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. An interactable graph of the same data is provided here.

The same graph, scaled by the cube of the level.

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 Pokémon without fainting. 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 Generations I and II, 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.

Other ways to gain experience include Rare Candies, a Day Care, the Pokéwalker, the Poké Pelago, Poké Jobs, Pokémon Camp, Let's Go!, and picnics.

If a Pokémon from the Virtual Console releases of Generation I and II is transferred to Pokémon Bank using Poké Transporter, its nature will be determined by the remainder of its number of Exp. Points after dividing by 25.

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.

Although the various experience groups' level-up rates can be calculated using an equation, from Generation III onward, the games use a lookup table. This ensures that the Medium Fast, Medium Slow, and Slow experience groups have 0 experience at level 1, preventing a glitch associated with the Medium Slow formula at level 1 that occurs in the Generation I and II games.

In Generation V, Generation VII, and Generation VIII, 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

$EXP={\begin{cases}{\dfrac {n^{3}(100-n)}{50}}&n<50\\{\dfrac {n^{3}(150-n)}{100}}&50\leq n<68\\{\dfrac {n^{3}\left\lfloor {\dfrac {1911-10n}{3}}\right\rfloor }{500}}&68\leq n<98\\{\dfrac {n^{3}(160-n)}{100}}&98\leq n<100\end{cases}}$

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. A majority of the 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 66 to 67.

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

Fast

$EXP={\dfrac {4n^{3}}{5}}$

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

$EXP=n^{3}$

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 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 level 68 (level 46, 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

$EXP={\dfrac {6}{5}}n^{3}-15n^{2}+100n-140$

The Medium Slow experience group, like the Medium Fast group, accounts for many Pokémon, containing the second largest amount of them. Most of the Pokémon in this group are part of three-stage evolutionary lines. This group also contains all of the regional starter Pokémon trios. 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. Pokémon in this group level up relatively quickly in their lower levels, requiring only 11,735 experience to reach level 25 (as compared to 12,187 for Fluctuating, the second lowest requirement).

The inflection point for this polynomial function is between levels 4 and 5 instead of at 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. Additionally, according to the function, level 1 Pokémon in this group are calculated to have -54 experience points. This causes the experience underflow glitch in Generations I and II. For a list of all Pokémon in this group, see Pokémon in the Medium Slow experience group.

Slow

$EXP={\dfrac {5n^{3}}{4}}$

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

$EXP={\begin{cases}{\dfrac {n^{3}\left(\left\lfloor {\dfrac {n+1}{3}}\right\rfloor +24\right)}{50}}&n<15\\{\dfrac {n^{3}(n+14)}{50}}&15\leq n<36\\{\dfrac {n^{3}\left(\left\lfloor {\dfrac {n}{2}}\right\rfloor +32\right)}{50}}&36\leq n<100\end{cases}}$

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. All of these species, minus Drifloon and Drifblim, were introduced in Generation III as well. 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 Fluctu­ating Level Erratic Fast Medium Fast Medium Slow Slow Fluctu­ating 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.
• From Generations II to 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. If a Pokémon both participated in the battle and held Exp. Share, it will receive two separate messages awarding its share of experience from each of those allotments.
• 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 Generations V, VII, and VIII, 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.

If multiple opponents are knocked out by the same move:

• From Generations III to V, the experience is gained separately for each Pokémon that was knocked out, in sequence. In Generation V (where the experience gained depends on the recipient's level), if gaining experience from the first fainted Pokémon causes the player's Pokémon to gain one or more levels, subsequent experience gains are calculated using that increased level (i.e. award less experience than they would have if awarded first).
• From Generation VI onward, the experience is gained for all Pokémon at the same time. In Generation VII and VIII (where the experience gained depends on the recipient's level), this means that experience gained is based on the user's level before gaining any of the experience.

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

• If the Pokémon is an outsider (was traded); furthermore, in Generation IV onward, it gains even more EXP if it is additionally from a different language game
• If the battle is a Trainer battle^{Gen I-Gen VI}
• If the Pokémon is holding a Lucky Egg^{Gen II+}
• If the Pokémon has high enough Affection^{Gen VI-USUM}/friendship^{PE onward}
• If a positive Exp. Point Power (Pass Power^{Gen V}, O-Power^{Gen VI}, Rotom Power^{Gen VII}, Exp. Charm^SwSh) 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 by catching a wild Pokémon.

