so ive spent about 2 or so hours running around the open world after the events of white orchard. and just about every side quest i find it level 7 and 8 and some are even 12 or 14, which i cant even nearly devote enough time to trying over and over seeing as it takes over 1:15 to load a save!!!

im on ps4 and im playing on the difficulty above the normal, cant remember the name but you know what i mean. when i do complete a quest for say, destroying a nest or something i get 20 measly exp points. I dont know if the game is designed to be this way or if i encountered a bug or if im just being a complainer. but getting 20 points for taking out a monster nest that is a level 7 when I am level 4 and get a low amount of points im starting to second guess this game. like im half way to 5 but i still need 500 more exp to get there.

am i going mad!?

It seems like the main story quests give more xp than the sidequests. I feel like there is some unevenness with how the xp is doled out.

I starting leveling faster as I got closer to lvl 10. I wasn't too worried about being underleveled though at the time because I kept finding places of power which give ability points so you don't have to rely on only getting them from lvl increases

I'm level 4 and I've played 10ish hours. I just went after those question makes on my map I had, which aren't quests (most of the time). I'd say make sure you check the bounty board if it's yellow on your world map.

Leveling is pretty slow in this game compared to most RPGs. I'm pretty use to rapid leveling early on and then slowing down later, but you level up at roughly the same rate throughout the game. (At least so far.) I did literally everything in White Orchard before leaving and I was only level 4 or 5 by the end. There's also the fact that quests are where you primarily get your exp, and some quests give way more than others (especially story ones) so if you spend a lot of time just exploring the world instead of progressing the story it will seem even longer.

Keep in mind you can handle stuff well above your level with proper preparation and skillful play, especially on normal.

Like others have said, the leveling ramp in this game is a lot different from many other RPGs, in fact it's almost the complete inverse. Once you start approaching double digits, you'll probably be able to notice a bit of an accelerated pace.

Also, don't be afraid of taking on quests that are 2-3 levels higher than you. A lot of them are very doable. Quests where you're fighting mostly human enemies in particular are pretty easy to complete with a considerable level disadvantage.

You should stick to the main story for a little while and you'll level into those quests and then it goes from there. I felt the early game was supposed to go that way. That's how I did it and it worked well.

Also this is a game that rewards you for questing over grinding, so don't have a grinding attitude about leveling up. Quest to do so.

In addition, if you're feeling decent in your abilities and use the right tactics you can tackle things a number of levels higher than you are. Like if you're 3 or 4, you can tackle 7 or 8 and it shouldn't be a big deal. I have tackled some things that they say not to (monsters marked red as "don't fuck with this guy he's way over your level") and won too using good tactics and patience. Not reccomended, but point being you can definitely go over your level for stuff. If anything is color coded green you should be good to go. Just make sure you're on your p's and q's if something is higher level because you'll need advantages like knowing monster weaknesses, oils, and potions.

Leveling is slow early on. It scales really oddly because the amount of xp you need to level only changes after a few levels. 1000 xp to level might be hard to get at level 5, but when you're going from 7 to 8 all of a sudden 1000 is nothing. (Just an example, I can't remember which levels only require 1000 actually) There are a lot of places of power in white orchard if you want a boost to your abilities early. That should help smooth things out for you. If there aren't any side quests your level just do the main storyline and any map events you feel comfortable with. Keep in mind that you can take things way over your level if you don't mind challenging yourself. When I realized I could take down a lvl 14 guarded treasure at level 4 that was when things got more interesting for me. You'll get some really good loot that way. Don't do map events for xp. They give terrible xp. Do Main quests, side quests, and witcher contracts. Main quests will give you large chunks of xp just for talking to people usually since you're progressing the objective.

Bottom line to make your life easier. Map events = loot. Actual quests = xp. Sounds like you're doing nests and stuff expecting to level when that just isn't the way the game works.

never had an issue with leveling. I'm almost at level 10. the side stuff is as good as some of the main stuff plus i've found some really good gear. just dont worry about it.

I'm enjoying the slower character progression. It's a nice change of pace from feeling like I'm just burning through content at a rapid clip because leveling is so fast. There are a ton of options at any level in this game. Plus, I feel like it's more rewarding once you finally do level because you've been so patient. That said, I've probably played almost 20 hours at this point at I'm still at level 8. I would like it pick up a bit because I'm eager to get some new skills. The one thing I don't like about the game is choosing what skills you can have active.

