Characters level by gathering experience points (XP).
After each level, exponentially more XP are needed to get to the next level.
XP are gained by defeating enemies or by absorbing XP crystals, which are dropped by defeated characters.

## Experience gain on defeating enemies
Experience is gained by being around enemies as they die (allies do not give XP on death).
On death, a character rewards 1% of its total accumulated XP to its killers according to the following rules.
If a character dies from another character's direct attack, that character gains 5% of the defeated character's XP rewards.
Afterwards, the rest of the rewarded experience is split between all nearby characters based on the distance to the enemy at the time of death.
The rewarded share allotted to each bystander decreases with the squared distance, rewarding close-range fighters for their increased risk.
If a character would get less than 0.1% of the overall distributed XP, he gets nothing.
The sum of the XP rewarded to bystanders cannot exceed twice the initial awarded XP amount.
In such a case, the base rewarded XP is reduced so that the total XP rewarded equals twice the initial base XP reward.
That means that too large parties will not level quickly, while parties of two to three players can level without detriment.

## XP crystals
A character, on death, drops XP crystals worth 1% of the character's total accumulated XP.
These crystals are used as currency for trade, and they can be consumed to gain XP.
They ensure that solo players can have a higher XP reward margin than parties, since they do not have to share the dropped crystals.
They allow parties to distribute gained experience even to players that gain less experience due to their strategic positioning and are the main XP income of ranged fighters, since they gain less ambient XP due to their distance from the target.
Additionally, they ensure that even non-combat characters (crafters, farmers, merchants) can level properly through trade.

## Attribute points
Each level, free attribute points are awarded.
The number of attribute points gained rises exponentially with the level, making character strength gaps exponential.
This way, the relative difference in strength between a level *n* and *n+1* character is always roughly the same, and characters double in strength at regular intervals.
The perma-death mechanic prevents stronger characters from permanently dominating all others, since it gets harder and harder to get to a new level if no adequate enemies are around, and stronger players become bigger targets for the weaker characters.
Mass raids pitting many weaker players against stronger players are the way to remove threateningly strong characters from the game.
Another way is to pay a protection fee of XP crystals to regional overlords, marking a character as subject to his overlord.
This allows exceptionally strong characters to level without having to kill all other weaker characters around them, thereby allowing the economy in the region to thrive.

## Balance
As each enemy drops 1% of its accumulated XP, defeating 100 enemies of your level will allow you to bring another character to your level.
As characters permanently die, though, it is always important to have lots of spare XP crystals on hand to restore a character on death, in order to avoid having to start all over again from the beginning.
Melee classes can level twice as quickly due to the vincinity XP bonus, but they also die much more easily.
Of course, even ranged classes can level quicker if they just stand closer to the enemy when defeating it.

## Area difficulty curve
Areas don't linearly get higher in level, as that would just result in a constant difficulty and linear game progression.
Instead, areas polynomially get stronger, that means that between neighbouring high-level areas, the level gap increases.
Together with the exponential attribute growth with each level, the relative difficulty between high-level areas increases, and more and more caution has to be taken when adventuring into more difficult regions.
This prevents players from being able to comfortably beat the game in an even-paced grind.
An example might be: in one area, monsters are up to level 30, but in the next area, the minimum monster level starts at 34.
This effect grows more pronounced as the players progress.
Because attributes grow exponentially with levels, a point can quickly be reached where the weakest monster of the next area is a dozen times stronger than the strongest monster in the previous area.
Combined with perma death mechanics, players are kept at low levels, and to progress further, bigger and bigger teams are needed.

## XP penality for weak enemies
To level up, you have to challenge yourself and risk death.
The gained XP for killing an enemy is reduced exponentially based on the level difference, to make it hard for a strong player to progress from killing absolute weaklings.
This penalty does not affect XP crystals, so at most half of the regular XP could still be gained even when fighting weaklings, if all crystals are consumed.