Gain formula

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. Generation V, VII, VIII, and IX games use the scaled formula. All other generations use the flat formula, although each generation generally makes its own additions or tweaks to the previous mechanics.

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 or later, as Exp. Share works differently in those games. Up to Generation V, the result is rounded down after each multiplier. From Generation V onward, the result is subject to standard rounding after each multiplier, rounding down at 0.5, unless specified otherwise. However, the calculations for the base EXP (minus the scaling factor, in the scaled formula) are rounded down (integer divisions).

The flat formula in the first four generations is $\Delta EXP={\dfrac {b\times L}{7}}\times {\dfrac {1}{s}}\times e\times a\times t$.

The flat formula in Generation VI is $\Delta EXP={\dfrac {b\times L}{7}}\times a\times {\dfrac {1}{s}}\times t\times e\times v\times f\times p$.

The scaled formula in Generation V is $\Delta EXP=\left({\dfrac {b\times L}{5}}\times a\times {\dfrac {1}{s}}\times \left({\dfrac {\left\lfloor {\sqrt {2L+10}}\times \left(2L+10\right)^{2}\right\rfloor }{\left\lfloor {\sqrt {L+L_{p}+10}}\times \left(L+L_{p}+10\right)^{2}\right\rfloor }}\right)+1\right)\times t\times e\times p$, where each square root is rounded to the nearest multiple of 1/4096, subject to standard rounding, rounding up at 0.5. 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.

The scaled formula in Generation VII onward is $\Delta EXP=\left({\dfrac {b\times L}{5}}\times {\dfrac {1}{s}}\times \left({\dfrac {2L+10}{L+L_{p}+10}}\right)^{2.5}+1\right)\times t\times e\times v\times f\times p$.

Where:

• a is equal to...
  • 1 if the fainted Pokémon is wild
  • Prior to Generation VII: 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...
  • 4915/4096 (~1.2) if the Pokémon has an Affection of two hearts or more^{Gen VI-USUM}/100 or higher friendship^PE/220 or higher friendship^{SwSh onward}; in Generation VI only, the multiplier is exactly 1.2, and the result is rounded down
  • 1 otherwise
• L is the level of the fainted/caught^{Gen VI+} Pokémon
• L_p is the level of the victorious Pokémon
• p is equal to...
  • 1 if no Exp. Point Power or other boost (Pass Power^{Gen V}, O-Power^{Gen VI}, Rotom Power^USUM, Exp. Charm^SwSh) is active (this is rounded down to the nearest integer after multiplying):
  • If an Exp. Point Power is active...
    • 0.5 for ↓↓↓, 0.66 for ↓↓, 0.8 for ↓, 1.2 for ↑, 1.5 for ↑↑, or 2 for ↑↑↑, S, or MAX
    • 1.5 for Roto Exp. Points or the Exp. Charm
• 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
  • From Generations II to 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 and later...
    • 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 is an outsider Pokémon (i.e. its current owner is not its Original Trainer)
  • Generation IV+ only: 1.7 if the Pokémon is an outsider Pokémon and has a different language of origin (in Generation V+, this is instead approximated very closely as 6963/4096)
• v is equal to...
  • Generation VI+ only: 4915/4096 (~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 (Generations II to IV)

In an English game, an originally owned Skitty holding a Lucky Egg and a French outsider 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.

Since the Exp. Share in is effect, half the experience points are given to the battling Pokémon, which is halved again due to being split between Skitty and Meowth, so each starts with 607. The Lucky Egg and Trainer battle bonus boost apply 1.5× multipliers, earning the Skitty 1365 experience points. Meowth gets a 1.5× Trainer battle bonus, and then a 1.7× inter-language outsider bonus, earning it 1547 experience points.

Lastly, the Exp. Share gives the remaining half of the initial experience points to the Salamence, which is 1214 experience points, boosted to 1821 with the 1.5× Trainer battle bonus.

Example (Generation V)

In an English game, a level 55 Japanese 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 inter-language outsider bonus multiplies this by (roughly) 1.7, meaning that this Zekrom will yield a total of 7376 experience points.

