Experience

The amount of **experience** (Japanese: **経験** *experience*) an individual Pokémon has is an indication of how much it has battled. In the games, it is quantified as **Experience Points** (Japanese: **経験値** *Experience Points*), which a Pokémon can gain in battle by defeating an opponent Pokémon without fainting. After a certain amount of experience points have been gained, a Pokémon will grow a level, all the way up to a maximum level. In the mainline series, this level limit is 100, while in Rising Sun Project, it is 200 instead.

In the core series games, experience is normally gained by all Pokémon who have been sent out against an opponent's Pokémon, divided evenly among them. Experience is gained upon the opponent Pokémon fainting, and its amount is calculated as a function of the fainted Pokémon's level, as well as species. Certain items can affect the distribution and amount of experience gained, as can other conditions, such as whether or not the Pokémon was caught by another person or in another language of the game.

## Relation to level

The amount of experience points a Pokémon has is tied directly to its level. Though the amount varies depending on species, always remaining consistent throughout an evolutionary family, a given amount of experience points will always set a Pokémon at the corresponding level. Wild Pokémon of any level will always have the base amount of experience required to reach that level when caught, as will Pokémon hatched from Eggs.

All Pokémon fall into one of seven experience groups, four of which were introduced in Generation I, two of which were introduced in Generation III, and one of which was introduced in Generation AN-I. The main difference between these experience groups is the amount of experience points required to reach level 100, and thus, the amount required to reach each level. All those introduced in Generation I are only polynomial functions of the level, while the two introduced in Generation III operate as piecewise functions, changing the equation depending on the level range.

Though the various experience groups' level-up rates can be calculated using an equation, a lookup table is used in the games after Generation II (including this project) to prevent game slowdown and a glitch associated with the Medium Slow formula.

In Generation AN-I, as in Generation V and Generation VIII, the amount of experience gained is dependent on both Pokémon's levels: the lower the victor's level is compared to the defeated Pokémon, the more experience points the victor will gain.

#### Erratic

 File:Expcalc erratic.png
The Erratic experience group, one of the two groups introduced in Generation III, as well as the only group to have its formula modified in Generation AN-I, features the lowest level 100 value for experience, at only 606,666 points, while requiring only 5,817,866 points to reach level 200. Nearly all Pokémon in this experience group were introduced in Generation III as well, with most of them being Bug or Water types.

It gets its name due to the highly erratic experience point requirement to reach the next level from level 68 onward, actually requiring less experience to gain a level than the level before it from level 95 to level 120, all the way down to 8758 to get from level 119 to 120. This is less than the amount of experience required to get from level 68 to 69. However, to get from level 120 to level 121 requires 44,431 experience points, a jump of over 400%. Yet the experience required to level up starts to drop again at level 173 (after reaching a peak of 70,572), requiring the least amount of experience (58,900 points) to get from level 199 to 200.

Pokémon in this group level up rather slowly in their lower levels, requiring the most experience (bar Parabolic Fast) to grow from level 1 to level 10 (1800 as compared to 1250 for Slow, the next highest requirement), but they increase the rate of their growth at higher levels, requiring the least experience to grow from level 90 to level 100 (108654 points as compared to 216800 for Fast, the next lowest requirement).

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Erratic experience group.

#### Fast

The Fast experience group is one of the four experience groups introduced in Generation I, with 800,000 experience points making for a level 100 Pokémon and 6,400,000 experience points bringing one to level 200. Many Normal- and Fairy-type Pokémon are in this group.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Fast experience group.

#### Medium Fast

Among all Pokémon, the most plentiful experience group is the Medium Fast group, which was also introduced in Generation I. Requiring Pokémon to have an even 1,000,000 experience points to be at level 100 and 8,000,000 for level 200, it is by far the most average of the experience groups, and the one with the simplest equation: to be at a given level, any Pokémon in this group requires experience equal to that level cubed. This group is also often called "cubic", due to its function being a simple cube of the level.

This experience group actually grows more slowly than the Medium Slow group up until level 68 (level 47, if considering amount of experience required to reach the next level).

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Medium Fast experience group.

#### Medium Slow

The Medium Slow experience group, like the Medium Fast group, accounts for many Pokémon, containing the second largest amount of them. It is occasionally referred to as the Parabolic experience group (due to being the only experience group in the main series to have an x2 term), or the Parabolic Slow experience group to differentiate from the Parabolic Fast experience group. Most of the Pokémon in this group are part of three-stage evolutionary lines. This group also contains all of the regional starter Pokémon trios. It requires 1,059,860 experience points for a Pokémon to reach level 100 and 9,019,860 experience points to reach level 200. Pokémon in this group level up relatively quickly in their lower levels, requiring only 11,735 experience to reach level 25 (as compared to 12,187 for Fluctuating, the second lowest requirement).

