Aerial Combat

The following classes can participate in aerial combat: standard carriers, light carriers, aviation battleships and cruisers, seaplane tenders, carrier submarines, Akitsumaru Kai, Hayasui, and certain special enemy vessels.

Aerial Combat Stages

Stage	Notes
Fighter Combat	Battle for air supremacy. Determines if Artillery Spotting and/or Contact are possible.
Anti-bomber Combat	Number of bombers shot down by fighters is affected by the result of the previous phase
Anti-Air Cut-In	An Anti-Air Director may cause heavy damage to enemy bombers
Fleet Anti-air Defense	Fleet defends against enemy bombers
Bombing	See Damage Calculation for details

Fighter Combat

Formula for calculating fighter power (works for all fleets):

[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Fighter Power} = \sum^\text{All slots} \text{Floor(} \sqrt{\text{Number planes in slot}} \times \text {Plane anti-air stat} \text{)} }[/math]

Notes regarding this phase:

• Fighter planes (including seaplane fighters) and specific Torpedo / Dive / Seaplane bombers with an AA stat participate in the Fighter Combat.
• Recon planes (both Carrier-based and Seaplane) will not participate in Fighter Combat.
• The allied fleet and enemy fleet's fighter powers (as well as whether detection was successful) are checked to determine the result of Fighter Combat:

Fighter Power (FP = Own Fighter Power, EFP = Enemy Fighter Power)	Result	Text Display	% of Friendly Planes Lost to Aerial Combat (does not count enemy ship AA)	% of Enemy Planes Shot Down	Contact	Artillery Spotting	Night Spotting
FP greater than 300% Enemy FP or EFP = 0 and any aircraft launched or Enemy fails detection	Air Supremacy (AS+)	制空権確保! Seikuuken Kakuho! Air Superiority Garunteed!	7/256 (2.7%) ~ 15/256 (5.9%)	0~90%	Allied only	Allied only	Allied only
FP 300% to 150% Enemy FP	Air Superiority (AS)	航空優勢! Koukuu Yuusei! Air Superiority!	20/256 (7.8%) ~ 45/256 (17.6%)	0~80%	Both sides	Allied only	Both sides
FP 150% to 66% Enemy FP or No Aerial Combat (i.e. neither side launches)	Air Parity	(No text displayed)	30/256 (11.7%) ~ 75/256 (29.3%)	0~60%	Neither side	Neither side	Impossible for regular combat nodes Both sides for PvP as well as Night Combat Only nodes
FP 66% to 33% Enemy FP	Air Denial	(No text displayed)	45/256 (17.6%) ~ 105/256 (41.0%)	0~40%	Both sides	Enemy only	Both sides
FP under 33% Enemy FP or Failed Detection	Air Incapability	制空権喪失! Seikuuken Soushitsu! Loss of Air Superiority!	65/256 (25.4%) ~ 150/256 (58.6%)	0~10%	Enemy only	Enemy only	Enemy only

• Priorities in determining result:

1. Aerial Combat Stage did not occur (i.e. no planes launched; Result: Automatic Aerial Parity)
2. Enemy Fighter Power = 0 (Result: Automatic Aerial Supremacy)
3. Enemy Failed Detection (Result: Automatic Aerial Supremacy)
4. Failed Detection (Result: Automatic Aerial Denial)
5. Regular determination based on Fighter Power.

• Note that Aerial Combat Stage is considered to take place even against enemy fleet with only submarines, but the animation is skipped; thus, planes are subject to the usual loss in this case.
• This calculation does not take into account any anti-air weaponry equipped on ships. Carrier anti-air stat is also not considered.
• The percentage of planes shot down/lost is calculated per slot.

• Even if allied planes secure air supremacy, planes can still be lost, and the subsequent anti-air defense stage can eliminate more bombers.

• Contact can be triggered by having at least 1 carrier scout plane, seaplane scout, and/or torpedo bomber equipped. It increases damage during the bombing phase depending on the accuracy bonus of the squad triggering Contact.

