Story arc completion XP bonus

[Ukase]

This is purely anecdotal, and I'm ashamed of myself for not paying closer attention. So, figured I'd ask here. 
Is it just my fuzzy perception, or do some story arcs give better XP bonuses than others? Do we know how this is tabulated? I would swear some story arcs give me darn near 5 bars of xp, while others maybe 1/2 a bar or a bar. Some a couple. 
Unfortunately, I haven't been paying any real close attention. So, figured I'd ask - maybe someone here is more observant. 

[Snarky]

15 minutes ago, Ukase said:

This is purely anecdotal, and I'm ashamed of myself for not paying closer attention. So, figured I'd ask here. 
Is it just my fuzzy perception, or do some story arcs give better XP bonuses than others? Do we know how this is tabulated? I would swear some story arcs give me darn near 5 bars of xp, while others maybe 1/2 a bar or a bar. Some a couple. 
Unfortunately, I haven't been paying any real close attention. So, figured I'd ask - maybe someone here is more observant. 

I suspect it is geared similarly to reward merits for story arcs.  But that is a wild, if mildly educated, guess.

[Ukase]

Another stat I can track along with that, thanks! 

 

[GraspingVileTerror]

They definitely give different amounts of reward, but yes; Story Arcs do usually have a big bonus at the end.

I don't know if a concerted effort has ever been made to establish those amounts in excruciating detail before.

[Ukase]

I've made the spreadsheet...I can't say I will endure all the excruciating detail, but for this character I'm on, I intend to go through the hollows, and another character, same level, will go through the Kings Row arcs. My suspicion is that Kings Row arcs, being newer will give more XP. In fact, it's my suspicion that all of the newer arcs reward more than the older arcs - but so far, that's just perception bias. 

[Greycat]

Something like the arc that finishes Croatoa gives more - I'm *not* sure, honestly, if it's tied to "you've completed all the arcs" (the Storyteller badge) or not, though.

[Ukase]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

Something like the arc that finishes Croatoa gives more - I'm *not* sure, honestly, if it's tied to "you've completed all the arcs" (the Storyteller badge) or not, though.

That's something I can look into - have one character do all 4 arcs, and have another just do three, having one of those three be the last one. 
The daunting part, in a fashion, is how much being X level bears on the bonus. For example, if you complete chapter 4 (of 4) story arc in The Hollows at level 16, would you get the same bonus as a level 17 character from a percentage of xp required to reach the next level? 

 

Contact	Start level	Finish Level	2XP?	Ouro?	XP Gained			Merits
Wincott	6	8	Yes	No	1440	level 8 to 9 --->	2680	7	5.3 Bars
Flux	8	11	Yes	No	800	Level 11 to 12 --->	4995	18	1.6 bars

 

 

Had to get my row in, so I stopped. I can't see using up a bunch of forum space, but these are the kind of details I'm after. 

I want to revisit Wincott's arc as a level 5, and as a level 7, and see if there's any difference, all other things the same. 1440 XP is the bonus just for checking in with Wincott after completing the mission. It takes 2680 XP to get to level 9, and I'd reached 8 just before I completed the mission that completed the arc. I leveled up then spoke with Wincott. 53.73% of the entire level, or 1440 XP. Nice!

Why not just 50%? Why such a strange value? (well, 25% if no 2xp) I am thinking because I trained to 8, the bonus was slightly more than if I hadn't trained to 8. It's the only rational thing I can think of. 

As for Flux...only 1.6 bars. What's up with that? Such a disparity. It just doesn't make sense. It could be because I started the mission at level 10 and didn't train to 11 before calling Flux. Maybe? I dunno. 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Ukase

[Ukase]

A little update - and probably my last. I've seen enough to determine that there seems to be no real rhyme or reason to these XP bonus amounts. 

