How do I get XP in Eco

This is a common and a very important question for new players who discover Eco by Strange Loop Games.

Experience points in Eco are the result of a calculation :

     skill points per action or craft x skill gain multiplier = experience points (XP)

Your avatar has a specialization star when you begin the game and you can spend it to reach level 1 in a particular skill. Only then can you accumulate experience in this specific skill, get bonuses on calories usage and unlock craft recipes. As you can see in the previous formula, leveling up is done by performing actions or finishing crafting projects while having a high skill gain multiplier. 

For instance, you can increase your logging skill by cutting trees, clearing debris and making hewn. Every skill has it's own set of actions and crafts and skill point obtained from these actions or crafts are then multiplied by the skill gain multiplier to obtain the total amount of experience points gained.

As a rule of thumb, any crafting project that requires a given skill is likely to yield skill points per craft for that skill. Using the bow (hunting), axe (logging) and pickaxe (mining) will yield different kind of skill points per action. For gathering, you can pick up crops on the ground and harvest plants using a sickle. Again, you must specialize in the skill related to the action or the craft, otherwise your skills points will show in the bottom left of the screen with a red cross on it, indicating the skill points are not gained.

Additionally, every player slowly get over time a small amount of points to get specialization stars. These points are also multiplied by the skill gain multiplier. Therefore, someone who has a high skill gain multiplier not only get higher in his skills, but he also gets new stars quickly. On medium settings, you can hope to get between 6 to 8 stars over the course of the game.

After a while, most players get the idea of skill points per action or craft. What is more difficult, however, is for new players to optimize the skill gain multiplier. There is also other things to do in Eco, so it often raises the question of what should we focus on first and how do we get XP in Eco fast.

1. Quick thing about XP in Eco

Eco has a strong cooperative structure, as opposed to the usual competitive structure you find in most games. If I play like I do in minecraft (large territory and trying to do everything alone), I would be better playing solo. If I rush with one or two friends and we try to exploit others, our strategy will only last few days before the server fails and we end up alone: a closed server with boosted parameters would have been better.

In practice, cooperation means :

(1) the quality of my game largely depends on the way your game goes and 

(2) each of us has different roles in making the game better.

Therefore, typical gamers here must tweak their brain a little and adopt a different vision for Eco: experience points is not about advancing faster or being better than the other players, but a way to make sure your avatar is more useful for the community. Since players share the same environment in Eco, low XP gain means you are more wasteful in your actions. Also, a low XP neighbor will not contribute as much to your own success in the long run. Helping others in this context is also helping you (this one may takes time to stick).

Struggling to get a decent XP bonus within the first 3 days is a strong indicator of future server failure.

Lastly, reaching high XP bonus while the rest of the community has lower values leads to inequity. Soon, each minute invested in the game will bring you more than the same minute spent by others. This is good for you, but just be careful not to do this at the expense of others. Many carpenters found themselves alone with a huge wood mansion because they failed to make wood products available to others.

If another player is bragging about his XP bonus as if he is winning somehow, he is likely a novice player with still few things to learn about Eco...

2. Why should I prioritize XP in Eco?

Suppose I play as carpenter and I begin with the logging skill. My personal choice will be to get the best food possible to boost my skill gain multiplier from the starting 20-36 XP bonus range. At first, we can hope to get a diet which brings 40 XP when a chef is on the map. We can also hope for the very best early diet which brings 60+ XP. A skill gain multiplier of 30 to 60 cuts in half the time needed to get my second star, so I gain carpentry within 6 hours instead of 12+ hours. The 60 XP scenario is when you have an exceptional community, however, and the 40 XP range is a reasonable target. If you can't get this diet within the first 2 hours, you server lacks a chef (nearby) or he is not playing his role right (again...the role and helping community thing).

Once I secure a decent XP bonus, I massively cut down trees, make hewn and clear debris. Each point per action gained through my hard work will be multiplied by my XP bonus (which is higher now). Therefore, I will level up faster, get higher savings on calories, and overall spend less calories for the same amount of effort than if I work with raw crops in my stomach. The hunting skill is a shining example of efficiency: the perk bonus given at level 6 effectively double the amount of carcasses we can get in the same amount of time compared to a lower level.