Enemy Ship Fighter Power

Enemy Ship Type	Fighter Power	Enemy Ship Type	Fighter Power
Light Carrier Nu-Class	8	Armored Carrier Demon	44
Light Carrier Nu-Class Elite	24	Armored Carrier Princess	48
Light Carrier Nu-Class Flagship	23	Floating Fortress	27
Standard Carrier Wo-Class	10	Escort Fortress	29
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Elite	27	Southern War Demon	41
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Flagship	28	Southern War Princess	47
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Flagship 2	84	Northern Princess World 3-5	76
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Flagship 2 (partial red takoyaki planes)	100	Northern Princess World 3-5 (HQ < 85)	72
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Flagship 2 (red takoyaki planes)	103	Northern Princess World 3-5 Final Form	109
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Kai Flagship	102	Northern Princess World 3-5 Final Form (HQ < 85)	105
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Kai Flagship 2	108	Aircraft Carrier Demon	96
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Kai Flagship 2 (partial red takoyaki planes)	126	Anchorage Water Demon	0
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Kai Flagship 2 (red takoyaki planes)	132	Harbor Princess	80
Battleship Re-Class	94	Harbor Princess World 4-5 Final Form	53
Battleship Re-Class Elite	107

Bombing

Base Bombing Damage

Type	Basic Attack Power	Notes
Opening Air Strike	Modifier × (Bomber's Dive Bomb or Torpedo stat) × √(Number of Planes) + 25	Number of planes is post anti-bomber combat and fleet anti-air defense Modifier is 1.0 for dive bombers, either 0.8 or 1.5 (50% chance for either) for torpedo bombers Calculated per slot.

Contact

• Contact takes place during the Aerial Combat phase. It increases bombing damage for all allied bombers.
• When successful, an image of the squadron performing contact is shown in the opposing fleet's formation indicator, with the text "触接中".
• Trigger conditions:

• More air control than Air Denial
• At least one carrier recon plane, recon seaplane, or torpedo bomber available (i.e. in a non-zero slot).

• Seaplane bombers, Type 3 Spotter, and Ka-type Autogyros cannot perform contact.

• There are two phases of contact; both must be successful in order for contact to occur.

Contact Phase I: Initiation

There is a check to initiate the contact.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Contact Chance (%)} = \text{Aerial Control Modifier} \times \sum^\text{All equipment slots} 4 \times \text {Plane's LOS Value} \times \sqrt{\text{Size of the Slot}} }[/math]

• Chance is reduced at stages lower than air supremacy. The aerial control modifier is thought to be 0.6 at only air superiority. Other stages currently unknown.
• Carrier recon plane, recon seaplane, and Type 2 Flying Boat can initiate the contact.

• It's possible to initiate contact with only torpedo bombers, but the chance is extremely low.

• If this check succeeds, there is a Phase II check. Failing this check means there is no contact.

Contact Phase II: Choosing the Contact Plane

For each plane that can contact, it has a chance of [math]\displaystyle{ \text 7 \times \text{Plane's LOS Value (%)} }[/math] of being chosen as the contact plane.

• The only thing affecting the chance is the equipment's LOS. So long as there is 1 or more plane in the slot, it doesn't matter as to how many planes are in that slot.
• Carrier recon plane, recon seaplane, Type 2 Flying Boat, and torpedo bombers can be chosen to contact.
• The priority of being chosen as the contact plane goes in the order of the plane's accuracy (higher accuracy has priority, important) and then slot order starting with flagship (not really that important).
• This check is done in order per slot; once the check is passed on a slot, that plane is chosen to perform the contact and checks on remaining slots are not carried out.

• So having a lot of lower +accuracy planes will not interfere with the chance of a higher +accuracy plane being chosen to perform contact.

• If the check fails for all slots, then it's as if the contact established in Phase I never happened; that is, there would be no contact in this case.

Here's an example (priority order shown in bold number in parenthesis):

Ship Order	Ship Name	Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
1	Junyou Kai Ni	Reppuu	Reppuu	Reppuu	Reppuu
2	Yamato Kai	46cm Triple Gun Mount	46cm Triple Gun Mount	Type 1 AP Shell	Type 0 Observation Seaplane (4)
3	Musashi Kai	46cm Triple Gun Mount	46cm Triple Gun Mount	Type 1 AP Shell	Shiun (7)
4	Nagato Kai	41cm Twin Gun Mount	Prototype 51cm Twin Gun Mount	Type 91 AP Shell	Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Scout) (8)
5	Shoukaku Kai Ni A	Tenzan Model 12 (Murata Squadron) (5)	Type 97 Torpedo Bomber (Tomonaga Squadron) (1)	Type 97 Torpedo Bomber (Tomonaga Squadron) (2)	Reppuu Kai
6	Zuikaku Kai Ni A	Tenzan Model 12 (Tomonaga Squadron) (3)	Tenzan Model 12 (Murata Squadron) (6)	Ryuusei Kai (9)	Reppuu

• In this example, the three Tomonaga Squadron planes (with +3 Accuracy) are checked in order, followed by Type 0 Observation Seaplane and the Murata Squadron planes (both with +2 Accuracy), then Shiun and the Night Recon (both with +1 Accuracy), and lastly Ryuusei Kai (+0 Accuracy).

