Advancing Physical Attributes
A vampire has an incredibly easy time becoming stronger, quicker, or tougher. These expressions of physical might are only aspects of the blood, not actually an act of making ones dead body stronger. To increase a physical attribute a vampire need only spend a night willing her blood to be permanently stronger and spend the nececerry XP.
Advancing Mental or Social Attributes
A vampire has an easier time than a mortal raising physical and mental attributes. Something in the blood, or perhaps the beast, calls to the vampire to be the best predator it can be. Raising one of these attributes requires the player to explain how they are pushing the limits of the attribute in question to improve it, providing they can do this it's simply a matter of spending the required XP and taking a week per new dot.
Advancing Skills
Skills represent learned traits that must be trained and honed. Unfortunately for a vampire there's little about their nature that makes them more adept at becoming trained in a new vocation. Gaining the first dot in a skill takes two to three weeks of downtime, and depending on the skill might require a teacher. Advancing beyond the first dot takes dedicated time and training, requiring one week per dot for the second and third dot, then two weeks per dot for the fourth and fifth.
Skill specialties are similar, they require a great deal of training and usually require a teacher. Skill specialties take a month of downtime or more depending on the specialty in question.
Advancing Social Merits
Social merits can be gained in three ways. First they can be gained via roleplay during actual game sessions, doing so requires no expenditure of experience. During downtime social merits can also be purchased with XP, however justification for the merit in question must be made.
Finally one can increase Social merits during downtime by using "downtime actions." The player decides what social merit he wishes to advance/purchase then states how he plans to do it. The Storyteller comes up with an appropriate roll. One roll can be made per week of downtime used, and the amount of successes requires is equal to the dots of the merit x5. Multiple rolls can be made to reach your requires successes, but the minimum amount of weeks must be spent even if the successes are obtained before then. If a failed roll is made all successes are lost.
Advancing Other Merits
Advancing merits other than social takes one week per dot of downtime, costs XP, and may require a teacher.
Advancing In-Clan Physical Disciplines
Increasing in clan physical disciplines is the easiest thing in the world for a kindred. It can be done at any time as a reflexive action so long as they have the XP to purchase it.
Advancing In-Clan Mental Disciplines or Out of Clan Physical Disciplines
In clan mental disciplines and out clan physical disciplines requires XP as well as 1 week of training per dot.
Advancing Out of Clan Mental Disciplines
Out of clan mental disciplines require a teacher that knows the dot of the ability you are trying to learn, additionally you must have drank one point of vitae from a clan which has the discipline you are trying to learn as a in clan discipline, and finally it requires the nececerry XP cost. Learning out of clan mental disciplines takes one week per dot for the first three dots and two weeks per dot for levels four and above.