Striking Force Fleet

Example of a Striking Force Fleet, note that there are 7 ships in the fleet.

The Striking Force Fleet (SF) is an Event Exclusive mechanic, introducing a 7 ships single fleet in the 3rd fleet slot only. It was introduced with the Fall 2017 Event, which centered on the Surigao Strait.

The introduction of this mechanic allows for a more creative way to assemble fleets by using 7 ship members to launch a single fleet assault. While this did not change much in terms of single fleet game mechanics, it allows to bring one extra member to do extra damage or provide additional support where needed.

Origins of the Striking Force Fleet

According to Kensuke Tanaka in the December 2017 Comptiq Interview, the main reason the Striking Force Fleet was introduced was to allow for people to assemble the Nishimura Fleet in the exact number it had (7 ships: Fusou, Yamashiro, Mogami, Shigure, Michishio, Asagumo, and Yamagumo), since he was going to introduce the Battle at Leyte Gulf to serve as part of the final series of events in KanColle's Phase 1 of the browser game's cycle.

Organizing a Striking Force

SF Icon (above the "3") indicates SF can be assembled on the 3rd fleet.

Upon gaining access to the Striking Force Fleet, 7 ships fleets can be assembled in the 3rd Fleet. Which will show with a blue icon over the 3rd fleet noting that it is a Striking Force Fleet.

• In most events, the SF becomes available directly upon unlocking a map or map-phase requiring a Striking Force, but some even may require unlocking it via other means like quests.
• Fleets are assembled in the same way a Single Fleet is assembled, with an additional 7th ships that can be added into a slot located below the original 6 slots.

Special Mechanics

Like Combined Fleets, Striking Force Fleets are exclusive to Event maps and cannot be used in regular Sorties (including PVP & Expeditions).

To participate in any normal activities over the time of the event, the 7th member have to be removed from the Striking Force Fleet to then make a regular single fleet.

As of current, Striking Force Fleets behave almost the same way as a Single Fleet in terms of gameplay mechanics outside of the fact that they will now have a 7th member who will attack along with the other six members allowing for additional support in battle.

Striking Force Fleet Command Facility

Striking Force Fleet evacuation screen translated for convenience

The Striking Force Fleet Command Facility (SFFCF or just SFCF sometimes), is used to evacuate Heavily Damaged (大破) ships mid-sortie instead of retreating.

• It works for Striking Force Fleets.
• This can help increase your pass rate to the boss node.

Requirements for using SFFCF are

• SFFCF equipped on the flagship,
• At least one ship is heavily damaged,
  • Cannot be the flagship.
• The fleet is a Striking Force Fleet.

If a ship can be evacuated, after the battle a prompt will ask to choose to evacuate "退避" or not evacuate "退避せず" the damaged ship from the fleet for the remainder of the sortie.

• The damaged ship to evacuate will be shown.
• It is not possible to choose which ship to evacuate when multiple ships are damaged.
• The selection is based on fleet order, the ships higher in the order coming first.

Notes

• Only one ship can be evacuated per battle.
  • If more than one ship are heavily damaged, retreat should be considered instead.
• Evacuated ships will:
  • Lose all of their morale, all their remaining fuel and ammo.
  • No longer count for determining victory conditions, being neither alive nor lost.
  • Affect routing requirements:
    • It is possible to fail some requirements by no longer having said ships or equipment, or by no longer having enough LoS.
• The damage the ship suffered may become worse during the evacuation, but she will never sink.

Bug

In events, when the starting point is decided by both the fleet type (single/striking) and the lock, the game does not check if the fleet is single or striking but just blocks the 3rd fleet from sortieing.