XP comes from correct answers, at a rate set by the mode: 1 for Flashcards and True or False, 2 for most modes, 3 for Scramble. Your level is worked out from lifetime XP on a quadratic curve — reaching level 2 takes 300 XP, level 3 takes 1,200, level 4 takes 2,700. There is one multiplier, it only applies in timed Match, and it caps at double.
The combo multiplier
In timed Match, a run of correct answers builds a combo, and the whole round's XP is multiplied at the end by the best combo you reached. Each point of combo adds ten per cent, and it stops counting at ten.
So a combo of 5 pays 1.5 times the base, and a combo of 10 pays double. A combo of 30 also pays double — the cap is a hard stop, not a slow taper. Once you have hit ten in a round, further accuracy earns XP the ordinary way and nothing more.
No other mode has a multiplier. A Scramble round and a Write round pay their flat rate however cleanly you play them.
How levels are spaced
The XP needed to reach a level is 300 multiplied by the square of the previous level number. That produces a curve where every level costs more than the one before it:
- Level 2 at 300 XP
- Level 3 at 1,200 XP
- Level 4 at 2,700 XP
- Level 5 at 4,800 XP
- Level 10 at 24,300 XP
The gap between level 2 and level 3 is 900 XP. The gap between level 9 and level 10 is 5,100. This is the standard shape for a progression curve and it has an obvious consequence: early levels arrive quickly and later ones represent months rather than days.
The ten titles
Each level carries a name: novice, learner, explorer, achiever, scholar, expert, master, champion, sage, and legend. There are ten titles and no upper limit on levels, so everything from level 10 upward is a legend.
What XP is not
It is not a measure of what you know. XP only ever goes up, so it records how much you have played rather than how much you have retained. The number that tracks knowledge is per-word mastery, which moves down as well as up.
It is worth keeping the two apart in your head. A high level with a pile of words stuck at mastery 1 means a lot of sessions that did not stick. Reading is the clearest case of the split: it earns XP per chapter and no mastery at all, because a chapter you read has no answer to be correct about.