How to get XP fast in Saints Row

Saints Row XP level up farm — (Image credit: Deep Silver Volition)

Knowing how to get Saints Row XP and level up fast will hugely benefit your progress in the game, as you'll be able to unlock new perks, abilities, and powers a lot more quickly to give yourself a competitive edge. Farming XP can be a difficult task in Saints Row when you're trying to level up, but there are some methods that work significantly better than others, and those are usually centered on completing objectives. If you're looking for the best way to earn XP in Saints Row and farm levels quickly, I've outlined the process for the best XP farming methods here.

Saints Row XP farming method for fast level ups

Saints Row XP is earned through practically anything you do, but some methods earn a lot more than others. Challenges, missions, side quests, wanted targets and even shooting random enemies in the street all serve to grant the player experience towards the next level up. This'll grant you access to new Skills in Saints Row that you can use in combat. However, not all XP is equivalent and doesn't all come in at the same rate. Farming XP is best done by pursuing objectives over kills - completing an objective of any kind, like the Saints Row insurance fraud quests, tends to earn a lot more XP than the enemies you slaughtered to reach it.

For that reason, the best thing you can do for XP farming is find an objective in the game that's very easily completed, work out the most efficient method to complete it, then repeat the process as many times as possible. Repeating these hustles will also get you lots of money in Saints Row along the way. We specifically recommend the "Riding Shotgun" side hustles (shown on the map with blue icons of figures shooting), for the following reasons:

They're completed quickly (three minutes or so), and thus can be repeated over and over fast.
Shooting enemies in various ways is tied to lots of challenges you can complete in the process.
Killing enemies itself gives a small, steady influx of XP.
Some of the Riding Shotgun missions have one-time bonus objectives for even more XP.

Once the mission is done, there's nothing stopping you from going back and doing it over. Admittedly the bonus objectives can only be done once, but if you've done the objectives in most of the side hustles or just need a quick influx of XP you can grind up, this is the best way to level up fast and farm XP in Saints Row. Make sure you've got Saints Row fast travel points up an running so that you can quickly get between XP sources for efficient XP farming.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.