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

Newcomer / Beginners

I keep getting an error message with a girl and a cat!

These are the most common reasons for the connection error messages. This is not an exhaustive list.

Weekly server maintenance. Go and do something else until maintenance is over. Check the official twitter for news as to when server maintenances are held. You may also get a different error message of a girl and tools instead of the standard error cat message if you try logging in during maintenance.
System clock out-of-sync with Japan Standard Time (JST). Change the system time and date to match those in JST. A leeway of ~1 hour difference from JST is allowed.
Incorrect API link. If you are using API links, log in to DMM to get a new one and make sure it is correctly copied.
Outdated cache files. From time to time, cache issues may cause connection errors. Cache issues may also cause other problems like new features not showing up. Completely clear your browser cache files to solve this. This is your Internet Explorer cache if you are using the Flash Projector or KCV.
Mundane connection problems. Your server may be under high load. Ask other players on the same server as you if they are experiencing similar issues, otherwise it may be a connection issue on your end.

What browser is supported for this game?

Almost all current browser versions are supported. However, due to the game's large overhead, it is highly recommended to play this game using Google Chrome. This is simply because it has the smallest Flash Player plugin overhead among all the other browsers.

Despite being good browsers, Internet Explorer 11, Mozilla Firefox and Safari have costly overheads on your memory via their Flash player plugins. What's more, this doesn't include the game's overhead itself. So, they're not that recommended, especially for players with limited memory/RAM.

Is this game translated/is there an English patch?

There is no official translation patch. However, there are third-party applications that can provide partial translations. Take caution when using these apps, they are not endorsed by the game publishers. In some of their official tweets, they even openly prohibit the use of macros. Be informed that there is a possibility of being banned for violating the game's policies.

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 directly come in 7 ways:

Just wait it out. Below the resource regeneration cap, fuel, ammo and steel regenerate at 3 per 3 minutes, while bauxite increases at 1 per 3 minutes.
Expeditions.
Dailies/Quests/Missions.
During Sorties, there are nodes that grant you resources.
Scrapping ship girls or equipment items.
Exchanging a medal, or another similar item, for resources.
Purchasing them from the store with DMM points.

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 regeneration cap, go to your admiral's page and look at the right panel, last row in blue.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Resource Regeneration Limit} = 250 \times ((\text{HQ Level}) + 3) }[/math]

As of the 28th March update, an absolute resource limit has been introduced. The absolute cap for resources (fuel, ammunition, steel and bauxite) is 300,000 while the cap for items such as Instant Repairs, Instant Constructions, and Development Materials is 3000. Once you reach this limit, you will not gain any more resources even if you do expeditions or hit supply nodes in sorties. Note that this is different from the resource regeneration cap.

Where do I grind for specific resources or items?

For more information on this topic, see Expedition.

Fuel and ammo: expedition (5, 13, 16, 21), map 2-3 (with submarine).
Steel: expedition (3, 7, 20), map 3-2 northern route. (Be advised that the enemy fleet you encounter after the resource node is strong; the steel you just got might not be enough for the repairs).
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 accumulates depends on 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 ships have lower accuracy and evasion.

Refer to Morale/Fatigue for more info

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:

Evasion boost on a expontential increase table based on the Morale value.
16,5% to achieve Great success per ship with =>50 Morale, which increases the resources gain to 150% for that particular expedition and guarantees the right-side item if the expedition has one.
Morale of all ships (Route Support, 16,5% per ship with >=50 morale) / Morale of the Flagship(Boss Support, 100% if Flagship morale >=50) determines whether the support expedition shows up.

Refer to Morale/Fatigue for more info

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

Click that and the designated ship will not appear in the modernization material list, and grays out their scrapping option. 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 my ships from sinking?

To avoid sinking your ship, make sure they are not heavily damaged (大破) before a battle. A ship will never sink if she enters battle in good condition (no damage / minor damage [小破] / moderate damage [中破]).

When ships in good condition receive excessive damage they will be left with 1 HP, which can be repaired to full health. If you choose to advance (進撃) with your ship heavily damaged, she will be at risk of being sunk.

Sunken ships are lost forever and not retrievable. 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 them. It allows your ships to be revived if they are sunk by the enemy.

Both night and day battle are considered the same battle, so ships which are brought to "heavy damage" during the same battle can enter night battle without fear of sinking.

Video about ships which were heavily damaged during the day before proceeding to night battle: - http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm22148662 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CayD735o04

How does damage control work?

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

Repair Team (応急修理要員):
- revives your ship to 20% of max HP after being sunk.
- allows you to repair heavily damaged flagship to 50% of max HP before moving to next node.
- item consumed upon activation.
Repair Goddess (応急修理女神):
- repairs your ship to full HP after being sunk.
- allows the option to repair heavily damaged flagship to 100% HP.
- fully resupplies the ship
- item consumed upon activation.

Damage control equipment can be obtained by completing quests or by purchasing it from the cash shop.
One damage control item will be consumed immediately after the ship sinks, reviving and preventing your ship from sinking during that particular battle. If you advance to the next node (進撃) with the same ship heavily damaged again, you will need another damage control item for protection. If an additional damage control item is absent, the ship will be at risk of being sunk.

