Commander

Revision as of 16:59, 18 January 2021

The Commander recruitment window.

Recruiting

Once Account Level 7 is unlocked, a ship may not be queued for battle without a commander assigned to it. Thereafter, a commander can be recruited for a ship without one.^[1] There are several options offered when recruiting a new commander:

• Send to a Senior Commanders Course for 25  to earn three (3) skill points.
• Send to the Naval Academy for 7,500  to earn one (1) skill point.
• Be content with Basic Training at no cost for zero (0) skill points.
• Clicking the small, circular icon below the commander's name (middle left) in the recruitment window generates a new name and portrait for the commander. This can be repeated until the player is satisfied with the combination.

Recruiting is not the only way to obtain commanders. Certain missions, campaigns, and Scenarios award commanders. Experienced commanders can be bought in the Arsenal for Coal or Doubloons, or from the Premium Shop for real money. Awarded ships and some purchased ship bundles include experienced commanders.

When a ship is purchased from the tech tree, it can be with a newly recruited commander or without one. The latter option is useful when you intend to assign a commander from Reserve or another ship.

A Commander can be Dismissed at any time. This will free up a reserve slot. A dismissed commander can be recalled within 60 minutes. After that the dismissal is permanent.

Managing Commanders

Clicking on the Commander portrait in the top right of the Port screen brings up the Commander interface. This screen allows players to manage their Commanders in various ways.

The Commander Interface: current skills (Red 1), redistribution (Orange 2), reserve Commanders (Green 3), current Commander (Blue 4), and Elite Commander experience (Purple 5).

The currently selected Commander is shown in the top right; the Commander skills trained are shown in the center. The drop down menu next to the Commander's name allows players to assign the Commander to another ship, send him to Reserve, dismiss him, or Go to their Personal File. Directly below the currently selected Commander is shown other Commanders that are eligible for use on the selected ship. The toggle at the top shows either commanders currently assigned to other ships, or those that are in Reserve.

The center of the Commander Interface displays the Commander skill tree — discussed in detail below — with currently trained skills highlighted. At the far left is the Redistribute function, that allows players to "respec" their Commanders by clearing their skill selections, thus allowing skill points to be assigned again.

Commander Skill Points

The crux of the Commander system — and the main portion of the Commander interface — revolves around the various skills available to train. Players accomplish this by earning Commander experience, then spending that experience on Commander skills.

Commanders who have available skill points to spend will show unspent points in the Port screen.

Earning Commander Experience

Commanders earn commander experience (CXP) in the same way that ships do, including any bonuses to ship XP  earnings. Additional bonuses that affect only commander XP — such as from Restless Fire  camo or the Zulu Hotel  signal — are added on top of this number. Therefore, it is possible to earn considerably more commander XP in a match than ship XP. See the Economics article for details of how CXP is calculated. Players can view how much commander XP they earned in a given match on the 'Credits and XP' tab of the post-battle report.

The table at right shows the experience requirements for a Commander to buy skill points.

The skill confirmation window.

Spending Commander Experience

Each commander displays his skill points overlaid on his portrait as available/total. Thus a commander with 15 points, only 3 assigned, would show "12/15" on the lower left of his portrait. Clicking on the commander's portrait brings up the Commander Interface screen (see the graphic above), where a new skill may be selected. The interface will ask for confirmation.

Some skills are only useful to certain classes or to ships with certain weapon systems. Skills that are not useful to the current ship are marked as such. They may still be selected. (If a skill is not useful on the current ship, it may become so when the commander is moved to a different ship.) However, considering the amount of time it takes to train a highly skilled Commander, it is best to focus his skills on ones that are immediately useful. A complete list of skills, their point costs and effects, appears below.^[2]

When training skills in Rows 2, 3 or 4, Commanders must have at least one skill trained from the previous row. Commanders are free to train any skill in a row before selecting any skill in the subsequent row; they are not confined to skills only within the sub-groupings shown below (and in the skill tree in the Commander interface).

Try the World of Warships Commander Skill Builder

List of Base Skills

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Point Cost	Description	Effect	Notes
	Situational Awareness	Free.		An indicator is displayed when your ship is detected by an enemy ship or aircraft.	All commanders receive this ability at no cost.