• Tenzan Tomonaga Squadron has a 35% chance to be chosen to contact, and the Type 97 Tomonaga Squadron has 28% chance, so there is roughly [math]\displaystyle{ 1 - (0.72 \times 0.72 \times 0.65) \approx 0.663 \text{(66.3%)} }[/math] chance for a plane with +3 Accuracy to perform the contact.
• This equipment example should reach Phase II 100% of the time, so this is also the chance for a contact made with +3 Accuracy.

Contact Damage Modifier

• The damage increase depends on the +accuracy bonus of the squadron performing contact.

Accuracy Bonus	Damage Modifier
+0	112%
+1	112%
+2	117%
+3	120%

Notes

• Type 2 Recon Aircraft is useful in the case that the bombing damage bonus is desired while not removing the chance for T-disadvantage, due to its high trigger rate.
• With contact, the maximum attack power of bombing (before defense, critical and ammo) is around 180. With some luck, it's possible to sink even Ru-class Flagships (Armor = 99) in one strike without a critical.

Anti-Air Cut-In

An Anti-Air Cut-In

Certain equipment combinations will provide a chance for an Anti-Air Cut-In (AACI) during the aerial combat. When activated, the cut-in CG (shown on the right) would appear before engaging the enemy fighters, but does not appear to affect the resulting air control state (AS+, AS, Air Parity or Denial). Although there's currently no conclusion on how it's applied onto the Fleet Anti-air Defense formula, a general consensus suggests the effectiveness scales with the AA stat () of the ship triggering it.

Requirement

Ship Type or specific ship(s)	Req'd Equip 1	Req'd Equip 2	Req'd Equip 3	Req'd Equip 4	Guaranteed Shootdown Bonus	Notes
All surface ships (Everything except SS)	HA + AAFD	HA + AAFD	Air RADAR	-	4	Possible highest activation rate (except setups specific to certain ships)?
	HA + AAFD	Air RADAR	-	-	4	-
	HA	AAFD	Air RADAR	-	3	-
	HA	AAFD	-	-	2	-
	25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment)	Autocannon	Air RADAR	-	3	-
Battleships (BBV/Fast BB included)	Heavy Gun	Type 3 Shell	AAFD	Air RADAR	6	Special attacks impossible (both day and night)
	Heavy Gun	Type 3 Shell	AAFD	-	4	Artillery Spotting attacks impossible; Special nighttime attacks possible
Akizuki, Teruzuki, and Hatsuzuki	HA	HA	RADAR	-	7	Low priority Surface RADAR works for these two setups
	HA	RADAR	-	-	6
	HA	HA	-	-	4	Low priority
Maya Kai Ni	HA	25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment)	Air RADAR	-	8	Artillery Spotting attacks impossible; Special nighttime attacks possible
	HA	25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment)	-	-	6	Daytime cut-in attack possible (main+sec); Special nighttime attacks possible
Isuzu Kai Ni	HA	Autocannon	Air RADAR	-	4	Isuzu Kai Ni uses this cut-in even if HA is replaced with HA+FD Special attacks impossible (both day and night)
	HA	Autocannon	-	-	3	Implemented with the Jan 19th, 2016 update
Kasumi Kai Ni B	HA	Autocannon	Air RADAR	-	4	Kasumi Kai Ni B uses this cut-in even if HA is replaced with HA+FD Special attacks impossible (both day and night) Implemented with the Jan 19th, 2016 update
	HA	Autocannon	-	-	2	Implemented with the Jan 19th, 2016 update
Kinu Kai Ni	HA	25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment)	Air RADAR	-	4	Kinu Kai Ni uses this cut-in even if HA is replaced with HA+FD, can also replace Auto Cannon with Bofors or [[ QF 2-pounder Octuple "Pom Pom" Naval Gun Mount|Pom Pom]], will however not work with the 5inch Twin Gun Mount Mk.28 mod.2 Special attacks impossible (Daytime) Implemented with the Nov 4th, 2016 update
	HA	25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment)	-	-	2	Kinu Kai Ni uses this cut-in even if HA is replaced with HA+FD, can also replace Auto Cannon with Bofors or [[ QF 2-pounder Octuple "Pom Pom" Naval Gun Mount|Pom Pom]] Implemented with the Nov 4th, 2016 update

