The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King/Getting Started

Experience System
The point/experience system is based on how many hits the player can get quickly without taking damage. The 4 types of kill rankings that are obtainable are Fair, Good, Excellent and Perfect. Perfect kills can only be obtained by achieving and during Perfect Mode. This is done by filling up the skill meter (which shows how many hits the player has gotten without taking damage). Some of the characters special abilities can help the player get Perfect Mode much quicker.

The experience acquired for those kills is tallied up at the end of a level and the player is given a mission rating depending on how many of each type of kill he or she got. Using the experience points allows for the purchase of new skills and combos depending on what level that character is. New to The Return of the King are "fellowship upgrades," which are options to spend more experience points to unlock a combo or other ability for use with not only the character the level was beaten with but with all the selectable characters&mdash;provided they are of sufficient level.