Assassin's Creed Origins XP levelling explained - how to grind XP and level up quickly

Levelling and grinding XP are, like it or not, a fairly key element in Assassin's Creed Origins, thanks to its shift to an emphasis on RPG elements and new level requirments for its various quests.

Here on this page then we'll provide you with our advice for levelling up as quickly and efficiently as possible, whilst you can check out specific guides and walkthroughs for those main quests too over in our Assassin's Creed Origins walkthrough and guide hub.

Assassin's Creed Origins levelling explained - how to grind XP and level up quickly

Many of the regions and story quests in the game have level recommendations, and while you can usually scrape by if you're a couple of levels shy of the suggestion there is a hard limit - if an opponent is more than four levels above you they will kill you with a single blow, and your weapons will do zero damage to them. As a barrier to exploration this is annoying but not insurmountable, but for following the story there are points where you'll have to level up to proceed.

There are three main sources of XP in Origins to help you in that goal; the story quests themselves, sidequests, and "everything else":

Pretty much everything you do in the world - hunting an animal, killing an enemy, exploring a tomb, clearing an outpost, or just discovering a new map location as you make your way from place to place - will earn a small amount of XP, ranging from less than 10 to around 300. Individually these are insignificant, but given the sheer number of them contained within the game it soon adds up particularly when you first arrive in an area and everything is new.

There are also unlockable Abilities that grant you extra XP for making kills in specific ways - headshots, using poison, etc. While these are only small gains, again they can also add up over the course of a playthrough.

Story quests are fairly self explanatory; your quest log will show how much XP they're worth, and doing a couple is normally enough to level you up, but as you're probably trying to level up in order to do a story quest they're more of an end than a means.

The huge bulk of your XP is going to come from doing sidequests. The XP rewards vary a bit, but generally speaking the higher the recommended level the more XP it'll be worth, and it scales at about the same rate as the requirements for levelling up - if you're level 10 it'll take three or four level 10 quests to get you to 11, and if you're level 35 it'll take three or four level 35 quests to get you to 36.

Need more help? Our Assassin's Creed Origins walkthrough and guide will take you through every step of the main story and quests, whilst we also have guides on how to grind XP and level up, plus explainers on how Assassin's Creed Origins sidequests work, alongside how to get crafting materials and animal goods, and even complete solutions and walkthroughs to all Assassin's Creed Origins Tombs, Silica, and Anchient Mechanisms. We also have a list of all Papyrus Puzzle locations, Origins' cursed and legendary weapons and how they're acquired, and finally a detailed page Phylakes, Phylakes' Prey and how to get the Black Hood outfit.

You can start a quest to add it to your log without having to finish it there and then, so we'd recommend speaking to all the quest-givers in an area when you first arrive to give you a decent number in your log. Once they're activated the game will alert you if you happen to be near one on your travels, so you may be able to knock a few off the list without making a special journey.

Unfortunately you can never be sure how long a sidequest is going to be until you're actually doing it, and what may sound like a simple job can drag out into a world-spanning odyssey, but we found that most of the "rescue the prisoner" quests stuck fairly closely to their brief so if you're in a hurry they're probably the best to go for.

They have the added bonus that they all take place in outposts that have their own location-based rewards, so you can get some shiny loot and an additional little XP bump while you're there.