History Main / EasyExp

* Metagming's Microgame #21 ''Starleader Assault!'' gives a {{PC}} some ExperiencePoints for each HitPoint of damage he inflicts on an opponent or is inflicted on him.

* Metagming's Microgame #21 ''Starleader Assault'' gives a {{PC}} some ExperiencePoints for each HitPoint of damage he inflicts on an opponent or is inflicted on him.

* ''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.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games contain books that boost your skills when read. Finding books that boost your primary skills can cause rapid level gains if the player isn't careful.
** Since you have total freedom over what your primary skills are in Morrowind and Oblivion, you can set them to activities that you perform regularly, such as running, jumping and swimming. This is ill-advised however, because doing so will usually cause you to gain levels far faster than you like, and enemies' levels scale up with yours (in Oblivion).
** Skyrim will give you a free Speech level 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.

** 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.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':

* This is not only possible, but actively encouraged in Tabletop [=RPGs=] like ''TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

[[AC:TabletopRPG]]
* This is not only possible, but actively encouraged in Tabletop [=RPGs=] like ''TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Stellar acting by the players can result in awards of "roleplay exp" from the GM, even if their characters haven't done a thing mechanically.

** It was later expanded to giving experience for mining ore, gathering herbs or digging up archaeological artefacts. Coupled with the games vast array of experience-enhancing items and perks, leveling can become extremely fast.

* ''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).

* ''StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' seems to encourage this. Killing monsters, finding coex entries, 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).

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' lets you gain XP from reading random books, as does KnightsOfTheOldRepublic and 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.

* 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 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.

* ''{{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.

* 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...

* 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 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.

* 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.
** The sequel inverted this so that you don't get any XP from fighting either, only quests.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' 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.

* ''EVEOnline'' gives you free exp ''without playing'', so long as you merely get skill packages and inject them into your PlayerCharacter's UpgradeArtifact. The downside to this is that there's very little one can do to accelerate exp accumulation beyond a certain constant rate (installing cybernetics can help, to an degree), meaning that certain things you might want to do require the completion of truly, immensely long training sequences. These can range in duration from a few days to improve your skill with a certain ship's system to well over a year to become a competent pilot of a large, advanced starship.
* ''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.

* In ''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...

* Campaign Ops in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' can descend into this. Getting additional XP for offensive or defensive battles because you happen to be on an op at the time? OK. Getting XP for training soldiers or craftsmen or planting a bomb on an enemy stronghold? Er, all right. Getting XP for just delivering supplies, escorting a soldier, or sweeping the city for suspicious objects? Um...
** Considering how hard XP is (used to be) to get in that game, and how you get punished for dying with XP loss, most players consider it an acceptable break from the rest of the game.

* A GoodBadBug in ''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 [[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 {{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 ''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 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.
* ''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.
* ''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.
* ''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 ''BraveFencerMusashi'' levels up by walking. This meant you could level grind by walking around in circles.
* The Intelligence score in ''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.

* This is why [[LegendaryCarp the carp]] in ''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.

* This is not only possible, but actively encouraged in Tabletop [=RPGs=] like ''DungeonsAndDragons''. Stellar acting by the players can result in awards of "roleplay exp" from the GM, even if their characters haven't done a thing mechanically.

* Iron Crown Enterprise's ''{{Rolemaster}}'' had this in spades. {{PC}}s could get XP for performing maneuvers (e.g. sneaking across a clearing or hiding behind a tree), casting spells out of combat, being hit in battle, receiving a mortal wound, and for traveling in an unfamiliar area (1 xp/mile on land, 1 xp/10 miles while flying or on water).

* In ''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. You get less XP for letting them run away then actually fighting them, BUT STILL!
** The entire 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]].
** 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.**
* ''AtlanticaOnline'' does this a lot, especially when you play in a guild that owns a town. New citizens arrive? Free Exp. Completed a Guildcraft? Free Exp. There are also several objectives that grant bonus experience a few times per day.
** And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Merely participate in a tournament? Free exp, thrice a day. Craft items? Free exp. Sending your mercenaries on their own adventure? Free exp for them, free loot for you. Want some more exp? Just buy 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.

* This is why [[LegendaryCarp the carp]] in ''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.

*** On the other hand, since Major (primary) skills train up faster than Minor (secondary) skills, it is generally advisable to set Athletics (running & swimming) as a Major skill, or else you'll be running at a snail's pace for the entire duration of the game.