History Main / EasyExp

Typically, in a token concession to realism, such activities grant your character less experience than the mass murder and questing that [=RPGs=] usually rely on -- implying (rightfully) that fighting for your life is a bit more educational than glancing at a computer screen or road sign while strolling merrily through the game. However, games that include this form of experience tend to include so many ways to gain it, that you can often gain a few levels simply by running around and doing all of them. This can result in the highly rare RPG phenomenon of "leveling in town."

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', since version 1.3, had bonus XP when you mined/smelted items depending on how they dropped. The higher the item value, the higher the XP they drop such as diamonds dropping more than coal. Iron and gold do not drop but they reward XP when their respective blocks are smelted. 1.4 introduces XP for farming and fishing as well.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. Characters can be tuned to gain overdrive} for damage taken by other party members, overdrive meter charge is cheaply accelerated threefold by customizing equipment. Now, the actual fun part is when the equipment is also customized with a feature that transforms all overdrive charge to AP and the player goes face some really nasty boss in the monster arena. One character gets punched, two gain experience.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' has Criminal Caterpillars, which tend to run from you when you got close, almost always get an advantage on in battle (from sneaking up on them from behind), and are almost always an auto-victory. The amount of EXP they drop is in the ''ten thousands''.

* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' has a variation of this: Perks For Everything! Performing just about any kind of action (even dialogue-based ones) will grant the main character some sort of bonus, such as increased Endurance, faster cooldown times for his abilities, and so on. Some perks exist only to give you extra EXP or AP.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' lets you gain XP from reading random books, as does ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire''. Sure, it's only granules of XP when you consider how much you need to level up, but you're still gaining XP for bugger-all.
** More notably, you can gain experience from donating elfroot (and other things, but elfroot is the cheapest). Extremely abusable, since it gives a decent amount of exp, there's no limit to this, and there's a vendor that sells infinite elfroot in the game.

** In fact, it's entirely possible to get through the first two games with very little death. It's also entirely possible to start the game with a very high speech skill, talk your way through several experience levels, and suddenly become a murderous deathbeast expert of guns without ever having fired one before.

** Even worse with a semi-broken feature in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. Characters can be tuned to gain overdrive} for damage taken by other party members, overdrive meter charge is cheaply accelerated threefold by customizing equipment. Now, the actual fun part is when the equipment is also customized with a feature that transforms all overdrive charge to AP and the player goes face some really nasty boss in the monster arena. One character gets punched, two gain experience.

* The Command Board from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''. Playing it earns you commands and XP for your commands, which makes up the vast majority of attacks in the game. You don't even have to win the game to get the prizes -- in fact, there is ''no reward at all'' for winning, beyond the fact that you've naturally earned more XP in the process.
** There's also the EXP Walker ability, which grants you a point of EXP per step you take. It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up after a while and can be boosted by the EXP Chance ability.

** ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' also had Criminal Caterpillars, which tended to run from you when you got close, almost always got an advantage on in battle (from sneaking up on them from behind), and were almost always an auto-victory. The amount of EXP they dropped was in the ''ten thousands''.
* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', the primary ways of getting experience is by killing monsters; in the middle of all that is a unique {{NPC}} monster called the Oracle that has is guaranteed to spawn. Each time you pay for a consultation with the Oracle, you receive a random rumor (or a truth if you pay for a major consultation) and some experience. It's "easy" in the sense that you can stand around and don't need to kill many things; getting all the money you need, however...
** Eating a wraith's corpse or drinking a potion of gain level will give you just enough experience to move on to the next CharacterLevel.

