Commander

Revision as of 15:08, 31 January 2017

The Commander recruitment window.

Recruiting Commanders

Once Account Level 7 is unlocked, a ship may not be queued for battle without a Commander assigned. Commanders are available to all ships without one; they can be recruited at any time via the Port screen, and are offered for "sale" when a new ship is purchased from the tech tree. Certain missions or campaign tasks will award commanders as a reward as well. Players are offered several options when recruiting a new Commander:

• A new Commander can be recruited with zero (0) skill points for free.
• A new Commander can be recruited with one (1) skill point for 10,000 credits.
• A new Commander can be recruited with three (3) skill points for 25 doubloons.

Clicking the small, circular icon to the top right of the Commander portrait in the recruitment window gives players the option to randomly generate a new name for their commander. This can be done repeatedly until players are satisfied with the name generated.

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 and allowing all skill points earned 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 experience (XP) in the exact same way ships do, including any applicable bonuses from camouflage and flags. Additional effects that affect only Commander XP — such as Restless Fire camouflage or the Zulu Hotel signal — are added on top of this number. It is, therefore, possible to earn more Commander XP in a match than ship XP. Players can view how much Commander XP they earned in a given match on the "Credits and XP" tab of the Results screen. The chart at right shows the experience requirements for a Commander to earn skill points.

The skill confirmation window.

Spending Commander Experience

Whenever a Commander has a skill point available to spend, an icon indicating how many skill points are unassigned is displayed over their portrait on the Port screen. By clicking on the portrait, players are taken to the Commander interface, where they are able to select a new skill to train. Once a skill is chosen, the Commander interface will ask for confirmation. This is an important step, as redistributing Commander skills after a skill is trained costs doubloons.

Many skills are only useful to certain classes. It is left up to players to learn the difference, since skills from a different class could potentially become useful if the Commander was transferred to a different ship. However, considering the amount of time it takes to train a highly skilled Commander, it is best to focus their skills on ones that are useful to a specific class anyway. A complete list of available skills, their point cost, and effects is below.

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).

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
	Priority Target	1	Notification of how many enemy ships are targeting this ship.	Situational Awareness indicator will show the number of opponents currently aiming at you with main battery guns.	This skill will not work during retraining.
	Preventative Maintenance	1	Reduces the risk of ship modules becoming incapacitated (main caliber turrets, torpedo tubes, engine and propeller only).	-30% to the risk of incapacitation of modules.
	High Alert	2	Reduces reload time of Damage Control Party.	-10% to reload time of the Damage Control Party consumable.
	Jack of All Trades	2	Reduces reload time of 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.
	Survivability Expert	3	Increases a ship's HP.	+350 HP for each ship tier.	Example: a Tier V ship would gain 1,750 additional hit points.
	Basics of Survivability	3	Accelerates repairs to modules, firefighting, and recovery from flooding.	-15% to time of repair, firefighting, and recovery from flooding.	Reduction applies only to passive repairs, firefighting, and flood control.
	Manual Fire Control for Secondary Armament	4	Secondary guns only open fire on targets designated by the player. The firing efficiency is significantly increased.	-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 doesn't mean manual aim. It improves the accuracy of the secondary battery by decreasing their dispersion, but requires the player to manually select a target by holding down CTRL and left-clicking on it. With this skill, the secondaries will not fire at all without manual target selection.
	Fire Prevention	4	Reduces the risk of fire and number of fires that a ship can suffer simultaneously.	-10% to the risk of fire. Ship can have a maximum of 3 fires burning at once.	For battleships and cruisers, this skill also caps the number of fires in the superstructure of a ship at one (whereas there are ordinarily two fire zones there). For more information on how fire chance is calculated, 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.	Guns must be fully loaded for this to take effect.
	Aircraft Servicing Expert	1	Increases servicing speed and HP for carrier-based aircraft.	+5% to HP of carrier-based aircraft. -10% to servicing time of carrier-based aircraft.
	Expert Marksman	2	Increases traverse speed of the guns.	+2.5 deg/s to the traverse speed of guns with a caliber of up to 139 mm. +0.7 deg/s to the traverse speed of guns with a 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.	Applies to all types of torpedoes (i.e. both ship-launched and air-dropped).
	Torpedo Armament Expertise	3	Reduces reload time of torpedo tubes and servicing time of torpedo bombers.	-10% to reloading time of torpedo tubes. -20% to servicing time of torpedo bombers.	Stacks with other torpedo and aircraft servicing reducers, such as Torpedo Tubes Modification 3, Flight Control Modification 1, or Aircraft Servicing Expert.
	Emergency Takeoff	3	Makes it possible to launch and recover aircraft while on fire.	+100% to aircraft servicing time while aircraft carrier is on fire.	This skill will not work during retraining.
	Inertia Fuse for HE Shells	4	Increases the armor penetration of HE shells fired from both main and secondary battery guns, at the expense of decreasing the chance of setting the enemy ship on fire.	+30% to the armor penetration capacity of HE shells. -3% to chance of fire on target caused by HE shells.
	Air Supremacy	4	Changes number of aircraft in squadrons.	+1 fighter per squadron. +1 bomber per squadron.	Increases the number of aircraft in each fighter and dive bomber squadron by 1. Does not affect torpedo bomber squadrons. The number of reserve aircraft is not increased.

