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.
 * Line Abreast is the best formation for anti-sub purposes. It has also been shown to increase evasion rates 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.

Aerial Combat


Aerial combat is a phase where both friendly fleet and opponents send their planes out at the same time trying to determine the air control status, while shoot down each others' planes. The fleets then start their anti-air defense against bombers and the remaining bombers would then launch attacks on enemy ships.

Anti-Air Cut-In
During this phase, AACI has a chance to trigger for ships who are using the required setup to trigger them. An AACI is a special attack that shoots down a static amount of enemy planes in each slot, which helps reducing the efficiency of the enemy opening airstrike. Keep in mind that Anti-Air Cut-In itself does not help you in any way to get Air Superiority easier and that only one AACI can trigger at a time per run.

See Aerial Combat page for details.

Day Combat
During day combat, your fleet and the enemy will exchange fire with each other and attempt to sink each other. The Day Combat consists of the following phases:
 * Opening Phases
 * Jet Assault
 * Opening Airstrike
 * Support Expedition
 * Opening Anti-Submarine Warfare
 * Opening Torpedo Salvo
 * Day Shelling Phase
 * 1st Shelling Phase
 * 2nd Shelling Phase
 * Closing Torpedo

For more information regarding each phase, check out Day Combat.

Artillery Spotting
When Air Superiority or higher is achieved during the Aerial phase, ships that are equipped with a Seaplane will be eligible to use Artillery Spotting during the day shelling phase. Artillery Spotting is either a strong but accurate single attack (Cut In) or a powerful double attack (Double Attack) that deals a lot of average damage.

For more information as to what the requirements are, check out Artillery Spotting requirements

Anti-Submarine Warfare
Any enemy submarines will force Destroyers, Light Cruisers, Torpedo Cruisers, Training Cruisiers and to target them. It also applies to Aviation Heavy Cruisers, Aviation Battleships, Seaplane Tender, Light Carrier and equipped with seaplane bombers,  or. Cut-In and Double Attacks are ignored as guns are useless against submarines.

In normal Night Battles, ASW damage is reduced to scratch damage only, which renders submarines impossible to kill. In battles starting at night and Combined Fleet, Formation Modifiers apply, allowing you to defeat them as usual.

Night Combat
In the scenario that they enemy has not been defeated yet during Day Combat, admirals have the choice to pursue them in a Night battle (夜戦) to finish them off. During night battle, the following effects are applied:
 * The ammo usage on that node is increased by 150% if night battle is entered from day. As most nodes on normal and event maps alike uses 20% ammo, this will be increased to 30% for example.
 * This also means that entering night battle in event submarine nodes doesn't cost anything extra, as those nodes uses 0% ammo.
 * 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 ( 大破 ) before attacking in order to participate in night battle.
 * Night battle damage cap is raised to 300.
 * 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%).

Night Battle Special Attacks

 * Certain combinations of weapon equipments will cause Cut-In or Double Attacks at night, greatly increasing accuracy and/or firepower.
 * If night combat nodes are anticipated, it can be very helpful to utilize specialized night battle equipment such as s, and  as they provide bonuses during night and also increases your Cut-In chances.

For more information regarding night battle and the setups, check out Night Battle