Aircraft Proficiency

This Page contains new and unconfirmed information, use the information herein with caution.

Introduction
The Aircraft Proficiency System (tentative name) is a system introduced on August 10th 2015 update along with Summer 2015 Event which enables the planes to acquire experiences in sorties. This system is applicable to all planes in the game, including seaplanes and flying boats.

By acquiring experiences from repeated sorties, the pilots may acquire experience to eventually gain a rank. As planes reaches higher rank, the planes acquire hidden stat bonuses that increases their overall effectiveness during the battle.

The planes may lose their accumulated experience when they are shot down however, which would downgrade their proficiency rank, or worse, be stripped of their ranking emblems entirely. It is thus of imperative importance to send out your planes under the most favorable aerial situations whenever possible.

Effects
An aircraft may gain any of these benefits as long as they are capable of fulfilling any of the following roles:
 * Planes with AA stats (mainly fighters) Increased air power stat. Experiment shows that:
 * With double chevron, pure fighters can gain an additional 24.6-25.5 fighter power per slot (no matter if it is a Zero Fighter or a Reppuu, or how many planes the slot has). However, additional experiment show that there exist some additional and currently unknown variable affecting exactly what bonus value those planes are getting within that narrow range.
 * Bombers that have AA stats give extra 3-5 air power.
 * Bomber Planes gain increased damage when doing [cirtical hit (2)]
 * One slot double chevron bomber plane increase post-cap damage by 10%. Two slots of them increase 20%. Three slots increase 30%. Four slots increase 40% for air battle phase.
 * If the first slot plane is double chevron, no matter that first-slot plane is bomber or fighter (or reconn too?), it will give an extra 10% damage bonus. Additionally, a carrier with all 4 slots fully loaded with double chevron bombers gains an additional bonus, increasing the bonus from 40% to 50%.
 * This bonus effect have been witnessed in both the aerial battle phase and shelling phase of normal batte, as well as for Shelling Support Expedition.
 * These bonuses increase linearly according to proficiency increase.
 * Suspected to increase critical hit rate.
 * Planes with dive bomber or torpedo stats (mainly bombers) gain increased bombing damage and accuracy.
 * Planes with LoS stats gain increased Line of Sight and contact rate.
 * Seaplane bombers' Anti-submarine capbility with double chevron hace been found to increase for [Critical hit (2)], seem to increase as much as when ordinary carrier-based bombers fighting against regular target.

Ranks
As the plane gains experience, the plane may acquire a ranking insignia at the right side of the plane slot.
 * The ranks progress as follows: [[File:Aircraft Proficiency Blue Line 1.png]] -> [[File:Aircraft Proficiency Blue Line 2.png]] -> [[File:Aircraft Proficiency Blue Line 3.png]] -> [[File:Aircraft Proficiency Gold Line 1.png]] -> [[File:Aircraft Proficiency Gold Line 2.png]] -> [[File:Aircraft Proficiency Gold Line 3.png]] -> [[File:Aircraft Proficiency Gold Chevron.png]]
 * The rank after triple yellow stripes are the double chevron insignia, which are the highest known attainable rank.
 * Planes without any symbols have the default stats as stated on the status page.

Acquiring Experience
Planes gain experiences in regular sorties and PvP, and up to 24 aircraft (4 slots x 6 ships) may be trained by aircraft carriers or aviation cruiser/battleships at a time.
 * Carrier-based fighters and bombers planes gain a rank approximately every 6 battles.
 * Carrier-based reconnaissance planes gain a rank approximately every 8 battles.
 * Type 0 Reconnaissance Seaplane takes well over 30 sorties to gain a rank.
 * Method 1: Concentrates on training 4/3 bomber planes repetitively in quick succession. Training in 1-1-A cycling Shouhou and Zuihou or Chitose and Chiyoda can be done almost non-stop, few exp but use less resources and needs less micro-management.
 * It is possible to bring along two more light carriers to level up reconnaissance and fighter planes while retaining the ease of micromanagement, though the latter two would be subjected to fatigue.
 * Method 2: Concentrate on rank up lots of planes simultaneously. Training in 3-2-A cycling several CV/L, AV, CAV or BBV on the fleet. Provide good exp. but is less efficient in resource consumption and require more micro-management.
 * Method 3: Utilizes ASW capabilities of light aircraft carriers. Training in 1-5 allow rank up both seaplane bombers and carrier planes simultaneously in a full run of the map but may require buckets.

In 3-2-A, it take around 60 battles on average for planes without experience to reach double chevron.

Factors Affecting Rank

 * Numbered air group planes such as Zuiun (634 Air Group), Suisei (601 Air Group) and Reppuu (601 Air Group) starts with single blue stripes.
 * Famed and skilled air group planes such as Type 21 Zero Fighter (Skilled), Type 99 Dive Bomber (Egusa Squadron) and Type 97 Torpedo Bomber (Tomonaga Squadron) starts with double blue stripes.
 * Converted plane models of famed air group such as Suisei (Egusa Squadron) and Tenzan Model 12 (Tomonaga Squadron) will retain their original rank if it's higher than the default rank.
 * Planes may gain experience in Exercises (PvP) runs and their ranks may be reduced when they are shot down in PvP, though the ranking reduction was not shown immediately.
 * The plane ranking will reset if the entire count of the slot it occupies are completely shot down.
 * Ranks can decrease slightly (1-2) if a large proportion are shot down.
 * Planes that are assigned to equipment slot with 0 planes will neither gain nor lose ranks.
 * Planes in escort fleet do not gain or lose ranks.
 * Planes that are used in aerial support do not lose their rank even if they are completely shot down to 0.
 * Bombers are vulnerable to enemy AACI and are at risk of getting completely shot down in smaller plane slots, whereas fighters are not. It is thus recommended to put fighters or reconnaissance planes instead of bombers in the smallest aircraft carrier slot.
 * There was a bug during the early implementation phase where the bomber plane ranks could be reduced when shot down by another player in PvP when they challenged you.

External Link

 * Following Air Power calculators already (at least partially) supported this Aircraft Proficiency system.
 * http://kancolle-calc.net/aircrafts.html (Japanese)
 * http://aircalc.net (Japanese)