Earning Experience Points or XP is how you gain levels (and therefore ranks) in Brink. It will be pooled together to be used on any character but will level up the specific character that got it.
- The fastest way to grind xp is to play Freeplay, launch a custom local match with bots turned off, and just run through the main objectives. This is also the best way to learn unknown maps.
- Solo kills are the poorest paying way to earn XP in Brink. However, neutralizing a target at or around the current core objective gives each one of said kills a multiplier. Kills scored when traveling with teammates also get multiplied. Getting kills while defending a core objective and fighting alongside teammates can pay fairly well. Spawn camping to try to level up is a waste of player time, as not enough experience is paid due to spawns being far from the objective. If players want to earn most of their XP through shooting, they'll have to earn it through cooperative actions, holding their ground, and running offense on objectives.
- Brink has a better balance system than most games. None of the unlockables are so powerful that player skill isn't the primary factor deciding any outcomes, and players are matched up based on their character's levels.
- Killing an enemy who is setting a bomb results in higher XP than killing a person running in the open, doing nothing.
- Ability cooldown will help prevent selfish players (i.e. a cooldown on the medics self-heal ability that is longer than the team-heal ability)
- Healing others earns a lot of XP, while a player healing himself earns nothing.
Obtaining Experience Points
- Objectives: Completing objectives to advance in the map you are playing in.
- Team Support: Class-specific actions, such as the Medic's Life buff ability or the Soldier's ammo distribution will produce XP when executed successfully.
- Kills: While Killing enemy combatants is not as efficient as completing objectives or executing class-specific abilities, it will net the player some XP.
Specific XP Rewards
General Actions
| Action | XP Reward |
|---|---|
| Each point of damage to an enemy | 1 |
| Killing an enemy | 20 |
| Melee Kill | 20 |
| Melee w/ finish kill | 20 |
| Killing incapped enemy | 2 |
| Killing enemy with teammates nearby | 10 |
| Killing enemy while enemy is disguised | 10 |
| Killing enemy while you are disguised | 10 |
| Each point of friendly fire | -1 |
| Being close to a killer on your team | 1 |
| Removing a sticky bomb | 25 |
| Escort VIP per second | 1 |
| Knockdown enemy VIP | 10 |
| Kill enemy VIP | 20 |
Gameplay
| Action | XP Reward |
|---|---|
| Hacking a Core Objective | 300 |
| Guarding an objective, up to 1 enemy present (per second) | 1 |
| Guarding an objective, 2+ enemies present (per second) | 2 |
| Healing a VIP Escort | 5 |
| Completing a VIP Escort | 100 |
| Damaging a VIP Escort | 150 |
| Changing class to complete Core Objective | 200 (30 sec. cooldown) |
| End of Match Bonus | 1 |
| Escort Bonus | 100 |
Objectives
| Action | XP, Core | XP, Secondary |
|---|---|---|
| Repair an Objective (Per Second) | 10 | 5 |
| Complete a Repair of an Objective | 200 | 100 |
| Explosive Destruction of objectives | 250 | 100 |
| Disarm explosive on Objective (per second) | 10 | 5 |
| Complete disarm on Objective | 125 | 75 |
| Place explosive on Objective | 50 | 25 |
| Hack an Objective | 50 | 25 |
| Disarm Hack Box (per second) | 10 | 5 |
| Complete Disarm Hack Box | 50 | 25 |
| Hack Objective (per second) | 10 | 5 |
| Completely Hack Objective | 100 | 50 |
| Deliver Package to Objective | 200 | 100 |
| Stop and return a package | 50 | |
| Kill the carrier delivering a package | 75 | |
| Pick up a dropped package | 20 | 10 |
| Capture a Command Post (per second) | 5 | |
| Capture a Command Post (finish) | 50 |
Utilizing XP
Experience points can be "spent" in several different ways. The player will be able to unlock:
- articles of clothing for Character Customization that were previously unavailable;
- Universal abilities like Battle Hardened, and also class-specific abilities such as the Engineer's turret or the Medic's Life Buff ability.
XP cannot be transferred from one character to another. A cumalative total of 503,250 XP is required to reach level 24. The following table details only the additional required XP to move from one level to the next, as opposed to the total XP earnt on the character.
| Level | XP Needed | Level | XP Needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +1000 | 13 | +17250 |
| 2 | +2000 | 14 | +19000 |
| 3 | +3000 | 15 (Rank 4) | +21750 |
| 4 | +4000 | 16 | +24500 |
| 5 (Rank 2) | +5250 | 17 | +27250 |
| 6 | +6500 | 18 | +30000 |
| 7 | +7750 | 19 | +32750 |
| 8 | +9000 | 20 (Rank 5) | +37500 |
| 9 | +10250 | 21 | +42500 |
| 10 (Rank 3) | +12000 | 22 | +47500 |
| 11 | +13750 | 23 | +53250 |
| 12 | +15500 | 24 | +60000 |