Combat/Main

Introduction

Combat is where the majority of the game's action takes place. When sortieing to a map, you will notice along the way that there are red nodes scattered all over the maps. These are combat nodes, in which your goal is to sink the enemy ships. Combat is completely automated, save for a few decisions you can make during some sections.

This article explains the basic flow of combat mechanics and is more focused for beginners to gain an understanding as to how combat works. In case you already have a basic understanding of this, use the tabs above to navigate to the topic you're interested in.

This article will explain the following combat phases in order:

• Formation Selection
• Detection
• Aerial Combat
• Engagement Form Modifier
• Day Combat
• Night Combat

Damage Calculation

Before we actually explore each combat phase though, it is important to know what the relevant stats are when dealing damage and how they are applied during each phase.

Icon	Description
	The health of a ship. If a ship reaches 0 , she will be sunk. A player's ship can only be sunk when the fleet advances to a new node on the map while one of the ships in the fleet is heavily damaged.
	The stat decides how much damage you do to your opponents per shot during the shelling phase.
	The stat increases the damage of all forms of torpedo attacks against your opponents. Affects all form of torpedo attacks.
	For Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). This stat affects how much damage you do against enemy submarines.
	The stat generates an armor roll that decides how much damage is subtracted in case the ship suffers a direct hit. Higher armor stats increases the scope of the armor roll value.

Each form of attack has their own mechanics associated with them as well as a damage cap. The damage cap is also known as the softcap and any damage value that goes past the damage cap will be met with diminishing returns. Of course, there are exceptions to anything, but more to that later.

Type	Relevant Stats	Damage Cap	Description
Shelling Attacks		220	Attacks that involves firing a barrage at your opponents.
Torpedo Attacks		180	Any form of torpedo attacks that are performed during the day.
Opening Airstrikes	or	170	The aerial attack of an opening airstrike.
ASW		170	Anti-Submarine attacks, which involves attacking the enemy submarine with depth charges or by attacking them with aircraft.
Night Battle	+	360	During night battle, all forms of attacks are treated the same.

Note: The damage caps have been changed in the March 1st 2021 update. (Previously 180, 150, 150 ,150, 300)

For more information about damage calculation, click here

Formation Selection

When approaching a red node, you are given the choice to select a fleet formation. There are 5 formations for the player to choose and each formation has its advantages and disadvantages.

However, in case the player has less than 4 ships, you will not be given the choice and the fleet will default to Line Ahead formation.

Note: Keep in mind that the formation you select here, will only affect your own fleet.

Formation Modifier

Formation	Icon	Damage Modifier				Accuracy Modifier				FS Prot
		Shelling	ASW	Night	AA	Shelling	ASW	Torp	Night
Line Ahead 単縦陣?		100%	60%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	45%
Double Line 複縦陣?		80%	80%	100%	120%	120%	120%	80%	90%	60%
Diamond 輪形陣?		70%	120%	100%	160%	100%	100%	40%	70%	75%
Echelon 梯形陣?		75%	110%	100%	100%	120%	120%	60%	80%	60%
Line Abreast 単横陣?		60%	130%	100%	100%	120%	120%	30%	80%	60%

Note:

• The values are based from data found in Kancolle Vita. All the analysis and tests done on the browser version seems to match the current values so far.
  • Echelon formation was strengthened during the February 27, 2019 update
• This table consists of only damage and hit rate modifiers of each attack, which are the basic essentials. In case you are interested in the full table, check out Day Combat for more info.
• The surface damage modifier applies to both shelling and torpedo attacks but does not affect Opening Airstrikes or Anti-Submarine attacks.
• All attacks during night battle have a 100% damage modifier, regardless of formation.
  • The exception being against submarines.
• Enemy's fleet is affected by the same formation modifier as us; furthermore, the formation shown on screen is based on the perspective of both fleet. This may result in the situation where the formations of both sides are shown as "line ahead" icon on-screen, but it is actually "line abreast".
• Flagship protection is the situation where a non-flagship ship protects the flagship from being damaged by receiving the attack instead. This will only work if there is a healthy (green health) non-flagship ship available in the fleet. In case all the requirements are met, the chances will trigger every time a flagship is targeted.

