Combat/Main

Combat Stages
For most combat engagements, the battle will begin in day combat and follow the following set of stages. Several stages will not occur unless certain conditions are met. For Event maps, a Combined Fleet mechanic has been implemented which follows a modified combat order.

Aerial Combat nodes contain two Aerial Combat phases but no other phases.

Air Raid nodes contain a single, incomplete Aerial Combat phase which friendly side planes will only participate in Stage 1 of the Aerial Combat phase.

Night Battle nodes would start battle with Night Combat phase. Very occasionally a few of those node can then enter Day Combat phase if certain criteria are met.

Formation Selection
With 4 or more ships in player's fleet, a fleet formation must be selected before combat. With less than 4 ships, player's fleet defaults to Line Ahead formation.

The selected formation affects ship damage and hit rate.

Formation Modifier

 * The surface damage modifier applies to both shelling and torpedo attacks, but does not affect Aerial Combat or Anti-Submarine attacks.
 * Evasion modifier only applies to the daytime shelling phase, and not to air or torpedo attacks and night battles.
 * Flagship protection is the situation where a non-flagship ship protects the flagship from being damaged by receiving the attack instead.
 * Line Ahead has the highest offensive power for surface combat. It is usually the best choice for encounters after the 3rd battle node to preserve firepower because of the remaining ammo penalty. (Notable exceptions are where anti-sub ability is needed.)


 * Double Line is generally a good formation for heavy BB/CV fleets. There is a significant accuracy increase that benefits the typically lower accuracy carriers, while BB often still have enough firepower.
 * Diamond has the best anti-air modifier and flagship protection, and is almost as good as Line Abreast for anti-sub purposes. A good alternative to Line Abreast when facing mixed surface-sub fleets.
 * Diamond formation is only available when the players' fleet has at least 5 ships.


 * Echelon has not been tested extensively, but it is hypothesized to be a defensive formation for submarines; subs profit from the slightly heightened torpedo accuracy when compared to Diamond and Line Abreast, both common defensive formations. Archives and some specific tests proved that it raises evasion in night battles (specially those nodes that starts in night battles).
 * Line Abreast is the best formation for anti-sub purposes. It has also been shown to increase evasion rates, mostly against an enemy fleet which is in Double Line.

Detection
Scout plane can be lost in this stage if there is a lack of LOS, disabling Artillery Spotting. If there are no more recon planes in that slot of the ship who sent the scout, the plane's rank will be reset.

Despite the animation show detection affect Accuracy and Evasion, some claim that it is not the actual case, though it is too difficult to test.

Aerial Combat


Aerial combat is a phase where both friendly fleet and opponents send their planes out at the same time, shoot down each others' planes, determine air control status and contact, then both fleets start their anti-air defense against bombers and remaining bombers would then launch attack on enemy ships. See Aerial Combat page for details.

Opening Stages
The Opening Stages of combat proceed in order with the Supporting Expedition effect, the Opening Torpedo salvo, then the display of the engagement form

Support Expedition

 * In World 5 and Event Maps, the Sortie fleet can receive a salvo of Support fire from fleets deployed on Support Expeditions. The type of supporting fire depends on the composition of the expedition fleet.

Opening Torpedo Salvo

 * The Opening Torpedo Salvo is fired by submarines over level 10, ships with the Type A Ko-hyoteki (CLTs, AVs, SS, Abukuma Kai Ni) equipped, and the Enemy Battleship Re-Class.
 * Torpedoes are fired from all ships simultaneously, and accuracy is affected by the selected Formation type.
 * Unlike in the Closing Torpedo phase, moderately damaged ships can still launch torpedoes.
 * The Opening stages finish with the display of the Engagement form, the orientation of the two fleets.

Engagement Form Modifier

 * Please note that all engagement forms affect both sides equally, including crossing the T ( Advantage or Disadvantage ).
 * Night battle and aerial combat are not affected by engagement forms. Torpedo salvos are affected by engagement forms.
 * Equipping a Saiun effectively makes what would have been Crossing the T (Disadvantage) become Head-on Engagement.
 * A magazine claims that the Engagement form also impacts accuracy but it doesn't seems to be supported by test.

Day Combat

 * Day Combat consists of up to 3 phases: 1st Shelling, 2nd Shelling, Closing Torpedo
 * CVLs and CVs must be in good or lightly damaged condition in order to participate in shelling phases, with the exception of Armored Aircraft Carriers (e.g. Taihou, Shoukaku Kai Ni A and Zuikaku Kai Ni A) who can still attack while moderately damaged. More than zero non-fighter-plane equipment is also mandatory. Note that LHA is not restricted by this.
 * Submarines will not take part in the Shelling Phase unless there's an Installation Enemy and they meet the criteria to attack it.
 * All ships capable of attacking submarines are forced to shell submarines. Otherwise, targeting during the shelling phase is largely random, though some sources speculate fleet order may have a minor effect.

