Command rank and skills
Command
Command is your rank. It gates what you are allowed to fly and which sortie tiers open.
Every Command rank up grants 3 random cards, drawn from the same weighted pool as everything else you earn. They are added to your collection, so they can go into a built deck.
Three things raise it, and nothing else does:
- Level a pilot. Pilots gain experience by flying; spending it costs alloy and pays 3 Command. This is the steady source.
- Raise the Control Tower. 4 Command per level, up to level 10.
- Raise the Barracks. 4 Command per level, and it quarters another pilot.
It is the closest thing SORTIE has to an account level. If the encounter board is showing you locked rows, Command is the number they are waiting on.
The eight skills
Skills rise by doing the matching activity. None of them are bought.
| Skill | Rises by | Gates |
|---|---|---|
| Command | Levelling a pilot, the Control Tower, the Barracks | What you may fly |
| Engineering | Raising the Hangar or the Depot | Deeper repairs |
| Salvage | The Salvage Run, and ore nodes | Better recovery |
| Refining | The Refinery, and fuel nodes | Alloy yield |
| Machining | Crafting hardpoints, and the Workshop | The better hardpoints |
| Navigation | The Recon Sweep and the Ferry Flight | Finding worthwhile targets |
| Fabrication | Timber nodes | Airframe skins and structures |
| Gunnery | Winning sorties | The heavier stores, and blueprints |
Every skill names its own source on the Skills panel in the hub, so you never have to come here to find out where the points are.
Gunnery is worth calling out: it rises only in combat, and its milestones are where blueprints come from. If tier two hardpoints feel out of reach, the answer is usually more fighting, not more farming.
Pilot level
Separate from Command. A pilot levels with experience, and their level decides how much of the card pool is open to them, shown as "cards unlocked" on the Wing panel.
It is derived from level, so it cannot be bought or bypassed.