Tutorial: Leveling

Overview
This is a guide to leveling your ship girls effectively through sorties. Experience (XP) increases the level of ships, which leads to increases stats of Evasion, LOS, and ASW, as well as passive accuracy increases. Leveling ships can also unlock remodels at higher levels.

Suggested places to level:

 * 1-5: [Base XP: 150, Node(s): 3] For lower level admirals who haven't cleared 2-4 yet. Good place to level DD/CL early on.
 * 2-3: [Base XP: 200, Node(s): 2~3] Level up submarines while gaining resources
 * 2-4A: [Base XP: 300, Node(s): 1] Typically used by admirals that have not cleared 2-4 yet.


 * 3-2A: [Base XP: 320, Node(s): 1] Often the default place to level. Features decent xp gain and very easy enemies. Is very versatile and can be used to level all types of ships. A good goal for newer admirals is to clear 2-4 to unlock the path to 3-2 for easy leveling in preparation for events and the following maps.
 * 4-1: [Base XP: 310, Node(s): 1~2 or 2~3]
 * 4-2: [Base XP: 320, Node(s): 2~4] rare drop at boss node. suitable for SS levelling or DD levelling.
 * 4-3: [Base XP: 330, Node(s): 3] A more challenging place to level. The main focus is to level a specific ship with ASW capabilities (DD, CL) at a fast pace by placing it as the flagship and achieving MVP.
 * 5-2: [Base XP: 380, Node(s): 3~4]
 * 5-3: [Base XP: 400, Node(s): 1] For submarines. Will increase sortie losses.
 * 5-4A: [Base XP: 420, Node(s): 1] A good way to level up the expensive Yamato class. 2 CV/L goes to easier node and SS can be used to tank most of enemy fire.
 * 5-4: [Base XP: 420, Node(s): 3] A relatively easy map in comparison to base XP. Can be cleared for both HQ xp and Ship xp.

1-5=
 * -|2-4A=
 * -|3-2A=
 * -|4-1=
 * -|4-3=
 * -|5-2=
 * -|5-3=
 * -|5-4A=
 * -|5-4=

General Tips

 * Maps have a base XP, which is typically the same for all nodes. Higher base XP maps can be faster leveling and/or more resource efficient.
 * Leveling speed, cycling ships
 * Resource cost: Submarines, Destroyers and Light Cruisers have relatively low consumption.
 * Modernization: Improves the primary four stats of your ships. AA tends to be difficult to modernize but also the least effective for farming XP. Firepower and armor can help the most. Stats gained during modernization are lost upon remodel, so typically modernization is used after the first remodel.
 * For more experienced Admirals that do not need ships drops, leveling speed can also be increased by sortieing with maxed out ship slots so that you do not waste time getting new ships.
 * Using spare level 1 ship drops can help reduce the cost of sorties. This is usually used with the objective of focusing XP on a single ship as it takes other slots away from being able to gain XP. When the ship is heavily damaged or runs out of supplies (fuel/ammo), they can be used as modernization fodder or scrapped.
 * Spare BB can be used (e.g Map 3-2A) to grant double shelling without having to resupply them.
 * BB/CV + spare ships can be used in 2-4

Sinking
Avoid sinking ships by ending sorties if a ship is heavily damaged. Do not deploy ships that are heavily damaged. Ships entering a new node at Medium damage will not sink, having flagship heavily damaged during sortie will force your fleet return to base and needs immediate repair/change to continue.

Submarines as tanks
Submarines draw fire from all ships that can target it (DD, CL) This helps to prevent damage to other ships and lowers your repair costs as submarines have very low repair costs. Early on, submarines can be obtained through construction or on the map 1-5. They have low sortie costs.

Morale considerations
Morale affects ship performance like accuracy and evasion which can affect rank and help influence MVP -CVL premptive strike is not influenced by morale

Sortie for loss

 * For a non-critically damaged ship close to level, it is possible to solo a node at 5-5 for D rank of 945 XP and also unlocks damaged art if not already unlocked.
 * 5-3 can be used for low level SS (80% to SS node for quick D rank XP)
 * This will reduce your sortie win ratio, which can effect your event participation eligibility. (Try to maintain ~85% win rate to be safe)

Tips to Maximize Experience

 * Flagship gives 50% extra XP.


 * MVP gives double XP. Can be combined with Flagship bonus for total of 3x bonus.


