Combat XP

Experience (XP) Types Added together, these form your Overall Level (OL)
Combat	Explore	Trade

Overview

Combat experience is primarily acquired by killing Mobs in space, Jobs, and missions.

When you have accumulated enough points to bring your teal-colored combat bar up to 100% you will:

advance to the next combat level
gain a Skill Point(s) (used to upgrade any of your skills)
reset your combat bar to zero

As your Combat Level (CL) increases, the number of experience points needed to reach 100% also increases. The maximum combat level is 50. After level 50, you can still earn combat experience points and a skill point per level, but the combat level number will remain at 50.

Key Considerations

When you encounter an enemy ship or creature (Mobs) in space, you will notice a number next to its name: this refers to its Combat Level. After getting blown up a few times, you will get the hang of how much higher an enemy's CL can be above yours before it becomes too hard to tackle. Jenquai, with their weaker shields and lighter armor may need to engage enemies closer to their CL, whereas Progens may be able to confidently take on adversaries which would make a Jenquai hesitate.
Fight mobs 2-5 combat levels below you. It takes longer, but the extra loot you get (try for mobs with lots of stackable loot, like organic mobs) then you will be able to level combat and trade XP at about the same rate.
Look on the Mob Farming Spots page for places that might be good to grind stackable loot. If nothing is there, go find one, then write it down to help out others, or yourself when leveling an alt.
Mobs that are hostile (meaning they shoot you first) will attack the first thing they see. If pairing with a buddy who can take more punishment than you, ensure you have a smaller signature radius than your buddy and the mobs will all gang up on him.
It is very effective to level with an alt which has the Recharge Shields skill. These characters can keep themselves alive while you pound their attackers into dust. Equip them with a high-sig travel engine and the mobs will come to you, instead of you having to fly to them!
If a mob's Combat Level is too far below yours, you will earn fewer or no Combat XP.
If a mob's CL is close to and above yours, you will earn more points according to the difficulty of defeating your opponent.
As your combat level increases, you will notice that points earned for the same type of mob you've been hunting will reduce. That is, if you have been shooting CL5 mobs, you will notice if you keep shooting CL5's, the points earned for each kill will decrease as you rise to CL6, 7, 8 etc. Once your CL gets too high, shooting those CL5's will earn you no points at all.
If hunting in a group of pilots all of whom have the same or a very close CL number, you may find that as more equally-ranked pilots are added to the group, the combat XP rewards may start to drop. You can test this by dropping one or two pilots from the group and seeing if killing the same mobs generates more XP.
If you are a junior pilot in a group with senior pilots who overwhelmingly outgun you, nobody in the group will earn any combat points unless the most senior pilots kill something that has a high enough CL so that it will earn them points. If you are a junior pilot tagging along with a high-level safari squad hunting big game, you may wish to make every effort to minimize your ship's signature to avoid attracting unwelcome "one-shot kill" attention to yourself as much as possible. Although extremely dangerous for junior pilots, tagging along on a hunt for highest level mobs can be extremely lucrative in terms of Combat XP (and also Trade XP if the senior pilots of the group agree you can tractor in high-level loot. Remember their ammunition will cost a lot more than yours and they may need a certain amount of loot to cover their financial outlay).

Gaining Combat XP

There are several ways of gaining Combat Experience:

Engaging MOBs (aka "Monsters or Beasts", or "Mobile Entities") in battle. The number displayed next to an enemy's name is its Combat Level. By comparing this number to your own CL number will give you an idea of whether you are looking at total success, a chance of success, or obliteration! Various tactics, such as kiting, can increase your chances of survival against a more powerful opponent.
Certain Missions may give combat experience points as a mission reward
Take Combat Jobs at a starbase Job Terminal (these are formal contracts and occupy space in your Mission Log)

Base Mechanics

1000 points for dispatching an enemy of the same Combat Level (CL) as yourself.
For mobs of lower CL, XP is reduced by 100 for every CL lower than yours, with 50 XP given for a mob that is ten levels below you and zero for farther down.
For mobs of higher CL than you, in addition to a starting base of 1000 XP, you gain 200 additional XP for each of the first five higher levels above yours, and 1000 XP for each level above that. (Killing a mob that is seven CL above you may be possible and will give you 4000 XP, but is likely to be a quite long process. Your play time may be better invested, and at lower risk, by killing mobs a few levels below your current CL.)

Grouping and Sharing

If you are grouped with a pilot who has a higher CL than you, this will reduce or eliminate the combat points you receive while grouped. If you are, say a CL20 grouped with a CL50, you will receive no combat points unless you are hunting something so high-level that the CL50 pilot is earning combat points.
A note for when fighting ungrouped: Combat XP is attributed to the pilot who has dealt the majority of damage to a mob. If you see someone battling a mob and decide to help them out on the spur of the moment without being grouped, if you do more damage to the mob you could end up inadvertently stealing the combat XP - a breach of pilot etiquette. Should you see a struggling pilot who is not about to immediately die, you should either ask if a hand is wanted, or wait and observe until the mob is more than half dead before assisting.

Examples

Group Size	Group CL	Mob CL	CL Difference	XP (Total)	XP (Base)	XP (Group Bonus)
1	50	60	10	7000	7000	0
1	50	62	12	8000	7000	0
3	50	56	6	1800	1000	800
3	50	58	8	3000	1667	1333
4	50	56	6	1650	750	900
4	50	58	8	2750	1250	1500
4	50	63	13	4400	2000	2400
5	50	56	6	1560	600	960
5	50	58	8	2600	1000	1600
5	50	63	13	4160	1600	2560
6	50	56	6	1500	500	1000
6	50	58	8	2500	834	1666
6	50	60	10	3500	1167	2333
6	50	63	13	4000	1334	2666
6	50	65	15	4000	1334	2666
6	50	66	16	4000	1334	2666

Skills with a Combat Level Prerequisite

Your Combat Level (CL) is a prerequisite for the upgrading of particular skills:

All skills relating to armaments (Beam, Missile, and Projectile weaponry).
Critical Targeting
Energy Leech (JDs only)
Psionic Shield (JDs only)
Summon (JDs only)
(this list is incomplete — please feel free to add skills in alphabetical order once confirmed)