Currency Earning Guide - XP!

Hi everyone,

I will be covering the different ways that you can earn XP in this game. XP is how you get Prize Bulbs, complete character challenges, unlock character upgrades and improve your total rank in the game. In this guide, I am going to mention how you can efficiently get XP without the use of farming techniques. Honestly, unless you are desperate, just play the game and you will be fine. I will also not cover the XP Machine, it costs coins and you can use it to level up your characters if you like, with a daily limit. I find that it is too easy of a way to level up, and you do not benefit from the Levelling Up upgrade and you cannot gain Prize Bulbs this way. Remember to promote your characters when they are Level 10 so you can continue to level them up.

Here are (most likely) all the names and types of XP in the game that you can achieve. Check this document (made by @Cameroid07) out if you want to, this document is very detailed and it took them lots of time to work on it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S9LJG636b_Ax_oGEPthjy2U3T9s_vqdszeJ2-q2_onE/edit. 

Anyway, let's start figuring out ways you can level up your characters, both renewable and non-renewable:

RENEWABLE WAYS

Levelling Up Upgrade

This upgrade is available for all characters, you gain 10% additional XP from any action that grants you more than 5 XP, due to rounding. Note that this additional XP does not improve your Prize Bulbs yield, but it does work for completing character challenges. This upgrade works in all modes, whether you are in your free-roam regions, Multiplayer or Private Play (and more). Note that this character upgrade is unlocked from the start for every character and only costs 2 upgrade points to equip. You may also unequip it at any time, and you do not have to equip it to all of your character builds. The only thing it requires is that the current character build you are using currently has the upgrade equipped. This upgrade is useful for quickly unlocking other character upgrades, especially if there is an upgrade you really want to unlock.

Garden and Graveyard Ops

Playing Garden and Graveyard Ops can give you decent amounts of XP for the character that you are playing as. When a wave is complete, when you help your team, when you defend the Garden and Graveyard, or when you vanquish enemies, place Bots and Pots, along with similar actions, you will get XP for it. The great thing is that this is actually an effective and fairly easy way of getting XP, you do want to be mindful of your enemies getting past your defenses as you can lose quickly if they manage to swarm your defenses. Do not feel like it is too easy, sometimes even Al can surprise you. I suggest playing with friends to have some more fun, or if not an option, play with others and try to collaborate with them.

Using Character's Special Features

Most, if not all, characters have 1 special feature or more, that gives that character an exclusive way to gain XP for levelling up. An example is Foot Soldier. He gets extra XP for Trigger Discipline, which requires you to vanquish multiple enemies using a single clip of ammo, which gives you additional XP. Make sure that, for the character you are using, that you pay attention to, and try and make use of, any of their special features, as you can gain extra XP using that character in most modes this way. Check the document link that I provided up the top if you want to find out about more special character features that can net you additional XP.

Free-Roam Content

Most of the free-roam content, apart from some Medals that you can earn, give you XP. Completing some activities do not directly give you XP, but you will receive some from doing the activity itself. You can also get XP from collecting items, which is limited so decide wisely which character or characters you wish to use to give the XP to. Sometimes, boss enemies, Champions or Elusive Foes, or other Elite enemies, will appear in these regions and will give you additional XP when you defeat them with a shared or direct vanquish. Look out for these enemies as they can give you additional opportunities to earn XP. While you are 100% completing your regions, you should earn loads of XP in the process, so you will not be missing out on XP, even while doing free-roam regions, so do not panic! XP is almost everywhere!

Battle Zones

Performing Battle Zones that can be triggered in any free-roam region by defeating a lot of enemies in that area, can prove to be a good investment of XP. Allies appear that can help you in your fight, so you will get help even if you are not playing with other players. Defeating the Battle Skirmisher in the fight will give you 500 XP, while the Battle Leader will give you 1,000 XP. This is a fair amount of XP, plus any other enemies you defeat during the Battle Zone will also give you some XP. These Battle Zones can be triggered in any free-roam region and at any time, minus if you are doing a story quest or Ops, Bounty Hunts or Battle Chests. Other than that, you should be good to go, just defeat those enemies around the place for XP, then hopefully you can get a Battle Zone to begin for even more XP.

Placing Pots, Bots and Summonables

When you summon a Bot, Pot or Summonable in any game mode, you will get 10 XP for placing them. This may not seem like much, but you can benefit from them, more than just placing them. You should be able to place Pots and Bots in multiple areas, regardless of which game mode or match you are playing. If your Pot, Bot or Summonable gets a vanquish, heals others, or gets an assist of some sort, which does depend on the Bot, Pot or Summonable, you will get additional XP for that. And you know what else? It's basically just set and forget. Once you have placed your Pot, Bot or Summonable, let it do the work, and hopefully watch more XP come for your current character, along with the XP you get for summoning it. Yes, your Pots, Bots and Summonables have a cooldown before they can be placed again, but they can be placed at no cost, and the Pea Cannon Pot and Rocket Bot are exceptions, by having no cooldown, essentially allowing you to place infinite Pots and Bots! Although, the same does not work for Summonables.

