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X4 Modding Wiki

XP and star progression

Every hero has an XP counter and a star rank (★ → ★★★★★). XP goes up when the hero’s fleet kills something meaningful. Higher stars mean a tougher flagship, a bigger escort screen, and (once shipped) per-archetype perks.

What counts as a kill

Section titled “What counts as a kill”

XP is awarded when either the hero’s flagship or any escort ship subordinate to the flagship deals the final blow to a valid target. The event is registered by the mod’s MlogHeroesKillWorker watcher and credited to the hero’s $xp register cell.

Not counted:

  • Self-destruction (collision, suicide) — the vanilla event_object_killed_object fires with killer == victim, and the mod’s watcher filters it out.
  • Kills by other factions — if an Argon fleet in the same sector kills the same Xenon capital, only whichever hero’s fleet dealt the last hit gets the credit.
  • Boarding captures — a different event (event_object_boarded); deliberately excluded (capture ≠ heroic kill).
  • Damage without kill credit — assist is not implemented; only the final kill matters.
  • Drones and mass-traffic NPCs — filtered out (see weights below).

Kill weights per class

Section titled “Kill weights per class”
Target classXP awardedDesign intent
class.ship_xs (drones, escape pods)0Filtered — prevents drone-farm cheese
Mass-traffic NPCs (taxis, civilian filler)0Filtered — only real combat counts
class.ship_s (fighters, Xenon N)1Baseline unit
class.ship_m (corvettes, Xenon P)55× S value
class.ship_l (destroyers, Xenon Terraformer)2525× S value
class.ship_xl (capitals, Xenon K)100100× S value — big kills matter
class.station200Highest value — station kills are the top achievement

Weights are tuned so:

  • One rare XL kill ≈ 20 routine S kills — the mod values “big-target work” over kill-count grinding.
  • Stations are the highest reward — a hero who cracks a Xenon station gets a career milestone.
  • Drone-swarm sectors don’t inflate stats.

Star rank thresholds

Section titled “Star rank thresholds”
RankXP threshold
★0 (starting)
★★100 XP
★★★1,000 XP
★★★★10,000 XP
★★★★★100,000 XP

Progression is logarithmic — each rank takes ~10× more XP than the previous. Practical implications:

  • ★★ is achievable in one-two combats. Early engagement hook — the player sees “the mod is working” quickly.
  • ★★★ takes several hours of active hero life. A memorable veteran.
  • ★★★★ takes dozens of hours or a high kill-rate in hot zones. Legendary status for one faction.
  • ★★★★★ is the identity tier — reached only through very long, active service. Each faction gives its ★★★★★ heroes a distinctive flagship or fleet identity (see C-029 fleet rework).

What unlocks per rank

Section titled “What unlocks per rank”

Flagship and escort composition auto-scale with rank. Details are per-archetype (see Admiral, Pirate Raider, Coordinator, Engineer, etc.). The default admiral scaling used as a baseline:

RankFlagshipS escortsM escortsL escortsNotes
★L destroyer400Starting fleet
★★L destroyer840Add frigate wing
★★★XL carrier1641Carrier promotion
★★★★XL carrier3282Veteran fleet
★★★★★Per-faction identity32+8+2+Each faction chooses: keep carrier + scale escorts, swap to a signature capital, or introduce a second flagship (see C-029)

Faction-flavour applies: the flagship macro is drawn from the faction’s own catalog, so an Argon admiral gets a Behemoth-line destroyer; a Teladi admiral gets an Osaka-line; a Paranid admiral gets a Zeus-line. This is why the same “L destroyer” row looks different for different admirals in the roster.

Sub-factions inherit parent-race templates by design (Antigone uses Argon templates, Hatikvah uses Argon, Holy Order uses Paranid, etc.). This is intentional, not a gap — sub-faction ships come from the parent race’s shipyards, and per-sub-faction templates would be identical duplicates.

