XP Farms (and why you shouldn't do them).

v1.1 (Re-written entirely to make it easier to understand.)

What is an XP Farm?

XP Farms are 8-Player matches based primarily in flat maps. The objective is to have everyone go to the middle of the map, from where they will all fire weapons at each other in the center, allowing them to inflict more damage with their weapons due to the number of tanks in the area.

The concept is that because of the increased damage output, they will receive more weapon XP and thus upgrade their weapons faster.

Why doesn't it work?

The reason it doesn't work is pretty simple, they are wrong.
To understand how XP works, you'll need to understand stacked damage. Stacked damage is damage that is dealt to multiple people with the same AoE (Area of Effect). If two people are within the same AoE from a shot, you will only be accounted XP from one of these people, reasonably enough whichever you did the most damage to. This is done to prevent things like XP Farms from existing, but that didn't stop them from dreaming.

Allow me to demonstrate with some examples how XP works (this applies to both regular XP and weapon XP).
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Example 1 | Nuke:
Let's say a Nuke is shot and hits 2 people for 80 damage each, or 160 damage combined. Using the XP Farm's logic, you would be lead to believe that you gain the entire XP from the 160 damage. This is not the case. Since Nuke is just one giant AoE, if multiple people are within it, you will only be accounted the XP from one of these people. Therefore, you will receive the XP from the 80 damage dealt to one of them.

Example 2 | Splitter:
Let's say a Splitter is shot and upon splitting hits 1 person with each respective split shot. This means that 1 person was hit with 1 AoE and 1 other person was hit with an alternate AoE. For this, you will receive both the XP from the two split shots, as it does not count as stacked damage.

Example 3 | RapidFire:
Lastly, let's say a RapidFire is shot and 5 of its shots hit 1 person, 3 of its shots hit another person, and 2 of its shots hit 2 people. Here, you will receive the XP from the 5 shots, and also the XP from the 3 shots. However, for the last 2 shots, you will only receive XP for 1 of the 2 people, because it is stacked damage.

XP Multipliers:

And finally, just to show you how bad XP Farms really are, let me explain XP multipliers.
XP multipliers are determined based on your lobby settings. 8-Player Rebound games are probably something you see very often and might be wondering why they are so common. The reason being they have a 4.08x XP multiplier. What this means is that any weapon XP or regular XP earned after the game will be multiplied by 4.08x.

Weapon XP is calculated based on the amount of damage dealt with the weapon. Going from the Nuke example, if it hits 2 people for 80 damage, you'll get 80 Nuke XP. If this was in a 4.08x game, 80 x 4.08x = 326 Nuke XP in final for the hit. Regular XP is calculated similarly but for overall damage. every 10 range of damage = 1 XP. If you hit 2 people for 80 damage with a Nuke, you will earn 8 XP and not 16 XP, because stacked damage also applies.

XP Farms, on the other hand, tend to have <1.00x XP Multipliers. This is usually 50% worse than most TDMs, meaning any TDMs you find will tend to give you more XP than these XP Farms. In other words, XP Farms are literally the most pointless and worthless thing you could do in ShellShock. You won't get any XP out of it and they are long and boring games.

Final Words:

Never play XP Farms. If you really want XP I would suggest doing Rebound 1v1s. These have a 3.64x XP Multiplier and are much quicker than 4.08x games (Lobby details listed below). Although you may not like Rebound as it is too difficult for you, if you plan on playing this game long-term then you're gonna have to get good at it. If you don't feel comfortable with it quite yet, do some TDMs around your level to level up instead. Pretty much anything you find will be better than XP Farms.

I would only suggest playing XP Farms once or twice, and this is because of 2 challenges.
Two Hundred Birds | Hit two enemies in one shot 100 times.
[Reward] - Mad Birds (Weapon)
Max Efficiency | Hit three enemies in one shot 10 times.
[Reward] - Beacon (Weapon)

Also, please don't go into XP Farms trying to convince them with these facts. Trust me, I have tried numerous times, and all that's gonna happen is the loss of your brain cells. You are literally better off trying to teach a dog to read an entire Oxford English Dictionary from cover to cover.
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How to set up a Rebound 1v1:
Mode - Rebound
Players - 2
Wind - High
Shot Type - Single
Mod - One Weapon
Better XP output: 300 HP & <30s Turn Time.

Hope this helps.
If you have any questions message me and I will reply as soon as I see it.
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-Terrashock ​

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