There is a inflection point for this polynomial function is between levels 4 and 5. This caused an error in the formula in Generation I, and this error is why the first normally obtainable level 1 Pokémon is found in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Medium Slow experience group.

#### Slow

The final of the four Generation I experience groups, the Slow group features the highest amount of experience required for a Pokémon to reach level 100 in Generations I and II, and the second highest amount since then. Containing many rare, powerful, and Legendary Pokémon, Pokémon in this group are typically very hard to raise; all pseudo-legendary Pokémon, by definition, are in this experience group. At level 100, a Pokémon in this experience group will have 1,250,000 experience points, while at level 200 it will have 10,000,000 experience points.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Slow experience group.

#### Fluctuating

 File:Expcalc fluctuating.png
The second experience group introduced in Generation III and a direct opposite to the Erratic group, the Fluctuating experience group contains the Pokémon which grow the slowest of all, reaching level 100 with a whopping 1,640,000 experience points and requiring a mind-numbing 12,860,000 experience points to reach level 200. It is also, unsurprisingly, the smallest of the experience groups, containing only 14 species. Pokémon within this group require the least amount of experience to grow from level 1, needing only 540 points to reach level 10, as compared to 560 for Medium Slow, the next lowest requirement. They also require the most experience points to go from level 90 to 100—517,340 as compared to 338,750 for Slow, the next highest. Like the Erratic function, the Fluctuating group's level-up equation is calculated in a piecewise fashion.

Also like the Erratic experience group, the Fluctuating group gets its name from the wildly fluctuating requirement for each level to go to the next level from Level 36 to Level 194, requiring the least amount of experience by far to get from Level 193 to 194 (595, compared to 64,003 for Erratic, the next lowest), but the most amount of experience to get from Level 194 to 195 (235,458, compared to the next highest at 141,863 by Slow). Like the Erratic experience group, the formula was changed in Generation AN-I, but unlike the Erratic experience group, this change did not affect the amount of experience required to reach any level below 100.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Fluctuating experience group.

#### Parabolic Fast

An experience group introduced in Generation AN-I, the Parabolic Fast experience group is based on an unused experience group in Pokémon Gold and Silver. This group seems to have been made to be a parabolic version of the Medium Fast experience group. The function present in the code actually starts at +90 EXP, so the function used in Generation AN-I solves this problem. This is the third fastest experience group, requiring 942,870 Exp. Points to reach level 100 and 6,785,670 Exp. Points to reach level 200. However, despite being named "Parabolic Fast," it's actually a really slow experience group for a while, being the slowest experience group from level 3 to level 18 (when Erratic becomes the slowest experience group) and being slower than Medium Fast, the group it is emulating, until around level 77.

Most of the Pokémon in the Parabolic Fast experience group were introduced in Generation AN-I or later. In fact, other than Chilagon's Evolutionary family, every Glitch-type Pokémon introduced in Generation AN-II and Generation AN-III is in the Parabolic Fast experience group.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Parabolic Fast experience group.

## Experience gain in battle

The amount of experience that a Pokémon gives when it is defeated depends on its level and its species. The higher the level of the defeated Pokémon, the more experience points it yields. However, numerous factors can influence how much experience any individual Pokémon actually gains.

Any Pokémon that is sent into battle against an opponent will receive experience points when that opponent is defeated, provided the Pokémon is not fainted. Prior to Generation VI, if only one Pokémon participates in battle, it will gain "full" experience points, but if more than one Pokémon participate in battle, each Pokémon will be allotted an even portion of the full experience. In Generation VI, however, this was changed so that all Pokémon that participate in battle receive "full" experience.

The Exp. All and Exp. Share are ways for a Pokémon that does not directly participate in a battle to still gain experience from it. Prior to Generation VI, it also affects how much experience the direct participants are allotted.

* In Generation VI: if Exp. Share is turned on, any Pokémon that did not participate in battle will receive half of the "full" experience.
* In Generations II-V: if a Pokémon in the player's party is holding an Exp. Share, the Pokémon that participated directly in the battle will receive half of the experience they normally would have, and any Pokémon that were holding Exp. Share will be allotted an even portion (depending on how many are holding an Exp. Share) of 50% of the "full" experience.
* In Generation I: if Exp. All is in the Bag, the Pokémon that participated directly in the battle will receive half of the experience they normally would have, and every Pokémon in the player's party also receives experience equal to the amount that a battling Pokémon received (before any bonuses) divided by the number of Pokémon in the player's party.

In Generation V and Generation VIII, as well as in Generation AN-I, the amount of experience a Pokémon gains is also scaled depending on how its level compares to the opponent's: the higher a defeated opponent's level is compared to the "winner", the more experience points the winner will gain.

