Experience (XP) works the same way it does in every other role-playing game in existence. When you perform actions, like fighting monsters, blasting mecha, busking on streets and tinkering with machines, you gain experience points ("XP"), measuring your character's statistical progress in the game world.
In GearHead, there are two kinds of experience that can be gained.
One is skill-specific; performing an action associated with a given skill (such as firing a gun while one has learned how to handle small arms) will lead to experience gained in that skill.
Additionally, these actions also lead to extra general experience being gained; this is the experience shown in the character information menu (uppercase C) and can be spent learning new skills, improving existing ones (without first exercising them), purchasing talents or improving ones' attributes.
In order to be advanced, a stat (that is, an attribute) must have sufficient skills at the sufficient level. To improve a skill N times, the PC must know (N+2)/2 skills based on that stat, and they all must be at least of rank ((N-1)/2+6). If a skill is 2 or more times as high as it needs to be, it counts as two (or more) skills towards how many skills you know.
For example, to advance a stat once, at least one skill must be at level 6 or above. To advance the same stat a second time, at least two skills must be at level 6.
| Current number of advances | Skill requirements to unlock the next advance |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 skill at level 6 |
| 1 | 2 skills at level 6 |
| 2 | 2 skills at level 7 |
| 3 | 3 skills at level 7 |
| 4 | 3 skills at level 8 |
| 5 | 4 skills at level 8 |
| 6 | 4 skills at level 9 |
| 7 | 5 skills at level 9 |
| N | (N + 3) / 2 skills at level (N/2) + 6 |
Whether one spends free experience points on a skill, or gains them implicitly by practising the skill, proficiency in the skill will gradually increase.
The skill gained from an action is roughly proportional to the effort expended in performing it. For combat experience, the PV of the opponent is balanced against your own PV to approximate the difficulty level involved; obviously if one can obtain weapons and equipment of low PV but high quality one can expect to obtain more XP from a given enemy difficulty.