How to level fast from 20 to 40 in numbers, milestones and a daily routine

Levels 20 to 40 are where it gets decided whether you'll be standing at the gates of the Burning Sands within a month or get stuck in the gray average of the server. Good news: this stretch is mathematically smaller than it looks — from 20 to 40 you need only 36,000 experience, three times what you collected on the way to twenty. This guide breaks down the exact XP numbers, what unlocks at which level and what the daily routine looks like that lets you fly through this stretch.

The XP math and exactly how much you need

Experience in GGE grows by a simple formula: total XP at level L is 30 x L², so for the next level you always need 60 x L + 30 experience. No jumps, no breaks — just a smooth increase of 60 XP per level:

The whole 20 → 40 stretch therefore costs 36,000 XP. For comparison: from 40 to 70 (the maximum before legendary levels) it's another 99,000. The 20–30 (15,000 XP) and 30–40 (21,000 XP) stretches are similar, so if thirty took you two weeks, forty at the same pace is roughly another twenty days away — and considerably sooner with a better routine. For every additional level you get 60 rubies.

What unlocks between 20 and 40 and the milestones worth leveling for

Leveling isn't an end in itself — every few levels something opens up that speeds up everything else:

Three things in this table have a fundamental impact on pace: the third attack wave at 26 (half again as many units in one attack = more XP per command), Barracks 6–13 at 30 (finally fast recruitment) and the Everwinter Glacier at 25, where the robber barons give better loot and level faster (maximum level 51 after 151 hits, versus 81 levels and 891 hits in the Great Empire).

Robber barons nonstop as your main XP engine

The most stable source of XP is robber baron castles (RBC). You get XP for every battle based on defenders killed — and because barons level up with each of your attacks (only for you), both their defense and the XP reward grow over time. On top of that every attack yields coins, resources, and from baron level 3 also rubies and time skips, plus a chance at equipment whose quality rises with the baron's level.

The practical routine: keep your armies moving. Send attacks on barons every time the army returns — with the third wave from level 26 you wipe out significantly more defenders per command. In the Great Empire a proven pattern works: one wave without tools on all three sides (both flanks and the front), as long as you have at least 90% ranged and melee strength — you don't need to worry about the courtyard at barons. Spying pays off once per level: all barons of the same level have an identical defense setup.

Important: don't abandon the barons, even when an event is tempting you elsewhere. Barons are the only XP source available 24 hours a day, unlimited (no cap on the number of attacks since 2020) and risk-free — the baron counterattack only threatens you at higher levels once you've defeated the Robber Baron Fortress, and it can be avoided.

Events bring extra XP that adds up on its own

From twenty the event cycle opens up for you, and with it a pile of extra battles:

War of the Realms (from 20, roughly every 2 weeks): ten foreign castles around your castle. Pick a difficulty your army can realistically handle — the choice can't be changed until the event ends. Every attack = XP + glory + threshold rewards.

Samurai Invasion (from 10, roughly once every 3–4 months): four camps next to your castle that don't attack you. Safe XP and Samurai tokens for units and decorations.

Nomad Invasion (from 30, considerably more often than the Samurai): same principle, plus Khan Tablets for purchases. With a sensible difficulty it's the best XP-to-losses ratio in the mid levels.

Nobility Contest (from 6): runs practically all the time and scores exactly what you're doing anyway — attacks, building, recruiting. Zero extra work.

Event targets have one more bonus: unlike barons, you don't pay for them with travel time across half the map — the camps sit right next to your castle. The army turns around faster, XP per hour goes up.

Quests, achievements and the Willow of Experience

Main quests and tasks in the 20–40 stretch are more generous than they seem — complete them continuously, not in bursts, because many of them give XP for things you're building and attacking anyway. The same goes for achievements (for example for leveling barons: 15 barons to level 41 in the Great Empire).

If you're willing to invest rubies in speeding up your progress, there is exactly one building for XP: the Willow of Experience. It gives a percentage bonus to all XP earned: level 1 costs 7,500 rubies and gives +10%, level 11 (roughly 128,000 rubies cumulatively) already gives +40%, and the maximum at level 100 is +400%. On top of that it adds up to 300 public order. For the average player the first few levels make sense — +10 to +25% XP for tens of thousands of rubies; chasing the higher levels only pays off for someone who puts money into the game. The Willow can be built from level 6, so you can already reach it in the 20–40 stretch.

A daily routine for maximum pace

When we put it all together, the optimal day between level 20 and 40 looks like this:

1. Morning: send all attacks on barons (or event camps if an event is running), start construction/upgrades, put recruitment in the queue, collect the daily login reward.

2. During the day: whenever the army returns, send it out again. Goal: your armies never sit idle. If a Nobility Contest or a Grand Event category is running, align your activities with the scoring.

3. Evening: check quests and achievements, buy/top up tools, fill the overnight construction and recruitment queue. Before bed send the army to more distant, juicier targets — travel time overnight doesn't hurt.

4. From level 25: add the Everwinter to the rotation — the new barons there level faster and carry better loot. From 30: don't miss a single Nomad Invasion. From 35: consider the earlier entry to the Burning Sands for rubies only if you have the army for the barons there; otherwise wait until 40.

With this routine, 1,800 to 2,400 XP a day (a level every day to day and a half) is realistic even without spending — which means the 20–40 stretch in three to four weeks.