Vanguard Formation (警戒陣) - Event Exclusive

• Vanguard Formation
• Striking Force Vanguard Formation

1/2

Introduced in Fall 2017 Event for the first time along with the Strike Force mechanic, the vanguard is a defensive formation which affects the ships based on how they are positioned in the fleet.

• Vanguard Formation is available only during event period. However, it is usable on all maps during that period.

• Modifiers
• Evasion bonus & Aggro effect
• Airstrikes
• Utilization

Fleet Halves	Damage Modifier					Evasion Bonus?	Aggro?
	Accuracy Modifier
	Shelling	Torpedo	ASW	Night	Aerial
Top half	50%	100%	100%	50%	100%	✓	✘
	80%	???	???	???	???
Bottom half	100%	100%	60%	100%	100%	✓	✓
	125%	???	???	???	???

As shown above, vanguard formation has two modifier values divided between the Top half and the Bottom half which split differently depending on the number of ships.

• For 4 (or 5 ships)
  • Top half: Position #1-2
  • Bottom half: Position #3-4 (and 5)
• For 6 (or 7 ships)
  • Top half: Position #1-3
  • Bottom half: Position #4-6 (and 7)

Vanguard and Support Expedition

Note that in the scenario that a Shelling Support is used, the Shelling Support will receive a 50% firepower modifier as well when Vanguard is selected.

• This is applied to the whole support fleet, so placing weaker ships at the top will not solve this problem. Therefore, using support expedition when you rely majorly on vanguard formation to survive will not be as efficient however still usable.

When the Vanguard formation is selected, all your ships in the fleet will obtain a post-cap evasion bonus [1]. While everyone in the fleet will gain an evasion bonus, the amount of evasion you gain is based on 2 things:

1. Is the ship a DD?
2. Is the ship part of the top or the bottom half?

The rough estimates of the evasion bonus are as followed:

• Top half (including the 4th ship)
  • Non-DD: +5% Evasion
  • DD: +20% Evasion
• Bottom half (excluding the 4th ship)
  • Non-DD: +20% Evasion
  • DD: +40% Evasion

Regarding aggro effect, the bottom half is attacked more often than usual, which is supported by its higher evasion.

A test has been done albeit roughly regarding Vanguard Formation's effect on Air Raid nodes. A conclusion was reached as followed [2]:

Ship Slots	Evasion Bonus?	Aggro?
First half	✘	✘
Second half	✘	✓

While the aggro effect is still there, you do not gain any evasion bonus against airstrikes. In other words, your evasion will be the same as in Diamond formation, except with a worse AA modifier of 110% instead of 160%.

• Your bottom half will suffer the most from airstrikes and you do not have evasion bonuses to compensate for it this time.

Some Utilization Examples:

• Night Battle modifier is not a 100% all-around (Top: 50%, Bottom: 100%) which is unique.
  • For nodes where you want to maximize your firepower such as boss nodes, vanguard is generally undesired.
  • However, in some situations, using vanguard might be better such as at pre-boss night battle nodes.
    • 5-3 Leveling, for example, Node I does not have tough enemies and your night battle power might be able to out-damages the modifier while increasing your evasion to improve survivability. This requires a lot of trial and error.
• Torpedo modifier remains 100% regardless of where the ship is placed in the fleet.
  • Ships who rely highly on their torpedo stats such as CLT and especially SS can benefit greatly from this. For example, submarines with vanguard will still maintain the 100% modifier from Line Ahead while benefiting from increased evasion based on position. However, consider placing your higher evasion or armor at the bottom half as they will be targeted more.
• The ASW capable ships benefit the most from the top half while those who damage through shelling and night attacks benefit the most when placed in the bottom half.

