Experience

Slow redirects here. For the move whose Japanese name can mean Slow, see Curse (move).

A graph of the experience required for a Pokémon to be a certain level, color-coded by experience types. Erratic is black, Fast is green, Medium Fast is yellow, Medium Slow is purple, Slow is brown, and Fluctuating is blue.

The same graph, scaled to the cube root of the experience required.

Graph showing experience needed to gain a single level, for each level up to 100. The nature of the Erratic and Fluctuating curves can be seen more clearly here.

The amount of experience (Japanese: 経験 experience) an individual Pokémon has is an indication of how much it has battled. In the games, it is quantified as Experience Points (Japanese: 経験値 Experience Points), which a Pokémon can gain in battle by defeating an opponent without fainting first. After a certain amount of experience points have been gained, a Pokémon will grow a level, all the way up to level 100, where a Pokémon will no longer gain experience (in the first two generations, the game will still erroneously state that it has gained experience points).

In the core series

In the core series games, experience is normally gained by all Pokémon who have been sent out against an opponent's Pokémon, divided evenly among them. Experience is gained upon the opponent Pokémon fainting, and its amount is calculated as a function of the fainted Pokémon's level, as well as species. Certain items can affect the distribution and amount of experience gained, as can other conditions, such as whether or not the Pokémon was caught by another person or in another language of the game.

Relation to level

The amount of experience points a Pokémon has is tied directly to its level. Though the amount varies depending on species, always remaining consistent throughout an evolutionary family, a given amount of experience points will always set a Pokémon at the corresponding level. Wild Pokémon of any level will always have the base amount of experience required to reach that level when caught, as will Pokémon hatched from Eggs.

All Pokémon fall into one of six experience groups, four of which were introduced in Generation I, and two of which were introduced in Generation III. The main difference between these experience groups is the amount of experience points required to reach level 100, and thus, the amount required to reach each level. All those introduced in Generation I are only polynomial functions of the level, while the two introduced in Generation III operate as piecewise functions, changing the equation depending on the level range.

The original four functions, the ones for the Fast, Medium Fast, Medium Slow, and Slow groups, are cubic. The two that were added in Generation III (Erratic and Fluctuating), however, are made by multiplying the cube of the level by a linear function of it (a negative slope one in the case of Erratic, going from 2 to 0.6; and a positive slope one in the case of Fluctuating, going from 0.48 to 1.64), making those functions effectively quartic.

Though the various experience groups' level-up rates can be calculated using an equation, a lookup table is used in the games after Generation II to prevent game slowdown and a glitch associated with the Medium Slow formula.

In Generation V only, the amount of experience gained is dependent on both Pokémon's levels: the lower the victor's level is compared to the defeated Pokémon, the more experience points the victor will gain.

Erratic

File:Expcalc erratic.png

The equation for the Erratic experience group. At levels 50, 68, and 98, both formulas return equal values.

The Erratic experience group, one of the two groups introduced in Generation III, features the lowest level 100 value for experience, at only 600,000 points. Nearly all Pokémon in this experience group were introduced in Generation III as well, with most of them being Bug or Water types.

Receiving its name due to the highly erratic experience point requirement to reach the next level from level 68 to level 98, Pokémon in this group level up rather slowly in their lower levels, requiring the most experience to grow from level 1 to level 10 (1800 as compared to 1250 for Slow, the next highest requirement), and increase the rate of their growth at higher levels, requiring the least experience to grow from level 90 to level 100 (108654 points as compared to 216800 for Fast, the next lowest requirement).

Due to the erraticness of this function, it actually takes fewer experience points to go from level 99 to 100 than it does to go from level 69 to 70.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Erratic experience group.

Fast

File:Expcalc fast.png

The equation for the Fast experience group

The Fast experience group is one of the four experience groups introduced in Generation I, with 800,000 experience points making for a level 100 Pokémon. Many Normal- and Fairy-type Pokémon are in this group.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Fast experience group.

Medium Fast

File:Expcalc mfast.png

The equation for the Medium Fast experience group

Among all Pokémon, the most plentiful experience group is the Medium Fast group, which was also introduced in Generation I. Requiring Pokémon to have an even 1,000,000 experience points to be at level 100, it is by far the most average of the experience groups, and the one with the simplest equation: to be at a given level, any Pokémon in this group requires experience equal to that level cubed. This group is also often called "cubic", due to its function being a simple cube of the level.

This experience group actually grows more slowly than the Medium Slow group up until about level 68 (level 47, if considering amount of experience required to reach the next level).

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Medium Fast experience group.

