EXP Farming Methods

This is a quick guide listing some of the ways (more relevant to 2019) for beginner and mid-level players to get the skills they need as quickly as possible ingame.

Hunting Animals

The simple act of finding NPC animals scattered across the world and killing them with any weaponry to hand in order to level. However, not every settlement and area of Shartak offers parity in terms of targets to kill - accordingly, the efficiency of this can greatly vary from as much as ~3.25 XP/AP to <1 AP/XP.

Special Hunts: The Rat Tunnels

The Rat Tunnels, also known as the lowest-level of Mt. Shartak[1] are a confined tunnel area located in the tunnel network between Dalpok and the Mountain Path area slightly northeast of Sacred Space. The Rat Tunnels have an incredibly high spawnrate of rats, often 4 or 5 per tile, making fighting there more of a hack-and-slash than a true hunt.

Advantages:

• Best XP/AP ratio in the game - since there's no set-up needed and very little movement required, this is generally the best way to level in long sessions. Each successful strike should give you 7 XP.
• Both entrance areas to the Rat Tunnels can safely be hidden in overnight, since the spawnrate of rats in the tunnel leading towards Dalpok is very low (and also includes a pool for extra safety and HP recovery if the player has no more healing herbs), and the exit towards Sacred Space goes into a safe spot (below a Giant Spider cave which is definitely not safe!), the only animal that can enter it is a Shargle which would have to move from 3 levels above - possible, but very unlikely.
• No requirement for healing herbs, as there's no bleeding mobs and there's a fresh water source nearby.
• Very unlikely to be harassed by PKers.
• Equally good for every class, since 3 damage is all you need.

Disadvantages:

• Geographically-isolated - Sacred Space portals are about 50-60 APs of walking away. Dalpok is ~70 away. Resupplying isn't often necessary, but is a huge pain to do.
• Unsuitable for low-level players - Since it has to be travelled to and requires maxed combat skills to be efficient (plus it helps to have a stuffed inventory), this isn't a place to get your first 10 levels and core skills, it's better-suited for grinding through the trees like Foreign Speech, Tracking Mastery and Banshee Wail.
• Very Boring - There's nothing you can do here other than kill rats over-and-over.
• Must retreat at the end of each day - Unless you stop (to let the rats come to you) a lot, you'll have to save about 6 or 7 AP to get to the closest safe-spot - if you go for a nap down there, you will wake-up dead. This also means logging-in to spend about 30-40 AP or so is pretty unviable.

Special Hunts: Guard Dogs

Now that the population is so much lower than it used to be, camping in your hometown (or another town's) Trading Post and killing the Guard Dog as often as possible when it spawns can be a very efficient way to earn XP. Guard Dogs always spawn at the top of the hour and usually (but not always) respawn at around 35 minutes past the hour.

Advantages:

• Can be done in any trading post, which makes it particularly good in camps surrounded by areas with poor spawnrates (like Durham).
• Great XP/AP ratio between killing the dogs themselves and healing yourself up (since the combination of the dog and trader will deal good damage), self-healing being an efficient XP-earning method by itself.
• Rewards players for logging-on and playing a little bit multiple times per day.
• You can attack and resupply without even moving! Or even if you don't have things to trade, the Medical Hut for more Healing Herbs is only a few AP away.
• Good method for low-level characters to gain experience - all that's needed is a good weapon skill and/or healing skills. This is generally not best done on your first day since you have to use up your well of AP to gain more while waiting, but it's a good way to grind for the first week after.

Disadvantages:

• Unviable method for people who prefer only to log onto Shartak once or twice a day to use their AP.
• Leaves the player extremely open to PKers as you have to stay in the trading post for long periods of time, which is generally the first or second place a local or roaming PKer will look.
• Repetitive.

Overworld Hunting

For most people, the most obvious option - especially when just starting-out - will be to explore Shartak and wipe-out anything that crosses their path. This can be a decent method in itself - walking and fighting from one camp to the nearest one, since there's a cool 100 XP bonus for trading with another camp's trader having last traded elsewhere. But for focusing just on hunting, some places are a lot better than others. Here's a (very non-exhaustive) list of particularly good and bad areas for fighting.