User:提督・ウサギ/Sandbox/Event Preparation/Intro

Greetings all Admirals! Welcome to Shinhwalee/Death Usagi's Guide to Preparing for Major Events. This Guide was made in order to help all Admirals new or old alike in order to prepare for the Seasonal Major Events (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) that takes place every year.

This Guide will cover everything from training your ships, Equipment setup, gaining resources, which ships should be prepared and are mandatory for the Event to have an easier time in Branching Rules, Event Map mechanisms, and to prepare you for the worst in regards to the Event.

It is a limited-time Event (ranging from 2 to 4 weeks) that lets you go through a major operation to clear difficult maps while obtaining Major Exclusive-Rewards that are only available from the Event which includes Ships, Equipments, and sometimes an Item, which takes place every season Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Events are also known as the only place where some ships that are impossible to obtain from normal maps or requires to be constructed become obtainable in the Event Maps (Ex. Unryuu, Isokaze, Harusame). Events also start dropping previous Event Reward-only ships in some maps after about 2 Events.

These events are based on real World War campaigns that the Japanese War Ships have participated in the past and some Bosses seem to be apparently based on some of the ships that actually sunk during the real campaign (Ex. Light Cruiser Oni = Naka + Agano, Destroyer Princess = Harusame).

An Event's scale is scaled from Small, Medium and Large.

If we take a look at examples of previous events that took place, but only for the ones that took place after the Difficulty Selection feature;

Small Event
Winter 2016 Event - The first Small-scaled Event after the Difficulty system was implemented. As the name states, it only consisted of 3 maps total which made things very easy for many players even if they were quite new to the game.

Medium Event
Summer 2016 Event - Medium-scale Event of year 2016. Was a Summer-themed Event with Abyssals wearing Swimsuit also (Dat Ass). Event was fairly easy overall for a lot of Admirals except Beginners, and it was a major farming festival as well.

Large Event
Spring 2016 Event - The most recent Large Scale event which took several players by surprise of how difficult it was to clear it. This Event had a massive requirement for Anti-Landbase equipment and Ships that are able to utilize it. The major problem was that the equipment themselves were extremely difficult or perhaps impossible to obtain for some people due to the method of availability to obtain them (Ex. WG42 was only acquirable through U-511 and Daihatsu Landing Craft (Type 89) and Special Type 2 Amphibious Landing Craft were only available via either Quests or through Upgrades via Akashi's Improvement Arsenal). This event also had introduced the new mechanism called the Landing Based Aircrafts and the bases to utilize them, which some of the players couldn't afford to use properly due to major requirement of bauxite and powerful aircrafts. Another thing was how the Event had for the first time, introduced a full Hime-class Enemy Boss Fleet in E-7 Hard Mode. Even in the previous E-6, multiple Hime classes were present in the Boss node. Most Admirals participated in these Events to challenge themselves using the Ship Girls they have worked hard to raise while obtaining exclusive rewards which they can enjoy raising.

One thing to note is that majority of Reward Ships & Equipment that you obtain from clearing each Event Map are very good in stats and the ships themselves have very good stock equipments (Ex. Prinz Eugen who was a reward for Fall 2014 Event E-3, has extremely good Guns and Radar), which makes it worth trying to obtain them for yourself.

Event Participation requirements

 * Must have a 75% sortie win ratio
 * Must have 5 empty ship slots for new ships
 * Must have 20 free equipment slots

Special Event Mechanics

 * 1) Combined Fleet (Click to see the details)
 * 2) Effective Line of Sight requirements on all maps to reach Boss or certain routes.
 * 3) Ship Locking: A mechanism where if a ship participates in a certain Event map, that ship cannot participate in the other maps until the semi-final and the final maps. (Ex. A ship that participates in E-1 or E-2 cannot participate in E-3, but may be able to participate in E-4 or E-5). Very critical towards players who do not have a large pool of properly trained ships to use in the Event. Does not apply to Admirals who only go through Easy mode.
 * 4) Land-Base Aerial Support: A new mechanism introduced in the Spring 2016 Event. This mechanism enables the player to send out a squadron of Aircrafts to bomb the enemy before the actual Aerial Battle Phase. However they require you to pay attention to the Aircraft's "Range" which determines how far they all can get in the map they are deployed. Another thing is that they work just like CV(L)s, so you must take caution in the required Air Superiority in the node they are deployed to. Another special factor about this mechanism is that the enemy landbase may send out an Air Raid against yours to weaken it before it can actually fight. You may defend your base by setting up one Land Base with all Fighters/Interceptors but due to RNG, it's not exactly a good defense mechanism.
 * 5) Branching Rules: You must follow specific requirements in Fleet Composition in order to head into a more simpler and better route in the Event Maps. This includes the Type of Ship (Ex. CAV, CL, SS, Akitsu Maru), and whether Slow or Fast Ships are included in your Fleet, along with how many of them you have in your fleet.
 * 6) Special Specific Ship(s) Branching Rules: A mechanism introduced in the recent Events. Some of the Event maps follow the actual history in which ships have participated in the campaign referenced during the war. Using the ships that are in the game which have participated in the campaign historically had a special branching rule set upon them. When the Developers reveal what the Event will be referenced on, it is recommended to read the historical summaries behind the campaign referenced and see if any of the ships that currently exist in the Game have participated in the campaign. Using the ship(s) may lead the player to a better route in the Event (The special branching rule is mostly revealed after about 2~3 days after the Event starts).
 * 7) * Winter 2016 E-2: Having Kasumi as flagship and the historical members of the Rei-Go Operation gave the best route for the map. Alternatives did exist but weren't as good as using the Historical Branching Route.
 * 8) * Spring 2016 E-7: Having Akitsushima gave the player go through a bit more easier route at the end before the boss. This was not a historical branching however.
 * 9) * Summer 2016 E-3: The map required having 7 of 11 specific ships to go down the shortest route.
 * 10) Different starting points depending on type of fleet and/or type of ships used: A new mechanism implemented in Winter 2016 Event, along with World 6-4. Depending on what type of Fleet and ships you are using, you start from a different starting point.

