Veterancy refers to most of the game's units ability to accumulate amount of combat experience to reach an upper rank and gain improved abilities. When units reach enough veterancy points and reach the next rank, they may gain increased health, damage output and other benefits. Veterancy is mainly acquired by destroying certain amount of enemies, but also can be obtained by other means. The amount of veterancy points needed depends on the unit in question, ranging from very little for a Ranger to very much for a Sentinel Tank.
Veterancy ranks and their effects are listed below:
| Rank | Effect |
|---|---|
| Regular | No benefits |
| Veteran | +20% hit points, +20% firing rate, +10% firepower |
| Elite | +30% hit points, +40% firing rate, +20% firepower, self-healing/repair |
| Heroic | +50% hit points, +60% firing rate, +30% firepower |
Veterancy plays a more important role for the USA faction, whereas vehicles with veterancy will always release a Pilot upon being destroyed: this pilot is able to enter any other friendly USA vehicles and they will add their own veterancy to that of the vehicle, so for example, if a rank 2 pilot enters a rank 1 Humvee, the Humvee will instantly become rank 3. Also, there is an upgrade called Advanced Training which will make all USA units gain veterancy much faster.
One of the ECA's General's Powers, Field Promotion also involves instantly promoting a small group of units to the next rank of their veterancy, this is especially useful on units that take a long time to reach the next level, such as the Manticore tank.
Chinese Hackers are unique in that their level of veterancy does not increase their attack abilities (as they have none), but instead allows them to gather more money at a time from the internet. They automatically gain veterancy over time by using the internet hack ability.
Trivia[]
- In the original Generals and Zero Hour, it was possible to use General's Powers to make certain units (such as Red Guards or Technicals) trained as veterans. As of 1.87, only USA and Russia has the ability to train some of their units (Rangers, Missile Defenders, and Vanguards for USA; Kodiak Tanks, Sentinel Tanks and Golem Tanks for Russia) as veterans with the Veteran Company and Ursa Division GP unlock respectively.