Experience Guide

In Mass Effect, leveling up requires experience points, which are gained from completing missions, assignments, and killing or destroying enemies. While it is hard to get a lot of experience on higher levels, getting experience is never that difficult.

Experience Gain
The party gains experience (as a whole) by successfully completing missions / assignments, killing enemies or finding new Codex info. The experience gained is based on the level of the party, the higher the level, the more experience will be awarded. The exact formula is: Experience Gained = BASE x MODIFIER x AWARD TYPE (rounded down)
 * BASE: From Levels 1-5 = 5 From Levels 6 and higher = Level
 * MODIFIER: This number ranges from 2.0 to 2.4 Depending on which Experience Achievements have been Unlocked from 0% to 20% total
 * AWARD TYPE: The Action for which the Experience was gained ranging from codex Entries to Assignments to Thresher Maw kills where BASE is a fixed value for this AWARD TYPE.

For example, codex entries have an exp. AWARD TYPE of x1. This means, on level 5, the party should get 10 experience points for finding a new info (without bonuses). In the Citadel: Scan the Keepers assignment, every scanned keeper will give experience points, here the exp. AWARD TYPE is also x1, meaning that on level 6 (BASE 6) with a MODIFIER of 2.0, 12 points will be awarded.

This means, that normally it does not matter, when missions / assignments are completed. It doesn't make sense to solve assignments later to get more experience points, because there will be less experience points for all other things until then - both effects will cancel each other out.

Award Types
Special Cases Level 1 to 5: Assassin (1.5), Geth Destroyer (1.5), Geth Recon Drone (1.2), Geth Shock Trooper (2.0), Geth Trooper (1.2), Husk (1.2)

Basic x1:
 * Codex, Decryption, Electronics, Element, Keeper Scan, League Medalion, Matriarch's Writings, Prothean Disc, Salvage Probe, Turian Insignia (NOTE: Collection Items surveyed from space grant a codex entry for the first collection of its type whereas groundside recoveries award 1 to 3 times BASE value)
 * Batarian Rocket Soldier, Batarian Trooper, Biotic Cultist (1 shld), Defense Turret(Chora's Den), Dock Worker, ERCS Guard, Geth Rocket Trooper, Geth Sapper, Geth Sniper, Geth Stalker, Geth Trooper, Husk, Mercenary (2 shld), Rachni Worker, Scientist, Sniper, Thorian Creeper, Thug, Varren

Moderate x2.5: Adv Biotic Cultist (3 shld), Adv Mercenary (3 shld), Asari Clone, Asari Commando, Assassin, Assault Drone, Batarian Shock Trooper, Batarian War Beast, Cerberus Commando, Cerberus Engineer, Cerberus Research Asst, Cerberus Sniper, ERCS Guard (Sniper), Geth Shock Trooper, Krogan, Krogan Bouncer, Krogan Warrior, Mercenary Anti-Tank, Mercenary Engineer, Pirate (Sniper), Rachni Soldier, Test Subject

Advanced x7.5: Batarian Engineer, Geth Armature, Geth Ghost, Geth Juggernaught, Heavy Turret, Krogan Commander, Krogan Warlord, Quest Boss (such as Crime Lords), Pirate, Rachni Brood Warrior

Difficult x15: Geth Colossus, Geth Prime, Krogan Battlemaster, Thresher Maw

Basic Quest x10: Simple Quest Objective Completion can award anywhere from x10 to x60 (Specialization x25 Spectre Initiation x60) BASE depending on the number of Objectives involved

Advanced Quest x15: These Quests usually offer a one-time reward only, though their objectives are more complex than the stages of a Basic Quest.

Maximizing Experience
As the number of enemies is limited, there is no way to fight endless hordes of enemies, so every experience point is valuable. There seem to be some ways of getting most experience out of the game, the first ones being rather ineffective:

By trying to reach the needed experience points for a certain level exactly, the points that are "wasted" can be minimized. Example: Let's say that the actual value is 1490 (level 5 - level 6 starts with 1500) and there are two possibilities - earning 100 (exp. base 20) now or earning 10 (exp. base 2) now. It's better to take the 10 points now:


 * 1) If the 100 points are taken now, experience will be 1590. Then the 10 points will become 12 points (because level is now 6), giving 1602 points at all.
 * 2) On the other hand, if the 10 points are taken now, experience will be 1500. The 100 points will become 120 points (because of level 6 instead of 5), making it 1620 points together.

