Every time you kill a monster, you will gain Experience (XP) and Skill Experience (SXP). Both of these are extremely important.

Experience -
The XP you gain from each kill goes toward your total amount of XP needed to level. The percentage of XP you have and the percentage you have yet to gain are shown in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Your XP bar is the little gray one beneath your health (HP) and mana (MP).

To see the exact amount of XP you need to earn to gain a level, you may hit T or ALT+T to open up your Character Info window. The total amount of XP needed for your level is displayed in the Character Status area, which is the middle section. See the XP needed to level page for a chart of how much XP you are required to gain at each level.

Skill Experience and Skill Points -
Right beneath the amount of XP needed to level is an even more important number. This is your Skill Point number. Skill Points are the things you need to gain new skills. Where do Skill Points come from? Skill Experience. For every 10,000 SXP you earn, you will receive one Skill Point. There is no Skill Point bar that shows the amount you need to get to the next point, but if you are fighting monsters your level you may be sure that every five to ten monsters will earn you one point.

The best way to level up at a good rate and still earn enough SXP to learn all your necessary skills is to hunt monsters that are exactly your level. Monsters your level will have white-colored names. Look at the SXP guide to see which monsters at each level give the best amount of SXP. These are the ones you need to hunt to have a strong character!

Boosters -
If you are an Item Mall user, I suggest that you take a look at the XP boosters or the SP boosters page to find out what sorts of boosters there are available to you.

Dying -
When you die, you may suffer a reduction of your XP and SXP. The amount that you lose depends on your level.

As you can see from the table below, lower level players lose a higher percentage of their XP than mid-level and high-level players do. However, because low-level players need a significantly smaller amount of XP to reach the next level, they actually lose less XP. For example, if you are a level 22 player and die, you will lose 3% of your XP. A level 22 player needs 1,514,000 XP to reach level 23. So they lose 45,420 XP from dying. Now, look at a level 44 player. They need 91,090,929 XP to reach level 45. If they die, they lose 2% of that, which comes out to be 1,821,818 XP. That's over forty times more XP than a level 22 player loses when they die, despite the fact that the level 22 player loses a higher XP percentage.

Level	XP loss	XP loss equations
1-10	0%	-
11-20	5%	(XP needed to level) x 0.05 = XP lost
21-35	3%	(XP needed to level) x 0.03 = XP lost
36+	2%	(XP needed to level) x 0.02 = XP lost

Figuring up your SP loss works the same way. Let's say you are level 18 and die from taking on too many Drakes at once. You had 300 SP packed away, waiting to be spent on your level 20 skills. How much SP will you lose? Well, 5% of 300 is 15, so 15 SP will be lost. The more SP you have at your time of death, the more you will lose. So be careful!

Level	SP loss	SP loss equations
1-10	0%	-
11-20	5%	(total SP) x 0.05 = SP lost
21-35	3%	(total SP) x 0.03 = SP lost
36+	2%	(total SP) x 0.02 = SP lost

Since there is no SXP bar and you can't tell exactly how much of 10,000 SXP (1 SP) you have, your calculations may be off by 1 or 2 SP.

Lowering or removing the death penalty -
The death penalty of XP and SP loss may be lowered up to 50% by using one of the three types of Experience Crystals and the Effort Crystal, all of which can be made with the Alchemy skill. You also have the option of using Restoration scrolls from the Item Mall to completely nullify (remove) the death penalty. The crystals and scrolls are all tradeable, so they may be bought from the shops of other players.

Healers may learn a skill called Resurrection, whichresurrects the target character in the spot that they are lying and reduces the death XP penalty by up to 50%. The exact amount of XP lost depends on the Healer's Resurrection skill level. Be aware that this skill does not reduce the amount of SXP lost.