Stuck at Level 1, What's going on?

[Jascob]

About 8 hours into the game, did a bunch of exploring, killed numerous bandits, ghouls, and monsters, many higher level than myself; completed several side quests; advanced main story to where I'm supposed to kill the Beast of White Orchard, which is suggested for level 3 characters. The problem is that I'm still level one. I noticed that the Devil in the Well side quest gave me only 100 xp, which seemed kind of low for a multi-step side quest and where 1000 xp is needed to get to first level. Is this a bug? I've read about a bug that prevents gaining xp for quests that are much lower level than the character, but I'm still fist level; none of the quests are below my level. Also, I am gaining some experience, just very, very little. Anybody know what's happening?

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

Exp is VERY slow in this game, don't be to intimidated by level you can kill a monster is up to 10-15 levels above you, and they expect you to do just that alot of the time.

By the end of the whole first area, i was only level 4 after i did EVERYTHING was to do.

[nyanko]

The main story quests are the ones giving the most XP. Then comes sides quests and finally the scripted events on your path. So don't bother killing monsters only for the killing, it won't make you improve your character at all. It's better to wait and see if you can get a quest associated with them.

What I usually do is explore a bit and check what kind of monsters I have in the area without fighting them. Then I go to villages and get the quests nearby.

[Woudo]

Bug introduced in the recent patch. Some quests aren't giving XP like they should be, and leveling in Witcher 3 is strongly based around quests.

[Maggy&Me]

Originally posted by Vom Tag:

The main story quests are the ones giving the most XP. Then comes sides quests and finally the scripted events on your path. So don't bother killing monsters only for the killing, it won't make you improve your character at all. It's better to wait and see if you can get a quest associated with them.

What I usually do is explore a bit and check what kind of monsters I have in the area without fighting them. Then I go to villages and get the quests nearby.

+1 , Also killing monsters is good if you want to collect items for crafting , potions , olis etc .. with the advantage of having fun & meet & greet some of the better monster u might like to kill I ran into a Earth Elemental it looks like a serious bad arse ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ im only lvl 13 o_0 dont think ill mess with him for awhile ;P

[Ventus]

Originally posted by LordLokai:

Exp is VERY slow in this game, don't be to intimidated by level you can kill a monster is up to 10-15 levels above you, and they expect you to do just that alot of the time.

By the end of the whole first area, i was only level 4 after i did EVERYTHING was to do.

This is pretty accurate. Quest Completion gives the most XP. Just note that the mention of being able to kill things 10-15 levels higher is relative to the number of mobs and the setting your playing on (A group of drowners/wolves/wraiths 10-15 levels above you will either wreck you, or be one of the hardest fights in the game, haha).

[Weizen1988]

Originally posted by Woudo:

Bug introduced in the recent patch. Some quests aren't giving XP like they should be, and leveling in Witcher 3 is strongly based around quests.

This pretty much as far as I can tell.

[Ventus]

Originally posted by Weizen1988:

Originally posted by Woudo:

Bug introduced in the recent patch. Some quests aren't giving XP like they should be, and leveling in Witcher 3 is strongly based around quests.

This pretty much as far as I can tell.

The bug is for quests 6 or more levels under you, a completely NON issue for anyone not using mods or cheat engine in White Orchard.

The latest patch introduced this problem, but I dont know the full extent of the issue. Only repeating what was posted on the official forums here:
http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/42937-Addressing-the-no-XP-Glitch

To quote: "At the same time we want to shed some light on the issue. First of all, it doesn't impact the game balance in any significant way. Also, you will be able to finish the game with your character achieving a level within the threshold we had in mind when we designed the game. "

The patch is coming monday (assume the polish monday, so sometime in the evening Sunday for United States area, etc)

[Weizen1988]

I dont see any light being shed by that guys comment. He just says dont worry everythings fine, because youll be about the right level anyways. No details. In any case, I dont have a problem waiting until monday, im not done with what im doing until about then anyways.

[Woudo]

Originally posted by Ventus:

The bug is for quests 6 or more levels under you, a completely NON issue for anyone not using mods or cheat engine in White Orchard.

As far as I was aware, grey-tier quests always gave zero XP and the bug was concerning all active quests regardless of level.

The OP has gone all the way up to killing the Griffin and is still level 1. That shouldn't even be possible.

[Weizen1988]

Originally posted by Woudo:

Originally posted by Ventus:

The bug is for quests 6 or more levels under you, a completely NON issue for anyone not using mods or cheat engine in White Orchard.

As far as I was aware, grey-tier quests always gave zero XP and the bug was concerning all active quests regardless of level.

The OP has gone all the way up to killing the Griffin and is still level 1. That shouldn't even be possible.

I was also under that impression. The bug was more than the grey tier thing.

[Pallmor]

I'm playing on the PS4 version and I'm in the EXACT same boat. Been playing since yesterday and am still only level 1. Have done everything in the opening area. Every sidequest, story quest, explored almost every question mark (found so many power stones that I'm literally out of slots to put them in, since you only have one slot at lvl 1). I'm up to the part where I'm supposed to kill the griffon and I'm way underleveled for everything.

I knew leveling in this games was supposed to be slow, but this is nuts! Some of the quests are only giving me 10 XP. I'm running out of stuff to do.

It's funny that I'm seeing posts from people complaining about being *overleveled* for quests. And the XP bug is supposedly only effecting quests where you're overleveled. I *wish* I had that problem!