History Main / LeakedExperience

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' gives everyone experience for a battle, regardless of whether or not they participated or even ''survived''. Truly a sign of a more entry-level RPG. However, your party members are always a set level and have a set number of experience points when they join. With some fine-tuning, you can set it up so that everyone has the same amount of experience points and levels up at the same time.

* ''VideoGame/AgarestSenki 2'' plays this trope straight. Party members who leave you (usually the non last generation protagonist and [[LoveInterest his love interests]] won't be at your level, but they can catch up pretty quickly anyway.
** Same thing with ''VideoGame/CrossEdge''.
* Characters in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey III: The Drowned City'' can learn the "Combat Study" Common Skill, which gives benched characters EXP from the main party's battles (to the tune of 1% per skill level, up to 10% at [=Lv10=]). You can also use your backup party to turn in completed Quests and Missions, netting them the reward without actually contributing to the effort.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' doesn't need this for the main party, who are all active and present at all times, but gives [[GuestStarPartyMember Heroes]] a full allocation of EXP (the only form of progression they even need) while they're not in the party. This doesn't make a lot of sense and sticks out in a game otherwise obsessed with GameplayAndStoryIntegration, but it's [[NecessaryWeasel pretty much the only way]] to keep Heroes relevent.

* ''VideoGame/Disgaea6DefianceOfDestiny'' gives everyone who was deployed in the battle experience. Some characters are given awards for that battle for random things, such as most damage or throwing done. It also has the Juice Bar, which is used to distribute extra EXP or Mana from battles to any character, for a fee. The stored EXP can also be used to increase stats, level Class Masteries, or increase Squad levels.

* ''VideoGame/Disgaea6DefianceOfDestiny'' adds the Juice Bar. Completing battles or quests gives you stored EXP or Mana that can be distributed to any character, for a fee. The stored EXP can also be used to increase stats, level Class Masteries, or increase Squad levels.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastStory'' completely averts this, resulting in characters that are absent from the party for a while ending up as much as fifteen levels behind when they rejoin. Fortunately, the game's focus on tactical combat and Zael's key skill of forcing enemy attention onto him make it easy to train up the difference.

* While most of the characters in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' joined at reasonable levels, Paula joins the party at level 1 at a point in the game where the main character is likely level 15. The only assistance the player is given is the fact that Paula comes with a Teddy Bear, an item that serves as an attack target for enemies in battle, which might keep her from getting attacked long enough for her to gain a few levels.

** The game does this, because it would be flat-out impossible if they didn't; there are [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters enough characters]] that it would suck the fun right out if you had to level them all individually, and there are many times when a certain character is needed over others, often right after they're introduced.

[[folder:Non-Video Game Examples]]
* The ''Yggdrasil'' video game in ''[[LightNovel/Overlord2012 Overlord]]'' let players gain extra experience points for helping stronger players. Ainz suspects that the gods the Slane Theocracy worships might be ''Yggdrasil'' players [[TrappedInAnotherWorld transported to the New World]] and the citizens might be levelling up faster by helping their gods.

* Characters in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey III: The Drowned City'' can learn the "Combat Study" Common Skill, which gives benched characters EXP from the main party's battles (to the tune of 1% per skill level, up to 10% at Lv10). You can also use your backup party to turn in completed Quests and Missions, netting them the reward without actually contributing to the effort.

* In the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'', the higher the level a character is, the less experience they receive, making it very difficult to obtain in later parts of the games. However, this results in members who’re severely lacking to catch up to the lead, with all members eventually having equal levels all around. It was designed in a way where players wouldn’t feel the need to grind.

In the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'', the higher the level a character is, the less experience they receive, making it very difficult to obtain in later parts of the games. However, this results in members who’re severely lacking to catch up to the lead, with all members eventually having equal levels all around. It was designed in a way where players wouldn’t feel the need to grind.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has inactive characters gain 90% of the XP, AP, and SP the main party earn from battle. There are skills that can be learned to remove these penalties.

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' simply grants the full sum of EXP, WP and SP from battle to all party members regardless of participation.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' gives the inactive members a little bit less EXP and points than the active party. There's a certain party member in Episode I that leaves your party temporarily, and when you get them back, they're still at the same level while the rest of the characters are several levels up. Only Episode III actually shows how much EXP every character got after the battle (the other games just show how much the active party got).

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' gives characters not in the active party a penalty on XP, AP, and SP gains from each battle. These penalties are paltry (you'd have to leave a member out for hour on end to build up a noticeable gap) but there are nonetheless skills that can be learned to remove them.

[[folder:Hand-and-Slash]]

** Near the end of the game, it might even be considered either an inversion or a distillation - if a higher-level player joins a lower-level group, they earn experience proportionate to their level -- and retain some of their higher level skills (and almost ALL of their enhancements) to compensate for the power drop. If a lower-level player joins a higher-level group, though, they're likely to still be startlingly ineffective in comparison to the rest. The obvious solution, disregarding [[LevelGrinding specially-crafted missions,]] is to [[{{Munchkin}} join lower-level groups to... er...]] [[BlatantLies help new players.]]

