Support Expedition

In certain maps, it is possible to call support expeditions to help the fleet during battles. These expeditions are deployed like normal resource expeditions and have a chance of appearing at certain nodes and at the boss.

• Currently, these are only available in World 5 and Events.

Overview

A shelling Support Expedition appears in a night battle node

1. Areas that have support expeditions available for use have support expeditions listed under the expedition tab for the corresponding area. For a list of support expeditions, please see below.
2. The type of support fleet that appears depends on the composition of the fleet. Please see the various support types for more details.
3. The sortie fleet must encounter an eligible node before the support expedition timer runs out in order for support to appear.
   • If the timer runs out, support fleets will not appear.
4. Shelling and torpedo support can appear in night or day nodes but airstrike and ASW support can only appear in day nodes.
   • No support will appear in air raids, air battles, or radar ambush nodes.
5. The support fleet will appear after the Aerial Combat phase during day battles.
   • The exception are night-day nodes where airstrike/ASW support arrives after LBAS but before Aerial Combat.
6. The damage cap for support is 170 for all cases.
   • This means that even if support shows up in night battle, it does not get advantage of the 360 damage cap.
   • The cap during head-on engagement is 212.
7. Only visible stats are taken into account.
   • This means any hidden modifiers from upgrades or gun fit are ignored.
8. When the sortie fleet returns, the support fleets will return as well.
   • They will return regardless of if they have performed any support attacks.
   • The timer must be waited to expire like normal expeditions.
9. Support expeditions will always require resupplying regardless of if they have performed a support attack.
10. Instead of the normal 3 morale reduction for normal expeditions, the cost for support expeditions vary.
    • Node support: 1-5
    • Boss support: 1-10
11. The resource cost is rounded up instead of down.

Trigger Rate

The trigger rate differs between node support and boss support.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Node %} = 51 + \text{Mod}_\text{flag} + 5 \times \text{N}_\text{escort} }[/math]

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Boss %} = 86 + \text{Mod}_\text{flag} + 5 \times \text{N}_\text{escort} }[/math]

• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Mod}_\text{flag} }[/math] is the sparkled flagship bonus of [math]\displaystyle{ 15 }[/math].

• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{escort} }[/math] is the Number of non-flagship sparkled ships

Notes:

• The flagship affects trigger rate disproportionately.
  • Always place a sparkled ship as flagship.
• The maximum chance for node support to trigger is 91% and the lowest is 51%.
  • It is recommended to sparkle all the ships for node support in order to get the maximum trigger chance.
• Boss support can reach 100% trigger chance with only the flagship sparkled.
  • It is recommended to at least sparkle the four heavy hitters in order to maximize accuracy.

Expedition List

南方海域 - Southern Waters

#	Name	Time		Σ(Lv)			Minimum Fleet	Requirements
33	前衛支援任務 Vanguard Support Mission	00:15		-	-		2DD 4XX			-5	-4 (Airstrike/ASW) -8 (Shelling/Torpedo)
34	艦隊決戦支援任務 Decisive Battle Fleet Support Mission	00:30	-	-	2DD 4XX		-5	-4 (Airstrike/ASW) -8 (Shelling/Torpedo)

Event Expeditions

#	Name	Time		Σ(Lv)			Minimum Fleet	Requirements
S1	前衛支援任務 Vanguard Support Mission	00:15		-	-		2DD 4XX			-5	-4 (Airstrike/ASW) -8 (Shelling/Torpedo)
S2	艦隊決戦支援任務 Decisive Battle Fleet Support Mission	00:30	-	-	2DD 4XX		-5	-4 (Airstrike/ASW) -8 (Shelling/Torpedo)

Support Types

Shelling Support

This is the most commonly used support expedition. It is just a shelling attack against the whole enemy fleet.

Trigger Requirements

Meet all of the following requirements:

• 2 or more (F)BB(V) OR 4 CA(V),
• No more than 1 CV(B/L)/AV/LHA.

Recommended Composition

• 2DD, 3(F)BB(V), 1CV(B)

Details

• Each ship in the support fleet targets a random enemy ship.
  • Misses are also displayed on ships that aren't targeted.
• Damage is affected by engagement and formation
• Basic attack power is calculated in the same way as normal for surface ships and carriers except that firepower is reduced by 1.
• AO use the surface shelling formula instead of the carrier attack formula for support even when equipped with torpedo bombers.

Notes:

• Shelling support deals the highest damage among all support types.
  • It is the most likely to sink enemy ships.
• It costs the most out of all the support types.
  • This is due to the requirements for battleships and heavy cruisers.
  • Costs can be controlled by using cheaper battleships and light carriers but it is not recommended to use heavy cruisers.
• Try to aim for 147 displayed firepower on battleships to meet the parallel cap (184 for head-on).
• For carriers, 52 displayed firepower is needed to meet the parallel cap with a single 10 plane (77 for head-on).
  • It is 39 for parallel and 64 for head-on with two 10 planes.

