User blog:Hayashi H/Max-efficiency Map-clear Formations

Monthly EO Maps
'''DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING ARE ENDGAME FORMATIONS INTENDED FOR LOW-RESOURCE EFFICIENT CLEARS WITH LVL 90+ SHIPS. USAGE OF UNDERLEVELLED SHIPS MAY RESULT IN A HIGHER FAILURE RATE THAN EXPECTED. REFER TO THE VARIOUS MAPS' RECOMMENDED FORMATIONS FOR LOWER LEVELLED ADMIRALS AS THEY HAVE A HIGHER SAFETY MARGIN.'''

Aircraft Setups
Due to the number of combinations of maps, squadron types and carriers used, it is pointless to list the precise setups for any given combination.

However, the following general principles apply:
 * 1) Only use  when you sortie at least 2 carriers with plane slots of 3 or below. Otherwise,  belongs in CAVs, particularly.
 * 2) Against targets with AACI, do not load any bombers of any type on any slot smaller than 20.
 * 3) Against targets without AACI, do not load any bombers of any type on any slot smaller than 11.
 * 4) Zuiuns and their variants of seaplane bombers should not be loaded on any slot smaller than 6 if you possess air superiority.
 * 5) Zuiuns and their variants of seaplane bombers should not be loaded on any slot smaller than 9 if you do not possess air superiority.
 * 6) Do not load fighters of any type on any slot smaller than 6.
 * 7) Do not load more than one in a fleet, and if using one, always load it in the smallest slot (unless using, in which case it takes the second smallest slot).
 * 8) For 3-2A grinding specifically,  may load torpedo bombers in the two largest slots and a  in the third. Using this in most other maps may not guarantee the squadrons are not wiped out.
 * 9) AACIs are flat numbers which lead to equal losses per AACI regardless of the total number of bombers sortied. In contrast, the number of planes lost to fleet AA and enemy fighters is a fraction of the total number of aircraft sortied. If AACI is involved, increasing bomber numbers will lead to only very slightly more aircraft lost; the % of aircraft lost as a fraction of the total number launched drops as the number of aircraft launched increases, so sortieing more bombers is insurance against a carrier having all bombers wiped and being unable to participate in shelling at all. If it is not involved, increasing bomber numbers will lead to a proportional increase in aircraft lost. It is difficult for a squadron to be entirely wiped out when the above rules are followed unless AACI is involved.
 * 10) The first slot of all carriers has an additional +20% critdmg when a >> bomber squadron is equipped, while all other slots have a +10% critdmg bonus. Thus as far as possible all first slots should contain bombers after the above conditions are met.
 * 11) The non-bomb non-torpedo non-AA stat bonuses of squadrons do not scale with slot size, so squadrons used to add these stat bonuses should generally be loaded in the smallest slots that fit the above, while those adding bomb/torpedo/AA stats should be loaded in the larger slots. However, the rule below this may occasionally override this one.
 * 12) If all the above are fulfilled, use http://aircalc.net/ to load the minimum number of fighters that leads to Air Superiority(Green)/Supremacy(Blue). As a general guide, setups based on initial strike for the purpose of minimising damage taken will aim for Air Superiority to bring more bombers, whereas setups used to enable Artillery Spotting on a large number of CLs, CAs or BBs will aim for Air Supremacy, as the latter leads to a greater Artillery Spotting rate than mere Air Superiority.
 * 13) After the fighter slots are decided based on the above, change the bomber type allocation only (swapping for  for instance) if there are cases where some ships fail to get daytime FP cap (150) or headon daytime FP cap (188) while others have too much. For instance, 4 carriers with 175 FP is not as efficient as 2 carriers with 150 and 2 carriers with 188 even though the latter has a lower total FP, as in the first case a head-on engagement form will produce 2 FP capped carriers capable of clearing a boss, while in the second it may be the case that all 4 are incapable of sinking the target.
 * 14) When yasen nodes are involved, aim for the minimum number of carriers possible to increase the chance of clearing the node with minimal damage taken.

Equipment Setups
For the following tables, each row designates a build for a particular set of kanmusu as indicated in the mini-rows.

If a star rating below the equipment is given, it indicates that upgrade level with Akashi's Improvement Arsenal is required to achieve the damage numbers given in the notes - fewer stars lead to lower numbers, but the base functionality of the setup will still work. Replacing equipment with easier-to-obtain equipment pieces as stated in the notes may also reduce the damage numbers.

