Deskrawl Leveling Guide: Why XP Slows After Level 15

The level curve

The level cap is 70. Players noticed on launch day that levelling is fast to about level 10 and slows sharply after 15. Two things happen at once: each level needs more kills, and nodes below your level give less experience than before.

One forum post, citing the game’s configuration, lists the kills needed per level:

We could not verify these numbers against an official source. They match what players feel.

Where to farm

• The highest node you can clear without dying. A Sorcerer who first planned to farm the level 7 Raptor changed their mind within the hour: the highest reachable area gave clearly more experience.
• Bosses a few levels below you are worth more than normal nodes far below you, according to one player.
• Use auto retry and leave the game running. There is no auto-advance.

XP potions

The tooltip says one hour. In practice, players report:

• The buff ends when you return to town.
• It may end when you die.
• The bonus is 15% and shows as extra experience numbers on some kills, not as a bigger number on every kill.

So drink it after you are set up on a node you can loop for a long time, not before going to town.

Things that speed it up

Milestones on the way

Only 0.1% of Steam players had reached level 70 a day after launch.

Sources: Steam forum threads “XP seems to get grindy past lvl 15”, “XP Potions for an Hour?” and “sorceress build”; Steam achievements; official screenshots.