** In [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights the original game]], during the mission to rescue the animals from the zoo for the druid in Act I, it's possible to keep "rescuing" the same animal over and over again gaining some experience.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s primary sources of experience are slaughter, quests, and quests involving slaughter. However, it is also possible to gain substantial experience simply by walking to a new area and recording it on your world map. This "exploration exp" is available in sufficient quantities to cause well-travelled explorers to gain levels early on even without battling a single monster. Certain high-leveled areas present substantial sums of exp to more advanced characters as well.
** It was later expanded to giving experience for mining ore, gathering herbs or digging up archaeological artefacts. Coupled with the game's vast array of experience-enhancing items and perks, leveling can become extremely fast.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has this in several ways. Finding a brand new "Landmark" awards EXP (with well hidden locations awarding more then normal) - performing side-quests also earn EXP. Which is good because the game can become ridiculously hard at some points if you're not at a high enough level.
** An interesting effect of the normal landmark exp: the number amount of exp you get scales throughout the game, but at a static value connected to each one. So glitching into a lategame area early and exploring will catapault the party from level 5 to level 50. This is naturally a cornerstone of many speedruns.
** Colony 9, the first town, is a great example of this. Exploring it thoroughly at the first opportunity and completing all the self-contained quests will have Shulk enter the town at level one, and leave at level 5 or 6 without seeing any combat.

* ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles'' grants the party extra exp for completing sidequests. Aside from the basic fetch quests, these include chopping wood, [[TimmyInAWell rescuing people]], [[YouMeddlingKids solving a mystery]] and puzzle solving. Handy in that the amount of exp gained remains constant throughout multiple playthroughs when the amount of bad guy exp runs smack into the AntiGrinding feature.
* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' has three types of EXP. You get one type of them by [[AntiPoopSocking not playing the game for a while]], though it does grant diminishing returns per day and caps out entirely at one week.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s primary sources of experience are slaughter, quests, and quests involving slaughter. However, it is also possible to gain substantial experience simply by walking to a new area and recording it on your world map. This "exploration exp" is available in sufficient quantities to cause well-travelled explorers to gain levels early on even without battling a single monster. Certain high-leveled areas present substantial sums of exp to more advanced characters as well.
** It was later expanded to giving experience for mining ore, gathering herbs or digging up archaeological artefacts. Coupled with the game's vast array of experience-enhancing items and perks, leveling can become extremely fast.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has this in several ways. Finding a brand new "Landmark" awards EXP (with well hidden locations awarding more then normal) - performing side-quests also earn EXP. Which is good because the game can become ridiculously hard at some points if you're not at a high enough level.
** An interesting effect of the normal landmark exp: the number amount of exp you get scales throughout the game, but at a static value connected to each one. So glitching into a lategame area early and exploring will catapault the party from level 5 to level 50. This is naturally a cornerstone of many speedruns.
** Colony 9, the first town, is a great example of this. Exploring it thoroughly at the first opportunity and completing all the self-contained quests will have Shulk enter the town at level one, and leave at level 5 or 6 without seeing any combat.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'', being heavily themed around worldbuilding and characters, features this trope frequently:
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', the standard ways of gaining exp are killing and questing, as above. However, you can gain substantial amounts by talking to people, repeatedly talking to your party members between missions, and even just looking at things, like the computers on your ship. This is because you're awarded XP for every Codex entry you unlock, regardless of whether it's about [[SandWorm Thresher Maws]], anti-ship weaponry, or [[BoldlyComing asari mating habits]].
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' inverts this so that you don't get any XP from fighting either, only quests.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' works in much the same way as the second game, with one exception--you get a small amount of EXP for picking up medkits if you already have maximum medi-gel. This encourages the player to not use medi-gel if they don't have to. [[TooAwesomeToUse Or at all.]]
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Throughout the series, "Skill Books" are available which [[RareCandy automatically increase one of your skills]] upon reading. You don't even have to actually read them, merely opening the book grants the skill increase.
** In the games prior to ''Skyrim'', it is possible to set skills like Athletics and Acrobatics as "primary" or "major/minor" skills, which when increased contribute toward your next overall level up. This means that simply by running around and/or jumping a lot, you can increase in level. This, understandably, isn't advisable as it almost always leads to inefficient leveling, eventually leaving you weaker overall than you would have been if you leveled up less often but made sure to get the maximum Attribute multipliers that come with efficient leveling. (This is especially true in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', where the horrific LevelScaling essentially forces you to be a {{Munchkin}}... or to simply [[LowLevelAdvantage avoid leveling up]] wherever possible, as [[WeakButSkilled skills increase independently of your overall level]].)
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' will give you a free level in the Speech skill if you try to "persuade" the guard before entering Whiterun. You also get a free Speech level for pointing out the guard in front of Riften's scam. It's impossible to fail these speech events.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', since version 1.3, had bonus XP when you mined/smelted items depending on how they dropped. The higher the item value, the higher the XP they drop such as diamonds dropping more than coal. Iron and gold do not drop but they reward XP when their respective blocks are smelted. 1.4 introduces XP for farming and fishing as well.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' lets you gain XP from reading random books, as does ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire''. Sure, it's only granules of XP when you consider how much you need to level up, but you're still gaining XP for bugger-all.
** More notably, you can gain experience from donating elfroot (and other things, but elfroot is the cheapest). Extremely abusable, since it gives a decent amount of exp, there's no limit to this, and there's a vendor that sells infinite elfroot in the game.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' seems to encourage this. Killing monsters, finding codex entries and datacrons, exploration, flashpoints, quests that reset daily, talking to your companions, [=PvP=], space missions, etc. It's not unheard of to reach level 60 somewhere on Alderaan (designed for levels 27-35, with a bonus mission series for level 40).

* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', the primary ways of getting experience is by killing monsters; in the middle of all that is a unique {{NPC}} monster called the Oracle that has is guaranteed to spawn. Each time you pay for a consultation with the Oracle, you receive a random rumor (or a truth if you pay for a major consultation) and some experience. It's "easy" in the sense that you can stand around and don't need to kill many things; getting all the money you need, however...
** Eating a wraith's corpse or drinking a potion of gain level will give you just enough experience to move on to the next CharacterLevel.

* A {{Good Bad Bug|s}} in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' causes this. You get experience for turning a cultist's journal in to Lord Nasher. You can then pickpcket the journal from him and turn it in again to get the reward again. There's no penalty for failing a pickpocket attempt, so you can repeat this as long as you need experience until act 3 begins.
** In [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights the original game]], during the mission to rescue the animals from the zoo for the druid in Act I, it's possible to keep "rescuing" the same animal over and over again gaining some experience.
* In spades in ''VideoGame/{{Latale}}'', where you can get exp [[BribingYourWayToVictory just for sitting in a spa.]] You can also earn special exp potions for doing guild crops, and certain special events give even more experience. And of course you get a nice chunk of experience the first time you save at each Iris stone as well.

* In ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic V'', when a monster doesn't want to fight you, you have two choices: 1.fight it anyway 2.let it run away. If you let it run away you still get XP, for doing absolutely nothing. In fact, the entire ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series is filled with ways to get XP without battling. One example is the treasure chests which can either give you money or experience just for finding one. And there's usually a lot of them. One of the secondary skills in the fanmade expansion ''Heroes of Might and Magic III: Wake of Gods'' makes you gain experience every day for free. This is so that you don't have to [[FakeLongevity waste time on obviously one-sided battles]]. But this does not apply when fighting monsters in certain locations or plot-critical battles, though. The second expansion added an auto-battle option to save time, though.
* ''VideoGame/AtlanticaOnline'' does this a lot, especially when you play in a guild that owns a town. The means include: New citizens arrive, completing a Guildcraft, objectives that grant bonus experience a few times per day, participating in a tournament, craft items, sending your mercenaries on their own adventure (free exp for them, free loot for you), ''buying it'' from Lorenzo De' Medici. Even plain old combat experience is plentiful, since each and every hit any of your mercenaries land earns them experience. This is an essential mechanic since all of them join at level 1, and leveling them up would be a chore otherwise.
* ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'' has fossil cleaning, on the grounds that a higher-quality fossil means a stronger dinosaur revived from it. With a little luck and skill, your dinos can actually reach level 10 of 12 just from this.
* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' has a variation of this: Perks For Everything! Performing just about any kind of action (even dialogue-based ones) will grant the main character some sort of bonus, such as increased Endurance, faster cooldown times for his abilities, and so on. Some perks exist only to give you extra EXP or AP.
* One of the stats in ''VideoGame/BraveFencerMusashi'' levels up by walking. This meant you could level grind by walking around in circles.
* The Intelligence score in ''VideoGame/UltimaVIII'' was increased by casting spells or reading. You could max out the Int score fairly rapidly by reading the same two page book over and over again.
* ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' has a dung beetle that will give you EXP in return for dung, which you get from defeating enemies from around that area. This comes in handy because the character you play as at that point happens to be pathetically weak.
** ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' also had Criminal Caterpillars, which tended to run from you when you got close, almost always got an advantage on in battle (from sneaking up on them from behind), and were almost always an auto-victory. The amount of EXP they dropped was in the ''ten thousands''.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' has Wilderness Areas that, when explored, give you experience for finding certain objects/locations, beating a certain number of enemies, or fighting Rare Encounter bosses. There are also a handful of quests that are ''very'' short and only have a small number of enemies.