If no stars are given it means either that there is no damage estimate given in the notes, or that the upgrade level of that piece of equipment will have no effect on damage (but may still affect other statistics like AA, LOS or accuracy), or that piece of equipment is unupgradeable.

If an Aircraft Proficiency rating is given below a squadron it means it is capable of gaining said ranks.

Finally, all daytime damage numbers assume Parallel Engagement form unless otherwise stated, as Green T is too rare to base builds around and Head-on engagement is rare enough that sacrificing accuracy for enough firepower to achieve this (which will not help parallel engagement cases at all) will end up being inefficient for most builds.

Pure Anti-submarine Warfare
In maps that contain anything other than submarines, ASW should be done by preferably nothing but CLs and DDs (though CAVs have a ASW hybrid role in 4-5 centre route due to its final boss being an installation).

Hybrid ASW + Anti-Air Cut-in
Avoid using  unless BOTH AACI and ASW are needed (or ship-specific branching rules are in effect) as her AACI is weaker than all other AACIs and her ASW is inferior to the pure ASW options above. Admirals who have not yet remodelled her to Kai Ni may wish to leave her at Kai. Do not use this setup if any other AACI user is present.

Anti-Air Cut-in and Night Battle Mixed Cut-in
Do not use this setup if is present as it will override the Akizuki-class API 1 HHR AACI with an inferior API 8 BR AACI.

Night Battle Cut-in
As far as possible, ships with the flagship symbol should be in flagship position to take advantage of the +25% cutin rate. Fleet position does not affect night double attack, but attacks proceed in fleet order. If yasen is likely to happen, you want carriers in your last slots; if it is not likely to happen, you want your carriers in your first slots so that they can shell earlier in the 2nd day shelling phase to avoid being chuuhaed or worse before they get to attack.

Add 5% to the base cut-in rates below if a or  is mounted on another ship and it activates. Add 20% to the base cut-in rates if the ship is chuuhaed. If the sum is 100% or more, the cut-in will never fail (unlike yasen DAs, which have a small chance of failure). The 'base cut-in rate' numbers below only factor in the effects of or  included in the setup, and assume that the luck value of the ships has been modernised to the luck cap for that cut-in type as stated under the ship icon.

If the flagship symbol does not appear next to a ship, it means the activation rate is so high that it will go OVER 100% if the ship in question is chuuhaed. In these cases, do NOT sortie the ship in flagship position, and sortie a different ship that does require the flagship position in order to reach 100%, so you can have a higher rate of cut-in attacks across the entire fleet.

Finally,  effects do not stack and it already activates at a 100% rate as long as its carrier has more than 1 HP. For this cause, if you are using more than one of the below setups that include a  in the same fleet, equip  on the flagship only and replace all other instances with . Contrary to common belief,  should NEVER use dual Torpedo cut-in setups, as the  alone already puts both of them above an effective torpedo stat of 150 in the day - so any further addition has little to no effect on the torpedo attacks. At night, their base stats alone will already break the night damage cap if a torpedo cut-in is used. so additional stats from the torpedoes are wasted a second time, while their firepower remains a lot weaker than it could have been. Even without using any Maruyu or upgrading any equipment piece, a  setup already shells for more damage in the day, torpedo-attacks for the same damage in the day and has a cut-in rate equal to dual torpedoes at night with the same damage, except all the aforementioned attacks are more accurate than a dual torpedo build. However, due to the very small gain this has over a double attack setup in spite of a very high luck requirement, the Double Attack setup is recommended for the majority of cases. This particular problem is ingrained deeply enough to deserve its own paragraph.

Night Double Attack + Initial Torpedo Strike
uses this setup against fleets where all targets except the boss are CAs or weaker. Otherwise she uses the night cut-in setup and eschews day shelling firepower. Since the yasen damage is only 17 lower than the mixed cut-in setup but the difference in trigger rate can be as high as 35%, the accuracy of these attacks is higher and the day shelling firepower is greater by 11, it is recommended that use this setup almost all the time unless facing the rare case when the full 300 damage is required on a target.

Light Cruiser Artillery Spotting + Night Double Attack
Unupgraded  may be used early on instead of  as they take considerable effort to acquire and upgrade in bulk.

The lowest firepower cruiser in the fleet with a seaplane slot size greater than 1 will use a  instead of  if yasen is expected and at least Air Superiority is achieved.

