Back in May, I published XP Farming on Zwift’s Climb Portal – the Ultimate Guide. In it I detailed how you could “game” Zwift’s Climb Portal to earn lots of XP per hour and level up more quickly.
Maybe that post caught the attention of someone at ZHQ. Or maybe they already had a change in the works? Regardless, last week’s game update (version 1.92) included an unannounced change to the powerup probability algorithm in the Climb Portal.
The New Algorithm
Previously, the probability of getting a Large Bonus powerup (which awards 250XP) was 10% (feathers were 25%, small XP bonus 65%). With every climb portal having 10 powerup arches, this meant you would average 1 Large Bonus each time you completed a Climb Portal.
The new algorithm for determining the probability of obtaining a Large Bonus powerup considers both the selected difficulty scaling (50%, 75%, 100%, or 125%) and the climb’s total ascent. There is also a minimum (1%) and maximum (10%) probability.
Examples:
- You’ll reach the probability ceiling if you tackle a portal at 100% difficulty with 650 meters+ ascent. (Looking at the climb portal list, that is 15 of the 44 climbs in the library.) On these climbs, your Large Bonus probability is the same as it ever was (10%).
- You’ll reach the probability floor if you tackle a portal at 100% difficulty with 65 meters of ascent or less. You’ll also hit the floor if you scale the difficulty to 50% and the climb has 130 meters of ascent or less. (Only 3 climb portals currently have less than 130 meters of ascent.)
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Comparing Old and New
Let’s compare estimated XP earnings per hour between the old flat 10% probability and Zwift’s new algorithm explained above. Our first example uses the shortest possible climb (Cauberg) at 50% scaling.
Old Probability
- Round trip time at 4 W/kg: 3 minutes
- Average XP per section: (250*.1) + (10*.65)=31.5XP
- Total sections completed in an hour: 10 sections per ascent * 20 repeats = 200 sections
- Bonus XP per hour: 200 sections * 31.5XP per section=6300XP
- Distance-Based XP per hour: (0.8km*2)*(20 repeats)*20XP=640XP
- Total XP per hour: 6940XP
New Probability
- Round trip time at 4 W/kg: 3 minutes
- Average XP per section: (250*.01) + (10*.695)=9.45XP
- Total sections completed in an hour: 10 sections per ascent * 20 repeats = 200 sections
- Bonus XP per hour: 200 sections * 9.45XP per section=1890XP
- Distance-Based XP per hour: (0.8km*2)*(20 repeats)*20XP=640XP
- Total XP per hour: 2530XP
An hourly rate of 2530XP is better than any other XP farming method, but keep in mind that’s at a 4 W/kg pace and on the shortest climb in the library. (Also, Zwift has stopped scheduling the Cauberg because its GPS coordinates overlay the start of Norton Summit, resulting in riders getting credit for both climbs when riding Norton Summit.)
What if we use the next shortest climb, Oude Kwaremont, at a more reasonable 3 W/kg pace?
Old Probability
- Round trip time at 3 W/kg: 5 minutes, 50 seconds
- Average XP per section: (250*.1) + (10*.65)=31.5XP
- Total sections completed in an hour: 10 sections per ascent * 10.3 repeats = 103 sections
- Bonus XP per hour: 103 sections * 31.5XP per section=3244XP
- Distance-Based XP per hour: (1.5km*2)*(10.3 repeats)*20XP=618XP
- Total XP per hour: 3862XP
New Probability
- Round trip time at 3 W/kg: 5 minutes, 50 seconds
- Average XP per section: (250*.01) + (10*.695)=9.45XP
- Total sections completed in an hour: 10 sections per ascent * 10.3 repeats = 103 sections
- Bonus XP per hour: 103 sections * 9.45XP per section=973XP
- Distance-Based XP per hour: (1.5km*2)*(10.3 repeats)*20XP=618XP
- Total XP per hour: 1591XP
Most XP farming approaches on Zwift earn 1200-1600XP per hour, including Shane Miller’s Alpe du Zwift workout approach. So this XP earn rate of 1591XP is right in line with other methods, whereas before the probability update it more than doubled the other approaches.
Is Climb Portal XP Farming Dead?
I’d say yes. While you can still earn a healthy amount of XP on Zwift’s shortest portals, it’s nowhere near the amount of XP you could earn previously.
While the Climb Portal still serves many good purposes (enabling us to climb GPS replicas of real-world climbs, providing a place for targeted hill climbing, etc.), riders won’t be climbing in the portal with the goal of leveling up extra quickly.
Your Thoughts
Do you think Zwift made the right move in reducing the Large Bonus probabilities in the Climb Portal? Will you still be using the Climb Portal despite the XP reductions? Share your thoughts below!
I think this is probably a good change. Games should generally try to make sure the most efficient ways of playing the game are also fun, and I think it’s hard to claim that Cauberg laps are fun.
But, what sucks is that they took so long to fix it. This creates an “abuse early, abuse often” mindset among players where everyone feels like they have to take advantage of these things before they get fixed.
Might not be fun for all but some people do use the portal for interval training.