Contact	Start level	Finish Level	2XP?	Ouro?	XP Gained		XP needed	Merits
Wincott	6	8	Yes	No	1440	Level 8 to 9	2680	7	5.3 Bars
Flux	8	11	Yes	No	800	9 to 10	3125	18
						11 to 12	4995		1.6 Bars
Julius	11	13	Yes	No	800	12 to 13	6405	10	1.25 Bars
						13 to 14	7400
Talshek	13	15	Yes	No	1000	14 to 15	9093	30	.89 Bars
						15 to 16	11184
Shauna Stockwell	15	16	Yes	No	1800	16 to 17	13000	6	1.38 Bars

 

 

Clearly, there's not a correlation between reward merits and XP bonus. The Stockwell arc is quick; if motivated, one could speed this for mission objectives and probably complete it in less than 10 minutes. (assuming not through ouro - if through ouro, even faster). If XP gain through "normal content" is the goal, Wincott's arc, followed by Shauna Stockwell's arc are two great ways to go, comparatively. 

Of course, if you're after merits..there are 20 merits for grabs if you complete all 4 chapters in the hollows. (same for Croatoa, Striga, Faultline and RWZ, and Mercy for Red-siders)
I'll be re-visiting these at different levels to see if the percentages (XP bars filled) are greater or less. It'll be interesting to see if the percentages change with level. 

[A Cat]

Don't do Croatoa if you're only after the rewards, there are a ton of long missions where you just wait for waves to slowly come at you. Plus, ghosts that can go invisible for kill all missions. I like it's story but some of those missions...

[Ukase]

2 hours ago, A Cat said:

Don't do Croatoa if you're only after the rewards, there are a ton of long missions where you just wait for waves to slowly come at you. Plus, ghosts that can go invisible for kill all missions. I like it's story but some of those missions...

A lot of folks dislike Croatoa for the reasons you cite - but I actually like those arcs, particularly with Red Caps. Their dialogue is a hoot.  Sure, I can do without the long intervals of waiting with some characters, but on other characters, I need all the time I can get. And, of course, there's always "auto-complete" if I'm in a yank. 

[Ironblade]

10 hours ago, A Cat said:

Don't do Croatoa if you're only after the rewards, there are a ton of long missions where you just wait for waves to slowly come at you.

Only the final one is tedious like that since you have to wait for them to spawn and the timer determines how long it takes.

On the one with the pumpkin guys charging the portal, you can go out and hunt them.  Once you get a feel for the timing, you kill a charging group and then go out and kill stationary ones, then come back for the next group headed to the portal - assuming you don't spot them as they start running and kill them right there.

[Hedgefund]

It sure seems like Croatoa arcs offer a premium arc bonus xp.  There are other good ones, they seem to be the ones with the zone arc badges (Striga, Faultline, Hollows) but Croa seems like the most rewarding.

 

Pro-tip, before calling in after the finale (and before you collect your arc bonus) up your diff to +4.  It's very nice.

 

As for the 2 Croa "time sink" missions my tactic for both is
1) For stop 30 fir bolg - auto complete

2) For the Red Cap attacking the henges - leave one minion from an ambush.  Sandwich time, you have 15 minute to make one and consume it.  If you have a no-damage mez or debuff, you can use that but otherwise, anyone should be able to survive a minion red cap slicing at them for 15 minutes.

 

Edit - Furthermore, it seems like the bonus is greater when doing the arc when you do it "in the wild" while you're in the level range rather than via Ouro.  I have some lowies (sub 20) and when they get to Croatoa range, I think I'll test that out.  Do the arc, measure the xp.  Do the arc again in Ouro but turn off xp except for the calling in the last mission to get arc bonus.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Hedgefund

[Ukase]

2 hours ago, Hedgefund said:

Pro-tip, before calling in after the finale (and before you collect your arc bonus) up your diff to +4.  It's very nice.

 I appreciate this pro-tip, I'll definitely check this out! And some of the other stuff you posted. And I remember you when I tried to give you some pvp IOs last month. What a great name! Wanna sell it? 😛

 

[Triumphant]

This is interesting.  Thanks for doing the leg-work.  I've always been pretty curious about this but I tend to forget to pay attention by the time I get to the end of a story arc.  👍

[Ukase]

6 hours ago, Hedgefund said:

It sure seems like Croatoa arcs offer a premium arc bonus xp.  There are other good ones, they seem to be the ones with the zone arc badges (Striga, Faultline, Hollows) but Croa seems like the most rewarding.

