As with any ship line, you always want to build for the future. When leveling a sub crew, you will want to have at least one extra BO and a pair of gunners so you can level up crew on gunships. It works best if you're also leveling a BB crew, or if you've already got a gunship crew leveled far enough to keep up with your SS crew as it grows. Leveling extra sailors on a submarine is difficult and unwise.


A bit of generic advice about elites and boosting:

Elites cost roughly the same as premium boosts. The difference is that a boost gives you far more stat gain than using an elite sailor will. However, a boost can be applied at any level, while you can only choose whether to use an elite sailor at the start. If you're only going to pay for one or the other, get a premium boost. If you think you might use both, decide now.


The numbers:

SS1 (L37): BO, 2 T-slot sailors, 1 R-slot sailor, 2 support sailors
SS2 (L46): BO, 2 T-slot sailors, 1 R-slot sailor, 3 support sailors
SS3 (L59): BO, 2 T-slot sailors, 1 R-slot sailor, 3 support sailors
SS4 (L74): BO, 2 T-slot sailors, 2 R-slot sailors, 3 support sailors
SS5 (L95): BO, 2 T-slot sailors, 1 R-slot sailor, 5(?) support sailors



About T-slot sailors:

- The torpedo stat is the only stat that makes your torpedoes reload faster. The reload stat does nothing (it's only for gunners).
- Repair and restore are important to all sub sailors, because you don't have as much room as bigger ships for actual repairmen. Because you get enough torpedo stat from classing as a torpedo man, repair/restore stats are actually more important when rolling a new sailor for your torpedo men than torpedo is. Try for 10 in torpedo and 11/11 or 12/10 repair/restore (or use elite repairmen!).
- I recommend delay-classing your torpedo men until level 44. At level 12, class them as KM sailors, but DO NOT class them to armament sailor yet. Wait until level 44, then class to armament sailor, then to gunner, then to heavy torpedo. Keep them there. They will still reach the torpedo reload speed cap easily, and they will have much more repair/restore ability.
- SS1 has front torpedo tubes and a rear minelayer. Minelayer ammunition must be bought with olives, if you wish to use it. Most players don't.
- SS2 and up has front and rear torpedo tubes.
- Some players advocate using a repairer or restorer on the aft T-slot, because aft weapons are less necessary than the forward tubes. Most players use a torpedo man on the aft slot though.



About R-slot sailors:

- The SS1, 2, 3 and 5 have a single forward deck gun. SS4 has one fore deck gun and two aft.
- SS1/2/3/5 are commonly run without gunners, using repairers and/or a restorer instead. If you run these ships with a gunner, be careful to level each of your gunners equally so they don't get apart in level. As a general rule, gunner pairs should be kept together, making SS gunners cumbersome to manage.
- SS4's guns are more useful, but it's still fairly common to see SS4 crews without gunners.
- If you have a gunship BO and gunners for KM already (and you should, to help with leveling crews) you can level supports and have the option to switch between a gunner and a repairer/restorer for the R-slots.



About support sailors:

- A planesman is very important. While they are not required per se, you are seriously disadvantaged without one. Dive time is limited by air supply, and the planesman's skill reduces the time the sub needs to replenish its air supply. Without a planesman, you start each battle with empty air tanks (which fill very slowly without a planesman). The higher his potential stat the better. If you've got olives to spare, an elite sailor here is not a bad idea.
- Sonar is very useful. While a sub is submerged, it relies on sonar to maintain sight of its surroundings. Sometimes an SS player will attempt to replace his sonar with an engineer, but this is very risky and not recommended. Without a sonar man, you can only see about a sub's length away in any direction while submerged.
- The difference between a good sonar man and a bad one is small. Having one at all is about 75% as good as having a good one. Look for a sonar man with decent (13+) potential and good repair and restore (11/11+). Class him to support at level 12, and to 2nd sonar as late as you can--they lose repair/restore growth and gain very little potential when you class them from support to 2nd sonar. Basically, keep him as a support until you're ready to start using U-boats. You will still have enough sonar range to spot ships before you're ready to attack them.
- If you want to focus exclusively on ASW, then consider using a boosted +15 or +16 sonar man classed on time, to give you a small edge on spotting enemy SS.
- Any support slots that your planesman and sonar are not filling should be used for engineers. This is optional, but recommended.



About the BO:

- Potential is not important for an SS BO. It is useful for gunship BOs, since it extends your aiming guidelines, however you do not need extra guideline length for a submarine. If anything, you want repair/restore stats, however I strongly recommend not using any crew on your BO, which means base stats are not important at all.
- Because potential is not important, and because unclassed sailors earn experience faster, you do not want to class your sailor into a BO on time (but make sure to set his nation at level 12, so he doesn't get stuck as a neutral sailor).
- Class your BO when you're ready to start using subs. You can start at level 37 with the SS1, but consider starting with the SS2 or even the SS3. (See "about the ships" below) You will miss the weaker subs and your crew will reach the SS3's level sooner this way.
- Remove ALL the crew from your BO right from level 1. See the "about weight" section below for details.



About weight:

- If you keep your crew full with rookies in addition to their experts and veterans, eventually they will become too heavy to all fit into your sub. It may not happen until SS3 or SS4, but it will happen.
- Veterans are for life. Rookies can become experts, and the only way to remove experts is to try to promote them to veterans and hope the promotion fails.
- Some functions your crew perform have caps for how much stats can be applied to them, and some do not. Because planesman, engineer and repair functions don't completely cap, you will want to cut crew from other sailors to keep the total weight within your ship's limits.
- The lowest-priority sailor in terms of what his stats do is your BO. Keep him empty; once he picks up veterans, they'll always be there and you will never get that weight back.


About the ships:

- The SS1 has a very short air supply, meaning you cannot stay submerged for long. It is a very weak sub. If you have the patience, you can level your crew and BO to 46 (the SS2's level) using your other BO on gunships. This means you can keep your sonar man unclassed for even longer, making your later-level subs have even better repair rates and soft defense values than if you started at level 37 with the SS1. It will also avoid the frustration of being forced to level your SS BO in such a weak sub.
- The SS5 has not (as of 2011-09-13) been released yet. Expect details to change. This guide will not be the first place to report new changes, so if you're keen on recent events, check the test server forum.

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As long as you continue to work on it, Stickied.

If you edit the first post the sticky will be removed in that case submit a ticket under forum.

Good work, keep it up!