KanColle Kai



KanColle Kai is a game based on and derived from the popular browser game, Kantai Collection. It is a PlayStation Vita game (that does not support Vita TV/PS TV) distributed by Kadokawa Games Inc. and developed by Kadokawa Game Studio/Kancolle Unei Chinjufu (C2 Kikan). KanColle Kai is a single-player strategic simulation game in which players can develop their own fleet and is a more strategic version compared to the original browser-based game. The game's rating is C in CERO which means the game is suitable for those who are age 15 or above. The game's producer and director is Tanaka Kensuke whereas its executive producer is Yasuda Yoshimi. It was announced back in year 2013 when they said the game will be released in about a year. After multiple delays, it was ultimately released in Japan on Feb 18, 2016 with no known international release plan so far. It's estimated that the game can be cleared within 50-100 hours and a perfect clear in the game would take around 200 hours. The game's official website is http://kancolle-vita.com.

When the developers first started designing the game, they wanted to make a port of the current browser game but decided to add additional strategic/simulation elements, introduce the turn-based system, game over mechanics, and "revamp" its interface. For instance, players have to allocate resources, transport convoys, and escort fleets into different regions in the game. There will also be ship girl differences of some sort with those such as Mogami kai or Taigei.

In this game, every Kanmusu will be animated via the Live2D technology.

Patch #1

 * Release Time Feb 22 10:00
 * 2 New Quests
 * 精強な「潜水艦隊」を編成せよ！ (Organize a strengthened Submarine Fleet)
 * 艦隊旗艦、戦艦「大和」出撃せよ！ (Sortie the fleet's flagship, Battleship Yamato!)
 * Implementation of quest reward equipment
 * Prototype 51cm Twin Gun Mount, etc.
 * Bugfix
 * Problem arising from carrier usage when there are four battle command slots
 * Stability Increase
 * Typo/Presentation error fix
 * Fixing the quest checker for some sortie quests
 * Stabilizing Factory Development

Difficulty Selection
https://kancolle-vita.com/commons/images/system_update/system01_ss_04.png Before you start playing, you can pick what difficulty you want to play on. At first, you can pick between Tei (Easy), Hei (Normal), and Otsu (Hard) mode. After clearing the game you can continue to use some of your kanmusu to play on other difficulties (See New Game + Section). On top of Tei, Hei, and Otsu, Kou and Historical difficulty are also known to exist. Kou (Very Hard mode) can be unlocked by clearing Otsu, and Historical mode (Nightmare mode in the game's English) can be unlocked by clearing Kou.

KanColle beginners are advised to select Tei (Easy) first while experienced admirals are advised to start with Hei (Normal).

Note that clearing Tei (Easy) will NOT unlock Kou difficulty.

Starter Ship
After selecting your game's difficulty and inputting your admiral's name, you can pick your starter ship. It is possible for players to start in either the "Kai Start" mode or the "Classic Start +" mode. On classic+ mode, you can pick any of the 8 destroyers provided (which include the starter five in web version: Fubuki, Murakumo, Inazuma, Samidare, and Sazanami, but also three others: Mutsuki, Shigure, Ooshio), whereas on the Kai mode, you can pick any of the 3 Sendai Class Light Cruisers as your starter ship.

Tutorial
After selecting the starter ship, the game will ask whether or not you want to go through the tutorial. It is highly recommended that you do not skip the tutorial and learn the fundamental differences between this game and the browser version that will even throw seasoned admirals for a loop.

Flagship Admiral Room
The Flagship Admiral Room is your home screen. It shows your secretary ship and allows you to perform different actions with the menu. The default menu is blue and the orange sub-menu is accessible by pressing the L button.

The main button will always go to strategy. The main menu, clockwise from 12 o'clock, is Organization/Composition, Refit, Factory, Quest, Dock, and lastly Resupply. On the sub-menu the options are Battle Record, Gallery, Items, Setting, Furniture, and Record (aka save, note that you have to manually save the game since this game does not autosave).

Each fleet will also have its own admiral room, and you can customize the furniture in each of these rooms as you like.

It is possible to communicate with your flagship in your admiral room by touching your kanmusu which will increase their affinity with you and thus their performance in battles.

Resources
There is no natural resource regeneration in Kai. Ways to obtain resources include expeditions, convoys, and quest rewards.

Turn System
Since KanColle Kai is a turn-based game, many things like construction, docking, and expedition are timed by the number of turns. The unit given for each turn is "day", with the use of the traditional Japanese month name and the formal daiji number to count years. You can go to the next turn manually. The game starts at December 8, Year 0.

Each fleet/ship girl is limited to an amount of actions per turn (e.g. 1 sortie).

Numerals For Year
零: Zero, 壱: One, 弐: Two, 参: Three

Expedition
You can select the amount of accompanying transport ships for every fleet you send to an expedition and there're requirements for it too. As written on the interface, some expeditions require a certain amount of transport ships to complete. For transport-type expedition that are outside the Naval Base Sea Area expedition fleet would move to the area and even when the written requirement for transport ship might be zero, you still need to send transport ship out together with your expedition fleet or else it would result in fail.

