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At the core of a game like Azur Lane, leveling will take up the majority of your time and while there are many ways to go about it, there is no one absolute solution. What method works best essentially boils down to how much resources and time you are will to expend. The guide below is the method we used, playing on average between two to three hours a day through desktop emulation with auto combat turned on for all battles. It is by no means the most efficient solution, so adjust it accordingly.
How does the EXP gain system work?
But before we get to that, let us look at how the experience gain system works. Every map has its base EXP value, which is the minimum experience that your shipgirls will gain from battle. The amount of experience actually received by your shipgirls vary based on the following:
Flagships gains 1.5 times the base EXP
MVP gains 2 times the base EXP
Shipgirls in a good mod gain 1.2 times the base EXP. You know if the girl is in a good mood based on the expression you see in their details page. You want a green smiley face that is sparkling.
Keeping that in mind, the best way to level is to have any two ships sortie at any given time, where one ship gains the MVP bonus while the other gains the flagship bonus. Unfortunately this method isn’t actually viable until way later in the game when you have the best equipment maxed out.
The method
You are still able to make a compromise early on by fielding one additional ship as exemplified above. Warspite will get the flagship bonus, while Prinz Eugen will always be MVP. Sims on the other hand will only get the base EXP. Once Sims get to high enough level, she can replace Prinz Eugen for the MVP slot, while Sims will make way for a newbie.
You can expand on this method by deploying Cassin and Downes at LB 0 for a decent number of benefits. These two destroyers will help boost your ambush evasion chance, while granting you with additional player EXP for cheap. They also boast impressive AA stats too, taking care of threats from above.
To further improve survivability for your main fleet, you can opt for the Circular Defence formation. Needless to say, place the entire leveling party in your dorm so they can gain EXP on the side as well.
Viability
Start as far as the third and fourth worlds to do your leveling, and you should be able survive without having to limit break any of your main fleet ships as long they have some levels on them and some decent equipment. For world five, you are going to have to start limit breaking just for that added punch and survivability. Kamikaze ships become a threat in world six, so a carrier will be most vulnerable in this situation. As such, you will want a battleship that has some limit breaks on them.
