What are efficient methods to get xp quickly?

[Panfilo]

I'm getting back into the game after a long break (like some players I play on and off over the years since it's fun to see how much changed/improved since you last played; its honestly like playing a whole new game this way!). I know you get xp for doing just about everything, but was curious if there are particularly time efficient sources of xp. Right now my game is in carebear settings because I die a lot, and one downside is that there are fewer zeds to fight.

[𝔇ave]

kill stuff, upgrade blocks and mining

[Delacroix]

For me it was selling items to the trader. I prioritized the skills of finding better items right when I started. Construction also gives a lot of exp too but you need a lot of resources for that. So at the beginning, I don't think it's very advantageous.

[Code E]

The best way early on is to grind out trader missions. reward XP and XP throughout the mission. I don’t personally waste my time with buried treasure missions early on because they take to long with anything but an auger. On the other note about being on carebear mode, I’d suggest picking an area setting up a bunch of campfires and turning them on. The heat should draw more zombies to you. If your settings don’t allow that to happen then I suggest you take everything apart that you can with the proper tool for the job. You can get surprising amounts of XP just by breaking down cars and refrigerators, but only if you use the right tools.

[Panfilo]

Yeah I've been doing trader missions, the only annoying thing about them is when they want you to hike 1.4km away or more; hoofing it back and forth eats up quite a bit of time and I can't get many missions done in a day because I feel like I'm spending most of my time walking around.

Does repairing/scrapping things give exp?

I know optimal tools break down relevent materials more efficiently, do they give more cumulative exp too?

[comet_65cali]

Very Early Game: Gather resources, start to build a base from scratch using wood-frame blocks and upgrading them to cobblestone. It'll net you 216xp (on 100% XP) each time and can quickly add up. If you luck out and find a working cement mixer, upgrading from cobble to regular concrete will slightly better than the xp gained from frame->wood->reinforced wood->cobble. So upgrading one block can net you the same xp for a kill of the large zombies.

Early-ish game: Find a wrench, break cars down. A full-car will get you about 200-300xp. Reason why I prefer this method is you can get some decent items that can gain you dukes fairly quickly early in game you go sell them at the trader. Headlights are great and aren't much use until early-mid game (or with really good loot luck) and I normally have a glut of oil that I sell. Engines and batteries are good to sell as well if you don't have a need/want to keep them.

Trader quests are always an option, buried supplies will give you XP for digging and a few other things.

Mining is good, but since Alpha-19, I wouldn't recommend it unless you put a point into Miner '69er and Advanced Engineering to get the forge/iron tools unlocked ASAP. (Can be done after the starter quests.)

[Salt Strider]

Originally posted by 𝔇ave:

kill stuff, upgrade blocks and mining

These are the best ways

[Salt Strider]

Originally posted by Panfilo:

Yeah I've been doing trader missions, the only annoying thing about them is when they want you to hike 1.4km away or more; hoofing it back and forth eats up quite a bit of time and I can't get many missions done in a day because I feel like I'm spending most of my time walking around.

Does repairing/scrapping things give exp?

I know optimal tools break down relevent materials more efficiently, do they give more cumulative exp too?

Think of it this way, if it helps. I've managed to cure that feeling of "wasted time" roaming or moving back and forth by seeing those times as opportunities to gather more resources or gain more XP. In my mind, I basically look at it like "Ok, I have to go this far, holy crap, that's a decent distance. I'll just pass the time by hunting and looking for enemies to kill and/or find new locations like mines or even find some good ores along the way." In AC Odyssey, I rarely fast travel because I like to travel by either foot or horse so I can gather iron and orachalcum (I know I mis-spelled that) and get XP off of killing animals and random military outposts and getting treasures, which I would have skipped had I fast traveled all the time. But it's a mindset one has to adopt and accept that a pioneer's job was never always fun or quick. Same mindset applies to Valheim, just pretend you're a surveyor exploring a new world and accept that time is needed for the most mundane parts of it.

