Did a new field. Didn't get much XP from it. Thought to myself, "Well, I paid for the wizards pouch, don't want it to go to waste by ignoring the Survival mode", so I clicked "Survival" instead of "Back to map".
Did well, got enough XP that around wave 75 I thought, "Well, I'm done here, may as well send all waves and kill myself since it's survival." So Ctrl+click the wave marker, and realize that my strike spells are recharging extra fast because waves are being sent early. So I start using all my spells, enhancing rediculous numbers of gems and freezing all the monsters in their tracks; I eventually realize (around wave 180) that my freeze spell is recharging faster than it's wearing off; I can keep monsters frozen indefinitely. And my mana gain beam gems (which is an *own* in and of itself, and my main strategy) are pumping enough mana that I can upgrade the main one (90% orange, 5% white, 5% black) from grade 8 to grade 13. As well, my group-cast strike spell are all earning me XP!
From there, I go several waves (all frozen between my main gem and my orb, permanently) and realize that there are around 8 Shadows on the map! Yikes. Also, several specters and apparitions got frozen in my wake. My main gem, which has reached grade 27 by this point, has 4x specials/damage from poolbound. I set it to killing Highest Banishment/Specials/Flying Ones, since those are on the map in ridiculous quantities and are worth shadow fragments. I'm gaining awesome amounts of XP, far more than I need for the next level, from my group strikes (freeze and curse); I'm ignoring my gem enhancement spells, because even with the lag, I'm barely getting enough time to just hotkey cast my strike spells on the same spot over and over; I'm striking several thousand monsters per cast.
Eventually, wave 999 arrives; evidently, there are no more waves aver #999. Because wave 999 is the last wave, there are no more to call early and cause my freeze spell to recharge so fast. It wears off before I can cast it again, and some thirteen thousand monsters storm my orb and destroy it. But I still win, because endurance. How much XP did I get? So much, it scares me. I go up 60 some levels, to 109. OVER DOUBLE WHAT I HAD BEFORE.
Gemcraft Chapter 2: Chasing Shadows.