Just wondering if anyone has noticed any kind of pattern as far as experience points gained per kill, outside of the obvious "higher level stuff gives more exp". It seems to me that the ease of a kill tends to factor somewhat, but even that doesn't really hold up under scrutiny, as I've gotten 100-something driving over a certain mob with a car, then hopped out and shot the same exact type and gotten much less. Same with easy kills versus hard kills, i.e., shooting something with rockets from a distance compared to a shotty in it's face.

More and more it just seems totally and completely random, but I'd be interested to hear what other's have noticed or theorized.

-Effedup 03:52, November 29, 2009 (UTC)

This is what I've figured so far and as most of the community has:

-The higher the level of the enemy killed compared to yours, you get more experience. -You get a different amount of experience for killing enemies with the car. Usually it's less because it's easier. -Tougher enemy classes give more experience than other enemies of the same level. -In multiplayer, even though the enemies are tougher, you don't gain extra experience from kills. This I can't confirm. -Kills from a critical hit don't yield higher experience for your character or proficiency.

[OriginalBurch, November 30, 2009 23:52]

Maybe the formula looks a little like this: (Your level / Enemies' level) * Base Experience * any bonuses (Class mods or Smirk) Is anyone interested in testing? --HybridDragoness 05:59, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

Just to add onto what OriginalBurch has already stated.

Speaking only from casual observation (haven't really studied the experience behavior). Experience is most definitely not random.

- The style in which you kill opponents won't matter (unless compared to using a vehicle). So you could kill them with a machine gun or a sniper or blow'em to pieces with a rocket launcher from 2 feet or 2 miles it wouldn't change a thing.

- Getting higher experience from higher leveled opponents applies also to lower leveled opponents - you could shoot a bandit and have it worth 500 exp, but the second you level that exact same bandit could be worth 200 exp (made-up numbers).

As for your experiment with the 'vehicle' verses 'out of vehicle'. You may have killed a higher ranked opponent and then shot a lower ranked opponent, they'll likely have been the same level, but the experience differs substantially.

On a side note, you really shouldn't need to worry too much about experience and figuring out all the patterns and doing all the math of figuring out which monster is easiest to kill to provide the most experience - Especially since once you level or find new guns, you're going to need to find a whole new farming system. Just play the game, relax & have some fun!

[Skippity]

It wouldn't surprise me if in this type of game killing the same thing in quick succession lowers the amount of experience you get. Perhaps since you killed the same exact thing twice rather quickly it gave you less. Stoan 17:46, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

@Stoan: Yeah, it must...especially with Spiderants, when I'll get mobbed with lots of the same type, the exp doesn't even seem to stay constant from one of a certain type of Spiderant to another of the exact same type (the ones that roll into a ball and hit you specifically, as there'll usually be more then one of them at a time in Rust Commons and such). I'll get 30 for one, 10 for the next...20 for one a few mobs later...

Now, I do duo with a hunter 90% of the time, and he did max out smirk, so maybe that's why the exp get's a little odd at times. We're gonna be rerolling as soon as we finish playthrough 2 (we're about 3/4 of the way there now), A Brick and Lilith duo, so I'll try to do some hard observational shtuff. Not that it matters, exp is pretty easy to come by in this game, but it's something to do when blowing up bandits, anyways :) - Effedup 18:44, December 1, 2009 (UTC)