First Shelling Phase

 * During the first shelling stage, the order of fire is determined by the ship's maximum range.
 * Ships are arranged in order from Very Long → Long → Medium → Short → Very Short range.
 * The shelling order alternates from allied ships to enemy ships if able. If two ships on the same side have the same range, the ship that attacks first from between them is chosen randomly.

Second Shelling Phase

 * The second shelling phase moves from the top to the bottom of the combat line.
 * Ships unable to attack at all in the shelling phase (i.e. submarines) will be skipped, but those normally able to attack but rendered unable to (e.g. damaged carriers) will still take actionless turns.

Closing Torpedo

 * The Closing Torpedo salvo is fired by all SS(V), DD, CL(T), CA(V), AV, Bismarck drei, and the enemy Battleship Re-Class.
 * Torpedoes are fired from all ships simultaneously, and accuracy is affected by the selected Formation type.
 * Ships must not be moderately or heavily damaged to participate.

Night Combat

 * Night battle damage depends on both the Firepower and Torpedo stats for attack power. Consequently, DDs, CLs, CLTs and CAs have drastically increased strength at night.
 * Any vessel at night must not be heavily damaged (red) before attacking in order to participate in night battle.
 * Certain combinations of weapon equipment (Main Guns, Secondary Guns, Torpedoes) will cause Cut-In or Double Attacks at night, greatly increasing accuracy and/or firepower
 * Ship with high luck has higher chance to initiate cut-in (this does not apply to CV(L) as they can't attack at night). Therefore, it is recommended to equip such ships (e.g. Shigure, Ayanami, Yukikaze, Kitakami) with torpedo cut-in setup. See Equipment Guide for setup.
 * Auxiliary equipment (e.g RADAR, SONAR, Depth Charges, Searchlights, Turbines, Special ammunition, Pure AA Equipment, Torpedo Bulges, and Midget-subs) will not affect the combination.
 * If night combat nodes are anticipated, it can be very helpful to utilize specialized night battle equipment such as Star Shells and Searchlight. Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Scout) is also an option.
 * Any attack against submarines in regular Night Battles are automatically nullified, so they cannot take more than scratch damage. In battles starting at night and Combined Fleet sorties, submarines do not get the special effect, so they will take damage as normal.
 * Formation damage modifiers and Engagement Form damage modifiers do not apply in Night Battle (i.e. they are always 100%).
 * As an exception, in nodes that begin with Night Battle and in Combined Fleet Night Battle, Formation and Engagement Form anti-sub damage modifiers apply.
 * The Engagement Form is not explicitly shown in Night Battle nodes.
 * The animation for ships equipped with 2 different torpedoes may be different but the damage output is still the same.
 * A Prototype FaT Type 95 Oxygen Torpedo Kai + 61cm Quint (Oxygen) Torpedo Mount will show a cut-in animation of FaT+Quint+Quint and if equipped the other way around, the cut-in animation will show Quint+FaT+FaT. However, both animation produces the same damage output.

Damage Calculations
Main Formula

Basic Attack Power
The Basic Attack Power's formula vary under different case, see Basic Attack Power section on Damage Calculation page for details.

Pre-Cap Modifiers
These are the factors directly applied to your ship's attack power. Effects from the modifiers are multiplied cumulatively.
 * Anti-Installation Attack Modifier
 * Formation Modifier (see "Damage modifier")
 * Engagement Modifier
 * Health Modifier
 * Night Special Attack Modifier
 * Light Cruiser Fit Bonus

Attack Power Cap
There is a soft cap of 150 in Day Battle, 300 in Night Battle, and 100 in ASW battle. Read this link for details.

Post-Cap Modifiers
In damage calculation, Post-cap modifiers apply after the cap, but before enemy armor reduction. Thus they are very effective approach to boost your damage output (esp. against heavy armor enemies).

Currently, the post-cap modifiers are from:
 * Artillery Spotting (aka. Day time special attacks)
 * Critical Damage
 * Contact (Opening air strike)
 * AP Shell (against certain targets)
 * Aircraft Proficiency

Remaining Ammo Modifier
Remaining ammo of your ship affect their attack power, see Damage_Calculation for details.

Player Ship Protection Mechanisms
While the above formulas and statements are generally true for damage taken by a player's ships, there are additional limits that apply to friendly units only. These protection mechanisms are important for game balance and to protect your fleet from sinking.
 * For ships entering battle at chuuha (orange) or higher HP:
 * Damage taken cannot reduce HP below 1.
 * Any further hits will become misses.
 * For flagships, as well as ships with 20 morale or more (i.e. not red face):
 * If damage taken exceeds a ship's current HP, then instead of taking full damage, the damage of the current attack is limited to 50%-79% (rounded down) of current HP.
 * For multi-hit attacks, such as night battle torpedo cut-in attacks, each hit is calculated separately.
 * This can occasionally help ships avoid taiha (red HP), because it narrows the range of damage where it is possible to be hit into taiha.
 * For ships with at full hp and an odd hp total, it is occasionally possible to stop damage at lightly damaged.