Will be interesting to see how this change affects portal usage.
yes, the portal still works excellently for intervals and those riders will still use it. The change just stops people from doing a type of riding that they wouldn’t choose to do if it were not for the excessive XP rewards (and let’s be honest, they could be excessive)
“Abuse early, abuse often” is spot on. I remember when the portal was first released, you could do a U-turn at each banner while DESCENDING and get XP. That was pretty fun while it lasted.
Their best approach here is not to put those short farmable routes on for a full month – Kwaremont followed by Redoute for May and June was a bit of a gift. If these only appear occasionally on the rotation it really reduces the gains available over a sustained period of time. Even a climb like Poggio is far less farmable as you’re taking twice as long for each ascent.
They’re too late for me – made 100 last weekend.
I loved the XP Farming in the portals! It was a game inside a game to me. But this is probably a move in the right direction…not gonna lie though. I’ll miss it. 😃
climb portal is dead
No, it is there for it’s intended purpose.
Now I’ve hit level 100 – I fully endorse this change!!
What about level 200?
100 took long enough. Level 200 would probably require me to configure a drill to the kickr!
At this point is it better to ride the shortest portal at 50% on a TT bike, which should in theory give you more trips at 100xp per trip, or would it be too slow?
This looks like it’s close. Let’s use the Oude Kwaremont numbers. A TT bike will get 10 xp per gate as compared to 9.45 XP with a road bike. Over the one hour example shown, the TT bike will get 1030 bonus XP per hour instead of 973. This equates to 57 more xp or 3.6% more total XP.
However, the TT bike climbs slower. Based on the public data the fully upgraded Aethos saves around 114 seconds per hour of climbing. The fastest fully upgraded TT bike (the Scott Plasma RC Ultimate) loses 6 seconds. Thus, the road bike is 2 minutes, or 3.3% faster. This about nullifies the XP advantage of the TT bike.
Unaccounted for is that a climb at 50% is less steep then what is used for the climb testing, advantaging the TT bike. But, the road bike gets some feather upgrades which would further cut down on its time.
Feather upgrades at Oude Kwaremont might make you miss a gate reward, though.Especially in the flatter part if you get 2 in a row (depending on your speed)
I fondly remember smashing the climb portal for about 3 months getting to level 100, spreadsheets and all, glad that was over a year ago and not now. I was gutted when levels 61-100 were added when I was on level 59, couldn’t let that happen again.
Well that explains it.. was getting about 2% 250xp bonus last few times out on a short 50% elevation portal climb.. thought something was “broken”.. guess it was “fixed”. It stinks for me because i just finished my accelerated leveling and am at lvl 96.. so close yet so far from 100
to be honest. i did as well. but it was boring af. from 0-40 that level up was kinda interessting since you could not buy wheels or bikes below lvl40 but now at lvl52 i dont know why i should sneak about XP or Level anymore. Whats the benefit of higher levels? A dumb ass cap or another ugly trikot? Its a honest question because i start losing interesst in zwift.
My time on Zwift has been built out of different “seasons” where I find different things to supply motivation. At various times it has been XP, drops, route badges, race results, hours on the bike per week, TSS per week, upgrades, Everest challenge, Factory tour challenge, etc. I just assume that whatever motivates me today won’t last and I need to be flexible about finding the next thing. Now at level 100 I no longer care about XP either, it’s simply gone. Upgrades and the Factory Tour are the current things for me since I can work on them simultaneously. Climb portal was a one-and-done kind of thing.
I’m with you. I’m at level 61 and gaining XP is just a small ancillary benefit in the background. It is nice to get route badges occasionally and get the bonus, but I do not change my riding to do so and I am not making a concerted effort to complete them. Similarly, I have never bothered XP farming on the portal – I ride the portal if I want to spend most of my available time climbing, but wouldn’t choose it just to get more XP. As you say, what is the benefit of more XP and higher levels? Nothing to me.
The bike upgrades are motivating me to ride more and encouraging me to mix up the type of riding as I am upgrading more than one type of bike at a time, but generally Zwift is a training tool and the type of riding I do depends on the type of training I want to do that day. I am using the pacers more again for my steady rides, now that drops have a new relevance in order to complete the upgrades.
And if they add more levels before I get to 100 (which they undoubtedly will) then that is just fine with me too.
Honestly, I kinda like this. I had been doing AdZ 2-3x week for my training rides and enjoying the XP farming that did but when you published the hack I switched to short/easy climb portals. I loved racking up XP but good lord was it boring as all hell. I’m happy I am forced to return to AdZ
Actually 14 climbs under 130m at 50% as I’m the elevation halves.
The scaled elevation isn’t what Zwift uses, though. It’s the 100% elevation they use in their probability algorithm.
If you’re just trying to game the system and get as much XP as possible, surely it’s just teleporting to the top of Ven Top and ripping the descent over and over? Bonus to upgrade your bikes faster as well.