CA/V Artillery Spotting + Night Double Attack
Replace  with  or  if Air Superiority cannot be obtained, only yasen nodes are involved, or both.

In particular, as 100 firepower is converted by a  yasen double attack into 300 firepower cap at night against installation targets, these setups are used to bring the ships as close to the 100 firepower value as possible. Any excess firepower is generally better placed into accuracy instead.

The lowest firepower cruiser in the fleet with a seaplane slot size greater than 1 will use a  instead of  if yasen is expected and at least Air Superiority is achieved.

Battleship Artillery Spotting + Night Double Attack
The Head-on Day Shell numbers and Non-installation Yasen damage numbers assume both guns and the are at 9*. If is involved, the upgrade scheme is 10* on the guns and 8* on the  instead due to the extreme cost of upgrading it past 6*. The Parallel Day Shell numbers are reflective of the upgrade state indicated below the equipment icons. '''Do NOT use  for normal sorties unless you are forced to by insufficient depth, or shiplocks. They are all incapable of reaching the daytime firepower cap in a dual gun + AP + ObsPlane optimal setup, and are better used in Support Shelling or Pure ASW.'''

Battleship Artillery Spotting + Night Anti-Installation Double Attack
The usage of a prevents BBs from also carrying, which changes the loadouts somewhat. The firepower value to aim for is 143, as a chuuha BB performing a Type 3 Shell DA on an installation target deals x*0.7*1.2*2.5 damage, which is 300 when x is 143. If it is possible to reach yasen against the final installation target without any ships going beyond shouha, battleships offer no additional advantage over heavy cruisers, and so CAs should be sortied instead if BBs are not required for some role in day battle.

Slow BB setups will not be elaborated as they have so much excess firepower that twin 41cm will always lead to firepower cap against installations, and they cannot even be used in combined fleet maps for this purpose. For the additional evasion bonus from a fast fleet, since the cap is reachable even in chuuha state with fast battleships alone, slow battleships should never be sortied against an installation target as an end-boss.

The Head-on Day Shell numbers and Non-installation Yasen damage numbers assume both guns are at 9*. The Parallel Day Shell numbers and Chuuha Anti-installation Yasen damage numbers are reflective of the upgrade state indicated below the equipment icons. It should be apparent from these numbers that are more suitable for sorties against installation targets, whereas  are more suitable for sorties against non-installation targets, where in particular, fights against targets with extremely high armor values should be done with  as a first choice, and  as a second choice. Against the highest difficulty levels, if ship locking allows for this type of allocation, one should attempt to allocate the FBBs according to this logic in order for the highest possible clear rates.

Wurfgerät 42
This is a special piece of equipment obtained only from  and used specifically to deal with installation bosses, which adds 75 FP against installations and base 1 FP. At armor values typical of installation bosses, this 76 FP addition on its own is insufficient to deal critical damage without a critical hit. If only one is in the inventory its best use will be on a DD located as far down in the fleet order as possible, so it does the final hit against the installation boss - and it may result in a kill; early in the fleet order the damage of a single  is probably less than the damage of double scratch attacks. If multiple  are acquired the situation changes: for instance,  will deal a single attack against the installation boss with the damage value of 301, which is higher than any other possible setup a DD can deal against an installation boss.

Support Shelling Expedition
Note that according to the best data available at present, upgrades imparted through Akashi's Improvement Arsenal do NOT confer any bonuses to these support expeditions, and so the most effective equipment have the highest base stats. Sparkle all ships, not just the flagship. The trigger rate increase can be assumed to be approximately zero over a FS-only sparkle run, but the accuracy of the shelling will increase significantly when all ships are sparkling relative to when only the flagship is sparkling.

All other carriers and battleships should not be used for support shelling as they will not be resource-efficient. This includes - only their kai forms are efficient in this role; once remodelled to their final form, your support BBs will tend to be exclusively from the Ise-class and Kongou-class.

Auxiliary Repairs
uses as many  as are in the inventory that will fit in her slots and will repair herself and the ship in slot 2 by default when set as the flagship, plus one ship slot per  equipped up to a total of 6 shipslots with  x4 equipped.

She takes at least 20 minutes to repair all ships by at least 1 HP. Above 20 minutes, she repairs as much HP as the repair docks would in the same amount of time, rounded down, when she is interrupted (by returning to the HQ screen). If the fleet composition is changed, the timer is reset with zero HP repaired.