List of Support Skills

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Point Cost	Description	Effect	Notes
	Direction Center for Catapult Aircraft	1	When the Catapult Fighter or Spotting Aircraft consumable is activated, an additional aircraft is launched. However, the airspeed of catapult aircraft is decreased.	+1 catapult aircraft. -20% to the speed of catapult aircraft.	This skill will not work during retraining.
	Dogfighting Expert	1	Increases the attack power of fighters while in combat against higher-tier aircraft. The greater the difference between tiers, the greater the increase.	10% to combat performance of fighters for each tier of difference between them. +10% to fighters ammunition.	The skill calculates improvement based on aircraft tier, which may not correspondent to ship tier. Skill provides no benefit if enemy fighters are equal or lower tier.
	Smoke Screen Expert	2	Expands the smoke screen area.	+20% to the radius of smoke screens.	This skill will not work during retraining.
	Expert Rear Gunner	2	Increases efficiency of self-defense armament for aircraft with rear gunners.	+10% to average damage per second of self-defense armament for aircraft with rear gunners.	Applicable to dive bombers and torpedo bombers only.
	Basic Firing Training	3	Improves performance of main guns with a caliber up to and including 139mm and secondary guns.	-10% to reload time of main battery guns with a caliber up to and including 139mm and all secondary battery guns. +20% to average damage per second of AA defense.
	Superintendent	3	Increases capacity of consumables.	+1 additional charge to all consumables mounted on a ship.
	Advanced Firing Training	4	Extends firing range of main guns with a caliber up to and including 139mm and all secondary battery guns. Also increases range of all AA guns.	+20% to firing range of main battery guns with a caliber up to 139mm and all secondary battery guns. +20% to AA defense firing range.
	Manual Fire Control for AA Armament	4	Significantly improves the efficiency of large-caliber AA guns firing at priority targets designated by the player.	+100% to average damage per second of AA guns with a caliber exceeding 85mm against a designated target.	This doesn't mean manual aim. It improves the damage per second of AA guns larger than 85 mm, but requires the player to manually select a target by holding down CTRL and left-clicking on it. With this skill, AA larger than 85 mm will not fire at all without manual target selection. AA of 85 mm or less will operate normally, and without this accuracy bonus. In practice, this means the player controls the dual-purpose guns.