Medium Slow

File:Expcalc mslow.png

The equation for the Medium Slow experience group

The Medium Slow experience group, like the Medium Fast group, accounts for many Pokémon, containing the second largest amount of them. Requiring 1,059,860 experience points for a Pokémon to reach level 100, it is the only experience group whose level 100 experience is not evenly divisible by 10,000.

The inflection point for this polynomial function is actually at level 4, not level 0. Thus, it actually takes more experience points to go from level 2 to 3 than it does to go from 4 to 5. In Generations I and II, this mislocation of the inflection point causes the experience underflow glitch. For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Medium Slow experience group.

Slow

File:Expcalc slow.png

The equation for the Slow experience group.

The final of the four Generation I experience groups, the Slow group features the highest amount of experience required for a Pokémon to reach level 100 in Generations I and II, and the second highest amount since then. Containing many rare, powerful, and Legendary Pokémon, Pokémon in this group are typically very hard to raise; all pseudo-legendary Pokémon, by definition, are in this experience group. At level 100, a Pokémon in this experience group will have 1,250,000 experience points.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Slow experience group.

Fluctuating

File:Expcalc fluctuating.png

The equation for the Fluctuating experience group. At levels 15 and 36, both formulas return equal values.

The second experience group introduced in Generation III and a direct opposite to the Erratic group, the Fluctuating experience group contains the Pokémon which grow the slowest of all, reaching level 100 with a whopping 1,640,000 experience points. It is also, unsurprisingly, the smallest of the experience groups, containing only 14 species. Pokémon within this group require the least amount of experience to grow from level 1, needing only 540 points to reach level 10, as compared to 560 for Medium Slow, the next lowest requirement. They also require the most experience points to go from level 90 to 100—517,340 as compared to 338,750 for Slow, the next highest. Like the Erratic function, the Fluctuating group's level-up equation is calculated in a piecewise fashion.

Also like the Erratic experience group, the Fluctuating group gets its name from the wildly fluctuating requirement for each level to go to the next level, from Level 36 to Level 100.

For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Fluctuating experience group.

Experience at each level

Below is a table; on the left side of the level is the minimum number of experience points required for a Pokémon to be at that level, and the amount of experience points a Pokémon of that level will have when caught from the wild; on the right is the number of experience points required to advance from the respective level to the next level.

