Spring 2016 Event/E-6

Branching rules

 * This map is a Combined Fleet map.
 * You may only use a Carrier-Task Force (CTF) on this map.
 * Start nodes are decided by the number of carriers in the fleet. Light Carriers and Armoured Carriers are also considered as carriers for this purpose. Akitsumaru and Hayasui are not considered as carriers.
 * Presence of Fast Battleships in Escort fleet will increase the chance the fleet will route in a partial circle.
 * No 100% short boss route has been found yet. All compositions found so far have a chance of going offroute, but the probability can be modified.
 * 2CAV, 2BBV, 2CV + 2DD, 1CLT, 1CL, 2CA has a fairly good chance to reach the boss node from  H → N

Using 4 carriers starts at start point 1.
 * Fast fleet will route A → C.
 * Slow fleet routes A → B → C.
 * C → F → H is guaranteed routing.
 * H → N is more likely to occur when there is no Fast Battleship in Escort fleet.
 * H → K → M → N is more likely to occur otherwise.
 * Offroute condition for K → P unknown.

Using 2 carriers starts at start point 2.
 * D → G → F → H normally occurs.
 * LOS check? G → F, upon failing G → O.
 * H → N is more likely to occur when there is no Fast Battleship in Escort fleet.
 * H → K → M → N is more likely to occur otherwise.
 * Offroute condition for K → P unknown.

Using 3 carriers starts at start point 3.
 * E → I → K → M normally occurs.
 * Offroute condition for K → P unknown.
 * Having only two carriers in your fleet can guarantee M → N routing. To achieve the condition of having only two carriers in your fleet while still start at point 3, you can send a carrier back home via FCF escort before the node.
 * M → N is more likely to occur when there is no Fast Battleship in Escort fleet. (it's a lie unless N means KC3 N which is L node.)
 * M → L → J → N is more likely to occur otherwise.
 * Offroute condition for K → O unknown.

Tips

 * Players intending to farm Oyashio on Medium and higher difficulties may find the northern routing efficient regardless of the random factor; should the compass direct the player to the boss, attempt to clear the boss. Otherwise if offrouted to L, S-rank node L for Oyashio drop chance, retreat, and repeat.

Aerial Attacks
After May 5 patch update, many players used Aerial Support and/or Opening Air Strike with Zuiun in E6, and quite a few of them have successfully dealt hundreds or even thousands of damage to the Central Princess, disabling or detroying her before the shelling phase. Here are some of the methods people used to trigger those huge amounts of damage.
 * Warning: Using some of the methods listed here could reduce your fleet's firepower, and due to the unstable nature of Aerial Support/Opening Air Strike, this is a very RNG-intensive method. Be sure you have enough resource/bucket/time for literally hundreds of failures before relying on this method.
 * Some claim that they feel armor debuff could increase the chance of successfully getting a critical off the Opening Air Strike

Zuiun Approach
Fleet Equipment Setup:
 * Multiple (As much as you can) Zuiuns and 1 Type 3 Shell, loaded onto BBVs.
 * Some might want to replace Zuiun with Prototype Seiran, however, it is still unclear whether or not they will work.


 * Carriers:
 * Enough Fighters for AS/AS+
 * Require up to 234 FP for AS, 468 FP for AS+ at boss for Hard Last dance.
 * Bomber Aircrafts
 * Dive bombers (red planes) seems to do more damage to Central Hime than Torpedo bombers (blue planes).
 * Note that carriers equipped with one or more dive bombers can't attack installation during shelling phase, thus by doing so, you're placing all your bets on the Opening Bombing phase.


 * Hayasui or Akitsumaru:
 * Under Investigation


 * Escort Fleet:
 * Equip them accordingly for anti-installation night battle

Aerial Support Expedition

 * Aerial Support engages the enemy carriers in a second Aerial Combat phase. For this reason it is recommended to give your support fleet at least some fighter planes.
 * The support fleet's Fighter Power is calculated in the same way as that of a regular main fleet but Aircraft Proficiency Bonus and are neglected.
 * Depending on the outcome of the Opening Air Strike, the enemy fleet will have less fighter planes for your support fleet to worry about.
 * Having a lot of Fighter Power is not required to achieve AS/AS+, a single fighter in the smallest slot of each carrier should be enough.
 * Achieving AS/AS+ reduces the number of bombers that are shot down, saving bauxite and allowing you to keep dealing heavy damage, however that would mean you have less slot to equip your bombers and thus reducing your chance of success.
 * Dive bombers (red planes) seems to do more damage to Central Hime than Torpedo bombers (blue planes), but some disagree.
 * Dive bombers also provide better accuracy stats than Torpedo bombers, which helps them to hit their targets.
 * Make sure you have plenty of +accuracy equipment/planes, so your bombers actually hit something. Don't overload them to the point you're trading accuracy for damage output though.
 * Note that equipment accuracy stats are the only thing that affects your accuracy in Aerial Support Expeditions. Sparkling the flagship helps increase the chance for the support fleet to appear, however, sparkling will not make your support expedition become more accurate and neither does leveling.
 * Some might also load Zuiun onto AVs.
 * Require further testing
 * Preboss support is optional.

Routing
Zuiun Approach requires the Zuiuns along with your carrier bombers to make it to the boss node in reasonably intact (≥60% of starting bombers). Achieving AS/AS+ in Air combat can help a lot in making sure these bombers survive.

As you may have realised already, you have 3 routes to choose from, starting with different amounts of bombers at each point (due to carrier-oriented starting points) and thus different enemies you will encounter along the way.

Choose a route that you feel you will not lose a lot of bombers along the way, and that you feel will reach the boss with reasonably good HP. A tip is to have at least 150 bombers starting the aerial battle at the Boss.

Warning

 * This method is VERY RNG heavy. Be sure you have enough patient before and when trying this method.

Zuiun approach requires:
 * Zuiuns to target Hime (very big RNG point)
 * A reasonable amount of surviving Zuiuns
 * Supporting bombers to target Hime
 * Reasonable amount of bombers in aerial phase
 * Decent to good RNG damage rolls

If you're trying this and not doing well, you just have to keep on trying or try a different method.

Drop list
At a sample size of 2082 S-ranks, zero Oyashio drops were obtained on Easy, based on data from poi-statistics. This virtually guarantees that if she did drop in Easy, the probability of doing so is less than 0.1%; as the drop rates on Medium and Hard are 1% and 1.5% respectively on S-rank, it is overwhelmingly likely that Oyashio's drop rate on Easy is actually ZERO. Players who cannot S-rank node L on Medium may wish to farm for her in E7 Node D Easy instead.