Tutorial: FAQ

A collection of questions that are frequently/hypothetically asked. This page is still being expanded.

Newcomer / Beginners

What browser is supported for this game?

Almost all current version of browsers are supported. However, due to the large overhead that the game has, it is highly suggested to play this game using Google Chrome, simply because it has the smallest overhead for the Flash Player plugins among all other browser. For Internet Explorer 11, Mozilla Firefox and Safari, despite being good browsers, they have too much overhead to your memory (the Flash Player plugin) in addition of the game's overhead itself, so it's not that recommended, especially for players with limited memory (RAM).

Is this game translated/is there an English patch?

No, this game is not translated and because it's a browser game, an English patch is pretty much non-existent. Will it be translated? Highly unlikely.

How do I get in?

In short, you would first need a DMM account and a VPN to register for the game. The following wiki links should be enough:

I notice all the terminology used, DD, CA, CV, etc

KanColle Wiki uses American hull classifications to represent the Japanese ship classes within the game, with a few slight modifications for classes that are not available within the original classification. See Glossary for the complete classification.

And how about w/x/y/z when you talk about crafting and what not?

Fuel / ammo / steel / bauxite

/

How do resources work in this game?

You have fuel (green), ammo (dark brown/yellow), steel (gray) and bauxite (brown). Fuel and ammo are generally used for resupplying your ship, while fuel and steel are used to repair your ship. Bauxite is used for planes in terms of crafting and resupplying planes to your carriers.

In crafting, different amount will be used for different equipment; planes will require higher bauxite, some guns require higher ammo capacity. Refer to the Development page.

Gathering resources come in 4 ways:

Just wait it out. Fuel, ammo and steel regenerates at 3 points per 3 minute. Bauxite is 1 point per 3 minute.
Expeditions.
During Sortie, there are nodes that grant you resources.
Dailies/Quests/Missions

I heard about the resource cap. How much is the limit? Does that mean I can't gather resources exceeding my limit?

The natural regeneration of resources (1440 per day) will stop if you cross the resource limit. Other than that, there is no penalty and will not affect resources gained from sortie, quests, or expeditions. To look for your resource cap, go to your admiral's page and look at the right panel, last row in blue.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Resource Cap} = 750 + ((\text{HQ Level}) \times 250) }[/math]

Where do I grind for specific resources or items?

For more information on this topic, see Expedition.

Fuel and ammo: expedition (5, 13, 16), map 2-3 (with submarine).
Steel: expedition (3, 7, 20), map 3-2 northern route (if you use F5 spamming, do it on your own risk).
Bauxite: expedition (6, 11, 15), map 2-2 (with submarine).
Instant repair material: expedition (2, 4, 10).

Alright, I built my ship, kicked some ass and I noticed the orange faces. What gives?

For more information on this topic, see Fatigue.

Fatigue is accumulated when you send your ships to sortie and it stacks through subsequent sorties. How much fatigue accumulated depends on the performance in battle. When you see the face icons, let them rest for a while (orange: 10-11 mins, red: 21-40 mins). Docking would help as well. Fatigued (sad face) effects:

Stats penalty (Lowered firepower, evasion)
Higher chance of ship sinking even when it's only slightly (小破) or moderately damaged (中破).

My ship is sparkling/glittering!

The inverse of fatigue is sparkle which promises boost to stats^[?] and last indefinitely until the next sortie/practice/expedition.

Sparkle effects:

Stats boost (Increased firepower, evasion)
150% resource gain and higher chance to get special item on expedition.

Note: Remodeling a ship that is sparkling will remove the sparkle. You may want to send her out on a quick expedition in order to take advantage of increased rare item drop. It's not that big of a deal in the end though.

I notice there are heart-locks in the ship selection screen.

Click that and the designated ship will not appear in scrap/modernization material list. Useful if you don't want to accidentally lose her.

Oh, and how about expeditions?

You need a second fleet. Which can be activated in the 'Quest' section:

Complete 「水雷戦隊」を編成せよ！」 which requires a light cruiser as the flagship and destroyers filling the rest.
Complete 「6隻編成の艦隊を編成せよ！」 which is basically, filling all slots in the fleet with ships.
Remember to check the quest to fulfill it.

How can i prevent the ships from sinking?

