I am currently a level 13 Buccaneer and really wanna upgrade some of my companions (I don’t have problem winning matches but upgrading companions seems fun) but since the companion training points don’t give much xp if the difference in levels is less, when is the best time to upgrade them so that they remain strong as well as I get more xp from each triangle point. I currently own around 40 companion training points.

The higher the pirate's level is relative to the companion's level the more experience will be obtained from a tome. Companions tend to get a new point choice of talent point every four levels. As such, it is wise to wait until a tome buys a companion two levels before leveling it.

It should also be noted that tasked companions will never show up in battle unless their task has completed. So if you send everyone you don't want to use out on missions, or place them into your ship cabin/dorm/house, then you only need to train those that aren't tasked assuming you have chosen a more random option of who shows up. If you have options set at using your top three positioned companions every fight, then those are the only ones you need to level until you are at max, but even if you play like that you will likely want to level up your companions so to the point where they bring back good returns. In that case you will likely be best off to wait until each tome buys them a full four levels.

So for the most part you want your companion levels to be evenly divided by four. The exception being when a companion promotes at a level not divisible by four and you really want them to promote early as they are ones that you use.

Play like this and its quite likely that you will never have a need to buy a training tome for gold ever, even maxing out all companions after maxing out your pirate. Though, if that is your goal, then its wise to not do quests that will give you a new companion until you reach max level. Companions picked up at max level will be one level higher than your pirate even when your pirate is already at max level, so that is nice.

brian angel grove on Mar 10, 2021 wrote:

Is this a problem for other companions too?

Ratbeard (level 28?) and Bonnie Anne (level 31) have promos that require you to talk to Catbeard; if you wait too long and Catbeard isn't on his ship, you'll need to wait until you free him in Marleybone.
Otherwise there are no other level promos that cause this problem.

Takhethis on Mar 9, 2021 wrote:

The higher the pirate's level is relative to the companion's level the more experience will be obtained from a tome. Companions tend to get a new point choice of talent point every four levels. As such, it is wise to wait until a tome buys a companion two levels before leveling it.

It should also be noted that tasked companions will never show up in battle unless their task has completed. So if you send everyone you don't want to use out on missions, or place them into your ship cabin/dorm/house, then you only need to train those that aren't tasked assuming you have chosen a more random option of who shows up. If you have options set at using your top three positioned companions every fight, then those are the only ones you need to level until you are at max, but even if you play like that you will likely want to level up your companions so to the point where they bring back good returns. In that case you will likely be best off to wait until each tome buys them a full four levels.

So for the most part you want your companion levels to be evenly divided by four. The exception being when a companion promotes at a level not divisible by four and you really want them to promote early as they are ones that you use.

Play like this and its quite likely that you will never have a need to buy a training tome for gold ever, even maxing out all companions after maxing out your pirate. Though, if that is your goal, then its wise to not do quests that will give you a new companion until you reach max level. Companions picked up at max level will be one level higher than your pirate even when your pirate is already at max level, so that is nice.

Sorry, I wrote this a bit wrong.

On my main companions I wait until a tome buys two companion levels, and then I use two to three more tomes to bring them up to an increase of four total levels so that they may receive their next improvement (perfectly divisible by four, as explained above).

brian angel grove on Mar 15, 2021 wrote:

By the way I have never purchased tomes and saw on google that their price increases with increase in our level

So will it be wiser if I just stash a lot of training tomes right now?

You can only buy up to 10 tomes at a time. You can find tomes scattered throughout the game, check the P101 wiki for locations, you can also gain tomes through quests or from booster packs (Tribal & Beastmaster) but they're rare.
When you recruit a companion, they will be 1 - 2 levels above you, you can then set them "Keelhaulin'" to gain you a tome. This will take 24 hrs, (less if they have a rank or more in "Officer") and you can only set a companion to Keelhaulin' if you have less than 10 tomes.
Good Luck!

brian angel grove on Mar 15, 2021 wrote:

By the way I have never purchased tomes and saw on google that their price increases with increase in our level

So will it be wiser if I just stash a lot of training tomes right now?

Yes, by all means stash what you can. The higher your character level is relative to any companion that you are training determines the amount of experience purchased from a tome for it. If a companion is only one level below your character level, it may take a good five or six tomes or so to increase it one level, but if the companion is much below your character level, then one tome can increase it a good two to four levels. When you have tons of companions and reach max level, its so much quicker and easier to max out all your companions when you have sat on tomes rather than had you used them when leveling up. The exception to that is when you level everyone up through tasks. If you take little real time to level up your pirate, then the latter is slow and doesn't work so well. Either way, I'd still be inclined to send my companions out for nautical experience, pet quests, and equipment quests to sell such equipment for gold upon obtaining. Granted, if you want to use all your companions during leveling up and have who shows up set upon random, or random with first mate chosen, then keeping your companions leveled up becomes important.

brian angel grove on Mar 22, 2021 wrote:

I tried buying times from professor Byron however it shows a Cross on it and I can’t buy it even though I have enough gold and have never bought a time from him

How many tomes do you have now? If you have 10 or more tomes, you won't be able to buy more.

brian angel grove on Mar 24, 2021 wrote:

Oh, thanks for clarifying. I actually misunderstood before.
I currently possess around 50 tomes.

Your companions must really be suffering for levels/promotions. I suggest using some of those tomes (not all!) but enough to level them to within 2 - 3 levels of your own.
The higher the level of companion & with a promotion, the better they preform!