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 Akashi-List or Improvement for more details on the process.

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

Upgrade Priority

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 Advices

Priority Level	Equipment	Base Cost	Notes
1	Combat Ration	0	Only used to farm screws with Fd6
1	Shiden Kai 4	4	12 AA fighter
3	F6F-5	6	12 AA fighter
7	Type 0 Fighter Model 64 (Air Superiority Fighter Specification)	5
5	Type 0 Fighter Model 64 (Skilled Fighter-bomber)	6
10	Type 0 Fighter Model 64 (Two-seat w/ KMX)	5
9	Type 99 Dive Bomber Model 22 (Skilled)	3
10	Swordfish Mk.II (Skilled)	3
9	TBF
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???

Very High

• Get at least 6 10cm Twin High-angle Mount + Anti-Aircraft Fire Director to max.
• Ideally you should have around 14 20.3cm(no.3) Twin Gun Mount but 8 is a good number to start off with. You can round out the numbers of 20.3cm guns with 8inch Triple Gun Mount Mk.9 and 8inch Triple Gun Mount Mk.9 mod.2 if you have them.
• The 35.6 and 41 prototypes are not the best battleship guns but they are cheap and useful across many different battleships. Upgrade about 4 each but you can lower their priority as you get other, better guns.
• You can effectively use a maximum of 9 12cm 30 Tube Rocket Launcher Kai 2 at one time. You can get away with 2 to start off with.
• The Type 91 Anti-Aircraft Fire Director is currently the best thing to put in reinforcement expansions if you're not otherwise using lookouts for cut-in boosts or Rocket Kai Nis for airstrike immunity. It provides bonuses to firepower, torpedo and fleet AA.
• Start off with upgrading 4 Quad torpedoes then focus on Quintuples as you get them. You'll want at least 12 torpedoes.
• The Iwamoto is currently the best fighter in the game. You should upgrade it at your earliest opportunity.
• It is important to have at least 8 seaplane fighters.
• The SONAR upgrades aren't that important from an ASW standpoint, but SONAR Conversion to Type 4 SONAR can help reach OASW thresholds.
• AP Shells are incredibly important for your battleships and you should be aiming to get 4.
• The Ka-Mi tank is the best all rounder against installations. While it's best that you match the number of special landing craft (T89, 11th Division, M4A1), getting 4 to start will be good.
• Upgrading the searchlight will decrease enemy CI chance and give bonus firepower. Important for night battle.

High

• The 12.7cm Twin Mount Type-C Kai 2 has fit bonuses across a wide variety of destroyers, making it one of the more useful main guns. Keep at least 6 of these.
• You'll want to upgrade 8inch Triple Gun Mount Mk.9 into 8inch Triple Gun Mount Mk.9 mod.2 then max the latter. It is currently the most powerful cruiser gun and can be complemented with the 20.3n3 to get the night battle accuracy bonus. Try to match
• The battleship guns listed below are luxuries but very useful if you can spare the resources to upgrade them.
• Both the late model torpedoes may have less raw torpedo power than a Quintuple but they have fit bonuses on certain destroyers that make them useful. Note that the fit bonus increases once the torpedoes are maxed.
• The Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Scout) is upgraded purely for the bonus LoS. You can ignore this recommendation if you feel you aren't struggling to hit LoS requirements.
• The Type 1 Fighter Hayabusa Model III A is currently the best interceptor outside of events or quests.It also doubles as the best common 6 Range LBAS Fighter. You'll want to upgrade enough to fill out your LBAS slots in order to meet base defense unlock requirements in events.
• Upgrade enough Daihatsu-class Landing Craft (Type 89 Medium Tanks & Marines) to pair with your Ka-Mi tanks.
• The Type 96 150cm Searchlight functions like the basic searchlight but with better effects. It is less important because fewer ship girls can equip it.

Medium

• Much like the 12.7Ck2, the 12.7cm Twin Mount Type-D Kai 2 provides some nice fit bonuses to destroyers. Unlike the C-type, it doesn't work with Shiratsuyu and Asashio-classes.
• While the 12.7cm Twin Mount Type-B Kai 4 (Wartime Modifications) + Anti-Aircraft Fire Director is better than the Akizuki 10cm, it is also rare and expensive. You should upgrade it when you get the chance.
• Although weaker than the Akizuki 10cm and the 12.7Bk4, the 12.7cm Twin Mount Type-A Kai 3 (Wartime Modifications) + Anti-Aircraft Fire Director is easier to obtain. They can be useful to fill out your destroyer gun lineup if you don't have enough of the two former ones.
• The Type 3 Shell and Shipborne Model Type 4 20cm Anti-ground Rocket Launcher are both important anti-installation equipment. Ideally you should have a pair of each at their advanced versions.

Summary

Equipment Type		Name
Main Gun	Small	12.7cm Twin Mount Type-D Kai 2 · 12.7cm Twin Mount Type-A Kai 3 (Wartime Modifications) + Anti-Aircraft Fire Director · 12.7cm Twin Mount Type-B Kai 4 (Wartime Modifications) + Anti-Aircraft Fire Director
Shell		Type 3 Shell
Misc Equipment		Shipborne Model Type 4 20cm Anti-ground Rocket Launcher

Low

• While the 16in Triple Gun Mount Mk.7 + GFCS, Prototype 51cm Twin Gun Mount, and 51cm Twin Gun Mount are great guns, the cost far outweighs the benefits. It would be a good idea to +1 them as a high priority though.
• You'll want to upgrade torpedo bombers into night bombers to complement your night fighters. Don't bother if you don't have enough night fighters.
• Both the Zuiun Model 12 (634 Air Group) and Zuiun Kai Ni (634 Air Group) are currently the best seaplane bombers. Getting them to their skilled versions is a good idea. They have shootdown resistance and function like fighter/bombers.
• Getting the Prototype Keiun to it's jet fighter/bomber version will open up more options for you.
• Depth charges aren't really important to upgrade but do it if you need the extra ASW power.

Very Low

• Upgrades on the OTO 152mm Triple Rapid Gun Mount can be useful if your ship girls are expected to fight under air denial or incapability.
• Upgrading the Type 0 Observation Seaplane is only necessary if you find that you're struggling to meet LoS requirements.
• You'll only want 1-2 autogyro/helicopters. Their main purpose is to allow Hyuuga Kai Ni to OASW.
• As with the T3DC, upgrading depth charges is not terribly important. The Type 2 Depth Charge benefits from having a small armor-piercing ability and the mortars can double up as anti-installation equipment.