User:Minhfongboy/KC Phase 2 Ranking

General

Looking for a ranking way that is resource-efficient, bucket-efficient, time-efficient, or bauxite-friendly? I guess this blog can help you.

Bucket usage scale:

• Low: Nearly not using buckets in 10-20 runs
• Average: Using buckets in 3-5 runs
• High: Using buckets in every run (High chance)

I got some complaints from readers saying the table where I wrote the amount of point you can get in a map per hour maybe a bit overestimated. Let's agree one thing though: I assume the best case scenario of no retreats, all the shipgirls are lv 99 and you blocked the drops, this way, you can actually get enough amount of points as stated in the table. Up to you to believe or not then.

Ranking Maps

1. Map 7-1: Brunei Anchorage

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• Chosen by most people, this should be the default map to rank until you are bored of it and feel like trying other maps below.
  • This map is also my in-game server btw, Brunei ftw anyone?
• Map 7-1 in general is occupied by enemy submarine with only one surface node on the way that can potentially damage your ships. Therefore, high-level ships are required if you want consistency, in order to deal with enemies in that surface node and evade the closing torpedo in case they launch at your ships.
• Boss node can drop a certain rare DDs such as Arashi, Hagikaze, Sagiri

Comp

1CL 4DD going DEGHK

• All submarine nodes should be straightforward, the only problem you will encounter is the surface node G as stated earlier.
  • Stacking and improving sonars will help out a lot for this map, not only do they increase torpedo evasion rate when improved, bringing more sonars will also grant a lot of damage, up to the point that even if your ships are Chuuha or Taiha, they will still be able to deal enough damage to blow up the sub.
• 3 Sonar +9 is the best option, or exchange one sonar for depth charge to enable 1.15x ASW damage.
• High-firepower DDs are preferred in order to take out surface enemies faster.
  • DD with 69 firepower or more guarantees knocking out DD Ro-Class Late Model and Chuuha CL Ho-Class under parallel, make sure to bring them if you wanna maximize potential hits.
• There are also two tricks to counter node G overtime
  • Make use of damecon and damegami. There is a very small chance that the submarine nodes after node G will hurt you. Most of the times, you will just take them out before they get a chance to launch torpedo and hurt your ship (The task is even easier if your ships have a bunch of improved sonars), therefore, even if you get Taiha in node G, you can still advance towards the boss node without consuming damecon at the end (It's still possible, but very unlikely).
    • This works best if all the ships you bring have RE punched as you can drop a damecon in the RE slot without occupying any potential equipment slot that gimp your fleet performance.
    • Still, avoid advancing after node G if the enemies hit two of your ships down to Taiha, as your total ASW power at that point would cripple and you may increase the chance of the enemy submarine actually hitting your Taiha ships to death should you advance further, keep in mind about this.
  • Auto-sparkling on the way to the boss. Generally, the CL you use would be Abukuma Kai Ni or Yuubari Kai Ni Toku. One DD put as the flagship should always be sparkled after the first node, while that CL will always be sparkled after node G as she has more strikes against enemies than the other DDs. Now, if we can control MVP to land on the other three DDs, they should alway be automatically sparkled overtime on the way to the boss. The best way to do this is trying to nerf ASW damage of the DD flagship a bit, make her have less ASW damage than the other three DDs (But still strong enough to take out enemy Submarine under Red T), i.e : DD Flagship carries Sonar + DC only, while the other 3 DDs carry 2 Sonars + DC, this will give the other 3 DDs higher ASW damage output.
    • It goes without saying that the second trick requires you to sortie the fleet at 49 morale.
    • Some people don't really wanna risk the use of damecon despite having a very low chance to actually consume it, they simply turn back home if they get Taiha at node G. I suppose that's fine too if you wanna play safe or try to save damecon for the future.
• Formation: Line Ahead at node G, Line Abreast for anywhere else

Efficiency

• Assuming all nodes are scored with S rank, one full run of 7-1 will give 140 x 3 + 1680 = 2100 HQ exp = 1.47 Ranking pt (will be abbreviated as rpt from here on)
• One full run of 7-1 requires at least 4 minutes, ideally, one can do 60 : 4 = 15 runs / hour, which gives 1.47 x 15 = 22.05 rpt / hour
• Bucket usage: Low -> Average
• Resource usage: Avg 50 fuel and ammo when supplying for each 7-1 boss run, fairly cheap

