to level up multiple times at once (such as from a large battle), each level is processed sequentially. The unit receives perk choices for each level gained.

Champion Leveling

Champions (heroes) have special leveling considerations:

Perk System

When champions level up, they choose from available perks that provide various bonuses:

• Stat increases
• New abilities
• Combat bonuses
• Special traits

The available perks depend on:

• The champion's class/type
• Previously chosen perks (some are mutually exclusive)
• The champion's current level

Trained Unit Leveling

Regular trained units (non-champions) level up similarly but with key differences:

• They receive reduced experience from combat
• Many unit types do not receive perk choices on level up
• Their stat progression is defined entirely by their unit type's milestones