XP

== Entity Experience ==
Experience Points, more commonly referred to as XP or EXP, are a measure of the progress of your character and determine your rank within the game. In order to advance to the next level you must gain sufficient experience points. Each level has a set amount of XP that you will need to gain before advancing, with higher levels requiring more XP to advance. Your current number of experience points can be found on your data sheet page and by hovering your mouse over the level progress icon near the top of the game screen.
Gaining XP
The main way of gaining experience points is by killing . As in real life, training for something easier than your abilities will gain you less experience. Therefore, killing entities that are at a lower level than you will yield less experience for each kill. For example, if you are level 10, then killing a level 10 entity will gain you 40 XP; however, if you kill a level 5 entity, you may only gain 10 XP. The amount of XP you gain for each kill can be increased by the Data Processor, Researcher and Intensifier buffs (either cast by players or gained by using stims). You will also gain a small amount of experience by being part of a squad that defeats a entity.
Another way of gaining experience is to complete . Not all missions have XP rewards but many do. Generally, higher level and more complicated missions have larger rewards. Note however that the XP gained per stamina used is often much lower for missions than it is for killing entities and thus power levelers may skip missions unless they can be completed as part of their regular hunting.
Experience is also gained automatically every hour. Your experience gain per hour can be increased by purchasing an upgrade for 20 FC.
It is also possible to gain XP by purchasing a character upgrade for 5 FC that will give you 1% of the XP needed to advance through your current level. However, this upgrade is considered by many to be a waste of FC. It is generally considered more "profitable" to spend the FC to increase your current energy and continue hunting, the 5 FC will buy you 125 energy, and the XP gained through hunting with that energy will be more than 1% of a level.
Losing XP
Not only can experience be gained, it can also be lost. You will lose XP if you are defeated by an entity in combat. You can also lose XP if you are attacked and defeated by another player during PvP. You can protect yourself from XP loss by purchasing the "Protect XP" upgrade for 25 FC; however, both of these measures only protect against XP lost due to defeat by entities and not losses from PvP.
== Faction Experience ==
Like each character, each faction has experience points (Faction XP) which determines the faction's level and rank within the game. Faction experience is gained by the actions of its members. Each new faction member starts with zero XP contributed to the faction (regardless of their personal character XP). For each XP a member gains through killing entities a small percentage is also added to the faction XP. The contributed faction XP of each member is listed next to the character name on the faction page and in the Faction Advisor. If a member leaves a faction the faction immediately loses the XP contributed to the faction by that player. However, each day 1% of the current faction XP is "locked" and the faction XP can not be subsequently reduced below that locked level (the maximum locked XP level is the current faction XP).