User:Jigaraphale/Sandbox/11

Introduction

This article aims to provide a rough guide to help you decide on what to spend screws on. Because most improvement bonuses are "square-rooted", the first upgrade provides the largest relative gain per screw, therefore it is critical to get relevant important equipment to +1 before working on others. Please refer to:

• Improvement for more details on the stat bonuses,
• Akashi-List for the costs involved.

The Breakpoint Myth

Breakpoints refer to points where upgrade bonuses reach whole numbers. These points are stressed because of the way the game rounds down the results of most formulas. The misconception is that a 1.99 bonus is just as good as a 1.00 bonus because of rounding. While there is a slight grain of truth to the myth, things get a little complex in practice. Due to how many multipliers and other bonuses are involved, trying to hit equipment upgrade breakpoints doesn't affect very much in the grand scheme of things.

The most important thing to do is to upgrade your equipment to certain critical points:

• +1 : Provides the biggest power increase (square-rooted only).
• +6 : The point when failures start to kick in and costs take a jump.
•  : The final step to maximize upgrade bonuses.

Screw Guaranteeing/Saving

In most cases, it is statistically cheaper to either toggle or not the "guaranteed improvement".

Reminder :

Modification Level	1★	2★	3★	4★	5★	6★	7★	8★	9★	Max★	Upgrade
Akashi	100%	100%	100%	100%	95%	90%	80%	77%	72%	60%	50%
Akashi Kai	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	95%	90%	82%	77%	67%	62%

Average screw cost when not guaranteed, assuming Akashi is Kai and not counting any equipment cost:

As expected, when the guaranteed cost is too high, not guaranteeing the upgrade is on average cheaper screw-wise, but this is not counting any potential equipment that may be lost and so may imply a higher screw cost.

Guaranteeing worthiness per base upgrade screw cost can then be defined as followed:

When upgrading any equipment, Devmats and Screw are consumed, and eventually one or several equipment and consumables.

• Since obtaining Devmats is not an issue, their cost is simply ignored.
• Since failing an upgrade does not consume any consumables, they are ignored.
• For equipment consumed :
  • If they are craftable or relatively easy to obtain, their cost is negligible in front of any screw cost.
  • If the equipment consumed is a very rare one, then guaranteeing the upgrade should be evident.
  • If the equipment consumed is itself made via Akashi's upgrades, then its total screw cost must be added to the base screw costs used in later examples.

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
0	6th
1+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
1	6th
2+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
2	6th
3
4+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
3	6th
4	8th
5+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
4	6th
5	8th
6
7+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
5	6th
6	7th
7	9th
8
9+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
6	6th
7	7th
8	9th
9
10+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
7	6th
8	7th
9	8th
10	9th
11
12+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
8	6th
9	7th
10	8th
11	9th
12
13+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
9	6th
10	6th
11	8th
12	9th
13	9th
14
15+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
10	6th
11	6th
12	7th
13	9th
14	9th
15
16
17+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
11	6th
12	6th
13	7th
14	8th
15	9th
16	9th
17
18+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
12	6th
13	6th
14	7th
15	8th
16	9th
17	9th
18
19
20+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
13	6th
14	6th
15	7th
16	8th
17	9th
18	9th
19	9th
20
21+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
14	6th
15	6th
16	7th
17	7th
18	8th
19	9th
20	9th
21
22
23+	Never

guaranteed cost	1st time guaranteeing is worth it (in )
15	6th
16	6th
17	7th
18	7th
19	8th
20	9th
21	9th
22	9th
23
24
25+	Never

There is only one equipment with a base brut screw cost above 15 (the SK Radar), and as every equipment consuming expensive "Akashi exclusive" or rare equipment, the average screw cost is less important that the raw cost, meaning that guaranteeing the upgrade is always worth it

Improvement Guide

Several rankings for equipment improvements. Do note that:

• Many equipment possibly improbable are omitted, as they are either:
  • Already listed in one of the lists,
  • Are obtainable elsewhere for cheaper,
  • Are just not worth improving or upgrading.
• Some equipment can be in several lists.

Quests Improvements

Several Quests require specific equipment to be upgraded in order to be completed, while others simply allow the use of upgraded equipment for conversion.

Quests Requirements

Here is the list of equipment that required to be improved to complete some quests:

• All improvements are lost during conversions.

Ultra Highly Advised

It is highly recommended to improve the following equipment to before proceeding with those quests as any are carried over to the reward , and the rewards cannot be improved afterward!

Highly Advised

In those quests, any the equipment has, are carried over to the reward. It is therefore advised to upgrade the equipment before completing the quest, as it is cheaper to do so.

Highly Advised

Quest	Equipment	Notes
F19	Type 97 Torpedo Bomber (Murata Squadron)	Not improvable yet
F24	Type 0 Fighter Model 21 (Skilled)	It is advised to start improvements with Fm1 for this chain.
F26	Type 0 Fighter Model 52 (Skilled)
F27	Zero Fighter Model 52C (w/ Iwai Flight)
F28	Type 0 Fighter Model 21 (Skilled)	It is advised to start improvements with Fm1 for this chain.
F29	Zero Fighter Model 21 (w/ Iwamoto Flight)
F30	Zero Fighter Model 52A (w/ Iwamoto Flight)
Fm1	Type 0 Fighter Model 21
Fm2	Type 0 Fighter Model 21 (Skilled)	It is advised to start improvements with Fm1.

Traps

Some quests allow the use of upgraded equipment for completion, but will not keep any of the current equipment improvements, and so should be cleared with unimproved equipment:

Collection Improvements

Some equipment are only obtainable via Akashi upgrades.

• The list can be found here
• If completing the Kancodex is a personal goal, then crafting those equipment becomes a necessity in the long run.
• Making all those equipment should NOT be a priority over the rest, as most are not very useful or even useless.
• See below for when making those equipment overlap with advised improvements.

Upgrade Advices

Here is a list of improvements that have as a main goal to "upgrade" said equipment into a better one.

• Do that certain upgrades can be done in chains, with part of the chain ranging from worse than the upgrade, equivalent to, or even better.
• The advisedness is here ranked from the most at 1, to least at 10.
• The "Total Srew Cost" is given as an indication, but does not reflect "real" with guaranteeing savings and consumed equipment being great factors to take into account.
• Several good equipment are not listed there as they can be obtained otherwise more cheaply, or because the upgrade is just not worth it.

Improvement Advices

Here is a list of improvements that have as a main goal to "enhance" said equipment's stats.

• In some cases, the equipment can be upgraded, but the upgrade is inferior to the improved base equipment,
• In some cases, the improved equipment only shows its best potential on certain ships, thanks to Visible Fit Bonuses,
• Some of the listed equipment below are obtained from above listed upgrades,
• Equipment being improved only for upgrade purposes are not listed there,
• The improvements related to Quests are not listed there, and should be done with the quests in mind.

Improvement Traps

Here is a list of equipment that should NOT be upgraded, as they are needed to upgrade better equipment, and thus upgrading them renders them less valuable.

• Additionaly, so far, Submarine Equipment do not gain any stat from improvement.