Introduction
Planes have the ability to earn experience and gain ranks. Experience is gained from combat, be it normal sorties or LBAS attacks and defense. The only planes unable to earn experience are Autogyros, the Type 3 Spotter/Liaison (ASW) and Land-based reconnaissance planes. Certain elite planes such as the Tenzan Model 12 (Tomonaga Squadron) Will already have some ranks when they are obtained.
Overview
As planes earn experience, they will progress through the ranks as follows:
| Rank Level | Displayed Insignia | Experience | Fighter Power Bonus | Innate Bonus | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
    
|
| |||||
| 0 | (blank) | 0-9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | | | 10-24 | 0 | 0 | +1 ~ 1.549 | |
| 2 | || | 25-39 | +2 | +1 | +1.581 ~ 1.975 | |
| 3 | ||| | 40-54 | +5 | +1 | +2 ~ 2.324 | |
| 4 | \ | 55-69 | +9 | +1 | +2.345 ~ 2.627 | |
| 5 | \\ | 70-84 | +14 | +3 | +2.646 ~ 2.898 | |
| 6 | \\\ | 85-99 | +14 | +3 | +2.915 ~ 3.146 | |
| 7 | >> | 100-120 | +22 | +6 | +3.162 ~ 3.464 | |
Important Notes
- Planes will gain ranks at different speeds. Exactly what determines that is unknown. Please see below for more details.
- Planes getting shot down will lose ranks.
- A slot getting emptied has a high chance of resetting plane ranks.
- You cannot gain or lose ranks in PvP.
- Abyssal planes do not have proficiency.
- Opposing PvP fleets do have proficiency.
- It is important to secure air superiority where possible to preserve plane proficiency.
- The innate bonus is calculated as [math]\displaystyle{ \sqrt{\frac{\text{Exp}_\text{plane}}{10}} }[/math]; where [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Exp}_\text{plane} }[/math] is the current experience level of the plane.
- Unlike most other formulas in the game, it is not rounded down.
Rank Effects
Fighter Power Bonus
The biggest bonus from plane proficiency is giving a fighter power bonus to help during the air control phase. The innate bonus is added onto the fighter power bonus of the relevant plane to get the full fighter power bonus.
| Plane Type | Fighter Power Bonus |
|---|---|
|
|
+25.464 |
|
+9.464 |
     
|
+3.464 |
Important Notes
- Fighter-bombers are considered dive bombers and only get the +3 bonus instead of the +25.
- Only seaplane bombers get the +9 bonus.
- This is a flat bonus applied after the fighter power of the slot is calculated. This means it is not affected by rounding.
- Even if the plane has 0
, it will still get the relevant bonus.
Critical Bonus
There are two separate critical modifier bonuses for plane proficiency. One affects normal carrier attacks and carrier night cut-ins, the other affects carrier cut-in attacks. The Captain refers to the plane in the top slot.
Carrier Attack Modifier
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{CritMod}_\text{CVAtk} = 1 + \lfloor \sqrt{\text{Exp}} + \text{Bonus} \rfloor }[/math]
- [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Exp} }[/math] is the current experience value of the plane.
- [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Bonus} }[/math] is the innate bonus based on the level of the plane, detailed in the table below.
- The critical bonus is halved for planes not in the top slot.
- This means a carrier with two maxed proficiency planes equipped in the top two slots, it will have a 1.3x bonus. This makes her total critical strike modifier 1.95x (1.5 x 1.3).
- This also applies to carrier night attacks.
- Unlike other carrier night attacks formulas, non-night capable planes are taken into account for calculating the proficiency critical bonus.
