Expeditions

For the complete list of success conditions and yields, see Expedition/Reference tables.
For the detailed hourly yield table, see Sandbox/Expedition/Tables.
Expeditions button in your sortie screen

Expeditions are the backbone of naval economy. They provide a safe and steady income of virtually all common in-game resources with the exception of Improvement materials.

  • The fuel, ammo, steel and bauxite gained from expeditions can accumulate beyond the soft cap. This makes expeditions the best way to stockpile resources for events.
  • Expeditions also provide experience, making them useful for levelling up weak ships.
  • A few expeditions are sortie support expeditions, which provide additional support fire for difficult sorties and events.
  • Many expeditions are also quest requirements.

Expeditions themselves need to be unlocked first, usually by completing other expeditions or quests. Once they have been unlocked, they can be repeated indefinitely. The list of expeditions does not change from one update to another. However, support expeditions for special event maps might be temporarily included during events.

Unlocking Expeditions

Expeditions are unlocked by completing Quest A4.

 
An expedition page showing a new expedition, an incomplete expedition and several completed expeditions. The number 3 marker denotes the third fleet is on this expedition

Normally, completing an expedition will unlock the next one in numerical order. However, there are exceptions:

  • Expedition 5 unlocks Expedition 9.
  • Expedition 18 unlocks Expeditions 22, 25 and 33.
  • Expedition 20 unlocks Expedition 27.
  • Expeditions 1 through 8 unlock Expedition 32.
  • Expedition 26 unlocks Expeditions 34 and 35.

Additionally, some expeditions require clearing a certain map and completing multiple expeditions. They are:

  • Clearing 1-5, Expedition 9-20 and 27-29 unlocks Expedition 30 and 31 (for Quests D5, D6, D7 and D8).
  • Clearing 1-5, Expedition 9-18, 25, 35 and 36 unlocks Expeditions 37, 38, 39 (for Quests D9, 11, 13 and 14).
  • Clearing 1-5, Expedition 9-18 and 22 unlocks Expedition 23 (for Quests D10 and D12).

Sending a Fleet on an Expedition

For instructions on how to access Sortie screen , see Tutorial: How to Play.
 
Sending a fleet on expedition

To send fleets on expedition:

  1. Access the Sortie screen and click the rightmost, blue button.
  2. Select an expedition.
  3. Select a fleet to send on the expedition.
  4. Click the bottom right button to send the selected fleet on the expedition.

Once unlocked, an expedition can be repeated indefinitely without any penalty to subsequent runs. However, an expedition can only be attempted once at any given moment. Multiple fleets can go on different expeditions, but not the same expedition.

The first fleet (main fleet) cannot go on an expedition; only the second, third and fourth fleets.

  • Quest A4 unlocks the second fleet at the same time as expeditions
  • Quest A14 unlocks the third fleet
  • Quest A16 unlocks the fourth fleet.

Every expedition has its own success conditions. Failure to meet the conditions results in a failed expedition and the fleet will still consume fuel, ammunition and the time specified by the expedition but no resources or reward will be returned. HQ XP gained from failed expeditions is reduced significantly to 30%, however, Ship XP gained remains unaffected. While this might prove desirable for those who want to suppress their HQ level, it is generally not recommended due to the resource costs involved.

Check the top right corner of the home screen for the bubble indicating an expedition has returned, click on the home screen to view the results of the expedition and obtain any rewards.

  • Expedition quests only count when the expedition fleet returns, therefore, one only needs to activate the quest when the fleet returns.
  • Expeditions can be completed earlier by entering the main screen when there is less than one minute remaining in the expedition.
  • Ships lose 3 morale per expedition.

Lightly or moderately damaged ships do not affect the outcome of the expedition. However, having a ship that is majorly damaged or under repair in the fleet will prevent that fleet from going on expedition.

Recalling an Expedition

 
Only seen in an active expedition

In the event where the wrong fleet was accidentally sent on expedition, an "Expedition Recall" is possible to cancel the expedition and save the time otherwise would be wasted on expedition.

An expedition cancelled in this manner yields no resources, rewards, or experience. It is also counted as a fail in the Admiral's profile. Fuel, ammunition and morale required by the expedition are still consumed. This should be used with care as a recall cannot be cancelled.

