Debt
When you are defeated, you accrue experience debt, which slows down a hero's ability to reach the next level.
Working off Debt
When you have experience debt, half of your experience earned is used to pay off the debt. Experience debt does not accrue until level ten (increased from level five in Issue 5), and increases as a hero increases in level.
To work off debt more quickly, a hero may serve as an exemplar. While this arrangement exists, all experience a hero accrues is applied to debt. If a hero has no debt to work off, experience is converted into influence.
There is an upper limit to the amount of debt that can accrue.
Debt accrued during an indoor mission is halved.
Strategic Use of Debt
On certain rare occasions, a hero may not want to level up. For example, he or she may wish to complete a task force for which he or she is ineligible after levelling up. In such a case, a hero may deliberately accrue debt to slow down his or her progression.
Also, there are times when a player may not want to outlevel their contacts for one of a number of reasons. They may be trying to get a specific badge mission or story arc out of a contact. Or they may be worried about outleveling a unlockable contact in CoV before they can complete the requirements needed to unlock that contact.
Since debt also counts toward the debt badges, hardcore bage collection players may want to generate debt specifically to work on earning the debt badges.
Debt Table
| Level | Debt | Debt Cap | Level | Debt | Debt Cap |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 5,500 | 27,500 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 27 | ??? | ??? |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 28 | ??? | ??? |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 29 | ??? | ??? |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 30 | ??? | ??? |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 31 | ??? | ??? |
| 7 | 0 | 0 | 32 | ??? | ??? |
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 33 | ??? | ??? |
| 9 | 0 | 0 | 34 | ??? | ??? |
| 10 | 200 | 1,000 | 35 | ??? | ??? |
| 11 | ??? | ??? | 36 | ??? | ??? |
| 12 | 280 | 1,750 | 37 | ??? | ??? |
| 13 | 400 | ??? | 38 | ??? | ??? |
| 14 | ??? | ??? | 39 | ??? | ??? |
| 15 | 550 | ??? | 40 | ??? | ??? |
| 16 | 650 | 3,250 | 41 | ??? | ??? |
| 17 | 800 | 4,000 | 42 | ??? | ??? |
| 18 | ??? | ??? | 43 | ??? | ??? |
| 19 | 1,100 | 5,500 | 44 | ??? | ??? |
| 20 | 1,250 | 6,250 | 45 | ??? | ??? |
| 21 | ??? | ??? | 46 | ??? | ??? |
| 22 | 2,250 | 11,250 | 47 | ??? | ??? |
| 23 | ??? | ??? | 48 | 87,000 | 435,000 |
| 24 | ??? | ??? | 49 | 99,000 | 495,000 |
| 25 | ??? | ??? | 50 | 110,000 | 550,000 |