- Planes in empty slots do not count towards proficiency bonuses.
| Experience Level | Proficiency Bonus | First Slot Bonus | Other Slot Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | 0-3% | 0-1.5% |
| 10-24 | +1 | 4-5% | 2-2.5% |
| 25-39 | +2 | 7-8% | 3.5-4% |
| 40-54 | +3 | 9-10% | 4.5-5% |
| 55-69 | +4 | 11-12% | 5.5-6% |
| 70-79 | +5-7 | 13-16% | 7.5-8% |
| 80-99 | +7 | 16% | 8% |
| 100-120 | +10 | 20% | 10% |
Carrier Cut-In Attacks
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{CritMod}_\text{CVCI} = 1.106 + 0.15\text{(If the plane in the first slot participates in the attack)} }[/math]
- The average skill level of all planes is taken into account when calculating the modifier. The base multiplier of 1.106 assumes all planes equipped are of max proficiency.
- If you have multiple aircraft of the same type equipped, the plane in the first slot, "the Captain" will always take priority.
- This bonus is multiplicative with the base critical modifier. This means if the Captain participates in the CVCI, the attack gets a critical strike modifier of 1.875x (1.5 x 1.25).
Accuracy Bonus
The average proficiency of all torpedo bombers, dive bombers, seaplane bombers and large flying boats on the carrier are taken into account for calculating the accuracy bonus.
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Acc Bonus} = \sqrt{0.1 \times \text{Exp}_\text{Avg}} + \text{Mod}_\text{proficiency} }[/math]
- [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Exp}_\text{Avg} }[/math] is the average experience level of all relevant planes on the carrier.
- [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Mod}_\text{Skill} }[/math] is the extra bonus depending on the proficiency level.
| Experience Level | Proficiency Bonus | Accuracy Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | 0 |
| 10-24 | 0 | +1 |
| 25-39 | +1 | +2 |
| 40-54 | +2 | +4 |
| 55-69 | +3 | +5 |
| 70-79 | +4 | +6 |
| 80-99 | +6 | +8-9 |
| 100-120 | +9 | +12 |
Important Notes
- Remember that fighters are not counted for the accuracy bonus.
LoS
- C2 has stated that proficiency will increase provide a bonus to LoS and contact rate.
- The increase is either bugged or too small to be observed.
- It does appear to increase the night contact rate of the Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Scout).
Ranking Planes
Carrier-Based Planes
Carrier-based planes can be ranked anywhere. The most resource efficient way is to send them on sorties to surface nodes with little to no air power. It is possible to rank them through LBAS but it gets expensive. The following are recommended spots:
- 1-1
- 2-2: 3CV+ off route
Land-Based Planes
Land-based planes can only be ranked through LBAS. This makes ranking them quite expensive. Outside of events, only 6-4 and 6-5 have LBAS available to use. Of these, 6-5 is the best place because it allows the use of two land bases and has a Range 1 submarine node at B. This allows any land-based plane to be rank and only requires a fleet of at least 1 light cruiser and a mix of destroyers and destroyer escorts.
Important Notes on Ranking Planes
- Numbered air group planes like the Ryuusei (601 Air Group) start at |.
- Named squadron planes like the Type 97 Torpedo Bomber (Murata Squadron) start at ||.
- Remodeling planes to better versions through quests will retain their ranks if it is higher than the default rank.
- Exceptions are for remodels that require the plane to be at maxed proficiency like for the Zero Fighter Type 53 (Iwamoto Squadron).
- Remodelling a plane using Akashi's Improvement Arsenal will only retain 60% of the plane's proficiency.
- Ranks can decrease by 1-2 if a large number of planes are shot down.
- Ranks will be reset if the entire squadron is shot down.
- Even elite squadrons with default ranks can lose all their ranks.
- Rank loss is calculated before rank gain, therefore it is possible for a squadron that was wiped to retain 1-2 ranks if it did well.
- Rank is only calculated once the fleet returns to port.
- It is possible to save ranks by quitting the sortie before the results screen is shown. This can be useful during events to save preparation time for boss kills.
- Planes will not gain or lose ranks in Support Expeditions or Exercises.
- Planes must parcitipate in aerial combat to gain/lose ranks. This means planes in 0 slots will not gain or lose ranks.
Leveling Speed
Leveling speed is measured in the estimated number of battles it will take to get a plane from no rank to >>.