Some expedition's requirements could differ from the web version.

Support Expedition
It can be used in different sea area.

Composition

 * Similar to the browser edition of kancolle but you are allowed with up to 8 fleets at the same time. See KanColle Kai/Quest for how to unlock them.
 * Ship lock can be applied on ship detail page via this interface.

Strategy
The strategy screen is accessible through the large button in the center of main screen, where you can see the global map and control your fleet.

You can see the current sea area name on the top right-hand corner, the flagship kanmusu (ship girl) of the selected fleet on the right hand side of the screen, the resources information down below it on the left hand side, the information about the current turn on the top left hand corner, and the commands you can choose to the left. Your fleet deployment status will be displayed on the central map. You can sortie your kanmusus to combat a sea area, move your kanmusus to a nearby sea area, assign convoys, and the like to different sea areas to secure regions and obtain resources here. Pressing the R button goes back to flagship admiral room.

Fleet Move/Deployment/Logistic
Moving a fleet to a neighbouring sea area takes 1 day (turn).

You can send transport convoys and guarding fleets to different sea areas.

It's very important to send transport convoy to different sea areas as they give you resources at the start of every turn that are necessary to dock your kanmusus, construct new kanmusus, and the like, especially since there isn't natural resource regen in this game.

Different sea areas give different amounts of resources.

Transport Convoy
Tei=
 * They aren't kanmusu
 * Construction of Transport ships is needed to form transport convoy, which use strategic points instead of devmat. They are also obtainable from quest rewards.
 * They don't have any offensive/defensive power so they are vulnerable to enemy's trade disruption operation. To avoid this, it's needed to put escort fleet together with them.
 * Required amount of transport ships per sea area and maximum obtainable resources in each sea area everyday are listed below, vary by difficulty:
 * -|Hei=
 * -|Otsu=
 * -|Kou=
 * -|Historical=

Escort Fleet

 * Maximum 1 fleet per sea area.
 * DD can't be flagship.
 * They can be damaged if abyssal commence trade disruption operation, but cannot be repair when they are under deployment status
 * Using of guarding fleet increase resource obtainable from the area.
 * You can put DD/CL/CT/CAV/BBV/CVL into the fleet but not CLT/CA/FBB/BB/CV/CVB/SS/SSV

Sortie
After selecting an area and fleet to sortie into, you are presented with the map of the area as per normal. While in the map screen, you are able to either spin the compass or activate Combat Shortcut to skip battle scenes. When entering regular battle nodes, you are given 5 formations to choose from, unlike the original game. Detection phase commences, before displaying the Battle Command screen, where you can relay commands to your fleet to modify their battle operations afterwards.

It is possible to skip battle scenes and enable Combat Shortcuts by pressing the LB button on the map screen. Note that uncleared Boss Battles cannot be skipped.

In regular battle node, you can choose to go to night battle or not after day battle end with enemy left. Continue to night battle would further consume ammo and if you still wish to fight other enemy after the node then it is recommended not to do so since low ammo would result in reduced fleet performance. There are also some Night Battle Node and possibly other special battle nodes.

After ending a battle, you can choose to continue the sortie or retreat. Sortieing or continuing sorties with ships that have HP in the red (Taiha) will cause them to sink if are hit.

Unlike the browser edition, HP and damecon consumption status will be displayed or can be checked in the screen that ask users to pick the fleet's next action.

Experience granted for victories is x4.5 of the Map's Base Exp. Flagships and MVPs get an additional x1.5 and x2 respectively.

ASW seems to work even during Night Battle.

Battle Command
Battle Commands are given to your fleet after Detection Phase, before the fleet begins combat. They affect your fleet's combat strategy and how they fight during the battle.

The number of battle commands you can assign to your fleet depends on your flagship's level, starting at three commands. But as the flagship level increases, the limit of assignable commands increases as well, to a maximum of 5. The 4th Command unlocks at Level 35, and the 5th Command unlock at Level ~70.

It seems that placing the commands in different locations will impact the combat flow greatly. For example, a torpedo attack placed at the start will order ships with Midget subs to perform preemptive strikes.

List of battle commands:

Map/Sea Area

 * Main Article: KanColle Kai/Areas

Resupply
It basically works the same as the browser's kancolle.

"Fleet Drill" (Exercise)
You can train your ships by sending your ships to various Exercises. There are two types of Exercises:

Fleet Exercise

Rival Exercise Rival Exercise is the Kancolle Kai equivalent of PvP Exercises. As there are no online functions in the game, PvP is replaced with two of your own fleets battling each other instead. You require both fleets in the same area, fully resupplied, and all ships undocked with no action taken yet in order to perform the exercise. Only the fleet initiating the battle will obtain experience. The amount of experience obtained is dependent on the challenged fleet's level.

Refit
https://p2.bahamut.com.tw/B/2KU/91/0001331191.JPG You can choose to modernize, remodel, or change your ship's equipment under this menu.

Reinforced expansion is done by clicking the button below the equipment menu of player's ship.