[Khissi]

Exactly... upgrade, mine, kill what comes to mess with you, do Trader missions that are CLOSE!! And, do not forego those Buried Supplies because they are usually fairly close, don't take huge amounts of time, give you FOOD!, ammo, etc, and a few zeds to kill! You'll get better at locating the supply after a few tries, plus, you get the clay you need for forging iron... and making bicycle, minibike. Exploring POIs, opening every single piece of trash, box, cabinet, crazy looking wall you find ALL give XP. But, mining and upgrading blocks are the fastest in a19. Glad you're having fun!

[[-=O=-]^FightinCock]

Changing the horde nights to random nights (every 1 to 4 nights is a good balance)... and uping the horde count helps getting exp alot!

Also I'm all for doing buried treasure quests from day 1.
food, exp, $$$ and if your lucky some early awesome sauce so you can buy a motor bike day 6/7 or 9/10.
Can squeeze in 4 in one day if your lucky!

[Brevan]

Using Grenades on Horde night works great for me, especially if you've designed a pit for them to funnel into, and you've set there to be 16+ Z's per wave during Horde. Every Grenade is usually worth about 7k exp. Only available weekly though.

I usually put aside rank 5 or 6 gear, and when they're (about 15-20 pieces) fully modded and each selling for about $3k, I've often gotten about 60k exp from that Trader visit (which might then be combined with cashing in some trader mission for another 20k exp, and then turning around and mining some ore vein in the Trader's area). Could be worth 100k exp or more, but rarely available.

Another option would be when you have the option of forming efficient stacks of Ores, they give about 20k exp for the first stack of that resource, decreasing pretty quickly down to 2k exp. This can be a bit buggy though since last I saw, sometimes the stacks give no exp even though they counted as being made (so the next stack, if it gives exp at all, will give much less). Could be worth 200k exp or more, but only available once, takes lots of prep (6k of all Ores, wood, stone), and it might not work.

[IRuleAll]

take advantage of blood moons. set it to max zombie spawns, make a base that lets you use pipe bombs, and learn to use them without killing yourself. make sure you got learning elixirs too. you can gain a crazy amount of experience in one blood moon.

[The Giving One]

Take levels in Iron Gut (extended duration on consumables)
Find or craft or buy Grandpa's Learning Elixer
Lay down wood frames in abundance.
This works best with a nail gun, but hammer works ok also.
Have all materials in abundance in your pack to upgrade frames all the way to concrete
Drink elixer (it lasts longer because of Iron Gut)
Start spamming out block upgrades.
Bonus if you wear the Nerdy Glasses

The XP you get while doing this is just insane, and I have got like 2 levels at a time doing it.

[SiEgE]

Originally posted by Panfilo:

I'm getting back into the game after a long break (like some players I play on and off over the years since it's fun to see how much changed/improved since you last played; its honestly like playing a whole new game this way!). I know you get xp for doing just about everything, but was curious if there are particularly time efficient sources of xp. Right now my game is in carebear settings because I die a lot, and one downside is that there are fewer zeds to fight.

Upgrading. Get some wood. Find a wooden house you can upgrade walls for. Upgrade away. Find Hammer for even faster upgrading process.

As other people mentioned - if you also focus on finding Cobblestone(it is very cheap on traders) and upgrade with it - that will also push your exp.

[Azure]

The +Int Glasses also have +exp from kills on them so makes the few Zss you do find give a bit more

[Wolfguarde]

Early priority:
> Get nerdy glasses (+10% global exp boost)
> Build a motor vehicle
> Do trader missions
> Get decent tools
> Harvest and build

This is about the fastest method I've found.

Glasses for obvious reasons. Motor vehicle for faster trader trips/ portable storage. Trader missions for the ability to regenerate prefab loot (not strictly necessary if you're not playing with loot respawn disabled) and zombies. Tools for faster harvesting exp, and for base-building to not make you want to brain yourself with a rusty rail spike. Building with a nailgun is quite fast exp, and once your exp gain picks up to a tolerable level you get everything else faster.

Just make sure you have a bed down somewhere, and possibly a spare bicycle for getting back to your body if bloodmoon rolls around before you have a rudimentary base up. Bloodmoon vultures can attack even through the roof of the jeep. Never spawn at your bedroll, and ensure that it's inside a building and out of easy reach.