Experience table

Total experience To next level Erratic Fast Medium Fast Medium Slow Slow Fluctu- ating Level Erratic Fast Medium Fast Medium Slow Slow Fluctu- ating 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 15 6 8 9 10 4 15 6 8 9 10 4 2 37 15 19 48 23 9 52 21 27 57 33 13 3 70 30 37 39 47 19 122 51 64 96 80 32 4 115 49 61 39 76 33 237 100 125 135 156 65 5 169 72 91 44 114 47 406 172 216 179 270 112 6 231 102 127 57 158 66 637 274 343 236 428 178 7 305 135 169 78 212 98 942 409 512 314 640 276 8 384 174 217 105 271 117 1,326 583 729 419 911 393 9 474 217 271 141 339 147 1,800 800 1,000 560 1,250 540 10 569 264 331 182 413 205 2,369 1,064 1,331 742 1,663 745 11 672 318 397 231 497 222 3,041 1,382 1,728 973 2,160 967 12 781 375 469 288 586 263 3,822 1,757 2,197 1,261 2,746 1,230 13 897 438 547 351 684 361 4,719 2,195 2,744 1,612 3,430 1,591 14 1,018 505 631 423 788 366 5,737 2,700 3,375 2,035 4,218 1,957 15 1,144 576 721 500 902 500 6,881 3,276 4,096 2,535 5,120 2,457 16 1,274 654 817 585 1,021 589 8,155 3,930 4,913 3,120 6,141 3,046 17 1,409 735 919 678 1,149 686 9,564 4,665 5,832 3,798 7,290 3,732 18 1,547 822 1,027 777 1,283 794 11,111 5,487 6,859 4,575 8,573 4,526 19 1,689 913 1,141 885 1,427 914 12,800 6,400 8,000 5,460 10,000 5,440 20 1,832 1,008 1,261 998 1,576 1,042 14,632 7,408 9,261 6,458 11,576 6,482 21 1,978 1,110 1,387 1,119 1,734 1,184 16,610 8,518 10,648 7,577 13,310 7,666 22 2,127 1,215 1,519 1,248 1,898 1,337 18,737 9,733 12,167 8,825 15,208 9,003 23 2,275 1,326 1,657 1,383 2,072 1,503 21,012 11,059 13,824 10,208 17,280 10,506 24 2,425 1,441 1,801 1,527 2,251 1,681 23,437 12,500 15,625 11,735 19,531 12,187 25 2,575 1,560 1,951 1,676 2,439 1,873 26,012 14,060 17,576 13,411 21,970 14,060 26 2,725 1,686 2,107 1,833 2,633 2,080 28,737 15,746 19,683 15,244 24,603 16,140 27 2,873 1,815 2,269 1,998 2,837 2,299 31,610 17,561 21,952 17,242 27,440 18,439 28 3,022 1,950 2,437 2,169 3,046 2,535 34,632 19,511 24,389 19,411 30,486 20,974 29 3,168 2,089 2,611 2,349 3,264 2,786 37,800 21,600 27,000 21,760 33,750 23,760 30 3,311 2,232 2,791 2,534 3,488 3,051 41,111 23,832 29,791 24,294 37,238 26,811 31 3,453 2,382 2,977 2,727 3,722 3,335 44,564 26,214 32,768 27,021 40,960 30,146 32 3,591 2,535 3,169 2,928 3,961 3,634 48,155 28,749 35,937 29,949 44,921 33,780 33 3,726 2,694 3,367 3,135 4,209 3,951 51,881 31,443 39,304 33,084 49,130 37,731 34 3,856 2,857 3,571 3,351 4,463 4,286 55,737 34,300 42,875 36,435 53,593 42,017 35 3,982 3,024 3,781 3,572 4,727 4,639 59,719 37,324 46,656 40,007 58,320 46,656 36 4,103 3,198 3,997 3,801 4,996 3,997 63,822 40,522 50,653 43,808 63,316 50,653 37 4,219 3,375 4,219 4,038 5,274 5,316 68,041 43,897 54,872 47,846 68,590 55,969 38 4,328 3,558 4,447 4,281 5,558 4,536 72,369 47,455 59,319 52,127 74,148 60,505 39 4,431 3,745 4,681 4,533 5,852 6,055 76,800 51,200 64,000 56,660 80,000 66,560 40 4,526 3,936 4,921 4,790 6,151 5,117 81,326 55,136 68,921 61,450 86,151 71,677 41 4,616 4,134 5,167 5,055 6,459 6,856 85,942 59,270 74,088 66,505 92,610 78,533 42 4,695 4,335 5,419 5,328 6,773 5,744 90,637 63,605 79,507 71,833 99,383 84,277 43 4,769 4,542 5,677 5,607 7,097 7,721 95,406 68,147 85,184 77,440 106,480 91,998 44 4,831 4,753 5,941 5,895 7,426 6,417 100,237 72,900 91,125 83,335 113,906 98,415 45 4,885 4,968 6,211 6,188 7,764 8,654 105,122 77,868 97,336 89,523 121,670 107,069 46 4,930 5,190 6,487 6,489 8,108 7,136 110,052 83,058 103,823 96,012 129,778 114,205 47 4,963 5,415 6,769 6,798 8,462 9,658 115,015 88,473 110,592 102,810 138,240 123,863 48 4,986 5,646 7,057 7,113 8,821 7,903 120,001 94,119 117,649 109,923 147,061 131,766 49 4,999 5,881 7,351 7,437 9,189 10,734 125,000 100,000 125,000 117,360 156,250 142,500 50 6,324 6,120 7,651 7,766 9,563 8,722 131,324 106,120 132,651 125,126 165,813 151,222 51 6,471 6,366 7,957 8,103 9,947 11,883 137,795 112,486 140,608 133,229 175,760 163,105 52 6,615 6,615 8,269 8,448 10,336 9,592 144,410 119,101 148,877 141,677 186,096 172,697 53 6,755 6,870 8,587 8,799 10,734 13,110 151,165 125,971 157,464 150,476 196,830 185,807 54 6,891 7,129 8,911 9,159 11,138 10,515 158,056 133,100 166,375 159,635 207,968 196,322 55 7,023 7,392 9,241 9,524 11,552 14,417 