Bonus multipliers

In Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, the bonus multipliers mechanic is introduced, which provide more experience to the player's Pokémon based on how a wild Pokémon was captured. The bonus multipliers, in addition, stack on top of the ×1.5 multiplier for traded Pokémon and the ×1.2 for Pokémon with high friendship.

Bonus	Multiplier	Details
New Pokémon	×1.1	Catching a Pokémon not already registered to the Pokédex
Excellent Throw	×2.0	Hitting within the target ring at a certain size
Great Throw	×1.5
Nice Throw	×1.1
First Throw	×1.5	Catching a Pokémon on the first throw
Synchronized Bonus	×2.0	Throwing a Poké Ball at the same time as the Support Trainer
Combo Bonus	×1.1	Catch Combo 1 to 10
	×1.5	Catch Combo 11 to 20
	×2.0	Catch Combo 21 to 30
	×2.5	Catch Combo 31 to 40
	×3.0	Catch Combo 41+
Size Bonus	×1.5	S- or L-sized Pokémon
	×4.0	XS- or XL-sized Pokémon
Technique Bonus	×1.1	Using a Joy-Con or Poké Ball Plus (if Synchronized Bonus is not applied)

Apparent Exp. All programming error in Generation I

In Generation I, the behavior of Exp. All seems to be coded wrong. Presumably, Exp. All is intended to apportion half of the total battle experience for distribution among the Pokémon that battled and half for distribution among the party members. However, the portion distributed among party members is instead equal to the experience that one battling Pokémon received.

This 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 all five party members will also split 50%, each getting 10% of the total experience, adding up to 100%.

However, some battle experience will be lost if multiple Pokémon are sent into one battle. For example, if two Pokémon out of a party of five battle, then the battlers will each get 25% of the experience. All five party members will then also split 25%, each getting 5% of the experience, adding up to only 75%, with the remaining 25% of the experience lost. Experience that would go to a fainted Pokémon is also lost. If two of the five Pokémon are fainted, the remaining three still only get 5% of the split experience each, with the remaining 10% lost (meaning the player has now lost 35% of the total experience for the battle).

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 245, but it underflows to level 100.

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.

Generation I

By v0id19

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Generation II

By TTEchidna

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In the spin-off games

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Experience growth for all Pokémon

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 experience earned is equal to $\left\lfloor {\frac {BaseEXP\times (Level-1)}{10}}\right\rfloor +BaseEXP$.

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, generally being significantly higher than in the core series, and is defined differently for each Pokémon. For example, Yanma, which requires 1,000,000 experience points to reach level 100 in the core series games, requires 4,000,000 experience points to reach level 100 in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. It is currently unknown if Pokémon can be grouped by experience growth as in the core series games.

In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, all recruited Pokémon receive any EXP that the active party gains, but they will not level up from the accumulated EXP until brought into a dungeon.

Pokémon Ranger series

In the Pokémon Ranger series, 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 Shuffle

Pokémon in Pokémon Shuffle gain experience when they are used as a Support Pokémon to play a stage. Typically, Main Stages grants experience equal to the number of moves they allow the player to make, Expert Stages grant 10 experience, and special stages grant 5 experience. If the player runs out of moves or time, experience is only awarded in proportion with the damage done to the opponent's HP (for example, depleting 20% of its HP would translate to 20% of the normal experience). If the stage is cleared, the Support Pokémon whose icons were cleared most (identified by a crown on its head) receives twice as much experience.

The item Exp. Points x1.5 can increase the experience Pokémon earn from a single stage, while the Enhancement Exp. Booster (S, M, or L) can directly increase a Pokémon's experience.

The amount of experience each Pokémon needs to level up depends on its species and corresponds to the Attack power it has at Level 1. Pokémon can only reach levels greater than 10 with the use of the item Raise Max Level; however, not all Pokémon can increase their maximum level, and those that can may have different limits to how much they can increase their maximum. The table below details the required experience for each level based on a Pokémon's Level 1 Attack power.