Vanguard and Pre-setup

Vanguard Formation is position-sensitive. As such, learning how to position is the key in utilizing the formation to its greatest extent but also its greatest weakness. Once you setup your fleet to benefit the most from vanguard, you can and most likely disorder your fleet's shelling depending on what you want to utilize.

Consider this situation:

• A fleet of 3 low-level ship: 1 CL and 2 DDs; plus 3 high-level ships: 1 BB and 2 CV

Ship Type	Level	Ship	Evasion Bonus	Aggro?	Shelling Modifier	ASW Modifier	Night Battle
3	DD		+20%	✘	50%	100%	50%
21	DD		+20%	✘	50%	100%	50%
26	CL		+5%	✘	50%	100%	50%
175	CV		+20%	✓	100%	60%	100%
170	BB		+20%	✓	100%	60%	100%
162	BB		+20%	✓	100%	60%	100%

• Note: Please see previous tabs to understand the evasion bonuses. Torpedo and Aerial modifier stay constant and therefore not shown.
• Disregarding equipment setup, what is the current situation of the fleet?
  • As low-level DDs have horrible evasion, it won't benefit as much from evasion bonus and therefore would be safe to position them in #1-3
  • This allows position #4-6 to be occupied by your high-level ships that can both tank, draw aggro, benefit slightly from evasion bonus, and display 100% shelling damage all at once in exchange for getting targeted more.
  • In maps with submarines, those DDs can also be equipped with ASW gears to sink submarine from position #1-3 which gives them 100% ASW benefit.

This is beneficial in cases in which you need to protect weaker ships, but in cases in which you need all the ships to participate, i.e. Boss Nodes in an event, this can become troublesome to setup as using vanguard formation to pass through the nodes more easily can harm your damage chance at boss node due to your setup. Consideration toward fleet ordering is required to setup properly.

Factors that decides which formation you should choose:

• Line Ahead: This formation has the highest offensive power for surface combat. This is generally the choice you should always be choosing when surface combat is involved. Keep in mind though that ASW damage is very poor.
• Double Line: This formation increases the shelling accuracy, but lowers the damage output in return during the day. This is a good choice in case the enemy fleet contains a mix of submarines and surface fleets, but because of the firepower penalty, you are recommended not to choose this formation for the increased accuracy.
• Diamond: This formation has the strongest anti-air modifier and is almost as good as Line Abreast for ASW purposes. Diamond is the formation you should always be using when you have to defend yourself in an Air Raid node. This is also a good alternative to Double Line when you are faced with mixed fleets.
  • Keep in mind that Diamond formation is only available when there are at least 5 ships in the fleet.
• Echelon: A somewhat balanced formation with relatively high ASW damage but relatively low firepower and torpedo accuracy that is a good option for engaging submarine fleets that also contain surface ships.
• Line Abreast: Line Abreast is the best formation for anti-sub purposes, but has the worst damage modifier against surface targets during the day. Please be advised that although this formation does have the highest Evasion modifier among the five for Night Battle Nodes, due to the Evasion Cap, it will have diminishing returns, and therefore you are more recommended to go Line Ahead.

Detection

Success	Failed
Effects
Allows the participation of allied planes. Note: While it states that and have increased, there is no evidence of that actually being the case.	Prevents the participation of allied planes.
Fleet LOS affects Detection rate.

In detection, your fleet attempts to detect the enemy fleet by either sending out recon seaplanes, using radars or detect them using sonars, in case you are dealing with submarines. The success rate of a detection is influenced by the of your fleet.

In case your fleet fails to detect the enemy fleet, your fleet will not participate in the Aerial Combat Phase, resulting in an automatic Air Incapability. Failing the detection will also run the risk of your recon seaplane getting shot down.

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 shooting down each others' planes. The fleets then start their anti-air defense against bombers and the remaining surviving bombers would then launch an attack on the enemy ships.

