Faction Experience and Ranks

Faction experience advances the doctrine rank and is not spent when purchasing a skill. Rank determines access to certain skills or skill levels, which may require reaching a minimum threshold.

A player may therefore have enough Echoes to buy a skill but still need to reach the required rank before unlocking it. Higher ranks unlock more advanced tiers; skill levels are still purchased with Echoes.

Faction rank progresses with persisted faction experience. It increases the caps for active missions, explorations, and Excavations, and grants access to skill levels. Pack bonuses and other capacity bonuses are added to the relevant caps.

• Active missions: base of 1 at rank 0, then +1 at ranks 1, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48 and 50; base cap of 11 at rank 50, before other bonuses.
• Active explorations: base of 5, then +1 at ranks 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 and 50; cap of 14 at rank 50 without a pack.
• Active Excavations: base of 2 through rank 7, then caps of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 at ranks 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48 and 50.
• Skill levels: levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 become available starting at ranks 0, 6, 12, 20 and 35. Each level still has to be purchased with Echoes.

Each exploration and each Excavation also occupies one slot in the global active mission quota.

At rank 14, before other bonuses, the caps are 4 active missions, 8 active explorations and 3 active Excavations. Explorations and Excavations together cannot exceed the 4 global slots; skill level 3 is available for purchase.

Missions, events, and certain PvP or PvE activities can grant faction experience. A player victory against an Errant grants a base of 260 XP against the Veyrs, 220 XP against the Noctes, or 180 XP against the Haldens, but only if the target put up effective military opposition.

A Pillars attack uses this base directly. A space attack adds a bonus based on the threat before combat, capped at +30%. In a space group, if at least three participants each dealt 10% of the damage, each participant who meets this threshold receives the gain multiplied by x1,5; the others receive the normal space gain. A defeat, a draw, or a target without effective opposition grants 0 XP.

Any exploration that reaches resolution also grants experience, whatever the outcome: this includes a neutral result, a find, a crash, or a lost hostile encounter. The gain starts from a base of 30 XP and uses the multiplier for the chosen nominal duration: 30 / 32 / 34 / 36 / 39 / 41 XP for 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 h. Travel time, a delayed return, or a faction duration reduction does not change this amount. An exploration recalled before resolution grants nothing; a hostile exploration encounter does not grant a second PvP combat reward.

A player's victory over another player can grant experience to the attacker. The base is 30 XP, multiplied by the ratio of the target's global points to the attacker's, taken before losses and bounded between 1/3 and 3: floor(30 × clamp(target points / attacker points, 1/3, 3)). The gain is therefore between 10 and 90 XP; a weaker target reduces the gain without taking away experience already earned. The victory must involve effective military opposition and cause enemy military losses. The defender receives no experience; neither does the attacker after a defeat or draw, or after a battle without military opposition or enemy losses.

Each distinct PvP attack that meets these conditions awards experience separately, including attacks against the same player, with no delay or repetition cap. However, reprocessing the same battle preserves the amount already recorded and does not credit it a second time. The battle report displays the gain actually received.

Progression examples include a mission that grants faction experience, an event with a progression reward, or an eligible victory against an Errant. To distinguish experience gain, rank, and skill purchases, see Faction Experience and Doctrine Rank and Skill Purchase.

There are 6 doctrine ranks:

• Line Aspirant: levels 1 to 10;
• Seal Bearer: levels 11 to 20;
• Weave Watcher: levels 21 to 30;
• Pillar Commander: levels 31 to 40;
• Throne Pretender: levels 41 to 49;
• Chosen of the Coronation: level 50.

Rank indicates progression and access requirements; skills are still purchased in the skill tree (see Skill Purchase).