Level Experience to next level 30 Attack 40 Attack 50 Attack 60 Attack 70 Attack 80 Attack 90 Attack 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 3 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 4 150 165 180 195 210 225 240 5 150 165 180 195 210 225 240 6 450 495 540 585 630 675 720 7 750 825 900 975 1050 1125 1200 8 900 990 1080 1170 1260 1350 1440 9 1050 1155 1260 1365 1470 1575 1680 10 1200 1320 1440 1560 1680 1800 1920 11 1350 1485 1620 1755 1890 2025 2160 12 1050 1155 1260 1365 1470 1575 1680 13 1500 1650 1800 1950 2100 2250 2400 14 1800 1980 2160 2340 2520 2700 2880 15 2100 2310 2520 2730 2940 3150 3360 16 2250 2475 2700 2925 3150 3375 3600 17 2400 2640 2880 3120 3360 3600 3840 18 2550 2805 3060 3315 3570 3825 4080 19 2700 2970 3240 3510 3780 4050 4320 20 3000 3300 3600 3900 4200 4500 4800

The experience required to advance from any level to the next can be written as a multiple of the experience required for advancing from Level 1 to Level 2, with multiples for the same level being the same across the experience groups.

Pokémon GO

Main article: Trainer level

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.

Pokémon can be strengthened by Powering Up, which is the equivalent to raising their levels in the core series. Rather than by battling, this is done using Stardust and Candy.

Pokémon Masters EX

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

In Pokémon Masters EX, the sync pairs gain experience either by battling or by using Level-up Manuals. Sync pairs have a level cap that can be increased by using buffs, blends, or ades, or by increasing their potential.

This level cap used to vary based on a sync pair's rarity, with only 5-star sync pairs being able to achieve level 100. However, after the EX update the base level cap for all sync pairs was raised to 100.

As of version 2.14.0.77663100, the first two level cap unlocks raise a sync pair's maximum level by 10, (to 110 and 120 respectively) then every unlock afterwards adds an additional 5 levels to a sync pair's level cap (to 125, 130, 135 and 140 respectively). The current absolute maximum level a sync pair can achieve is 150 as of version 2.24.

Additionally, once a sync pair reaches level 120, in order to raise their level cap further, type-specific tomes or codices are required (Fighting type tomes for Fighting type Pokémon, Water tomes for Water Pokémon etc.) 50 tomes are required to raise the level cap to 125, an additional 150 tomes are needed to raise it again to 130, then 50 codices to raise the cap to 135, and an additional 150 are needed to raise the level cap to 140. At this point a Certificate of Excellence is needed to raise the level cap further, each certificate raises the level cap by one, meaning that a total of ten are required per Sync Pair. Currently the only way to obtain a certificate is by purchasing them in the lodge exchange for 100 Lodge Stones each. These are earned by raising your friendship level with a trainer in the Trainer Lodge.

Pokémon hatched from eggs are an exception to the level cap rule. Sync pairs formed in this fashion start with their level cap already raised to 150.

Unlike the mainline games, certain sync pairs can only evolve by reaching a certain level that unlocks a special battle; the battle itself requires Evolution Crystals or Evolution Shards. Pokémon hatched from an egg that are able to evolve can evolve by simply spending the Evolution Crystals or Evolution Shards cost, there is no battle for Pokémon hatched from an egg.

Pokémon Pinball series

In Pokémon Pinball and Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, the player gets three "Ex" (experience) symbols in order to evolve a Pokémon that would normally evolve by level in the core series games.

In Pokémon Pinball, the player is also able to "evolve" a Pokémon that has no actual known evolution, in which case the player gets three "Ex" symbols and completes the evolution as usual, but this does not change the Pokémon's appearance.

Gallery

Experience sprite from Pinball	Experience counter from Pinball	Experience sprite from Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire

Trivia

• The Pokémon with the highest base experience yield is Blissey, with a yield of 608. The Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield is Sunkern, with a yield of 36.
  • 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.
  • In Black and White only, the Pokémon with the lowest base experience yield were Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott with a yield of 28. This was done specifically for the first two battles of the games, so the player's starter wouldn't level up after defeating Bianca and thus have a level advantage over Cheren. From Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 onward, their base experience yields were raised to 62 to bring them in line with the other starter Pokémon in the series.
• The highest possible number of experience points that can legally be gained at one time from knocking Pokémon out in any game is 286,980. This can be done by simultaneously defeating three level 100 Blissey in a Trainer battle that's set up as a Triple Battle in a Secret Base in Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire, with Exp. Point O-Power Lv. 3 active, and having a different language, outsider, unevolved Pokémon that is at or beyond the level it normally evolves, with at least two Affection hearts and holding a Lucky Egg, participate in the battle without fainting. For the Pokémon with the lowest evolution level (Caterpie, Weedle, and Wurmple), this would cause them to level up from 7 to 65.
  • Theoretically, the highest amount of experience points that could be gained all at once is 573,932. This would be achieved by, in Sword and Shield, simultaneously knocking out two level 100 Blissey with a level 1 different language, outsider Pokémon holding a Lucky Egg and with 220 or more friendship, all with the Exp. Charm in the bag. For a Pokémon in the Erratic experience group, this would bring it from level 1 to 97.
• 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 two or more 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.
• In Generation IV, if a Pokémon is at least ⁷/₈ of the way to its next level, its Poké Ball on the battle interface will shake from time to time.
• Starting in Generation V, there are Legendary Pokémon the player must capture to progress the story. Defeating these Pokémon does not award experience.
  • In Pokémon Black and White, defeating Reshiram^B or Zekrom^W does not yield experience, even if it is knocked out at Dragonspiral Tower due to having a full party and Boxes upon initial encounter.
  • In Pokémon X and Y, defeating Xerneas^X or Yveltal^Y at Team Flare Secret HQ does not yield experience.
  • In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, defeating Rayquaza at Sky Pillar during the Delta Episode does not yield experience.
  • In Pokémon Sun and Moon, defeating Solgaleo^S or Lunala^M at the Altar of the Sunne^S or Altar of the Moone^M does not yield experience.
  • In Pokémon Sword and Shield, out of the three, no battle with Eternatus yields experience.
    • However, the second battle remains unfinished, as Zacian and Zamazenta interrupt the battle, leading to a Max Raid Battle, which does not grant experience.
• 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.
• Generations I and II have two unused experience groups:
  • The first group's total experience at level n is equal to ${\textstyle {\tfrac {3n^{3}}{4}}+10n^{2}-30}$. It requires 849970 experience to reach level 100.
  • The second group's total experience at level n is equal to ${\textstyle {\tfrac {3n^{3}}{4}}+20n^{2}-70}$. It requires 949930 experience to reach level 100.
• It is possible, with the scaled experience formula, to receive less experience points than expected. This is since, to apply the scaling factor, the game internally calculates a numerator, multiplies the base EXP (potentially itself modified by the Trainer battle bonus in Gen V) by it, then calculates a denominator and divides the result by it and rounds down, adding 1 after doing so. When multiplying by the numerator, if the result is greater than 4,294,967,295 (the highest value that can be stored in an unsigned four byte integer), it will overflow, since the operation only uses four bytes max. For instance, a level 84 Blissey will have the result overflow to a considerably lower value, so much that it will only give 54 experience points if knocked out by a level 84 Pokémon. This is only possible via hacks/modding, however; the highest value this result could be legitimately (against Nurse Carol's level 67 Blissey in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 in Challenge Mode) is only just barely greater than 3 billion, not enough to trigger the overflow.

See also

• List of Pokémon by effort value yield
• List of Pokémon by experience type

In other languages

Experience

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 經驗 Gīngyihm Mandarin 經驗 / 经验 Jīngyàn Danish Erfaring Finnish Kokemus French Expérience German Erfahrung Italian Esperienza Korean 경험 Gyeongheom Norwegian Erfaring Polish Doświadczenie Portuguese Experiência Brazilian Portuguese Experiência Russian Опыт Opyt Spanish Experiencia Swedish Erfarenhet Vietnamese Kinh nghiệm

Experience Points

Language Title Chinese Cantonese 經驗值 Gīngyihm Jihk Mandarin 經驗值 / 经验值 Jīngyàn Zhí Danish Erfaringspoint Erfaringsniveau* Dutch Ervaringspunten* French Canada Points d'expérience* Europe Points Expérience German Erfahrungspunkte Italian Punti Esperienza Korean 경험치 Gyeongheom Chi Norwegian Erfaringspoeng Polish Punkt doświadczenia Portuguese Pontos de Experiência* Brazilian Portuguese Pontos de Experiência Russian Очки Опыта Ochki Opyta Spanish Puntos de Experiencia Swedish Erfarenhetspoäng Vietnamese Điểm kinh nghiệm

References

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