Soon after, when I pick the carpentry skill, I can make a ton of wood boards to get skill points per craft. I need 18 750 experience points to reach level 5, but each woodboard I craft only brings 0.6 points... I will need a ton of wood to craft all these boards (*sigh). Or maybe not...

Consider the following scenarios (vanilla settings):

The XP bonus here considerably cuts down calories and trees needed to reach the level 5. It will also takes less time because there is less crafting to make. More trees left intact after this project means I can keep on getting wood nearby instead of traveling far.

And while we are at it, look what happen if I trade with a mason to get a basic upgrade module 2 before this experiment:

Coupling a good XP bonus with timely use of upgrade modules is a winning condition. Notice module rebate apply on each crafting step and there are two crafting steps to make woodboards (wood to hewn to boards). The module rebate also apply on time, so scenario #1 will take 6.3 hours to craft while scenario #4 takes 2.3 hours if we use a single crafting table.

Why do I want to get to level 5? Because I can unlock basic upgrade module 3 and produce wood furniture using about 3 times less resources and hewn using 1.7 less ressources than without modules.

Some players ignore XP bonus and grind for skill points. As you can see, this is done with a significant waste of time and resources. Also, early lumber producers and smelters are extremely wasteful because they are producing costly items made of 3 to 4 crafting steps without modules. This means using 5x more land and time than someone doing it in better conditions. Those who rush mechanics without modules are often wasting about x9 more ressources and time than needed. 

No wonder smelter noobs try to claim insanely large territories.

You can see that waste, pollution and environmental impact isn't really about ostentatious industrial machines, but with small decisions on resource usage and cooperation since the beginning.

3. Getting skill points per action and per craft

There is no complex strategy here : get resources and craft. However, what new players and novice miss is that they can craft way more if they engage in fair trade and cooperation early. Also, you don't need to craft and sell items all the time: adding your work to "work party" contracts or starting orders on the crafting stations of other players is possible too. Ask for compensation for calories. Then, enjoy getting free XP while someone else is doing the hard work of getting resources for the craft. In addition, this is a great way to help your neighbors when they are far or when the trading infrastructure is not ready.

Tips and tricks for skill points

• If you have a basic resource gathering skill, make sure you sell basic resources (fair price) and your store is near other players.
• If you have the logging or mining skill, offer other players to get resources together. While they pick logs, stones and plant new trees, you will focus on actions that brings you skill points (cutting trees, mining). Share half the loot and transport it back together to the city. Your share will be higher and you will have more skills points than if you work alone. It is also a good cooperation activity.
• Alternatively, logging experts can create contracts for wood transportation and replanting in exchange for credits to buy logs at their store.
• Look at the items your skill allows you to make and try to keep at least one item of each type on sale: learn which items are more popular and make more.
• Ask in the chat if people need anything from your skill.
• If your skill allows the production of items needed in high amount (ex.: hewn, mortar, food, cloth), consider making a barter store (no currency) coupled with a crafting station that pumps out items as soon as players sell resources. Keeping the price ratio at 0 or very low profit margins yield a DIY contraption allowing access to your skill at all times and maxing out XP freely. In addition, you won't fear of being stuck with tons of useless resources later: great for iron tools and modules.
• When playing as a chef, don't wait until you have a store to bring food to your fellow citizens: offer them to use their campfire and reap free XP early. Just ask few logs in exchange...the XP and healthy neighbors are the real reward here.
• Authorize other people on your crafting stations and make sure there is a contract board nearby. Your neighbors might come with resources in their cart and use the table for their own projects. The contract board allows them to create a work party where they indicate skilled work required and add a reward. This way, you add your work and get the reward automatically. This is great when people are not online at the same time too.
• Consider sharing a workshop with a neighbors to save on modules and infrastructure or make a Fab Lab where your skill will be needed.

Don't worry about leaving your crafting stations open: your storage will stay private, unless you authorize others on these storage units too. Keep the tables open to specific players or only active players to reduce trolling.

4. How do I get XP in Eco: the food part

Getting more XP is also about getting a high skill gain multiplier or XP bonus. Food and house are important here. For food, the first rule is to avoid eating raw crops...ever. In fact, many expert I met put focus on food as soon as the server starts. This is because the game calculates XP bonus based on the food the avatar has in the stomach. So if you eat a delicious stew and salad that should give you 67 XP bonus, you won't get this if you ate 150 raw tomatoes before. Each food item stays in the stomach for 24 hours and cripple your XP bonus for this long.