It is possible to get her to repair ships faster than the docks would if the ship takes more than 20 minutes per HP in the docks, and the Admiral interrupts her every 20 minutes.

ONLY SHIPS AT LIGHT DAMAGE OR LESS WILL BE REPAIRED BY 

Order of Luck-modernisation
ALL factors considered, for the sake of raising your fleet's overall battle potential as fast as possible, this is probably the most efficient way to allocate : If you have already achieved all of these we can discuss it then, but the number of Admirals in existence who have achieved all of these will likely be in the single digit range worldwide.
 * 1) to 50
 * 2) to 50
 * 3) to 60
 * 4) to 50
 * 5) to 50
 * 6) to 50
 * 7) to 60
 * 8) to 50
 * 9) to 50 luck each
 * 10) to 60
 * 11) Ooi Kai Ni to 60
 * 12) All Submarines except Maruyu to 50 luck each

Akashi and Upgrading Q&A
Should I upgrade a  to ?

No, unless you intend to upgrade the  to 6* or beyond and have absolutely nothing left to upgrade (this is not true of the vast majority of Admirals). Upgrading beyond 6* takes a  per star and is hideously expensive.

If the  9* and  4* are about the same power, which should I use?

Quests award 2x . Use these two unupgraded in your Support Expeditions as upgrade stars have no effect on those anyway. Raise the rest of your  to 9*+ and use those in sorties.

Should I upgrade a  to ?

No, unless you already possess a 50 luck AND and you have TWO  MAX*, as you'll still need one of them.

Should I upgrade a  to a ?

Only after you already have the guns necessary for all the above setups and still have  to spare. These ones will be used only for Support Expeditions, as upgraded versions of the former are superior to the base version of the latter, and the latter cannot be upgraded.

What are  used for?

Upgrading  only. Yamato-classes have no need of them to reach daytime firepower cap in a Head-on Engagement form, and the  themselves have overweight penalties on Nagato-classes even though the  does not. They should never be mounted on any ship.

Should I upgrade  to ?

Never. Just grind additional Ooi/Kitakami drops to lvl 50, take the torpedo and scrap the ships.

Should I upgrade  to ?

If you have more time to play and less days until the next event, just farm the T94s directly from Kai Ni DDs. If you have less time to play and more days until the next event, yes.

Should I create the ?

Unless you really want the card unlocked in your equipment list, no. The only AACIs you should be using on anything that is not a DD are on Maya Kai Ni and Isuzu Kai Ni (only if ASW is ALSO needed), and the AAFD component is needed in neither case. Plus the  is superior. Just wait for Roma/Littorio to be available in another event and use that gun instead, or else just use the  from Agano-classes or  from in the meantime.

Should I use my  drops on  or ?

The former is good for DDs, but in Combined Fleets where you'll only generally only bring three destroyers at max, you only really need 3 of the former at maximum, and a quest and  already gives you two of those. In contrast you'll be using the latter radar type on basically every CA that doesn't need to carry a  . The LOS from the latter also increases Artillery Spotting rates, while the former has lower LOS. So prioritise the latter radar until you have about 5 or 6 of them at 4*+ before creating more of the former.

