The Current XP Rate Is Abysmal & Borderline Disrespectful#495

This has to be said.

I am one of the 500-ish people still playing Rivals II. And I am speaking from the heart when I say that the XP gain in this game is horrid and makes the game look bad, ESPECIALLY with the way monetization is currently handled.

I’m not talking about XP gain in just lobbies, but across the board. It is way, way, WAY too slow.

How much XP is gained from a match online with friends? Well, the average is around 75 XP… out of 1,000 XP needed to level up a character. It takes 14 matches of 1v1s in private lobbies with friends to level up once.

Let me reiterate, it takes fourteen matches with friends to level up once.

Even when you’re playing online with randoms, which is what the developers want, the XP gain still feels dreadfully slow. The XP gained from an average play session yields a pitiful amount of coins, and items that are purchasable for coins are overpriced.

(Also, for the record, I am speaking as someone who has purchased the $20 starter pack that increases the coin gain rate.)

There are ~55 paid bundles in the shop that require real money to purchase.

There are SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY (650) individually purchasable cosmetics in the game. And that number is only going to balloon.

It is not feasible for a player who wants to interact with the game’s cosmetics systems to be able to purchase items at even a semi-consistent rate. Saving up for one stage skin takes literal months. Not everyone has the time to be constantly pouring hours into Rivals II for one skin, or the money to be purchasing the bundles from the shop.

All this together gives off the impression that Rivals II and Aether Studios do not respect the time investment of the player. I shouldn’t have to grind for days on end to be able to afford a Cool-Blue skin for one of my characters.

It wasn’t even always this way! During 2024’s Low Poly event, the XP rate was much more reasonable. Unlocking rewards from the event track at a consistent rate was very fun, but shortly after that event an update was pushed out that changed the event track progression from a fun challenge to see how much you could unlock to an unbearably agonizing slog. The rate was diminished so significantly that it boggles my mind that nobody else seems to bring it up.

So, what am I asking for?

I’m simply asking that the XP gain rate (across ALL modes) is either upped to how it was during Low Poly ‘24, or the coin rewards from the event track and character progress tracks are tripled.

Also, the daily shop needs more slots as it only cycles through 10 of the 600+ items per day. There are just too many cosmetics in the game.

F2P players don’t need to be able to afford everything at any given time. That’s not what I’m advocating for. I just want to receive more than a few pennies every time I play a match, with friends or otherwise.

I am fed up with the current implementation of the XP systems and I sincerely ask you all to make it easier on the players. It’s hard to retain interest in Rivals II when the in-game systems for players to interact with are so openly hostile toward the consumer. I would really rather play any other game that respects my time.

And before anyone mentions “you should play the game to have fun, not grind for cosmetics!” I agree with you! But, for as true as that may be, cosmetics are an integral part of Rivals II and can really help keep player interest. The XP meter and upcoming rewards are displayed after every match. It’s an unavoidable part of the game, so the player should ideally feel excitement seeing these pop up. Right now, all I feel is indignation whenever I see that XP bar go up by 1/14th after matches.

The game has ~500 players. I know you guys can do better.

TL;DR: The rate at which XP is gained is too slow, across ALL modes. The amount of XP gained from matches was nerfed hard since 2024, but should be reverted to that rate. Cosmetics are ludicrously overpriced for how many there are in the game, and coins are dealt out in pitifully small amounts. All this gives the impression that Rivals II doesn’t respect the player’s time, even though the game really wants them to engage with its cosmetics system.

Saying the game has only 500 players is disingenuous. That number comes from average daily concurrent players and doesn’t include the total amount of unique log ins. The 500 players from Monday are not the same 500 players from Tuesday.

I don’t really have an opinion on the exp system, nor do I want to argue with your concerns, but incorrectly using this number twice in your post is a little misleading.

Rewards for grinding characters really aren’t that important, they’re just a nice little bonus

I 100% agree with everything.
Hi.

I’m someone that bought the Starter Pack and EVERY Bundle that included Coins and Bucks. So I paid a good 3 digit amount to support Aether Studios so far, because I’m a super fan.
The current rate of XP feels like work if you want to grind for coins.

I also think that there is currently not a good balance between Coins gain and Coin Prices for cosmetics. It’s actually really bad in my opinion, with the rate of released stuff over time.

My goal is to collect all Items. I know…it’s a hardcore goal.
I buy Bundles but I grind for everything else that is available for coins. I also have a list with every Items that I need to buy with coins.

And let me say…that I have nearly 900h playtime…I play literally every day to get coins with a friend (in normal casual 1vs1 because lobbys sucks), I get coins through bundles + bucks, played every event to level 100+ and I currently still need like 3 MILLION COINS!! if I convert all my Bucks to coins that I currently have, then I still need 2 million Coins. And I play since release.

Something needs to change.
I want to be rewarded to play this game.
But don’t understand me wrong! You can get incredible Items for free and the shop gets filled with awesome new stuff you can choose from! :) But it’s still kind of a pain to get coins, even tho we have many sources to get them. The amount you get is just not right.
I don’t feel fulfilled after playing like 1 or 2 hours of Rivals 2 IF you want coins to get something.
Yes…it’s just cosmetics. But it needs to be feasible to get all Coin Items if you really play a lot in my opinion.

I currently know how much coins I get for playing.
If I would play just 1 hour each day with my friend in casual 1vs1, then I need 10 days to get a 50k skin. 20 days to get a 100k skin. 40 days to get a Stage Skin for 200k.
In that time 10+ more Items released if you save coins for a stage skin in this scenario.

They really need to change the coin gain rate after each match.
Increase it for everyone or increase it at least for everyone that bought the Starter Pack!
Increase the XP gain on the Event Track and/or up the flat amount of coins for every level after Level 20 on the Event Track.
And maybe increase the coins for leveling up a character.

Either adjust coin gain or adjust prices.

I know…I ask for way to much, but I would be happy if the devs would acknowledge it and maybe considering it to change something about it.

@FKite294 Dang, the issue is worse than I thought. I genuinely appreciate your input, it puts things into perspective. Something definitely has to change.

Same @FeedbackGuy that story is wild

Do you ever play ranked? I’ve managed to grind upwards of 10 000 coins in a single day playing ranked. I never had to wait more than 2-3 weeks to buy anything with coins. I think the rewards are abysmally low for private lobbies, but the rest is honestly not bad. Seeing how attentive the devs have been to the community, how well they are taking feedback into account and how they are handling marketing and monetization, I find it a bit disrespectful that you would say they don’t care about us or they don’t value our time. We’ve been receiving a free premium skin in every monthly pass since the beginning. What other devs give their player base one free high quality skin every single month?

Just to clarify, there are no F2P players on this game, we all paid for it, but I do get your point, it’s not feasible to acquire at least the new stages & the cosmetics related to your main character with free currency, it takes forever to save enough and nothing guarantees it will show up at the store, I spend TWO MONTHS waiting for a certain cosmetic to show up on the coin shop, that is insane.