List of Endurance Skills

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Point Cost	Description	Effect	Notes
		1	The detection indicator displays the number of opponents that are currently aiming at your ship or squadron.	For a ship, the number of opponents aiming at the ship with main battery guns. For a carrier squadron, the number of ships firing their AA guns at it.	This skill will not work during retraining.
		1		-30% to the risk of incapacitation of modules.	This skill does not apply to secondary or AA batteries.
		2	Hastens the next availability of the ship's Damage Control Party.	-10% to reload time of the Damage Control Party consumable.
		2	Decreases the reload time of all ship and squadron consumables.	-5% to reload time of all consumables.	Stacks with other consumable reload time modifiers such as the High Alert skill or November Foxtrot () signal. During retraining, a 50% penalty is applied to the effect of this skill.
		3	Increases both ship and aircraft HP, including fighters, depending on the ship or aircraft carrier tier.	+350 ship HP for each ship tier. +25 aircraft HP for each ship tier.	Example: a Tier V ship would gain 1,750 (5x350) additional hit points. Has greater value on smaller ships or more fragile planes.
		3		-15% to time of repair, firefighting, and recovery from flooding.	Reduction applies only to passive repairs, firefighting, and flood control.
		4	Greatly increases the effectiveness of secondary guns against the manually selected target.	-15% to the maximum dispersion of shells for the secondary armament of Tier I-VI ships. -60% to the maximum dispersion of shells for the secondary armament of Tier VII-X ships.	This is not manual aim; the guns still aim automatically. It requires the player to manually select a target by holding down Ctrl and left-clicking on it.[3] With this skill, the secondaries will not fire at all without manual target selection.
		4		-10% to the risk of fire. Ship can have a maximum of 3 fires burning at one time.	For battleships and cruisers, this skill also caps the number of fires in the superstructure of a ship at one (normally there are two fire zones there). For more information on Fire, visit the Fire page.

List of Attack Skills

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Point Cost	Description	Effect	Notes
	Expert Loader	1	Accelerates shell type switching if all main battery guns are loaded.	-50% to reload time when the shell type is switched.	All guns must be fully loaded for this to have effect.
	Air Supremacy	1	Decreases aircraft servicing time.	-5% aircraft restoration time.	Does not affect the cool down time of catapult aircraft consumables. (unconfirmed)
	Expert Marksman	2	Increases the rate of traverse of main gun turrets.	+2.5 deg/sec to the traverse speed of turrets with a gun caliber up to 139 mm. +0.7 deg/sec to the traverse speed of turrets with a gun caliber above 139 mm.
	Torpedo Acceleration	2	Increases the speed of torpedoes launched from both ships and aircraft while reducing torpedo range.	+5 knots to torpedo speed. -20% to torpedo range.
	Torpedo Armament Expertise	3	Reduces reload time of torpedo tubes.	-10% to reloading time of torpedo tubes.	Stacks with Torpedo Tubes Modification 2 ().
	Aircraft Armor	3	Reduces continuous damage to aircraft in all AA defense zones.	-10% continuous damage	See the Anti-Aircraft Fire article.
	Inertia Fuse for HE Shells	4	Increases the armor penetration of high explosive (HE) main and secondary shells, while decreasing their chance of setting the enemy ship on fire.	+25% to the armor penetration capacity of HE shells. -50% to the base chance of fire caused by HE shells. [4]	The mechanics for HE penetration can be found in the Armor Penetration article. Also see Armor thresholds for examples. This skill is frequently paired with Demolition Expert.
	Sight Stabilization	4	Speeds up the aiming of a carrier's aircraft.	+7.5% Aiming speed for attack aircraft and torpedo bombers. +15% Aiming speed for dive bombers.