To avoid your ship from being sunk, make sure the ships didn't have sad face/excessive fatigue before a sortie and they are not moderately damaged (中破) or more before a battle. There is an on-going debate on whether only heavily damaged (大破) ships are prone to sinking, but no conclusion has been reached.

If you need to risk your damaged ships to proceed to the next battle, make sure to equip some form of damage control equipment on your ships. it allows your ships to be revived if they were sunk by the enemy.

How does damage control work?

Ships equipped with Damage Control will be revived upon sinking and become invulnerable throughout the battle. There are two variant of damage control:

Repair Team (応急修理要員): repairs your ship to less than half of your ship's full HP.
Repair Goddess (応急修理女神): repairs your ship to full HP. Useful for difficult boss battle.

Damage control equipment could be attained by completing quests or by purchasing it from the cash shop.
Note: Night battle and day battle are considered separate. However, it's a one-time use, so use it very carefully.

What are buckets?

Instant Repair ( 高速修復材) is an item used to repair ships quickly. Once you get Akagi or any CV, you'll understand the importance.

Is there any way to know how many buckets you have after going past 99?

Use them, the true amount will appear in the confirmation page.

I want ship X, Y, Z, etc.

You can potentially get it via:

They drop in maps, see the Drop List.
Crafting, see Crafting Recipe for each ship.

I cannot get any ship at all via drop!

Make sure that you have at least 5 free ship slots and 20 free equipment slots.

Why am I going through resources so damn fast?

It goes without saying that you don't have an unlimited number of resources. Running CV and BB fleets is going to eat through your resources faster than you can generate them through either time or expeditions. Make sure that you use those poor DD's and CL's too. Yes, they may seem utterly weak when compared to your hard-hitters, but when you hit 3-2 where you find out the cruel truth that you must clear the map with DD's only, you won't regret leveling them to their respective remodels. Plus less resource cost!

Does level or type of your flagship matter in crafting?

Depends.

Crafting ships are only dependent on the amount of resources you pumped in, apparently.
Crafting equipment may depend on the amount of resources and type of your flagship.

Is it important to craft equipment?

Not until you reach HQ level 20. You can try, but don't expect the rare ones.

I cannot rename my fleets!

You are probably using stand-alone flash player or API link to play the game. Use DMM's Kantai Collection page to play and try renaming your fleets again.

How do I unlock the third and fourth fleet slot?

3rd Fleet: Complete Quest A14 「川内」型軽巡姉妹の全3艦を編成せよ！
- Composition quest, have all Sendai sisters (Sendai, Jintsu , and Naka).
4th Fleet: Complete Quest A16 「金剛」型による高速戦艦部隊を編成せよ！
- Composition quest, have all Kongou sisters (Kongou, Haruna, Kirishima, and Hiei).

When does the daily/weekly reset commence?

Quest/Mission:

Daily: 05:00 JST
Weekly: Monday 05:00 JST

Daily PVP roster: 03:00 and 15:00 JST

What is Modernization and Remodelling?

File:Model2.jpg

Modernization is the process whereby ships are sacrificed to permanently increase certain stats of another ship. See the Modernization page for more details.

Remodelling is the process whereby a ship is upgraded to its next model. The new model usually comes with increased stat caps across the board. Certain ships also get a new card art and library entry, and some ships will change classes. Remodels usually come with the cost of higher fuel or ammo (or both) consumption, though there are exceptions such as first-remodel destroyers and I-168, which do not change in terms of consumption rate or aviation cruisers/battleships, which receive a decrease in ammo consumption (though their fuel consumption still increases). Keep this in mind when managing your expedition fleets.

You can remodel a ship to its next model at any point after it reaches the required level, and the ship will retain its level upon remodelling. Be aware that any modernization stat bonuses will be lost upon remodelling. Stats that cannot be increased via modernization (evasion, anti-sub, line-of-sight) will be recalculated to match the level upon remodelling so you do not need to worry about potential permanent stat losses due to remodelling late. Modernizable stats (firepower, torpedo, AA, armor) will revert to the ship's base stats plus stat gains from its level.

Unlike modernization, any equipment on the ship to be remodelled will simply be placed back into your inventory and replaced with the remodel's stock equipment. Also unlike modernization, remodelling only costs ammo and steel.

