Levels, Ranks and Experience
Blood Secrets makes a distinction between Levels - the character's general level of capability - and Ranks, which represent the character's standing in a Society consequently the complexity of missions they will be trusted to undertake.
A character's Level is equal to their score in their Primary ability. This has the in-game purpose of determining the power of enemies they will be facing. It does not, however, necessarily mean that the character will be performing the most critical missions.
A character will have a separate Rank in every Society of which they are a member. When the character takes a mission with that Society, the Rank of the game level in which the mission takes place will equal their Rank in that society. The Rank of enemies encountered will, in turn, depend on the Rank of that level. Consequently the character will perform larger and more challenging missions as they progress up the Ranks of the Society.
Experience is gained by completing these missions. Upon completion, the character will obtain a number of Experience Points based on the Rank of the mission.
The Experience obtained from missions can be spent on advancing the character's skills, abilities and Powers.
Abilities are advanced by using functional items in a Public or Residential items with the "Train" function. Select the relevant ability from the drop-down menu, and if you have enough Experience Points the character's score in that ability will increase by one. The cost of improving the ability will be equal to the new score. While the character is training they will enter Time Out, and not be available for a period of 16 hours in real time. Note that the character's Primary costs the same as any other ability; however, care should be taken not to advance too fast compared to the character's other skills and abilities or the character will be underpowered compared to their enemies.
Skills are increased by a Trainer, either in a Public area or in a Society's headquarters. Note that some skills are only taught by Societies in their headquarters. To train a skill you must fulfil its requirements, which may include having an ability at a certain level and/or having another skill at a certain level. Societies will only train characters in a skill to the same score as their Rank in that society, but will be cheaper than training in a Public area. The Experience Point cost is the value of the relevant ability requirement.
Powers may only be taught and advanced by a Society. A Society will only teach a Power to the level equal to the character's current Rank in that Society. The Experience Point cost is equal the new level multiplied by 7.