Accuracy and Evasion
There are still many things unknown about Accuracy and Evasion, but all the known factors that might affect them have been listed in the Accuracy and Evasion page.

Combat Equipment Setup

 * Anti-Air Cut-in (AACI)
 * Day Battle Special Attacks (Artillery Spotting)
 * Night Battle Special Attacks
 * Common Setups
 * Full Setup List

Anti-Air Cut-in
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" ! colspan="1" |Anti-Air Cut-In
 * This section mainly discuss about way to setup Anti-Air Cut-In for your fleet. See Aerial Combat for further descriptions about its effect.
 * This section mainly discuss about way to setup Anti-Air Cut-In for your fleet. See Aerial Combat for further descriptions about its effect.
 * This section mainly discuss about way to setup Anti-Air Cut-In for your fleet. See Aerial Combat for further descriptions about its effect.

With one of the following setups, your ship may perform an AA cut-in before encountering the enemy bombers, help shoot down more planes during the aerial phase. Note that AACI does NOT help you gain Air superiority.

Requirement:
One of the following sets:
 * 1) Heavy Main Gun, Type 3 Shell , plus Anti-Aircraft Fire Director  (AAFD)
 * 2) * Can be supplemented with an AA RADAR (Surface Radar with AA stat might work too as from equipment used by Air Defense Princess.
 * 3) * Only available for BB(V)s.
 * 4) High-Angle mount (main gun or secondary), plus AAFD
 * 5) * Can be supplemented with an AA RADAR
 * 6) * Achievable by any surface ship.
 * 7)  10cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD , plus AA RADAR
 * 8) * Can be supplemented with another HA mount capable of AACI
 * 9) * Only available for DD & CL(T).
 * 10)  25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment) , plus  AA Gun  (any)  and AA RADAR
 * 11) * Achievable by any surface ship.
 * 12) 12.7cm Twin High-angle Mount + Anti-Aircraft Fire Director or 90mm Single High-angle Gun Mount, plus AA RADAR
 * 13) * Can be supplemented with another HA mount capable of AACI
 * 14) * Achievable by any surface ship except DDs.
 * Akizuki, Teruzuki , and Hatsuzuki have a built-in AA fire director, which allows them to trigger AACI without an AAFD with the following setup
 * High-Angle mount (any) plus either or both:
 *  RADAR (any kind)
 *  High-Angle mount (any)
 * Maya Kai 2 may trigger AACI with a unique setup:
 *  25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment) , plus High-Angle mount (any)
 * Can be supplemented with an AA RADAR
 * Isuzu Kai 2 may trigger AACI with a follow setup:
 * High-Angle mount (any), plus AA Gun (any) , plus AA RADAR

Effect:

 * Provide an AoE blast on all the incoming enemy bombers, from the ship who is triggering it. (source)
 * It is hypothesized that when AACI was triggered, it flatly kills a certain number (2~8) of planes per enemy bomber slot. (source: [1 ], [2 ], [3 ])
 * The most effective set ups belong to Maya Kai-2 (H.C,R*,, or HA mount, 25mm Autocannon mount (Concentrated.Deployment), + Air Radar)
 * Followed by Akizuki (H.H.R*, or HA mount, HA mount + Air Radar)
 * Effects from 90mm Single HA Mount is currently unknown.

Trigger Chance:

 * AA stat of the ship performing the cut-in (equipment bonuses included) affects trigger rate.
 * Independent of fleet total AA stat.
 * Various equipment set ups provide different activation chances. (source).
 * Akizuki (H.H.R) is possibly the one with the highest proc rate. (~67%)
 * }

Day Battle Special Attacks (Artillery Spotting)
Artillery spotting allows your ship with seaplanes to double attack (DA) and cut-in (CI) during day battle.

Requirement

 * Air superiority (AS) or greater achieved in aerial combat phase
 * Not in heavily damaged (大破) state
 * Ship is carrying at least 1 seaplane. (i.e. slots are not all at 0 remaining)
 * Certain equipment setup (see below)

Set up and Attack Modes
Different set ups provide chances to trigger various modes of attack.
 * Lists of Main gun and Secondary gun.KanColle-140425-16133343.png
 * These are the basic setups used in the game. You don't need to exactly follow the placement (1st slot = main, 3rd slot = seaplane, etc) as long as those equipment are equipped on the same ship.
 * Any other setup variation will NOT change the attack mode or damage modifier. Feel free to add another auxiliary equipment when possible.
 * Mixed Attacks provide chances for both day battle DA and CI.
 * When either CI or DA is not triggered by chance, the ship will just do a normal single attack, dealing 100% damage.
 * Trigger chances were estimated under the following conditions: AS+ & FLoS = 300; Placement: Non-flagship .
 * The enemy is capable of doing Artillery Spotting on your fleet, both DA & CI.
 * For more info on the Day Special Attack mechanics, you may visit page Artillery Spotting.