The important main stages that take place in aerial combat are in the following order:

• Fighter Combat
• Fleet Anti-Air Defense
• Bombing Phase

Fighter Combat (First Stage)

Fighting for Air Superiority

In this phase, all fighters and bombers fight for the air control to establish air superiority. The air state is dependent on how many fighter power your fleet has, compared to the enemy fleet. Planes are proportionally shot down depending on which air state has been achieved. The air states are as follows:

• AS+: Air Supremacy
• AS: Air Superiority
• AP: Air Parity
• AD: Air Denial
• AI: Air Incapability

In case your opponent does not have any fighter power, you will gain Air Supremacy by default. If neither side have aircraft that can participate in the fighter combat, the air control will default to parity. You are advised to always attempt to obtain at least Air Superiority and in cases where it's possible, Air Supremacy. The stronger your air control, the more advantages you gain in your favor.

Fleet Anti-Air Defense (Second Stage)

An Anti-Air Cut-In

After the first stage, all the fighters will retreat, as they already finished their job of establishing air control. In this phase, all your bombers will approach the opponent fleet in an attempt to attack them, while the enemy will attempt to shoot them down through fire.

The strength of the fire is heavily dependent on the equipment and Anti-Air Cut-In attacks. While base stats of a ship do contribute to your anti-air, it is the least relevant.

Bombing Phase (Third Stage)

An airstrike being carried out

All remaining surviving bombers will randomly choose and attack a target among the enemy fleet. The damage done is affected by the amount of planes in a slot and whether you have used a dive bomber or a torpedo bomber.

Note: Opening Airstrike accuracy is not affected by morale and the damage is not affected by formations or engagement modifiers.

For more information about aerial combat, click here.

Engagement Form Modifier

During every battle, an engagement form is declared, which further modifies the amount of damage you can potentially deal.

Form	Damage Modifier	Chance	Chance with Saiun	Combat Screens
Crossing the T (Advantage) T字戦有利 (T Ji-sen Yuuri, T字戦有利?)	120%	15%	15%
Parallel Engagement 同航戦 (Doukousen, 同航戦?)	100%	45%	45%
Head-on Engagement 反航戦 (Hankousen, 反航戦?)	80%	30%	40%
Crossing the T (Disadvantage) T字戦不利 (T Ji-sen Furi, T字戦不利?)	60%	10%	0%

Note:

• All engagement forms affect both sides equally, including crossing the T (Advantage or Disadvantage). In the case of Green T, both sides will gain a 120% boost in firepower.
• Night battle and aerial combat are not affected by engagement forms. However, day torpedo attacks are affected by engagement forms.
• Engagement modifiers do affect opening phases like Opening Torpedo or Opening ASW, even though they happen before the engagement modifier is declared.
• Equipping a Saiun effectively prevents Red T.

Day Combat

Main article: Day Combat

During day combat, your fleet and the enemy will exchange fire and attempt to sink each other. It is basically the phase where also the most action happens, including the majority of the phases that was explained above.

This is further categorized into two categories:

• Opening Phases: The opening phases consists of stages where attacks are fired pre-emptively against your opponents before any other attacks are performed. This phase ends when the formation modifier gets displayed.
• Shelling Phase: After the formation modifier is displayed, the shelling phase will start. In this phase, all surface ships will each take a turn in firing a barrage against the enemy fleet. This can extend to a 2nd shelling phase if a battleship is present.
• Torpedo Phase: The end of the shelling phase is concluded with a torpedo phase, in which all ships with torpedo capabilities will fire off a torpedo against their enemies. In case there are no enemies present who are vulnerable to torpedo attacks, this phase will be skipped instead.

Due to the length of the day combat phase, you are recommended to check out Day Combat instead for more in-depth information regarding this phase.

Support Expeditions

Support Shelling initiated

Support expedition involves sending a fleet into an expedition to provide additional support to the current fleet that is at sortie. Depending on whether you used a node support that supports you on the way or a boss support, the expedition fleet will appear on the battle nodes and fire an opening barrage against the enemy fleet. The type of support you receive depends completely on what kind of ships you have sent to the expedition. This mechanic is part of the Opening Phase.

