User blog:Hayashi H/Grinding DDs and CLs on 3-2A

What is this for?
First and foremost, it's necessary to clarify that the fastest way to level any specific DD is 4-3, as it is the only map they can get high XP in while still getting MVP consistently. This method is not for levelling one DD. It's for levelling a whole swarm of them. And in that respect, it is significantly faster than levelling them one at a time from 4-3, has lower resource costs, has lower damage risks, and has no chance of compass trolling.

Note that this is not suitable for Admirals with overly low-level DDs. For that scenario or to level ships with very low firepower like Akashi or Taigei, see Shinhwalee's guide, where the DDs play a passive role. As this style needs the DDs to do their part for the clear, all of them need to have maxed firepower in a Kai state at least, or else you may eat closing torpedoes from the Abyssal fleet. You have been warned.

How does it work?
Light cruisers and higher deal the majority of their day battle damage through Artillery Spotting Double Attacks. The targets in 3-2A are very easily killable, so this does 'overkill damage', which allows the flagship to gain MVP more easily. Support ships use only single attacks, initial torpedo and weak airstrikes, which can sink Abyssals, but deal too little total damage to steal MVP. If a Saiun is not present in the fleet, the only ships capable of sinking in the enemy compositions in Red T engagement form will be the flagship, AV/CVL and BB/BBV. In the Hayasui and BBV cases, since only two ships are present with sufficient attack power, only 4 attacks will be dealt with the ability to sink these two types, so there is a small risk of the closing torpedo phase occurring in exchange for being able to level 3 destroyers per fleet rather than 2. In the other cases, there are 6 attacks so this is not a major concern, and in higher-damage engagement forms, the destroyers are also capable of sinking them reliably.

Because the flagship gains MVP from ASDA, Air Supremacy is compulsory, so the only builds that will work will include aircraft. Because battleships enable double shelling phases which delays the closing torpedo phase by 5 more attacks, all builds include one. Hayasui Kai is a special case where her method of getting MVP is a combination of initial airstrike and single attacks, rather than Double Attacks.

Hayasui-3DD-BB-SS Variant
Battleships incapable of equipping the 15.2cm Twin Gun Mount mount 35.6cm Twin Gun Mount instead, and are preferably sortied only with AVs, as the additional firepower can be useful in one-hitting ships in Red T. They have a higher risk of stealing MVP. In the midgame setting, you'll be using these to level your battleships along with your CLs and DDs. In the endgame setting, your preferred battleship type for this purpose are unmodernised Nagatos and Mutsus if you need 41cm guns. Remodel them at 30, strip 41cm guns, then scrap the ship, and replace with a new one in the chain. If 41cm guns are no longer required, and all your battleships are at level 99, use the Ise Kai classes in the BBV build in order to level additional destroyers at the same time.

If high-level battleships are used, there is a higher risk of them stealing MVP with this setup, so they should be reverted to the 4x Type 32 Surface Radar setup. At high levels, only the Ise Kai and Fusou Kai classes are appropriate for this purpose in the BBV fleet setup. Fusou Kai Ni classes have too high a firepower value and risk stealing MVP.

Usage of submarines other than Maruyu Kai lead to longer repair times. Maruyu's unremodelled form can be repeatedly levelled to 20 for remodelling followed by Luck-modernisation as well, and repairs faster at the cost of having a lower chance of surviving two battles or more before taiha.

This levelling method works very well in conjunction with Large-Ship Construction as its main requirements (Maruyu and a steady stream of low-level battleships) are the results of LSC.

Daily grinding type (recommended)
You need at least two of the fleets above. Both fleets share the same flagship as flagship/MVP morale decays much more slowly. The rotation every 28 minutes is:

3-2A Fleet 1 x2 - 3-2A Fleet 2 x2 - Wildcard 1 - Wildcard 2- Repeat

Wildcard types:
 * 1) 1-1 x6, to fully sparkle 2 ships.
 * 2) 2-3 x2, for daily/weekly quests and fuel.
 * 3) 3-3 x2, for weekly World 3 bosses.
 * 4) 4-2 x2, for weekly World 4 bosses.
 * 5) Any one-time quest (more time taken for reconfiguring equipment)
 * 6) Any monthly EO quest x2
 * 7) Akashi 20 minute repair cycle

Extreme grinding type
You need at least four of the fleets above. Each pair shares the same flagship. The rotation every 28 minutes is:

3-2A Fleet 1 x2 - 3-2A Fleet 2 x2 - 3-2A Fleet 3 x2 - 3-2A Fleet 4 x2 - 1-1 Fleet x3

While it's theoretically possible to sortie 6 fleets to 3-2A, in practice extra repair slots would be necessary as Maruyu will not be repairable fast enough to keep up, extra preset slots would be useful as switching ships would be a pain otherwise, and some level of ship sparkling is still needed to maintain expeditions at full resource efficiency anyway.

Results
The time taken to level a CL flagship to 99 from scratch is 868 MVPs, or approximately 1000 sorties in the worst-case scenario. This takes about 117 hours. The second rotation type will level two flagships to 99 in the same time. Any DDs sortied along with them will be levelled to 76 in the same time period.

Other Guides

 * Advanced game mechanics, like overweight mechanisms and more
 * What equipment should each ship mount?
 * How much firepower is TRULY enough?
 * How to survive attacks by firepower-capped targets like the BWS
 * Efficient formations used in repeated quests and EOs
 * Recovering resources at maximum rates

Credits
Shinhwalee, whose original guide was the inspiration for adapting the method to Light Cruisers.