Earn your fleet
Until now every naval captain could spawn the battleship on their first match. The hull classes were a rock-paper-scissors triangle but not a ladder — there was nothing to work toward. So the naval theater gets progression: you start in the destroyer and earn the cruiser and the battleship by doing the one thing the mode is about, sinking ships.
Sink ships, earn hulls
The game has kept your career for a while now — your kills, wins, medals, and, for the sea, the tally of ships you've sunk. That tally is the key: each hull opens at a threshold of sinkings. The Tachi destroyer is yours from the start, the Bastion cruiser opens at five ships sunk, and the Dreadnought battleship at fifteen. The first rung lines up with the SHIP KILLER ribbon, so you earn the cruiser and the medal in the same breath.
The hangar greys out what you haven't earned yet, each locked hull wearing a “sink N ships” badge so you can always see the next goal. And the lock holds — you can't jump the queue into a battleship you haven't paid for in sinkings.
The moment it pays off
Cross a threshold and a callout fires mid-match — NEW SHIP UNLOCKED — and the hull opens in the hangar right then, no reconnect, so your very next spawn can be the cruiser you just earned. The enemy fleet doesn't wait for you to catch up: the AI always fields a full destroyer screen and a battle line, so every match is a proper fight no matter how green the crews. It's a small thing — one number from your record — but it turns three ships you could already drive into three ships worth working toward.