List of Support Skills

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Point Cost	Description	Effect	Notes
	Direction Center for Fighters	1	More effective fighter squadrons.	+1 Fighter.	Applies to both carrier-launched and catapult-launched fighters. Does not apply to Patrol Fighter ().
	Improved Engine Boost	1	Increases the engine boost time for a carrier's squadrons.	+10% aircraft engine boost time.	Stacks with Aircraft Engines Modification 1 ()
	Smoke Screen Expert	2	Expands the smoke screen area.	+20% to the radius of smoke screens.	This skill will not work during retraining.
	Improved Engines	2	Increases the speed of a carrier's squadrons.	+2.5% Squadron speed.	Stacks with Flight Control Modification 2 ()
	Basic Firing Training	3	Improves the performance of smaller main guns and all secondary and AA guns.	-10% to reload time of main battery guns with a caliber up to and including 139mm and all secondary battery guns. +10% to continuous damage from AA guns.	Stacks with November Echo Settleseven . See the Anti-Aircraft Fire article for how AA defenses work.
	Superintendent	3	Increases capacity of consumables.	+1 additional charge to all consumables mounted on a ship.	Does not affect the consumables of aircraft carrier squadrons. This skill will not work during retraining.
	Advanced Firing Training	4	Extends firing range of main guns with a caliber up to and including 139mm and all secondary battery guns. Increases damage per second within the explosion radius of shells fired by large caliber (>85mm) AA guns.	+20% to firing range of main battery guns with a caliber up to 139mm and all secondary battery guns. +15% damage per second within the explosion radius of shells fired from long-range AA guns.	Stacks with November Echo Settleseven . See the Anti-Aircraft Fire article for how AA defenses work.
	Massive AA Fire	4	Activation of a priority sector increases the amount of instantaneous damage only. Time to the next sector reinforcement is decreased.	+100% Instantaneous damage. Continuous damage boost is eliminated.	See the Anti-Aircraft Fire article for how this skill works with sector reinforcement.

List of Versatility Skills

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Point Cost	Description	Effect	Notes
	Incoming Fire Alert	1	Provides a warning of long-range artillery fire.	Displays a warning of a salvo fired at your ship from a distance of more than 4.5 km.	Think of this as a "turn now!" warning. This skill will not work during retraining.
	Last Gasp	1	Restores the engine boost of the carrier's last strike squadron.	Completely restores the engine boost for the last attack flight of the carrier's planes.
	Adrenaline Rush	2	Increases reload speed of all armament as the ship's health decreases. Increases a carrier squadron's speed as its health decreases.	-0.2% to reload times of all types of armament for each 1% of total health lost. +0.2% Squadron speed for each 1% of total health lost.	This skill has no effect on anti-aircraft armament. Destroyed aircraft do not count against a squadron's health. This skill will not work during retraining.
	Last Stand	2	When the engine or steering gears are incapacitated, they continue to operate (but with a penalty).	The ship remains able to move and maneuver - slowly - while the engine or steering gears are incapacitated.	This skill will not work during retraining.
	Demolition Expert	3	Increases the chance of ship and aircraft armament starting fire.	+2% chance of HE shells causing a fire on target. +1% chance of rockets causing a fire on target. +5% chance of HE bombs causing a fire on target.	For more information on how fire chance is calculated, visit the Fire article.
	Vigilance	3	Extends ship's torpedo acquisition range.	+25% to the detection range of enemy torpedoes.	Provides additional time to react to incoming torpedoes. Stacks with both Torpedo Lookout System () and Hydroacoustic Search (). Does not work on aircraft.
	Radio Location	4	Shows the direction to the nearest enemy.	Functions on ships only. The enemy is alerted that a bearing has been taken.	This skill will not work during retraining.
	Concealment Expert	4	Reduces detectability range.	-10% to the detection radius of all ships and aircraft launched from them.	Stacks with other detection range reduction bonuses such as Concealment System Modification 1 () and camouflage.

Redistribute Commander Skills

Players will sometimes want to change the skill selections on one of their Commanders. This is accomplished in the Commander Interface by utilizing the "Redistribute" button (shown highlighted in orange on the graphic above). Redistributing Commander skill points costs either 25  or 10,000 Elite Commander XP  per spent skill point; players are not charged to redistribute unspent skill points. Upon confirming the redistribution, all currently trained Commander skills are cleared, the corresponding skill points are refunded, and players may begin assigning those skill points again as they see fit.

Note that when using Elite Commander XP , up to level 7 it is cheaper to recruit a new commander and accelerate their training than to redistribute skills of an existing commander. This will also result in two commanders instead of one.

On occasion — such as Christmas or other holidays — Wargaming offers sales on redistribution. Clan Battle participants have been enjoying one week of free redistribution at the beginning and at the end of Clan Battle seasons.

