Killing earns you XP, but you also don't want to kill potential quest givers. Talk to them first, see if they need things done. Do their things first, earn XP from them, THEN you choose to kill them or not. The goblin camp is a good example. If you sneak into the temple undetected, you'll find NPCs inside that have side activities. But if you turn everyone hostile, you don't get to talk to them to get the side stuff. I did all their stuff first, then ended up killing everybody there. Crčche Y'llek later in the game is the same way. Talk first, shoot later, unless they are outright hostile. When you see NPCs, hover your mouse over them; if you see the dialog or pickpocket icon, they are not hostile. If you see only the combat icon, they are outright hostile and can't be talked to, and likely have no quest to give you. You need to talk to animals too, because sometimes they have quests, or activities that give XP. Dead people may have quests, but not as likely. You can only ask a dead person 5 questions and they only give monosyllabic answers, so it is unlikely to get meaningful quests from them. Exploration gives XP too. When you go to a newly discovered area, you may or may not get XP (check your combat log). Sometimes you get a lot, like 95 XP. Your companions' inspirations also give XP to that companion, which is about 100 XP, not too bad. I'm in the middle of Act 2, and every companion has had about 5-10 inspirations. That's thousands of XP right there. Inspirations often come from seemingly random stuff, so you need to explore and do all kinds of stuff -- but often that's just playing the game as you normally do.
The main quests give lots of XP and sometimes they are the main difference maker. I saw someone who played in a very different style and pace than I did, and she and I leveled up at the exact moment to the same level -- when we killed Nere in Grymforge.
Last edited by GamingPhreak; 21/09/23 10:09 PM.
