Questions for those of you in the beta.

How do you guys even get past level 8 and why would you do so? I'm level 7 right now and there's nothing else to really do but do some Light Thumper mining which doesn't give me very much xp. The thing is, I've seen people up to level 14 and wondered how they got up that far and why. From my experience with the beta so far, this is what I gather is the main source of xp and income; thumper mining, crate opening, and killing alien scouts. I can't think of anything else to help level me up that far.