Guide to Fastest XP Leveling above lvl 70

[Bramboxc123]

Ok. Because I'm about to "race" from lvl 69 to lvl 81 I did the math.

I crunched creature kill xp. Spawn frequency. Crafting times. Xp per craft.

And I have the quantitative results. For sake of brevity let me demonstrate 3 results.

Cloth hat = 4.5 DAYS of hat building at base crafting speed. And 4,000,000 fiber lol.

Narcotics = 27 hours of solid crafting time. Plus 100% of material gathering because you can't demolish it. I think it's what. 4x efficient with a chem bench so you're looking at 6.9 hours.

Raft building is a lot better.... = 4.4 HOURS of Raft building  (not accounting the 66.7% time it takes to get resources assuming you demolish and rebuild rafts saving 1/3rd on costs).

What I will tell you. Grinding alphas...grinding any dinos. Waste of time.

Reason it doesn't feel it takes so long is because youre killing things having fun and you arent stuck doing it UNTIL YOU'RE DONE.

Because you can walk away and come back to it...it seems like it goes fast. But you need over 60 alpha rexes (based on averages) to go from lvl 69 to lvl 81. And believe me. From circling Lava Biome on the Center endlessly. That still takes A LONG time. Days.

So what is the result?

At a Whopping 1.3 hours of crafting time the winner is. Large Crop Plots.

Large Crop plots = 1.3 hours of crafting time plus 66.7% the time it takes to gather all the mats if youre demolishing the plots and rebuilding.

I estimate that means with mat grinding AND time to build (assuming the darn crafting time stat is correct on the wiki) I can get to lvl 81 in the time it'd take me JUST to craft the rafts let alone gather mats.

I hope you find this useful.

Please ask for it to be stickied. The numbers should be correct and don't lie.

 

And the statement narcotics is the best way is patently and plainly proven false. 

 

Methodology: 200,000 xp required to go from 69 to 81. Approximate.

((200,000xp/xp per craft) x seconds to craft)/3600 = time in hours.

[Lancelot]

Have you tested a grinder? They are experience machines.

[Bramboxc123]

Just now, Lancelot said:

Have you tested a grinder? They are experience machines.

Yes but problems are: hard to do solo. Time to gather items to grind.

There's a number of items that are great at xp. Like an alpha rex. Or grinder. There are items I found TOTALLY undervalued in xp based on mats.

The problem with these are the randomness. When you average in the randomness of the resource gathering large crop plots beats it hands down. 

The only other variable unaccounted for is tribe activity. This is base statistics based on 1 person solo with reasonable tech. A grinder is unlikely to be useful solo.

That being said. If you got a tribe policing a forest as a bunch. All gathering mats all making large crop plots in xp bonus range.

You'd murder a grinder.

Just comparing the 1.3 hours versus what it takes to level off rafts shows just how potent the large crop plot is.

I have to test the crafting speed to be sure. Im basing it off the wiki.

[Lancelot]

1 minute ago, Bramboxc123 said:

Yes but problems are: hard to do solo. Time to gather items to grind.

There's a number of items that are great at xp. Like an alpha rex. Or grinder. There are items I found TOTALLY undervalued in xp based on mats.

The problem with these are the randomness. When you average in the randomness of the resource gathering large crop plots beats it hands down. 

The only other variable unaccounted for is tribe activity. This is base statistics based on 1 person solo with reasonable tech. A grinder is unlikely to be useful solo.

That being said. If you got a tribe policing a forest as a bunch. All gathering mats all making large crop plots in xp bonus range.

You'd murder a grinder.

Just comparing the 1.3 hours versus what it takes to level off rafts shows just how potent the large crop plot is.

I have to test the crafting speed to be sure. Im basing it off the wiki.

Yeah that makes sense. Good to know that large crop plots are so op. It just sucks that at the end of it all you are left with are crops plots that you will most likely drop.

 

Personally I like having a lot of mortars and making narcotics. (TBF I use a chem bench now but that's level 90 now). Just get a bronto and drop everything but the narcoberries. I can normally gather around 10k berries in 15 min. Most of the time my problem is I don't have enough spoiled meat.

