Thread:Exill7/@comment-33792799-20180310212654/@comment-32009136-20180311153607

Ideas for Improvement

In general:

Order as seen in equipment export of March 11th, 2018

Very important / highly flexible / often used (***) Important / flexible / in common usage (**) Nice to have (*)

Medium Caliber Main Guns:

20.3cm (No.2) Twin (***) Very nice CA(V) guns. With enough K2 CAs they are reasonably easy to improve. 9 FP (+3FP at +9 stars) give your CAs a good punch. These can be improved into 20.3cm(No.3), although i would not recommend that, since 20.3cm(No.2) at +9 stars are better than 20.3cm(no.3) at +0 stars, and upgrading these (No.3) is not easy. The expenditure of screws is not worth the result in my opinion. Recommendation: improve one, later two, pairs to +9 stars.

20.3cm(no.3) Twin (**) Not listed yet, but commonly seen as the best CA(V) gun. Higher firepower than the 20.3cm(No.2), but not easily available. Since more (No.3)s are needed to improve these beyond +6 stars, they are not easily upgraded past this point; although +4 stars is my recommendation for these guns, as long as no overabundance of these guns exists.

20.3cm Twin Standard gun; these can be improved into 20.3cm(No.2), although i would not recommend that, since 20.3cm(No.2) guns are stock equipment of most K2 CAs, and therefore reasonably easy to get.

15.2cm Twin (**?) I personally like these guns, since they get a fit bonus on CLs, especially on Agano class CLs. Their improvement is rather cheap, since they can be crafted or gotten from Agano class CLs from drops/LSC. They are upgradeable into the Kai version, which has sligthly better FP and Acc, but this is no immidiate priority, since this - and the subsequent improvement - is not that efficient. (Note: the fit guns system for CLs is said to be broken as of Feb. 15th 2018. No word on repair/fix yet.)

Small Caliber Main Guns (High-angle):

10cm Twin High-angle + AAFD (***) Arguably the best destroyer gun in the game, since it combines good firepower with devastating AA stats. These guns are useful on all destroyers, not just for AACI, but also for regular surface work. Improving these (and a Type 13 Air RADAR Kai, to a lesser extend) to max stars would be my highest priority, since events tend to pit a lot of planes against light fleets. Ideally, you have about two pairs of these improved to +9/max. This should cover most fleet compositions.

10cm Twin High-angle Kai + Additional Machine Guns A secondary HA gun with AAFD, for lots of AACI shenanigans. currently not improvable, but this will surely change over time.

10cm Twin High-angle Standard HA gun for DDs, nice to have some as back-up for destroyer heavy fleets, like the Transport Combined Fleet. Good to have a stockpile for improvement of other guns, since a lot of rarer guns use these as improvement material.

10cm Twin High-angle (Carriage) A secondary gun, good for AA work, but now superseded by the 10cm Twin High-angle Kai + Additional Machine Guns.

8cm High-angle (**) A surprisingly good secondary gun, if used in the Reinforcement slots of Agano-class, Suzuya K2, Kumano K2 and especially Yura. It usually decreases the pure damage dealing potential, since the ships will trade their potential day-time Double Attack for a weaker Secondary Gun Cut-In. In return they gain more flexibility with their equipment setup, while still being able to retain their night-time Double Attack. Improving one of these to +4 stars and later +9 stars can help while fielding these ships, although the improvement is, sadly, not that cheap. Recommendation: one to +4 stars, and see how often you need/use it.

Large Caliber Main Guns

Prototype 51cm Twin Gun Not improvable (yet).

46cm Triple Gun (*) Expensive to improve and limited usabiltiy. Perhaps improve one to +1 star or +4 stars as a complementary gun to the 51cm Twin. If you roll out Nagato K2 and Yamato-class BBs on every map, they might be more use to it.

Prototype 41cm Triple Gun (**) My personal go-to gun for BBs with 41cm fit-bonus. Improvement is not cheap, but those guns almost always find their way onto my fleet. Recommendation: improve one set to +5/+6 stars for a +7 FP bonus. Later to +9 stars.

38cm Quadruple Gun A good gun, especially in it's Kai version. Downside: not much known about gun fit. Not upgradeable yet.

41cm Twin Gun Standard for slow BBs, decent but overshadowed by newer/rare guns. Good improvement material.

Prototype 35.6cm Triple Gun (***) My go-to gun for FBBs. almost constantly in use, and with events hating slow ships, indispensable for those. Recommendation: improve one set to +5/+6 stars for a +7 FP bonus, and reasonably fast to +9 stars. Highest priority.

38cm Twin Decent gun. the Kai version, with it's Acc bonus, is nice for support expeditions.

35.6cm Twin Dazzle Technically nothing special, improvemnt priority depends on how daijoubu you want your Haruna to be.

35.6cm Twin Standard gun, upgradeable into Prototype 35.6cm Triple. My recommendation would be, to upgrade your existing +10 to Proto-Triple for two complete sets.

Secondary Guns

I personally do not use secondary guns, except the outstanding OTOs for CLTs. Upgrading these is of medium priority Nice to have some for potential use against PT-imps.

Small Caliber Main guns

12.7cm Twin B K2 The good old Poi-gun, nowadays superseded but still in demand as improvement material.

12.7cm Twin C K2 (**?) A very nice gun, but not as good as the 10cm HA + AAFD. These can be aquired via a quest (at +3 stars). They are reasonably cheap to improve, if you have several Poiguns left, which are a somewhat common destroyer K2 equipment. These can be improved to the 12.7cm Twin D K2, which gains various bonuses on Yuugumo-Class and Kagerou-Class destroyers. If you see yourself fielding those classes often, then improvement and upgrade is recommended.