List of Versatility Skills

Icon	Skill Name	Skill Point Cost	Description	Effect	Notes
	Incoming Fire Alert	1	A warning about the risk of exposure to long-range artillery fire is displayed (when shells are fired at you with a flight time longer than 6 seconds).	Indicator of long-range artillery fire.	Think of this as a "turn now!" warning.
	Evasive Maneuver	1	Decreases the airspeed of strike aircraft, but also reduces their detectability and increases their HP when returning to the carrier.	-20% to detectability of strike aircraft when returning to the carrier. +75% to HP of strike aircraft when returning to the carrier. -30% to airspeed of strike aircraft when returning to the carrier.
	Adrenaline Rush	2	Increases reload speed of all armament as the ship's health decreases.	-0.2% to reload times of all types of armament for each 1% of total health lost.	Currently this only affects main battery guns and torpedoes. (It is planned to affect secondary guns in the future.) 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 while the engine or steering gears are incapacitated.
	Demolition Expert	3	Increases the chance of setting an enemy ship on fire.	+2% to chance of fire on a target caused by a main caliber shell, secondary shell, or bomb.	For more information on how fire chance is calculated, visit the Fire page.
	Vigilance	3	Extends ship's torpedo acquisition range.	+25% to the detection range of enemy torpedoes.	Provides additional time to react to incoming torpedoes.
	Radio Position Finding	4	Shows the direction to the nearest enemy ship (that isn't an aircraft carrier). The enemy player is alerted that a bearing has been taken on their ship.		This skill will not work during retraining.
	Concealment Expert	4	Reduces ship detectability range.	-10% to the detection radius of destroyers. -12% to the detection radius of cruisers. -14% to the detection radius of battleships. -16% to the detection radius of aircraft carriers.	Stacks with other detection range reduction bonuses such as Concealment System Modification 1 or 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 25 doubloons per skill point spent; 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.

Reserve Slots

Reserve slots — (shown highlighted in green on the graphic above) — allow players to retain Commanders without assigning them to a ship. Commanders in the Reserve can be assigned to any ship as normal, paying any appropriate costs for retraining (see below).

Each player starts with four (4) Reserve slots on their account. Additional Reserve slots can be purchased with doubloons or earned through various mission or campaign rewards.

Retraining Commanders

Once assigned to a researchable ship out of the regular tech tree, a Commander's skills can only be utilized on that ship. Transferring them to a new tech tree ship will require them to retrain. When retraining is required, players are offered several options:

• Commanders can spend nothing, requiring them to earn Commander XP as shown on the table at right in order to fully retrain them for their new ship.
• Commanders can spend 200,000 credits, requiring them to earn Commander XP equal to 1/2 of the Commander XP shown on the table at right in order to fully retrain them for their new ship.
• Commanders can spend 500 doubloons, fully retraining them for their new ship instantaneously.
• Commanders can spend Elite Commander XP (and/or Free XP) equal to the full cost of re-training, fully retraining them for their new ship instantaneously.

Premium Ships

Commanders can be assigned to premium ships of the same nation at any time without undergoing retraining. Their skills will continue to work at full strength, regardless of what ship they are Specialized in. Premium ships are a great way to retrain commanders without having to suffer the penalties associated with not spending doubloons or Elite Commander XP to fully retrain them.

Max Rank Commanders and Elite Experience

No Commander in the game can earn more experience than the amount of XP needed to earn 19 Commander skill points. To become an Elite Commander, the Commander must earn the maximum amount of XP: enough to earn 19 Skill Points. All XP earned over that value becomes Elite Commander XP (shown highlighted in purple on the graphic above). Elite XP is a type of in-game currency. It does not accumulate on any single Commander but is stored in a common pool of Elite Commander XP on your account.

The Accelerated Training window.

Using Elite Commander XP and Free XP

Elite Commander XP can be:

• Applied to any non-Elite Commander to open a new level of Skills, or to get additional Skill Points free of charge.
• Used to retrain any non-Elite Commander moved to a different ship (instead of doing the same with Doubloons).
• Used to reset all mastered Skills at no cost (players will now be able to choose whether to reset Commander Skills using Doubloons or Elite XP).
• Converted into Free XP for doubloons.

How to Spend Free XP on Commanders

Free XP can be used in the same way as Elite Commander XP. After all Elite Commander XP is spent, Free XP:

• Can be spent on promoting any Commander (that hasn’t reached the highest rank) to the next rank and increasing their number of Skill points.
• Can be used to retrain a Commander, when assigned to a different ship, to 100% (instead of retraining this Commander with Doubloons.)
• Can be spent on resetting all Skills mastered by a Commander (players will now be able to choose whether to reset Commander Skills with Doubloons or by spending Elite Commander XP/Free XP) -- the cost of redistributing Skills is 10,000 Elite Commander XP multiplied by the number of Skill points spent on mastering Skills.