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 their importance.

How do you exchange medals for rewards?

What are medals?

Rewards

1 medal can be exchanged for Fuel x300, Ammo x300, Steel x300, Bauxite x300 and Instant repair item x2.
4 medals can be exchanged for 1 x remodel blueprint (改装設計図).

Medals can be exchanged for rewards by accessing the Item page (アイテム) at the top menu bar of the main screen.

Why do I have negative timers (-XX:XX:XX) or why do I get the wrong timers (2 hours for DD, etc) in Construction?

This happens when you do not set your system clock to Japan time. (Note: this does not happen to everyone) To fix this, go to your system clock on your taskbar, click it, and set to Osaka/Sapporo time. Restart the game, and this should fix the issue. It is also possible to add a 2nd clock to your taskbar so you are aware of your actual time.

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.

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. But when construct the German ship, you must have a German ship as your flagship
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.

Note: The number of characters you can use to rename your fleets is capped to 12 characters (including spaces)

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 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 its native resolution using the API link. Or just resize your browser window.

What does the admiral stats page show?

The number of fleets you currently own.
The number of construction docks you currently own.
The number of docking docks you currently own.
The number of ships you currently own.
The number of equipment you currently own (including those equipped on your ships).
The number of furniture you currently own.
The server you belong to.
The maximum number of fleets you can have. (Second fleet, third fleet and fourth fleet can be unlocked through quests.)
The maximum number of ships you can have. (This can be increased by purchasing the [Port expansion item/母港拡張]. Each expansion will increase 10 maximum ships available)
The maximum number of equipment you can have. (This will be increased by 40 when a [Port expansion item/母港拡張] is used.
The resource regeneration limit. (This is not the real resource cap. Reaching the maximum resource storage will stop resource regeneration. You can still gain resources through sortie, quests and expeditions. The absolute resource cap is 300,000 regardless of admiral level.)
Your sortie results. (Sortie win rate was a requirement for the past events)
Your expedition results.
Your PVP results.
Your admiral level. (current EXP/EXP required for next level)
Comment box. (This will be shown in the ranking list)

What is this blinking icon in my Organize menu?

This button uses Mamiya's food, a consumable that restores the condition value of the ships in that fleet. It blinks when your ships are below a certain Morale value.

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).

3-2: DDs only. Other fleets 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(V) 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 any slow-moving ships to avoid the dangerous submarine node. Fleets with 3 or more BBs will always be sent away from the boss node. Fleets with 2 DDs are sent very frequently from the preboss node to the boss node.

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

Flagship protection. Ships that have taken less than light damage (小破) will occasionally protect the flagship from getting damaged. What really causes it is not known but some formations 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 line ahead 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 40 (default equipment limit is 497); Refer to this pastebin for more information on hating your money.

What happens if I get 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 Mount and Type 21 Air Radar). Combined with her value as modernization material (+4 AA) and low remodel level requirement (Lv.12), It's an attractive proposition.

Tip: Set Isuzu as the flag ship of fleet and sortie 3-2A 12 times will she be Level 12. Kind of a loop.

Other examples:

Chitose /Chiyoda for midget subs ( Type A Ko-hyoteki at Lv.12 remodel)

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.

On the other side, if you have 3 level-20-plus submarines, 2-4 is no longer a nightmare. You just need try a couple of times and you will get pass easily. But you also need to fully cap their modernization especially torpedo and armor.

Naval Exercise/Practice Battle/PVP

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

How come the other admirals have significantly higher-leveled ships?

Naval exercises yield low admiral exp (20 exp) but 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 right preparations can help you win exercises against much higher-leveled ships. See Exercises (PvP) for details.

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 2 high level ships (more exp to them) when you will be offline for a while.

Please note that 2 high level ships does not mean a fleet composed of one level 1 ship.

How do I get an S rank against a submarine fleet?

Anti-submarine damage highly depend on equipment ASW stat. Equip your CL and DD with Sonar and Depth Charge while using line abreast formation.

Equipment, Stats and Remodels

What does each stat mean?

耐久 (Taikyū, Endurance) - Ship's Health or HP. Further divides into 小破/中破/大破 after HP reduced to a certain level. Ships entering a battle with 大破 are at risk being sunk.
火力 (Karyoku, Firepower) - Affects the damage a ship's guns/bombers do during bombing/shelling phase.
装甲 (Sōkō, Armor) - Damage reduction against incoming attacks.
雷装 (Raisou, Torpedo) - Affects the damage a ship inflicts with a torpedo attack.
回避 (Kaihi, Evasion) - Affects the chance of having enemies "miss" an attack.
対空 (Taikū, Anti-Air) - Reduces damage from aerial attacks. Increases damage against carriers and affect the detection phase. See below for explanation on AA guns.
搭載 (Tōsai, Aircraft) - Total plane capacity for each ship. For capacity in each slot, see this.
対潜 (Taisen, Anti-submarines/ASW) - Ship's capability to conduct anti-submarine warfare; higher chance of inflicting damage to submarines.
速力 (Sokuryoku, Speed) - Divides into High Speed/Fast and Low Speed/Slow. The mechanics are not clear but it is said to give bonus to evasion if all ships are fast speed. Affects the sortie route in certain maps.
索敵 (Sakuteki, 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. Currently, 2-5 requires a centain amount of LOS in order to enter the boss node.
射程 (Syatei, Range) - Determines the firing order during the start of the battle. Ships with longer range will start off first.
運 (Un, Luck) - Affects cut-in chance in night battle.