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2. Map 1-5: Adjacent Seas of the Naval Base

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• Don't want to use too much resource and bucket? Feel like playing the game brain-dead while trying to get a tiny bit of rpt? Well, 1-5 is perfect for you then !
• Ranking 1-5 is considered to be very chill as long as you have DE, up to the point that you hardly need to pay attention, you simply send DE into 1-5, beat the crap out of the submarine, get rpt, go back, do it again, and keep repeating whenever you feel like it.
  • Obviously there is a drawback, beside the fact you don't need to use bucket much while ranking in 1-5, you get kinda less rpt compared to 7-1 (See below)
  • But I guess you can use an excuse to level your DE, to rank in 1-5 for a while (I know.... those DE loli won't level themselves, you have to force them !)

Comp

4DE going ADEJ

• All nodes are filled with submarines, so just pack ASW on your DE and beat them up, nothing much to say.
• Formation: Line Abreast at all nodes

Efficiency

• Assuming all nodes are scored with S rank, one full run of 1-5 will give 80 x 3 + 1060 = 1300 HQ exp = 0.91 rpt
• One full run of 1-5 requires at least 4 minutes, ideally, one can do 60 : 4 = 15 runs / hour, which gives 0.91 x 15 = 13.7 rpt / hour
• Bucket usage: Low
• Resource usage: Avg 20 fuel and 10 ammo when supplying for each 1-5 boss run, very cheap

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3. Map 3-2: The Kis Island

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• Remember the good old map 3-2 in phase 1 that was random as hell ? Well.... in phase 2, it's more tolerable, with a certain composition, you now can secure the boss routing, no more random compass !
• But then, pre-boss is still painful. Dodging closing torpedo is amusing as usual, sometimes your ships can miss entirely and take all the closing torpedo from the enemies too which hurts a lot (Gotta love those Late Model DD evasion !)
• On a side note, ranking in 3-2 is considered to be very quick. You gain the same amount of point in 7-1 in just 3 minutes, thus giving you more points in an hour compared to 7-1.
  • However, you need to be in late-game stage in order to obtain necessary item and equipment to make 3-2 ranking more consistent (See below).
• Boss node always contains either 1 or 2 enemy transport ships, making this map a great choice to rank while getting 50 transport kills on the way.
  • Shimakaze has been reported to also drop here. It would be a great option to farm her here in case you need Type 22 Surface Radar
• Lastly, the comp said below can make you go either E or G, but will never go to H. Keep in mind that node G is a maelstrom node that wipe out some bar of your remaining fuel, you may wanna bring a bunch of radars to counter the loss.

Comp

1CL 5DD (Fast+), carrying at least 1 radar, going CEFL or CGFL

• Skipping node H completely which contains enemy Battleship, but requires all members of the fleet to have Fast+ speed. This can be done by giving them one Turbine + one boiler.
  • Ideally, you will want to punch RE on all of them, so that they can carry two guns, or one gun one radar for more firepower and accuracy.
  • Since you need RE and a lot of turbine and boiler to make it work overtime, this map is totally not for early rankers.
• As you will only fight two battles including boss, this is the faster alternative map to get rpt. But in exchange, it's kinda hard to reach the boss node reliably, as enemies in node C can critically damage your ships with their closing torpedo.
• Also, bucket usage will be increased compared to the other maps. A pretty good chance your ships will take the closing torpedo from the enemies, so you better prepare a lot of buckets before attempting, as you will see it happening a lot.
• A way to reduce the bucket usage is making strong DDs always hit the strong enemies last (Any DDs with around 69 firepower). CLT Chi-Class, CL Ho-Class and He Class are often the ones left alive after shelling finished, who will then proceed to launch torpedo and damage your girls. If your strong DDs alway perform the shelling last, they will have a higher chance of taking those enemies out before the closing torpedo phase, compared to the weaker DDs.
  • In order to achieve this, Fletcher gun (5in GFCS) or radars with medium range are required. The idea is like in the image above, just let weaker DDs carry the medium-range radars so they will shell first, the ones without medium-range radars will alway shell last in this case in order to nuke those nasty CLT and CL and shut them up. Ideally you will need 2-3 strong DDs to shell last so only 2-3 medium-range radars are required, which is not much actually.
• Interesting note: Ranking this map is also a good way to damage your bucket if your bucket is nearly capped, or just feel like damaging someone for some reason.
• Morale will be drained very quickly as a side effect, due to only fighting two battles. You may need to rotate the ships a lot if you wanna rank in 3-2 repeatedly.
• Only 1 radar is needed to skip node H, but it seems that if you bring more radars, the higher chance you will go to E instead of G? (Up to 6 radars, it's like 50/50?)
• Formation: Line Ahead at all nodes.