Elite Commander XP and Free XP can be spent together, like the way Ship XP and Free XP are spent on researching ships and ship modules.

When Elite Commander XP and Free XP are spent, the following rules apply:

• To retrain a Commander, promote them to a new rank, or reset Commander Skills, the available Elite Commander XP and/or Free XP should be sufficient to fully complete such an operation (for example, to retrain a Commander to 100%). Otherwise, the operation will not be successfully completed.
• When an operation can be completed, Elite Commander XP is spent first and Free XP is used only if there is not enough Elite Commander XP available.

When training/retraining a Commander, the total amount of Elite Commander XP and Free XP spent is equal to the amount of the Commander's own XP (Commander XP) required to train this Commander to a 100% level or earn the next Skill point. The total amount of Elite Commander XP and Free XP required to reset Commander Skills equals the amount required for such resetting.

Conversion of Elite Commander XP to Free XP

Elite Commander XP can be converted to "ordinary" Free XP using the same rules as the rules for conversion of the accumulated Ship XP. The conversion cost will be the same as the conversion cost of Ship XP into Free XP (25 XP for 1 Doubloon). Free XP cannot be converted back to Elite Commander XP. But, "ordinary" Free XP can now be directly spent for the same purposes as Elite Commander XP.

Access to Operations Involving Elite Commander XP

Elite Commander XP and Free XP become available for leveling up Commanders at Account Level 7, where the Commanders feature itself becomes available. However, Elite Commander XP can be spent only after it's been earned. Unlike Elite Commander XP, Free XP is already accessible to players before the Commanders feature is unlocked. Because of this, Free XP can be spent as described above before any Elite Commander XP has been earned.

Legendary Commanders

The "Plans for 2017" Developer Diary video indicates that Legendary Commanders will be added to the game sometime in 2017. No additional details have been released. Stay tuned to the patch notes!

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	USA	Japan	USSR	UK & Commonwealth	Germany	France	Poland	Pan-Asia
0	Ensign	Kaigun Shōi Kōhosei	Mladshiy Leytnant	Warrant Officer	Leutnant zur See	Aspirant	Chorąży Marynarki	Xue Yuan
1 - 2	Lieutenant Junior Grade	Kaigun Shōi	Leytenant	Sub-Lieutenant	Oberleutnant zur See	Enseigne de deuxième classe	Starszy Chorąży Marynarki	Shao Wei
3 - 4	Lieutenant	Kaigun Chūi	Starshiy Leytenant	Lieutenant	Kapitänleutnant	Lieutenant de vaisseau	Podporucznik Marynarki	Zhong Wei
5 - 6	Lieutenant Commander	Kaigun Daii	Kapitan-Leytenant	Lieutenant Commander	Korvettenkapitän	Capitaine de corvette	Porucznik Marynarki	Shang Wei
7 - 8	Commander	Kaigun Shōsa	Kapitan 3 Ranga	Commander	Fregattenkapitän	Capitaine de frégate	Kapitan Marynarki	Shao Xiao
9 - 10	Captain	Kaigun Chūsa	Kapitan 2 Ranga	Captain	Kapitän zur See	Capitaine de vaisseau	Komandor Podporucznik	Zhong Xiao
11 - 12	Commodore	Kaigun Daisa	Kapitan 1 Ranga	Commodore	Konteradmiral	Chef de division	Komandor Porucznik	Shang Xiao
13 - 14	Rear Admiral	Kaigun Shōshō	Kontr-Admiral	Rear Admiral	Vizeadmiral	Contre-Amiral	Komandor	Dao Xiao
15 - 16	Vice Admiral	Kaigun Chūjo	Vitse-Admiral	Vice-Admiral	Admiral	Vice-Amiral d'escadre	Kontradmirał	Shao Jiang
17 - 18	Admiral	Kaigun Taisho	Admiral	Admiral	Generaladmiral	Amiral	Wiceadmirał	Zhong Jiang
19	Fleet Admiral	Gensui	Admiral Flota	Admiral of the Fleet	Großadmiral	Amiral de la flotte	Admirał	Shang Jiang