Granted you’ll get someone on the Zwift forums having a full blown meltdown about this, but can’t please em all.
how can you teleport to the top of Ven Top？
Gotta follow someone who rides up there first. Then use join a friend to teleport to that friend.
pace bots go up ventop. Ironically I finished climb portal and wanted to get a few more miles with pace bot, I ended up at a bot going up ventop. Yeah, uturn and coast
Got to level 100 last week so not really affected myself. Fair is fair, so it was just a matter of time before the Zwifties introduced the fix. I’ve never climbed a portal at anything other than 100% (my usual 2 watts/kg) and I’ve climbed them all. I just don’t understand the need for options to climb at gradients other than 100%.
What i’m missing here is what happens when you scale 50% and have over 130m ascend?
It all gets fed into their algorithm. Scaling it to 50% will reduce your probability by half. Then Zwift uses the actual ascent of the climb (at 100% scaling) as an additional factor in the algorithm.
OK, that’s actually not as bad as expected then.Will still have some climbs that are more viable than a workout (i.e. 1xp/5.55s).
it’s a shame. For me it’s the end of riding portal climbs. I go back to ADZ. Zwift should reward more xp to the climbs. From 2,5 km to 5 km climbing=always 250xp at the top. from 5km to 10km always 500xp at the top. From 10 to 15 km climbing always 750 xp at the top. Above 15 km climbing always 1000xp at the top. Or double xp when climbing.
Thanks so much for following up on this Eric. I wish it wasn’t so but it is what it is… I like that there are fun game elements which piss off the purists and engage the fun.
The probability was too high in the first place. Good change.
My thinking , zwift has put a nail in the portal coffin , the portal needs an incentive , why bother , just colourful graphics , old xp was too rich , new xp no advantage , needed an in-between .
I definitely think the Portal needs achievement badges at least. Something to encourage people to ride ’em all!
Maybe this is in preparation for earning badges on the climb portal? Would be nice to see. I’d also love a counter for how many times you have completed each climb at each scaling. A man can dream….
Agreed.
I’m thinking a extra +250sp in the probability algorithm for selecting 125%. This unlock is only available after you have completed the 100% portal specific climb. Could also make available within portal climbs over specific lengths, say 5 kms in length and the tour specialty climbs like the July Tour Fever Climb Portals.
Food for thought.
Well, for me portal rides much less attractive. I will do at least 2 of the Tour Fever ones,.
Dead. I did 8x la Redoute and a la Turbie/Eze for one 250 XP last week. Thought the odds seemed off. I’ll still do the occasional portal, but not reps.
the training benefit of reps remains though
Thank you for confirming this Eric! I had done about 20x last week with only one 250XP, and even the odds for feather vs 10XP seemed to be more weighted to feather than before.
Zwift is still fun execise while feeling like gaming, no matter how many xp I earn.
Never been at max level and if they keep raising the max then will i only make max level if they start going back as World of Warcraft did and boosting xp gains 😆
I’m done with the climb portal then – it’s incredibly boring to ride up (I still don’t get, why they add (some) very scenic ascents and then don’t do any graphics on it) but had the advantage of more XP.
Now that advantage is gone, there’s no need for me to ride up there…
On short climbs, a time trial bike is not so bad. You will earn ten points at each gate. On short fast climbs, you have to trash every feather or you may cross the gate before the reward is available.
This is probably the right/correct change, but climbing portal mining was all I did the last two months, lol, so I’ll miss it.
I think, also, the feather probability is now much higher, as that’s all I saw the last several climbs.
I won’t be doing anymore potals. It was at least fun swearing when you got a feather or a lowly 10 xp. I don’t need XP anyway, I’m at level 100. It was just fun. Pointless now.
So little temptation for me to do kinda not so exciting solo hill repeats.Was fun did some didn’t go nuts farming happy to move onto the next surprises and got stilla bunch of newer long hilly routes to ‘hunt.’👍✔️
Don’t you hate it when they nerf something you weren’t even using?
Just completed the “Tour Fever” Climb Portal Challenge. I like the Didi kit.
4 climbs @ 100%. 40 gates. 2622m of elevation gain. ZERO 250xp bonus.
Same. I did get one power up per ride though!
Same here did all 4 TDF climbs and no 250XP. Also, no 250XP the last few portal climbs either. Probably not doing to many portal climbs anymore.
Probably fair enough – but would have been good to add some additional incentive – like adding all the climbs to the Routes and giving XP for their completion.
I couldn’t bring myself to ride the portal even with the XP farming.
I did do special events with the portals. I see there is new event to ride the portal for. (Why I do that and not do the farming I don’t quite understand. 🙂 )
I can’t wait until they make a regular Mount Fuji route…
Two runs up the first TDF climb last night, @ 100%, no 250xp on either run, so the 10% doesnt stack up.
I’ve now done all 4 Tour portal climbs. Mostly 10XPs, a handful of feathers and just one 250XP (two arches from the top of the last one I did, the Hautacam).
It feels like they have swung the pendulum too far and could do with offering some more carrots.
Maybe have a guaranteed 250XP at the top of the longer climbs, or increase the probability for the last 3 arches at the top of the longer climbs so that you are more likely than not to get one 250XP out of those 3 arches, but could get none or could get more. Won’t allow farming, but just provides a bit of an incentive/reward.