Aircraft Expertise

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The Aircraft Expertise mechanic was implemented on August 10, 2015. Through aerial combat or scouting, planes can gain expertise, which bestows a boost to the plane's performance. However, planes can lose expertise if shot down repeatedly.

Basics

• Aircraft Expertise applies to only the following types of aircraft:

• Fighters
• Dive Bombers
• Torpedo Bombers
• Carrier-Based Recon Planes
• Recon Seaplanes, Seaplane Bombers, and Seaplane Fighters
• Flying Boats .

• Expertise is gained when the aircraft is equipped to a kanmusu and the kanmusu is deployed.

• Certain named squadrons (such as the Tomonaga Squadron) and planes equipped as being Skilled come with one (or rarely two) bars when initially obtained.

• Higher expertise rank will increase certain stats, such as the Air Superiority value and attack/LOS.
• Expertise rank can be lost if the aircraft suffers heavy loss; the rank is reset to 0 if the slot is obliterated (fully shot down) and reduced slightly if a great percentage (somewhere over half) are shot down.
  • Currently only obliterated slots will have the expertise reset (unconfirmed on other reductions).
    • The planes that come at higher expertise ranks can be reset to 0 this way.
  • If the aircraft performed well in combat prior to the slot being obliterated, upon returning from the sortie, the reset process takes place first before expertise gain is calculated, so it is possible for a fully obliterated slot to have expertise still.
  • The expertise gain/loss will apply to PvP as well, but only as the attacker - your planes will never gain/lose expertise if someone else challenges your fleet to PvP.
    • However the expertise gain/loss is not immediately reflected visually upon finishing a PvP battle. (Deploying on a sortie and return will reflect the expertise rank properly for all ships/planes.)

Expertise Stages: None -> | -> || -> ||| -> \ -> \\ -> \\\ -> >>

• >> Expertise is also called "Max Expertise" in certain quests (such as F26)).

Table of Ranks and Effects

Rank	Display	Internal Expertise Level	Fighter Power Bonus		Internal Expertise Bonus
			Fighters (Both Carrier-Based and Seaplanes)	Seaplane Bombers
0	(None)	0~9	0	0	0
1	|	10~24	0	0	1
2	||	25~39	2	1	1
3	|||	40~54	5	1	2
4	\	55~69	9	1	2
5	\\	70~84	14	3	2
6	\\\	85~99	14	3	2~3
7	>>	100~120	22	6	3

Effects of Improving Ranks

• For Carrier-Based Fighters(CBF) and Seaplane Fighters (SF):

• Increased Fighter Power (FP). Specifically, the slot's effective FP is increased by 25 (22+√10 to be exact) at max rank.

For example, putting a Reppuu on Kaga Kai's largest slot usually gives 67 FP, but at max rank it becomes 92 FP.

Because of this, it has become easier to gain better stages of aerial superiority in existing maps.

• Whether other stats are affected by increasing ranks are to be determined (such as LOS/Evasion on Zero Fighter Type 53 (Iwamoto Squadron)).
• Type 96 Fighter used to suffer from a bug that prevented it from increasing ranks. It was fixed in the update on November 18, 2015.

• For Carrier-Based Torpedo Bombers (CTB), Carrier-Based Dive Bombers (CDB), and Seaplane Bombers (SB):

• Increased damage/accuracy/critical rate/FP during Aerial Combat.

At max rank, FP is increased by 3 (actually √10) for CTB/CDB and 9 (actually 6+√10) for SB. The increase also applies to planes that doesn't have +AA originally (such as Prototype Seiran).

Zero Fighter Type 62 (Fighter-bomber) and Zero Fighter Type 62 (Fighter-bomber/Iwai Squadron) are considered CDBs.

It's possible to one-shot Battleship Ru-Class at higher ranks.

• Increased damage/accuracy/critical rate during Shelling Phase.

At max rank, it's possible to one-shot Standard Carrier Wo-Class Kai (and moderate/heavy damage to Battleship Re-Class Elite if not sinking it).

ASW damage is also increased.

• Damage increase due to rank applies a modifier for a critical hit that is multiplicative with the regular critical multiplier (in addition to increase in critical rate). This damage increase is applied after damage cap calculation, and the modifier is dependent on the number of slots with CTB/CDB equipped.

Specifically, it is +20% with a max-ranked CTB/CDB equipped in the 1st equipment slot and +10% with a max-ranked CTB/CDB equipped in other slots. Thus, a maximum of +50% modifier can be gained when all four slots are equipped with max-ranked CTB/CDB. (Note: Modifier increase is currently unknown when the plane is lower-ranked.)

For example: if max-ranked CTB/CDB are equipped in 1st and 2nd slots, the damage multiplier on a critical is 150% (Critical) * 130% (Rank Modifier) = 195%

• Increased contact initiation rate for CTB, but does not change the damage modifier.
• Whether difference exists between CTB and CDB, as well as increase to other stats are to be determined.

At max rank, there is no difference between CTB/CDB for damage modifier increase.

• For Carrier-Based Recon Planes, Recon Seaplane, and Type 2 Flying Boat:

• Increased LOS and increased contact initiation rate during Aerial Combat.

The increased LOS appears to only affect combat, not route branching. It is unknown as to the actual increase of LOS.

Possibly increasing the night contact rate for Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Scout)?

Fighter Power Increase

The increase to Fighter Power appears to be formulated by the following two equations:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Fighter Power Increase} = \text{Internal Expertise Bonus} + \text{Fighter Power Bonus (CBF/SB)} }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Internal Expertise Bonus} = \sqrt{\text{Internal Expertise Level} \div 10} }[/math]

There is no rounding down with regarding to the Internal Expertise Bonus, so depending on the slot itself, it's possible to gain an additional point of FP.

For example: A 24-slot equipped with a max-ranked Reppuu (AA+10 with Internal Expertise Level 100) gives

[math]\displaystyle{ [10 \sqrt{24} + \sqrt{100 \div 10} + 22] \approx [48.9 + 3.1 + 22] = 74 }[/math]

Fighter Power Bonus only applies to CBF, SF, and SBs. CTB, and CDB do not gain this bonus.