Experience Farming

Please remember that it is really not necessary to level up faster than the natural progression. In some aspects, being a higher level without the accompanying infrastructure (buildings, ships) can make things a lot harder for you. Read more under Tips.

That being said, there are a few players who insist on leveling up as fast as they can. Some quickly want to gain 2-3 levels to get within reach of an amazing Event Ship that they would otherwise miss out on. For others, leveling up fast is just how they enjoy the game. For these purposes, this page lists all the ways you can gain XP.

## Tips

* There is no need to actively work on "leveling up". This will happen organically and besides, there is no real benefit to leveling up faster. Event contracts scale to your level, so if you can't keep ships, warehouses, and production buildings up with your level, the event contracts become much harder. Farming XP also prevents your ships from gathering other resources, which holds back the development of your port. The only benefit to leveling up faster is access to better ships. However, as these ships are also a lot more expensive, you probably won't be able to afford (upgrading) them anyway (except for 5-star gem ships, which cost roughly the same at every level).

## XP Sources

* **Upgrading buildings** - Building upgrades give a signifcant XP reward when they are finished.
* **Ships** - Buying and upgrading ships can give you a significant XP reward.
* **Commodities** - Certain commodities can be traded for XP at Market Town. Most events have a few temporary event items that can also be traded for XP. The most efficient way to farm XP through commodities can be found on the Destination Farming page.
* **Achievements** - Some achievements give XP as a reward.
* **Event contracts** - Event contracts usually reward a decent amount of XP.
* **Regular contracts**  - Regular contracts give some XP, but these rewards are less generous than the event contract rewards.
* **Social Contracts** -
	+ **Outgoing:** Social contracts always reward either coins or XP for the person doing them, so if you want to level up you should make a habit of completing them.
	+ **Incoming:** If someone else completes a social contract *for you*, you will always get a small XP reward (never coins). However, Seaport has lots of inactive players. If your name pops up on their map, odds are you won't get that XP reward. A Friends list of active players will increase the XP from incoming contracts.
* **Shipwrecks** - When you collect a shipwreck (event and regular), your ship brings back a reward chest. Chests sometimes contain XP.
* **Captain's Tasklist** - When you finish the daily taks on the tasklist, the captain will give you a reward chest. Chests sometimes contain XP.
* **Ship voyages** - Sending ships on voyages provides you with some XP. The amount of XP you get for a voyage is rather constant, so there is not much information available about how to optimize these rewards. However, it seems that the cargo of a ship has some impact on the XP return from a voyage. One player reported that sending a 100 crew, 33 cargo ship to Small Town rewarded 90 XP, whereas a 100 crew, 38 cargo ship rewarded 93 XP. As you can see, the differences are minimal. It seems that the Deckard Sail captain only impacts the XP gained from ship voyages, not the XP rewards from contracts or trading commodities at Market Town. Therefore, Deckard Sail really doesn't seem to be worth the price. NOTE: We're not entirely sure how ship voyages reward XP. If you have more detailed information or spot any mistakes, please change it.
* **Museum** - Placing a ship in the Museum will give you a one-time XP reward. The better the ship, the higher the reward.
* **Captains** - Some events introduce new captains with special buffs for event destinations. After the event ends, these captains are useless because their destinations are no longer in the game. These captains can be sold for XP.