Equipment Setups

Any eligible ship type not mentioned in this table is subpar not recommended for use in support. The order of the equipment is for illustrative purposes only. Can be placed in any order.

Equipment Setup	Notes
Destroyers
	When running a red gun on a destroyer, ensure that it is a gun with bonus fit firepower to maximize her damage potential.
	For all other destroyers that don't have a fit gun, this setup ensures that they have the maximum chance to land a hit.
Battleships
	This is for high firepower battleships like the Yamato-class who can hit the parallel attack cap with a single high-firepower gun. Stacking all the extra radars will increase the chances that they manage to land a hit.
	This is for battleships with 95 to 120 firepower that require 2 guns to get to the parallel attack cap or for trying to hit the head-on cap. It is not recommended to run more than two guns on a battleship because it will compromise their ability to land a hit.
Carriers
	This is for carriers that have above 52 firepower that can hit the parallel attack cap with a single 10 plane.
	This is for carriers that have above 39 firepower that can hit the parallel attack cap with a single 10 plane or for carriers to get closer to the head-on attack cap. It is not recommended to run more than two dive bombers on a carrier because it will compromise their ability to land a hit.

Airstrike Support

Airstrike support functions much like a normal airstrike with a few major differences as detailed below.

Trigger Requirements Meet one of the following requirements:

• At least 2 or more CV(B/L)/AV/LHA in the fleet.
• 1 or more CV(B/L)/AV/LHA and no (F)BB(V)/CA/CAV.
• 2 or more BBV/CAV/AV/LHA/AO and no (F)BB/CA.

Recommended Composition

• 2DD, CV(B)

Details

• Every plane slot targets a random enemy ship.
  • This gives airstrike support up to 16 chances to hit.
• The attack will go through the normal Aerial Combat phases.
  • This means that damage can be reduced by plane losses through the air control and anti-air fire phases.
  • Planes in airstrike support appear to have some shoot-down resistance that helps them survive anti-air fire.
  • Enemy ships sunk in earlier combat phases are still counted towards contesting air control for airstrike support.
    • But the required fighter power for obtaining air control is reduced by planes lost in earlier air control phases.
• Airstrike support costs bauxite on top of the normal resupply costs because lost planes need to be resupplied.
• Taking jets on airstrike support still costs steel but does not trigger a jet assault phase.
• Ships that cannot launch bombers will not participate in airstrike support.
• Though the standard cost of airstrike support is 40% ammo, this only applies if there are 3 or more CVL/CV/CVB/AV in the fleet. Support will cost 80% ammo otherwise.
• Only visible stats are considered for airstrike support.
  • This means all bonuses from upgrades or plane proficiency are ignored.
• Damage is calculated slightly differently compared to normal airstrikes. Please see airstrike damage for details on the variables used.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Airstrike Support} = \biggl\lfloor \biggl\{ \text{Type} \times \bigl( \left( \text{DB or TP} \right) \times \sqrt{\text{Count}_\text{Plane}} + 3 \bigr) \biggr\} \times \text{Mod}_\text{crit} \biggr\rfloor \times 1.35 }[/math]

• The damage cap of 170 is applied to the result between [math]\displaystyle{ \{ \ \} }[/math].
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Type} }[/math] is the bomber's type modifier, similar to airstrikes.
  • [math]\displaystyle{ 1.0 }[/math] for dive bombers and seaplane bombers.
  • Either [math]\displaystyle{ 0.8 }[/math] or [math]\displaystyle{ 1.5 }[/math] for torpedo bombers.
• The critical modifier and the 1.35x airstrike support modifier are both post-cap.

• Like airstrikes, damage is unaffected by formation or engagement.
• The accuracy appears to be lower than normal airstrikes.
• It does not appear in night battle nodes.
  • But does appear in night-day nodes once the battle shifts to day.

Notes:

• This support is useful for dealing with multiple lightly armored ships or for racking up chip damage on high HP, high armor enemies.
• Because it follows after LBAS and regular airstrikes, carriers can bring more bombers due to the reduced air control requirements.
• It is one of the cheapest supports to run as long as 3 or more carriers are used.
• Since slot size matters for damage, the carriers with the largest slots should be used to maximize damage.
• Due to damages being calculated off remaining planes, airstrike support can be reduced the more nodes it appears in due to plane losses.

Equipment Setups

Any eligible ship type not mentioned in this table is subpar not recommended for use in support. The order of the equipment is for illustrative purposes only. Bombers should be placed in the largest slots.