The recalled fleet does not return immediately as it will take a while to return to base. The calculation for return call time is as follows:

The smaller time between remaining time and elapsed time / 3.

For example, a fleet is sent on expedition #1 (15 minutes), then after 6 minutes, it is recalled.

  1. The remaining time is 9 minutes.
  2. The elapsed time is 6 minutes.
  3. The smaller number of the two, 6 minutes elapsed time in this case, is divided by 3.
  4. The final recall time is 2 minutes.

Success Conditions

Ratings and Rewards

Expeditions will always yield the primary resources upon success and they will always grant experience unless recalled. However, secondary item rewards are not guaranteed to be obtained upon success.

 
Expedition 12 gives medium box (left) and development material (right)
  • For expeditions that give only one type of item, there is 50% chance of getting the item.
  • For expeditions that give two types of items, the item listed on the left of the game screen will have 50% chance. The item on the right will always be rewarded upon Great Success, and has a low reward chance with Normal Success.

The outcome of expeditions depends on several conditions. There exists four possible outcome ratings; each of which has different resource, experience and item reward yield ratios.

Rating Resources Experiences Rewards
HQ XP Ship XP Left Right
Recall 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
Failure 0% 30% 100% 0% 0%
Normal Success 100% 100% 100% 50% low
Great Success 150% 200% 400% 50% 100%
 Landing Craft

Daihatsu-class Landing Craft (LC) is obtainable from Akitsu Maru as stock equipment. Each equipped LC will net an additional 5% gain in resources from expeditions, up to 20%.

Total resource gain is multiplied with great success bonus. Combined with great success bonus, the net resource gain is calculated as 50%+7.5% per LC. Thus the max resource bonus is an additional 80% with great success and 4 LC.

Akitsu Maru can be constructed in Large Ship Construction

 

Normal Success

Meeting all the following conditions guarantees a Normal Success:

  • Fleet's supply
    • Fleets sent on expedition must be fully resupplied. Missing even a single bar of supply results in a failure.
  • Flagship's level
    • The level of the flagship (first ship of a fleet) must be greater than or equal to the flagship's level specified by the expedition.
  • Total level of fleet
    • The total level of every ship in the fleet must be greater than or equal to the total level of fleet specified by the expedition.
  • Ship types
    • Most expeditions require a certain number of ships of specific types. The ships in a fleet can be in any order but the required number of ships in each type must be met. Some ship types can be used as substitutes for other ship types, some remodelled ship types and their old models are not interchangeable, while other types follow a one-way relationship.
      • Light aircraft carriers (CVL) and seaplane tenders (AV) can be used as substitutes for standard aircraft carriers (CV).
      • Submarine aircraft carriers (SSV) can be used as substitutes for submarines (SS).
      • Aviation cruisers (CAV) and heavy cruisers (CA) are not interchangeable.
      • Torpedo cruisers (CLT) and light cruisers (CL) are not interchangeable.
      • Battleships (BB) and fast battleships (FBB) cannot be used as substitutes for aviation battleships (BBV).
      • Light aircraft carriers (CVL) and standard aircraft carriers (CV) cannot be used as substitutes for seaplane tenders (AV).
  • Number of ships in fleet
    • Fleets sent on an expedition must contain at least a certain number of ships. After ship type requirements are met, wild card ships (denoted as type XX in the expedition tables) can be added to meet the minimum number of ships condition. Extra ships beyond the minimum number to help with other conditions are allowed.
  • Number of drum canisters and drum carrying ships
    • Expedition 21, 37, 38 also require Drum Canisters to be equipped. The total number of drums and the number of ships carrying drums must be greater than or equal to a minimum value.
 Drum Canister

Drum Canister is obtainable through quests F11, F12 and via development. Only destroyers, light cruisers, aviation cruisers and seaplane tenders can equip drums.

 


Great Success

For more information and tips on how to sparkle ships , see Morale/Fatigue.

Great Success is an advanced form of success. It grants 50% additional resources, twice the Admiral experience, four times the ship experience and great success item reward if applicable. Great Success can be achieved when:

  • Normal Success conditions are met.
  • There exists Great Success factor(s):
    • Fleet contains ships with 50 morale or higher (i.e. sparkling)
    • Expedition requires Drum Canisters.