Note: Keep in mind that this is only available for World 5 and event maps.

For more information regarding support expeditions, check out Support Expedition.

Artillery Spotting

Cut-in Type Observed Fire using 1 Main 1 Sec & Type 91 AP shell

When at least Air Superiority 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 double the amount of damage against surface targets.

All forms of artillery spotting attack deal extra post-cap damage, meaning that the extra damage is not restricted by the damage cap. Note that Artillery Spotting does not work against submarines because guns are useless against them. Note that Artillery Spotting does not work during the night, as no aerial combat takes place in the night phase.

If you want to learn more about artillery spotting, check out the Artillery Spotting requirements.

Anti-Submarine Warfare

Any submarine present in the enemy fleet will force Destroyers, Light Cruisers, Torpedo Cruisers, Training Cruisers, and Hayasui to target them during the shelling phases even if there are surface targets present. It also applies to Aviation Heavy Cruisers, Aviation Battleships, Seaplane Tenders, Light Carriers and Akitsu Maru equipped with seaplane bombers, Ka-type Autogyro or Liaison Aircraft.

Note: Guns are completely useless against submarines, hence they should not be used if you are only facing submarines as enemies, like 1-5.

To find more information about ASW among other things, check out the Day Combat.

Night Combat

Entering Night Battle

In the scenario that the enemy fleet has not been defeated yet during Day Combat, the player has the choice to pursue them in a Night battle (夜戦) to finish them off. Ships who utilizes both Firepower and Torpedo stats have a drastically increased strength, giving them a stronger edge against the tougher armored opponents. The damage soft cap is raised to 300 during the night, allowing your ships to effectively unleash even more damage to your opponents. Bombers cannot attack during the night, unless they are equipped with the Night Operation Aviation Personnel or the Night Operation Aviation Personnel + Skilled Deckhands (exceptions being Saratoga Mk.II, Ark Royal, Graf Zeppelin and Taiyou Kai Ni).

The common way of entering a night battle is by selecting 夜戦 at the end of a day battle, although there exists nodes that forces the fleet to immediately start in a night battle. Battles that start during a night battle will not transition to a day battle usually, but such nodes do exist.

Night Battle Effects

During night battle, the following effects are applied:

General

• The ammo usage on that node is increased by 50% 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.
• Night battle damage depends on both the and stats for attack power. Consequently, DDs, CLs, CLTs and CAs have drastically increased strength at night.
• Any vessel that is heavily damaged (大破), is not allowed to attack during the night.
• 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.
  • 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.
• All ASW attacks during night battle are reduced to scratch damage. This means that submarines are impossible to kill during night, as you cannot sink a ship with scratch damages. However, in battles starting at night and/or Combined Fleet sorties, ASW damage will apply as normal.
• With the exception of Vanguard, formation damage modifiers and Engagement Form damage modifiers do not apply in Night Battle (i.e., they are always 100%).

Night Buffs

• All CA(V)s gain a +5 .
• All CA(V)s equipped with the 20.3cm series guns gain an accuracy boost (applied after modifiers, but before the hit rate cap).
• Destroyers equipped with Surface Radar and Skilled Lookouts will gain an evasion bonus.

The following night equipment buffs can trigger when equipped. Keep in mind that only one of them triggers if your fleet contains duplicate equipment (e.g. 2 searchlights, 2 starshells).

Equipment	Effect	Requirement(s)
Star Shell	Increase the of your fleet. Increase the cut-in rate of your fleet. Decrease the cut-in rate of the enemy fleet.	Ship must have at least 5 Trigger rate is 70% each.
Searchlight Large Searchlight	Increase the of your fleet. Increase the cut-in rate of your fleet. Decrease the cut-in rate of the enemy fleet. The evasion of the ship equipped with it is sharply reduced and is attacked more often by the enemies.	Ship must have at least 2
Skilled Lookouts	Increase the cut-in rate of the ship equipped with it.	None
Night Recon	Increase the of your fleet. Increase the of your fleet by +5. Increase the critical hit rate of your fleet.	The recon is not equipped on a 0 slot. The air control is either AD, AS or AS+. The air control is either AD, AP, AS or AS+ in PvP. The success rate is dependent on the level of the ship it is equipped on.

