Gears 5 Class Experience Calculations

In Gears 5 there are multiple ways to earn experience whether it's through Multiplayer, Horde, or Escape. On February 13th, 2020, The Coalition made a change to the experience multiplier for all modes. There was a reason for it and that was to deliver a more consistent higher-rate experience earning experience for all players. At one point, The Coalition insisted on having a flat double experience earn rate for all difficulties in PVE ("Player-Versus-Environment") this was shortly reverted back after the communities uproar. With that said, currently, PVE still has the highest experience earned over PVP ("Player-Versus-Player"). For now, here's where things stand as of November 29th, 2020.

• Base multiplayer experience has been tripled for PVP modes;
• PVE difficulty multiplier current stands at
  • Beginner - 2x
  • Intermediate - 2.25x
  • Experienced - 2.5x
  • Advance - 3x
  • Elite - 3.5x
  • Insane - 4x
  • Inconceivable - 4.5x
  • Master - 5x

With these values shown above, you can see that PVP experience still lags behind any difficulty in PVE that is higher than or equal to Advance difficulty. There are two versions of experience calculations currently in the game. Profile experience and Character experience. As we already know, profile experience will be much higher through PVE. Using the PVE calculations above for the examples below there are multiple ways to level a class in PVE. In the examples below, you'll see The Surge and The Descent.

Please note that The Surge was completed on Insane difficulty whereas The Descent was completed on Master difficulty. In the graphs below this is assuming you're able to complete The Surge and The Descent within five and fifteen minutes, respectively. In order to capture the total amount of time needed to complete each Hive on each difficulty we ran two timers, one for PC and one for Xbox One, from the moment the countdown in the pre-game lobby starts at ten (10) and until you reach the lobby menu again.

To put the chart above into perspective it may seem like The Descent is the most efficient method to reaching maximum level in Gears 5, however, that does not paint the whole picture. The Surge is a one act Hive whereas The Descent is a three act Hive. This means more in-game playtime for The Descent.
Note: The Descent has not been captured at 4XP or 6XP multiples.

The above chart shows how many total hours it will take to reach the maximum level (character level) in Gears 5, assuming you're leveling from 1 to 18. Thankfully with Boost you're able to cut down on the time by half. These calculations assume you're finishing The Surge within five (5) minutes and The Descent within fifteenth (15) minutes. It's extremely possible to beat The Descent in less than fifteenth minutes, however, you will need to reach roughly seven (7) minutes to be on par with The Surge in terms of hours needed to reach the maximum character level.
Note: The Descent has not been captured at 4XP or 6XP multiples.

What's also important while reaching the maximum level of a character is the amount of skill cards per hour. The Surge and The Descent provide you with 4 and 5 skill cards, respectively. Again, this is assuming you're completing The Surge within five minutes and The Descent within 15 minutes.

Again, The Surge remains top tier and this is in terms of total skill cards collected. The benefit of running the Hive multiple times and most importantly, quickly, this efficiency allows you to earn more skill cards. The Surge provides four (4) cards whereas The Descent provides five (5) cards, assuming you complete the Hive without failing. Assuming you play no other modes, don't fail the Hive, you'll end up with nearly 1.7 times more cards than The Descent.
Note: The Descent has not been captured at 4XP or 6XP multiples.