Feels like friends level up faster...?

[Viktor]

So something I've noticed about multiplayer is how inconsistent it feels to level up. Bear in mind that my only experiences with stardew thusfar have been co-op only.

So I'm playing with a friend, it feels like I'm doing just as much around the farm as her, and yet I'm levelling so much slower. For example, we tend to go into the mines at around the same time to help each other (and a few times I've gone in myself while she was doing other things). We sleep, she levels, I don't. Repeat about 3 times so I'm 3 levels behind her despite doing equal work.

Same applies to farming. I didn't learn how to make a mayo machine, for example, until late fall. She learned how to make one when we were still in summer.

Foraging is the worst for me so far, it feels like you're just out of luck if rng decides to give the other players more items on the paths they take vs the path you take.



Levelling as a whole feels really arbitrary as well. I could fish for days non-stop and not level up, but my friends fish a few times to finish a bundle and they level. It feels like there's no rhyme or reason besides levelling and that it just sometimes happens, sometimes doesn't.

[Cystile]

The things you can do to level up are a bit scattered, and if you're new to the game it can be hard to figure out. Here's some of the quickest ways to level up, just so you can catch up!

Fishing: Fish in the mountain lake for a couple levels to give you an edge
Foraging: Cutting down trees gives you far more exp than picking up items
Mining: Only certain rocks give exp in the mines. Try getting to the rocks that take two hits to break, or ores!
Combat: When the colored smoke comes over and a million bats show up, go crazy.
Farming: Only picking the plants gives you exp. Pick 13 parsnips to level up to level 1!

[Jonathan J. O'Neill]

Levelling is the same for everyone. Ideally, you'd both focus on different trees.

One player does farming and foraging. Another player does mining and combat. Something to that degree.

What increases your levels?

Farming: Harvesting crops. harvesting fruits from fruit trees
Foraging: Felling trees and stumps, picking forage, picking fruits out of the Bat Cave, harvesting spring/summer/fall/winter wild plants you grow on your farm.
Fishing: Catching anything with a pole or crab pots
Mining: Destroying rocks with a pickaxe and, I think, panning.
Combat: Killing enemies.

Also note that individual actions are worth differing amounts of experience.

For example:

Parsnips are worth 8xp each while potatoes are worth 12xp each.

Mining a stone is worth 1xp while mining copper ore is worth 5xp and iridium is worth 50xp

Chopping down a tree gives 12xp while large stumps and logs are worth 25xp each. Harvesting bushes don't give exp but berries found on the ground give 7xp each, as do other harvestables such as spring onions (wild or on the farm) and truffles.

Fishing xp is affected by the quality of the fish plus the difficulty of the fish. It is then multiplied by 2.5 if you fished up a treasure and by five if it was a perfect catch. Crap pots only give 5xp. Trash and seaweed are worth 3xp when caught with a pole.

Combat xp is based on the enemy killed. Slimes give 3xp, whereas mummies give 20xp.