Experience

Experience, often shortened to XP, is a resource in Age of Empires III and its expansions. XP is required to send shipments from the Home City.

Acquisition

Experience can be gained in many ways, and some civilizations can gather it more effectively than others.

Trickle

Players will receive 2 XP per second, or 120 XP per minute.

Books

The Mexicans and the United States receive books each time they age up. The books are experience crates. The United States also start the game with some books, and the Mexicans receive books when returning to Mexico after revolting. Both civilizations have a technology at the Cathedral/Meeting House that grants books. The Italians and Maltese can choose the Pope as a politician, which grants 1,000 XP books, and the Italians can also get additional experience books with the Inventor in the Commerce Age, and The Bishop if they use the Advanced Politicians Home City Card.

Civilization bonuses and penalties

• The Spanish require 26% less XP than other civilizations to receive Home City shipments.
• The Germans require 10% more XP to receive Home City shipments.
• The Indians require 9% more XP to receive Home City shipments.
• The Hausa require 8% more XP to receive Home City shipments.
• The Italians require 7% more XP to receive Home City shipments.
• The Maltese require 1% more XP to receive Home City shipments.
• The Japanese require 0.1234% more XP to receive Home City shipments. This value increases by 0.1234% with each shipment sent.

Treasure hunting

Some Treasures give XP once claimed. The Mountain Warrior Home City Card, available to the Japanese, doubles XP earned from Treasures. The Aztec War Chiefs experience aura on the other hand can increase reward from the guardians, but not the Treasures.

Buildings

A building grants an XP "build bounty" equal to 20% of its original cost when built. Destroying buildings grants an XP "destroy bounty" equal to twice of its build bounty.

Units

The red color player getting an XP kill bounty

Units grant an XP "train bounty" when they are trained, the amount varies depending on the unit in question:

• 10% of the cost for military units, Settlers, Villagers, Fishing Boats, Coureur des Bois, Cree Coureur des Bois, and Settler Wagons
• 20% from outlaws

Killing units grant an XP "kill bounty" equal to 10% of its cost (20% for outlaws).

Bonuses

Some buildings generate XP as well, specifically the Community Plaza (with Gift Ceremony), Shrines (requires the Seven Lucky Gods Home City Card, can be increased by attracting animals to it), Sacred Fields (when livestock are tasked to it), Mosque, Church, Toshogu Shrine (the same as with Shrines), Consulate (with a Spanish ally), and Trading Posts built upon a Trade Route.

The Torii Gates wonder will increase the XP from constructing, training, or destroying buildings and units, as well as the passive experience trickle by +50%. This is incredibly powerful when combined with the Seven Lucky Gods card. The Punjabi New Year and Navajo Shepherds native technologies can also increase Sacred Field and Shrine herdable animal experience rates for India or Japan. A British ally can boost the experience generation of Indian livestock and sacred fields, as well as livestock tasked to Japanese shrines (including Toshogu) by 20% when sending the TEAM Wool Staple Ports card. The Swedes can send the Kalmar Castle card, which causes player's units to yield twice as many experience points when fighting nearby player's Forts.

Technologies

The Mercantilism, New Year Festival, Bullionism, and Meditation technologies give XP as soon as they are researched.

Cost and train/build reduction

Cost reduction cards for units or buildings do not reduce the experience gained from constructing, training, or destroying them. Therefore some combinations of cards and upgrades can effectively allow significant experience boosts from construction to be purchased at a very low cost (e.g. Land Grab, Advanced Plantation, and Cree Textile Craftsmanship (in that order) for 96% cheaper Plantations (32 wood) and granting 160 experience every 5 seconds, equivalent to 32 experience a second).

Cards or upgrades that reduce construction, or train times of buildings, and units will also improve experience gain (e.g Stonemasons, Medicine, Fencing School, etc).

Shipment progression

The first Shipment can be sent once the player reaches 300 XP (219 for the Spanish, 330 for the Germans, 324 for the Indians). The next Shipment costs 15% more (exponential growth) until a maximum of 2,500 XP is reached with the 17th shipment (19th for the Spanish, 16th for the Germans). After this shipment, each following shipment is available after reaching an additional 2,500 XP. See the following table, where the XP needed for the next shipment for different civilizations is shown:

Shipment	Generic	Spanish	German	India
1	300	219	330	324
2	345	252	380	374
3	397	290	436	429
4	456	333	502	493
5	525	383	577	564
6	603	440	664	646
7	694	507	763	737
8	798	583	878	841
9	918	670	1009	959
10	1055	770	1161	1091
11	1214	886	1335	1239
12	1396	1019	1535	1403
13	1605	1172	1766	1584
14	1846	1347	2030	1782
15	2123	1550	2335	1999
16	2441	1782	2500	2236
17	2500	2049	2500	2500
18	2500	2357	2500	2500
19	2500	2500	2500	2500
20	2500	2500	2500	2500

Gather rates

This table shows the initial gathering rates, card and Consulate granted trickle rates are fixed and can not be increased, though they can be stacked with other trickle cards available to that civilization. Trade Routes will vary depending on length, and number of sites available, shown is the average one can expect on the majority of maps.