Efficiency

• Assuming all nodes are scored with S rank, one full run of 3-2 will give 120 + 1740 = 1860 HQ exp = 1.3 rpt
• One full run of 3-2 requires at least 3 minutes, ideally, one can do 60 : 3 = 20 runs / hour, which gives 1.3 x 20 = 26 rpt / hour
• Bucket usage: Average -> High (Pretty much that you should only attempt this if you have bucket to spare)
• Resource usage when supplying (Assuming the boss fight ended at day)
  • If going through node E: 50 fuel 60 ammo
  • If going through maelstrom node G : 70 fuel 60 ammo (1 Radar), 55 fuel 60 ammo (6 Radars)
  • Conclusion: cheap = 7-1, but may sacrifice a bit of more fuel if you hit node G too often

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4. Map 3-4: The Northern Sea Flagship

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• Ah, old 3-4 phase 1... Let alone the fact that the compass was an ass that time, BB Ru-Class was seen almost everywhere too (2-4 of which even blocked you right before the boss node) that kept sending you home.
• At least 3-4 phase 2 is much more lenient as the compass factor is gone, secured boss route, just like 3-2, but the pre-boss is still annoying, BB Ru-Class still exist before the boss node to ruin your day.
• Due to nature of the map and the comp you will be using to rank here, ranking in 3-4 is considered to be very expensive, but in exchange, you can get the highest rpt gain in an hour (See below). If you feel like rushing for rpt without caring about resource and bucket, this can be your great choice.
  • There are 2 comps you can use to rank in 3-4. Depending on the status of your fleet, one may feel one comp is better than another. But either way, you are gonna use CV(B) which drain your resource pretty fast
  • As stated above, BB Ru-Class are still nearly everywhere pre-boss, they are even at the boss node ! Do expect to use bucket like in every run
  • This map is also not friendly with bauxite. You need opening strikes and plane shelling to protect your ships from getting damaged, so obviously you would bring a lot of planes with you to fight the enemies here.
• Gotta note that node F is a maelstrom node that will either wipe 2 bars or the entire of your remaining fuel. Therefore, if you happen to roll the latter case, expect to throw away a bunch of bucket as your ships won't have any fuel left to dodge at the boss node, which is gonna be very bad !
• Clearing 3-4 boss also counts towards Weekly World 3 quest (Excuse to rank here. Why not?)
• Boss node also feature a lot of rare drops such as Nagato, Mutsu, Taigei, Hiryuu, and especially Hatsukaze, who is 3-4 exclusive drop.

Comp

Variant 1 : 1CVL 2CV 1CL 2DD (Fast+) going ACFJP

• Requires Fast+ Fleet via the synergy of Turbine + Boiler
  • RE is required too to free the equipment slots for your ships, allowing them to carry more battle equipment.
• Air Power: 84-96 air for AS all nodes including boss, 168+ air for AS+ at the boss node.
  • You can go for AS+ to conserve your bauxite as much as possible, but may sacrifice opening airstrike damage (Vice-versa: You go for AS, you get more bombers for stronger opening, but will cost more bauxite. So pick one strategy that fits your taste here I guess)
• There is a chance node F can wipe all of your fuel, causing everyone at the boss node to not be able to dodge anymore, always remember this.
  • Technically, you can bring some radars to counter, this way, even if you roll the said maelstrom type, your ships will only be wiped almost all of their fuel, not actually all of it.
• Only 2 battles pre-boss = No ammo penalty at the boss node