[Hotace1630]

use broth of enlightenment helps level

[Bramboxc123]

17 minutes ago, Lancelot said:

Yeah that makes sense. Good to know that large crop plots are so op. It just sucks that at the end of it all you are left with are crops plots that you will most likely drop.

 

Personally I like having a lot of mortars and making narcotics. (TBF I use a chem bench now but that's level 90 now). Just get a bronto and drop everything but the narcoberries. I can normally gather around 10k berries in 15 min. Most of the time my problem is I don't have enough spoiled meat.

First to reply regarding broth of enlightenment. This is all "base stat" assumptions solo. Anything else in the game will affect the results.

Tribes. Dinos. Tribe farming. Etc.

What I calculated for is what's the base fastest. With broth of enlightenment youd save on 33% of harvesting time for mats for crop plots.

Regarding narcos. I didnt even bother to account for the spoil timer on the meat. Which you will have to gather and preserve at least 100,000 meat and 500,000 berries. (Divide by 4 per chem lab in use)

Im not interested in doing the math on all the variables of how much spoiled meat and narcos spoil before you get to the 100,000 and how many spoil during crafting.

 

All these factors greatly weigh against the time to XP.

By large penalties. That greatly outnumbers how ever many crafting stations you are using.

I'm going to test the effectiveness of these solo calculations when I get home.

 

PS. Narcos are a great source of xp. But passively. You wont be going out making narcos just to get from level 69 to 81. You'll make them when convenient or needed. Hence passively and over time.

[mleii]

Does this take into account the weekend bonus xp rates?  Also I think you can get 1.35 xp boost with a lystro around that you pet every 5 minutes to get the boost.  Not sure how or if those xp boosts stack as I've not looked at it lately.

EDIT:  Sorry, noticed you said base stats.

[SmokeyB]

54 minutes ago, Lancelot said:

Yeah that makes sense. Good to know that large crop plots are so op. It just sucks that at the end of it all you are left with are crops plots that you will most likely drop.

?????? Most likely drop??????  Large crop plots are really useful, place them on the floor and add fertiliser and a seed and a plant will grow. 

 

 

[ThzNutz]

@Bramboxc123

good frog/saddle and run the swamp cave. 200,000 xp should be about 4 runs, less if soloing it. hella more fun than grinding mats, ya might get some good loot from the drops, and you're not running all over the map chasing alphas (i like that too tho lol)

[Bramboxc123]

6 minutes ago, ThzNutz said:

@Bramboxc123

good frog/saddle and run the swamp cave. 200,000 xp should be about 4 runs, less if soloing it. hella more fun than grinding mats, ya might get some good loot from the drops, and you're not running all over the map chasing alphas (i like that too tho lol)

Thanks for giving me the info on the runs estimate.

My experience with caves has been the runs take forever to recharge.

Swamp cave was highest on my list for dino grinding. But I just dont see the numbers adding up based on the spawn rates. It's a runner-up for sure. But if you estimate 50,000 xp per run I'd say itd be slower than crop plots on average.

[ThzNutz]

3 minutes ago, Bramboxc123 said:

slower than crop plots on average.

cave re-spawns fully about every 50 minutes to an hour. when we are headed out the first mob is already starting to re-spawn usually.

slower? that may be true, but the huge bonus is you are not just standing there making crops plots

run the cave and make crop plots while waiting for the re-spawn....or just make crop plots lol

to each their own mate and happy leveling, however you choose to do it

 

[Bramboxc123]

26 minutes ago, ThzNutz said:

cave re-spawns fully about every 50 minutes to an hour. when we are headed out the first mob is already starting to re-spawn usually.

slower? that may be true, but the huge bonus is you are not just standing there making crops plots

run the cave and make crop plots while waiting for the re-spawn....or just make crop plots lol

to each their own mate and happy leveling, however you choose to do it

 

I live in a cave and definitely doesnt respawn every 50 minutes or so. If swamp cave does that's a special characteristic of it.

Caves are supposed to spawn faster but they dont or the spawns are buggy.

Assuming 50 minute respawns and the penalty for a mount we can consider 4 runs to be reasonable.