What should I upgrade first?
Because the upgrade lists change from day to day it's difficult to give a precise answer so the following general principles apply:
 * 1) Always make sure you upgrade something every day to get the daily screw. That quest is non-negotiable, though all other repeatable quests are optional and whether they're worth doing depends on how much time you have to spend on KanColle.
 * 2) Of the various things you can upgrade for each day, choose the one that has the fewest number of days it can be upgraded.
 * 3) Of those that match the above, choose the item that has the smallest number of stars.
 * 4) For those that match the above, prioritise the following criteria:
 * Get x4 as a first priority. This gives you AACI that allows you to reach a boss behind a  preboss node wall.
 * Then upgrade the Battleship guns and  for the BBs in your fleet. See above list for details as to what is optimal for each battleship in the Artillery Spotting + Night Double Attack list until all BBs in your possession are optimised. This allows you to sink the vast majority of bosses in the game.
 * Then upgrade all  to 1*.
 * Then upgrade all to 1*.
 * Then upgrade all  to 1*.
 * Then upgrade all  to 1*.
 * Then upgrade all  to 1*.
 * Then upgrade the same number of as the number of  in your possession to 1*.
 * Then upgrade a single to MAX*. You'll be transferring this between all your DD flagships using night cut-in attacks.
 * Then upgrade all  to 4*.
 * Then upgrade all to 4*.
 * Then upgrade all  to 4*.
 * Then upgrade all  to 4*.
 * Then upgrade all  to 4*.
 * Then upgrade the same number of as the number of  in your possession to 4*.
 * Then upgrade all to 6*.
 * Then upgrade all to MAX*.
 * Then upgrade all  to MAX* and  to 6*.
 * Then upgrade all  to MAX*.
 * Then upgrade all  to 6*.
 * Then upgrade the same number of as the number of  in your possession to MAX*.
 * Then upgrade the Battleship guns for the BBs in your fleet until they are optimised in the Artillery Spotting + Night Anti-Installation Double Attack list.
 * Then upgrade a single  to  and then upgrade it to MAX*, and replace the  on Maya with it.
 * Then upgrade  to  and then upgrade them to 6*.
 * Then upgrade a single  to  and then upgrade it to 6*.
 * If you have completed all of the above, your battle potential is now at a high enough level that you have the luxury of upgrading whatever you wish. Sonars and Depth Charges are probably a good place to start, but you'll already be able to clear any map.

'''Finally, note that you should never do multiple upgrades on the same day, unless you are sure you have enough screws such that there is not a single day in which you cannot do the upgrading daily quest. This quest is the largest continuous source of screws in the game and should not be missed.'''

Weird Crap They Didn't Document In The Stats

 * 1) Fit Bonus: This adds accuracy to CLs using 15.5cm or lighter guns, CAs using 20.3cm gun calibres in yasen specifically, using, and  using . While  is suspected to also have a fit bonus for using the  based on this trend there is not enough evidence yet to either prove or disprove this.
 * 2) Adding Sonar and Depth Charges together increases the effective ASW stat over and above what is predicted.
 * 3) Overweight Penalties: FBBs mounting 41cm or heavier calibres experience an accuracy penalty, mounting 46cm calibres specifically experience an moderate accuracy penalty, and  mounting 46cm calibres experience a minor accuracy penalty. The accuracy penalty accrued by  when mounting the  is identical however, which leads to the somewhat absurd situation that  may mount the  when  have no reason to due to the firepower soft-cap mechanic.  are the only fast battleships allowed to mount the  without being affected by an overweight penalty, though  may also mount these guns without penalty. This is not to be confused with Fit Bonus, as this reduces statistics BELOW their stated values, whereas Fit Bonuses raise statistics ABOVE their stated values.

Damage Processing

 * While the full detail is on the Combat page, what is particularly important to note is post-cap processing - the earlier equipment setups optimise your pre-cap damage levels while ensuring you can use the post-cap bonuses at their full strength. Post-cap, day DA, day CI, day APCI, Airplane Contact, and Critical damage are the main effects - and all of these occur BEFORE armour reduction.
 * Carriers have additional critical damage multipliers which scale up with Aircraft Proficiency. >> rank bomber squadrons will trigger +20% in the first slot and +10% for all other aircraft slots.
 * The highest damage a carrier may perform on a critical hit with 4 >> bomber squadrons equipped is 150%(Crit)*150%(Proficiency)*150 damage = 337 damage before armour reduction.
 * The highest damage a battleship may perform on a critical hit is 110%(AP)*130%(Cut-in)*150%(Crit)*150 damage = 321 damage with an AP shell cut-in, or 110%(AP)*120%(DA)*150%(Crit)*150 damage = 297 damage, twice, before armour reduction.
 * The only other attack type that routinely hits daytime cap is a CLT's torpedo strike, which does 150%(Crit)*150 damage = 225 damage before armour reduction.
 * Night battle post-cap damage is only contributed by critical hits, so the largest damage value possible is 150%(Crit)*300 damage = 450 damage, twice, before armour reduction.
 * The base armour stat of an attack's target is multiplied against a RNG value that varies between 2/3 and 4/3. This value is deducted off the damage values from earlier.
 * The damage from here is then multiplied by the ammo modifier as detailed later.
 * Should the damage be zero but a hit is inflicted, the target will have its health reduced by ~10% of its current value. This is also known as scratch damage, and is the reason why battleships may take more damage from destroyers than other destroyers do.
 * Should the damage by greater than the target's full health, but the target is a friendly ship which has more than red-face morale, the damage taken will be rolled as a minimum of 50% current HP, and will not exceed 80% current HP.

