Experience decreased for HoS quests

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Hi everyone,

just registered so can't create my own thread yet. So maybe someone on this thread can help me.

I currently play Witcher 3 on Xbox One in NewGame+, patch 1.60. Started NG+ at lv 54.

I finished the main story and are now maybe 1/3 through Hearts Of Stone.

I noticed that the quest reward XP are downscaled significantly, although I am not more than 5 levels above the quest level.

Right now I am Level 91.
"Dead Man's Party" and "Rose on a Red Field" are both level 87 quests (I started NG+ at Lv 54). So these quests should give full XP, but only gave the massively reduced XP that are usually given if you outlevel the quest by >5 levels.

The same happened with "Evils First Soft Touches" (lv 86, I was lv 90).

Main Game side-quests still seem to work correctly, e.g. I recently did "Missing Brother", also lv 87 and got the normal XP.
Also throughout the main game story line, everything behaved as expected (quests within 5 levels gave full XP, everything else reduced).

Is this a bug with HoS?

I haven't tried the Blood and Wine quests, yet, although I could since "Envoys, Wineboys" is level 88.
Maybe doing Blood and Wine first (if it works, will bring me to lv100 anyway).

Thanks.
 
I haven't tried the Blood and Wine quests, yet, although I could since "Envoys, Wineboys" is level 88.
Maybe doing Blood and Wine first (if it works, will bring me to lv100 anyway).
You're definitely on pace to be level 100 (which is the cap) by the time it matters anyways. I would finish HoS and then do B&W for story reasons.
 
You're definitely on pace to be level 100 (which is the cap) by the time it matters anyways. I would finish HoS and then do B&W for story reasons.

Well, unless every quest in the DLCs from now on only gives reduced XP. In which case I may get stuck?
Also I heard that for some of the last levels before 100 you need 10000XP per level instead of 2000 (not sure if this is true).

I think that previously the level cap was 70, so maybe HoS (and maybe B&W) don't give normal XP for anyone above that...

I probably try Envoys, Wineboys just to see what the reward will be.
 
I think that previously the level cap was 70, so maybe HoS (and maybe B&W) don't give normal XP for anyone above that...
The Level cap is 100. If you were level 54 when NG+ started the last quest in blood and wine should be level 104.
 
The Level cap is 100. If you were level 54 when NG+ started the last quest in blood and wine should be level 104.

Yes, of course. My current quests are also labeled to have a higher level than 70 obviously (87 for Dead Man's Party).

That's not my concern. But they didn't yield the XP reward for doing the quest at a level within 5 levels of the quest.
I.e. even I would have been Lv 92, there should have still been full rewards. Only if I would have been Lv 93, then the XPs should have been reduced.

The XP rewards when completing the quests were the reduced ones (<50 XP for the entire Dead Man's Party quest, <100 for all of Evils First Soft Touches), although I was (and am) only 4 levels above the quest level and not 6.

At the moment I have no evidence that regular XP rewards will be earned for any quest in the DLCs. Even if I do them at the same level the quest is labeled at.

So I am trying to understand whether that is intentional (maybe HoS doesn't intent to allow to be 5 levels above), or a bug.
Whether other players had similar experiences, etc.

Thanks.
Post automatically merged:

Yes, of course. My current quests are also labeled to have a higher level than 70 obviously (87 for Dead Man's Party).

That's not my concern. But they didn't yield the XP reward for doing the quest at a level within 5 levels of the quest.
I.e. even I would have been Lv 92, there should have still been full rewards. Only if I would have been Lv 93, then the XPs should have been reduced.

The XP rewards when completing the quests were the reduced ones (<50 XP for the entire Dead Man's Party quest, <100 for all of Evils First Soft Touches), although I was (and am) only 4 levels above the quest level and not 6.
[..]

Ok, I tried a few things.

I did "Envoys, Wineboys" (Lv88) up until the fight with Golyat and was rewarded with ~400XP. This seems normal. I think the fight with Golyat is already "The Beast of Toussaint" which is Lv 89. So this seems normal full reward (I am will Lv 91).

I started "Open Sesame" and related subquests. (All Lv 88). It seems for those I am rewarded now a 1/3 of normal XP.
So not the 1/15 or 1/20 of when you are 5+ overleveled, but also not the normal amount. Curious.

For example: finding Hugo's body and also recruiting Eveline each yielded 48 EXP. According to the Witcher Wiki, the normal reward is 150XP. So ~1/3. I also happen to be 3 levels over. So maybe there is linear scaling of the XP reward for HoS quests? like

- full if you are <=1 level over
- half if 2 levels over
- 1/3 if 3 levels over
and so on?

Is that a thing? Anyone else experienced this?
 
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Posts moved to a new thread.

I think, @spoxta , what you're seeing is simply decreased experience because you're over-leveled for the quests.

Quests in the game have a "target" level that's set in stone. If you turn on enemy scaling, that will only affect things like the enemy hit-points, the amount of damage they cause, etc. It will not affect the quest itself.

So, if I take a quest when I'm at-level (it shows up "green" in the journal), I'll wind up getting what feels like a sensible amount of experience. So, let's say...1,000 exp.

