Combat XP & ranking

This document explains, at a high level, how Combat XP is earned and how it feeds into the seasonal and lifetime leaderboards. Some specifics are deliberately omitted to keep the system resistant to abuse.

What you can earn

Every ranked combat match can grant XP to both players. XP comes in two flavors:

  • Season XP — resets every month and powers the Season leaderboard.

  • Lifetime XP — never resets and powers the Lifetime leaderboard.

Any XP you earn is added to both at the same time, so you don't have to choose.

You also accumulate non-XP combat stats that are visible on your profile: matches played, ranked matches, wins, losses, knockouts, forfeits, and total damage dealt.

How a match grants XP

Each match is settled when it ends (knockout, forfeit, abandon, or cancel). The amount of XP awarded to each side is roughly:

xp = base × fairness × bet_bonus × recency_factor

Capped at a per-match maximum and a daily cap (more on those below).

Base reward

  • Knockout win: a solid base reward.

  • Knockout loss: a smaller participation reward — losing still teaches the system about your skill and keeps your rating moving.

  • Forfeit win: a reduced reward (smaller than a clean knockout) so that rage-quits aren't as profitable as actually finishing the fight.

  • Forfeit loss / abandon / cancel: no XP.

Fairness against opponent strength

XP scales with how expected the result was, based on a hidden skill rating (an Elo-style number that updates after every ranked match):

  • Beating a stronger opponent → more XP than expected.

  • Beating a much weaker opponent → less XP than usual.

  • Losing to a much stronger opponent → still some XP for the effort.

  • Losing to a much weaker opponent → very little XP.

Your hidden rating is not displayed anywhere. The leaderboard ranks by accumulated XP, not by rating. Rating exists purely to make XP awards fair.

Bet bonus

Higher-stakes bet matches award proportionally more XP. The exact multipliers are visible at bet selection time — putting gold on the line is rewarded.

Free (no-bet) matches still grant full XP.

Anti-abuse adjustments

A few mechanisms are in place to discourage farming and fake matches. The exact thresholds are intentionally not documented, but the principles are:

  • Repeat opponent penalty — playing the same opponent over and over in a short window yields rapidly diminishing XP, eventually dropping to zero.

  • Daily limit — there is a soft cap on the number of XP-eligible matches per player per rolling 24 hours. Past the cap, matches still happen, but grant no XP.

  • Engagement check — matches that end too quickly, with too little movement, too few hits, or too short in duration are flagged as low-engagement and grant no XP to either side. The same goes for forfeits that happen before a real fight has started.

  • Per-match cap — there is a hard ceiling on the XP a single match can award, no matter how favorable all multipliers happen to line up.

When a match is flagged as non-ranked for any of the above reasons, neither the hidden rating nor XP changes — but the match still counts in your "matches played" stat.

Seasonal rotation

Seasons run for one calendar month (UTC). At the end of each season:

  1. The current top of the Season leaderboard is archived for posterity.

  2. Every player's Season XP resets to zero.

  3. Lifetime XP, ratings, and all other stats are untouched.

A new season begins immediately after.

Audit trail

Every XP-eligible match writes an entry to an internal audit log (per-side, per-match) recording the inputs that produced the award: outcome, opponent, base reward, fairness factor, bet multiplier, repeat factor, before/after rating, and the season it counted toward. This log is used internally for support and anti-cheat investigations.

Quick FAQ

Why did I get no XP for a match I won? The match was flagged as low-engagement, your opponent was a recent repeat, or you've hit the daily cap. The "Match Recap" screen will indicate which.

Why does losing give me XP? A small participation reward keeps the rating system honest: every match, win or lose, helps the system place you correctly. Without it, players would be incentivized to dodge tough opponents.

How do I climb faster? Fight a variety of opponents at or above your level, finish your matches properly (no rage-quits), and try the higher-tier bet rooms — they pay proportionally more XP per win.

Is XP linked to my main player level? No. Combat XP only counts toward Combat leaderboards. Your global player XP and progression are unaffected.