40d:Experience

Experience represents how much a certain dwarf (or other intelligent creature) has learned about a certain subject, or on a whole. It affects proficiency in skills and a dwarf's attributes. Experience points are never displayed directly, except in Adventure Mode.

Every experience point earned is associated with a skill. Skill increases happen when a certain number of points in that skill is reached. Attribute increases happen when a certain total number of points is reached.

The message "Dwarfname is more experienced." signifies an attribute increase. Skill increases are not announced unless the increase changes a dwarf's profession ("Dwarfname has become a new profession.").

Gaining experience

Dwarves gain experience by performing tasks. Experience is gained when the task is completed; if a task takes a long time and is frequently interrupted (by the dwarf going off to drink, for instance), the dwarf will gain the skill very slowly. Tasks without an associated skill (such as hauling) do not give any experience.

Constructing buildings or constructions does not give experience unless the building requires architecture to build. Such buildings give 30 points of experience in building designer to the architect and 10 experience to whichever dwarf finishes the building once it is designed. The additional experience depends on what material is used to build the building: a building made of stone, stone blocks, or glass blocks gives masonry experience; a building made of logs or wood blocks gives carpentry experience; and a building made of metal bars or blocks gives metalsmith experience.

Destroying buildings and constructions of any type gives no experience.

Known Experience Values

Skill Task XP Miner Dig 10 Miner Remove ramp (natural) 10 Bowyer Make wooden crossbow 30 Carpenter Construct bed 30 Wood Cutter Fell tree 30 Engraver Smooth or detail a floor or wall 10 Mason Construct rock object 30 Armorsmith Make armor (any type) 30 Stonecrafter Make stone crafts, mugs, etc. 30 Weaver Gather silk 30 Weaver Weave any cloth 30 Wood crafter Make wooden bolts 30 Mechanic Link a building to trigger 30 Siege operator Load catapult 30 Siege operator Fire catapult 30 Brewer Brew drink 30 Butcher Slaughter animal 30 Cook Cook easy/fine/lavish meal 30 Grower Harvest plants 30 Grower Plant seeds 30 Herbalist Gather plants 30 Building designer Construct building 30 Strand extractor Extract adamantine 30 Varies Create artifact 20,000

Military Skill Task XP Marksdwarf Shoot at archery range ≈7.5

Increasing skills

To reach Novice level in any skill requires 500 XP. Reaching each successive level requires an additional 100 XP, so to go from Novice to No label requires 600 XP; No label to Competent requires 700 XP, and so on. The following figures are the cumulative XP needed to go from unskilled to any given skill level.

Although Legendary is the highest skill level displayed, there are actually five skill levels above it. These higher skill levels are known to have an effect on item quality; a Legendary dwarf will make masterpiece items 15% of the time, on average, whereas a Legendary+5 dwarf will make masterpieces 27% of the time (and exceptional items the other 73% of the time). Skill beyond Legendary+5 does not increase the probability of creating a masterpiece item.

You can't find out exactly when a dwarf gets to Legendary+5, but it will happen 1000 XP before their eighth attribute if they have no other skills -- so when they get eight attributes, they are at Legendary+5. Although skill is capped at Legendary+5, experience is not capped at any level; a dwarf can keep gaining attributes by using a skill that has long since topped out.

Level XP Dabbling 1 Novice 500 No label 1100 Competent 1800 Skilled 2600 Proficient 3500 Talented 4500

Level XP Adept 5600 Expert 6800 Professional 8100 Accomplished 9500 Great 11000 Master 12600 High Master 14300

Level XP Grand Master 16100 Legendary 18000 Legendary+1 20000 Legendary+2 22100 Legendary+3 24300 Legendary+4 26600 Legendary+5 29000

Increasing attributes

Attribute increases are based on total experience gained across all skills, and are not connected to the attainment of specific skill levels.

Dwarves with a single skill will get their first attribute between Competent and Skilled, their second when reaching Talented, a third between Expert and Professional, a fourth when reaching Great, and a fifth between High Master and Grand Master. Further increases can happen after Legendary.

Toady has stated that although there is no cap on attribute increases, after the fifth increase they are still displayed as 'Ultra-Mighty' 'Perfectly Agile' or 'Superdwarvenly Tough', so an attribute gain message without a change in displayed attributes is possible.

Attributes XP 1 2000 2 4500 3 7500 4 11000 5 15000 6 19500 7 24500 8 30000

Attributes XP 9 36000 10 42500 11 49500 12 57000 13 65000 14 73500 15 82500 16 92000