165,079 140,492 175,616 169,159 219,520 210,739 56 7,150 7,662 9,577 9,897 11,971 11,492 172,229 148,154 185,193 179,056 231,491 222,231 57 7,274 7,935 9,919 10,278 12,399 15,805 179,503 156,089 195,112 189,334 243,890 238,036 58 7,391 8,214 10,267 10,665 12,833 12,526 186,894 164,303 205,379 199,999 256,723 250,562 59 7,506 8,497 10,621 11,061 13,277 17,278 194,400 172,800 216,000 211,060 270,000 267,840 60 7,613 8,784 10,981 11,462 13,726 13,616 202,013 181,584 226,981 222,522 283,726 281,456 61 7,715 9,078 11,347 11,871 14,184 18,837 209,728 190,662 238,328 234,393 297,910 300,293 62 7,812 9,375 11,719 12,288 14,648 14,766 217,540 200,037 250,047 246,681 312,558 315,059 63 7,903 9,678 12,097 12,711 15,122 20,485 225,443 209,715 262,144 259,392 327,680 335,544 64 7,988 9,985 12,481 13,143 15,601 15,976 233,431 219,700 274,625 272,535 343,281 351,520 65 8,065 10,296 12,871 13,580 16,089 22,224 241,496 229,996 287,496 286,115 359,370 373,744 66 8,137 10,614 13,267 14,025 16,583 17,247 249,633 240,610 300,763 300,140 375,953 390,991 67 8,201 10,935 13,669 14,478 17,087 24,059 257,834 251,545 314,432 314,618 393,040 415,050 68 9,572 11,262 14,077 14,937 17,596 18,581 267,406 262,807 328,509 329,555 410,636 433,631 69 9,052 11,593 14,491 15,405 18,114 25,989 276,458 274,400 343,000 344,960 428,750 459,620 70 9,870 11,928 14,911 15,878 18,638 19,980 286,328 286,328 357,911 360,838 447,388 479,600 71 10,030 12,270 15,337 16,359 19,172 28,017 296,358 298,598 373,248 377,197 466,560 507,617 72 9,409 12,615 15,769 16,848 19,711 21,446 305,767 311,213 389,017 394,045 486,271 529,063 73 10,307 12,966 16,207 17,343 20,259 30,146 316,074 324,179 405,224 411,388 506,530 559,209 74 10,457 13,321 16,651 17,847 20,813 22,978 326,531 337,500 421,875 429,235 527,343 582,187 75 9,724 13,680 17,101 18,356 21,377 32,379 336,255 351,180 438,976 447,591 548,720 614,566 76 10,710 14,046 17,557 18,873 21,946 24,580 346,965 365,226 456,533 466,464 570,666 639,146 77 10,847 14,415 18,019 19,398 22,524 34,717 357,812 379,641 474,552 485,862 593,190 673,863 78 9,995 14,790 18,487 19,929 23,108 26,252 367,807 394,431 493,039 505,791 616,298 700,115 79 11,073 15,169 18,961 20,469 23,702 37,165 378,880 409,600 512,000 526,260 640,000 737,280 80 11,197 15,552 19,441 21,014 24,301 27,995 390,077 425,152 531,441 547,274 664,301 765,275 81 10,216 15,942 19,927 21,567 24,909 39,722 400,293 441,094 551,368 568,841 689,210 804,997 82 11,393 16,335 20,419 22,128 25,523 29,812 411,686 457,429 571,787 590,969 714,733 834,809 83 11,504 16,734 20,917 22,695 26,147 42,392 423,190 474,163 592,704 613,664 740,880 877,201 84 10,382 17,137 21,421 23,271 26,776 31,704 433,572 491,300 614,125 636,935 767,656 908,905 85 11,667 17,544 21,931 23,852 27,414 45,179 445,239 508,844 636,056 660,787 795,070 954,084 86 11,762 17,958 22,447 24,441 28,058 33,670 457,001 526,802 658,503 685,228 823,128 987,754 87 10,488 18,375 22,969 25,038 28,712 48,083 467,489 545,177 681,472 710,266 851,840 1,035,837 88 11,889 18,798 23,497 25,641 29,371 35,715 479,378 563,975 704,969 735,907 881,211 1,071,552 89 11,968 19,225 24,031 26,253 30,039 51,108 491,346 583,200 729,000 762,160 911,250 1,122,660 90 10,532 19,656 24,571 26,870 30,713 37,839 501,878 602,856 753,571 789,030 941,963 1,160,499 91 12,056 20,094 25,117 27,495 31,397 54,254 513,934 622,950 778,688 816,525 973,360 1,214,753 92 12,115 20,535 25,669 28,128 32,086 40,043 526,049 643,485 804,357 844,653 1,005,446 1,254,796 93 10,508 20,982 26,227 28,767 32,784 57,526 536,557 664,467 830,584 873,420 1,038,230 1,312,322 94 12,163 21,433 26,791 29,415 33,488 42,330 548,720 685,900 857,375 902,835 1,071,718 1,354,652 95 12,202 21,888 27,361 30,068 34,202 60,925 560,922 707,788 884,736 932,903 1,105,920 1,415,577 96 10,411 22,350 27,937 30,729 34,921 44,699 571,333 730,138 912,673 963,632 1,140,841 1,460,276 97 12,206 22,815 28,519 31,398 35,649 64,455 583,539 752,953 941,192 995,030 1,176,490 1,524,731 98 8,343 23,286 29,107 32,073 36,383 47,153 591,882 776,239 970,299 1,027,103 1,212,873 1,571,884 99 8,118 23,761 29,701 32,757 37,127 68,116 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,059,860 1,250,000 1,640,000 100 - - - - - -

