Does staying level 1 reduce the requirements for gaining xp/levels?
I read somewhere that staying level 1, and refusing to enter the level up screen, would allow you to get every perk.
I think the logic was something like... the game doesn't increase required experience for gaining skill levels until you take the level-up.
At first this seemed true, every sneak attack I landed raised me one full level in sneak, getting 100 right away. But grinding alchemy from 99-100 clearly doesn't have the same requirements as going from 01-02. So the game still seems to be keeping track of my levels.
If that's the case, can you really get every perk? Is there any advantage in refusing to level up, aside from easier enemies?
This is completely false.
The amount of experience required to gain a point of skill level is:
k(x1.95 )+C
- k & C = are constants depending on the skill
- x is the current skill level
The values for sneak are:
k = 2/45 c = 32/3
Here are the experience required for the first 10 levels of sneak:
1 10.71111111
2 10.83838868
3 11.045287
4 11.33015679
5 11.69186759
6 12.12955919
7 12.642538
8 13.23022354
9 13.89211712
10 14.62778195
You'll notice that there is not much difference in the experience required early on as this is not a linear curve. To go from level 49-50 will require nearly 100 experience. This may lead to the false impression that staying at lower levels means your skills go up faster, but whats really happening is if your skill level is low, its easier to improve it.
As for whether or not you can gain every perk, the amount of experience required per level is:
Current level * 25 + 75
You gain the amount of experience points equal to the level of the skill you just obtained. The game will 'bank' any extra experience towards the next level, but the maximum experience you can gain in the game is absolute. There is no way to gain all the perks as you'll top out at level 81 even if you choose to not level up at all until you max all your skills.
Here is the entire XP curve for Sneak in case you are interested:
There's no way you could get every perk, since your skills are still going to increase as you use them. Eventually you'll max all your skills, hit the max number of perks, and still have never entered the level-up screen.
Gaining Experience in Skyrim