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.

Hidden stats

爆装 (Bakusō, Dive bombing stat) - Initual value is 0 in all ships, increased when dive bombers/seaplane bombers are equipped. Used in aerial phase and shelling phase. Highly influencing the damage of CV/CVL in shelling phase.
命中 (Meichū, Hit rate) - Accuracy. Affects the chance of hitting an enemy. Can only be increased through levelling or equipments.
クリティカル (Kuritikaru, Critical) - Unlike other games, critical hit in this game is equals to "piercing the armor" of an enemy. An attack will always be shown as "crit" if a certain amount of damage is dealt. [Critical Modifier]

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.

For Aviation battleships (BBV), their max firepower stat drops a little, but every other stats increase. Their Aviation BB-form are still eligible for the quest completion.

For Aviation cruisers (CAV), they don't lose max firepower after remodel unlike BBV. They however will start with very low firepower stats after remodel. Their max firepower are of the average heavy cruisers.

Does the slot position of the equipment matter?

In day battle, equipment slot position doesn't matter for all non-aircraft carriers warships. In night battle the top-most weapon is used to attack if your ship fails to trigger a special attack (Double Attack or Cut-in Attack, check the combat mechanics page for more info), this can change what type of attack your warship performs between a torpedo attack or a main gun attack.

However, it's a different case for warships that can equip aircraft (fighters, recon planes, seaplanes, etc.), because each slot has a different aircraft-carrying capacity (see below). Keep that in mind when equipping planes.

Is there any equipment that will do preemptive strikes?

Torpedoes 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?

All equipment with +AA will help shoot down planes.
High-angle guns, AA radars, 46cm guns, and Green ammo (Type 3 Shell) give an extra fleet-wide bonus to shooting down planes.
Machine guns/rocket launchers do not get an extra bonus, but they do give quite a bit of AA stat to the ship they are equipped to.
Type 3 Shell, 10cm High-angle guns, and Type 14 Radar are generally the best equipment for anti-air.
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 enables your non-AA guns to effectively shoot down planes.

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. They greatly help in shooting down enemy planes.
	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. Both allow for Artillery Spotting. 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 in the opening aerial combat phase. Generally it is recommended to place blue planes (torpedo bombers) on the higher count slots, and yellow (recon) or red (dive bomber) planes on the lower slots.

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.

Recommendation fitting for Kitakami, Ooi and Kiso:

Consider that CLTs can't equip any amount of seaplanes, the fitting of CLTs should all be about opening torpedo and night battle.
Before Kai Ni, CLTs only have 2 equipment slots. They can't fire twice during night combat, so maximize opening torpedo is the primary consideration.
Only after Kai Ni, will Kiso be a CLT.
(Very Important) 甲標的甲 Type A Ko-hyoteki should always be equipped for a CLT. However, this should NOT be in the first equipment slot, since Type A Ko-hyoteki itself is not treated as a weapon. Having it on the first equpment slot will greatly reduce your CLT's performance in night battle, where they use the first equipped item as the weapon of choice.

Before Kai Ni ( Below level 50)

1× Any type of the torpedoes (61cm Triple Torpedo Mount, 61cm Quad Torpedo Mount, 61cm Quad O₂ Torpedo Mount and so on)
1× 甲標的甲 Type A Ko-hyoteki

After Kai Ni ( Level 50, Kiso Level 65):

Fit 1: This fitting gives good opening torpedo damage, more firepower to deal with DD during day combat and double attack during night combat.

Fit 2: This fitting is extreme in opening torpedo and gives a chance to cut-in during night combat.

2× Any type of the torpedoes, 61cm Quint O₂ Torpedo Mount is recommended.
1× 甲標的甲 Type A Ko-hyoteki

Expeditions

Help! my fleet failed to do an expedition.

There are at least two reasons for that, namely:

Incorrect fleet composition, or flagship level too low; see Conditions 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 first and second remodels considered as CLs 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. This case is also applied for any other Aviation BB and Aviation Cruisers such as Ise, Hyuuga, Yamashiro, Fusou and Mogami.

How to Unlock Large Ship Construction

Complete Modernization Quest: You will be required to successfully modernize a ship 4 times.
Complete Crafting Quest: You will be required to scrap 4 pieces of equipment. Do it one by one as the game will consider discarding multiplies at once, as one time
Enjoy large ship building! Keep in mind that LSC require 4-digit resources (1500-7000 per resource per craft), while only few ships are worth trying using LSC.

Note: To unlock the first quest you need 3rd fleet unlocked