What is the Difficulty Selection System?
The Difficulty Selection System was a new system introduced in the Winter 2015 Event.

In the past, the Event difficulty was determined depending on your HQ Level. Because of this, many Admirals have tried to sustain their HQ Level at low levels and not have them be raised as much as possible so that they can avoid the Hard difficulty of the Event.

Now the Event will let you choose your difficulty. Except the more harder difficulties are only available to Admirals with high HQ level. The Event will have 3 ranks: Easy (丙), Medium (乙), Hard (甲).
 * HQ Level 35 unlocks Medium, HQ Level 80 unlocks Hard.
 * You can choose the difficulty in each map separately.
 * Different difficulties give different medals, equipment and materials when clearing the maps.
 * This was not the case in the past as rewards were the same for all difficulties.
 * Ships rewards will appear regardless of the difficulty.
 * Difficulties probably affect drop rates, but most drops are possible on any difficulty.
 * When the difficulty is changed, the boss's health bar will be reset.
 * Once the map is cleared (boss HP bar or TP bar is depleted and destroyed),  You CANNOT change the difficulty of that map! 
 * The First Class Medal symbol (the one that appears beside your name in your Admiral page) is given, along with the medal item (the one in your inventory) the moment you clear the final map on hard, regardless of the difficulties chosen for previous maps.
 * It is highly advised that if a ship you would like to obtain is available in Easy mode of the map, you should spam the map in Easy mode to have an easier time doing the map while not putting too much strain on your resources. When the Boss Health Bar is near its end, reset the difficulty (Ex. Easy to Medium then back to Easy immediately) to continue if you still have not finished.
 * You will not be able to jump up the difficulty from Easy -> Hard after a map. To be able to use "Hard" setting, you must clear the previous map either on Medium or Hard itself. Only jumping up two difficulty levels is not allowed, other combinations stick to the old rules 
 * 【 BAD 】 Easy  >  Easy  >  Hard  (not possible because easy jumped to hard)
 * 【OK】 Easy  >  Medium  >  Hard 
 * 【OK】 Medium  >  Easy  >  Medium 
 * 【OK】 Medium  >  Medium  >  Hard 
 * 【OK】 Hard  >  Hard  >  Easy 
 * 【OK】 Hard  >  Hard  >  Medium 

PLAYERS BEWARE: Some Drops will not be available in the lower difficulties
 WARNING : During Winter 2015, Spring 2015 Event, and Summer 2015 Event, some ships were revealed to be only available as drops in Medium and Hard difficulty, or just Hard difficulty alone, and were 100% NOT Available in Easy difficulty. This should be taken into consideration if you plan on farming some ships from the Event Maps.

I am truly sorry to say that for Admirals below Level 80 HQ, since you cannot access Hard difficulty, you may have to give up on getting a ship drop from the Event if she is revealed to be only available on Hard difficulty. If she is available in Medium also, then even if you don't want to do Medium since it is hard for you, if you really want the ship badly, you might as well try..

Another thing discovered within the past few Events was that in Easy mode, certain ships don't drop if you face against a specific enemy fleet.
 * Fall 2015 E-4 Easy: Prinz Eugen did not drop if you faced against an enemy fleet pattern in Diamond Formation with standard Wa-class Transport Ships
 * Winter 2016 E-3 Easy: Graf Zeppelin did not drop if you faced against an enemy fleet pattern that contains the standard Wa-class Transport Ships in the node where she drops.
 * Summer 2016 E-2 Easy: Prinz Eugen, Akitsushima, and Mizuho did not drop in Easy mode if you faced against certain enemy patterns.