Herdable animals are for the Indians only, though the individual pages also list the effect provided for Japanese Shrines.

Shrines, and Toshogu Shrine require the Seven Lucky Gods card to produce experience.

Method	Initial rate
Passive trickle	120/min
Sheep	4.8/min per Sheep
Goat	5.4/min per Goat
Cow/Water Buffalo/Yak	6/min per animal
Llama	7.2/min per Llama
TEAM Sumptuary Laws (card)	12 coin, food, wood, and 6 export and experience per minute
Sumptuary Laws (card)	18 coin, food, wood, and 9 export and experience per minute
Mosque	15/min (1 max)
Consulate (Spanish)	48/min as long as they remain an ally
Trade Route (unupgraded)	72/min per Trading Post
Toshogu Shrine	55.8 experience, and increases regular shrine gather rates by 33% (but not experience), or 21 coin, wood, and food per minute.
Porcelain Tower	10.8 (Colonial), 15 (Fortress), 24 (Industrial), or 60 (Imperial) experience per minute depending on the Age in which it is constructed.
Sacred Field (Sheep)	8.4/min per Sheep (10 max, 84/min)
Sacred Field (Goat)	9.6/min per Goat (10 max, 96/min)
Sacred Field (Llama)	10.8/min per Llama (10 max, 108/min)
Sacred Field (Cow, Water Buffalo, Yak)	12/min per animal (10 max, 120/min)
Shrine	20.4 experience per minute per Shrine (20 maximum, 408/min), or 6 coin/wood, or 8.4 food.
Gift Ceremony (Warrior Priests)	66.4/min per priest (max 10, 664/min)
Gift Ceremony (Villagers)	33.2/min per villager (max 25, 840/min)

Strategy

The Spanish or Portuguese can train Llamas for the Indians at a Livestock Pen after sending the Llama Ranching card, thus gifting them experience indirectly. 7 of them is 50.4/min (90.72/min with Goraksha card) compared to the Consulate bonus for the Japanese by having the Spanish as an ally, at a cost of 490 food, 250 wood, and a card shipment for the ally, versus 100 export and 200 wood cost for Japan. However, this allows India to effectively have access to a consulate ally bonus typically unavailable to them. With a British ally sending TEAM Wool Staple Ports as well, the total bonus for India jumps to 60.48/min (120.96/min with Goraksha card, equivalent to doubling the passive trickle). The Spanish, Indians, and British also synergize well for Monitor long-range bombardments, especially if the Chinese become a fourth ally. The Chinese can then use TEAM Provincial Administration, adding +10 to the population provided by their own Villages, British Manor Houses, Spanish Houses and Indian Houses. The first ally gaining a significant population advantage by manor booming, the second recovering the cost of the Livestock Pen and saving wood for Missionaries (unction), and the latter to save them wood, which is required instead of food to train villagers.

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to Experience

Some cards are highlighted with:
Green	TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
Purple	Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times
Red	Shipment that can be sent twice
Blue	Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds)

Chinese

Card	Description	Age
Sumptuary Laws	Gives a trickle of 0.3 food, 0.3 wood, 0.3 coin, 0.15 export, 0.15 XP

French

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Louvre	Gives a trickle of 0.1 XP; Town Watch, Gas Lighting, Standing Army, Mass Cavalry, and Mission Fervor cost -50%; Kebra Nagast, Book of Axum, and Solomonic Dynasty cost -10%

Indians

Card	Description	Age
Goraksha	Livestock generates +80% XP and Sacred Cows cost -25 food, +1 Villager
TEAM Sumptuary Laws	Gives a trickle of 0.2 food, 0.2 wood, 0.2 coin, 0.1 export, 0.1 XP, 0.1 influence

Italians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Pizza	Ships 100 food, 100 wood, 100 coin, 100 XP
Uffizi	Ships 1 Basilica Wagon and Lombards now trickle 0.5 XP for each invested resource; different resources do not stack the trickle

Japanese

Card	Description	Age
Sumptuary Laws	Gives a trickle of 0.3 food, 0.3 wood, 0.3 coin, 0.15 export, 0.15 XP

United States

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Lewis & Clark Expedition	Reveals all treasures, resources, Trade Routes, and Native settlements, and sees what enemies can see for 20 seconds; Ships 100 XP
Spanish Immigrants	[Immigrant] Ships 1 Outpost Wagon; Gives a trickle of 1.70 XP; Levy spawns 6 Tercios (that do not lose hit points over time) from the Commerce Age; costs 300 food

Trivia

• Originally, Experience was called Fame and would be shown on a numeric counter in the in-game UI (as opposed to the final game, where it is represented by a green bar below the Home City button) along with the other resources, as shown in unused textures files (resource_fame.ddt). It was later changed to be represented by a green bar (fame_bar.ddt), as in the final game, and later, its name was changed to Experience.
• Increase in Home City levels of a civilization through experience points earned in campaign mode does not carry over to the civilization's skirmish (standard singleplayer and multiplayer) version of the Home City.