Experience gain in battle

The amount of experience that a Pokémon gives when it is defeated depends on its level and its species. The higher the level of the defeated Pokémon, the more experience points it yields. However, numerous factors can influence how much experience any individual Pokémon actually gains.

Any Pokémon that is sent into battle against an opponent will receive experience points when that opponent is defeated, provided the Pokémon is not fainted. Prior to Generation VI, if only one Pokémon participates in battle, it will gain "full" experience points, but if more than one Pokémon participate in battle, each Pokémon will be allotted an even portion of the full experience. In Generation VI, however, this was changed so that all Pokémon that participate in battle receive "full" experience.

The Exp. All and Exp. Share are ways for a Pokémon that does not directly participate in a battle to still gain experience from it. Prior to Generation VI, it also affects how much experience the direct participants are allotted.

• In Generation VI: if Exp. Share is turned on, any Pokémon that did not participate in battle will receive half of the "full" experience.
• In Generations II-V: if a Pokémon in the player's party is holding an Exp. Share, the Pokémon that participated directly in the battle will receive half of the experience they normally would have, and any Pokémon that were holding Exp. Share will be allotted an even portion (depending on how many are holding an Exp. Share) of 50% of the "full" experience.
• In Generation I: if Exp. All is in the Bag, the Pokémon that participated directly in the battle will receive half of the experience they normally would have, and every Pokémon in the player's party also receives experience equal to the amount that a battling Pokémon received (before any bonuses) divided by the number of Pokémon in the player's party (this method of calculation appears to be an error).

In Generation V, the amount of experience a Pokémon gains is also scaled depending on how its level compares to the opponent's: the higher a defeated opponent's level is compared to the "winner", the more experience points the winner will gain.

Various other factors may boost the amount of experience a Pokémon receives. These factors include:

• If the winning Pokémon is an outsider (was traded)
• If the player is in a Trainer battle
• If the Pokémon is holding a Lucky Egg^{Gen II+}
• If the Pokémon has high enough Affection^{Gen VI}
• If a positive Exp. Point Power (Pass Power^{Gen V} or O-Power^{Gen VI}) is active
• If the Pokémon is at or past the level where it would be able to evolve but has not^{Gen VI}

The only negative factor that may affect experience gain is a negative Exp. Point Power from the Entralink in Generation V.

From Generation VI onward, experience is also obtained after catching a wild Pokémon.

Gain formula

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Check Gen VI

In the main Pokémon games, only two basic formulas have ever been used: a flat formula, where the winner's level is not taken into account, and a scaled formula, where the difference between both opponents' levels affects the amount of experience the winner receives. Only Generation V games have ever used the scaled formula. All other generations have used the flat formula, although each generation generally makes its own additions or tweaks to the previous mechanics.

The full flat and scaled formulas can be seen below on the right. Depending on the order of multiplication and where rounding down is done, these formulas may produce slightly different results than are seen in-game.

Note that if a Pokémon both participated in battle and was holding an Exp. Share—or, in Generation I, the Exp. All is in the Bag—they actually receive experience both from participating in battle and from Exp. Share/Exp. All. Therefore, to arrive at their total experience gained, the formula must be evaluated both for a Pokémon that battled and for one that was holding Exp. Share, and those results must be summed. This does not apply in Generation VI, as Exp. Share works differently in those games.

In Black 2 and White 2 only, if a Pokémon would gain more than 100,000 experience at once, it instead gains exactly 100,000 experience.

File:Delta exp gen6.png

Flat formula for experience gain from battle

File:Delta exp gen5.png

Scaled formula for experience gain from battle

The variables in these formulas evaluate as follows (presented in alphabetical order)...