While entering a night battle offers many benefits, keep in mind that this also applies to your opponents! Enemy destroyers who aren't as much as a threat during the day will also gain a huge increase in firepower during the night, so be careful that you don't end up on the short end of the stick.

Night Battle Special Attacks

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.
• CV(L) performing the attack is not in moderate damage (中破) state.
• Certain equipment setups (see below).

Setups and Attack Types

Different setups have chances to trigger different attack types. Attack types are only determined by the prerequisites.

• is used to indicate a Main Gun. is used for Destroyer Cut-Ins.
• is used to indicate a Secondary Gun.
• is used to indicate a Torpedo, note that Kouhyouteki is not a torpedo.
• For Carrier Cut-Ins (note that placeholders are used in order to avoid confusion):
  • = Swordfish or Iwai F/B Squadron.
  • = Suisei Model 12 (w/ Type 31 Photoelectric Fuze Bombs) only
  • =
  • =
• For a given attack type, any other equipment can be added on the remaining slots, as long as it does not switch the attack type. Feel free to add any auxiliary equipment ( AP shell, Seaplane, Anti-Air Gun, etc.).
• When your set up fulfills the prerequisites for multiple attack types, the one closer to the bottom of the list will be used.
• When the setup does not fulfill any prerequisites or when its special attack is not triggered, the ship will perform a normal single attack (one hit, no special damage modifiers).
• Two hit attacks will have two independent chances to miss, hit or deal a critical hit, as well as two independent armor rolls. For Double Attacks the damage values are displayed as is for each hit twice, for two hit Cut-Ins they are displayed as a sum once.
• The animation for ships equipped with 2 different torpedoes may be different but the damage output is always 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, so the order in which you equip them is purely aesthetic.

Attack Type	Prerequisites	Notes	Pre-cap Damage Modifier	Hits
Double Attack		No additional	1.2	2
		Additional allowed
		Additional allowed
Mixed Torpedo Cut-In		Additional allowed	1.3	2
Mixed Gun Cut-In		No additional	1.75	1
Gun Cut-In		+ Any on the remaining slots	2	1
Torpedo Cut-In		+ Any on the remaining slots	1.5	2
Submarine Cut-Ins		With New Submarine Torpedoes	1.6	2
			1.75	2
Destroyer Cut-Ins			1.3	1
		With 12.7D	1.625	1
		Synergy with evasion bonus	1.2	1
		With 12.7D	1.5	1
Carrier Cut-Ins		is Swordfish or Iwai F/B is a Night Fighter is a Night Bomber is Suisei Model 12 (w/ Type 31 Photoelectric Fuze Bombs) only	1.18	1
			1.18	1
			1.18	1
			1.18	1
			1.18	1
			1.18	1
			1.18	1
			1.18	1
			1.18?	1
			1.2	1
			1.2	1
			1.2	1
			1.25	1

Sortable table
Setup	Hits	Pre-Cap modifier	Norm	Total crit modifier	Norm	Trigger	Accuracy
-	1	1	1	1.5	1.5	1	?
TLR	1	1.2	1.2	1.8	1.8	0.62?	?
TGR	1	1.3	1.3	1.95	1.95	?	?
TGR (12.7D)	1	1.625	1.625	2.4375	2.4375	?	?
GGS	1	1.75	1.75	2.625	2.625	0.77	?
GGG	1	2	2	3	3	0.71	?
GG	2	1.2	2.4	1.8	3.6	0.99	?
TG	2	1.3	2.6	1.95	3.9	0.87	?
TT	2	1.5	3	2.25	4.5	0.82	?
SS	2	1.6	3.2	2.4	4.8	?	?
SR	2	1.75	3.5	2.625	5.25	?	?