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• HA = All high-angle mounts.
• HA+FD = 10cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD, 12.7cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD, 90mm Single High Angled Gun
• AAFD = Anti-Aircraft Fire Director (Type 91 Anti-Aircraft Fire Director, Type 94 Anti-Aircraft Fire Director)

Notes

• Can trigger from either fleet in a Combined Fleet situation.
• 10cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD, 12.7cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD and 90mm Single High Angled Gun can substitute for a regular High-angle mount. Their built-in AAFD functions when paired with an Air RADAR.
• In the above table, Akizuki, Teruzuki, Hatsuzuki all treat HA+FD as regular HA.
• Slots otherwise empty can be equipped with anything else without disabling the Anti-Air Cut-In.
• A maximum of 1 ship will perform AACI per battle (regardless of how many ships are capable of doing so).
• Priorities exist if multiple ships can perform AACI; for example, all of Akizuki/Teruzuki/Hatsuzuki-specific setups have high bonus but low priority. Because the AACI triggered affects the bonus to bombers shot down, it may be desired to limit the number of ships with AACI setup.
• Does not affect the determination of Air Superiority.
• Cannot shoot down pure enemy fighters.
• For opponents:

• In Exercises, enemy can perform AACI, but the cut-in animation will not display even if one was performed.
• It is not known whether abyssal ships can perform AACI at this time.

Trigger Chance

• AA stat () of the ship performing the cut-in (equipment bonuses included) affects trigger rate. The correlation seems to be about +0.4% trigger rate for every point of AA ? (source 1, 2)
• Air radars provide marginal bonuses on AACI:

• For HA + AAFD setup, Air radar on CA does not increase the trigger chance on a large scale ??. (source)
• Type 13 Air radar Kai on Akizuki (and other DDs?) increases the trigger chance by ~10%. When AACI was activated, it also helps with shooting down more bombers. (source)

Fleet Anti-Air Defense (old formula, outdated)

Note: This section's info no longer applies and is preserved as historical information. See here for the current formula. Click the Expand button on the right to see the old formula.

Each enemy bomber slot is assigned at random to a defending ship. Those ships then, for each assigned enemy slot, have an approximately 50% chance to shoot down enemy planes. The number of planes shot down is given by the equations below:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Shot Down} = \text{Floor((Ship AA } + \text{Floor(Fleet Anti-air} \times \text{Formation Modifier))} \times 0.2125\text{)} }[/math], where
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Fleet Anti-air} = \text{Floor(} \sum^\text{All slots}\text{Equipment AA Bonus} \times \text{Equipment Modifier)} }[/math]

The "Fleet Anti-Air" bonus is the sum of every equipment slot of every ship in the fleet (including the defending ship).

Equipment Modifiers (old formula)

Equipment Type	Modifier
46cm Triple Gun Mount	0.25
High-angle Mounts	0.35
AA Radars	0.40
Type 3 Shell	0.60
All other equipment	0.20

• Any equipment that gives an anti-air bonus will contribute to shooting down enemy bombers.
• The ship chosen to defend against bombers is not necessarily the ship targeted by that slot.
• The ship selected to defend is not necessarily the target of the bomber. Any allied ship, including submarines, may be chosen to defend against bombers.
• The forward sliding and machine gun animations seem to have no correlation with the calculations.
• These calculations only apply for the allied fleet's anti-air defense; enemy fleets seem to use a different formula.

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Fleet Anti-Air Defense (new formula)

Note: The formula for this section is for the player's side. The formula for abyssal ships is strongly suggested to be different.

After plane loss from fighter combat is calculated, for each enemy bomber slot ( / / ), a random ship (defending ship) is assigned to defend against that slot via AA fire.

• Fighters are not subject to AA fire from ships.
• The ship performing AA fire is not necessarily the same ship that the bomber will attack; the ship performing AA fire may not even be a surface ship.

The defending ship's weighted anti-air value and the fleet's total fleet anti-air value' are calculated and used in the formula for the two types of anti-air shootdowns: percentage shootdown and fixed shootdown.

