[Azur Lane] Ship Leveling Guide - How to get your ships to 120

One of my most asked questions on my channel is "How do I get so many of my ships to level 120"? So in this video I explain my process to level grinding in Azur Lane. This process is entirely free to play friendly.

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Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:26 Defining "Efficiency"
1:24 Affinity
2:17 Dorm
3:01 Classroom
3:51 Commissions
5:29 Hard Modes
7:19 Main Story Grind
11:10 Event Grind
11:38 Grinding past LV110
14:02 PR Grind
14:32 Cognitive Chips
15:12 Submarines
15:34 Conclusion

Credits:

- Art -
4946

- Audio -

#AzurLane

[AzurLaneMeta]

Also I didn't mention EXP boosting ships. The following ships have skills that boost your experience gain. Use them (and level the skills if you have spare books) when relevant.
Yuubari - 15% CL/CA/CB
Langley - 15% CV/CVL
Houshou - 15% CV/CVL
Amazon - 18% DD
Nurnberg - 10% SS/SSV

EDIT: Also you can gain a lot of experience from playing PvP. Even if you lose, you gain 50% of the total exp. I didn't mention it mostly because I don't personally use it because I'm trying to rank high in my PvP seasons (and go undefeated). However, NEW player should 100% use PvP to level. It is free exp without the cost of oil or morale.

2nd EDIT: I needed to make some corrections or misstatements about the classroom.
1. The classroom has only 1 day for the following ships classes: CV/CVL/BB/BC/BM. DD/CL/CA/CB/BBV/SS/SSV have 2 days and AR have 4 days.
2. The classroom vs dorm is a complicated set of rules for when one is better than the other that I didn't explain well in the video. It takes into consideration commander level, dorm comfort, lecture hall level, food levels, stored up experience, and the number of ships you are simultaneously leveling. Classroom isn't ALWAYS better than Dorm. Just in some cases and note only until the ship reaches level 100. For example a LV120 commander with 400 dorm comfort and 2 "Full Course" for food will outperform any classroom when trying to level a single ship by itself. The classroom is generally recommended for mid-tier players (Level 50-100) that are trying to bulk grind ships.

[joyboy_]

This is the most compatible guide for my play style I've seen so far since I too prefer more time efficient one while not caring much for oil thanks ALM.

[Andromahlius]

When your ships are 100+, put them with Perseus in your OpSi mob fleet. Even if individual fights don't bring much, you can farm for as long as you want and it's FREE.

[severien]

Nunrburg in Operation Siren calling in your subs is a great way to level subs.

[liambuchan]

Slap 'em into your dorm and wait 2 years

[imsillynotstupid]

Thank you! I've been playing since 1st Anni and I'm tired of "oil efficient" guides. Tbh I prioritized oil at the start but later the grind got tiring, so this guide helped me a lot especially the lecture hall(did not realize max level was better than dorm so I neglected). Saving time is def more effective for me than saving oil.

[CoronisAdair]

I like that you pointed out the 10-hour commission. Everyone seems to badmouth it, but for 1200 oil you get a lot of resources & the XP for no 'play-time' investment. I think the 5K coins are nearly as valuable as the XP itself.

Generally I also keep the same ships in this commission as are in my dorm for max passive XP gain.

[justsomeguy]

Yes, thank you for the guides
For someone who doesn't have a lot of time to constant grind, Time efficiency is important.
I realized that my oil never under max cap.

[zeroone]

I strongly agree with you with 1200 oil commission not only it gives you 18000 xp but also 4500 coin and since you could do this twice per day you could get 9k coin per day a good way to save up coin for upcoming event plus sometime it gives cubes or purple parts a lot of guides in youtube disagree with this since they say its much more efficient when you grind using the oil instead but like you said you could gain xp while doing other things

[migurusu-saint]

Another free source of exp are the exercises. They can give that extra oomph provided you win of course.

[heroachilles]

Great video! I particularly like your distinction between time and oil efficiency. Many people tend to forget about this and wonder why they aren’t levelling as fast/ losing so much oil and question their methods. Good job!

[PhoenixLive_YT]

120 is too old man, i like my ships young

[kkgc]

damn everyone is so hardworking while i just leave them in the dorm till lvl110 lol

[Luluconz]

This is EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you!

[carlospayanomatos]

This video is really good for me, I have a lot of strong ships but I was leveling them very slowly, but ever since Operation Siren dropped I have had the need to upgrade them ASAP because of how hard those Siren Strongholds are (damn that stupid siren that heals off of a % of her max HP), thanks for sharing!

[kevinkim]

It took me to level Cheshire from level 1 to 120. 1/18/2021 ~ 4/18/2021 I never sortied her, just dorms and commissions.

[Shadow.]

this is pretty much how i level my ships too( minus the put in training/lecture 2 times a week from dorm...cuz lazy and i'm sure to forget about it)

you mentioned at the end, there are a few tricks that can speed it up. it would be interesting if you either, made a video about them, or make it a little segment in a future video, like general tips and tricks. donno for sure, your channel :P

[LamaChicanery]

I levelled Monarch solely through Dorms and the 10-hour commissions. It took me 86 days but I'd mismanaged or entirely missed several days worth of time so it'd be shorter like 75-80 days
For passive exp, I think that's pretty okay considering that I can also get three other ships to 120(I have only 4 slots in dorms) + other ships to about 100+ in less than 3 months ding just a few clicks.

[Floofrer]

For me, I'm just doing the Dorm(50k) and 12hrs commission with same ships.

[xSandamx]

great video! one thing I would add for more casual players who don't care about pvp rank much, you get some exp from exercises too without costing oil so you can use it as additional exp for those ships in lvl110-119 range. ALM would never do that tho xD
And I never knew there was affinity cap for secretary... i wasted so much time there while working on memories...