List of light cruisers by upgraded maximum stats/New

General Notes:

• Light Cruisers that can equip Seaplanes can perform Artillery Spotting during day battles. Although they have the ability to equip all medium guns and have lower resource costs than Heavy Cruisers, they are frail and most of them possess only 3 slots. This makes them functionally weaker than their Heavy Cruiser counterparts but stronger than the DDs.
• Light Cruisers will always attack Submarines when present which can be a disadvantage when it is not desired.
• All Light Cruisers are of medium range except Isuzu Kai Ni, Abukuma Kai Ni, Yura Kai Ni, Tama Kai Ni, Tenryuu Kai Ni, and Tatsuta Kai Ni.
• Notable Light Cruisers (CL):
  • Sendai class CL (Sendai, Jintsuu, and Naka) have a second remodel with higher stats and rare equipment which turn them into top-tier Light Cruisers. They have significant level requirements for remodelling but are a good investment in the long term.
    • Sendai Kai Ni remodel comes with a Searchlight, Star Shell and Type 98 Reconnaissance Seaplane (Night Recon), all of which are support equipment that will improve your fleet's performance during night battle.
    • Naka Kai Ni has the lowest level requirement for a second remodel (Lv 48) among Light Cruisers but comes with stats that rival Sendai and Jintsuu (Lv 60) which makes her a very good CL for lower level Admirals. She has very good ASW power and can perform OASW at relatively low levels.
    • Jintsuu Kai Ni has the highest base firepower, torpedo (excluding CLTs), and third highest HP among all Light Cruisers which makes her the strongest CL for surface combat currently in the game.
    • Obtaining all three Light Cruisers of the Sendai class is required to unlock the third fleet through Quest A14.
  • Isuzu Kai Ni boasts the highest ASW stat in-game and one of the best Anti-Air stats. She also received a built-in Anti-Aircraft Fire Director. However, her range is reduced from medium to short and she can no longer use scouting seaplanes.
    • Her first remodel comes with a Type 21 Air Radar, while her second remodel comes with another Type 21 Air Radar, a Type 22 Surface Radar, and a Type 3 Depth Charge Projector.
    • Her first remodel can be useful for modernizing AA stat (+5 )
    • As of 6/30/2016 update, in her Kai Ni state she is able to perform a pre-emptive ASW attack (before opening torpedo) regardless of ASW stat and equipment setup.
  • Yuubari, Ooyodo, Gotland, Duca degli Abruzzi and Giuseppe Garibaldi are the only Light Cruisers with 4 equipment slots.
    • Having 4 equipment slots is quite important for ASW purposes, as ASW stats from equipment are worth 10x more than ASW stats from the ship's original stat. See combat mechanics page for more information on how ASW damage is calculated.
    • Both Duca degli Abruzzi and Giuseppe Garibaldi additionally have very high base firepower (Abruzzi is sharing the top spot with Jintsuu while Garibaldi is only 1 FP behind). Though their torpedo stat is slightly on the weak side the 2 of them are currently the strongest combat CLs among the 4 slotters and also have for Light Cruisers comparatively high base Luck.
  • Kitakami, Ooi, and Kiso can be remodeled into Torpedo Cruisers (CLT). While no longer a Light Cruiser for fleet composition requirements, they gain an outstanding Torpedo stat and can equip Kouhyouteki Midget Subs for preemptive torpedo strikes.
    • Kitakami and Ooi remodel into CLT at level 10 but do not shine until their second remodel at level 50, which gives them an extra equipment slot that allows them to equip for both preemptive torpedo strikes as well as night special attacks.
    • Kiso unlocks the 3rd equipment slot after the first remodel at level 20 but does not change classes until her second remodel at 65. Her stats are more evenly distributed which makes her Torpedo attacks less powerful than her sisters'.
    • In terms of ship type, Torpedo Cruisers (CLT) are usually not classified as Light Cruisers (CL) and can not be used as a substitute for a CL in any branching requirements or expeditions.
  • Abukuma Kai Ni has high stats overall (except for firepower) and can equip Kouhyouteki Midget Subs and Daihatsu Landing Crafts; in addition, she is still classified as a CL for routing and can still equip seaplanes. However, she has a pretty high remodel level (75) and requires a blueprint.
    • Yura Kai Ni is similar to Abukuma in that she can equip Kouhyouteki and Landing Crafts, but has considerably lower offensive stats in exchange for the best Anti-Air stat of all light cruisers and the ability to carry Seaplane Bombers or Fighters. Additionally, she can use 8cm High-angle Gun and 8cm High-angle Gun Kai + Additional Machine Guns in her Reinforcement Expansion slot, freeing up her main slots while still letting her do a Double Attack during Night Battles. Due to her versatility, her remodel level is quite high (77) and requires a blueprint as well.
  • Kuma, Nagara and Natori have very good stats (comparable to other CL Kai Nis) with their remodels at level 20. However, they can be difficult to obtain on early worlds.
  • All of the Agano-class ships have decent all-around stats for only having a single remodel. However, they use up slightly more resources and are rather rare compared to other light cruisers. Sakawa in particular has slightly higher ASW power and is tied with Ooyodo, Garibaldi, and Abruzzi for the highest luck, making her useful for torpedo cut-ins in certain situations.

See Also

• Notable ships by class - Reddit intermediate players' guide