Talk:Potion of experience

Potions of experience should always be quaffed immediately. If you wait, you can get more XP points, but you get less skill points, because the costs are higher. Also, as you said, a skill point now is more valuable than a skill point later.--CommanderC 01:45, 22 February 2013 (CET)

Is that true at very low XL? I mean, the extreme example is at XL1: I doubt, by getting to XL2, that you'd make the skill costs twice as much, but you'll get twice as much XP to spend if you wait until XL2. Someone (maybe me in the next few days) should look at how skill points work to figure this out exactly, but I'm guessing there's a point below which it is optimal to wait a few levels. -Ion frigate 02:25, 22 February 2013 (CET)

The skill XP gained as you increase your level is multiplicative while the skill XP cost per skill rank is kinda sorta exponential (rising faster every five levels, I believe). That being said, what if you dumped the potion into a skill you hadn't trained at all yet? Boom, major skill levels if you wait 'til high levels, as opposed to a meager gain at low levels.

You could also argue that humans would get more benefit from waiting since they gain experience levels faster than the other races, while demigods should hold on to it 'til the extended end game. It's a somewhat complicated mess to explain, but I think my rewrite argues more in favor of immediate quaffing than of being patient. I don't think there's any strict rule to it, but I dislike risk, so that's my preference. --MoogleDan 02:39, 22 February 2013 (CET)

Skill points are not on a per-skill basis, but are based on total skill points acquired. So while you will always get more levels by choosing skills that are lower, you won't get any more skill points out of it. All that being said, the argument about skill points is *strategically* moot: quaffing a potion of XP at low experience might immediately give you more skill points, but it's balanced out by the fact that this influx of skill points makes them immediately more expensive. So in that sense, it's always best to wait, since you get slightly more XP (and thus move slightly farther along the skill point curve).

On the other hand, the "immediate survival" argument really is quite valid: it's definitely worth losing 10% of the potential XP from a potion to get that extra level NOW. It's just that early on, when levels come cheap, I think it might be worth waiting until XL7 or XL8: the point at which adding another level doesn't add a whole lot more extra XP. -Ion frigate 04:01, 22 February 2013 (CET)

"Reward in Deeper Vaults"?

I don't think I've ever come across a vault that had a potion of experience at the end... Are there some I just haven't come across yet? --MoogleDan 20:18, 22 February 2013 (CET)

I've seen them as a reward among a bunch of nice potions at the end of a bailey. Not a vault though.. --Flun 21:55, 22 February 2013 (CET)

I'm seeing it as a reward for the "River Lethe" vault, a whole-level or mostly so vault that appears very late, but that's it. Potions of experience can also occasionally appear in some baileys, ice caves, volcanoes, and wiz labs. Also, I'm guessing that superb_item or maybe even good_item can sometimes generate potions of experience. -Ion frigate 22:17, 22 February 2013 (CET)

Random generating as superb_item or maybe even good_item just like Ion said. Once I even found one lying in the Dungeon. I've seen several exp. potions mostly in some baileys, ice caves, volcanoes, and wiz labs. - But how will you - as Dan adviced - open a manual just in time when you are surprised to quaff it? -- Bwijn 13:38, 23 February 2013 (CET)

I know the Wucad Mu's Monastery WizLab tends to have these (and/or potions of gain stats). I've even occasionally found them as early as D:3-4-ish, though this has only happened like three times out of my Ashenzari-knows-how-many runs.

I'm guessing the manual suggestion was more for if you happen to find a second one. --spudwalt 19:13, 24 February 2013 (CET)

Of course it is seldom happening. But always possible. With some good luck I once or twice even found 1 of these potions as treasure in a Sewer or Spider's Nest (old version 0.10). Just today I found one in Vault:2 lying around. Alas, 0.11 seems to have shortened the odds. I mostly found "bad" stuff at the end of branches or in mini-vaults nowadays. Consequently I have returned to version 0.10.3 most of the times. Even the older graphics is better IMO. - Well, manuals appear a dead end to me. They are extremely rare, so I not even frequently had one. Just as you don't want to carry them around those items have nearly no use at all. Kick them out, as for me. -- Bwijn 21:46, 24 February 2013 (CET)

Rare but happy go lucky

I've once again found a Potion of experience in D:5 lying on the floor of 0.12. And a potion of gain dexterity in the same game D:4. Thus it may be extremely rare but absolutely possible.