Reserve Slots

Reserve slots — (shown highlighted in green on the graphic above) — hold unassigned commanders. Commanders in the Reserve can be assigned to any ship (of the same nation) as normal, subject to re-training costs (see below).

Each player starts with four (4) Reserve slots. Additional Reserve slots can be purchased with doubloons -- normally four (4) slots for 100 . Slots are very rarely available through other means.

If a player receives a ship with a Commander, either from Premium shop, Armory, or a Container, the player receive an extra Reserve slot for that Commander.

Retraining Commanders

Once trained to a non-premium ship from the tech tree, a Commander's skills can be fully utilized only on that ship. Transferring to a new tech tree ship requires the commander to re-training to that ship, which is usually accomplished by earning a certain amount of Commander XP in his new ship (see the table to the right). Normal commander training resumes once re-training has been accomplished.

When re-training is required, players are offered several options. Commanders can spend:

• 500 , completing re-training instantly.
• 200,000 , requiring them to earn 1/2 the Commander XP normally required (see table) to completely re-train (or spend the full amount of doubloons).
• nothing, requiring them to earn Commander XP in order to fully re-train for their new ships.

Commanders can also spend Elite Commander XP  (and/or Free XP) equal to the remaining cost of re-training, finishing re-training instantly. This can be combined with the 200,000  option in order to save ECXP.

Premium Ships

A commander can be assigned to a premium ship of the same nation at any time without undergoing re-training. His skills will continue to work at full strength on the premium ship. Commander XP earned while assigned to a premium ship counts toward re-training on his specialized ship. This makes premium ships a great way to re-train commanders while avoiding retraining penalties. The commander can be moved back to his specialized ship without penalty.

Elite Commander Experience

A commander who earns nineteen (19) Skill Points becomes an Elite Commander. Elite Commanders continue to earn experience as do lower-ranked commanders. However, an Elite Commander no longer accumulates CXP; his experience is earned as Elite Commander Experience  (ECXP) that accumulates in a common pool (like Free XP). (The current ECXP balance is shown highlighted in purple on the graphic above).

The Accelerated Training window.

As Free XP is available to all ships, Elite Commander XP  is available to all commanders on a player account.

Using Elite Commander XP

Elite Commander XP  can be:

• Applied to any non-elite commander to gain additional skill points.
• Used to retrain any commander moved to a different, non-premium ship (instead of spending doubloons).
• Used to redistribute skill points (in lieu of using doubloons).
• Converted into Free XP  for doubloons .

Spending Free XP on Commanders

After all ECXP is spent, Free XP  can be used instead of Elite Commander XP .^[5]

For a single operation, Elite Commander XP  and Free XP  can be spent together, just as Ship XP and Free XP can be spent together researching ships and ship modules. When Elite Commander XP and Free XP are spent, the following rules apply:

• To retrain a commander, promote him to a new rank, or redistribute his skill points, the available ECXP and/or FXP must be sufficient to fully complete the operation (no partial operations).
• When an operation can be completed, Elite Commander XP is spent first then Free XP is used only if there is not enough ECXP.

Converting Elite Commander XP to Free XP

Elite Commander XP can be converted to Free XP in the same way as Elite (ship) XP — ( 25 ECXP  + 1  => 25 Free XP  ). Free XP cannot be converted to Elite Commander XP.

Unique Commanders

Some commanders have unique talents or modified commander skills. Check out the list of unique commanders to learn more.

Commander Ranks

As a Commander gains levels, they are given ranks based on their nation. These roughly correspond to the historical ranks awarded to officers of their nation's respective navies. The table below lists these ranks as they appear in game.