Night Double Attack Chance

Has a very high (~99%) and relatively consistent activation chance. 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

Theoretical Torpedo Cut-In Rates

The probability of a Night Cut-In occurring is given by the general formula:

$\text{CI Chance} = \frac{\text{Base Value}}{\text{Type Factor}}$

The result of which can be multiplied by 100 and interpreted as a percentage.

$\text{Base Value} = \begin{cases} \big \lfloor 15 + \text{Luck} + 0.75\sqrt{\text{Level}} + \text{Modifiers} \big \rfloor, & \text{ if } \text{Luck} < 50 \\ \big \lfloor 65 + \sqrt{\text{Luck} - 50} + 0.8\sqrt{\text{Level}} + \text{Modifiers} \big \rfloor, & \text{ if } \text{Luck} \ge 50 \end{cases}$

Where:

• Level is the ship's level
• Luck is the ship's luck
• Type Factor: is a modifier defined by the cut-in type:

Type	Value	% per Base Value
Destroyer Only (Torpedo-Radar-Lookout)	150	0.66%
Gun Cut-In	140	0.71%
Mixed Gun Cut-In	130	0.77%
Destroyer Only (Gun-Torpedo-Radar)	130	0.77%
Torpedo Cut-In	122	0.82%
Mixed Torpedo Cut-In	115	0.87%

• Modifiers: is a sum of various other modifiers:

Modifier		Value	%
			Gun Cut-In	Mixed Gun Cut-In	Torpedo Cut-In	Mixed Torpedo Cut-In
Placement	Flagship	15	10.7%	11.5%	12.3%	13%
	Other	0
Health	Moderate damage (中破 Chuuha)	18	12.9%	13.8%	14.8%	15.7%
	Any other health state	0
Searchlight	Allied	7	5%	5.4%	5.7%	6.1%
	Enemy	-5	-3.6%	-3.8%	-4.1%	-4.3%
Large Searchlight	Allied	?
	Enemy	-?
Star Shell	Allied	4	2.9%	3.1%	3.3%	3.5%
	Enemy	-10	-7.1%	-7.7%	-8.2%	-8.7%
Skilled Lookouts	Allied	5	3.6%	3.8%	4.1%	4.3%
	Enemy	0

An example of a cut-in

Searchlight, Starshell and Night Recon

• The effect of over the cap is negligible, thus going over it is generally not recommended. Starting at 51 , any extra luck will suffer from strong diminishing returns.
• No bonus is received when ships enter light damage state.
• Marriage itself does not increase cut-in chances.
• The above formula originates from KanColle Kai. Generally, it's close to the previously researched formula and is in agreement with the experimental data.
  • According to this formula, torpedo cut-in types have higher probabilities than gun cut-in types.

Destroyer Cut In Properties

Destroyer Cut Ins are special Night Battle attack types unique to only Destroyers when they meet the proper equipment setups. Their properties are as follows:

• When Destroyer Cut-In requirements are met, they will attempt to activate first before normal night attack types. In the case of failure, the game will then attempt to roll for any other Destroyer Cut-In setup they qualify for, and then finally rolling for the first normal Night Attack type the destroyer qualifies for.
  • This is different from normal night battle setups, which will only roll once for the highest priority attack type they qualify for.
  • For example, if a destroyer has Gun/Torpedo/Radar, the game will roll for the GTR Destroyer Cut-In, and if it fails, will roll again for Mixed Torpedo Cut-In, increasing the overall chance of cutting in.
• Equipping 12.7cm Twin Gun Mount Model D Kai 2/3 can increase the damage multiplier of destroyer cut-ins, with one gun adding x1.25, and the second gun adding x1.125. Both modifiers are added multiplicatively, however, only Tashkent is able to use the second gun multiplier due to equipment slots and cut-in equipment requirements.
  • Using a 12.7cm Twin Gun Mount Model D Kai 3 will also add yet another pre-cap x1.05 multiplier that is multiplicative with all the other modifiers.

