Java - Access to methods of objects fields

Question

I am designing a role playing game. In such games there is a character that has a level. I found out that the level itself is an object. It has values like experience, the knowledge of how moch experience is needed for a level-up, and methods like improve() or gainExperience(). So the character should have a level object. A game-object could have a fight-method. When the character wins a fight, he gains experience. The game object has access to the player object. But the problem now is: All fields should be private. So I would have to write a getter for getting the level object to increase the experience which looks like unesseccary code to me. Is it an accepted way to set the level-field of the character object public, and access it like that:

player.level.gainExperience(value);

or is there a better way to access methods of fields that are also objects?

Edit My question is different from this one. While the quoted question is very general, mine refers to a concrete example, which limits the possibilities of answering, and makes an answer simpler and clearer

Answer 1

A possible answer would be to define that same method on the player, and delegate to the "level" object:

player.gainExperience(value);

public final class Player {
    private final Level level;
    ...
    public void gainExperience(int value) {
        level.gainExperience(value);
    }
}

You should try to avoid introducing "getters" as much as possible, and even if you think it's not possible, just try one more time. You will reap the benefits later.

Answer 2

You want to make your Fight object as simple as possible. If it knows that some fight participants are players, and players have levels and levels know about experience etc then its getting complicated.

But somewhere in your code, something has to know these things. I wouldn't lose any sleep over:

Main()
{
    var winner = Fight.WhoWins(player, monster1, monster2);
    if(winner == player)
    {
        player.level.gainExperience(100);
    }
}

Its when that access to the child object is buried deep down the object graph that it becomes obviously helpful not to expose it. eg

Attack(target)
{
     if(target.body.hitpoints < this.attacker.weapon.stats.damage)
     //what about attacking objects?
     //what about unarmed attacks?
     {
         this.attacker.level.gainExperiece(target.monsterType.expValue);
         //what if the attacker isnt a player and thus hasnt got a level?
         //what if the target isnt a monster
     }
}