Equipment Setup	Notes
Destroyers
N/A	Because destroyers cannot participate in airstrike support, it doesn't matter what equipment they have.
	For Samuel B. Roberts Mk.II only.
Carriers
	This is the standard airstrike support setup. Because torpedo bombers have the best airstrike damage, it is best to just stack them. The fighter is along to help with air control and reduce the bomber losses. It is not recommended to run airstrike support with more than 1 fighter because it's better running shelling support when encountering that much enemy airpower.

Anti-Submarine Support

Anti-Submarine support functions exactly like airstrike support. Everything about airstrike support applies to ASW support with a few key differences.

Trigger Requirements

• At least 1CVL present.
• At least 1 additional CVL/AV/AO/LHA/CL/CT or 2DE

Recommended Composition

• 2DD, 2CVL, 2CV(B)

Details

• All planes with an ASW stat except carrier-based fighters and jet fighter bombers will participate in support.
  • They will not even contribute to determining air control, but they will not be shot down.
  • Seaplane fighters and fighter bombers will participate.
• Although DDs and DEs are included in the fleet, they do not participate since it is a variant of airstrike support.
• If it encounters a mixed surface/sub fleet, only submarines will be attacked.
  • It will still attack surface fleets with airstrike support if equipped with bombers.
• It only takes into account plane ASW, equipping sonars and depth charges will be a waste.
• Damage is calculated slightly differently to airstrike support:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{ASW Support} = \biggl\lfloor \biggl\{ \bigl(\text{ASW} \times \sqrt{\text{Count}_\text{Plane}} + 3 \bigr) \times \left(0.9 + \text{Rand} \right) \biggr\} \times \text{Mod}_\text{crit} \biggr\rfloor \times 1.35 }[/math]

• The damage cap of 170 is applied to the result between [math]\displaystyle{ \{ \ \} }[/math].
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Rand} }[/math] is a random number from 0 to 0.75 inclusive.
• The critical modifier and the 1.35x airstrike support modifier are both post-cap.

Notes:

• Because slot size matters, carriers make much better ASW support ships than light carriers.
• It has a chance of triggering at every node so consider the enemy compositions of all nodes when running ASW support to help with submarine nodes.
  • A full ASW support setup that runs into enemy airpower will get destroyed.
• Because even the autogyros and liaison aircraft participate in aerial combat, they can be shot down.
• It can be useful for chipping down submarines to reduce the number of opening and closing torpedoes faced by the fleet.

Equipment Setups

Any eligible ship type not mentioned in this table is subpar not recommended for use in support. The order of the equipment is for illustrative purposes only. Bombers should be placed in the largest slots.

Equipment Setup	Notes
Destroyers/Coastal Defense Ships
N/A	Because destroyer and coastal defense ships cannot participate in ASW support, it doesn't matter what equipment they have.
	For Samuel B. Roberts Mk.II only.
Carriers
N/A	There isn't any fixed setup for ASW support. Just put the planes with the highest ASW stat into the largest slots (see ASW Aircrafts). Fighters can be included if facing some surface battles with enemy airpower.

Long Range Torpedo Support

This support exists to prevent using too many light cruisers and destroyers for cheap support. It appears as a torpedo strike with very low accuracy.

Trigger Requirements

• Do not meet any of the requirements for shelling, airstrike, or ASW support.

Notes:

• Do not bother using this type of support, since it is by design inferior to the previously mentioned ones.

FAQ

Q: Why didn't my support show up?

A: Double check that you have:

1. Sent the the support to the right area.
2. Sparkled the sufficient number of ships.
3. Have the correct composition for support to appear.
4. You resupplied the fleet before sending them off.

If all those are checked, it was just bad luck.

Q: I used 4BBV, why didn't support show up?

A: Because that triggers airstrike support. If you had no seaplane bombers, that causes airstrike support to fail.

Q: Does support work in night battle nodes?

A: Yes, but only shelling support.

Q: Which support should I use?

A: Generally shelling. Airstrike and ASW support only have niche uses.

Q: Why isn't XX composition listed as recommended?

A: Because it is subpar and not worth your time. You're generally running support if there are tough things en-route that you need taken out. There's no point in cheaping out and increasing the randomness of the outcome.

Q: Can I use XX ship with more guns/dive bombers for shelling instead?

A: It is advisable not to use ships which require too many guns or dive bombers to take to the parallel or head-on cap. Support requires all the accuracy it can muster to be effective.

Q: Do I really have to sparkle everyone?

A: You should have at least 4 ships sparkled for node support and the flagship sparkled for boss support. It is still recommended to sparkle the 4 heavy hitters for boss support because sparkling helps accuracy.

Q: Why is my morale going down so fast?

A: Node support costs 1-5 morale and boss support costs 1-10.

Q: Can I try torpedo support?

A: No.