In this guide I’m going to break down how much Style EXP you earn from NPC fights and what you can do to earn Style EXP more efficiently.
World Tour Style EXP Farming Guide
Calculating Style EXP rewards for NPC fights is both easy and complicated. In simplest terms, the formula is:
Style EXP reward = NPC level x N
So what is N? N is a hidden multiplier that has an inverse logarithmic relationship with NPC level. In plain terms, as NPC levels increase, N decreases by exponentially smaller amounts. N is also different for hostile and non-hostile NPC’s, and it’s way larger for non-hostile NPC’s. The fact that you fight hostile NPC’s in groups does not compensate for this difference, so our first tip is: Don’t Farm Hostile NPC’s. They’re simply way less efficient for farming Style EXP than non-hostile NPC’s.
Anyway, since N decreases as NPC level increases, most NPC’s in Metro City give roughly the same amount of Style EXP. However, once NPC’s get past level 30, N will stabilize to about 3.5, and Style EXP rewards will increase steadily. Hence, our second tip is to Fight NPC’s in Old Nayshall, as they will offer higher Style EXP rewards than NPC’s in Metro City due to their higher levels.
There is also some food you can eat to increase the amount of Style EXP you earn, with the largest boosts coming from the Bluberry Smoothie and the Hard Senbei you can order through the Drone Delivery App in Metro City and in Old Nasyhall, respectively. These items increase the amount of Style EXP you earn by 20% for three minutes. However, the Hard Senbei can’t be ordered while you’re on Mt. Vashal.
If you fight an NPC that uses a Style, you will earn bonus Style EXP for that Style equal to 2.5 times the normal Style EXP reward for that NPC.
Lastly, if you max out a Style Rank, you can continue to earn Style EXP for that Style and then transfer that EXP to another Style. However, there is a 3:1 conversion rate for this transfer, so trying to earn all of your Style EXP with just one Style is quite inefficient. Hence, the next tip is, if you’re trying to max out multiple Style Ranks, don’t rush to max any of them out too quickly.
So, in summary, the most efficient way to farm Style EXP is to fight high-level NPC’s in Old Nayshall that use Styles. However, you’ve probably already noticed that most NPC’s don’t use Styles and that you can’t fight an NPC again for some time after you defeat them. NPC’s have a 15 minute refresh timer before you can fight them again, so the best way around these limitations is to cycle between high-level areas and fights with set NPC’s with Styles every 15 minutes. I will now list the good farming locations I’ve found, and I’ll add on any that get mentioned in the comments:
1. The highest level NPC’s are the level 48-53 NPC’s hanging around Old Nayshall: Suval’hal Arena – Entrance. There aren’t any set NPC’s in this location that use Styles though, so it’s efficient to travel to other locations while you wait for the NPC’s here to refresh.
2. One of the best farming locations is Old Nayshall: Mount Vashal – Base. You’ll find plenty of random NPC’s hanging around at about lvl 42, but the big targets are Merchant Mello, Rewancha and Kalima. These are set NPC’s with high levels who use JP, Marisa and Cammy’s Styles respectively. Kalima in particular will always offer a huge Style EXP bonus for Cammy if you hit her with a 10-hit combo, which can be achieved easily with multi-hit specials or supers.
3. In Old Nayshall: The Lowlands – South Area, you’ll find Punch, Kilick and Milloy, three set NPC’s that use Dee Jay, Manon and Ken’s Styles, respectively. Kilick and Milloy have sizable Style EXP bonuses if you defeat them while above 75% HP.
4. Just south of Old Nayshall: The Lowlands – Commerce Plaza, there are a pair of twins, Nakaji and Umihi. To the south of them, across the gap, is another set NPC named Yone. These three use Jamie, Dhalsim and Kimberley’s Styles respectively and all offer bonuses for defeating them while above 75% HP.
5. After you finish Retsu‘s questline he’ll hang out at Genbu Temple. He’s level 60 and offers a Ryu Style EXP bonus for hitting him with Super Arts. To the right you can also find Miharu Abeno who uses Juri’s style.
6. Eternity uses Juri’s Style and hangs out next to the fast travel point for Old Nayshall – Central Bazaar.
7. After you finish E. Honda’s Master quests, his three new employees will hang out at Chanko House Edomon (Can’t list their names because you can actually change their names by talking to them). They’re all above level 30 and use Honda’s Style. They also all offer bonus Style EXP if you trade hits with them, but there’s no easy way to reliably trigger that.
8. This is an odd one: go to Metro City at Night. Climb up to the headquarters of the Crows (where you meet Rudra). You’ll find two set NPC’s, Crows Wuya and Crows Corbeau. Neither of them use Styles, but they will pay out bonus Style EXP for Chun Li, Jamie and Guile Lily, Zangief, Manon if you use combo attacks against Wuya and throws against Corbeau. This isn’t necessarily efficient due to the time it takes to climb up to the Crows headquarters, but it is very easy.
9. Chun Li’s students in Hong Hu Lu Chinatown are generally way too low-level to be worth fighting, but Li-Fen and Lao-Tang have decent levels if you’re looking for Chun Li’s Style EXP. Also in the Back Street you can fight Bao Bao Bro who uses Jamie’s style.
10. In Old Nayshall: The Lowlands – River Bank Area, there are a bunch of ~lvl 32 NPCs that will offer bonus Style EXP. However, the Styles and their conditions are random and the bonuses are only around 100 Style EXP each, so farming them isn’t necessarily efficient or reliable.
Pick out whichever of these locations you find easiest to grind out and loop them every 15 minutes. Hopefully this guide helps you to max out your preferred Styles more quickly!