Sonoura made it to the Citadel, about 30 pts from lvl 4. She broke that after a brief talk with a few people and just concentrated on advancing the main story missions, leaving all but the Dr Michel assignment until later.
This is a rather tedious leveling strategy, to try to reach the next lvl with the exact number, as some of the XPs are 'supposedly' waisted and not carried over to progress the next lvl. So far this seems to be the case only with XP not carrying over gains from Codex Entries. Although I cannot tell from XPs gained from Missions and/or Assmts. The XPs from them seem to carry over, but maybe at a reduced %.
This is only being tested, in an attempt to reach lvl 60 in one playthrough, in order to transfer this char, as a lvl 60, to ME2. Through the use of this leveling method, and the use of the respawning Rocket Drones in the 'Bring Dn The Sky' DLC, we'll see how it goes. Reaching lvl 57 through normal gameplay, and not paying attention to any 'potentially waisted' XPs, makes me think it might be possible. Although, you can advance a lvl when becoming Spectre. Maybe it will/wont make a diff. I'm afraid it might be to much of a micro manage. The main thing is to have fun.
So far it's been fairly easy, but this is only the beginning. The fight with the thugs, to get Garrus, was no prob. After getting Wrex onboard, Fist was taken down rather easily as well. The thugs were a little tuff to take down, before the clock ran out to get Tali. It was close, with only 15 sec left, but we made it.
Sonoura made Spectre, and after taking care of Dr Mic, put my girl at lvl 8. Using the wheel-n-deal moneymaker, with the Dr, we were able to bank enough creds to get some Spectre Gear for Sonoura and the crew.
We headed to Noveria to grab some Titan IV armor. With the enemies scaled to the player, at lvl 8 with Spectre Weapons VII, we would dealing the most dam per shot to the enemy (without the use of talents) until lvl 50, and access to lvl X Spt Ger.
As a test run we went to Pen Station to try the simulators.(now that's insane) My last playthrough, I had to wait until Lvl 50 to complete it, because of the Tropical Hunt. I blew through them all at lvl 30. Until Trop Hnt, because the enemy had far out leveled my Spt Ger VII weapons. Lvl 50 was the only chance. With Sonoura, the first 2 hunts went fairly easy. But by leveling twice, (as well as enemies) the weak armor and weak talents proved to be the downfall for Capture Mode. Thus ending my early and poor attempt at Lvl X gear.
I don't mean to sound like 'The Fox and The Grapes', but I HATE timed events...
Sonours is now lvl 10 and it's back to the Citadel to catch up on Asmnts and do some exploration, to reach lvl 20. Gotta get that Sniper Rifle settled down before Noveria.