 

Pro-tip, before calling in after the finale (and before you collect your arc bonus) up your diff to +4.  It's very nice.

 

As for the 2 Croa "time sink" missions my tactic for both is
1) For stop 30 fir bolg - auto complete

2) For the Red Cap attacking the henges - leave one minion from an ambush.  Sandwich time, you have 15 minute to make one and consume it.  If you have a no-damage mez or debuff, you can use that but otherwise, anyone should be able to survive a minion red cap slicing at them for 15 minutes.

 

Edit - Furthermore, it seems like the bonus is greater when doing the arc when you do it "in the wild" while you're in the level range rather than via Ouro.  I have some lowies (sub 20) and when they get to Croatoa range, I think I'll test that out.  Do the arc, measure the xp.  Do the arc again in Ouro but turn off xp except for the calling in the last mission to get arc bonus.

 

Contact	Start level	Finish Level	2XP?	Ouro?	XP Gained		XP needed	Merits
Wincott	6	8	Yes	No	1440	Level 8 to 9	2680	7	5.3 Bars
Flux	8	11	Yes	No	800	9 to 10	3125	18
						11 to 12	4995		1.6 Bars
Julius	11	13	Yes	No	800	12 to 13	6405	10	1.25 Bars
						13 to 14	7400
Talshek	13	15	Yes	No	1000	14 to 15	9093	30	.89 Bars
						15 to 16	11184
Shauna Stockwell	15	16	Yes	No	1800	16 to 17	13000	6	1.38 Bars
Eagle Eye	17	18	Yes	No	1800	17 to 18	15950	6	1.13 Bars
						18 to 19	19200
Jim Temblor	18	19	Yes	No	2000	19 to 20	23400	8	.85 Bars
Penny Yin	19	20	Yes	No	1600	20 to 21	28000	10	.57 Bars
Doc Delilah	20	20	Yes	No	4000 +4				1.5 Bars
Agent G	20	21	Yes	No	17920 +4	21 to 22	45000	25	3.98 Bars

So, very nice to see the +4 trick worked. I'm quite surprised at the bonus for Agent G's arc, though. That's the largest bonus as a percentage so far, by a huge margin. 
I'm really curious as to why Talshek's arc - which rewards almost the same reward merits as Agent G's arc gives less than a bar of XP. I'm guessing the +4 magnitude is a factor in this: 4*.89bars = 3.56 bars

In any event, it's quite interesting - to me, at least. 
Off to Striga! 

[Triumphant]

I'll have to remember that notoriety trick.  Clever!

[A Cat]

Yeah, that's a good trick to know. Though I always play at x8 anyway. The added xp from the mission complete will help pay down all the debt. 

[Ukase]

So...I find this a bit interesting. I was looking for a pattern, and wasn't really seeing one. That is, until I ran a character without 2xp. 

You will note that there are 2 Wincott's in the list. The first is ran without 2xp, the second is with 2xp. It's a bit apples vs. oranges (famous statistical example)
The big difference seems to be in the second example, I got a bit more XP, but I'm thinking it is an aberration, or perhaps a keystroke error. Or a math error. 
Habashy and Fields, and even Wincott offer precisely 5 bars of xp upon completion - whether the setting was at +4 or not in Wincott's example. 

I'm looking forward to seeing how Flux will pan out. I got 800 with 2xp, set to ....I can't recall the previous time around. It certainly wasn't +4. But, given the example with Wincott, which was set to +4 this most recent time, I didn't see any higher rate of xp compared to not running at +4 with the earlier character. 

Back to the drawing board!

 

Contact	Start level	Finish Level	2XP?	Ouro?	XP Gained		XP needed	Merits
Matthew Habashy	1	3	No	No	291	3 to 4	582	3	5 Bars
Officer Fields	3	4	No	No	400	4 to 5	800	3	5 bars
Wincott	6	7	No	No	787 +4	6 to 7	1575	7	5 bars
Wincott	6	8	Yes	No	1440	Level 8 to 9	2680	7	5.3 Bars