 * MVP is awarded to the ship that does the most total damage with ties going to ship in highest slot.
 * S rank gives 20% extra XP; C/D- ranks have XP penalty


 * Placing a ship at flagship and achieving MVP grants the most XP. This is useful for quickly leveling up a single ship or focusing XP on more resource expensive ships to reduce the resource costs of leveling it up.


 * Night battle can increase rank and resulting XP. This is recommended for losing ranks (C-) but not for winning ranks (B+). Night battles increase fatigue and cost 1 bar of ammo. An exception can be when you want to give your flagship another chance to get MVP.
 * For a combined fleet, entering the night battle will automatically reset the damage dealt by the first fleet, which means the flagship of first fleet will get MVP by default.

Difference between HQ XP and Ship XP

 * HQ XP and ship XP are different things.


 * HQ XP increases the most when you achieve victory at a boss node.
 * Earlier on, It can help to try to reduce HQ XP gain as certain maps like event maps can get more difficult at certain HQ tiers.
 * More details on the topic can be found on the Experience and Rankings page.

Artillery Spotting

 * Artillery spotting helps increase the chances of doing damage and the amount of damage done.
 * Achieve air superiority an air phase to utilize it.
 * Double attack, Mixed and Cut-in will vary damage outputs (trigger chances and multiplIers).
 * Typically put Double attack (with Radar) or Mixed (AP) on the ship you want to MVP.
 * Common Double Attack Setup:
 * Cut-in setup can be good for supporting ships as it helps boost accuracy and damage slightly but does not have chance for high amounts of damage like the other modes.

Carrier Equipment Configuration

 * Torpedo bombers tend to do more damage on average.
 * Dive bombers have more consistent damage.
 * Both contribute similar amounts to shelling damage (Dive bomb stat adds +2 firepower and Torpedo stat adds 1.5 firepower).
 * You can place torpedo bombers on a carrier you want to MVP, and weaker or less bombers on other carriers.
 * A Saiun on any carrier avoids getting T crossed (both sides do much less damage). It is often useful to help you achieve consistent results.

Formation

 * Formations can help you achieve the best results. Double line reduces firepower but can help if you are having issues with accuracy (Carriers tend to be less accurate in shelling).
 * Formations can also be used to help influence damage and be used to help certain ships be more likely to achieve MVP.

Range
Range determines which ships attack first. This can be influenced by the range of equipment such as SCAMP and secondary guns. Increasing the range can help influence which ships have a better chance of MVP.

Other ways to level

 * PvP - can give high amounts of XP with no need to repair and low HQ xp gained.
 * Only refreshes twice a day for a maximum of 10 opponents per day.
 * Targeted admiral might change his fleet composition while you are initiating attack.
 * Different ship types may appear with various base XP gain depending on battle rank achievement and total level of 2 first ships on your opponent fleet.
 * Having Katori in your fleet gives some additional XP after each battle which helps in leveling multiple ships at the same time. However, she must be the flagship in order for the XP bonus to apply.
 * Expeditions - Can be a source of XP for lower level ships.
 * Expeditions 22, 23, 32 focus on XP instead of resources, but these specific expeditions are not recommended in general as they are very slow and resource inefficient as well as taking away the use of a fleet in gathering resources.
 * These expeditions can be considered if you are less active, don't need so much resources, or can spare a fleet to run them.
 * You don't need to worry how to level weak or difficult ships using expeditions.
 * Sparkling can help achieve Great Success, which doubles the XP gain
 * It can be useful to combine leveling with sparkling to help increase your resources.
 * Normal success and Great Success have a chance (~50% ?) to grant double XP.
 * Failure grants normal XP with no chance of double XP.
 * You can send not fully resupplied ships to expeditions for failure as long as they have a single bar of fuel and ammo to reduce resupply costs. (Probably not worth the xp loss for cheaper cost ships)

Links to other Guides

 * Jenesis33's Guide to 3-2A Power-level
 * (Japanese) http://kankoreshuukai.blog.jp/archives/1410107.html
 * Guide to Power Leveling Heavy Cruiser (CA) in World 3-2A
 * Guide to Power Leveling Destroyer (DD) & Light Cruiser (CL) in World 4-3
 * http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ofi123/Powerleveling_kanmusus
 * Individual guides can be found here (and edited): 1-5, 2-4A, 3-2A, 4-1, 4-3, 5-2, 5-3, 5-4A, 5-4