• Fleet anti-air value is only used in calculation for fixed shootdown.
• Both shootdowns have 50% chance to succeed; failing means no planes are shot down for that part of the calculation.
• Percentage shootdown will be done prior to anti-air cut-in and fixed shootdown calculation.
• Friendly units additionally get a guaranteed shootdown of 1 plane (per slot) after the percentage/fixed shootdowns; this applies even if both percentage shootdown and fixed shootdown fail. (Enemy fleet does not get this 1-plane guarantee)

• AACI adds to the guaranteed shootdown count if triggered.

There was a bug causing the formation anti-air modifier and fleet anti-air bonus to not function; this was fixed on June 26, 2015.

For each ship, the formula for its weighted anti-air value is calculated as follows:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Weighted Anti-Air Value} = \text{Ship's Innate Anti-Air Value} + \sum^\text{All equipment slots} \text{[ Equipment Multiplier} \times { \text {Equipment's Anti-Air Value} + 0.7 \times \sqrt{\text{Equipment's Improvement Level}} } \text{ ]} }[/math]

where equipment multiplier is shown in the table below:

Equipment Type	Equipment Multiplier
High-Angle Gun Mount (Both Main and secondary)	x4
Autocannon	x6
Air RADAR	x3
Anti-Aircraft Fire Director	x4

The fleet's fleet anti-air value is calculated as follows:　

[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Fleet Anti-Air Value} = \text {Floor( Formation Modifier} \times \sum^\text{All ships} \text{Ship's Fleet Anti-Air Bonus)} \times 2, }[/math]

where

[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Ship's Fleet Anti-Air Bonus} = \text {Floor( }\sum^\text{All equipment slots} \text {Equipment's Anti-Air Value} \times \text{Equipment Modifier )} }[/math]

The Formation Modifier and the Equipment Modifier are shown below:

Formation	Formation Modifier
Line Ahead Echelon Line Abreast	x0.77
Double Line	x0.91
Diamond	x1.2

Equipment Type	Equipment Modifier
High-Angle Gun Mount Anti-Aircraft Fire Director	x0.35
All other guns Autocannon	x6
Air RADAR	x0.4
Type 3 Shell	x0.6

Multipliers for equipment not listed are not confirmed at this time.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Percentage Shootdown (in # of planes)} = \text{Floor(Weighted Anti-Air Value} \times 0.9 \text{)} \div 360 \times \text{Number of Planes in Slot} }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Fixed Shootdown (in # of planes)} = \text {Floor[(Weighted Anti-Air Value + Fleet Anti-Air Value)} \div 10 \text{]} }[/math]

Example of shootdown calculation

Akizuki (Innate AA value of 116, equipped with two 10cm HA+FD *+6 and an Type 13 Air RADAR Kai) is defending against Aircraft Carrier Princess's torpedo bomber slot (with 56 planes). Assuming the formation is Line Ahead and no other AA factors such as Anti-Air Cut-In, fighter combat, and bonus from other members in fleet,
[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Akizuki's Weighted AA Value} = 116 + 4 \times (10 + 0.7 \times \sqrt{6} ) \times 2 + 3 \times 4 = 221 }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Akizuki's Fleet AA Bonus} = \text{Floor(} 10 \times 0.35 \times 2 + 4 \times 0.4 \text{)}= 8 }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Fleet AA Value} = \text {Floor(} 0.77 \times 8 \text{)} \times 2 = 12 }[/math]

Thus, the values for the shootdown are calculated as follows:
[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Akizuki's percentage shootdown} = 221 \times 0.9 \div 360 \times 56 = 30 }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text {Akizuki's fixed shootdown} = \text{Floor[(} 221 + 12 \text{)} \div 10 \text{]} = 23 }[/math]
The shootdown takes place in the order of percentage, then fixed, then guaranteed, so there are 4 possible outcomes:

Which Shootdown successful?	Shootdown calculation	Aircraft Carrier Princess's Remaining Torpedo Bombers
Both Percentage and Fixed Shootdown	30 (percentage) + 23 (fixed) + 1 (guaranteed) = 54	2
Percentage Shootdown Only	30 (percentage) + 1 (guaranteed) = 31	25
Fixed Shootdown Only	23 (fixed) + 1 (guaranteed) = 24	32
Neither	1 (guaranteed)	55

See Also