A good start is to get food made by chefs (campfire cooking skill). When butchery is not available, you might want to get any campfire salad that fits well with the tastiness bonus of your avatar. Early in the game, keeping balance between nutrients such as protein and vitamins is not that important if you can get your hands on campfire salads. In fact, I can try to balance this and get around 45 XP bonus by eating charred meat. Unless you trade with an expert hunter, the time, calories and resources needed to get this meat isn't really worth the difference. On my calculation sheet, where I carefully calculated time and repair to get each basic resources during experiments of 10 minutes, the cost of a 47 XP bonus diet made without module is less than 1.4 wood logs per 1000 calories. All the food price here price include ressources, calories and fuel (wood logs).

When your community is failing or if you are too far from a chef, you might want to cut your losses and remain on a charred diet. The best one I know (at the time of publication) are the following:

1. 1x charred beat, 1x charred agave, 1x campfire beans = 36 XP bonus
2. 3x Wilthered witherheads, 3x charred camas bulb, 2x charred agave, 2x campfire beans = 36 XP bonus
3. 4x charred tomatoes, 2x charred papaya, 3x charred meat, 1x campfire beans = 37 XP bonus

The cost of diets #1 and #2 is about 1.2 wood logs per 1000 calories. Yes, it's cheaper than campfire, but modules will quickly change this. Also consider the fact miners and logging players greatly benefit from the savings on calories when they level up faster.

If butchery is available and your community has a hunter and upgrade modules (at least lvl 2+), you can begin to eat the most advanced food of the tier 1 era. Combo like this one brings you a perfectly balanced diet :

• 2x fern campfire salad, 2x jungle campfire stew and 1x root campfire stew = 67.5 XP bonus

Basic modules 2 should be easy to get and the cost price of such diet in this case is about 3 wood logs per 1000 calories. It quickly goes down to 1.4 with basic modules 3. If you looked at the previous carpenter example, getting these level 3 modules in a community should be easy again: the main difficulty lies in cooperation patterns and greed behaviors when it comes to modules distribution.

Relying on charred food is not so bad from an individual perspective. When you have a lot of time to play, you can choose the grinding game and cook your own crops until the tier 3 era (industrialization). However, this is a cooperative game: competitive and individualist behaviors have detrimental impact. Ignoring your food players for too long will make their game increasingly difficult and long to play. Just know that a well equipped butcher and chef can bring you a sustainable 67 XP bonus diet at the cost of 0.9 wood logs per 1000 calories (vs 1.2) and you will spend less time going back and forth to get food. A minimal food industry requires 2 players with different skills, so your community gains 2 more customers for stores, research, public work, etc.

In all cases, I strongly encourage you to take few minutes to look at the recipies on the campfire and the other food crafting stations. You want to look at meals that bring the highest amount of nutrients and that your avatar likes. Mixing different meals gives a balanced diet of nutrients with high XP bonus. I personally use the Eco diet calculator made by oddiz and take into account my avatar tastiness bonus, location and price of meat to plan my diet.

Tips and tricks to get XP bonus from food

1. If a chef is near, ask him/her to use your campfire to start 50 salads: give access to the campfire and a chest where you will drop the crops later.
2. Help a chef makes his first store. Ask for credits in exchange if you must. You can stay in the range of 100 logs = 0 to 70 campfire salads. Don't over calculate or stress about credits because the reward of this interaction is to make a friend for the next 30 days.
3. Upon arrival in a world, spend 5 minutes to get food in different biomes. Once cooked, this can get you up to 100 000 calories (charred yourself or traded with a chef) which is enough for few hours of play.
4. Communicate with the other players, asking them what they eat to see what is the best diet available on your server.
5. Consult the wonderful resource made by oddiz or any recent food calculator.
6. Don't tolerate greedy chefs because this game can last 30 days (of feeling exploited). Propose them alternative exchanges, help another chef to catch up or leave for a better server.
7. Don't rush into higher tier food. Many noobs are seduced by iron cast oven cooking early. But without advanced modules and a good infrastructure to support the food industry, calories will be costly, wasteful (unsustainable) and might lead to famine and competition. Eco works best when the focus is on strong communities rather than fast technological progress.

