Combat/Battle Opening

Battle Opening Breakdown

Battle Opening is one of the daytime combat intermediary phases, taking place immediately before the First shelling starts. In this phase, allied and enemy fleets launch attacks with the intent to disable or remove enemy targets before the combat proper starts. This grants either fleet substantial advantages by possibly disabling key ships on the opposing side.

Battle Opening has the following structure:

• Opening ASW Shelling (OASW)
• Opening Torpedo Salvo

In case neither fleets meet the requirements, the sub-phase will be skipped.

Opening ASW Shelling (OASW)

Commonly referred to as OASW (opening ASW). All eligible ships will perform a regular ASW Shelling attack, following range order in the same fashion as the First Shelling Phase. As these opening attacks happen before the Opening Torpedo Salvo, they may disable or even sink enemy submarines before they have a chance to attack.

OASW has the following trigger conditions:

• The ship must be able to perform ASW shelling.
• Meet their specific ASW stat threshold and requirements:

Ship	Requirements
All ASW capable ships	ASW ≥ 100 Is equipped with a Sonar
Destroyer Escorts	Meet one condition: ASW ≥ 60 and is equipped with a Sonar ASW ≥ 75 and is equipped with a Depth Charge with ASW stat ≥ 4
Isuzu Kai Ni Tatsuta Kai Ni Jervis Kai Janus Kai Samuel B. Roberts Kai Fletcher Johnston Yuubari Kai Ni D	Performs OASW unconditionally.
Taiyou Shinyou Gambier Bay Zuihou Kai Ni B	Meet all conditions in one set: Set 1: ASW ≥ 50 and is equipped with a Sonar At least 1 Torpedo Bomber with ASW ≥ 7, Autogyro or Liaison Aircraft Set 2: ASW ≥ 65 At least 1 Torpedo Bomber with ASW ≥ 7, Autogyro or Liaison Aircraft Set 3: ASW ≥ 100 and is equipped with a Sonar At least 1 Bomber with ASW stat.
Taiyou Kai Shinyou Kai	ASW ≥ 65
Light Carriers (Except Suzuya Carrier Kai Ni and Kumano Carrier Kai Ni)	ASW ≥ 50 and is equipped with a Large Sonar At least 1 Torpedo Bomber with ASW ≥ 7, Autogyro or Liaison Aircraft
Hyuuga Kai Ni	Meet one condition: 2 Autogyros 1 Helicopter (S-51J or S-51J Kai ONLY)

Abyssals

Abyssal ships do not follow these rules. The following may perform OASW unconditionally:

• Destroyer Ha-Class Late Model Elite
• Destroyer Ni-Class Late Model Elite
• Light Cruiser Tsu-Class Flagship
• Light Carrier Nu-Class (Elite III, Elite IV, Kai Elite, Kai Flagship)
• Ancient Destroyer Princess (all variants)

Other abyssals cannot perform OASW.

Opening Torpedo Salvo

Commonly referred to as oTorp (opening torpedo). Eligible ships will fire an Opening Torpedo attack. This attack behaves similarly to the Closing Torpedo attack, with the difference that it will be launched regardless of the ship's damage state. Opening Torpedo salvo has the following trigger conditions:

• If the ship is a Submarine, then it must have Lv.10 or higher.
  • While other Abyssal ships are Lv.1, all Abyssal Submarines are Lv.50.
  • Abyssal submarines have an additional requirement of being Elite or Flagship tier
• Otherwise, it must have a Midget Submarine equipped.
  • This includes Type A Kouhyouteki, Type C Kouhyouteki and the Type D Kouhyouteki Kai (Kouryuu Kai) for the allied fleets, and Abyssal Cuttlefish TorpedoAbyssal Cuttlefish Torpedo for the Abyssal fleets.
    • Other Abyssal equipment such as High-speed Abyssal Torpedo mod.2High-speed Abyssal Torpedo mod.2, despite being classified as Midget Submarine, do not enable Opening Torpedo

This phase follows the same rules as Closing Torpedo Salvo, with some exceptions:

• Ships at Moderate or Heavy Damage can still fire torpedoes.
• If there are no surface ships on the opposing fleet, torpedoes will be shown targeting randomly chosen submarines. This however is purely visual and no real damage will ever be dealt.

After the Opening Torpedo Salvo, the Day Battle Shelling starts (if there are any remaining ships on either side left).