Power leveling strategies often require the player to kill as many enemies as possible in a single turn, in order to rack up the experience multiplier. Optimal power leveling areas tend to have both large amounts of enemies and formations that encourage multipliers.
Suggested areas[]
The following locations have been deemed optimal for power leveling.
| Location | Avg XP | Coin | Stam | XP/stam | Rare Items | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metal Zones | Varies | 0 | 10-38 | Varies | Extremely high EXP gain. Random spawn. | |
| Chapter 1.5 | ~1,750 | 78 | 1 | 1,750 | Lv: 4 | |
| Chapter 5.8 | ~14,600 | 589 | 1 | 14,600 | Lv: 13
Running 5-8 multiple (~18) times to reach 260,000 exp is more efficient stamina-wise (18) and coin-wise (~10,000) than a single run on 20-1, but takes far more time (30+ mins). | |
| Chapter 6.6 | ~14,961 | 538 | 7 | 2,137 |  Metal Ticket |
Lv: 16 Pincer Area Mage needed Recruit: Arachnobot x32 |
| Chapter 9.5 | ~20,000 | 684 | 9 | 2,222 | Lv: 21 | |
| Chapter 10.6 | ~28,000 | 700 | 9 | 3,111 | Lv: 25 | |
| Chapter 12.5 | ~34,000 | 783 | 10 | 3,400 | Lv: 29 | |
| Chapter 13.8 | ~39,000 | ~1000 | 11 | 3,550 |  Wish Particle |
Lv: 32 Shadow: Toxoid |
| Chapter 15.9 | ~55,000 | 1100 | 12 | 4,583 | Lv: 37 | |
| Chapter 20.1 | ~230,000
<255,340 |
>3788 | 25 | ~9,200
<10,214 |
 Oxsecium,  Animaton, Dark Matter,  Moon Tears |
Lv: 47 20 floors! very long! Timings with rule of thumb:
Recruit: Chargebot x2 |
| Chapter 23.4 | ~96,000 | 1400 | 16 | 6,000 | Lv: 53
Requires strong pincer area/ring (column/row) unit to gain major exp from last stage. | |
| Chapter 25.9 | ~76,000 | 18 | 4,220 | Lv: 59 Recruit: Thornasaurus x22 | ||
| Chapter 26.9 | ~87,000
<110,740 |
1350
? |
18 | ~4,833
~6,152 |
Lv: 62 Without King own ? | |
| Chapter 28.4 | <118,804 | 1316 | 19 | ~6,252 | Lv: 65 | |
| Chapter 29.5 | <118,570 | <1589 | 20 | ~5,928 | Lv: 67 3k Coins with Zeera and Yulia | |
| Chapter 32.7 | Low: ~140,000
High: ~260,000 |
1,326 | 21 | Low: 6,667
High: 12,381 |
Lv: 73 Requires a minimum of 4 characters (High requires AOE). Great for grinding a whole team from 70s and up. Co-op play nets great exp for host. If completed correctly, 32-7 grants slightly more exp than 20-1, and is also significantly faster to complete. | |
| Chapter 34.10 | >400,000 | 1473 + Metal Minion Λ (3000) | 24 | >16,500 |  Mantle Helix,  Deepwater Helix
|
Lv: 74 Needs heavy damage dealers. Hard to grind more than 2 characters at once. |
EXP distribution[]
The total amount of experience points gained in a stage is divided evenly among all participants. That means for a full party of 6, each member receives 1/6 of the total EXP. That distribution rule even applies if some of the characters in your squad cannot receive EXP at all (because they have already reached the experience cap or are not in the respective level-range of a Metal Zone - in which cases their share of the total amount is simply lost). To power level exclusively certain characters, you can reduce your total squad size by removing members from it. With a squad of 4 members, each will receive 1/4 of the total amount of EXP from the stage (instead of 1/6).
Power leveling with co-op[]
In Co-op Mode the Host receives the full amount of experience, while the Guest receives 20% of the experience. This allows players to receive more exp by "trading" runs, that is, switching the role of host between two players and having both players host an equal number of runs.
Facts:
- Certain chapters cannot be played in Co-op, including 20-1 (see Co-op Mode for the full list)
- Guests cannot join a chapter that they have not yet reached
- EXP earned is shared, NOT split
- The host earns 100% of the EXP, while guests earn around 20% of the EXP
- Host will not be limited by level cap, so farming skills (Negotiator/Pro Negotiator, Money Bags, Seasoned Pro and Treasure Hunter) will work
- Guest will be limited by a level cap of 5 + the difficulty of the stage
Preparing your team:
Each player brings their first three units. EXP is shared between Host and Guest, and after that, it is split between all your squad's members, whether or not they participate in the co-op. So, if your original team was 6 players, the total EXP you get is divided by 6, BUT ONLY THE THREE CHARACTERS WHO ACTUALLY PARTICIPATED WILL GAIN EXP, so half of the EXP is lost.
To avoid this, make sure that you have characters in only the first 3 slots of your squad, leaving the last 3 empty. This way, no EXP is wasted (unless some of your characters have reached the max level).
Chapter 32[]
With the addition of Chapter 32, Co-op exp grinding is once again more effective than solo play, depending on your needs.
Chapter 32-7 has an experience range of anywhere from 140,000 to 260,000 with 3/4 of the total experience coming from the final battle, which requires units to be positioned prior to the end of battle 4 in order to achieve maximum experience.
The fact that the stage requires a minimum of 4 high level characters is what makes it so great for Co-op. With correct positioning and experience stacking, max experience is around 260,000 for the Host and around 52,000 for the Guest. 260,000 experience, by itself, is already superior to farming Chapter 20, but it requires a full team, which dilutes the experience gain if you're trying to level specific units. With Co-op play, when you consider the 260,000 and add in the 52,000 that you'll gain when the other player hosts, you're looking at an approximate total of 312,000 experience for 21 stamina, which translates to 14,857 exp/stamina ratio. Considering you can only take 3 characters into Co-op, that's 100,000+ experience per character.
Because of hard hitting characters are required to gain maximum experience, 32-7 is most effective for leveling higher level characters, ranging from levels 70 to 90. Depending on available units between both players, it is theoretically possible for the Host player to go in with one high level unit, high damaging unit and one low level unit, as long as the guest brings 3 high level damagers to ensure clearing the final battle in a single turn. This could net 150,000+ experience for the Host's low level character. However, for most players, Chapter 20 (solo play only) is more likely to be a better option for power leveling low-end characters, as it really only requires one or two high-end damagers to complete.
Trivia[]
- When Co-op Mode was first released, Host and Guest players all received the full amount of experience and coins.
- This made Chapter 23-4 the best place for experience when played through co-op.
- With patch 2.5.0, co-op was nerfed to only give the Host experience and coin.
- This effectively made co-op unusable for experience gain.
- The co-op experience distribution was again changed in patch 2.6.0, which gives the Guest player just under 20% of the total experience earned.