Combat/Carrier Cut-In Attack

Introduction

Carrier Cut-In Attacks allow carriers that are equipped with certain plane combinations to perform powerful special attacks during the daytime shelling phase when certain conditions are fulfilled. The attack bonus modifiers for carrier cut-in attacks are post-cap. For details on how that affects damage, please see Damage Calculations.

This is not to be confused with Carrier Night Cut-Ins.

Trigger Requirements

1. Your fleet must obtain Air Supremacy (AS+) or Air Superiority(AS).

• For details on air control states, please see Aerial Combat.
• Where you fail the detection phase and no aerial combat phase is triggered, you will not be able to activate artillery spotting.
• You will need any plane with an value in order to contest air superiority.
  • This means a fleet with only reconnaissance planes will be unable to trigger artillery spotting.
  • The exception to this is if an enemy fleet with 0 air power triggers an aerial combat phase. You will default to Air Supremacy.

2. Carriers must be equipped with the right combination of fighters, torpedo bombers, and dive bombers

• Night fighters count as fighters and night bombers count as torpedo bombers.
• Fighter-Bombers only count as dive bombers and not fighters.
  • Jets do not count as dive bombers despite being fighter-bombers.
• If the required planes are reduced to 0, the cut-in will fail.

3. The target must not be an installation.

• Carriers are unable to trigger a cut-in on installations even when equipped with planes that allow attacking installations.

4. The carrier must not be moderately damaged (中破).

• Armoured carriers must not be heavily damaged (大破).

Important Notes

• If carrier cut-in fails to trigger or there is no valid cut-in setup, the carrier will perform normal attacks instead.
• Certain Abyssal carriers can perform carrier cut-ins.

Attack Types

Attack Type		Number of Equipment			Multiplier	Notes
		Fighter	Dive Bomber	Torpedo Bomber
Cut-In	Fighter/Dive/Torpedo (FBA)	1	1	1	125%
	Dive/Dive/Torpedo (BBA)	-	2	1	120%
	Dive/Torpedo (BA)	-	1	1	115%

Important Notes

• If a ship meets the requirements for multiple attacks, the game will check each special attack in order of priority.
  • Priority is according to the table above.
• The proficiency of bombers will count towards the trigger rate, critical rate and critical damage.
  • The plane displayed at the top of the cut-in animation is the "Captain" and significantly affects those rates.
  • If multiple planes of the same type are equipped, the one in the higher slot will be selected to participate in the attack.
• If cut-in fails to penetrate enemy armour or the enemy evades, it will deal chip damage instead.

Trigger Rate

The trigger rate formula for carrier cut-ins is currently unknown. But it is known that FBA has the highest chance followed by BBA then BA. Luck plays no part in the trigger rate.

Equipment Setups

Below are recommended equipment setups for carrier cut-ins. If an attack type is not listed, it means that it is subpar and not worth considering. The order of the equipment is for illustrative purposes only. You should generally put torpedo bombers in the largest slots followed by dive bombers in the next highest and fighters in the smallest.

Equipment Setup	Attack Type	Notes
	FBA BA	This is the standard setup for carrier cut-ins. It allows the carrier to perform the best cut-in with one more as a backup. It also provides the best balance of air power and offensive power.
	FBA BA	This is a variation on above for maps with lighter air power requirements. It trades a fighter for another torpedo bomber to increase airstrike power. The reason another torpedo bomber is taken instead of a dive bomber to enable BBA is that dive bombers have weaker airstrike damage.