Experience

Characters in Dead In Antares have two separate progression tracks: a character level (capped at 20) and per-skill progression. Both run in parallel and feed into each other.

Character level

Every character has a level bar. The bar fills when a skill levels up - each skill level-up drops 90 XP into the character bar (modified by any active traits). When the bar fills, the character gains a level and gets to pick one trait and one battle passive from a random selection.

The bar grows larger at each level. It takes 400 XP to go from level 1 to level 2, 550 to go from 2 to 3, and so on. The formula is: 250 + 150 × current level.

Skill progression

Each skill also has its own XP bar. When a character uses a skill, that skill earns 100 XP (on Normal difficulty). When the skill bar fills, the skill's base value goes up by 1. The bar threshold depends on the skill's current value - low-value skills level up much faster than high-value ones.

On other difficulties the skill XP rate changes: Easy gives 25% more, Hard gives 20% less, Very Hard gives 30% less.

Thresholds between the table rows scale proportionally. A skill sitting at 25 needs roughly 150 XP for the next point.

New characters joining the camp

When a new character arrives mid-run, they do not start at level 1. The game calculates the average total XP across your current crew and gives that same amount to the new arrival. Their character level is bumped to match the crew average. Their individual skill values stay at their authored starting levels - only the character level catches up, not the skills.

Difficulty effects

The difficulty mode you pick changes skill XP gain only - character XP gain (the 90 XP from a skill level-up) is not affected by difficulty.

See Difficulty for the full breakdown. The relevant rows are "Character skill XP gain" in the progression section.