5. How do I get XP in Eco : the house part

Early focus on food is simple and brings a good boost. XP bonus from housing takes more resources and time because you have to make rooms and add furniture. You also typically get more XP bonus from food than house. As an example, in a good community around day 3, everybody should eat a 65 XP bonus diet while living in a house worth about 30-40 XP bonus.

However, food bonus constantly need investment and can be affected by server-wide famine while house bonus require a one-shot investment and stays still. Having both kind of XP bonus is simply best to cope with the ever increasing cost of stars and new items.

Furniture are likely to be available around day 2. Masons, carpenters and tailors will be the suppliers. You might want to stock basic resources before this.

Here is an example of a minimalist house design from a top view: 

Figure 1. Example or a two floors home from a top view. The orange squares are hewn blocks, the green squares represent grass outside and the pink squares are the wall of a small workshop/store. Smile !

This design only requires 4 land claims (2x2) so you can easily build it early in a downtown area. Increasing to 3x3 is still okay for dense neighborhoods and leave space for 5 stockpiles. The pink store area can serves as a joint workshop with another player.

To build using this design, you would first begin with a floor made of 35 hewn logs placed in a 5x7 grid. The walls (23 blocks per height), can be 2 or 3 blocks tall. Add another 35 hewn layer on top, then use this floor to repeat the same pattern and end up with 4 rooms. This house project will require 240 hewn logs or less. The pink walls for your shop/workroom are not included. 

The reason why we need 4 rooms is that each one will accept different kind of furniture and each one is necessary to reach a balanced house XP bonus (like the nutrients for food). Keeping them separated from the workshop is necessary because most crafting stations have an industrial tag that negates furniture bonus when they are in the same room.

Here are some furniture you can begin with:

Bedroom

• wooden straw bed
• bench / chair
• stone brazier / small statue / carved pumpkin

Bathroom

• wooden latrine / washboard
• bench / chair
• stone brazier / small statue / carved pumpkin

Kitchen

• icebox / salt basket
• bench / chair
• stone brazier / small statue / carved pumpkin

General room

• table
• bench / chair
• stone brazier / small statue / carved pumpkin

The bed, latrine, washboard, icebox and salt basket have specific tags the game recognize to determine the type of room. A table doesn't have such tag, so the room remains "general". However, adding a latrine (bathroom tag) to a general room will turn it into a bathroom and you will loose your general room. Also, adding a salt basket (kitchen) to a bathroom won't bring you additional points because the tags conflict.

If you pick the butchery skill, you can use the workshop area instead of a tiny room and place a butchery table for the kitchen. The bench, chair, brazier and statue items can go in every room and boost the XP bonus points. Like nutrients in food, you want to keep the total value of each room type equal to receive the best bonus.

You put furniture and it doesn't work? Check if you are resident of the land and remove crafting stations.

This example is a small early house. You will quickly lack space for more furniture after few days and it doesn't give space to walk, which is against the "realistic rules" on some servers. An easy fix would be to destroy the middle walls and build a house with 4 levels. After years playing Eco, my rooms typically have a 7x6 area inside (4 blocks high) and are build on top of each others in a downtown area. This means my home stands on a 2x2 land space and I keep the rest of the land claims for storage, decoration and other projects. My precious time is then invested in community projects or diving from the top of my building.

This is a general overview about houses and you will discover that points do not get much higher when you place furniture with the same tag in the same room (diminishing return) or that some items require iron pipes later.  This is later...

Tips and tricks to get XP bonus from house

1. Share a house with another player using the residency feature: you will get more XP bonus quickly.
2. Save space and material with joint buildings.
3. Practice in a solo world to get the best combination of furniture before joining a public server.
4. Build high instead of large to save on building blocks and land.
5. Use ladders to save floor space.
6. Use a sheet with squares to plan your design in advance.
7. Clay pots...seriously.
8. Use coal for the braziers instead of wood, if you can.
9. Before getting chairs, see if the padded chairs are available, but watch out for greedy tailors.
10. As of yet (Eco version 9.5), the tallow lamps and candles are costly to maintain: check carefully before you invest.