I live in a field, literally miles away from anywhere. There are some quantities of XM nearby and I have completely filled up my XM bar, but I have walked all around my village and there are no portals anywhere near here.
Does this mean that I am unable to play Ingress, since I'm not going to be able to level up?
What can I do if there are no portals near me in Ingress?
Best Answer
Everything that gives you AP in Ingress involves portals. So you are correct in that Ingress will be very dull without them around you. With that said, you can make some portal suggestions around your home and in a couple of months they may or may not be online without Niantic really telling you why.
XM is different from AP. XM works similar to stamina in other games. You need XM to perform actions on a portal. You have an XM bar, and you fill it up. The only downside to your XM bar depleting is that you will be unable to interact with portals until you have sufficient XM again. Portals deposit XM on a regular basis and because of this you usually will not have to worry about XM until at least level 4-5.
AP is experience. AP is gained from interacting with portals so to answer your original question, you are absolutely dead in the water until you get out and start hacking some portals downtown. Once you acquire a portal key you can recharge the portal remotely for a hot 10AP at a time which will never be worth it unless you are trying to keep a portal alive. You can see the amount of AP you have by tapping on your level at the top left and looking below the XM bar.
Below is a table for AP values for interacting with portals.
This is the amount of AP you need to level up in total AP needed.