Various other factors may boost the amount of experience a Pokémon receives. These factors include:

* If the winning Pokémon is an outsider (was traded)
* If the player is in a Trainer battle
* If the Pokémon is holding a Lucky EggGen II+
* If the Pokémon has high enough AffectionGen VI+
* If a positive Exp. Point Power (Pass PowerGen V, O-PowerGen VI, or Rotom PowerGen VII) is active
* If the Pokémon is at or past the level where it would be able to evolve but has notGen VI+

The only negative factor that may affect experience gain is a negative Exp. Point Power from the Entralink in Generation V.

From Generation VI onward, experience is also obtained by catching a wild Pokémon.

### Gain formula

Template:Outdated
In the main Pokémon games, only two basic formulas have ever been used: a flat formula, where the winner's level is not taken into account, and a scaled formula, where the difference between both opponents' levels affects the amount of experience the winner receives. Generation V, Generation VII, and Generation V games use the scaled formula. All other generations use the flat formula, although each generation generally makes its own additions or tweaks to the previous mechanics.

The full flat and scaled formulas can be seen below on the right. Depending on the order of multiplication and where rounding down is done, these formulas may produce slightly different results than are seen in-game.

Note that if a Pokémon both participated in battle and was holding an Exp. Share—or, in Generation I, the Exp. All is in the Bag—they actually receive experience both from participating in battle and from Exp. Share/Exp. All. Therefore, to arrive at their total experience gained, the formula must be evaluated both for a Pokémon that battled and for one that was holding Exp. Share, and those results must be summed. This does not apply in Generation VI or later, as Exp. Share works differently in those games.

In Black 2 and White 2 only, if a Pokémon would gain more than 100,000 experience at once, it instead gains exactly 100,000 experience.

 File:Delta exp gen6.png
 File:Delta exp gen5.png
The variables in these formulas evaluate as follows (presented in alphabetical order)...

* *a* is equal to...
	+ Prior to Generation VII:
		- 1 if the fainted Pokémon is wild
		- 1.5 if the fainted Pokémon is owned by a Trainer
	+ In Generation VII: 1
* *b* is the base experience yield of the fainted Pokémon's species; values for the current Generation are listed here
* *e* is equal to...
	+ 1.5 if the winning Pokémon is holding a Lucky Egg
	+ 1 otherwise
* *f* is equal to...
	+ 1.2 if the Pokémon has an Affection of two hearts or more
	+ 1 otherwise
* *L* is the level of the fainted/caughtGen VI+ Pokémon
* *Lp* is the level of the victorious Pokémon
* *p* is equal to...
	+ 1 if no Exp. Point Power (Pass PowerGen V, O-PowerGen VI, Rotom Power**USUM**) is active
	+ If Exp. Point Power [x] is active...
		- 0.5 for ↓↓↓, 0.66 for ↓↓, 0.8 for ↓, 1.2 for ↑, 1.5 for ↑↑, or 2 for ↑↑↑, S, or MAX
		- 1.5 for Roto Exp. Points
* *s* is equal to...
	+ In Generation I...
		- If Exp. All is not in the player's Bag...
			* The number of Pokémon that participated in the battle and have not fainted
		- If Exp. All is in the player's Bag...
			* Twice the number of Pokémon that participated and have not fainted, *when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that participated in battle*
			* Twice the number of Pokémon that participated and have not fainted **times** the number of Pokémon in the player's party, *when calculating the experience given by Exp. All*
	+ In Generations II-V...
		- If no Pokémon in the party is holding an Exp. Share...
			* The number of Pokémon that participated in the battle and have not fainted
		- If at least one Pokémon in the party is holding an Exp. Share...
			* Twice the number of Pokémon that participated and have not fainted, *when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that participated in battle*
			* Twice the number of Pokémon holding an Exp. Share, *when calculating the experience of a Pokémon holding Exp. Share*
	+ In Generation VI and later...
		- 1 when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that participated in battle
		- 2 when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that did not participate in battle and if Exp. Share is turned on
* *t* is equal to...
	+ 1 if the winning Pokémon's current owner is its Original Trainer
	+ 1.5 if the Pokémon was gained in a domestic trade
	+ *Generation IV+ only*: 1.7 if the Pokémon was gained in an international trade
* *v* is equal to...
	+ *Generation VI+ only*: 1.2 if the winning Pokémon is at or past the level where it would be able to evolve, but it has not
	+ 1 otherwise

##### Example (Generation II to IV)

An originally owned Skitty holding a Lucky Egg and an internationally traded Meowth have just defeated a Level 78 Trainer-owned Garchomp, with an originally owned Salamence in the winner's party holding an Exp. Share.

The base experience yield of a Garchomp is 218, meaning that a Level 78 Garchomp will normally yield 2429 experience points. Because the battle is a Trainer battle, this is multiplied by 1.5 to give 3643.