I'd say thatd put a full 69 to 81 at approximately 200 minutes? So 3:20 or so hours.

Not bad. But that might even out exactly the same for the crop plots on average.

Unconsidered but can now be considered are explorer notes.

It's a lot easier to maximize their use on crafting objects than on killing dinos.

But that's a personal consideration. Not easily quantified.

[Voidstar]

18 minutes ago, Bramboxc123 said:

I live in a cave and definitely doesnt respawn every 50 minutes or so. If swamp cave does that's a special characteristic of it.

Caves are supposed to spawn faster but they dont or the spawns are buggy.

Assuming 50 minute respawns and the penalty for a mount we can consider 4 runs to be reasonable.

I'd say thatd put a full 69 to 81 at approximately 200 minutes? So 3:20 or so hours.

Not bad. But that might even out exactly the same for the crop plots on average.

Unconsidered but can now be considered are explorer notes.

It's a lot easier to maximize their use on crafting objects than on killing dinos.

But that's a personal consideration. Not easily quantified.

put broth of enlightment in your calculations and lystro buff [does it stack, or does it work on humans?]

[Bramboxc123]

7 minutes ago, Voidstar said:

put broth of enlightment in your calculations and lystro buff [does it stack, or does it work on humans?]

Doesnt work on players unless they changed that recently? 

As for broth. It applies to everything so like a constant it can be ruled out for comparing between variables.

[eESTlane]

amm, last time a demoed a raft, it sank. not a single fiber back

[Bramboxc123]

1 minute ago, eESTlane said:

amm, last time a demoed a raft, it sank. not a single fiber back

I dont think Ive ever Demo'd a raft. Good call. But raft wouldnt be the fastest anyway including the high hide amount required and given how heavy wood is.

Nice to know that it just sinks tho. Freaking lame.

[ZxDawbyxZ]

Industtial grinder, enough said.

[booned]

Put a load of narcotics on craft then go collect explorer notes is what I usually do.

[Wazzamaniac]

7 hours ago, Bramboxc123 said:

Thanks for giving me the info on the runs estimate.

My experience with caves has been the runs take forever to recharge.

Swamp cave was highest on my list for dino grinding. But I just dont see the numbers adding up based on the spawn rates. It's a runner-up for sure. But if you estimate 50,000 xp per run I'd say itd be slower than crop plots on average.

I have done the cave multiple times in just a couple of hours, so in my experience it is possible. The meganeura swarms give ridiculous xp.

[Volcano637]

10 hours ago, Bramboxc123 said:

Yes but problems are: hard to do solo. Time to gather items to grind.

There's a number of items that are great at xp. Like an alpha rex. Or grinder. There are items I found TOTALLY undervalued in xp based on mats.

The problem with these are the randomness. When you average in the randomness of the resource gathering large crop plots beats it hands down. 

The only other variable unaccounted for is tribe activity. This is base statistics based on 1 person solo with reasonable tech. A grinder is unlikely to be useful solo.

That being said. If you got a tribe policing a forest as a bunch. All gathering mats all making large crop plots in xp bonus range.

You'd murder a grinder.

Just comparing the 1.3 hours versus what it takes to level off rafts shows just how potent the large crop plot is.

I have to test the crafting speed to be sure. Im basing it off the wiki.

Solo the best way will always be the industrial grinder. Hand s down.

with two or more people the grinder becomes even more viable. Have people looking in the woods or anywhere to find alphas??? They could all hop on a beaver and multiple people would be gaining constant xp not just one.

bot just that but even one person on a beaver could make your grinder never stop running and if you are the button pusher than there is simply no faster way to level. May not be the most fun way but if you have to vacuum the house or do the dishes and be able to complete real life chores while gains no xp by pushing a button every few minutes then man.... you hit the jackpot 

[Volcano637]

12 minutes ago, Wazzamaniac said:

I have done the cave multiple times in just a couple of hours, so in my experience it is possible. The meganeura swarms give ridiculous xp.

For this convo and this convo alone. If you are on no tame like i was and still lvl 90... yeah grinders are awesome.

a lot of wood chopping with a hatchet but still lvl 90 in a couple of days

[Quirky]

What I've never understood about xp grinding is, why do you feel it's necessary, how do you have any time?