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Variant 2 : 2CVL 2CV 1CL 1AV going ACEGJP

• Pretty much the standard 3-4 comp, without the need of speed enhancement
• Stronger opening airstrike too, also allows easier AS+ (168+ air)
• However, this time, you fight 3 battles pre-boss. This will cause ammo penalty at the boss node.
• Also, you have to bypass two nodes with BB Ru-class Flagship in a row
  • This kind of threat somewhat offsets with the use of total 4 CV(L) from your side, as there is a good chance your CV can nuke those enemy BB before they have a chance to harm you.
• It may be more preferable to put one of the CVs as flagship instead of AV to trigger a strong shelling attack in the second shelling, but AV without flagship protection might cause some issue preboss. Up to you to pick who should be the flagship then.

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• With whatever fleet you picked above, you need a lot of good planes such as Type 97 Torpedo Bomber (Tomonaga Squadron) to help out clear out enemies with ease.
• Formation : Line Ahead at all nodes

Efficiency

• Assuming all nodes are scored with S rank, one full run of 3-4 will give 160 x 2 + 3320 = 3640 HQ exp = 2.55 rpt
• One full run of 3-4 requires at least 5 minutes, ideally, one can do 60 : 5 = 12 runs / hour, which gives 2.55 x 12 = 30.6 rpt / hour
• Bucket usage: High
• Resource usage when supplying (Assuming the boss fight ended at day)
  • Fast+ Fleet, node F only wipes 2 bars of fuel: 250 fuel 180 ammo
  • Fast+ Fleet, node F wipes all of your remaining fuel: 320 fuel 180 ammo
  • Standard comp: 280 fuel 280 ammo
  • Conclusion: Very expensive when it comes to resource, bucket and bauxite. In exchange, you get a lot of rpt for all those sacrifices (Map 3-4 currently gives the highest rpt gain in an hour)

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5. Map 4-4: Kasugadama Island

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• 4-4 is pretty much a comfortable map that you can chill out and let your ships gain level here while you go do something else like I don't know, reading a book?
• Well....at least until the boss node where Armored Carrier Princess and BB Ta-class can turn the table and decide to steal some of your bucket whenever they feel like it.
  • And... its just much worse if you happened to roll Line Ahead comp at the boss node, oh boy.... Did I mention there are 2 Ta-class at the boss node too? Yeah.... Two.....
• Generally people choose this map to rank instead when they are bored of 7-1 (Or maybe they need a bit faster rpt gain)
• Clearing 4-4 boss counts towards Weekly World 4 Quest
• Boss node sometimes contains a transport ship for you to kill
• Boss node also drops a lot of rare ships such as Nagato, Mutsu, Shoukaku, Zuikaku and Taigei