Trigger Chance of Artillery Spotting

 * The flagship has ~15% higher chance in triggering Artillery Spotting.
 * Losing Air Supremacy (AS+) to Air Superiority (AS) will lower the trigger chances by ~12%. Higher penalty for mixed attack.
 * Higher fleet total LoS (Line of Sight) will slightly increase the chances, around 5% ~ 10% per 100 additional FLoS. Notice that FLoS equals to the sum of LoS stats from all the ships in your fleet. Bonuses from equipment are included in the calculation.
 * Equipment set up will affect the chances (see the table above)

Night Battle Special Attacks
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" ! colspan="1" |Night Battle Cut-In/Double Attack Night battle special attacks allow your ship to double attack (DA) and cut-in (CI) at night. Compared to artillery spotting, these special attacks are less demanding on equipment setups, and give different bonuses. Note that it is important to realize the differences between the two types of special attack and know when to use which.

Requirements

 * Not in heavily damaged (大破) state
 * Certain equipment setups (see below)

Setups and Attack Types
Different setups have chances to trigger different modes of attack. Attack modes are ONLY determined by the prerequisites. Also, feel free to add any auxiliary equipment (AP shell, seaplane, AA gun, etc.).on the remaining slots.
 * When your set up fulfills the prerequisite for multiple attack modes, the one closer to the bottom of the list will be considered.
 * Note the night battle damage cap (300) applies after these modifiers.
 * If two simultaneous attacks are made with cutins, the total damage is displayed together but the Damage Cap (and Enemy Armor reduction) is applied separately to each attack.
 * When either DA or CI is not triggered by chance, the ship will just do a normal single attack.

Night Double Attack Chance
Has a very high (~99%) and relatively consistent activation chance (source). Activation rate is not dependent on luck. This typically results in more consistent and higher average damage than cut-in setup for ships with normal luck values.

Night Cut-in chance:
It is currently known that Night Cut-in chance is affected by the type of cut-in attack used, luck, health, flagship position, Searchlight activation, Star Shell activation, and Skilled Lookouts. Note that there is a cap for luck on cut-in chance.


 * }

Anti-Sub Warfare
Any enemy submarines will force Destroyers, Light Cruisers, Torpedo Cruisers, Training Cruisiers and Hayasui to target them. It also applies to Aviation Heavy Cruisers, Aviation Battleships, Seaplane Tender, Light Carrier and Akitsumaru equipped with seaplane bombers, Ka-type Observation Autogyro or Type 3 Spotter/Liaison (ASW) but not any other ships despite they might also be able to equip these equipment. Type 0 Passive Sonar does not enable ASW for any ships. Cut-In and Double Attacks are ignored. In normal Night Battles, ASW damage is scratch damage only. In battles starting at night, Formation Modifiers apply.

Overweight Penalty/Fit Gun Bonus


Since a certain update, using main guns larger than what's fit for the ship class would incur certain level of accuracy penalty, For instance, using 41cm or above guns on Kongou-class. More research needs to be done to show to actual effect.

Land-base Boss
Land-base bosses, also known as installation-type bosses, have a number of special properties:


 * Land-base bosses cannot be targeted by torpedoes in day battle.
 * Carriers with dive bombers equipped cannot target these enemies.
 * In night battle, only the firepower portion of the (firepower + torpedo) attack power formula will be counted.
 * Type 3 Shells give bonus damage against them, and are regarded as the main counter against the high armor these enemies often possess.
 * For regular Land-base bosses, the damage formula is Firepower × 2.5.
 * WG42 also gives a damage bonus.
 * For regular installations, a flat +75 damage applied to firepower before modifiers & cap but after Type 3 Shell for the first WG42 being used.
 * Instead of the usual lightly damaged (小破), moderately damaged (中破), heavily damaged (大破) and sunk (轟沈) indications, there is instead disordered (混乱), damaged (損害), destroyed (損壊) and demolished (破壊). Functionally, the two series of damage indications are equivalent.

Common Setups

 * Common ship equipment setups for different ship type and their purpose

Full Setup List

 * What follows is an extensive list of possible equipment setups related to Artillery Spotting and Night Battle attacks.


 * Yellow: Cut-In or Double Attack Possible