Damage Processing - Example
Combining all these factors into a concrete example, let us consider the Summer 2015 'Kitanda' Air Defense Princess's scenario, assuming the 'armor debuffing/critical buffing' mechanism was NOT used:
 * is faced at a 2 ammo tick situation, and possesses 333 armor at maximum. She always has 255 HP.
 * The largest damage she may take is when her armor is multiplied by 2/3, or 222.
 * Therefore, an aircraft carrier with maximum damage will deal 115 damage, which will be reduced to 46 damage in the day per turn.
 * The largest damage a battleship may do to her is 75 twice, which is reduced to a total of 60 damage in the day per turn.
 * A double scratch attack will deal approximately 19% of her current HP, which is 48 damage from full health.
 * A CLT's torpedo strike would have dealt no more than 2 damage under optimal conditions.
 * In night battle, the maximum damage that can be dealt at damage cap if it crits twice with minimum armour roll is 228, reduced by ammo to 91 damage, twice.
 * So if the special mechanism was not used, in order to sink at Hard level if she entered Night Battle with full health, she would need to be hit by up to 3 perfect attacks in order to be sunk.

Formations

 * Line Ahead: Use for all normal surface combat. Leads to the greatest amount of standard damage and highest torpedo accuracy but lowest ASW damage. A 4-slot Pure ASW CL is capable of one-shotting any Elite submarine or lower as well. If the submarine isn't even an elite, a night DA + ASW hybrid build is already capable of killing it in this formation.
 * Double Line: Use for cases where your 4-slot Pure ASW CL is incapable of killing a submarine in the boss node in Line Ahead. Normally this submarine tends to be a flagship rank or higher. Also used in the event you sortie multiple ships with 188 day firepower (Yamato-classes and aircraft carriers), as they will still be at firepower cap nonethless. Higher shelling accuracy than Line ahead but lower torpedo accuracy.
 * Diamond: Use for aerial nodes, as air strikes ignore all formation bonuses and engagement form bonuses, but Anti-Air and AACI trigger rates are highest in this form. Also used for flagship protection if you're sortieing a weak flagship required for branching. Also used if your 4-slot Pure ASW CL that's supposed to kill a flagship submarine is in chuuha state. Lower accuracy and lower shelling and torpedo damage from all ships.
 * Echelon: Highest anti-torpedo evasion in normal nodes and highest evasion in yasen nodes, and lowest enemy cut-in rate in yasen nodes. Shelling accuracy is similar to line ahead in yasen nodes, but lower in normal nodes. Used primarily for surviving the initial torpedo strikes of submarine nodes in Line Ahead or similar formations, and as the default option in yasen nodes as one-hitting ships is still easily possible, but this reduces the chances your fleet has any taihas.
 * Line Abreast: Used for cases where guaranteeing submarine kills is more important than evading their initial torpedo strikes. Highest evasion in normal nodes against shelling attacks (in the case your ships are unlikely to kill the largest threats, particularly 3-2 BB node), but horrendous shelling damage and very poor torpedo accuracy. Shelling accuracy is similar to line ahead.
 * Antisub Formation 1: Combined Fleet only. Used for pure submarine nodes.
 * Forward Formation 2: Combined Fleet only. Used for mixed surface-submarine nodes.
 * Ring Formation 3: Combined Fleet only. Used for aerial nodes.
 * Battle Formation 4: Combined Fleet only. Used for pure surface nodes.
 * Note that all of the above have no effect on carriers' initial airstrikes.

Nodes

 * Resource (green) nodes give you extra resources, the amount of which can be affected by the equipment your ships are carrying.
 * Maelstrom (purple) nodes take away resources directly from your pool, and also depletes resources from your ships of the same type. If one or more Radars is equipped on any ship in the fleet, all ships will have 30% of their supply (either ammo or fuel) removed. If not, the amount removed is 40%.
 * Battle (red) nodes use up 20% of both ammo and fuel (except for submarine nodes in Combined Fleet maps, which use up only fuel).
 * Choice nodes allow you to pick branching at will.
 * LOS-check nodes allow you to use a branching path if your Fleet eLOS exceeds a certain value. Otherwise, you will be sent to another node. In between guaranteed minima and maxima, your fleet has a chance of going to either node depending on eLOS.
 * Boss (horned) nodes are similar to battle nodes, but are always at the end of one of the possible paths on the map, is usually one of the hardest battles, and defeating the node is required for completion of quests and such.
 * Proceeding to night battle from day battle reduces your ammo ticks by 1, for a total of 2 fuel and 3 ammo ticks used.