Comp

1CL 2DD/DE 3CVL going AEIK

• Air power: 150+ for AS+
• DD can be replaced with DE for even lower consumption, but may increase the chance of retreating
  • As 4-4 doesn't feature a lot of enemy carriers (Even Armored Carrier Princess's planes hardly damage you during airstrike), AACI is not really needed, so you should pack at least 4 OASW to help bypass the submarine node E easier
    • As such, CVE Taiyou and Shinyou are useful for OASW here
• Any CVLs works, but I will recommend small-slot CVL like Suzukuma (15/12/12/8). I know you would ask, Isn't that the bigger the slot is, the better the airstrike damage? Well yeah... but you should realize the pre-boss don't really pose as threat much, not until you actually reach the boss node, so you don't need a large amount of plane to begin with (This is not 3-4, in 3-4, you actually need big slots to nuke enemy BB pre-boss during airstrike). It would be better if you try to save bauxite on the way too, and the best way to do this is making use of good old 5-4 trick, putting plane in the slot <= 17.
  • Kinda hard to explain with number, but just get the basic idea: If you gain AS+, then during the fighter combat phase, you will not lose any planes as long as the plane in that slot is <= 17. If the slot is 18 or higher, they will start having a chance of getting shotdown during fighter combat. This trick was abused a lot back in 5-4 phase 1 to conserve bauxite and it still works for this new 4-4.
  • This means, Suzuya Carrier Kai Ni, Kumano Carrier Kai Ni and Zuihou Kai Ni B are all good candidates as they all have perfect slot size (Not much for Zuihou as her first slot is 18, but only small chance that slot will lose one so don't worry much). Obviously, the bigger slot, like Intrepid's 40 slot, the higher the chance of the plane occupying that slot will get shotdown during fighter combat, thus losing more bauxite.
  • Type 97 Torpedo Bomber (Tomonaga Squadron) occupying 17 slot should be able to take out enemy CA Ri-class Flagship most of the times, but unlikely to take out BB Ta-class or Armored Carrier Princess at the boss node, so you might let your ships vulnerable during the boss fight. If you are lucky, your CVL will just take those Ta out and you get away with no damage, otherwise, you need to pay bucket. At least you save bauxite this time though, and the fleet is way cheaper than the 3-4 one in general, so it's a good trade-off
  • Of course, the 17-slot trick only works for fighter combat phase. The fleet AA phase followed after fighter combat is irrelevant, you will still lose plane in this phase (Worse if the enemies are in diamond formation), so better pray the enemies won't suddenly roll high fixed shotdown to knock your plane off.
• Formation: Line Abreast at node E, Line Ahead at the other nodes

Efficiency

• Assuming all nodes are scored with S rank, one full run of 4-4 will give 170 x 3 + 2340 = 2850 HQ exp = 2 rpt
• One full run of 4-4 requires at least 5 minutes, ideally, one can do 60 : 5 = 12 runs / hour, which gives 2 x 12 = 24 rpt / hour
• Bucket usage: Average
• Resource usage: Assuming no night battle needed, it costs 150 fuel and 135 ammo when supplying, more expensive than 7-1, but way cheaper than 3-4.

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6. Map 7-2: Tawi-Tawi Anchorage

Click expand to show

• Looking for a reason to clear 7-2 every month? Well, you found yourself a good one, just go ranking there because why not?
  • If you are ranking in 7-2, be sure to clear the map first, as the enemy comp at the boss node will be locked into the easiest formation post-clear until the next reset (the one with Wo Kai II and Nu Elite II), allowing more feasible ranking times.
• This map also features a bunch of CL Tsu-class everywhere to nail your bombers, so if you are not careful and spam the map with a lot of bombers, you are gonna pay a lot of bauxite in return.
  • Therefore, ideally, you will not want to bring any bombers at all just to conserve your bauxite, but will sacrifice opening strikes, which means, higher chance of getting damaged. So... how are you gonna pack up some opening damage to protect your ships? Just see the comp below, we will go into the details there !
• 7-2 2nd boss (Should be the boss node to rank, because who would rank in the 1st boss ?) can drop a lot of rare DDs such as Amagiri, Tanikaze, Kazagumo and one special DE with a pretty decent rate Sado (4% drop rate). That's why while you are ranking here, you can get some of her on the way too, to feed your ships HP, luck or ASW, depending on what you need. This map is also known as DE-farming spot due to that nature.
  • As of September 2020, there are reports stating DE no longer drops in 7-2 (Source: [1]). Therefore, if you are going to farm someone worthwhile here, it should only be Kazagumo for her Skilled Lookouts. The rest of DEs have disappeared by now.