D Gun Multipliers
	None	1	2
	x1.3	x1.625	x1.828
	x1.2	x1.5	x1.687

Reference

Entering Night Battle

An example of a cut-in

Searchlight, Starshell and Night Recon

In the scenario that the enemy fleet has not been defeated yet during Day Combat, the player has 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 50% if night battle is entered from day-battle. As most nodes on normal and event maps alike use 20% ammo, this will be increased to 30% for example.
• During night, the firepower is and stats combined together. Consequently, DDs, CLs, CLTs and CAs have drastically increased strength at night.
• Any vessel that is heavily damaged (大破) are not allowed to attack during the night battle.
• Night battle damage cap is raised to 300.
• Any attack against submarines in regular Night Battles are automatically nullified and reduced to scratch damages, practically making them invincible. Avoid going into a night battle against a submarine, unless one of the following happens, which allows you to do damage against submarines as normal:
  • You are using a Combined Fleet.
  • The battle started at night.
• 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 equipment 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 Star Shells, Searchlight and Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Scout), as they provide bonuses during night-battle and also increases your Cut-In chances.

Note: Unlike Artillery Spotting attacks, the special attacks performed during the night are not post-cap, meaning that it will be affected by the damage cap.

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

Victory Conditions

For victory conditions for Air Raid Battles (空襲戦), see Events/Mechanics.

For alternative formulation of victory conditions, see Partials/Victory Conditions.

Perfect S (完全勝利, Total Victory)

• All enemy ships sunk and no damage taken.

S (勝利, Victory)

• All enemy ships sunk and no allied ships sunk.

A (勝利, Victory)

• Required number of enemy ships sunk (see below) and no allied ships sunk.

B (戦術的勝利, Tactical Victory)

• Sinking the enemy flagship guarantees at least a B as long as no allied ships are sunk.
• Enemy flagship sunk, friendly ship sunk and number of friendly ships sunk < number of enemy ships sunk.
• Damage gauge at least 2.5 times higher enemy damage gauge.
• This rate is the minimum requirement to clear maps without boss gauge.

C (戦術的敗北, Tactical Defeat)

• Didn't clear any of the conditions for A or B, but enemy took over a certain amount of damage.
• Damage gauge higher than enemy gauge, but not reaching 2.5 times as much.
• Friendly ship sunk, damage gauge higher than enemy, but not 2.5 times as much.
• Friendly ship sunk, enemy flagship sunk and number of friendly ships sunk lower than number of enemy ships sunk. It is possible to clear maps with boss gauges (eg. 4-4, 5-3, event maps) with a C if the enemy flagship is sunk.

D (敗北, Defeat)

• Enemy took less than a certain amount of damage.
  • Both sides taking 0 damage is also D.
  • If your fleet consist only 1 ship and it is reaching Heavy Damage without meeting any winning requirements, it will instantly judged as D as well.
• Damage gauge lower than enemy gauge.
• Friendly ship sunk, not all enemy ships sunk, and gauge lower than enemy gauge.

E (敗北, Defeat)

• Over a certain number of friendly ships sunk. (see below)
• Friendly ship sunk while not meeting any victory conditions.
• No damage done to enemy, while taking over a certain amount (Never happens in a fleet of 1).

Notes

• The Minimum Sunk Requirement:
  • 4 ships out of a fleet of 6
  • 3 ships out of a fleet of 5
  • 2 ships out of a fleet of 4
  • 2 ships out of a fleet of 3
  • 1 ship out of a fleet of 2
• Victory status affects the chance of getting drops and rare drops on the specified node.
  • B rank or above is necessary to obtain drops.
  • A rank or above is typically necessary for obtaining rare drops.
  • S rank has a higher chance of obtaining rare drops than A rank, and is required for some very rare drops.
    • Getting Perfect S does not give you an increased drop rate, compared to a regular S rank.