How to Level Up in Ingress

So I've been playing this game called Ingress for a couple of days now. It's an augmented reality game by google that lets two factions fight over fictional portals that appear in local landmarks (Intramuros, Rizal park, etc) using energy called XM gathered from places where there are lots of people. It's currently in closed beta but soon it will be open for everybody.  Here are a few things that I've learned:

1. Portal requests take a while, 2-3 weeks, and even then, Google can reject submissions just because.

2. There are portals around already. The quickest way to find them is to use the dashboard at http://www.nianticproject.com

3. The stronger the portal, the harder it is for lower level characters to occupy it. Leveling is key.

4. You level by doing actions, constituting action points.  Here are the levels available so far and what they mean as far as stats are concerned:

Level	AP required	Max XM	Burster Damage	Burster Range	Resonator HP	Best Build Portal	Portal Range
1	0	3000	150	50	1000	1	160 m
2	10,000	4000	300	75	1500	1.5	810 m
3	30,000	5000	500	100	2000	2.5	6 km
4	70,000	6000	900	125	2500	3.5	24 km
5	150,000	7000	1200	150	3000	4.0	40 km
6	300,000	8000	1500	200	4000	4.75	81 km
7	600,000	9000	1800	300	5000	5.125	110 km
8	1,200,000	10000	2700	400	6000	5.625	160 km

And here are the ingress actions and their respective action points:

RESONATORS:
	Placing a resonator	125 AP
	Destroying a resonator	75 AP
	Placing the first resonator on a portal	500 AP
	Placing the eighth resonator on a portal	250 AP
LINKS:
	Creating a link	313 AP
	Destroying a link	187 AP
FIELDS:
	Creating a control field	1250 AP
	Destroying a control field	750 AP
OTHER:
	Applying a portal shield	150 AP
COMBINATIONS:
	Placing the final link on a field	1563 AP
	Destroying a [full] portal	600 AP
	Destroying a portal + (1) link	787 AP
	Destroying a portal + (2) links + control field	1724 AP
	Destroying a portal + links + cf + capture + mods

 When you're new, linking and recharging resonators is the best way to level. If you're lucky enough to find undiscovered portals, go for it. Items can be found by hacking occupied portals.

That said, good luck and happy gaming!