User blog:Jenesis33/3-2A grind guide for new players

Hello everyone, Jenesis here, I been around this section of the forum for the last few weeks and trying to provide help to new players to prepare for the event.

I have read many fleets posted by players and given many advices.

However the more I read, I start to realize a lot of new players do not know how to grind their ships efficently. This is cruical in a game like KC, because you only get limited resources a day, so use them well is so improtant.

3-2A is the most efficient way to grind (and also cost no buckets), it can be used to train BB/CV/CVL/CA even CLT and CL to some extent. (Generally speaking it is not recommended to train CL/DD here)

So I will be talking about how to train your ships in 3-2A (ignoring morale, infinte sorite) here. Simple fact before we start, so 3-2A grind is you go to map 3-2 do first node then retreat straight away after one battle. you will always be send to node A because only a fleet with 6 DD or 1CL5DD (new update) can go South.

First thing to understand is in order to train at 3-2A, you need quite a lot of SS tank. Since every enemy in 3-2A is capable of Anti-SS, they will attack SS and therefore not damage your ships. However your SS will get damaged and they will need to be repaired. So in order to keep doing 3-2A non stop, you need quite a few SS and ideally 4 repair bay to keep reparing them.

AWARE: DO NOT KAI SS. Kaied SS takes way longer to repair.

your best choice of SS is Maryuu, who has very very short repair time, but she is LSC only. So you proabaly have to settle for I -168. Keep many of them and keep rotating. I-58 and I-19 are alright too. I -8 is very bad choice bec she has very long repair time.

Next thing we have to remember is how do we clear all the enemies, We have to do so because we want a S rank for maximum xp and we dont want to eat finishing tropedo to our face (these will  not hit SS and will hit your ships). But red faced (low morale) team has very low accruacy. so what we do? How do we kill enemy without rotation of ships?

The answer is abuse cut in attack. Day time cut in attack has limited damage (compare to double attack) and much higher accruacy. We also use double line formation to improve accruacy.

I will be talking more about these in the setup section below:

Now let's talk about how you setup your team to train at 3-2A. I will be talking about CV first, then BB lastly CA. (might have to do the last bit later, dont have time tonight)

No matter which ship we are training, we want to give flagship MVP. This is because of 2 reasons. First, maxmize XP gain for heavy ships. Imagine you are training Yamato at 3-2A, she eats a lot of resources, so each time we sortie her, we want to give her as high XP as possible. Second reason is MVP has morale bonus, which means our Flagship will never be red faced, ensuring their damage output is always high.

CV FS setup as below:

http://i.imgur.com/F1DipuE.jpg



This is a very basic and typical setup for CV flagship grind, You do not need to rotate anyone apart from the SS, if you BB and CA are decent level (40-50? just try it, if you keep struggling to clear, then rotate one CA)

I will explain the setup:

CV: Pretty easy to understand, you equip 3 of your best attack plane, Ryuusei Kai is standard. But therre are better ones, like those from Hiryuu/Souryuu K2, and Event reward such as Ryuusei 601. Only thing worth talkinig about is the use of yellow cannon on the LARGEST plane slot. This is because CV natually doesnt lack damage, (Open air strike + normal attack) and using 15.5cm here will improve the CV fire range from short to medium, also improve firepower. You use it on the largest plane slot to cut down on baxuite cost. If you have Skilled Carrier-based Aircraft Maintenance Personnel (SCAMP) it is obviously better, even more firepower and increase range to long (fire before all CA to ensure MVP even more). However this item is quite rare for new players.

http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/Skilled_Carrier-based_Aircraft_Maintenance_Personnel

BB(V): simple here. One red cannon(main), one yellow cannon (side), one sea recon (plane) and one radar. This enable BB(V) to do Cut in attack with Main+side or Main + radar. Both have improved accruacy. Also worth noting that even I used Fusou here, i didn't equip sea bomber (such as Zuiun), i dont want BBV to have open air strike doing extra damage and steal flagship MVP. Also sea bomber might get shot down and increase Baxuite cost. I also used a 35.6+4 cannon, modifying cannons have improved accruacy. You should use the most accruate cannon you have, such as Prototype 41 cm. Side cannon is pretty much always 15.5 cm. Unless you have + Modified OTO.

Of course you should use the best radar you have, but remember to balance things. If your BB is very high level, then you can give her a slightly worse radar and give the better one to a CA. Think about it.

CA(V): pretty much the same as BB(V). It is worth talking about 15.2cm (KAI) these have improved accruacy and should be used, if your ship does have enough FP. 20.3 (no2) is also great. Also CAV use sea recon as well, not sea bomber, reasons explained above. Radar and side arm same as above.

CVL: This is quite interseting. First CVL is must use in 3-2A, WHY? because it carries Saiun for your team. You do not want T-disadvantage in 3-2A, your ship will struggle to clear. So CVL carries Saiun. Why 2? Because each one wil improve the chance you do Cut in attack and also Saiun provides accruacy bonus too. (and she has nothing better to use.. to be honest). Only use Type 99 bomber here because you want her to have low damage. not stealing MVP off your CV. 99 Skilled is very good bec they dont do much more damage and have improved accruacy. You can pair it up with Type 62 Zero Fighter-bomber, who has even less damage than 99 dive bomber.

SS: straight forward, No Kai No I-8 (unless you have to. out of other subs). Just tank

TLDR version:

CV: 15.5cm on biggest plane slot, 3 Ryuusei Kai (or best attack planes you have)

BB(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar

CA(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar

CA(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar

CVL : Saiun + Saiun + 99 dive bomber + 99 dive bomber

SS: whatever.