Per-archetype divergence from the default

Section titled “Per-archetype divergence from the default”
  • Pirate Raider starts on M corvette + S fighter, promotes to L destroyer + M frigate at ★3, XL Erlking-tier at ★4-5. Smaller and more mobile than admiral.
  • Engineer is M-miner-flagship only across all ranks (no capital promotion) — a small S-fighter escort scales 0→4 at ★1-★4. See Engineer archetype.
  • Coordinator has no personal escort — flagship is stationary at HQ. Instead, ★-scaled subordinates capacity (5 / 10 / 20 / 30) determines how many faction military jobs they can commandeer at once. See Coordinator archetype.
  • Kha’ak Hive Lord parallels Coordinator but for scattered Kha’ak: capacity 8 / 15 / 25 / 40. See Hive Lord archetype.
  • Kha’ak Seeder flagship stays M Kha’ak across all ranks; escort screen grows ★2=2S → ★3=2M+4S → ★4=4M+8S. Fleet is small because seeder power is in the network (hives + outposts), not in the flagship. See Seeder archetype.

Perks — the personality layer on top of stars

Section titled “Perks — the personality layer on top of stars”

Star ranks give fleet strength. Perks give personality. Both live on the hero: two ★★★ Argon admirals with the same fleet composition can play very differently if one has Lucky (−10% KIA chance) + Master Logistic (+100% RP accrual) and the other has Dedicated Hunter (+100% XP from combat) + Capital Ship Expert (+2 L escorts).

Perks are authored on pool templates, unlock on cash milestones or via LEARN purchase, and are preserved across clone respawns — a lineage’s accumulated perks are the lineage’s reputation. See Perks system for the full model.

Perks catalog — Tier: common (Attentive +50% XP from combat, Capital Ship Commander +1 L-class escort, Heavy Squad Commander +2 M-class corvettes/frigates, Leader +1 faction hero cap when hero reaches ★4, Logistic +50% RP accrual, Long Lasting Buff +50% engineer duration, Lucky Leader ★3 cap raise, Khaak Seed +1 RP per Khaak ship lost, Prepared +200 RP at spawn, Quartermaster -25% RP cost when rebuilding, Second in Line, Squad Commander +2 S-class fighters from first star, Third in Line, Veteran +200 XP at spawn, Volunteer 10× more likely to be picked). Tier: rare (Capital Ship Expert +2 L destroyers from ★3, Dedicated Hunter +100% XP from combat, Efficient Service 30 min cooldown, Heavy Squad Expert +4 M corvettes, Lucky -10% KIA chance, Master Logistic +100% RP accrual, Master Quartermaster -50% RP cost, Master Technician +20% buff potency, Quick Learner -25% XP needed, Reduced Cost 50 RP service, Squad Expert +4 S fighters from ★). Tier: epic (Legendary Veteran +1000 XP at spawn → ★3 immediately, Tactical Genius -50% XP needed)

Perks unlock via one of three paths: conditional (kills / stars / age / quest triggers), automatic at 10M cr accumulation, or learn at tier-based cost (common 20M cr / rare 50M cr / epic 100M cr). Learned + unlocked perks are preserved across clone respawns.

Memorial preservation

Section titled “Memorial preservation”

When a hero loses their flagship (see Death cycle), XP does not reset. The hero keeps:

  • Total XP
  • Star rank
  • Kill count
  • Last kill record

Rationale: the career belongs to the hero, not the ship. Walter Korkov with 5,000 XP stays a 3★ admiral after losing his first Vanguard. The successor bearer under lineage succession (see Lineage) is a different person and starts fresh, but the memorial hero keeps every achievement they earned in life.

Result: heroes who survive many battles become progressively more powerful; heroes who die young leave a shorter legacy on the wall. No XP grinding through deliberate deaths.

UI

Section titled “UI”

Kha'ak Hive Lord Manifold-of-Spires — Hive consciousness shard, ★★ (2/5), 278 XP, 72 kills, last kill ship_m (+1 XP) in Pious Mists IV, active perks Khaak Seed / Prepared / Second in Line / Veteran, locked perk Leader auto-unlocks at ★★★★

The hero detail page shows:

  • Current stars (★ / ★★ / ★★★ / ★★★★)
  • XP total
  • Progress bar to next rank
  • Kill count
  • Last kill (target class + faction + sector)