• a is equal to...
  • 1 if the fainted Pokémon is wild
  • 1.5 if the fainted Pokémon is owned by a Trainer
• b is the base experience yield of the fainted Pokémon's species; values for the current Generation are listed here
• e is equal to...
  • 1.5 if the winning Pokémon is holding a Lucky Egg
  • 1 otherwise
• f is equal to...
  • 1.2 if the Pokémon has an Affection of two hearts or more
  • 1 otherwise
• L is the level of the fainted Pokémon
• L_p is the level of the victorious Pokémon
• p is equal to...
  • 1 if no Exp. Point Power (Pass Power^{Gen V} or O-Power^{Gen VI}) is active
  • If Exp. Point Power [x] is active...
    • 0.5 for ↓↓↓, 0.66 for ↓↓, 0.8 for ↓, 1.2 for ↑, 1.5 for ↑↑, or 2 for ↑↑↑, S, or MAX
• s is equal to...
  • In Generation I...
    • If Exp. All is not in the player's Bag...
      • The number of Pokémon that participated in the battle and have not fainted
    • If Exp. All is in the player's Bag...
      • Twice the number of Pokémon that participated and have not fainted, when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that participated in battle
      • Twice the number of Pokémon that participated and have not fainted times the number of Pokémon in the player's party, when calculating the experience given by Exp. All
  • In Generations II-V...
    • If no Pokémon in the party is holding an Exp. Share...
      • The number of Pokémon that participated in the battle and have not fainted
    • If at least one Pokémon in the party is holding an Exp. Share...
      • Twice the number of Pokémon that participated and have not fainted, when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that participated in battle
      • Twice the number of Pokémon holding an Exp. Share, when calculating the experience of a Pokémon holding Exp. Share
  • In Generation VI...
    • 1 when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that participated in battle
    • 2 when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that did not participate in battle and if Exp. Share is turned on
• t is equal to...
  • 1 if the winning Pokémon's current owner is its Original Trainer
  • 1.5 if the Pokémon was gained in a domestic trade
  • Generation IV+ only: 1.7 if the Pokémon was gained in an international trade
• v is equal to...
  • Generation VI only: 1.2 if the winning Pokémon is at or past the level where it would be able to evolve, but it has not
  • 1 otherwise

Example (Generation II to IV)

An originally owned Skitty holding a Lucky Egg and an internationally traded Meowth have just defeated a Level 78 Trainer-owned Garchomp, with an originally owned Salamence in the winner's party holding an Exp. Share.

The base experience yield of a Garchomp is 218, meaning that a Level 78 Garchomp will normally yield 2429 experience points. Because the battle is a Trainer battle, this is multiplied by 1.5 to give 3643.

The Exp. Share will automatically give half the experience points to the Salamence, giving it 1821 experience points. The Skitty gets half of the remaining experience points, with a 1.5 multiplier because of the Lucky Egg. This means that the Skitty earns 1366 experience points.

The Meowth gets half of the remaining experience points, with a 1.7 multiplier because it was internationally traded. This means that the Meowth earns 1548 experience points.

Example (Generation V)

An internationally traded, level 55 Venusaur has just defeated a wild, level 62 Zekrom.

The base experience yield of Zekrom is 306, meaning that a level 62 Zekrom will normally yield 3794 experience points, when defeated by another Pokémon at level 62. However, this Venusaur is at level 55, meaning that it will yield 4338 experience points. The constant of 1 is added, giving 4339, and the international trade multiplies this by 1.7, meaning that this Zekrom will yield a total of 7376 experience points.

Apparent Exp. All programming error in Generation I

In Generation I, the behavior of Exp. All seems to be coded wrong. The fault is that the experience distributed (evenly among all party members) by the Exp. All, intended to be half the total experience of the whole battle, is based on the experience that one battling Pokémon received, rather than that received by all battling Pokémon. This behavior works correctly if only one Pokémon battles while the Exp. All is in the player's bag (for example, if one Pokémon out of a party of five battles, then the battler will get 50% of the experience and then all five party members will share the remaining 50%, getting another 10% of the experience each, thus in total distributing the whole of the experience). However, if multiple Pokémon are sent into battle, then the total amount of experience received will effectively be decreased (for example, if two Pokémon out of a party of five battle, then the battlers will each get 25% of the experience, but then all five party members will only share 25% instead of the remaining 50%, getting another 5% of the experience each and causing 25% of the experience to be entirely lost).

Experience underflow glitch

In Generation I and Generation II, level 1 Pokémon in the Medium Slow group were calculated to have -54 experience points. However, due to the use of unsigned integers, the game interpreted this value as 16,777,162 experience points. If a level 1 Pokémon with negative experience points completed a battle without gaining enough experience points to reach 0 or higher, the game, attempting to determine its level based on the number of experience points it had, would consider it to be at level 100 (having gone well over the amount required to reach this level), causing it to instantaneously jump to this level.

It is due in-part to this bug that no level 1 Pokémon could be found in the wild without abusing a glitch or hacking the game in Generation I and Generation II. It is also partially for this reason that Pokémon hatched from Eggs at level 5 when Eggs were introduced in Generation II (although level 2-4 Pokémon could be found in the wild).