Think of remodelling as evolutions. For ships that have multiple remodels (Chitose/Chiyoda, Kitakami/Ooi, Yuudachi etc.), you will have to go through each remodel to get to the next one in the line regardless of level i.e. you cannot skip all the remodels before the final upgrade even if your Chitose is level 55. Example: Chitose [math]\displaystyle{ \longrightarrow }[/math] Chitose Kai [math]\displaystyle{ \longrightarrow }[/math] Chitose A [math]\displaystyle{ \longrightarrow }[/math] Chitose Carrier [math]\displaystyle{ \longrightarrow }[/math] Chitose Carrier Kai [math]\displaystyle{ \longrightarrow }[/math] Chitose Carrier Kai 2

Note: Remodelling resets damage, fatigue and supply status. You could take advantage of this by remodelling just after a sortie or two. As remodelling resets fatigue however, it will also remove the sparkle status if the ship has it.

How do I fix flash stretching the game resolution when using the API?

Use Flash projector to run the game in it's native resolution using the API link.

Sortie

Why do I keep getting sent to the wrong place?

Different nodes on different maps will have different requirements. Some of the nodes are random in nature while the rest are dependent on your fleet composition (Boss in 3-2 for example can only be reached by a fleet of destroyers)

Additional: 3-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-2 and 5-3 have specific requirements which you need to use in order to 'manipulate' the map.

3-2: DDs only or you will always get thrown north.
3-3: Two CVs are needed in order to be sent to the 'right path'
4-4: two DDs and one CA is needed to guarantee a pre-boss fight.
5-2: Two CV and one CVL is needed to guarantee a boss fight.
5-3: The fleet must not contain CV, CVL or BB (Fast Battleships (Kongou Class) are okay) in order to ensure you don't get raped by the submarine node. That being said, you can still avoid it but the chance is VERY LOW. It is also worth noting that the first two fights start as NIGHT BATTLES.

.Which is kinda bullshit, considering you're supposedly using a compass, yet apparently the compass spins like the fucking wheel of fortune in order to point you to your next node.

How do you beat 2-4?

Have a fleet of level 30 ships fully modernized consist of at least 2 BB and any ship which could endure the long fighting you'll about to face (4BB+2CV is good). Along the way, use line abreast formation (the 5th) and line ahead when engaging the boss. Before sortie, don't forget to pray to the Compass and RNG Goddess.

If you have submarine with high enough level then equip turbine/E repair on her and you'll be able to solo 2-4 with her as long as you pray to RNG goddess that you didn't get forced back to base before you reach the boss and when you reach said boss your missile hit and boss mook doesn't hit your sub-chan. Credit to someone who isn't me.

Weird animation: An 'arc' appears in front of my flagship and another ship of mine got damaged instead, what happened?

Flagship protection. Ships will occasionally protect the flagship from getting damaged. What really causes it is not known but some formation boost the probability of it happening more than the others. Ring-shaped / Diamond shaped formation will raise the probability of it happening more than the Vertical line formation.

What ships are 'counters' against other ships e.g. destroyers against subs?

Generally, Battleships and regular carriers are the queens of the battlefield except when it comes to submarines. Heavy Cruisers are jack of all trades and light cruisers and destroyers with their depth charges are the only ships effective against submarines.

I saw red text on my menu before I began my sortie, what does it mean?

Error message displayed in sortie, crafting and construction menus. (Click to enlarge)

You have reached the maximum limit of ships in your dock (default: 100 ships). Consider scrapping or use them as modernizing material before heading out. You will not be able to obtain new ships if you reach the limit. If you wish to expand your docks so you can collect more ships, you have to buy it from the cash shop. Each limit expansion costs 1000 yen, and increases the maximum ship limit by 10 in addition to the maximum equipment limit by 20 (default equipment limit is 500); a maximum of 7 such expansions can be purchased. Refer to this pastebin for more information on hating your money.

What happened if i disconnected from the game during a battle?

The game will calculate the battle results and your fleet will automatically return to base.

I notice some players are farming those poor Isuzus, why?

Isuzu Kai (五十鈴改) has stock equipment which is desirable to a lot of admiral ( 12.7cm Twin High-Angle Cannon and Type 21 Air Radar). Combined with her value as modernization material (+5 AA) and low remodel level requirement (Lv.12), It's an attractive proposition.

Other examples:

Chitose/Chiyoda for midget subs ( Type A Ko-hyoteki)

Those enemy BB Ru-Class battleships are kicking my ass on the end of 2-4! How are you supposed to beat that flagship type?