* In ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', getting a KillStreak, killing multiple enemies in a single attack, or simply [[RewardingVandalism destroying many objects at one go]] will net you experience.
* Due to the unique system of character advancement in ''VideoGame/Quest64'', gaining experience for your AGL stat occurs in this manner. You gain HP by using your staff, MP by using magic, and DEF by taking damage. You gain AGL by walking. Including running around in circles for a few days.
* This is why [[LegendaryCarp the carp]] in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' were "too extreme". Stats could be leveled up by engaging in other tasks, such as swimming. Which fish do ''all the time''. Result: swimming death machines.
* ''VideoGame/DustAnElysianTail'' gives you experience when you talk to [=NPCs=] the first time.
* ''VideoGame/AgeofEmpiresIII'' grants experience to a Home City simply for being in a game, although more experience is earned for killing, building, etc.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands2}}'' typically award some experience for completing missions in addition to killing enemies. While some of the missions are hardly ''easy'' XP, some of them require very little effort, such as missions where you have to go talk to a certain person, or simply shoot the mission giver in the face.
* The Summon Circles in ''VideoGame/TheLastStory'' allow you to repeatedly summon enemies so you can defeat them and your party members can get experience points. It helps that most of them are close to the whereabouts of the bosses.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' gives experience for ''everything''; Fill out the map? XP. Complete platforming challenges? XP. Gather ores/herbs/wood? XP. And you also have a list of dailies that give an especially massive amount of XP for doing so much of all of the above. And all of it scales competitively with player level so you can conceivably stay in the starter zone and hit level cap.
* Most quests in ''VideoGame/TheSimsMedieval'' have some really low-effort steps thrown in that, because they're quest tasks, still give your character a decent amount of XP. Some examples are "Look in the Mirror" in First Steps and a lot of quest tasks involving [[TalkingIsAFreeAction talking]], like "Report to Royal Advisor," "Pay Homage to Monarch," and, more amusingly, "Give the Spy a Piece of Your Mind." (He'd created anti-dragon armor that did not work as advertised.) Then there are the quest tasks involving eating, sleeping, or using the toilet. And Responsibilities are the same way, since there are some really easy ones like "Sharpen Sword."
* There's a subversion in ''Videogame/{{Undertale}}''. [=CHECKing=] The Monster Kid on the No Mercy path will tell you ''"looks like free EXP"''. But if you do try killing them, someone will get in the way, someone who is the [[ThatOneBoss the very opposite]] of easy EXP.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', after you finish the game you can get the [[PurposelyOverpowered Fallout 2 Hintbook]] from Father Tully in New Reno. Reading it permanently increases your skills to maximum and gives you 10,000 experience points each time you read it - that's enough experience to gain a level even when your character is at high levels. And you can it read as often as you like.
* In ''VideoGame/DungeonsOfDredmor'', you can find statues of Lord Dredmor scattered around the dungeon, and you can smash them for a [[RewardingVandalism "Heroic Vandalism"]] bonus that starts at 50 XP and increases the deeper into the dungeon you go.
* ''VideoGame/ForgetMeNotMyOrganicGarden'': Animals gain EXP by just trying to assist their specified process, even if it's not technically doing anything, such as frogs trying to refill a full watering can. And while they don't always try, they swap between trying and not trying, even without the player's prodding, so they basically gain EXP without the player needing to do anything except wait.
* Lampshaded in a BreakingTheFourthWall moment by PlayerCharacter Zero in ''VideoGame/Drakengard3'' after she gets a chunk of EXP for solving a box puzzle.
-->'''Zero:''' Why the hell do I get experience for that?

