Help:Smoke

This article is under construction. Originally written by Mikabro (X@McQueen1919) in Chinese. Translated and adapted by Transporange. Adopted by User:Transporange‎

Overview

Smoke may be the only thing between Taihas and 6 Abyssal Princesses. Effective understanding and use of Smoke is key to reduce retreats and Damegami expenditure.

TLDR: Smoke reduces accuracy of both sides for: Artillery phase, Opening and closing torpedo phases, ASW, The Smoke Kai (from F115) and/or a Smoke are more effective trigger-wise and should be utilized. The flagship luck is critical for a good trigger rate. Best use case of smoke is for pass rate increase, notably for: Hard preboss nodes (e.g. spring 2024 E-4), when using a TCF on preboss nodes, Do not spam smoke in other situations, as it may just decrease the pass rate.

What is Smoke

Smoke Generators can be used in combat to deploy a smoke screen.

Example of a large smoke deployed.

• There are 3 smoke screen sizes, being Small < Medium < Large.
  • The maximum smoke size that can be generated is dependent on the number of smoke generators, being respectively 1/2/3.
  • Note that improvements also affect the maximum smoke level possible.
• It sharply reduces the accuracy of all fleets, proportionally to the smoke screen size (the hit rate is still capped at 11%).
  • This effect can be partially bypassed by using radars (both sides).
• The effect will last for the day battle, even so the animation will fade before the battle's end.

Smoke activation button next to the Formation ones.

• If equipped, it can be activated with a specific button when selecting the formation.
  • It can be activated multiple times per sortie until it triggers, being triggerable once, in day battle only.
• It cannot be activated in Exercises in the current implementation.
• The trigger rate is not 100% and depends on the fleet's flagship's luck , as well as the amount and type of Smoke Generators used.
  • For combined fleets, it is the luck of the main flagship.
  • The size of the triggered smoke screen depends on how many smoke generators are used.
• It will only trigger at the beginning of the Shelling phase.

The 3 different smoke size

• The trigger rate depends on:
  • The number of "Smoke Generators" in the fleet,
  • The flagship Level and Luck (secretary for Combined Fleets),
  • improvements of the generator.
• Regarding the equipment:
  • Each Smoke Generator (Smoke Screen) counts as 1,
  • Each Smoke Generator Kai (Smoke Screen) counts as 2,
  • improvements of the generator can also count as 1 ([1][2]).

Two formulas have been determined to approximate the trigger rate of smoke screens.

• The 2nd formula is based on the 1st one with additional hypothesis,
• A measurement of the trigger rate can be found here,
• Both formulas can be directly compared here.
• It is possible to have a total trigger rate for all 3 sizes of 100%, giving the FS has enough luck & enough generators are used.

Trigger Rate Formula 1 [3]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{P}_\text{0} = 3.2 - 0.2 \times \text{K} - \text{N}_\text{Generator} }[/math] If [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} ≥ 1 \text{ & } \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math], then [math]\displaystyle{ \text{P}_\text{0} = 0 }[/math] [math]\displaystyle{ \text{K} = \bigg\lceil \sqrt{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} } + 0.3 \times \bigstar_\text{base} + 0.5 \times \bigstar_\text{Kai} \bigg\rceil }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 1 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 2 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{P}_\text{1} &= 1 - \text{P}_\text{0} \\ \text{P}_\text{2} &= 0 \\ \text{P}_\text{3} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{P}_\text{1} &= 1 - \text{P}_\text{0} - \text{P}_\text{2} \\ \text{P}_\text{2} &= 0.05 \times ( 1 - \text{P}_\text{0} ) \times ( \text{K} + 2 ) \\ \text{P}_\text{3} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{P}_\text{1} &= 1 - \text{P}_\text{2} - \text{P}_\text{3} \\ \text{P}_\text{2} &= \min ( 0.3 ; 1 - \text{P}_\text{3}) \\ \text{P}_\text{3} &= X \times \text{K} + 0.15 \times ( \text{N}_\text{Generator} - 3 ) \end{align} }[/math] The X coefficient is unclear yet, being about 0.04~0.045.
With [math]\displaystyle{ \text{P}_\text{0}, \text{P}_\text{1}, \text{P}_\text{2}, \text{P}_\text{3} }[/math] the respective rates for the trigger of smokes levels 0 to 3, [math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} }[/math] the amount of Smoke Generators: Each base generator count as 1, Each Kai generator count as 2, A very high improvement level (~ ≥ 17) counts as 1. [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} }[/math] the flagship's luck, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{base} }[/math] the total improvement level of the base generators, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{Kai} }[/math] the total improvement level of the Kai generators,