I have another friend who is playing on a lower difficulty than me and admittedly we were about the same level when we left the first area but I'm kind of regretting playing on the 3rd difficulty because of the lowered experience gain. I don't know if it's really that much but I feel like the low amount xp I'm getting is severely hindering me. Just want some new armor man :(

I don't think you actually get less exp on higher difficulties. I've play on Blood and Broken Bones from the start and I've never been underleveled for story quests. In fact, I started to outlevel them more and more as the game went on.

Two things:

• Just because something is a higher level quest doesn't mean you shouldn't try to tackle it. If you're level 4 and a quest is level 7, go for it anyway. Like in any great RPG, preparedness and an understanding of the systems will do a hell of a lot more for you than some level grinding and good gear.
• Places of power give you a whole point. Think about that, a whole point, just for finding something! Search them out. If you don't know what you want to put points into, I recommend making your fast attack faster and your Quen sign stronger.

@zeik: Might be just for the Death March setting then. Not entirely sure.

A little tip about experience/leveling. If a quest, regardless of main, side, contract or treasure hunt is green, meaning its your level or with in 5 either way, you get the normal amount experience for doing those. While they are green. Grey means its under your level more than 5 and you get less experience. Light red means its 6-10 more than you, and you get more. Bright red means its 11+ and you get a lot more experience for completing it. So if you can handle doing a quest that is red you get much more experience.

So for example if you are level 8, anything from 3-13 will be green. 2 or less is grey, and 14-19 is light red. And 20+ is dark red.

This same concept applies to enemies. If an enemy is grey you get basically nothing for beating it. Green you get the standard amount. Red with no skull icon means more. Red with a skull or ?? means you get 50% more xp for killing it, if you can. Good luck with that.

So when you get about 6-10 you will start being able to clean up on some of the green contracts, and some of the light red. This will make you level up a bunch. I say when you get to those levels because you get closer to the higher level monsters and you should have some pretty good swords and armor by then. I recommend doing the cat treasure hunts asap. They have great stats and have a low level requirement. Plus each piece adds 5% bleed, and 5% damage bonus. Also 5% experience from humans and non-humans.

@sccdemir: There is no decrease in experience on any difficulty level. Its just that on the higher levels things are harder to fight, so you tend not to do them as fast as the lower levels. So you can level faster on an easier level. But you get the same experience in all difficulty levels.

The most recent patch apparently has a chance to break EXP gain from quests. I would test to see if you are experiencing this by saving, doing some kind of quest and verifying that you actually do receive experience! Also, as others have said, doing main storyline quests seems to level you quite a bit faster than anything else. You may want to just do one of those to get you another level or two.

@sterling: I see. That's weird. I could swear I read that somewhere. Hmm.

• It's normal to take a lot of time to level up. Always has in this series!
• Enemies don't give you a lot of XP.
• Secondary Quests and Witcher Contracts give OK XP
• Main Quests give lots of XP
• You should be able to do quests within 5 levels without too much difficulty. You can go futher for sure, but start with baby steps if you are only doing quests your same level currently.

Happy hunting!

Nah. It reminds me of Vampire The Masquerade a little bit. Maybe a bit more tight fisted, but the leveling in all these games has always been like that. It's always made sense to me, and seems fine from what little I have been able to play between random crashes.

Leveling is very slow unless you focus on witcher contracts and story missions. Just running around doing points of interest and side missions is very very slow leveling. It probably took me like 4-5 hours to go from 6 to 7, not even joking. Other levels later levels took me less than 30 minutes. But I was just going story mission to story mission at that time.

Throughout most of the game, it'll seem like that (which is over 100 hours if you so to choose do every side quest possible, which I did); it wasn't until the end run of doing the main quests that I noticed things going fast, so before it I was 20 something, and the end I was 35 or something.

I noticed I wasn't getting anywhere by chasing ?s in the Orchard, so I continued with the story quests into Velen and I'd get multiple levels before even noticing. I'm level 11 now.

thanks for the advice duders!! After a few more hours Im starting to understand the xp aspect. This game is very different compared to most rpg's out there. at least most of the AAA modern ones. im glad that everyone else is coming to a consensus that it is not a grinding type of game.

overall, this game is bonkers. I hope to put in >70-80 hours of this before batman comes out. it will be hard to split time between both games. ive spent countless hours on batman games before. i doubt this will be any different.