40d:Experience

Experience represents how much a certain dwarf (or other intelligent creature) has learned (about a certain subject, or as a whole). It affects proficiency in skills and a dwarf's attributes. Precise points in experience 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 announcement "<Dwarfname> is more experienced" signifies an attribute increase. Skill increases are not announced unless the increase changes a dwarf's profession, when the announcement will be to the effect of "<Dwarfname> has become a <new profession>".

Increasing skills

If a dwarf has zero experience in a skill, they will have no skill listed (but can still use that skill at an untrained level if a labor associated with the skill is designated, and will gain experience from completing such tasks).

As soon as a dwarf gets even 1 point of experience in a skill from completing just one job, they attain Dabbling rank in that skill. This can be important for strange moods.

To reach Novice level in any skill requires 500 XP. Reaching each successive level requires 500 plus an additional 100 XP per additional rank, 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.

As dwarfs gain more experience from completing jobs, they gain more experience in the skill related to those jobs:

Level XP Novice 500 (no label) 1100 Competent 1800 Skilled 2600 Proficient * 3500

Level XP Talented 4500 Adept 5600 Expert 6800 Professional 8100 Accomplished 9500

Level XP Great 11000 Master 12600 High Master 14300 Grand Master 16100 Legendary 18000

Level XP Legendary(+1) 20000 Legendary(+2) 22100 Legendary(+3) 24300 Legendary(+4) 26600 Legendary(+5) 29000

(* "Proficient" is the highest rank that one of your initial seven dwarves can start with. Migrants will arrive with no skills, Novice, or (no label) levels.)

Although Legendary is the highest skill level displayed, there are actually five skill levels above that. Any 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 if they have no other skills it will happen 1000 XP before their eighth attribute -- so when they get eight attributes, they are past 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.

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

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 a varying amount of experience to whichever dwarf finishes the building once it is designed, given gradually as the structure is built. 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; a building made of metal bars or blocks gives blacksmithing experience; and soap bars appear to give no experience to any skill.

Destroying buildings and constructions of any type gives no experience.

Known Experience Values

Skill Task XP Miner any digging (soil or stone) 10 / tile Miner Remove ramp (natural) 10 Miner Fight "unarmed" w/ pick variable (low) 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 Trapper Construct animal trap 30 Trapper Bait animal trap 30 Armorsmith Make armor (any type) 30 Metalsmith Make metal Block 30 Stonecrafter Make stone crafts, mugs, etc. 30 Weaver Gather silk 30 Weaver Weave any cloth 30 Wood crafter Make wooden bolts 30 Glassmaker Construct blocks,windows 30

Skill Task XP Mechanic Link a building to trigger 30 Siege engineer Construct catapult/ballista parts 30 Siege engineer Assemble ballista arrow 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 Organizer Manage Work Order (per task) 10 Strand extractor Extract adamantine 30 Marksdwarf Shoot at archery range ≈7.5 Appraisal View Goods for trade1 ≈7.5 / item1 "Broker"2 Successful trade3 ≈7.53

Notes:

1) The first time the trade button is used at a Depot for any single caravan, the dwarf who responded to do the trading immediately gains this amount, ≈7.5 experience x the number of items. No further experience can be gained in Appraisal for this caravan for this dwarf or any other, but another dwarf can replace them as broker, respond to the call for a "Trader requested at depot", and use their existing skill to see the value of goods and make trades.

2) In this context, "Broker" skills include Persuader, Negotiator, Judge of Intent, Intimidator, Liar, Conversationalist, Comedian, and Flatterer. Which particular skills are used will depend on the personality of the dwarf in question.

3) There seem to be a lot of variables in a "successful trade", and different skills seem to increase more or less depending on the exact combination of factors. More research is needed, but over trading sessions this average seems to hold true.

• A dwarf taken by any strange mood (except a possession) will gain 20,000 experience in the affected skill upon completion of the artifact.