Trigger Rate Formula 2 [4]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} = \max \big( 0 ; \min ( 100 ; 3.2 - 0.2 \times \text{K} - \text{N}_\text{Generator} ) \big) }[/math] If [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} ≥ 1 \text{ & } \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math], then [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} = 0 }[/math] [math]\displaystyle{ \text{K} = 5 \times \text{N}_\text{Generator} + 1.5 \times \sqrt{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} } + 0.3 \times \bigstar_\text{base} + 0.5 \times \bigstar_\text{Kai} }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 1 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 2 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{Level 1}_\text{Rate %} &= 100 - \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} \\ \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} &= 0 \\ \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{Level 1}_\text{Rate %} &= ( 100 - \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} ) \times ( 1 - \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} ) \\ \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} &= ( 3 \times \big\lceil \text{K} - 5 \big\rceil + 1 ) \times ( 1 - \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} ) \\ \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{Level 1}_\text{Rate %} &= \min ( 0 ; 100 - \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} - \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %}) \\ \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} &= \min ( 30 ; 100 - \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} ) \\ \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} &= 3 \times \big\lceil \text{K} - 15 \big\rceil + 1 \end{align} }[/math]
With [math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} }[/math] the amount of Smoke Generators: Each base generator count as 1, Each Kai generator count as 2, A very high improvement level (~ ≥ 17) counts as 1. [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} }[/math] the flagship's luck, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{base} }[/math] the total improvement level of the base generators, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{Kai} }[/math] the total improvement level of the Kai generators,

• The smoke gives an Accuracy malus to both fleets when used:
  • Please note that these are initial estimations and are subject to change.
  • It is currently unknown if the airstrike accuracy is affected by the smoke.
  • Some modifiers are near impossible to determine because the fleet hit the lower bound hit rate (11% hard cap).
  • There are some inconsistencies between "old" and "new" enemies.
  • Having a (surface ?) radar equipped reduces the smoke effect for both fleets, but only for the shelling phase.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Mod}_\text{smoke} }[/math]
Day Shelling
Fleet	Radar Equipped	Type 1	Type 2	Type 3
Allied	No	< 0.3	< 0.33	< 0.37
	Yes	0.35	0.25	< 0.37
Enemy	No	< 0.69	< 0.7	< 0.7
	Yes	0.91	0.83	0.75
Special Attacks
Allied		1
Torpedo Phases
Fleet		Type 1	Type 2	Type 3
Allied		0.45	0.42	0.42
Enemy		0.7	0.6	0.5
ASW
Allied		0.25
Enemy		1

• AA effects:
  • The smoke affects the allied shootdown but not the enemy shootdown.
  • No fixed shootdown above 2 has been observed under a smoke.
  • The guaranteed shootdown does not seem to be affected.
  • A modifier to the Adjusted AA is suspected but there is not enough data to confirm it.
• The Smoke reduce the Anti-Air Rocket Barrage trigger rate either directly or by reducing the Adjusted AA.

Why Smoke

The main effect of Smoke is reducing accuracy from both sides.

• This clearly helps with preboss pass rates. However offence is the best defence, we would have killed everything first if we could.

Hence the main use of smoke is when it is impossible to sink the enemy that will retaliate hard . Examples include:

• Preboss nodes with several Princesses or strong ships like Battleship Re-Class,
• When using a TCF,
• On submarine nodes where no ASW can be used,

As smoke reduces ASW accuracy for the allied side only, smoke and ASW are mutually exclusive.

Conclusion

• Smoke is used to avoide unsinkable enemies.
• At minimum, medium size smoke should be guaranteed for good effectiveness.

How to Smoke

The flagship luck, the number of smoke generators, and generator improvement levels affects smoke proc rates.

• Hence, the better the smoke generators are, the less taxing on Luck it is.
• Some calculations are provided for newbies and veterans, with the assumption to guarantee medium smoke.
• In most cases, it is assumed that Yamato is the flagship, as she is a common choice for dire situations. As such, she should be luck modded to some extends to improve the rates.

The luck range is determined by using either Yumemi's for Xe's formulas respectively.

This mean that at best, 1 Smoke Kai was obtained from F115, and two base Smoke were crafted and .

• In this case the flagship needs 37 to 54 (a relatively big challenge).

3 ways to metigate the luck required depending on the situation:

• At 29 there is 9% chance of small smoke.
• Get Yamato to 37 , this works for the first formula, and also crosses a threshold in the second formula.
• If a spare slot is remaining, an additional base Smoke can be used, then only 10 to 17 is needed.

Be prepared and get 1 to 2 Smoke , and even 1 base Smoke, for such cases.

This means that 2 Smoke Kai were obtained.

• When using 2 Smoke Kai, it takes 114 to 122 to guarantee medium smoke.
• Hence, adding an extra Smoke to the mix reduce the requirement to 26 to 29 .

Flagship Luck

If no touch is used but smoke is needed, a high luck flagship should simply be used.

In cases a touch is also required, Nagato Kai Ni has 40 and Nelson Kai has 28 , being great choices in this case.

• If possible, Luckmod is advisable as it is a great component of the trigger rate.
• Typically, Touch battleships should be luckmodded as they are the default flagships for touches, and will gain for both touch and smoke trigger rates.
• As Yamato Kai Ni/Juu is the usual suspect in this matter, as she only has 18 by default and should be modded if possible.
• For Event RTA, Musashi Kai Ni deserves luck modding too, as she can unlock the strongest touch, but she is rarely practical for most cases, notably in cases of routing hard-locks.

For fotential mechanic update

• Airstrike Accuracy remains buffed from Plane Proficiency. This serves as a remark and is not important.

• There are currently two formulae for smoke rates.
  • [5] by Yumemi
  • [6] by Xe.
  • There is a calculator for smoke rates as well at docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tEqI13g2LmzR0L8N-I39W6mgmAyc8DxJ-R0_qlEkjlQ/edit if this is useful. Aircalc uses Xe's formula when displaying Smoke rates.
  • The main difference between the formulae comes from the luck thresholds.