I've never had an issue with my xp gains. I'm not gonna try and say its as fast as grinding specifically for it, but it's by no means low. The difference for me is practicality and usefulness. Narcotics, those can be used. Rafts, crop plots, industrial grinding? You are wasting resources for no purpose but a number. So you get 200K xp in a matter of hours? It might take me more like 16 hours of play time, but in that time I have made a 22 wall thick safe room, and crafted a few vaults worth of resources that WILL get used.

There's too much to do and make to dedicate time specifically to xp. And while you waste time on it, you are not actually contributing to your tribe. In a game where teamwork prevails over solo.

[Bramboxc123]

3 hours ago, Volcano637 said:

Solo the best way will always be the industrial grinder. Hand s down.

with two or more people the grinder becomes even more viable. Have people looking in the woods or anywhere to find alphas??? They could all hop on a beaver and multiple people would be gaining constant xp not just one.

bot just that but even one person on a beaver could make your grinder never stop running and if you are the button pusher than there is simply no faster way to level. May not be the most fun way but if you have to vacuum the house or do the dishes and be able to complete real life chores while gains no xp by pushing a button every few minutes then man.... you hit the jackpot 

I must agree this would be a pretty legit way to level especially passively if you have something to do around the house.

I testedthe numbers on official server. The raft still beats the crop plots because hands down it's way quicker to harvest hide and wood than to harvest stone. Tomorrow Im going to put this to a grind test and just walk the beach from south east to south west witha fist full of hatchets picks sickles and a pike. And just murder everything throwing rafts like johnny apple seed.

I suspect this combined with good use of explorer notes will achieve the goal of 200,000 xp in a few hours.

[Lancelot]

15 hours ago, SmokeyB said:

?????? Most likely drop??????  Large crop plots are really useful, place them on the floor and add fertiliser and a seed and a plant will grow. 

 

 

I know what crop plots are. It's just that I would expect a lvl 70 to already have a farm with crops growing. Also his way of doing it requires either to have a ridiculous amount of crop plots in your inventory or keep putting them down and destroying them.

6 hours ago, Quirky said:

What I've never understood about xp grinding is, why do you feel it's necessary, how do you have any time?

I've never had an issue with my xp gains. I'm not gonna try and say its as fast as grinding specifically for it, but it's by no means low. The difference for me is practicality and usefulness. Narcotics, those can be used. Rafts, crop plots, industrial grinding? You are wasting resources for no purpose but a number. So you get 200K xp in a matter of hours? It might take me more like 16 hours of play time, but in that time I have made a 22 wall thick safe room, and crafted a few vaults worth of resources that WILL get used.

There's too much to do and make to dedicate time specifically to xp. And while you waste time on it, you are not actually contributing to your tribe. In a game where teamwork prevails over solo.

I use my grinder along with my doed to make flint. I can then use the flint and stone to make sparkpowder. Then use the wood I burn in my 9 forges to make gunpowder. I use the gunpowder to craft ammos in my 2 smity.

When everything is happening at the same time, exp goes really fast. I also end up with bullets instead of useless thatch.

[Quirky]

19 minutes ago, Lancelot said:

I know what crop plots are. It's just that I would expect a lvl 70 to already have a farm with crops growing. Also his way of doing it requires either to have a ridiculous amount of crop plots in your inventory or keep putting them down and destroying them.

I use my grinder along with my doed to make flint. I can then use the flint and stone to make sparkpowder. Then use the wood I burn in my 9 forges to make gunpowder. I use the gunpowder to craft ammos in my 2 smity.

When everything is happening at the same time, exp goes really fast. I also end up with bullets instead of useless thatch.

Well that's sensible. That's how it is for me. Between all the things I make that actually get used, I get plenty of exp, and don't have time to waste on "the moat efficient ways to get xp". I'm talking about the people I see on the forums here that use industrial grinder, build rafts or crop plots, and just waste everything. Narcotics I would condone to an extent, but if someone's crafting many thousands, vastly more than is going to be needed or used for a good long time, simply for lvls, it's absurd. There's so many things that are needed or actually useful.