Lots and lots of luck. Jokes aside, they are the first enemy you meet which not only can take a beating but it can dish out a beating too. You will not only need to have remodeled your shipdaughters, you will also need to cap their modernization and ensure all of your equip is of a good quality. While getting to the 2-4 boss can require some luck, you will notice these BB's will start showing up in other maps and you can easily end up against two flagships with two elite partners, which can hurt quite a bit. Just hope that your shipdaughters target them first and take them out of the fight ASAP.

Naval Exercise/Practice Battle/PVP

Again, these battles reset twice a day at 03:00 and 15:00 JST.

How could other admirals have significantly higher leveled ships?

Doing naval exercise yield low admiral exp (20 exp) and high ship exp (up to 1k exp, maybe more). Compound that everyday and the exp gap would grow higher and higher. Overall, it doesn't really matter for you.

The other admiral uses a fleet of low-level ships, why would he do that?

It's easier to get the Sparkle buff. See sparkle effect for more details.

To help other admirals (and hopefully you as well), please make sure your main fleet consists only of a high level ship (more exp to them) when you will be offline for a while.

How to get S rank against a submarine fleet?

Use dedicated ASW ship such as CL and DD with high ASW stats. Equip your CL and DD with Sonar and Depth Charge while using line abreast formation. Works against a fleet of four level 90+ submarines.

Equipment, Stats and Remodels

What does each stat mean?

耐久 (Endurance) - HP
火力 (Firepower) - Affects the damage a ship's guns do during bombing/shelling phase.
装甲 (Armor) - Damage reduction against incoming attacks.
雷装 (Torpedo) - Affects the damage a ship inflicts with a torpedo attack. should not be confused with anti-submarine warfare.
回避 (Evasion) - Self-explanatory
対空 (Anti-Air) - Self-explanatory. See below for explanation on AA guns.
搭載 (Aircraft) - Total plane capacity for each ship. For capacity in each slot, see this.
対潜 (Anti-submarines/ASW) - Ship's capability to conduct anti-submarine warfare; higher chance of inflicting damage to submarines.
速力 (Speed) - Self-explanatory. The mechanics are not clear but it apparently gives bonus to evasion if all ships are fast speed.
索敵(Reconnaissance/LOS) - This stat determines the success of the recon phase at the start of the battle. The higher it is, the higher the success rate.
射程 (Range) - Determines the firing order during the start of the battle. Ships with longer range will start off first.
運 (Luck) - Affects cut-in chance in night battle. Also attributed with various UNCONFIRMED hidden combat bonuses. Critical chance, accuracy, evasion, evasion of sinking, you name it.

Generally if the stat is 0, it means the ship can't do anything pertaining to that and there's no way you can increase it.

What do the stars underneath the ship level mean?

How close they are to their max stats.

If I can raise stats with modernization, what's the point of leveling up?

Firepower , Torpedo attack , Anti Air and Armor stats can be increased using Modernization.
Anti Submarine , View Range and Evasion stats will only improve from leveling ships up, though repair times also increase.
Speculation concludes that hidden accuracy stats and critical hit chances change with level (or level differences between attackers and targets) as well.

Is it worth to turn Fusou, Mogami, etc into aviation battleships/cruisers?

Worth it. Firepower stats drops a little, but every other stats increase. Their Aviation BB-form are still eligible for the quest completion.

Does slot positioning of the equipment matter?

In general, no. However, for ships capable of carrying aircraft, each slot may gives different aircraft-carrying capacity. see below.

Is there any equipment that will do preemptive strikes?

Torpedos and bombers can attack before the shelling phase. Ships or submarines equipped with midget submarine Type A Ko-hyoteki (甲標的甲) are able to launch an opening torpedo attack. Submarines level 10 or higher can do an opening torpedo attack regardless of their equipment. The accuracy of torpedoes greatly depends on fleet formation; using line abreast will cause midget submarines to nearly always miss, while line ahead gives the greatest accuracy.

What do green and yellow guns do? Also, I really hate fighting carriers, which guns help me shoot planes?