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', during the "Dan in the MUD" storyline, Dan [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2005-06-21 gets]] XP for walking and running.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has the item equivalent (for which it is [[RareCandy the trope namer]]) Later installments have variations on this.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s primary sources of experience are slaughter, quests, and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs quests involving slaughter]]. However, it is also possible to gain substantial experience simply by walking to a new area and recording it on your world map. This "exploration exp" is available in sufficient quantities to cause well-travelled explorers to gain levels early on even without battling a single monster. Certain high-leveled areas present substantial sums of exp to more advanced characters as well.

* Due to the unique system of character advancement in ''VideoGame/{{Quest 64}}'', gaining experience for your AGL stat occurs in this manner. You gain HP by using your staff, MP by using magic, and DEF by taking damage. You gain AGL by walking. Including running around in circles for a few days.

* This is not only possible, but actively encouraged in games like ''TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has this in several ways. Finding a brand new "Landmark" awards EXP (with well hidden locations awarding more then normal) - performing side-quests also earn EXP. Which is good because the game can become ridiculously hard at some points if you're not at a high enough level.

* ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': In the prequel ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]'', elf mage grumbles that apparently decades of magic study can't compare to killing a few kobolds for XP.

[[AC:Webcomics]]:

** An interesting effect of the normal landmark exp: the number amount of exp you get remains constant throughout the game. This steadily has less of an impact, however the first town, dense, complex, and packed with shops and quest-givers as it is, has more than a half-dozen landmarks. Exploring it thoroughly at the first opportunity will have Shulk enter the town at level one, and leave at level 5 or 6 without turning in a single quest.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' seems to encourage this. Killing monsters, finding codex entries and datacrons, exploration, flashpoints, quests that reset daily, talking to your companions, PvP, space missions, etc. It's not unheard of to reach level 60 somewhere on Alderaan (designed for levels 27-35, with a bonus mission series for level 40).

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' features DLC levels with enemies that gives a full level up when killed. After several repeats with different units each time, most of the characters will be near or at level 20 before even continuing the main story.

** Lampshaded in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html this]] ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'' strip, as well as [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/01202007/ this]] Webcomic/{{Goblins}} strip.

* A GoodBadBug in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' causes this. You get experience for turning a cultist's journal in to Lord Nasher. You can then pickpcket the journal from him and turn it in again to get the reward again. There's no penalty for failing a pickpocket attempt, so you can repeat this as long as you need experience until act 3 begins.

** In the games prior to ''Skyrim'', it is possible to set skills like Athletics and Acrobatics as "primary" or "major/minor" skills, which when increased contribute toward your next overall level up. This means that simply by running around and/or jumping a lot, you can increase in level. This, understandably, isn't advisable as it almost always leads to inefficient leveling, eventually leaving you weaker overall than you would have been if you leveled up less often but made sure to get the maximum Attribute multipliers that come with efficient leveling. (This is especially true in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', where the horrific LevelScaling essentially forces you to be a {{Munchkin}}... or to simply avoid leveling up wherever possible, as skills increase independent of your overall level.)