The glitch was fixed in Generation III, which uses a lookup table, rather than a formula, to determine experience requirements (this is also why the two new functions introduced in that generation are able to be piecewise functions). Despite this, Eggs still hatched at level 5, and the lowest level that Pokémon could be found at in the wild was still level 2. Generation IV finally featured the first instance of legitimate level 1 Pokémon, where Eggs hatch at level 1 and level 1 Pokémon can be found in the wild.

Additionally for Generation I, any Pokémon in the Medium Slow group that was deposited in the PC at Level 1 will cause the game to freeze upon attempting to withdraw it, causing it to be permanently stuck in the PC due to a glitch.

In Generation I

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In Generation II

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In the spin-off games

In the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.

Pokémon may also gain experience in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. After a Pokémon is defeated, each member of the team will gain the full share of experience points. The base amount of experience earned is floor((Base Experience) * (Level - 1) / 10) + (Base Experience).

If a Pokémon with experience is defeated using only regular attacks, the experience gain is only half of the base value (rounded down). If at least one move was successfully used against the foe, or if the foe uses a move that targets itself or other enemy Pokémon, the experience gain is the full base value. If the qualifying attack is part of a linked move, the experience gain becomes 1.5× the base value.

As with the core series games, Pokémon acquiring enough experience points will level up. The amount needed differs from the core series games, and is defined differently for each Pokémon. The amount needed to level up is far greater in earlier games in the series. It is not currently known if Pokémon can be grouped by experience growth as in the main games.

Unlike in the core games, Pokémon do not evolve right away upon level up (or while in a dungeon in general), although level is still often a factor in determining whether or not they are eligible to evolve.

In the Pokémon Ranger series

In the Pokémon Ranger series, experience is acquired in an entirely different way from in the main Pokémon games. When a Pokémon is successfully captured using the Styler, the Styler will gain experience points, and a certain number of experience points will cause the Styler to level up. However, each Pokémon of the same species will yield exactly the same amount of experience points, as there is no concept of level in the Ranger games.

In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, certain bonuses can be applied to the experience points gained under certain conditions, such as if the capture was made using only one line, or multiple Pokémon were captured at once.

Pokémon GO

Leveling up

In Pokémon GO, the player earns experience (abbreviated XP), rather than the Pokémon. As the player gains experience they gain levels. Leveling up awards the player with items, and certain levels unlock particular items. After reaching level 5, the player can choose a team, which allows them to use Gyms.

Earning experience

The player can earn experience in the following ways:

Name	Experience gained
Catch a Pokémon	100
Catch a new Pokémon	500
Catch the 100th Pokémon of 1 kind of Pokémon	100
Evolve a Pokémon	500
Hatch a 2 km Egg	200
Hatch a 5 km Egg	500
Hatch a 10 km Egg	1000
Defeat a Pokémon in a Gym belonging to another team	100
Defeat all Pokémon in a Gym belonging to another team	50
Defeat a Pokémon in a Gym belonging to the player's team	50
Defeat all Pokémon in a Gym belonging to the player's team	12
Capture bonus: Curveball	10
Capture bonus: Nice Throw	10
Capture bonus: Great Throw	50
Capture bonus: Excellent Throw	100
Visit a PokéStop (even if the Bag is full)	50
Visit a PokéStop and gain 6 or more items	100
Visit the 6th PokéStop during 30 minutes	100