Only green guns (high-angle gun and machine gun) shoot planes.
46cm guns also shoot planes. (Yes, even though they're red.)
Yellow guns (secondary gun) do NOT shoot planes.
All guns with +AA stat help green guns shoot planes but do not shoot planes unless they are green guns themselves.
There are two types of anti-air guns: dual-purpose guns (46cm red, 12.7cm green, 10cm green, etc.), which trigger a forward sliding motion from ships in a battle, and purely anti-air guns (everything you see towards the back of your equipment inventory list ), which produce a "tracer bullet" visual effect when they fire. Dual-purpose guns tend to reduce the number of incoming enemy planes in general; machine guns tend to reduce the amount of planes attacking a single ship, as in, they defend themselves.
Green ammo makes a ship shoot planes regardless of gun. This makes it redundant for battleships with 46cm guns, though the boost to the AA stat still applies. The ammo can only be equipped on heavy cruisers and the aforementioned battleships.
AA radar is effective but helps only the ship that it's equipped to.
For those wondering about yellow guns: They're for more accurate fire on secondary targets, but for this purposes of this game this just means they're more accurate. Historically, they were meant to fire faster and track fast ships more quickly, hence the accuracy boost. By the way, don't ever use 15.2cm yellow guns, they were bad historically and they're bad in this game too. The 15.5cm yellow guns are great.

What is the function of the green ammo?

Sanshiki, San-Shiki or sanshikidan (lit. "type 3") ammunition is a combined shrapnel and incendiary round for anti-aircraft use, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The shell was historically designed for several gun calibers such as 41cm Twin Cannon, 20.3cm Twin Cannon, and 12.7cm High-Angle Twin Cannon.

In essence, it makes your non-AA gun perform like a flak gun.

What do the planes with the different-colored icons do?

	Aircraft with blue icons are torpedo bombers. Blue planes deal very high damage in the opening carrier attack phase if your side has air superiority. If not, you will deal very limited damage to the enemy, and also lose quite a few of them in the process, requiring lots of bauxite to replace.
	Aircraft with red icons are dive bombers. Red planes also attack in the opening phase but their damage is low and inaccurate. They give carriers higher damage in the shelling phase, and are less vulnerable to enemy anti air defenses.
	Aircraft with green icons are fighters for air superiority.
	Aircraft with yellow icons are used for the recon phase.
	Light green planes with no icon at all are seaplanes, the 零式水上偵察機 Zero Recon is for scouting only, the 瑞雲 Zuiun scouts and also participates in aerial combat. Note that these are the only aircraft that seaplane tenders, aviation battleships, aviation cruisers, and aircraft-carrying submarines can launch.

What's the difference between CV and CVL?

CV can hold more planes and a higher plane count means better performance in the initial air combat phase. You get higher firepower for your fleet as well, which translates to better damage in the shelling phase. Last but not least, CVs have higher defense and HP.

One thing CVs can't do is attack submarines whereas CVLs can. CVLs cost less to keep than CVs too.

What does the number beside my plane stand for?

The capacity of the planes it can hold. Different slots have different capacity and will affect the performance of the carrier. Blues on the slot with the most planes = more damage during the bombing phase

Will I lose all my equipment if I remodel?

No. The game automatically disarm your ship before she goes through her remodeling.

What should I equip on torpedo cruisers like Kitakami or Ooi?

Any gun, torpedo launcher or midget submarine will do, and that midget sub will enable them to shoot a torpedo before the shelling phase. Turbines are a good choice as well, if you want her to increase her survivability.

Expeditions

Help! my fleet failed to do an expedition.

There are at least two reasons for that, namely:

Incorrect fleet composition; see Composition for more details.
Not resupplying your ship beforehand.

I don't have expedition #xx unlocked.

Don't skip clearing any previous expedition (e.g. for expedition #18 you need to clear expedition 1 until 17). By clearing, it means completing for the first time.

What expedition is the most efficient?

For more information on this topic, see Theoretical Hourly Net Earnings.

Always have your fleet full of sparkle when going into long expedition, see sparkle effect.
Using ships with low fuel and ammo cost is another way to optimize the efficiency of your expedition.
Remodeled ship may have up to 27% increase in fuel/ammo usage. While it is not significant, please take it into consideration in deciding your expedition fleet.

Are Kitakami and Ooi second and third remodel considered as CAs for expedition and map requirement purposes?

No, they're not. If you send them out on expeditions, it'll end up as a failure despite theoretically fitting the requirements stated for it on Wiki. They are considered as CLT, which won't count as CL as well. This case is also applied for any other Aviation BB and Aviation Cruisers such as Ise, Hyuuga, Yamashiro, Fusou and Mogami.