How To Level Up Your Troops Fast In Mount And Blade II
The simplest and most reliable way to level up troops in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is by constantly taking battles that are clearly in your favor instead of throwing fresh recruits into fights they can’t survive.
During the early game, the best enemies to farm are usually:
Looters
Mountain Bandits
Sea Raiders
Once your army becomes stronger later in the campaign, you can start focusing on:
Enemy Lords
Deserters
Pirates
especially if you also have <entity>War Sails installed.
The key is making sure your battles are actually favorable. Losing half your recruits in every fight completely defeats the purpose of trying to level troops quickly.
That’s the standard method most players already know.
But there’s also a much faster advanced strategy that lets you power level troops almost instantly without grinding endless battles.
The Perks You Need
This method works through two Steward perks that convert discarded equipment directly into troop XP.
You need one or both of these perks:
Paid In Promise
Giving Hands
Paid In Promise
Unlocked At:
Steward 100
This perk allows discarded armor to be converted into troop experience.
Giving Hands
Unlocked At:
Steward 125
This perk does the same thing, but for weapons instead of armor.
You can technically use only one of them, but having both is significantly stronger since battles and shops usually provide a mix of armor and weapons anyway.
It’s also important to know these perks do not need to be on your main character.
Your quartermaster companion can use them too.
So if you don’t want to level Steward yourself, simply assign a companion as quartermaster and train Steward on them instead.
How The Mechanic Works
Whenever you discard eligible equipment, the game converts part of its value into troop experience and spreads that XP across troops that are ready to level up.
Instead of slowly training recruits through dozens of battles, you’re basically spending denars to instantly speed up the process.
This becomes incredibly powerful once you start training large groups of recruits at the same time.
The Fastest Way To Use This Method
Step 1: Recruit Large Groups Of Low Tier Troops
This method works best with:
Tier 1 troops
Tier 2 troops
Lower-tier troops require far less XP to upgrade, making donated experience much more efficient.
Step 2: Buy Equipment In Bulk
Once your recruits are ready, head into towns and buy weapons and armor.
The most cost-effective items are usually:
Tier 3 gear or higher
Medium to high-value equipment
The ideal range is usually gear worth around:
1,000 to 2,000 denars per item
Extremely cheap junk usually isn’t worth buying because the XP gains become too small.
Step 3: Discard The Equipment
Open your inventory and discard the gear.
If the perks are active, you’ll immediately see troop XP being generated at the bottom of the screen.
That experience automatically gets distributed across your troops.
The Most Important Trick
This is the part many players miss.
Sometimes the XP number turns red while donating gear.
That means you’re donating more experience than your troops can currently absorb, causing part of the XP to be wasted.
To avoid this:
Discard some gear
Upgrade your troops
Discard more gear
Upgrade again
Doing it in smaller waves keeps the XP efficient and prevents you from wasting large amounts of denars.
When This Method Is Most Useful
This strategy becomes extremely powerful in situations like:
Right before starting a war
Rebuilding after heavy losses
Creating a second army quickly
Defending a newly captured town
Power leveling recruits into elite troops
You’re essentially paying denars to completely skip the slow training phase.
Common Mistakes
A lot of players use this method incorrectly and then assume it’s weak.
Using It On High Tier Armies
This method works best on recruits and lower-tier troops.
Elite units require much more XP, so the efficiency drops significantly.
Donating Too Much XP At Once
If the XP number turns red, you’re wasting value.
Upgrade troops in smaller batches instead.
Buying Cheap Low-Value Gear
Very cheap equipment barely gives meaningful XP.
Medium and higher-value gear performs far better overall.
Is It Worth The Money?
This method is more about speed than efficiency.
If you’re struggling for denars, you’re usually better off selling the equipment normally.
But if you already have a strong economy and simply want elite troops as fast as possible, this method is incredibly powerful.
Especially later in a campaign, when rebuilding armies quickly becomes far more important than saving a few thousand denars.
Final Thoughts
Leveling troops through favorable battles is still the safest and most natural way to grow your army in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.
But once you unlock the right Steward perks, converting equipment directly into troop XP becomes one of the fastest ways in the game to build elite armies quickly.
Instead of dragging recruits through endless battles, you can massively speed up the process and rebuild armies almost instantly after major wars.