Modernization
It has been reported that feeding a kanmusu of its own kind can provide additional luck. It's possible to fail though.

Remodel
Latest Kai Nis like Kasumi's have yet to be included into the game. Kai Ni of Shoukaku and Zuikaku does not require Prototype Flight Deck Catapult.

Factory
You can develop new equipment, craft new ships or improve your equipment in the factory.

If you are doing development, improvement, LSC or construction strike, you can save onto a save file with new save/load function first before attempting the LSC and if the result is unsatisfactory, then you can simply reload the save file to try again.

Development
Things like Prototype 46cm Twin Gun Mount or Shiun that are undevelopable in the browser version of the game are now developable in this game.

Construction
The general way it works is similar to the browser edition except construction time is timed in the number of days (turns).

The resource allocation theory in the game is the same as the browser edition, i.e., more fuel/steel has a higher chance to give CA/BB whereas more bauxite has a higher chance to give carriers. Some unconfirmed reports claim there are some differences in the recipes and the results from the browser game, including a claim that says I-8 can be constructed from all 30 and another report that says I-19 is now constructible.

You can also construct transport convoy here (via the top right hand corner button above LSC). Construction of transport convoy consume strategic points.

You need to complete LSC quests before LSC is possible.

Construction Time
Current test result: (Hypothetically 96 times browser version construction time and then round it down?)

Improvement
Require Akashi as flagship.

Docking
Much like the browser game, shipgirls are repaired through the use of a repair dock. Each area has a different number of dock spaces. The starting area can contain up to 4 docks. Half the available dock spaces will be available upon unlocking the area; like the browser version, keys are required to unlock the remainder of the dock spaces.

Quest

 * Main Article: KanColle Kai/Quest

Item Shop
You can use strategic points obtainable via quests or sea area clearing to purchase additional resources, docks, damecon, buckets, furniture fairy, ship slot, combat ration, reinforcement expansion, etc. You'd have 3000 points at the start.

Initially, you have 100 ship slots which can expand up to 200 but as you progress through the game, the amount of expandable ship slots will increase until the cap of 300 ship slots.

Abyssal Counterattack
When abyssals finish preparing their counterattack force, they'll start counterattack operations in order to take back sea area. After players renew a turn and after enemy's turn completed, some sea area's hexagon in the strategy interface will change to a yellow/orange/red color to signify that enemies are preparing counterattack on the sea area. If players failed to intercept these counterattacks, the sea area will return to enemy control. In this case, players' transport convoys will also be destroyed and the guarding fleet will retreat to the player's naval headquarters.

Failing to defend your own naval headquarters from abyssal counterattacks will result in a game over.

Affinity
Increasing the kanmusu's affinity can increase their performance in battle. You can see heart (?) coming out if you touch them several times.

Fairies
There're different fairies appearing in the game's loading screen.

Clear Bonus

 * Hei/Tei: Yamato. If the player already has Yamato, or if player already obtained Yamato before clearing Tei or they have cleared the difficulty with an AA+ rank, then 書類一式 (The document needed for the Kancolle marriage system) will be rewarded instead.
 * Otsu: Iowa
 * Kou: Prinz Eugen

New Game +
After clearing the game on a certain difficulty, you can continue to use some of your kanmusu in your next game. 20 for Tei(Easy), 35 for Hei(Normal) and 50 for Otsu(Hard) will be transferred, and the system will automatically pick the top [n] heartlocked kanmusus with the highest levels to transfer once you cleared the game, so please be prepared before beating the game. If there're less than [n] heartlocked kanmusu, then other non-heartlocked kanmusus will follow.

Note: [n] number of kanmusu automatically picked and transferred, correlates to the difficulty in which you have cleared map and the assigned number of kanmusu that can be transferred according to that difficulty. ie, Tei = 20, Hei = 35, Otsu = 50, Kou = 65

Besides those kanmusu, furniture, gallery, admiral level, resource cap, and also clear bonus will be brought to the new game.

Note: any ' equipment being equipped on ships' at the time you clear the game, will also continue to your new game.

Resources, Strategic Points, Items like Medals (Except those items being equipped in equipment form on ships that get brought over), Furniture Point, Homeport Slot Size, amount of dock, map clearing status, and battle history will be reset upon continuing to a new game.

One possible strategy to choose who to bring over is to pick those that're needed to unlock all 8 fleets so you can start smoothly in your next game, especially for Sendai Class[5th fleet], Myoukou Class[6th], Kongou Class[7th], CarDiv1+2 except maybe quest reward Akagi[8th].

Iowa

 * See Iowa

Known bug/problem in latest version

 * For some kanmusu reached lv.101 after marriage, some of their LoS would be reduced.
 * Occasionally the game would freeze and the only way to restore the game would be restart the game from the latest save and thus please save your game often to minimize gameplay lost.

Trivia

 * In browser edition both slow BB and fast BB are labeled as 戦艦 but in this game fast BB are labelled as 高戦which is a completely different ship class. If a certain map say you can't use battleship and said nothing about fast battleship, then you can use fast battleship.