If you’ve ever stared at a locked legendary card you’re 2 king levels away from using, or gotten rejected from a clan for having too low of a tower level, you know how frustrating slow XP gain can be in Clash Royale. I’ve played on and off for 4 years, grinded through 12 king levels, and tested every trick in the book to cut down on the grind without wasting money on overpriced gem packs. Today we’re breaking down exactly how to get XP on Clash Royale, with methods that work for both casual players who log in once a day and diehard fans who grind for hours on weekends.
Core Methods for How to Get XP on Clash Royale Daily
The majority of your XP will come from repeatable, daily activities that take barely any time to complete. I do these 3 things every time I log in, and they make up 80% of my total XP gain each week. You don’t need to spend any money to take advantage of any of these, and they work for every account level, from king level 1 to max level 15.
Hidden XP Sources Most Players Miss
Once you’ve got the daily core methods down, there are a ton of underused XP sources that most players don’t even know exist. These add up to thousands of extra XP a month, and most of them require almost no extra work to claim. I only found out about half of these after 2 years of playing, and they cut my level up time in half almost immediately.
Magic items give full XP when used for upgrades – a lot of players hoard books of cards and wild cards for their main deck, but even if you use them to upgrade a random unused card, you still get the full XP payout for that upgrade. That means a book of commons can give you up to 500 XP for free, no gold required. The season shop also has free XP tokens and gold bundles every season that most players skip over to buy cosmetic emotes. Those tokens give you direct XP with no upgrades needed, so always grab those first before you spend season coins on anything else.
Clan war participation rewards are another huge missed source of XP. Even if your clan doesn’t finish in the top 3 of their war group, every participant gets a chest with card rewards and gold that you can use for upgrades. I was in a pretty casual clan last year that never won wars, but I still got 2-3 rare and 20 common cards from every war chest, which translated to nearly 1500 XP a month just for playing 3 war matches a week.
Common Mistakes That Kill Your XP Progress
A lot of players slow down their own XP gain without even realizing it, just because they follow bad advice they saw on social media. I made all of these mistakes myself when I first started playing, and it took me twice as long to level up as it should have. Fixing these small mistakes will make a way bigger difference than any fancy grind strategy you find online.
The biggest mistake I see is hoarding gold for “future legendary upgrades” that never happen. I’ve talked to players who have 150k gold sitting in their account waiting for a specific legendary to drop, but they could be upgrading 20+ common and rare cards in the meantime to get thousands of XP for free. You don’t lose anything by upgrading lower rarity cards, even if you don’t use them, so there’s no reason to hoard gold unless you have a specific main deck upgrade planned in the next week or two.
Another common mistake is ignoring the free Pass Royale track. So many people think Pass Royale is only for players who pay for the premium tier, but the free track has tons of card rewards, gold, and direct XP that you miss if you don’t complete the crown tiers. Even if you only play 2 matches a day, you can hit tier 30 every season easily, which gives you enough cards and gold to get at least 5000 XP a season. Skipping the free track is basically throwing away free XP for no reason.
There’s also a persistent myth that winning matches gives you more XP, which is completely false. Winning only gives you more crowns for Pass Royale and higher ladder ranks, but you don’t get any XP directly from match wins. So don’t grind 10 hours of ladder matches thinking you’ll level up faster, because you’re just wasting time that you could spend doing daily challenges or donating cards for actual XP gains.
F2P-Friendly XP Tips for Casual Players
If you don’t have hours a day to spend playing Clash Royale, and you don’t want to spend any money on the game, these tips will help you maximize your XP gain with almost no extra effort. I use all of these now that I have a full time job and only play 10-15 minutes a day, and I still level up faster than most of my friends who play for hours every weekend.
Set a simple 10-minute daily routine to hit all your core XP sources. Log in, donate all the cards you can to your clan, play 3 matches to finish your daily challenge, upgrade any cards you have enough gold for, then log off. That takes barely 10 minutes, and you’ll get 90% of the available daily XP without grinding for hours. I’ve stuck to this routine for 2 years now, and I still level up every 3-4 weeks consistently.
Prioritize low-rarity upgrades first for better gold to XP ratios. Upgrading a common card from level 13 to 14 costs 5000 gold and gives you 500 XP, which works out to 10 gold per XP. Upgrading a legendary card from level 3 to 4 costs 20000 gold and gives you 1000 XP, which is 20 gold per XP. That means you get twice as much XP per gold spent when you upgrade low rarity cards first, so always knock those out before you spend gold on higher rarity upgrades.
Join an active clan with at least 30 regular members, so you always have people to donate cards to and you get consistent clan war rewards. If your clan only has 5 people who log in once a month, you’re missing out on thousands of free XP every week. I switched from a dead clan to an active casual clan last year, and my weekly XP gain went up by 30% almost immediately, with zero extra effort on my part.
You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars or grind 10 hours a day to level up fast in Clash Royale. All the methods we covered are totally free, take barely any extra time, and work for every player regardless of skill level. Now that you know how to get XP on Clash Royale, start with the simple daily routine first, then work in the hidden sources as you have extra time. I went from king level 8 to level 12 in 6 months using these exact methods, without spending a single cent on the game. The best part? You’ll unlock more cards, get a stronger king tower, and have way more fun in matches as you level up, without the stress of endless grinding.
