Pilot XP now pays out for real, flat per event: 15 for a first sighting, 20 for a landmark, 30 for a capture, 40 for a new depth record, 25 for opening a cover, 100 for finishing a guided-arc step. It banks toward an account-wide ladder that runs all the way to Level 100 — deliberately a months-long climb, with title milestones at 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 for anyone who gets there.
The moment that matters most lands early: Level 5 stops the ladder from being a menu and turns it into a ceremony — a new bench at the Berth, three drone silhouettes standing ready (Hauler, Scout, Salvager), each with its own one-line identity. The first choice is free, and it's a branch, not a cage — a later respec exists at a modest cost.
Inside a class sit four promotion ranks, each needing a level gate and a class-flavored trial fought in the water. Today, one trial per class is actually live — Hauler's full-cargo return from the Midnight Zone, Scout's five unrecorded sightings in a single seeded day — the rest are named on the ladder honestly as work still ahead, not pretended into being finished.