Experience points
In NetHack, experience points or XP measure the character's progress toward gaining experience levels. A character gains an experience level when they accumulate sufficient experience points. XP are shown in the status line when the showexp option is on (default: off).
Gaining experience points
Experience points can be gained by:
- Killing monsters.
- Eating tripe, yielding 1 XP, provided hero is not an orc and is not in a polyform that enjoys tripe.[1]
- Consulting the Oracle, for the first major consultation and the first minor consultation.
- Quaffing from a sink, which can give 1 XP (5% chance).[2]
- Untrapping a squeaky board for 1 XP.[3]
- The first novel you read gives 20 XP.[4]
You can also gain an entire experience level, lose an entire experience level, and restore lost experience levels, with commensurate gains and loses in experience points.
Experience points from killing monsters
The number of experience points obtained by killing a monster of level ML is computed as follows:[5]
- Start with (ML)*(ML) + 1;
- Add 3 if the monster's speed is between 13 and 18, and 5 if the monster's speed is at least 19;
- Add a bonus for low armor class monsters: +5 for AC 2, +6 for AC 1, +7 for AC 0, and +(14-2*AC) for negative AC;
- Add 1000 for a sea monster with a drowning attack, if you don't have magical breathing and are not polymorphed into an amphibious monster;
- Add 7*ML if the monster is M2_NASTY;
- Add 50 if ML is at least 9;
- For each attack that the monster has, add a bonus based on attack type: +10 for spellcasting attacks, +5 for weapon attacks, +3 for all other attack types, except for passive, claw, bite, kick and headbutt attacks, which give no bonus;
- For each attack that the monster has, add a bonus based on damage type: +(50-ML) for sliming, stoning or drain life, and +ML for a damage type that is the same as a dragon's breath attack (fire, cold, shock, sleep, disintegration, magic missiles, acid, or strength-draining poison — but not for dexterity- or constitution-draining poison);
- For each attack that the monster has, add a +ML bonus if the attack's maximum damage is at least 24.
If the monster has been cloned or revived, there is a penalty to experience gained based on the total number of monsters of that type that have been killed.
| No. kills | Xp penalty |
|---|---|
| 1..20 | None |
| 21..40 | xp/2 |
| 41..80 | xp/4 |
| 81..120 | xp/8 |
| 121..180 | xp/16 |
| 181..240 | xp/32 |
| 241..255+ | xp/64 |
The result is the number of points you earn for killing the monster. Mail daemons are a special case; they are only worth 1 experience point.
This calculation takes into account all attacks listed in the monster's definition from the source code, including attacks that are not implemented (such as the green slime's passive sliming attack). The armor class and speed used in this calculation are the base values; they do not take into account the armor that the monster might have worn, or the extra speed that the monster might have had from a wand of speed monster, a monster spell, etc. On the other hand, the monster level used here is the monster's actual level at the time it was killed, not the base level or the level at which it was created.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