Torpedoes

61cm Quintuple Oxygen (**) Best torpedoes for surface ships and still very good for subamrines. Improving these can help with Torpedo-Cut-Ins (damage and accuracy-wise). Not very often needed though.

Carrier-based Fighters

I personally would prioritise improvement of carrier-based fighters, since you can open up slots for bombers without loosing air power, or simply gain better air superiority states.

In general, before you convert a plane via a quest, check if the improvement stays with the plane. It often does, which makes improving high end planes easier and cheaper. In the way, that you improve them, before they are good. Example: Improve a regualar Zero M21 to max stars (very cheap), then use quests to convert it to a Zero M21 (skilled) and this into a Zero M52 (skilled). This gives you a very good plane at max stars for very little screw-costs.

Improving these increases their AA stat by 2.0 (at max stars) [progression linear].

Zero 52A Iwamoto (***) One of the best planes, sadly improving it now will be fairly expensive. Due to the ridiculous air power requirements in events and the ability to possibly open up carrier slots for bombers, it is still recommended.

Zero 52C Iwai (** - ?) This is a tough one. As a fighter it is very good, so improvement is recommended. There is also a quest that turns this fighter into a fighter-bomber, which can be used for Night Cut-Ins on CVs. Depending on how many night bombers/fighters we will be getting in the future, i would hold back the improvement, due to potential conversion. The improvement in it's fighter-bomber version is cheaper - regarding the required planes - and in my opinion of lower priority than in it's fighter version.

Zero M21 (skilled) (**) One of those indispensible planes, due to good stats and very good range for a fighter. Often needed for LBAS. Improving these should start with improving regular M21s and converting them into the skilled version only after tehy reach max stars.

F4F-3 Improving this and upgrading it into a F4F-4 and subsequently improving and upgrading this into a F6F-3 and possibly going further to the F6F-5 might be necessary to gain all the night planes form the Sara quest line. But due to extraordinay screw costs (about 250 screws; see DUs video) not recommended.

Carrier-based Dive-bombers

These are a bit finicky to use, often only used to top up AS requirements or to give fighter mules a little offense. Improving these increases the AA stat by 2.5 (at max stars) [progression linear].

Machine Guns and Ammunition

Those get more important, the more ships with AACI setups you have. But in general improving HA guns is of a higher priority, a since the base stat of HAs and their improvement works for ship AA and fleet AA, while machine guns only count towards ship AA.

25mm Triple (Concentrated Deployment) (*) Improving one of these to max stars can help with destroyer AACI (i.e. Satsuki and Fumizuki) and on Maya. Nice to have, especially if you want to increase the adjusted AA stat of DDs like the Akizuki class via a Reinforcement Expansion, which slightly increases AACI trigger rates.

12cm Rocket Launcher (**) These can be upgraded into Rocket Launcher K2, which triggers a decent AACI on Musashi K2 and Ise-class kai (in conjunction with an air RADAR). They (K2-version) also have the ability to nullify opening air strikes against the ship they are equiped on, as long as it is a CV(L/B), AV, CAV and BBV.

AP shell (***) Quick and cheap to upgrade, helps greatly with BB shelling. AP shells drop from several crafting recipes for guns and bulges. My go-to improvement for days were nothing else is improvable (or i ran out of screws... again). Although this is probably now superseded by Naganami's kitchen antics (improving Combat Rations).

Enemy Detection

Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Recon) (***) Often used, no reason not to improve LoS stat for maps like 2-5 and events.

Zuiun 634 (*) Can be improved and then upgraded into it's skilled variant via a quest. Very costly, but yields a very good bomber.

Type 2 Seaplane Fighter (**) You might want to consider upgrading some of these into the Kyofuu Kai (via upgrade) or Type 2 (skilled) (via quest). Costly, and increases AA power only slightly in smaller slots, it can still be very useful.

RADAR

Type 22 Surface RADAR Kai 4 (*) A good RADAR for destroyers, improving it is helpful for reaching LoS requirements without loosing combat potential. Available via quest for Myoukou K2 and Choukai K2 equipment.

Type 13 Air RADAR Kai (***) A perfect RADAR for Akizuki-class destroyers. Improving it will increase the adjusted AA value.

Armor and Engines

Extremely costly improvment for little gain. Do not touch this unless you hit the hardcap of screws in the inventory.

Sonar + Depth Charge Projectors

Type 93 Passive (***) Improving this ans subsequently upgrading it to the Type 4 Passive Sonar can help with reaching those pesky OASW values. Improvment is cheap.

Type 3 DCP (*) Improving one or two of these can help with dealing damage to armored sub. Not a high priority though.

Landing Craft (*)

Improving landing craft has the double benefit, that it increases their damage against installation type enemies and improves the ressource gain during expeditions. The last point is only important, if you have Daihatsu carriers (ideally DDs or Kinu) on expeditions. The gain on expeditions is slight though (0.5% per max star Daihatsu, for a maximum of +2% with four max star Daihatsu). Not a high priority.

Conclusion:

My overall recommendation would be to start with the Akiguns (10cm HA + AAFD) and a fighter of your choice. Then continue with fighters and a mix of main guns. I personally highly value the fighter improvement, to hopefully open slots for bombers or simply gain better AS states.

As for the exact effects (if known) i recommend Akashi-Me . Using this site also shows the various secondary improvements to equipment, which are mentioned in the wiki, but on Akashi-Me they are easier to keep track of and - for your convenience - already calculated.

Agin, i'll most likely have overlooked some stuff, and there will be different opinions about prioritis, but this would be my take on waht to improve fist.

May your screws last long.