How do I level up my squad members, or, how can I keep from getting my butt kicked all the time

I'm playing Squads offline.

I juggle my loadouts for all my squad members, and sometimes they're good, sometimes they suck. Against Hardened bots, I can win most of the time on some maps, not at all on others.

Against Veteran bots, forget it. Non-stop ass kicking. Brutally.

So what is the deal? I mean, sure, I suck; but I can go like 20-5 on some of these games and still lose.

I notice my squaddies never level up. They stay recruits.

Help me!

You play as each squad member individually to level them up. They don't level up on thier own. Squads vs Squads has a leaderboard and you can look at your last 5 games where your squad has been challenged and see how they did. Mine only really win on KC or TDM and they win more often when I choose a big map as my homebase. In this mode the bots are only on regular I think and can still be challenging. In wargames which I assume is what you are playing is just for practice and matches are not tracked what so ever.

Protip to level up your members from lvl 1 fast in squads wargames as soon as you hit max xp back out and choose play now again. Rinse and repeat as I can usually hit max xp in about 1 minute into a match. If you are ahead in wargames it still counts as a win.

Thank you for the quick and thorough response.

It looks like my online squad and offline squad are two different groups, though. They certainly have different names and loadouts.

What exact mode are you playing in squads? Or are you just playing bots in private match?

Just playing bots in a private match. Mostly TDM.

I just notice on Veteran, the skill level of the opponent bots is almost always a lot higher than my bots. Hell, a lot higher than mine, apparently.

As Winners said, in a private match, you will not get XP.