@wolfmanbush You are not forced to complete trials, those are extras that give you extra renown, but you can get to lvl 100 just by playing your way since these are not needed to get renown, you get it just by playing and doing stuff (voyages, worldevents, fishing, getting treasure on your ship/selling it, defeating skeletons, even just sailing gets you some renown). In fact, I don't think I'll even try doing one, 3 months are plenty of time to get to lvl 100 and I have no hurry.
System itself is awesome though I love how just playing even when doing random things now unlocks things
I know lot of people like battle passes but that's not my thing, specially in this case since I'm interested in like 2 items from the pass. Getting rewarded with stuff I don't care about doesn't really feel rewarding to me, but I do admit the lvl up pop-up makes me feel like I'm doing some progress, but probably I just miss the feeling of progression since I maxed out all companies way long ago.