Character leveling is a very important progression system because they affect the amount of base stats the character have and they also lock you out of Rank Upgrades if the character doesn't meet the level requirements.

Another important reason for you to be leveling up your character is for XB matches. in XB, character stats plays a huge role in their capability of Hitting/Pitching/Taking a base/Defending a base, so if you want to have a higher chance of winning in XB matches, you'd want your character to be at a high level.

• "Can't I just farm the same boss for every level, why do I need a guide?"

As of 1.1, You definitely can! This guide exist solely to list the best sources so you don't have to go out of your way to look for them yourself.

This guide assumes that you already have the maximum amount of stamp and have unlocked the level 50 cap. If you do not have the maximum amount of stamp, the amount of EXP you get may differ because Overworld and Rift boss level scales with the amount of stamps you have.

• "Why shouldn't I use Data Chips for gaining EXP, aren't they supposed to be the main source of EXP"

Data Chips requires you to spend Kane in order to use them and the amount of Kane needed is just not worth the amount of EXP you're getting for it when there are a lot more efficient way to farm for Character EXP.
Kane are used for almost everything in this game, so it's best to use them for more important things like Character ranks or Tension Card upgrades.

After the 1.1 update, they made it a lot easier to farm for Kane. so using Data Chips for leveling character is a viable option now.
Personally I still wouldn't do it just because I can still farm enemies for the EXP and the data chips are still a bit expensive to use for me, It cost 1 Million Kane for 500k EXP (and thats roughly only 2 levels) above level 50.

This is the latest Rift in Chiyoda City and currently is the second highest source of EXP in the game right now. The reason this is considered the best Rift to farm for EXP even though it's only the second highest source is because Rifts in Chiyoda City can give you Tier 9 Pachimon Parts while Rifts outside Chiyoda City doesn't. I'll discuss more about the highest source later in the guide.

Make sure that you are using 3 booster and Specialty Beef Bowl for the best EXP reward.
The final boss is 5 Muscle Rat and they give you 96k EXP (Double with Specialty Beef Bowl).The chest in the rift are also a good source for extra EXP and loot.

Though this method does require you to farm for Boosters to enter, so if you don't have any Boosters left, alternatively you can farm Major Bosses, which we'll get into next.

Major Bosses are your alternative option if you don't have any boosters left.
I recommend fighting the Shark boss as it is the easiest Major Boss to defeat. They give you 19k EXP per kill. Although keep in mind that Farming Boosters from Mobs is probably still going to be faster in terms of gaining EXP, Farming Bosses is still a good alternative especially if you still want to farm for their Tension Card or Boss Material.

This Rift gives you the highest source of EXP in the game right now. Each clears gives you 115k. While this Rift does gives you the highest source of EXP, it's not considered the best because you can't get Tier 9 Pachimon and the new Sub stats from the 1.1 Update. If you don't care about farming for Pachimon parts and only want the EXP, then you can farm this Rift instead of the one mentioned earlier.

This section is only for those who still haven't unlocked Chiyoda City yet. if you already have the max stamp, you can just skip this section entirely
Defeating Endrone with the Muscle Lunch buff active gives you about 13k Character EXP when you are under level 30, after level 30>35 you'll only get 6.7k but thats still a good amount of EXP compared to other Overworld bosses. You can buy Muscle Lunch recipe from Beroro after progressing far enough into the story.

Endrone can only spawn in Minato City, after completing Chapter 1: Hazardous Workplace.
Endrone respawns on a fixed respawn point but where they'll respawn is random, These are the spots that Endrone can spawn in:
You'll eventually see where the Overworld bosses are currently in after you unlock all of the respite unit, but you can use this map if you still haven't unlocked all of the respite unit yet.

Those are the most efficient way of Farming EXP that I can think of, If you think there's better ways to farm EXP, do let me know in the comment.

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Thank you for reading this guide!