Of course, this method is not very effective, because it will only affect one experience gain after each level, making the effect rather small. Unless effort is made to reach each level using the smallest gain available, getting as close to the exact "level up" value as possible. This method can be tedious but will also result in several thousand more experience by level 60. The effect is capped at the largest experience multiplier possible, roughly 15, times the largest experience modifier possible, 2.4, times the number of level gains, 59, for a total of roughly 8500 experience. In practice, however, the gains will never be this large because even with careful planning experience gains will rarely line up perfectly with level cutoffs. For the same reason losses will rarely be large without careful micro-management since situations where only a few points are needed to level but the next experience award is that largest possible are equally rare.

Becoming a Spectre will usually give you enough experience points to reach the next level, particularly on new characters. It's recommended to become a Spectre as late as possible, directly after reaching a level, so the points gained can be maximized however it may make no difference on a high level repeat playthrough.

The last (and most effective) way is simple: Don't fight inside the Mako. Experience awards while in the Mako, regardless of whether the Mako damaged the target or not, are severely penalized at 50% on Normal level and 60% (granting only 40% xp gain) on Insanity. Using damage over time effect like Warp, Sabotage, Chemical Rounds, Inferno Rounds, etc, or pushing the target over a fatal drop, still incur a penalty if you are inside the Mako when the target dies. By leaving the Mako, it is possible to get much more experience points for fighting on planets. The important thing here seems to be the kill, so a good tactic (especially for bigger enemies) is to fight with the Mako's weapons until the enemy has only little health left - then leave the vehicle and kill it. This tactic works fine with Thresher Maws, for example. It is possible to overcome the Experience limitation while in the Mako by editing the games DefaultGame.ini. Refer to the PC Tweaks section for more information.

There is a technique to gain more experience during the siege of the Citadel. When you first exit the elevator, or when you are walking on the exhaust plains just before the turrets, there is a corridor blocked by krogan and geth troops. Out of the far side a Geth Destroyer will come around the corner toward you; soon after you kill it another one will appear, then another. They stop coming when you reach the opposite corner. Another strategy is to leave one krogan alive and use AI Hacking on the Geth Destroyer as it comes around the corner. Unfortunately they will stop coming after a while (7 or 8 seems to be the limit). But saving and reloading the game will give you more Geth Destroyers to kill.

This "stream of spawns" also holds true in Bring Down the Sky for rocket drones launched from the top floor of the second torch station (the one with the mine field) on X57, as long as you leave at least 1-2 enemies alive on the ground floor.

Infinite Experience Glitch
The following approaches exploit a glitch in the save system which allows the player to receive experience after loading a previously saved game file. There are several areas where saving and reloading that same game file resets the particular trigger intended to reward experience points.
 * Found in the Prothean ruins located in Therum. After clearing the cavern of geth the player activates the mining laser and travels up an elevator the floor on which Liara is imprisoned. The player will receive experience points after stepping off the elevator platform and onto the blue tile. Save immediately into a new slot, in case you need a prior load for backup purposes. It is critical to save before speaking with Liara. After the save is complete, proceed to the "Load" menu and select the file you just created. You will receive experience points again upon loading the game.
 * A terminal inside the Feros freighter can be hacked after each save, load cycle.
 * The lock on the sewer door in the Virmire base can be picked after each save, load cycle.

Gaining Items
Finally, it's important to bear in mind that your experience level affects the level of items gained from containers. Levelling up is strongly recommended before opening containers as you'll gain better equipment. For example, if you're playing an Engineer or rely on tech-savvy squadmates, it's often a good idea to leave Bring Down the Sky until later in the game when you have a higher level, as it will allow you to get high-powered omni-tools that are very difficult to find elsewhere. This effect works both ways, however, so any rank VII items desired should be focused on and acquired before the player character advances beyond the maximum level where they are available, approximately level 36 for vendors and 42 for basic drops. Many ammo, weapon, and armor upgrades change effects between levels VII and VIII or in some cases disappear entirely.

Starting with level seven, every sixth level you gain more advanced items from containers and enemies than you previously got.

This table is meant as a reference and mostly applies to normal drops, such as containers. Hard decryption containers and special enemies may give you items one level higher than average, and merchants may sell equipment two levels higher, for instance.

Level progression
The following table illustrates the levelling scheme used in Mass Effect. The Incr column lists the incremental increase of required experience points. The experience points requirement are calculated based on the last level up – for example: levelling up from level 11 to level 12, requires 1,100xp. To level up from level 12 to level 13 will require 1,100xp + 100xp.