Greetings!

I just posted a video where I go over the XP formula in aow4, a few tips for making the most out of the XP you get from combats, and then showcasing how I used them to quickly defeat an AI in a 1v1 on the Brutal difficulty settings.

Here is a link to the video:

When you win a fight:

If your number of units > half the number of enemy units (ex: if you bring 4 to fight against 6)

Then use this equation:

G = T*D*M = essentially means each of your friendly units shares equally from a pool of experience from the defeated enemies

G = experience gained by each of your unit

T = Total sum of all experience from enemy units killed aka the exp pool;

Most enemy units are worth experience = 2+2*their tier; tier 1 = 4 exp, t2 = 6 exp, etc

(ex: 3 t1s are worth = 4+4+4 = 12 exp; 1 t4 and 2 t1s are worth = 10+4+4= 18 exp)

Heroes are worth experience points = 5+5*their level

D = Exp distribution = 1 divided by the number of allied units in the fight = the total experience is shared equally among your units, with decimals always rounding up in the final calculation

M = relevant experience modifiers on that individual unit = are things like adaptable which gives +30% to your culture units, or champion ruler which gives +20% exp gain to non-hero units. This can also mean that some units will get more exp than others from the same fight! If P = the percent boost to exp the unit gains, then M = 1+ (P/100). M = 1 when there are no modifiers. If the unit gets +30% exp, then P=30, and which means you would use M = 1.3.

If your number of units < half the number of enemy units (ex: if you bring 2 to fight against 6)

Then use this equation:

G = T*R*M = Some of the experience you would have got from the enemy units is wasted, because the game wants you to use more than 1 or 2 units to clear out fights that involve 6 enemy units, but each of your participating units should get a little bit more exp

R = Reduced Exp Distribution = (1 divided by half the number of enemy units)

Hi my name is Winslaya and welcome to my video guide on how Experience points in aow4 work, and How to Turn Your Units into Experienced Powerhouses in Aow4.

If you play your cards right, you can get an army like this by turn 21. I actually used this strategy to beat a brutal AI without any manual combats by turn 12 the other day. Unfortunately I was not recording that game, and so I had to try to replicate it. We can watch the auto combat to showcase how good my army is.

I have seen a few players get their hero to level 20 around turn 30 in multiplayer, but putting that much exp exclusively on your heroes may not be optimal. (medals and support skills are very strong)

We are going to spend the next 20 minutes going over how to calculate the amount of experience a unit will receive from winning a combat, and then I will spend the remaining time showcasing how I played on this map from turn 1 to turn 21.




I think a good place to get started would be to define experience points, and then explain how to get the most out of them (start with saves you took to illustrate a few key details) and then show off some gameplay from me and from you to go over a few more pointers.



What are they: when you kill an enemy unit you gain experience points after the fight is over. These points go towards leveling up heroes and ranking up units.
Heroes need 6 points to get to level 1. T1 units need 4 xp to get to soldier rank. After that they require 12 exp to level. And to be clear I believe that means they need 8 more exp to go from 4 xp to a total of 12, but this bar appears to indicate otherwise. At first I thought this meant that I need 12 more exp to get to a total of 16, but that is not the case.

Each enemy killed has a base experience points that they provide depending on the tier of a unit, kinda like how souls are gained or how the ruthless raider rewards you with more gold and experience per tier of unit killed.

This total experience gained is then divided among the participating units. This means you don't have to give the killing blow to the unit you want to get the experience, and you want to bring in as few units as possible (without having less than half as many units than you are facing) so that you can level up your heroes as fast as possible.

Amikdara also told me that the experience is reduced by another modifier. If you have less than half of the enemy units that you are fighting, the experience gained is reduced. If you attack 6 units with 1, then it will pretend like there are 2 more units on your side, and only give your one unit ⅓ of the total exp from the enemy units. This results in you missing out on ⅔ of the experience from that fight.

If you attack 6 units with 2 units, then you will only miss out on ⅓ of the total exp. If you use 3 units against 6 units then there is no exp lost. Same for if you use 2 units against 4, there is no less. If you use 2 against 5, then you do miss out on some exp.

Maybe show off the number in planetfall? It is easier to illustrate in planetfall, which is testament to how poorly the experience mechanics are presented to the player in aow4.

Ctrl + alt + c = iamgod = win auto fights in planetfall



WITHOUT EXP MODIFIERS (enemy is 3 t1 units, each worth 4 base experience):
1 unit = 8 exp each or 8 total (12 exp/1.5 units = 8 exp per unit)
2 units = 6 exp each or 12 total
3 units = 4 exp each or 12 total
4 units = 3 exp each or 12 total
5 units = 3 exp each or 15 total (rounding up from 12/5 = 2.4 exp per units!)
6 units = 2 exp each or 12 total
2 exp to 6 (12 total)

Therefore each t1 is worth 4 exp!

3 of my units vs 2 t1, and 1 t2, gives 5 exp to each of my units: (4+4+6 = 16 total exp.. 14/3 = 4.67)

3 units vs 2 t1, and 2 t2 gave 7 exp: (6+6+4+4 = 20. 20/3 = 6.67)

I believe each t2 is worth 6 exp


Cosemite node : 1 t3 and 3 t2 gave 9 exp to 3 units and 7 exp to 4 units (8+6+6+6 = 26. 26/3 = 8.67; 26/4 = 6.75)


Therian dwelling: 2 t3 and 2 t2 and 1 t1 only gave 6 exp to 6 units (8+8+6+6+4 is a total of 32. 32/6 = 5.33)
Gave 11 exp to 3 (32/3= 10.6)

Gave 13 experience to 2 units

Gave 13 exp to 1 units (32/1 = 32* X? = 13… X ~ 2.5, so 32/2.5 units= 12.8! [2.5 units is half of the number in the stack])

I think t3 are worth 8 exp (same as the exp needed for their first rank up)




3 units vs 3 t1s With +15% exp
1 unit = 9 exp each or 9 total (12*1.15 = 13.8. 13.8/1.5 = 9.2.. Rounds down)
2 units = 7 exp each or 14 total (13.8/2 = 6.9 rounding up)
3 units = 5 exp each or 15 total (13.8/3 = 4.6 = rounding up)

6 units = 2 exp each or 12 total (why is this rounding down?)




Units that summon in other units give extra exp.


It counts the number of units that began in the fight, so losing a unit doesn’t mean more exp for the others :/


How much exp are enemy heroes worth? s
(In planetfall) I killed a hero after 10 turns. Looks like each hero is worth 12 exp, which is the same as t4 units

12+12+4+4 = 32
32/6
= 5.5

8+8+4+4 = 24/6 = 4

6+6+4+4 = 20/6 = 3.67

12+6+4 = 14

22/5 =




Now lets see how we use this in practice to power level our heroes


(I like perfect artisans + ruthless raiders for playing on the Brutal difficulty. It's an easy build to use to level up a few key units)

I tend to scout with the others until I see a magic material I want, then I can sacrifice a t1 unit in the fight if I need to.

TAKING ADAPTABLE AND/OR CHAMPION WILL INCREASE THE RATE YOUR NON-HERO UNITS GAIN EXP

Support is the best hero skill tree, so you want to level your units to legend

- new meta is to evolve elementals and animals - is what I said after the dev stream on launch day.