Skill Points	Japan	USA	USSR	Germany	UK	France	Pan-Asia	Italy
0	Kaigun Shōi Kōhosei	Warrant Officer	Michman	Oberfähnrich zur See	Warrant Officer	Aspirant	Midshipman	Aspirante Guardiamarina
1 - 2	Kaigun Shōi	Lieutenant Junior Grade	Leytenant	Leutnant zur See	Sub-Lieutenant	Enseigne de deuxième classe	Sub-Lieutenant	Guardiamarina
3 - 4	Kaigun Chūi	Lieutenant	Starshiy-Leytenant	Oberleutnant zur See	Lieutenant	Enseigne de première classe	Lieutenant	Sottotenente di Vascello
5 - 6	Kaigun Daii	Lieutenant Commander	Kapitan-Leytenant	Kapitänleutnant	Lieutenant Commander	Lieutenant de vaisseau	Lieutenant Commander	Tenente di Vascello
7 - 8	Kaigun Shōsa	Commander	Kapitan 3 Ranga	Korvettenkapitän	Commander	Capitaine de corvette	Commander	Capitano di Corvetta
9 - 10	Kaigun Chūsa	Captain	Kapitan 2 Ranga	Fregattenkapitän	Captain	Capitaine de frégate	Captain	Capitano di Fregata
11 - 12	Kaigun Daisa	Commodore	Kapitan 1 Ranga	Kapitän zur See	Commodore	Capitaine de vaisseau	Commodore	Capitano di Vascello
13 - 14	Kaigun Shōshō	Rear Admiral	Kontr-Admiral	Konteradmiral	Rear Admiral	Contre-amiral	Rear Admiral	Contrammiraglio
15 - 16	Kaigun Chūjo	Vice Admiral	Vitse-Admiral	Vizeadmiral	Vice Admiral	Vice-amiral	Vice Admiral	Ammiraglio di Divisione
17 - 18	Kaigun Taishō	Admiral	Admiral	Admiral	Admiral	Vice-amiral d'escadre	Admiral	Ammiraglio
19	Gensui Kaigun Taishō	Fleet Admiral	Admiral flota	Großadmiral	Admiral of the Fleet	Amiral	Admiral of the Fleet	Ammiraglio di Armata

Skill Points	Commonwealth	Europe				Pan-America
		Austro-Hungary	Poland	Netherlands	Sweden
0	Warrant Officer	Seefähnrich	Chorąży marynarki	Adjudant-Onderofficier	Fänrik	Guardiamarina
1 - 2	Sub-Lieutenant	Korvettenleutnant	Podporucznik marynarki	Luitenant ter Zee der 3e klasse	Underlöjtnant	Teniente de Corbeta
3 - 4	Lieutenant	Fregattenleutnant	Porucznik marynarki	Luitenant ter Zee der 2e klasse	Löjtnant	Teniente de Fragata
5 - 6	Lieutenant Commander	Linienschiffsleutnant	Kapitan marynarki	Luitenant ter Zee der 1e klasse	Kapten	Teniente de Navío
7 - 8	Commander	Korvettenkapitän	Komandor podporucznik	Kapitein-Luitenant ter Zee	Kommendörkapten av 2 graden	Capitán de Corbeta
9 - 10	Captain	Fregattenkapitän	Komandor porucznik	Kapitein ter Zee	Kommendörkapten av 1 graden	Capitán de Fragata
11 - 12	Commodore	Linienschiffkapitän	Komandor	Commandeur	Kommendör	Capitán de Navío
13 - 14	Rear Admiral	Kontreadmiral	Kontradmirał	Schout-bij-Nacht	Konteramiral	Contralmirante
15 - 16	Vice Admiral	Vizeadmiral	Wiceadmirał	Viceadmiraal	Viceamiral	Vicealmirante
17 - 18	Admiral	Admiral	Admirał floty	Luitenant-Admiraal	Amiral	Almirante de Escuadra
19	Admiral of the Fleet	Großadmiral	Admirał	Admiraal	Amiral	Almirante

Notes

• Everything You Need to Know About Commanders. 3 Mar 2020.

1. ↑ To recruit a commander to Reserve, temporarily move the commander of a ship to reserve, recruit a new commander, then swap back.
2. ↑ With Update 0.8.0, a number of skills have changed. See this and nearby WoWS News articles: https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/development/cv8-how-to-tune/#customization
3. ↑ Secondary target selection can be tricky at first. To make it more sure, with the Alternate Interface Mode set to Full (highly recommended on the Settings.Controls panel) <ctrl-left click> on the red damage bar just above the range number.
4. ↑ See the Fire chance calculation. Ship:Update 0.9.2
5. ↑ Free XP becomes available at Account Level 5. Commander operations and ECXP become available at Account Level 7. Since at that point the account will have no ECXP, accumulated FXP may be used in its place.