Statistics and Special Attacks

 * The function of LOS, in addition to deciding branching of the compass, is to increase Artillery Spotting rates. Fleet LOS has been linked to greater Artillery Spotting rates across all ships. Artillery Spotting rates are also increased by having a seaplane with a greater Aircraft Proficiency, a Surface Radar specifically and having Air Supremacy instead of mere Air Superiority. The flagship also has higher Artillery Spotting rates than any other ship.
 * The trigger rate of Anti-Air Cut-ins is dependent only on the AACI API identity, the ship's own AA statistic and the fleet formation modifier. Fleet AA has no effect on this. Also, the AACI API number which is the largest will take priority, even though in some cases the larger API number leads to a weaker AACI type. The strength of AACI when it triggers is dependent ONLY on the API identity.
 * Luck increases accuracy by approximately 1% every 10 points in addition to its effects on Night Battle Cut-in attacks. This may be a reason to buff Luck on ships you use a lot after all the important night cut-in ships have already been maxed on Luck.
 * Sortieing one or more Slow ships reduces the entire fleet's speed to Slow, which reduces the evasion values of all ships by an unknown amount. Where possible avoid using Slow ships completely, and if you must use one for some branching-related reason, use more than one, since there's no further loss, and Slow ships generally have either lower resource consumption or higher battle potential than Fast ones. Slow ships are also very suitable for support expeditions where the speed of the fleet has no effect.
 * The first round of attacks proceeds in descending order of attack range on both your fleet and the enemy's, and the attack range of a ship is determined by either the ship's intrinsic range or the longest ranged weapon it equips, whichever is longer. However, attacks will always alternate between the two fleets. Therefore using a Long ranged weapon (like ) does not mean you get to launch more attacks before the enemy fleet does. It only means you have altered the turn order on your end. The main cases where understanding this mechanic is useful are firstly the use of to allow a high-damage carrier to launch early rather than risk being chuuhaed and disabled by an enemy attack, and secondly the use of exactly one medium-range gun on  when sparkling her in World 1-1 to ensure she fires before a lvl 1 destroyer does (and thus eliminate the chance of MVP being stolen by a critical hit on node 1).

Ship Status and Performance

 * Shouha damage reduces Artillery Spotting rates and increases night cut-in rates by 5%, but does not affect damage. It also prevents destroyers from being able to be used as escorts in the mechanic.
 * Chuuha damage reduces pre-cap outgoing damage to 70%, reduces Artillery Spotting rates, increases night cut-in rates by 20%, and prevents CV(L)s from launching; only may launch at this damage level. Closing torpedo attacks also cannot be made at this damage level, even though initial torpedo strikes from  may still proceed. Thus, one of the advantages of cut-in setups is that even though the damage potential drops, the cut-in rate increases, allowing the ship to still be a threat in yasen, whereas double attack setups are mostly effective only when the ship has taken shouha levels of damage or less. Finally Akashi is not capable of repairing ships at chuuha or taiha.
 * Taiha reduces outgoing damage further to 40%, prevents yasen participation and if the Admiral proceeds to the next node, the ship will now be able to sink if it is not protected by a Damage Control (Damecon) item like the, where the repairs to 20% HP and the  to full HP ( also restores fuel and ammo to full).
 * Sparkling increases accuracy and evasion above morale values of 53, and increases Great Success rates in expeditions by 16% per ship, but has no known effect on critical hits or Artillery Spotting rates.
 * Orange-face and worse fatigue levels progressively reduce accuracy and evasion, and the damage-reduction mechanism is disabled at red-face levels.
 * Repairing a ship resets its morale to 40 immediately if its morale is less than 40, even if the repair was done with a bucket.
 * Ships carry fuel and ammo with them which are depleted by different map nodes as elaborated above. The final damage dealt by your ships is multiplied by the number of remaining ticks out of 5 (so 180 damage on a 20% ammo situation causes 72 damage); 5 ticks and above deal full damage. Fuel affects the evasion of ships to an unknown level, but in general the lower the fuel, the lower your ships' evasion will be. For this reason always sortie with full resources unless you're using the resupply mechanic, which is detailed separately on her page.

