Expedition/Support Expedition

Support expeditions involve sending a fleet into an expedition to provide additional bombardment during the opening stages of Combat. There are two types of support expedition; normal support and boss support: Events usually come with their exclusive support expeditions (e.g. Expedition 133 & 134) that can only be used throughout the event. These event expeditions are unlocked by default. Ships that take part in support expeditions are exempted from shiplocking.
 * Expedition #33 is a normal support expedition (15 minutes). It gives support at every node other than boss node with ~50% chance to trigger at each node.
 * Expedition #34 is a boss support expedition (30 minutes). It gives support at the boss node with ~80% chance to trigger.
 * A common setup for support expeditions is 2 DD 2 CV/L 2 BB.  Using CVL can offer good firepower at less cost than BB.  However, do not use more than 2 carriers to prevent from switching to aerial support.

Sparkling your ships (mainly flagship) increases the probability to trigger support while using fatigued ships reduces it. Currently, support expeditions only work in World 5 and events. Furthermore, support does not work on nodes that begin in night battle. Support expeditions will end if either of these two conditions are fulfilled: The timer only counts as a sortie start countdown. As long as the sortie is underway, having the counter running out on the way will not disable the support during battles. And because support expedition are ended but not returned, they don't count into daily expedition complete count when doing quests.
 * 1) Finish a sortie.
 * 2) The timer runs out.

Support Types
A support expedition requires a minimum of at least 2 DDs (Destroyers). The other 4 slots affect what type of support will be provided. The three types provided are Aerial Support, Long Range Torpedo Attack, and Support Shelling:

Support Shelling
Standard composition is 2 DD, 2 CV(L), 2 BB(V) with 4 ships capable of dealing big damage (2 DD required, maximum 2 CV/CVL, or it will be Aerial Support otherwise, 2 BB added as they also can reach the damage cap). Another option is 2 DD, 2 CVL, which is cheaper, but only with 2 ships capable of dealing big damage.

Trigger rate

 * Route support, normal morale: ~50%
 * Route support, only flagship is sparkled: ~60%
 * Route support, all ships are sparkled: ~80%
 * Boss support, normal morale: ~80%
 * Boss support, only flagship is sparkled: ~90%

Shelling damage calculation
$$Damage = 5 + FP + \sum(EFP)$$ $$Damage= 55 + (1.5 * FP) + (1.5 * \sum(TP)) + (1.95 * \sum(DB))$$
 * Each ship attacks randomly selected enemy ship
 * For DD and BB damage is calculated using the following formula, FP is ship's firepower, EFP is equipment firepower:
 * For CV and CVL the following formula is used, FP is ships's firepower, TP is equipment torpedo, DB is equipment divebomb:
 * Formation and engagement modifiers do affect this damage
 * Damage cap is also applied (after formation and engagement modifiers)
 * Critical damage is also possible
 * Accuracy (at least from morale and equipment accuracy) also has its effect

The attack power cap and the importance of accuracy render 2-3 main guns or 2-3 bombers + 1-2 radars as standard setup for battleships and carriers (DD can use 3 radars to increase the chance for their scratch damage). Sparkling all ships for better accuracy is also recommended.

For example:


 * Haruna Kai Ni equipped with two 46cm Triple Gun Mount and two Type 32 Surface Radar will have 5 + 96 + 2 * 26 = 153 damage before the cap with +16 accuracy from equipment
 * With three 46cm Triple Gun Mount: 179 damage before the cap, 143 in head-on engagement
 * Yamato Kai with two 46cm Triple Gun Mount will have 196 damage before the cap, or 156 in head-on engagement
 * Kaga Kai (or Akagi Kai) with two Suisei Model 12A (or two Ryuusei Kai) will have 55 + 1.5 * 49 + 1.95 * 2 * 10 (or 55 + 1.5 * 49 + 1.5 * 2 * 13) = 167 damage before the cap, 134 in head-on engagement
 * With three Suisei Model 12A (or three Ryuusei Kai): 187 damage before the cap, 149 in head-on engagement
 * Hiryuu Kai Ni with two Suisei Model 12A (or two Ryuusei Kai) will have 190 damage before the cap, or 152 in head-on engagement
 * Yuudachi Kai Ni will have 78 damage without guns, or up to 87 with 3 guns (Ayanami Kai Ni will have 3 damage less).

See the following tables for reference

Note that the following factors currently considered as having no effects (or pending verification):


 * Artillery spotting modifiers; thus, equipping a seaplane is not recommended (certain)
 * Equipment improvements (stated in wikiwiki)
 * Equipment fit and overweight (stated in wikiwiki, sm27095718)
 * Aircraft Proficiency (pending verification)
 * AP shell modifiers (pending verification)
 * Accuracy from levels/luck (pending verification)