Leveling up in Valkyria Chronicles works not on individual units, but on whole unit classes. If you level up the Scout class, for example, all your Scout units profit from it.

Aside from effects like increased accuracy, more health and defense, reaching certain levels for a class can also unlock things. Among these are certain battle Orders you only get from reaching this class level, as well as unlock a unit's Class Potentials, which are always beneficial.

This guide is intended to let you plan out which milestones to reach with your experience, so you can specifically work towards unlocking a certain order or class potential.

Reaching level 11 promotes a class to Elite status - this has a special effect for scouts, shocktroopers and lancers in particular.

Total upgrade cost: 432868 experience

Your fastest units. Especially very early, some levels here can be helpful, because Alicia can be one of your best units on the field.

It's also recommended to try to get them to level 11 quickly, since elite scouts can use the Grenade Launcher - this allows you to launch your grenades much farther than you can throw them, making it immensely useful for bombing enemies out of fortified positions.

Total upgrade cost: 546788 experience

Close combat fighters. Here, some early levels will help again for more durability. At the start of the game, you units' accuracy is pretty low, so you'll rely a lot on shocktroopers running in close and blasting enemies away.

Elite shocktroopers gain access to the secondary weapon Flamethrower which deals huge damage in an arc close in front of a unit. Flamethrowers also ignore the extra defense of enemies hiding behind sandbags or cowering in tall grass, which makes them great for clearing out fortified camps.

Despite being the most expensive class to upgrade, they are also a good candidate for an early level 11, because not only do they get another effective weapon out of it, by level 11 they'll have 3 out of 4 class potentials unlocked!

Total upgrade cost: 478439 experience

These are your anti-tank units, and they really aren't good for much more. They are slow, they have no real anti-infantry weapon before reaching Elite status, and their accuracy is atrocious. On the upside, they have pretty good armor (which will cost you extra, though) and there's really only one alternative to taking out a tank: your own tank.

They get their second class potential at only level 4, so it's a good idea to invest some levels early and then let them rest a little. On reaching Elite status, they gain access to a Mortar, which is an alternative to their normal lances. Instead of explicitly anti-tank, this one is explicitly anti-infantry. It will have to be researched independently, though.

This is probably one of the last classes you will max out, since their effectiveness is limited to having tanks around.

Total upgrade cost: 296172 experience

Engineers use the same weapon as scouts, pack better healing than the other classes, have more grenades, and can repair tanks. This is offset by being fairly fragile, so they need some solid cover (like your tank) to be effective.

You will need to invest in some levels eventually to ensure their survivability, and the first order you get for leveling them is very useful, but otherwise upgrading engineers is kind of lower priority. Luckily, they are the cheapest class to upgrade, so they can catch up easily. Having their last potential unlock on level 20 also means that it will likely be one of the last classes you will max out.

Total upgrade cost: 524006 experience

One of my favourite classes, though often limited in usefulness. Snipers sorely need some levels (and improved weapons) in the beginning, because their starting accuracy is terrible. They are only really effective when you can headshot enemies, as you might expect, so give them some levels and better weapons and suddenly they'll be murdermachines.

They get their first class potential right away on level 2, but otherwise you can probably stand to neglect them a bit very early on, until you can afford to make them not suck. Definitely invest into them mid-game, because that is where they start to shine - even without an additional unlock on Elite status.

This is not a priority class to max out, however, since they shouldn't need much survivability, and their mid-game accuracy is mostly sufficient. It doesn't help that they are the 2nd most expensive class to upgrade, either.