Expierience gain

[Vilk]

Yes rebuild an army is a challenge and depends of resources your game has. I used a more elf army only since before the Labyrinth so making the shortcut from Elven lands to King castle wasn't a pain. I had resources in shops to rebuild the army I was using in elven lands but Dryads and Red dragon. But I had few red dragon eggs that I didn't used because red dragons for Demonis makes few sense. In fact Demonis has few elven resources the problem is that which one depends of your game. In mine I had Dryad quite soon in Demonis so restore my army was totally fine.

Restore the army from Freedom islands will hardly involve similar problems except if you switch to Sea Dog and have none in Darion. A key could be to let a small army in castle and an easy fight you can control to restore stacks at max with Sacrifice.

I agree that killing all and get the max xp isn't the point but you need reach level 30 if you goal for a score. In a first attempt I failed to level 30 and when I succeed reach level 30 it was only after some fights in Murock ie not far from the end.

I also agree that later fights bring much more xp but there isn't so many fights with Labyrinth + Murock. Another point to not skip too many xp even soon in the game is to level up sooner.

To get more xp:

Invest not too late in the paladin skill you quote. Invest sooner here is more to level up sooner than to be sure to level up to 30.
Use the Tactics Treatise that brings 10% more xp.
A possibility is to use the General set with Tactics Treatise and Bloody band, this set brings 5% more xp.
Some babies give xp percentage bonus, that can be cool soon in the game but no guaranty you get such baby. Also that's fine soon in the game because you don't have yet many good items but later when you have cumulate more great items babies are more a burden.

For the quote at some points of the game Calinda that provided some saves of his 7 days game had two more levels (not two full levels) than I had in my 7 days game. He quotes he applied also those tricks:

Skip no battle.
Wear items in conditions that will make their morale drop in order to make more gremlin battles.
Do gremlin battles as soon than possible to not only get resulting items sooner but also to level up sooner.

Myself I probably did those errors:

I killed all but: Almost no pirate ships, one strong hero in Freedom Islands, one army in undead lands I didn't met and forgot after.
I didn't invest into Learning level 1 until mid of Taron mines. Instead I had a baby bringing 10% xp since Darion but I changed wife after Freedom Islands.
I get Learning level 2 only during first part of undead lands.
I get Learning level 3 only during Demonis.
I get the Tactics Treatise only mid of Freedom Islands and worn it most often but at most for 5 (rude) fights.

With that I reach level 30 only after some fights in Murock ie not far from the end.

I'd say that to be sure to level 30:

In a game with the Tactics Treatise found soon enough: To wear it almost always. To get Learning level 1 to 3 since Hadar and not skip any fight since that point too and probably not too much (like all pirate ships) before.
For a game without the Tactics Treatise, I'm not sure at all.


Quote about xp if the fan guide is right:

XP don't depend of stacks size of your army nor of your Hero level. So it's the same amount of xp with the current xp bonus from items babies and skills.
Also enemy heroes bring bonus xp but they also bring spells on your head and attack and bonus defense to enemy stacks.
It's not clear (for me) what happen for xp and units killed when Hypnotized nor for units killed by enemy like with an area spell.
Also the case of troops going out of control and case of ghosts isn't clear for me.

[McSwan]

Kids with xp gains
Neiron
An extremely handsome and gifted boy.

Child Bonus: +5% to Experience in combat
Born To: Feanora, Mirabella, Neoka

and

Dmitry
This chubby child is very intelligent and catches on very fast.

Child Bonus: +10% to Experience in combat
Born To: Gerda, Mirabella, Rina



Ok, so maximising xp:
Paladin skill: +20% xp
Undead/demon xp skill: ?+15%?
Mirabella : +15% xp - > if u get very lucky with 2 xp kids! (rina could get you +10% though at start)
treatise + bloody band: + 15%

max

So fighting undead/demons it's possible to get +65% xp.

Max'ing xp might be the way to go so you don't have to fight fights that cost time. You'd have a crappier wife and items though, but you'd be maybe 2~3 levels above what you should be, and be able to hit level 30 easier.

[Vilk]

Nice sumarize of xp bonus. Yep I had to forget the Keeper of the Light skill, its green rune cost is a lot too heavy for Warrior and Mage but for Paladin it's fine. The 65% is rather optimistic it's not only against Demon & Undead but against army with only Undead & Demon, very few fights match this definition. It's still a skill to get for a Paladin needing XP.

Also I tried compute the chance to get both Dmitry & Neron with Mirabella, if I'm not wrong the chance to get both with 4 babies is 7,33%. Not impossible but still quite low for a complex scouting when selecting a game.

A more reasonable approach would be to try select by scouting a game where first baby of Rina is Dmitry for 10% XP bonus and still 3 free slots with Rina.

That should not be too long to scout and the chance of this is 11.5%. :)

[McSwan]

Well the undead and demon bonus would be great in demonis and undead lands when your getting closer to level cap. You could go Rina and if she fails to give you a xp baby then you could go frog princess -although she only make a 5% baby :( . Then go scout mirabella's babies and if they're better you could stick with her.

You could stick a bag over Gerda head and try for an xp baby from her too.

At least one of them should give you a xp baby though.

Finally, If you think your level is high enough you could swap to the demon wife and equip weapons so you can kill stuff better.

More xp, less battles that need fighting, faster time. (well hopefully) Could turn out to be worse because your army isn't as good as it should be.

Might go 3 upgrades of learning first, then to 2 on undead xp skill, then the last undead xp gain before I run into lots of undead.

[Vilk]

Yes this valse of wifes and babies is a possibility. The possibility to get an xp baby among 4 is relatively high, for Dmitri it's 42% for Mirabella and 40% for Rina.

In a 5 days point of view the very hard point is certainly to do all quests of Freedom Islands and Hagard in one day. But as you quote the sooner a battle is in the game the few xp it worth.

If I look at the game I played I was level 17 close to 18 at beginning of Elven Lands. That is probably somehow low but has been enough to reach level 30 with Tactics Treatise and Learning level 1 increased to 3 during Undead and Demonis.

If I had skip more battles before Elven Islands, let say level 16 which is already rude for starting Elven Islands. That requires 51k more xp to reach level 18. Level 30 is 850k and I end game with 914k and didn't even get 30% bonus all along as I get Learning 2 during undead and 3 during Demonis.

So even if I had been level 16 I would have reach level 30. If you add to that a bonus from Keeper of the Light skill this gives added margin for skipping few battles after Hagard or many before. At this point the problem will be more the difficulty because of a too low level than xp problem to reach 30.

The more simple is to select a game with Tactic Treatise and then there's a good margin as soon as you start Elven Lands with the Treatise + Learning 3 + Keeper of Light 3.

[McSwan]

I'll try and max xp as much as possible as the leadership gains are probably worth it.

The "curse child" enimen quest might have to also be done before you go to freedom isles as it is too far out of the way. I wonder if it is even possible to do beforehand.

Archmage rezo quest is on the way to the mines so might be ok to skip it pre freedom isles, but I'm thinking that it should be done too if possible cause it too is a time waister when you have to backtrack.

I'm up to the turtle atm, trying to beat him with my current 0 losses, apparently u need to get to reach him at about 6:15 because walking to him and back takes a bit of time. Rina has given me 2 children so far +20% attack and 5 % leadership, here's hoping for a 10% xp in the next 2.