Experience and levels explained
Dusk Reborn tracks four different levels. Most confusion about experience comes from mixing them up, so start here.
The four kinds of level
| Level | What raises it | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Pokémon level | Experience that one Pokémon earns in battle. Level is the cube root of its EXP, rounded down. | On the Pokémon. |
| Trainer Level | Your own EXP from battles, which is separate from your Pokémon's. Same cube-root rule. | "Trainer Lv" at the top of the game, with the percentage to the next level. |
| Play Level | Time spent actively playing. It pays coins and cash, and Treasure Boxes at every 15th and 50th level. | "Play Lv" in your trainer panel, with an XP bar. |
| Mining Level | Every 75 digs in Duskmine. | The Mining Area. See mining. |
The rest of this page is about Pokémon level and Trainer Level, which share one formula.
The level formula
Level L starts at L cubed experience points. There is no level 100 ceiling, so the numbers get large. The cost of the next level is about 3 times L squared, which is why a level 1,000 Pokémon needs roughly three million EXP for each further level.
| Level | EXP needed to reach it | EXP from that level to the next |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 125 | 91 |
| 10 | 1,000 | 331 |
| 50 | 125,000 | 7,651 |
| 100 | 1,000,000 | 30,301 |
| 500 | 125,000,000 | 751,501 |
| 1,000 | 1,000,000,000 | 3,003,001 |
| 5,000 | 125,000,000,000 | 75,015,001 |
| 10,000 | 1,000,000,000,000 | 300,030,001 |
| 50,000 | 125,000,000,000,000 | 7,500,150,001 |
What a defeated Pokémon pays
The base experience for knocking out a Pokémon is its level raised to the power 1.675, rounded. A level 1,000 foe has a base of about 105,925 EXP. Anything below level 10 is a special case: its total is (EXP + 7) times 3, which keeps the first few fights useful.
That base is then changed by bonuses, in roughly this order:
- Exp Boost items: Exp Boost 20% and Exp Boost 50% boost your experience while they last (40 to 50 battles).
- The daily login EXP window: the 2x to 5x boost from your daily reward multiplies the experience until the timer runs out. See daily rewards and coins.
- The day of the week: on an ordinary day the total is multiplied by 1.5, and on Sundays by 3. Seasonal events can change this.
- Held items: a Lucky Egg on the Pokémon that earns the EXP adds a random 33 to 45%, and a Super Lucky Egg a random 145 to 155%.
- Server EXP events: an active event adds a bonus at the end, without multiplying the other bonuses.
Worked example: beating a level 1,000 Pokémon gives a base of about 105,925 EXP, then about 158,888 with the ordinary 1.5x day multiplier, or about 317,775 on a Sunday, before any boost items, held items or events. Those figures are for the base calculation only. The amount you see in the battle log can be higher or lower depending on which of the bonuses above apply to you.
Battles that start from a map, both wild encounters and NPC battles on the map, temporarily cap every Pokémon at level 100 for the fight, without changing the real level. You also earn 1 to 2 Battle Points for each Pokémon you defeat.
How NPC trainer levels scale
An NPC trainer's Pokémon do not have fixed levels. Each one is a multiple of the level of the strongest Pokémon on your active team (Pokémon in the Box do not count), and its HP is (base HP divided by 50, plus 1.3) times its level, plus 10. The multiplier is different for every trainer: the Dark Trainer runs at 8 to 9.5 times your top level, the Elite Four at 7 to 9 times, and early route trainers at 1 to 2 times.
Worked example: your strongest team Pokémon is level 1,000, so a trainer with a 9x multiplier fields level 9,000 Pokémon. Swap a level 1,200 Pokémon into your team and the same trainer jumps to level 10,800, even if you never use the new Pokémon in the fight. The trainer list shows each multiplier.
Items that change how experience is handed out
- Exp Share: the holder gets a share of experience without having to battle.
- Exp. All: shares the experience from a battle equally between everyone in your party.
- Exp. Lock: if the holder knocks out the opposing Pokémon, nobody in your party gains experience. It keeps a team at a fixed level while you farm drops.
The share and lock items are sold at the Dark Alley for coins and clan credits.