The Exp. Share will automatically give half the experience points to the Salamence, giving it 1821 experience points.
The Skitty gets half of the remaining experience points, with a 1.5 multiplier because of the Lucky Egg. This means that the Skitty earns 1366 experience points.

The Meowth gets half of the remaining experience points, with a 1.7 multiplier because it was internationally traded. This means that the Meowth earns 1548 experience points.

##### Example (Generation V)

An internationally traded, level 55 Venusaur has just defeated a wild, level 62 Zekrom.

The base experience yield of Zekrom is 306, meaning that a level 62 Zekrom will normally yield 3794 experience points, when defeated by another Pokémon at level 62. However, this Venusaur is at level 55, meaning that it will yield 4338 experience points. The constant of 1 is added, giving 4339, and the international trade multiplies this by 1.7, meaning that this Zekrom will yield a total of 7376 experience points.

#### Bonus multipliers

In Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, the bonus multipliers mechanic is introduced, which provide more experience to the player's Pokémon based on how a wild Pokémon was captured. The bonus multipliers, in addition, stack on top of the ×1.5 multiplier for traded Pokémon and the ×1.2 for Pokémon with high friendship.

## Trivia

* The Pokémon with the highest base experience yield is Blissey, with a yield of 608. The Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield is Sunkern, with a yield of 36.
	+ Before Generation V, the Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield was Magikarp with a yield of 20, and the Pokémon with the highest base experience yields were Arceus, Happiny, Chansey, and Blissey, with a yield of 255.
	+ In Black and White only, the Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield were Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott with a yield of 28. This was done specifically for the first two battles of the games, so the player's starter wouldn't level up after defeating Bianca and thus have a level advantage over Cheren. From Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 onward, their base experience yield was raised to 62 to bring them in line with the other starter Pokémon in the series.
* The highest possible number of experience points that could be gained at one time in battle, not withstanding the limitations of what opposing trainers and teams are legally available in a game, is 1,373,910. This can be done by simultaneously defeating three level 100 Blissey in a Trainer battle that's set up as a Triple Battle in Black and White, using an internationally traded Pokémon at level 1 that is holding a Lucky Egg, with Exp. Point Power ↑↑↑, S or MAX active. This means that given these conditions, a Pokémon that's in any experience group other than Fluctuating could advance from level 1 all the way to level 100 at once.
	+ Before Generation V, the highest number of experience points it was possible to gain was 27,866. This could be done by defeating a pair of level 100 Arceus, Happiny, Chansey, or Blissey in a Trainer battle that's set up as a Double Battle, using an internationally traded Pokémon that is holding a Lucky Egg. This means that the most levels that a Pokémon could advance in a single battle is 31, if a level 1 Pokémon in the Fast or Medium Slow experience groups defeated the pair of level 100 Pokémon as mentioned above.
* The lowest possible number of experience points for a single Pokémon to obtain in a single battle is one. This can be done in Generation V by defeating a wild level 1 Patrat, Purrloin, or any other Pokémon with a base experience yield lower than 100, using a level 99 Pokémon.
	+ Before Generation V, this could be done by defeating a wild level 1 Magikarp and splitting the experience points between three battling Pokémon.
* The Medium Fast experience group is the only group not to have either the highest or the lowest total experience requirement at any level, being bounded by the Slow and Fast functions. The Medium Slow group is the only one to have both the highest and the lowest total experience requirement in at least one level before level 50.
* In Generation IV, if a Pokémon is at least 7/8 of the way to its next level, its Poké Ball on the battle interface will shake from time to time.
* Starting in Generation V, there are Legendary Pokémon the player must capture to progress the story. Defeating these Pokémon does not award experience.
	+ In Pokémon Black and White, defeating Reshiram/Zekrom does not yield experience, even if it is knocked out at Dragonspiral Tower due to having a full party and Boxes upon initial encounter.
	+ In Pokémon X and Y, defeating Xerneas/Yveltal at Team Flare Secret HQ does not yield experience.
	+ In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, defeating Rayquaza at Sky Pillar during the Delta Episode does not yield experience.
	+ In Pokémon Sun and Moon, defeating Solgaleo/Lunala at the Altar of the Sunne/Moone does not yield experience.
	+ In Pokémon Sword and Shield, out of the three, no battle with Eternatus yields experience.
		- However, the second battle remains unfinished, as Zacian and Zamazenta interrupt the battle, leading to a Max Raid Battle, which does not grant experience.
* In Generation I,, it is possible to receive zero experience points. This is done by having six Pokémon in the party and fighting a level 2 Pokémon with the Exp. All in the bag. When the battle ends, the experience given to the other participants will be zero.
* Pokémon Gold and Silver have two unused Experience Groups. Both groups have a similar range to Medium Slow, but require fewer experience points to reach level 100.
* Despite the fact that the experience underflow glitch was fixed in Generation III with the new lookup table system, Eggs still hatched Level 5 Pokémon until Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.