Every delivery (when unloading finishes) gives XP to the company and to the ship for the work done: units delivered × leg distance × 0.01, weighted by the commodity's base price against a container of toys (a ton of oil counts for less). It doesn't depend on the profit, so a trade at a loss still earns XP. Levelling is about twice as fast as before the trading update (company level costs, hub level costs and each model's first ship level all halved), so level 100 takes about 20 hours.
The company levels from 1 to 100 (Level and an XP bar in the top bar; toast on level-up with what it unlocked). Each level's cost is set so it takes roughly 3 minutes at level 1, rising to about 47 minutes at level 99, of what a full fleet at that level earns. So bigger ships don't make levels fly by, and level 100 takes about 40 hours (about 1 hour to level 10, 11 hours to 50, 24 hours to 75).
Ship slots are per model: each container ship and gas tanker can be owned 3 at a time when it unlocks, plus 1 more every 3 company levels, up to its max of 8 (so 15 levels after unlocking). The Scooter 20 and Feeder 100 gain a slot every 2 levels instead (full 10 levels after unlocking). Recovery boats start at 1 and gain 1 every 5 levels, up to 8. Level-up messages say which models got a slot ("+1 slot: Scooter 20, Feeder 100").
Models unlock by company level: Scooter 20 at 1, Feeder 100 at 5, Buffalo at 6 (with breakdowns and storms), Feedermax 200 at 12, Coastal at 15, Trans Atlantic and Mammoth at 25, Aframax at 35, Dominator at 50, Supertanker at 60. Ships already owned are kept even if they're above the current slots or unlocks.
Ships level from 0 to 30.
Each ship level gives a skill point, spent in the ship popup's Skills view on three paths of up to 10 levels each: Speed (+2% top speed per level), Durability (−5% wear and −5% chance of taking a random breakdown per level), and Gas efficiency (−3% fuel burn per level). Range on the route screen stays at the model's base range.
Upgrades also cost money, each skill path priced separately: a path's 1st level costs 5% of the model's shop price, each next level 2.5% more, so a Scooter 20's first is $625 and a Dominator's $2,500,000; maxing all three paths costs 4.875x the price. The Skills view's buttons show the price ("+ $12.5M", "Max" when maxed), greyed out with the reason when it can't be afforded. Upgrades bought before costs came in stay free. The Finances totals list it as "Ship upgrades".
Recovery boats level too, 0 to 30, with the same three skills. Each finished recovery (when the boat drops the ship off) gives the boat 1 XP per mile of the job (out to the lost ship and carrying it to port), and the company the XP the rescued ship's full hold would earn over the miles it was carried (a small bonus next to deliveries). First levels: Buffalo 400 XP, Mammoth 1,000 (a Buffalo job averages about 1,050 nm, a Mammoth one about 2,700 nm), so the first level takes about one job and level 30 about 20 hours of play. Their tiles show "Recovery · Lv 3".
Maritime Empire