The chance of achieving Great Success increases approximately 16% per sparkled ship. Furthermore, expeditions that require Drum Canisters have a chance to produce Great Success independently of morale. These two factors can be stacked so as to achieve Great Success with less sparkling.

Please note that success rate increased per sparkled ship for drum canister expeditions is less than expeditions without drum canisters Template:Fact. There are speculations that exceedingly high number of drums (drum overload) may also affect the Great Success chance of these expeditions Template:Fact.

Support Expeditions

Support expeditions involve sending a fleet into an expedition to provide additional bombardment during the opening stages of Combat. There are two types of support expedition; normal support and boss support:

  • Expedition 33 is a normal support expedition (15 minutes). It gives support at every node other than a boss node with ~50% chance to trigger at each node.
  • Expedition 34 is a boss support expedition (30 minutes). It gives support at a boss node with ~80% chance to trigger.

Events usually come with their own exclusive support expeditions (e.g. Expedition 133 & 134) that can only be used throughout the event. These event expeditions are unlocked by default.

Sparkling your ships (mainly flagship) increases the probability to trigger support while using fatigued ships reduces it. Currently, support expeditions only work in World 5 and events. Furthermore, support does not work on nodes that begin in a night battle. Support expeditions will end if either of these two conditions are fulfilled:

  1. Finish a sortie.
  2. The timer runs out.

It is recommended to start a sortie immediately after the support expedition has been sent in order to avoid the timer running out halfway through the sortie.

Support Types

A support expedition requires a minimum of 2 DDs (Destroyers). The other 4 slots affect what type of support will be provided. The three types provided are Aerial Support, Long Range Torpedo Attack, and Support Shelling:

Type Info Requirement Costs Pros Cons

Aerial Support

Sends a number of planes to carry out bombardment
  • Behaves like a normal aerial battle
    • May require fighter planes due to AS affecting performance
3 or more total ships from the following classes: CV, CVL, LHA, and AV 50% Fuel, 40% Ammo, Bauxite (only if support arrives and planes shot down)
  • Many smaller damage attacks spread out, possibly allowing multiple scratch damage on high HP enemies (which can be significant)
  • Low cost (less ammo used and no bauxite used if support does not arrive)
  • Engagement or Formation Modifier do not apply.
  • For certain maps where night battle precedes day battle, supporting fire may concentrate more (since it arrives after night battle).
  • Unlikely to sink any ship.
  • Affected by enemy's AA and AS.
  • The DDs cannot affect the battle as they cannot participate in aerial combat
Long Range Torpedo Attack Long range torpedo attack with high miss chance and low damage 4 or more total ships from the following classes: CL, CLT, DD (counting the 2 DDs you must include) 50% Fuel, 80% Ammo
  • No particular advantage
  • High cost, poor alpha.
  • Possibly implemented to prevent a low cost torpedo squadron doing support shelling.
Support Shelling Medium to long distance shelling attack with concentrated power
  • CVLs have great performance despite cost.
    • But only up to 2; 3 or more turns the support into Aerial Support.
  • 2DDs + 2CVLs run at about 50 fuel and 100 ammo but the CVLs can hit day attack power cap easily, making this very effective.
Any other fleet not meeting either of the two requirements. 50% Fuel, 80% Ammo
  • High alpha if hit.
  • Likely to sink enemy's ship.
  • High cost (especially if boss node is not reached)
  • Affected by Engagement and Formation Modifier (so Crossing the T - Disadvantage is a huge detriment)
  • Poor alpha is imminent

Damage calculation

All damage dealt by support expedition follows the rule for regular combat, with one exception: Aerial support does not get the +25 to the Base Attack Power. Thus, each attack uses the following formula for damage: [math]\displaystyle{ \text {Modifier} \times \text {(Bomber's Dive Bomb or Torpedo stat)} \times \sqrt {Number \space of \space Planes} }[/math], where Modifier = 1.0 for dive bombers and either 0.8 or 1.5 (50% chance of either) for torpedo bombers.

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