Now, if I were to take that quest when I'm 5 levels below the "Green" target, the quest will appear anywhere from yellow, to orange, to red. At red, it may be virtually impossible to complete it. Your gear may not even be able to cause enough damage before it breaks. However, the 1,000 exp. I get for it will seem HUGE.

If I do the quest while over-level, the quest name will appear "grey" in the journal. This means that I will receive decreased exp. for every level over it I am, until I ultimately receive no exp. This is so that players are not able to throw the macro-balance of the game off by grinding enemies or completing too many quests.

In short, this is not a game that follows endless-play, NG+++etc. gameplay. It's not a system like Diablo, or Dark Souls, or most MMOs. This is an old-school approach. It's a game that's meant to be played through multiple times from beginning to end, and each time, different choices make the experience unique. The game is balanced against the main plot, not endless play.
 
Hi SigilFey,

Posts moved to a new thread.

I think, @spoxta , what you're seeing is simply decreased experience because you're over-leveled for the quests.

thanks for your response. Yes, I am aware of the "decreased experience for quests when overleveled". It is hard to miss even on a very first playthrough.

My observation is that how I experienced this mechanic in the base game (and frankly even in the extensions during my regular playthrough) is now different when playing HoS at NG+.

Here is my understanding how it is supposed to work (and how I experienced it in my first playthrough and during all the base game in NG+):

- player is 5 or less levels over quest level: ~almost full XP reward (maybe 90%)
- player is more than 5 levels over quest level: greatly reduced reward (supposedly only 1/15, which seems about right).

For example as explained
- here https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/XP
- or here: https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/4xjrc9
Could you confirm that this matches also your understanding?


However, ONLY for the HoS quests on NG+ I seem to get now also significantly reduced XP, even though I am overleveled by less than 6 (i.e. only by 3 levels). Examples I listed in the thread.

To double-check, I did a main game side-quest and I got normal XP.

Repeating the examples:

HoS quests (both at Lv 87 in my NG+, me Lv 90):
- Rose on a Red Field (HoS side quest): - reduced rewards (maybe 10XP instead of 150).
- Dead Man's Party (HoS main quest): - reduced rewards (maybe ~100XP in aggregate, 20 here, 20 there).

Main Game Side Quest:
- Missing Brother (also Lv 87, me Lv 90): - full rewards (200XP, I used Axii).

Clearly the reduced XP rewards mechanic seems to differ between these.

Anyway, I am almost done with HoS and it seems B&W does not have this behaviour (although I only played it so far until you defeat Golyat). So not a big deal, but maybe something other players may be aware of, to avoid surprises.

Thanks.
 
Hi SigilFey,



thanks for your response. Yes, I am aware of the "decreased experience for quests when overleveled". It is hard to miss even on a very first playthrough.

My observation is that how I experienced this mechanic in the base game (and frankly even in the extensions during my regular playthrough) is now different when playing HoS at NG+.

Here is my understanding how it is supposed to work (and how I experienced it in my first playthrough and during all the base game in NG+):

- player is 5 or less levels over quest level: ~almost full XP reward (maybe 90%)
- player is more than 5 levels over quest level: greatly reduced reward (supposedly only 1/15, which seems about right).

For example as explained
- here https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/XP
- or here: https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/4xjrc9
Could you confirm that this matches also your understanding?


However, ONLY for the HoS quests on NG+ I seem to get now also significantly reduced XP, even though I am overleveled by less than 6 (i.e. only by 3 levels). Examples I listed in the thread.

To double-check, I did a main game side-quest and I got normal XP.

Repeating the examples:

HoS quests (both at Lv 87 in my NG+, me Lv 90):
- Rose on a Red Field (HoS side quest): - reduced rewards (maybe 10XP instead of 150).
- Dead Man's Party (HoS main quest): - reduced rewards (maybe ~100XP in aggregate, 20 here, 20 there).

Main Game Side Quest:
- Missing Brother (also Lv 87, me Lv 90): - full rewards (200XP, I used Axii).

Clearly the reduced XP rewards mechanic seems to differ between these.

Anyway, I am almost done with HoS and it seems B&W does not have this behaviour (although I only played it so far until you defeat Golyat). So not a big deal, but maybe something other players may be aware of, to avoid surprises.

Thanks.

I really can't talk numbers -- no idea. I do know that what you're describing sounds about right.
  • The player will always receive about the same experience for main-quest missions. This is the macro balance.
  • The player will receive exp. based on their level for side quests / contracts. They will receive less exp. once they hit the "soft ceiling" for that chapter of the main quest. (Like White Orchard. I will eventually stop receiving any meaningful exp. from anything once I get to Level 4 during the prologue. However, if I continue the main quest, then go back to White Orchard later, I'll may receive more meaningful exp. again.)
  • The player will receive exp. for killing enemies based on their level vs. enemy level. Again, this will be mitigated by hitting the soft ceiling, and will continue delivering regular experience upon advancing the main quest line.
And in general, everything (lots of systems) start breaking down when the player approaches Level 100. NG+ was never part of the design. It was stitched in after the fact because of overwhelming request. Hence, due to the balance and mechanics of the game as it was designed, a hard cap of Level 100 was eventually added to keep things from exploding into Slavador Dali levels of weirdness.
 
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