Formation: Line ahead until yellow (below 33 morale points) then DOUBLE LINE

This pretty much cover the CV setup. Generally CV is easiest to train in 3-2A since open air strike can kill 2-3 enemies, leaving your team with a much easier job to clear the enemies. So no rotation are generally required. And it is recommended new players start with CV grinding, because by the time they finish grinding CV, their CA and CVL will be at decent levels. Making grinding Flagship BB much easier.

If you do find yourself struggling to clear or just have low level ships, Rotate one CA, keep the CA you want to level in the team, and keep rotating the other one whenever she is below 33 morale points. (3 should be enough for a full round rotation). Setup same as I posted, main+side+plane+radar. In the end this yield the same XP for your fleet as non-rotation, because you need to train more than 2 CA anyway, so it is not wasted XP. However it is just annoying to keep changing ships from time to time and I am lazy. ^_^

Let's move on to BB Flagship setup:

http://i.imgur.com/JoLebbU.png



Many thing carry over from the CV setup idea, we want to make sure our BB flagship has MVP all the time. However without CV's Open air strike, our ability to clear the enemy fleet is much weaker and more reliant on Cut in attack. This is why you should use rotation of CAs and/or bring higher level ships.

Common setup is shown above. Lets go through each one by one.

BB: Flagship use a Double attack setup and the best cannon you have. You do not need to give her the best radar bec accruacy should not be a big problem for FS (since she will not be red faced). We still want to use radar here instead of AP shell, bec Radar still improve the accraucy of your ship and AP shell might trigger a Cut in attack, overwriting the double attack which you want. BB will not trigger a cut in attack with radar because no side (yellow) cannon is equipped.

CA(V): You can use up to 3 CA(V) in this setup, same as CV setup, use Main+side+plane+radar. I will not explain any more, to stop repeating myself. It is strongly recommended that you rotate at least 1 CA, so 1 helper will not be red faced.

CVL: you need to bring at least 1 CVL to the grinding team, no it is not for open air strike. (they hardly do any damage anyway). It is for Saiun. I have used 2 CVL in the picture above, which is also ok. The setup on Shouhou is same as CV flagship setup, 2 Saiun to remove T-disadvantage and 2 99 bomber for some damage but not too much. While the setup on Hiyou is another way to setup CV(L) in 3-2A helper postioin, you can use side cannon and radar to increase accraucy and firepower, while not costing your more planes. I also used a T 62 Figther bomber to supress the damage of Hiyou a bit. (This is a techinque everyone should remember, T62 has even lower damage than 99 dive bomber.)

TLDR version (BB):

BB(V): Red cannon + Red cannon + plane + basic radar

CA(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar 

CA(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar

CA(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar (rotation)

CVL : Saiun + Saiun + 99 dive bomber + 99 dive bomber

SS: whatever

'''You can replace one CA with one CVL, use setup same as other CVL or use a combination of side cannon (yellow) + radar. No more than 2 99 Dive bomber.'''

Closing comment: it is fine to use CV instead of CVL, but this is not super cost efficient, you should Flagship train all CVs and BBs. But if you are out of time and need CV level badly, then it is 100% fine to bring  a CV instead of a CA or CVL. Please be aware it is much harder to grind BB than CV in 3-2A, it is highly recommended to rotate one CA at least. (yes i know i repeated this many times already, but it is very important)

Lastly lets talk about the hardest part of 3-2A grind, CA setup:

First thing is it is very hard to train CA flagship in 3-2A, you have 2 big problem.

1) you have to bring a BB for 2nd round shelling and BB attack does a lot of damage.

2) How do you clear enemy without open air strike and strong firepower of BB?

In order to solve problem 1, we have to use weaker cannon on BB to supress their damage. In order to solve problem 2, again we have to rely on rotation.

http://i.imgur.com/VObnExQ.png



Say hello to my true love, Haguro. So setup as above.

CA (flagship): Double attack setup to maximize damage, GIVE HER YOUR BEST GUN. You want as high damage as possible. so bring out those no3 / no2 20.3cm. No need to give her good radar because again accraucy is not a big deal.

CA(rotation): same as awlays, Cut in setup. You do have to rotate one CA. Please do it!

BB(V): it is strongly recommend you bring a slow speed BBV here. Nagato class eats too much. Fusou class is the best. they need XP to 80 for K2 anyway. why? because slow BB(V) can use smaller calibre guns, like 14cm or 15cm. So we can supress their firepower down. I use a 15.2 cm in the picture, bec i removed all my 14cm. Q_Q. '''Use least powerful main gun and least powerful side cannon (yellow 15.2 cm) to reduce their damage. '''

CVL: again same as awlays at least 1 CVL to bring Saiun. Otherwise same as BB section CVL setup. You can bring up to 2 CVL or 2 CA at helper position. It is up to you.

TLDR version (CA):

CA (FS): Red cannon+ Red cannon + Plane + Basic radar (use best cannon you have)

BB(V): Weakest red cannon + weakest yellow cannon + Plane + radar

CA(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar (rotation)

CA(V): Red cannon+ Yellow cannon + sea recon + radar

CVL : Saiun + Saiun + 99 dive bomber + 99 dive bomber

SS: whatever

'''You can replace one CA with one CVL, use setup same as other CVL or use a combination of side cannon (yellow) + radar. No more than 2 99 Dive bomber.'''

Final word: 

I do not recommend FS training CA in 3-2A, they should get plenty of XP if you followed my guide to train your BB and CV with CA helping out. But i know many people need CA levels badly. In that case, feel free to try what I posted above, but be prepared to loss MVP quite often. And rotate one CA is must!

This concludes my guide and hopefully it will help new players to train/grind/level up more efficiently. Feel free to ask any questions. Happy event everyone.