PvP Modes

In any PvP mode you play, regardless of whether it is the Weekly Event, Turf Takeover, Team Vanquish or Battle Arena, there are always opportunities for XP. You can get XP for a variety of different actions such as vanquishing, assists, reviving, helping your allies, capturing or defending the objective and much more! Vanquishing opponents gives you about 150 XP, which is increased if you are on a streak as well. Even if your team wins or loses, you can still earn a fair amount of XP for your efforts. If you cannot find a lobby or the lobbies are full of Al, you might still get XP for doing so, but it is not as much or worthwhile, so in those cases it may be better to find a different lobby or to swap to a different region so you can vanquish those enemies, help your team and get that XP!

Private Play

Doing Private Play basically achieves the same stuff as you would get in PvP modes, except you can do this at any time, you can change the difficulty and you can enable crazy settings, which is good if you cannot find any lobbies in PvP. Adding crazy settings will heavily nerf your XP amount, so you should be mindful of that. Unless you play on Crazy difficulty, you will receive lower amounts of XP than if you were playing in PvP Modes. The advantages of doing this is that you know that the Al cannot use character upgrades, you may change the game mode as you wish, you can play this mode at any time, and you can even change which types of enemies you are up against. So, if you are struggling to find a lobby in PvP, or you would like to play Private Play by yourself or with friends, you can go right ahead and start having fun!

Reviving

Reviving allies awards you with 150 XP, even if you achieve a shared revive. For this reason, reviving allies is something that is worth doing, especially if they were vanquished in a relatively safe location where they got vanquished just before your team took out all of your enemies. There are many ways to make reviving for you easier, if you are a Support character, you could equip Super Savior so that you can still jump and use your abilities as if you were not reviving, even though you are. You could also equip Revive Reward so you gain armor and health (if you achieve the revive), overhealth is included, when you revive a player. If you intend to revive a fair amount to gain extra XP, Refreshing Revive might be a good call for you, which is available for any character, in order to regain your abilities back faster after you revive an ally. If you are a character with high health or shield access, than it will just become easier to get a revive again!

Vanquishing

Vanquishing other players give you 150 XP, and getting onto a Vanquish Streak will give you even more bonus XP again. Vanquishing Al gives you 25 XP. This XP can vary with some other targets, but on a general note, you get a decent amount of XP upon every vanquish. Shared vanquishes count as well, so if you are trying to aim for vanquishes, try and stick with your team and do as much damage as you can possibly deal to your enemies, in order to try and get some shared or direct vanquishes. You may find that playing as an Attack character will allow you to get vanquishes with a bit more ease, since they are designed to get vanquishes more easily and deal more damage than most other characters. If you want to keep a vanquish streak and earn more XP this way, try and use cover if you have been damaged, and provide cover fire from a distance. In general, just avoid being vanquished where possible.

Assisting, Healing and Similar

Any assists, healing and other stuff you can provide to help your team or hinder your enemies are good to aim for! For instance, if you see an ally fighting an opponent, try providing cover fire while they fight or provide more firepower. Or, if you are a healer character, heal as much of your team as possible, including Pots, Bots and Summonables, to increase your XP yield. Getting assists and healing do not provide that much XP, but it's not that hard to do either, and over time you will really see your XP adding up. Plus, does it not feel good to help yourself and your team? The more you can assist, the more likely your team can win a match and the more likely you will get lots of XP.

Upgrade Consideration

Considering what upgrades you use is important as you can actually gain extra XP as a result! I realise that Levelling Up is an upgrade that physically increases your XP gain from most actions by 10%, but there are other upgrades you can use. For example, using upgrades that allow you to increase your damage output, survivability and so on can improve your XP yield, even if indirectly, so do make sure you consider what upgrades you are using on your characters as you may be able to earn more XP as a result overall, even if not by much.

NON-RENEWABLE WAYS

Collecting XP from Opening Chests in Free-Roam

Opening Common Chests in your free-roam regions award you with 250 XP, Golden Chests give you 500 XP and Gnome Chests give you 1,000 XP. Just note that you cannot reopen already opened chests, meaning that you cannot infinitely use this tactic. That said, it is relatively easy to get XP this way, so I suggest using the Levelling Up upgrade and heavily considering which character you use when you go to open chests in your free-roam regions. You can quickly level up characters to unlock character upgrades this way, or use characters you are not fond of to have them levelled up more quickly!

Collecting XP from Collecting Other Collectibles in Free-Roam

Collecting most other collectibles in your free-roam regions award you with 250 XP for each item collected, although the Diamond Gnomes provide you with 1,000 XP instead. Just note that you cannot recollect collectibles once you have collected them. That said, it is relatively easy to earn XP this way, I suggest using Levelling Up and heavily considering which character you use before you go to collect these items in your free-roam regions. You can relatively quickly level up characters to unlock character upgrades this way, or use characters you are not fond of to have them levelled up more quickly!

GENERAL XP TIPS

Almost anything that you do in Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, including shooting targets in Giddy Park even, gives you XP, so you should not have to be too concerned about having a lack of XP. If you wish to gain more XP quickly, use the XP Machine, which however does not help with Prize Bulb production, or follow these tips and take them into consideration.

CONCLUSION

Now while XP is actually easy to get, it can take a lot of grinding in order to max out your characters and level them up! You can earn XP with relative ease, but if you are looking for more, you can refer to this guide. Playing with other players or friends can benefit as they can help you gain XP, as well as them getting a bunch in the process!

I hope this guide was helpful, have fun and enjoy gaming!

Regards

@TheSprinter85