Getting the most XP out of a Double-XP Weekend

I wrote this guidelette because I had some curious arguments about getting the most XP during the last 2XP weekend. Many people insisted that we should fight every mob in a mission since they wanted “to get the most XP they can.” Others wanted to run all missions at the highest difficulty even if this resulted in a lot more debt, since “the extra experience makes up for it.”

If you want to get the most XP, then here’s the basic rule to follow—whatever gets you the most XP under normal conditions STILL gets the you most XP during the 2XP weekend. The increase in XP does not affect what strategies and tactics you should use to get good experience. If anything, the doubling of XP should make you stick with the tried-and-true methods more seriously.

Let’s look at a simple example that makes this clear, using nice easy numbers since I know math makes a lot of people’s eyes glaze over. A good comparison is running newspaper missions vs. story-arc missions. As you probably know, it’s generally better XP to skip to the end of a “defeat the boss” newspaper mission and clear out the final room than it is to do story arcs which require finding glowies or clearing out all the minions. So, just for example, let’s say the numbers are like this:

Normal conditions

Standard story-arc mission: kill everybody in base
End-of-mission bonus: 10,000 xp
Experience from all those minions: 30,000 XP
Time: 10 minutes
Total experience: 40, 000
Experience per/minute: 4,000

“Kill the Boss” newspaper mission
End-of-mission bonus: 10,000 xp
Experience from mobs in final room: 5,000 XP
Time: 3 minutes
Total experience: 15, 000
Experience per/minute: 5,000

Difference in XP=25%, or 1,000/minute


Double Experience Weekend

Standard story-arc mission: kill everybody in base
End-of-mission bonus: 20,000 XP
Experience from all those minions: 60,000 XP
Time: 10 minutes
Total experience: 80, 000
Experience per/minute: 8,000

“Kill the Boss” newspaper mission
End-of-mission bonus: 20,000 xp
Experience from mobs in final room: 10,000 XP
Time: 3 minutes
Total experience: 30, 000
Experience per/minute: 10,000

Difference in XP=25%, or 2,000/minute


In both examples you still get about 25% more experience doing the newspaper missions than you do with the standard missions. But since the 2XP weekend is doubling the total amount of experience it results in getting 2000 more xp points per minute instead of 1000.

I am not saying these numbers are anywhere close to accurate. The point is, if something gets you more experience under normal circumstances, it continues to do so under 2XP conditions. Furthermore, the experience difference has doubled, so in this example instead of making 1000 extra XP you get 2000 extra XP. Stopping to kill every mob gets you more experience that it does normally, but the newspaper mission still is 25% better, and the percentage difference between the two methods does not change .

Now about debt. It’s true that the 2XP weekend will partially compensate for the XP lost from debt. If you want to get the thrill of high risk / higher gains, go right ahead. However, keep in mind you are essentially giving up the bonus you get from the 2XP conditions and simply getting your normal experience level. If you want to maximize your experience than staying out of debt should be a high priority

You are forgetting a key factor there -- Travel time. if you figure in that you often waste at least a minute or two traveling between missions, and that you'd be doing 3 missions in the time it took you to do one "kill all" mission -- it's actually work xp/min.

Best bet for the most exp is a well built team in outdoor missions -- I generated 11k/min on my 42 in a team, that'd be 22k/min on double exp weekend.

Good point about the travel time.

I agree with the spirit of the "well-built team" but it goes beyond the purpose of the guide to discuss that. I also find that trying to put together and manage a good team generally takes longer than simply soloing. But if you can get on a good team, by all means go for it!