** You also get from being in a party with another player's group and to a lesser degree if they are not in the same battle as you are which led to a form of partying called LDP (long distance partying) which is partying with other players just for the sake of the leaked exp.

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Gaiden]]'' and ''[[VideoGameRemake Echoes: Shadow of Valentia]]'' are the only games where any units that participates in a battle will receive experience based on a pool. The pool is accumulated based on how many times the unit entered combat and deal damage and the experience will be added to every units at the end of battle.
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' have Bonus EXP that is awarded after battle for completing a map quickly, surviving {{NPC}}s and other stuff. You can award it to any of your characters how ever you see fit and even keep it for later.

** Better still - characters recruited by Persuasion are considered to have been in their current class for their entire careers, whereas your characters have to start in basic "Soldier" or "Amazon" classes which have lower stat growth. In the ''very'' long run, not a major issue, but right around the time when you're starting to convert your characters from the basic classes to the more complex ones, picking up a character who has five levels of the stat growth of a wizard versus training a newby to go through five levels of fighter first ''before'' becoming a wizard can make a significant difference.

[[folder:[=MMORPG=]s]]

[[folder:RealTimeStrategy]]

* As of ''VideoGame/CytusII''[='=]s 3.0 update, if you play a song in one of the three main characters' (PAFF, NEKO#ΦωΦ, ROBO_Head) folders, the other two characters will also gain half as much EXP each, allowing players who purchased the game later to catch up to the story's GrandFinale.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' makes using a variety of Pokemon much easier then its predecessors, as every single Pokemon you've recruited receives 100% of the EXP your active party gains. They need to be brought into a dungeon before they'll actually level up from the accumulated EXP, however.
* ''Videogame/DungeonCrawl'', being a single player game, plays this trope in a rather unusual way - everything your summons, minions or followers kill, grant only one half XP to you. Summoned creatures return back where they came from after a handful of turns, and undead minions don't last long enough - but orcish followers of a priest of Beogh apparently take some part of the leaked XP and become stronger, so if you care about a lowly orc long enough, he can raise in ranks all the way up to a rather fearsome orc warlord.

[[folder:RolePlayingGame]]

** The first generation had the "Exp.All" key item that split half the battle experience between all party Pokémon. ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' swapped it for the "Exp. Share" hold item, which is equipped on a single Pokémon and gives them (and only them) half the battle's experience, should they not participate. This remained until ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', where every Pokémon that participates in a battle gets full experience; Exp. Share also became a key item once again, giving every Pokémon that doesn't participate in battle half of the experience received and making the aforementioned turn-wasting method unnecessary outside of a SelfImposedChallenge. And come ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', "Exp. Share" no longer existed as an item; the aforementioned system became an ingrained game mechanic that couldn't be toggled on or off.
** With the advent of Double Battles, a specific strategy involves having a high-level Pokemon use [[ActionBomb Explosion]] while the low-level teammate uses Protect to evade all attacks -- for any opponent that gets KO on that turn, the low-level teammate receives ''all'' the experience.

[[folder:TurnBasedStrategy]]

[[folder:Non Video Game Examples]]

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Gaiden]]'' and ''[[VideoGameRemake Echoes: Shadow of Valentia]]'' is the only game where any units that participates in a battle will receive experience based on a pool. The pool is accumulated based on how many times the unit entered combat and deal damage and the experience will be added to every units at the end of battle.

** Generation V and VII onwards [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Experience#Gain_formula changed the series's experience model]] so that the amount of experience gained in battle is related to the level of the opponent ''and'' the victor -- before, it was strictly the opponent's level. Meaning that if your Pokémon is a higher level than the opponent, they'd get less experience than if they were a lower level. This combines is all the other usual Exp bonuses; if the enemy Mon belongs to a trainer, for holding the Lucky Egg, for being traded, for being traded from a different-language game, for Pass Powers (Gen VI only)...
--->"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DabwEhA14f0 I believe using all these multipliers on a level 100 Blissey would be instant level 100 for 5 out of 6 EXP groups.]]"
*** To clarify the "instant level 100" - is impossible, as the highest exp you can get is 457,970.[[note]]This can be done by defeating a level 100 Blissey in a Trainer battle, using an internationally traded Pokémon at level 1 that is holding a Lucky Egg, with Exp. Point Power ↑↑↑, S or MAX active[[/note]] Depending on the group, a Lv. 1 Pokémon would to grow to either Lv. 87 (Erratic), Lv. 83 (Fast), Lv. 77 (Medium Fast), Lv. 76 (Medium Slow), Lv. 71 (Slow) or Lv. 69[[note]]No joke here[[/note]] (Fluctuating).