Experience

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v53.10 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Experience is a number which describes how much a creature has practiced a skill. As a creature uses a skill, they slowly gain experience. After gaining sufficient experience, the creature's skill level will advance, and they will earn a new title describing their increased ability to use that skill. The effects of this experience gain vary from skill to skill -- for some skills the creature will complete their work faster, for others the creature will produce a higher-quality product, and for a small number of skills, the gain will have no effect.

Experience earned per job

Most civilian skills give 30 XP per use, plus 30 more if an item is produced that has quality levels associated with it[1], which equals 60 XP total for most crafting jobs. Decorations and generic items do not grant this additional experience, so are worth only the base 30 each.

There are (of course) exceptions to this rule. Stonecutting (i.e. smoothing, carving fortifications, and making stone blocks), engraving and mining each give only 10 XP per use. Each work order that a manager approves (which is technically an "administrative" skill) is worth 100 xp, regardless of the size of that order (i.e. an order for 1 item or 100 items gives the same 100 experience).

Military skills have variable increases, with more XP gained from real combat than from training. This is true regardless of the actual threat; taking a swing at a wild wombat or disarmed prisoner is the same as taking a swing at a dragon (though one may offer the excitement of many more swings than another).

A dwarf taken by any strange mood (except a possession) will gain 20,000 experience- in the affected skill upon completion of the artifact. This is, for example, enough to raise a "dabbling" (skill Lvl 0) dwarf to Legendary Lvl 16.

By looking at a dwarf's thoughts and preferences, thoughts of skill increases can be found, whether it's learning a skill or teaching it:

She felt satisfied at work. She felt satisfied upon improving mining.

He felt satisfied after teaching striking.

Reported Experience

A creature's exact amount of experience is never shown (DFHack can add it and the level number). To glean a general sense of how experienced a dwarf is, compare the dwarf's title with the table below. The title (and numbers added by DFHack) are shown on the skills tabs when viewing the dwarf's information.

Lvl Title XP 0 None/Dabbling * 1 1 Novice 500 2 Adequate 1100 3 Competent 1800 4 Skilled 2600 5 Proficient ** 3500 6 Talented 4500

Lvl Title XP 7 Adept 5600 8 Expert 6800 9 Professional 8100 10 Accomplished 9500 11 Great † 11000 12 Master 12600 13 High Master 14300

Lvl Title XP 14 Grand Master 16100 15 Legendary 18000 16 Legendary+1 ‡ 20000 17 Legendary+2 ‡ 22100 18 Legendary+3 ‡ 24300 19 Legendary+4 ‡ 26600 20 Legendary+5 ‡ 29000

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 Adequate requires 600 XP; Adequate to Competent requires 700 XP, and so on. So, with most skills, getting an unskilled dwarf to Novice (Level 1) will take 17 tasks, to get to Proficient (Level 5, the highest for a starting dwarf) will take 117 tasks total, and to get to Legendary will take 600 tasks total (without the right mood). It will take 484 additional tasks to skill a starting Level 5 dwarf up to Legendary.

Notes:

* Dwarves with no skill experience are referred to as "not <skill>" during embark. After embark, skills with 0 experience will not be displayed when viewing a dwarf. Upon getting any experience, but before achieving "Novice", dwarf skills are listed as "Dabbling". For the purposes of a strange mood, skills with 0 experience are a lower level than Dabbling.

** This is the highest skill level possible for one of your starting dwarves.

† Once soldiers reach this level in a weapon skill, they will become a hero and no longer complain about long patrol duty.

‡ These levels are not shown in-game, but they do have an effect. An ordinary legendary dwarf produces a significant proportion of superior quality goods while a legendary+5 dwarf is guaranteed at least exceptional quality, barring effects like tiredness and hunger. After 31,600 experience the levels are unlabelled but continue to be displayed as Legendary. There appears to be no upper limit to experience levels.

Loss of Experience

Experience can only be lost when a dwarf goes many months without using a skill, resulting in the skill becoming rusty, but only skills above the dabbling skill level can become rusty. The initial stages of rust are reversible, but advanced stages result in permanent loss of experience (and eventually rusting the skill down to the dabbling skill level).