The ladder grows — five new ranks and a page that explains them
The career ladder had a problem we could see coming: it ended too soon. Ten ranks, topping out at 🕊 Albatross at 25,000 XP — and an active pilot, between ship catches, races and cargo rounds, was on pace to get there in a month or two. After that, XP kept counting but stopped meaning. A number that only goes up is only motivating while there's a next threshold to cross.
Five new ranks, same curve
So the ladder now continues past Albatross, on the same growth curve it always had:
🌩 Stormrider at 40,000 · 🌅 Horizon Chaser at 65,000 · 🌠 Comet at 100,000 · 🐙 Kraken at 160,000 · 🔱 Poseidon at 250,000.
The names finish the arc the ladder was already drawing — from a hatchling on a beach to sea myth. Poseidon at the top is a deliberate wink at the Tridents 🔱, the trophy currency paid for world firsts and records. Nothing about how you earn XP changed, and nobody lost anything: if you were Albatross yesterday, you are Albatross today — but now there's somewhere to go.
A real page for the ladder
Ranks used to be explained in a small section at the bottom of the achievements catalogue. Now they have their own page: /ranks. Every rank, every threshold, and a plain-language list of the things that earn XP — spotting ships and aircraft, racing, cargo drops, freestyle, mapping flying spots, publishing moments. If you're signed in, the page marks where you stand on the ladder and how far the next rank is. Your rank on your profile links straight to it, so "what does Captain's Eye actually mean?" is one click away.
Badges that explain themselves
Your public profile got the same treatment. The achievement badges used to be mute chips — a name and a tier if you hovered long enough. Now each one opens: what it was earned for, which tier you've reached of how many, and the date you got there. Under the badges, a progress bar shows your XP inching toward the next rank. The full catalogue of everything there is to earn still lives at /achievements, linked from every profile.
One honest economy tweak
While we were in the career code we closed a loophole in the new Feathers 🪶 wallet: hovering next to one epic vessel and hammering the shutter could fill the entire daily Feathers cap from a single target. From now on a given ship or aircraft pays Feathers once per day — shoot it as much as you like, the photos and the XP repeat rules are untouched, but the wallet fills by flying to different vessels, not by standing still. That's the spirit of the whole economy: the daily cap should be earned by variety, and spotting itself stays uncapped and free (spotting rework has the details on how catches work now).
The career spine — profile, collection, leaderboard, achievements and now ranks — is one connected map. Climb it.