Comp

1AV 2CLT 2DD 1CAV going BCDIM

• Important notes:
  • Avoid the use of any seaplane bombers or bombers in general as Tsu are everywhere
  • Only use this comp for post-clear
  • Air Power: 119-130, forcing AP on the easiest comp
    • It's impossible to gain AS with this comp, better to get AP only to stop enemy Artillery Spotting
  • LoS check : > 69 F33 Cn4
• Replacing the opening airstrike with opening torpedo from AV and 2CLT should help you bypass the pre-boss node easier. Keep in mind that as this comp contains no BB, and there are no enemy BB either, there is a good chance you will take enemy closing torpedo if they are not disabled beforehand.
  • Same idea goes with the boss node, you only have one shelling so you will usually need to engage a night battle to get an S rank for Sado drop. Luckily though, the boss node is alway in diamond formation so their torpedo accuracy are kinda suck.
• One Akizuki-class DD is required for AACI protection, sometimes she can disable those Wo and Nu completely by destroying all of their bombers too which will help a lot.
• Much later on, you can try to improve Kyoufuu Kai and Type 2 Seaplane Fighter Kai (Skilled) to the max level, this way, with only 3 of them, you will be able to get barely enough air for AP with around 124 air power, allowing your CAV to carry one main gun and 8-cm gun on her RE slot to enable night double attack setup.
• Formation : Line Abreast at node C, Line Ahead at other nodes

Efficiency

• Assuming all nodes are scored with S rank, one full run of 7-2 will give 180 x 3 + 2360 = 2900 HQ exp = 2.03 rpt
• One full run of 7-2 requires at least 5 minutes, ideally, one can do 60 : 5 = 12 runs / hour, which gives 2.03 x 12 = 24.36 rpt / hour
• Bucket usage: Average -> High (Boss node can be nasty if you let those Wo and Nu shell)
• Resource usage: Assuming night battle needed at the boss node, it would cost 120 fuel 210 ammo when supplying. The fuel consumption is cheaper compared to 4-4, but the ammo one is 1.5x higher, kinda sacrifice ammo for fuel right there, but in general, still not as expensive as 3-4.
  • As you are only using seaplane fighter, bauxite doesn't get used much too which is nice

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Summary

Map	Rpt gain / hour
3-4	30.6
3-2	26
7-2	24.36
4-4	24
7-1	22.05
1-5	13.7

Map	Bucket usage & resource consumption
3-4	High, also damaging bauxite and resource, kinda expensive
3-2	Average - High, cheap resource consumption otherwise
7-2	Average - High, costs more resource than 3-2, but less than 3-4, also, bauxite-saving
4-4	Average, resource cost is cheaper than 7-2 a bit, saving more ammo, also bauxite-saving like 7-2 (Assuming you do the trick)
7-1	Low - Average, very cheap consumption otherwise
1-5	Low, extremely cheap

Trivia

Ranking plan

• As of September 2020, many quarterly quests that give ranking points have been released. This has directly affected the ranking pressure across all servers as nowaday T500 may requires as much effort as Phase 1 T100. However, this can also be a good thing as if you do all those quarterlies and EO in one single month, you can stack up to 3000 points pretty easily. With a couple of more sortie, you are guaranteed to hit T500 as well. So my advice is If your life is very busy, just focus all quarterlies in one month and clear all the EO that month too, this way, at least you will get ranking rewards every 3 months
  • Of course it is still possible to rank every month and spread out quarterlies to get enough point buff (i.e each month you only do 2-3 quarterlies for around 600 points), but will require much more points from daily sortie for T500 nowaday if you wanna catch up. Plan your schedule accordingly to your server if you spam daily. You are gonna need like 3500 for T500 (Hashi will need more obviously)

Regarding the EO and Quest cannon

• For EO cannon, you can shoot anytime in a month to gain rpt, but note that if you shoot in the last day of the month, between 22:00 - 00:00 JST of the next month, it will not be counted for anything !
• For quest cannon
  • Shooting it anytime before 14:00 JST of the last day of any month will give rpt to that month
  • Shooting it after 14:00 JST of the last day of any month, as long as that month is NOT the last month of the quarter, will give rpt to the following month
  • Shooting it after 14:00 JST of the last day of the last month in a quarter will just simply waste it, not counted for anything
  • For reference, 4 quarters in KC are month 12-1-2 / 3-4-5 / 6-7-8 / 9-10-11

Example:

• Right now it's July, it belongs to quarter 6-7-8. I have the Z cannon available giving 350 points.
  • If I shoot it anytime in July before 7/31 14:00 JST, I will have 350 points for July
  • If I shoot it after 7/31 14:00 JST, but before August coming, I will have 350 points for August
  • If I shoot it after 8/31 14:00 JST, I will get nothing out of it, as August is already the last month of the quarter