Player levels

Level	Experience for next level	Total experience	Rewards	Unlocks
1	0	0	×50	Poké Balls
2	1,000	1,000	×10
3	2,000	3,000	×15
4	3,000	6,000	×15
5	4,000	10,000	×20 ×10 ×10 ×1	Gyms, Potions, Revives
6	5,000	15,000	×15 ×10 ×10 ×1
7	6,000	21,000	×15 ×10 ×10 ×1
8	7,000	28,000	×15 ×10 ×5 ×10 ×1	Razz Berries
9	8,000	36,000	×15 ×10 ×5 ×3 ×1
10	9,000	45,000	×20 ×20 ×10 ×10 ×1 ×1 ×1 ×1	Super Potions
11	10,000	55,000	×15 ×10 ×3 ×3
12	10,000	65,000	×20 ×10 ×3 ×3	Great Balls
13	10,000	75,000	×15 ×10 ×3 ×3
14	10,000	85,000	×15 ×10 ×3 ×3
15	15,000	100,000	×15 ×20 ×10 ×10 ×1 ×1 ×1 ×1	Hyper Potions
16	20,000	120,000	×10 ×10 ×5 ×5
17	20,000	140,000	×10 ×10 ×5 ×5
18	20,000	160,000	×10 ×10 ×5 ×5
19	25,000	185,000	×15 ×10 ×5 ×5
20	25,000	210,000	×20 ×20 ×20 ×20 ×2 ×2 ×2 ×2	Ultra Balls
21	50,000	260,000	×10 ×10 ×10 ×10
22	75,000	335,000	×10 ×10 ×10 ×10
23	100,000	435,000	×10 ×10 ×10 ×10
24	125,000	560,000	×15 ×10 ×10 ×10
25	150,000	710,000	×25 ×20 ×15 ×15 ×1 ×1 ×1 ×1	Max Potions
26	190,000	900,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
27	200,000	1,100,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
28	250,000	1,350,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
29	300,000	1,650,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
30	350,000	2,000,000	×30 ×20 ×20 ×20 ×3 ×3 ×3 ×3	Max Revives
31	500,000	2,500,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
32	500,000	3,000,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
33	750,000	3,750,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
34	1,000,000	4,750,000	×10 ×15 ×10 ×15
35	1,250,000	6,000,000	×30 ×20 ×20 ×20 ×2 ×1 ×1 ×1
36	1,500,000	7,500,000	×20 x20 ×10 ×20
37	2,000,000	9,500,000	×20 x20 ×10 ×20
38	2,500,000	12,000,000	×20 x20 ×10 ×20
39	3,000,000	15,000,000	×20 x20 ×10 ×20
40	5,000,000	20,000,000	×40 ×40 ×40 ×40 ×4 ×4 ×4 ×4

Trivia

• The Pokémon with the highest base experience yield is Blissey, with a base yield of 608. The Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield are Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott, with a base yield of 28.
  • Before Generation V, the Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield was Magikarp with a yield of 20, and the Pokémon with the highest base experience yields were Arceus, Happiny, Chansey, and Blissey, with a yield of 255.
• The highest possible number of experience points that can be gained in a single battle is 457,970. This can be done by defeating a level 100 Blissey in a Trainer battle in Black and White, using an internationally traded Pokémon at level 1 that is holding a Lucky Egg, with Exp. Point Power ↑↑↑, S or MAX active. This means that given these conditions, a Pokémon could technically advance from level 1 all the way to level 87 in a single battle, provided that it was in the Erratic experience group.
  • A Pokémon in the Fast experience group would advance to level 83.
  • A Pokémon in the Medium Fast experience group would advance to level 77.
  • A Pokémon in the Medium Slow experience group would advance to level 76.
  • A Pokémon in the Slow experience group would advance to level 71.
  • A Pokémon in the Fluctuating experience group would advance to level 69.
  • Before Generation V, the highest number of experience points it was possible to gain was 13,933. This could be done by defeating a level 100 Arceus, Happiny, Chansey, or Blissey in a Trainer battle, using an internationally traded Pokémon that is holding a Lucky Egg. This means that the most levels that a Pokémon could advance in a single battle is 25, if a level 1 Pokémon in the Medium Slow experience group defeated the level 100 Pokémon as mentioned above.
• The lowest possible number of experience points for a single Pokémon to obtain in a single battle is one. This can be done in Generation V by defeating a wild level 1 Patrat, Purrloin, or any other Pokémon with a base experience yield lower than 100, using a level 99 Pokémon.
  • Before Generation V, this could be done by defeating a wild level 1 Magikarp and splitting the experience points between three battling Pokémon.
• The Medium Fast experience group is the only group not to have either the highest or the lowest total experience requirement at any level, being bounded by the Slow and Fast functions. The Medium Slow group is the only one to have both the highest and the lowest total experience requirement in at least one level before level 50.
• The Tao trio member that the player has to catch—Reshiram^B or Zekrom^W—does not yield experience points, even if it is knocked out at Dragonspiral Tower due to having a full party and boxes upon initial encounter.
  • The same mechanic applies to Xerneas^X and Yveltal^Y at Team Flare Secret HQ.
• In Generation I, it is possible to receive zero experience points. This is done by having six Pokémon in the party and fighting a level 2 Pokémon with the Exp. All in the bag. When the battle ends, the experience given to the other participants will be zero.

In other languages

Experience Language Title Finnish Kokemus French Expérience German Erfahrung Italian Esperienza Korean 경험 Gyeongheom Spanish Experiencia

Experience Points Language Title Danish Erfaringspoint French Points Expérience German Erfahrungspunkte Italian Punti Esperienza Korean 경험치 Gyeongheom Chi Russian Очков Опыта Ochkov Opyta Spanish Puntos de Experiencia Swedish Erfarenhetspoäng

References

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.