Ship Positioning

 * The BB-triggered second shelling phase of the main fleet and the yasen battle order is dependent on the ship order in the fleet.
 * While carriers should normally be placed last if yasen is expected as they cannot fire in yasen, in Combined Fleet settings they should be placed first instead so they have higher chances of launching before receiving critical damage, since the main fleet in a Combined Fleet setting never enters yasen anyway.
 * Flagships have 25% greater night cut-in rate, a greater Artillery spotting rate, gain 50% more xp than any other ships, and is shielded by other ships at a given rate dependent on the formation chosen. The flagship of the main fleet in a Combined Fleet setting is also the only ship that may trigger the  mechanic, and is the only ship which will lead to the sortie ending by default if taihaed. The flagship of the escort fleet in a Combined Fleet setting has been unsinkable for the past few events, and is the only ship that cannot escort taiha ships away (if the flagship is a DD). The flagship of the first fleet is also the Secretary ship, and affects the results of some Construction attempts and all Development attempts. must be the flagship of a fleet in order to use her Repair function, and must be the Secretary ship to use Akashi's Improvement Arsenal.
 * From the earlier damage processing example on, it is advisable to order the ships in a fleet in ASCENDING order of yasen damage potential (with the exception of the -carrying flagship, so that even if the lower-damage attacks fail, they will still be likely to deal double scratch damage - and reserve the higher-damage attacks for finishing off a high-armour target.

Fleet Composition Quirks

 * The presence of at least one BB or equivalent (some hime, oni etc) on either your fleet or the enemy's fleet will trigger a second shelling phase, where the attack order is determined by fleet order.  If enemy ships on a map are mostly a threat because of their closing torpedo attacks it is advisable to bring at least one battleship to sink them before the closing torpedo phase can happen, BUT if pre-boss enemy ships are mostly a threat because of their shelling phase attacks (this applies mostly to carriers, ESPECIALLY ), it is advisable to ensure you bring NO BATTLESHIPS at all so they don't get to take double turns. 5-4 is one particular case of this where a zero-battleship setup receives far less damage in the zero-oni configuration of node 2 in the north path.

Timing

 * RNG Branching is decided by RNG rolls at the start of a sortie when the map loads. There are tools that at the very least used to be able to read these, though it may be arguable that this would be an exploit-level function and thus using them would be inadvisable.
 * When the formation is selected, the outcome of the battle is decided, damage taken by all your ships is deducted off their HP pools, and planes will be deducted off their slots (leading to bauxite and/or Aircraft Proficiency rank losses). Any enemy ship kills that count for quests are deducted off the quest list. If you lose connection at this point, you lose HP and planes, but do not gain anything in return except quest list reductions for kill-type quests.
 * When the experience screen appears, morale is added and/or deducted from ships, experience gained is accrued to ships, and fuel/ammo costs are deducted from the ships' supply stores. Quests that involve beating a particular boss node will have credit given at this point. Finally, any resource nodes where resources were gained since the previous battle will now add their resources to your HQ. Losing connection at this point will lead to almost all the same effects as retreating at this node, with the exception of zero drops.
 * Ship and special item drops are then calculated when the 'proceed' button is clicked.
 * Upon return to the HQ, 15 morale is deducted for returning from a sortie.

Special mechanics

 * The  is a special piece of equipment that comes stock with . Equipping it on the flagship of the First Fleet of a Combined Fleet allows for a healthy (shouha and greater damage disables the DD's ability to do this) DD in the Second Fleet to escort exactly one taiha ship out of battle per activation. It may activate only once per battle at the very end, so if 2 ships are taiha for instance, the other ship will be prone to sink if the Admiral proceeds and she is not protected by . This allows you to proceed on a sortie where a taiha occurs at the preboss node instead of starting over, but at the cost of both reducing Fuel of both ships to zero AND reducing Morale of both ships to 15. For a fast recovery of morale, one might then bucket-repair the taiha 15 morale ship and dock-repair the escorting DD - or if the escorting DD is at full health, to intentionally sortie it to World 1-2 to force it to take 1 or 2 points of damage at node 1, before proceeding to dock-repair the HP just lost to recover morale instantly. If you've understood everything up to the end, you should realise exactly why the should only ever be equipped in a 3-plane slot on an aircraft carrier, or the 1-plane slots of  or, and having that ship set as Combined Fleet Flagship.