Exp

You will gain exp by destroying enemy parts or defend enemy attack. With enough exp from all 4 battle categories your pilot will level up. With enough exp in an exp category, a pilot can learn a skill when leveling up. During level up your pilot will get bonus exp that is scaled to the pilot’s type (e.g. Frederick gets more agility bonus and Ryuji gets more Short bonus). Therefore you don’t need to max out one category before training in another category.

Exp in the same category as the attacking weapon decides damage bonus and accuracy for each hit. Or in case of agility exp, the damage reduction for each hit before the guard is broken.

Each pilot require different exp for different skills. They have different skill slots and skill sets. For example, Royd can learn one of the Short skills after 2,000 short exp. As for Sakata, he can only learn melee skills twice at 1,000 and 2,300 exp. This means he can only learn 2 melee skills (I am not saying you should, he’s better off taking Short and Long skills instead).

You can’t change a skill once learned so only take skills when the pilot’s skill slot allows one. If you skip an undesired skill, it will be offered again and again until the skill slot is full or the pilot reaches level 50.

Certain weapons have exp bonus, which means you get a lot of exp even when you miss intentionally. You can also exchange the weapon between wanzers to train multiple pilots in the same mission.

In stages where enemy have supply trucks, you can break parts and let enemy wanzers run back for repair, then break the repaired parts again. Dual and Guide skills helps you from destroying the body, but they will take a skill slot. Use a very weak weapon if a pilot does not have aiming skills.

You can leave the leg intact as enemy may be unable to reach the truck without it on rough terrain.

For agility exp, you want to defend next to a weak unit. Do not use a shield (cancel when prompted to use) . The agility exp you get by guarding is scaled to the level at the beginning of the battle (except for the Switch remake), thus if you build agility exp earlier, you will get a snowball effect. The first mission has no lose condition and enemy damage is low, perfect time to build agility.

Enemies do get exp and level up for taking your shots and destroying parts in each mission. Start training on your weakest ones (except maybe Peewie, who’s only good against armless or stunned wanzers and trucks) then go with stronger ones. It is best to keep multiple enemies alive. That is, move away from enemy supply truck and make wanzers walk to you in turns after repair so you spread out enemy exp gain.