Experience

Experience points are the primary reward for adventuring in Guild Wars. Whenever a player kills enemies while adventuring or completes quests or missions, they are rewarded with experience points. They represent a character becoming more experienced (and more powerful) as they achieve more in the game world. After acquiring a certain amount of experience, players can level up and become stronger in their profession.

To examine the amount of experience a character has, press 'H' for the Hero Status window. The total experience points acquired by this character will be shown in a horizontal bar. Hovering over that bar with the mouse will show the amount of experience needed for the next level or skill point.

Experience Points are often referred to using the abbreviated term XP.

Experience from Killing Opponents
Opponents can be monsters in an explorable area or opposing players in PvP/GvG Battles. When an opponent is killed, all living party members get XP for the kill. The amount of experience is scaled up or down for each party member depending on his/her level compared to the the slain foe. This is the formula used by the game:



In other words:
 * The base xp of killing an enemy is 100.
 * If player is higher in level than foe subtract 4, if foe is higher, add 4, if equal, add nothing.
 * If player is higher in level than foe subtract 16 * level difference, if foe is higher, add that amount, if equal, add nothing.
 * The sum of the above three steps is divided by living party members (including henchmen).
 * Every party member's XP is calculated individually.

Example: A level 17 character and a level 20 character are adventuring together. They slay a level 18 monster. The experience given the level 17 character will be:
 * (100 + 4 + 16 x (18-17)) / 2 = 60 XP

The experience given the level 20 character will be:
 * (100 - 4 - 16 x (20-18)) / 2 = 32 XP

This is a mathematical way of saying when an experienced player slays an "easy" monster, they don't learn much from it but when they slay a "hard" monster they learn more from it. There is also a maximum amount experience a character can get per monster (not including scrolls) that changes per level.

Note: The experience for a kill is divided upon the number of players in the vicinity of the kill. If a player lags behind he/she will get nothing for a kill and raise the XP earned for the rest of the party.

Experience from Quests and Missions
Experience Points rewarded by Quests will be listed in the quest dialog window before accepting it and in the Quest Log after that. Missions always reward 1,000 XP for completing the primary objective and another 1,000 for the bonus objective. Experience from quests and missions is for the player alone and is not shared with party members or henchmen. Quest rewards vary, early ones give as little as 100 XP, but up to 50,000 for the most difficult ones such as the Titan Quests.