Aerial Combat
The following classes can participate in aerial combat: standard carriers, light carriers, aviation battleships and cruisers, seaplane tenders, carrier submarines, Akitsumaru Kai, and certain special enemy vessels.
Aerial Combat Stages
Stage | Notes |
---|---|
Fighter Combat | Battle for air supremacy. Determines if Artillery Spotting and/or Contact are possible. |
Anti-bomber Combat | Number of bombers shot down by fighters is affected by the result of the previous phase |
Anti-Air Cut-In | An Anti-Air Director may cause heavy damage to enemy bombers |
Fleet Anti-air Defense | Fleet defends against enemy bombers |
Bombing | See Damage Calculation for details |
Fighter Combat
- Fighter planes and specific Torpedo/ Dive / Seaplane bombers with an AA stat participate in the Fighter Combat.
- Recon planes ( Carrier-based or Seaplane recon) will not participate in Fighter Combat.
- The allied fleet and enemy fleet's fighter powers are compared to determine the result of Fighter Combat:
Fighter Power (FP = Own Fighter Power, EFP = Enemy Fighter Power) |
Result | Text Display | % Shot Down | Contact | Artillery Spotting | Night Spotting |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FP ≥ 3×EFP or Enemy Failed Detection or EFP=0 and Planes launched |
Air Supremacy (AS+) | 制空権確保! Seikuuken Kakuho! |
0~90% | Allied only | Allied only | Allied only |
3×EFP > FP ≥ 1.5×EFP | Air Superiority
(AS) |
航空優勢! Koukuu Yuusei! |
0~80% | Both sides | Allied only | Both sides |
1.5×EFP > FP ≥ 2/3×EFP or Aerial Combat Stage did not occur |
Air Parity | No text displayed | 0~60% | Both sides | Impossible for either side | Impossible for regular combat nodes Both sides for PvP as well as Night Combat Only nodes |
2/3×EFP > FP ≥ 1/3×EFP | Air Incapability | No text displayed | 0~40% | Both sides | Enemy only | Both sides |
FP < 1/3×EFP | Air Denial | 制空権喪失! Seikuuken Soushitsu! |
0~10% | Enemy only | Enemy only | Enemy only |
- This calculation does not take into account any anti-air weaponry equipped on ships. Carrier anti-air stat is also not considered.
- The percentage of planes shot down applies for both sides' respective outcomes, and is calculated per slot.
- For example, securing Air Superiority means allied planes shoot down up to 80% of enemy planes, and the enemy under Air Incapability will shoot down up to 40%.
- As this is applied per slot, 80% of one enemy bomber group can be shot down while a second has 0% shot down.
- Contact can be triggered by having at least 1 carrier scout plane, seaplane scout, and/or torpedo bomber equipped. It increases damage during the bombing phase depending on the accuracy bonus of the squad triggering Contact.
- Even if allied planes secure air supremacy, planes can still be lost (up to 10%), and the subsequent anti-air defense stage can eliminate more bombers.
Enemy Ship Fighter Power
Enemy Ship Type | Fighter Power | Enemy Ship Type | Fighter Power |
---|---|---|---|
Light Carrier Nu-Class | 8 | Armored Carrier Demon | 44 |
Light Carrier Nu-Class Elite | 24 | Armored Carrier Princess | 48 |
Light Carrier Nu-Class Flagship | 23 | Floating Fortress | 27 |
Standard Carrier Wo-Class | 10 | Escort Fortress | 29 |
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Elite | 27 | Southern War Demon | 41 |
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Flagship | 28 | Southern War Princess | 47 |
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Flagship 2 | 84 | Northern Princess World 3-5 | 76 |
Standard Carrier Wo-Class Kai Flagship | 102 | Northern Princess World 3-5 (HQ < 85) | 72 |
Battleship Re-Class | 94 | Northern Princess World 3-5 Final Form | 109 |
Battleship Re-Class Elite | 107 | Northern Princess World 3-5 Final Form (HQ < 85) | 105 |
Aircraft Carrier Demon | 96 | Anchorage Water Demon | 0 |
Bombing
Contact
- Contact takes place during the Aerial Combat phase. It increases bombing damage for all allied bombers.
- When successful, an image of the squadron performing contact is shown in the opposing fleet's formation indicator, with the text "触接中".
- Trigger conditions:
- More air control than Air Denial
- At least one carrier scout plane, seaplane scout, or torpedo bomber equipped.
- Seaplane bombers, Type 3 Spotter, and Ka-type Autogyros cannot perform contact.
- It's thought that each carrier scout plane, seaplane scout, and/or torpedo bomber slot equipped is given a chance to trigger contact. Once successful, the bonus applied is chosen at random with weighting from all eligible equipped planes.
- Different types of planes have different trigger rates. They are roughly estimated as (if only one is equipped):
Type | Basic Attack Power | Notes |
---|---|---|
Opening Air Strike | Modifier × (Bomber's Dive Bomb or Torpedo stat) × √(Number of Planes) + 25 | Number of planes is post anti-bomber combat and fleet anti-air defense Modifier is 1.0 for dive bombers, either 0.8 or 1.5 (50% chance for either) for torpedo bombers
|
Type | Contact Rate |
---|---|
Torpedo Bomber | ~2% |
Night Scout | ~5% |
Seaplane Scout | ~20% |
Carrier Scout | ~50% |
Contact Damage Modifier
Accuracy Bonus |
Damage Modifier |
---|---|
+0 | 112% |
+1 | 112% |
+2 | 117% |
+3 | 120% |
Notes
- Type 2 Recon Aircraft is useful in the case that the bombing damage bonus is desired while not removing the chance for T-disadvantage, due to its high trigger rate.
- With contact, the maximum attack power of bombing (before defense, critical and ammo) is around 180. With some luck, it's possible to sink even Ru-class Flagships (Armor = 99) in one strike without a critical.
Anti-Air Cut-In
Certain equipment combinations will provide a chance for an Anti-Air Cut-In (AACI) during the aerial combat. When activated, the cut-in CG (shown on the right) would appear before engaging the enemy fighters, but does not appear to affect the resulting air control state (AS+, AS, Air Parity or Denial). Although there's currently no conclusion on how it's applied onto the Fleet Anti-air Defense formula, a general consensus suggests the effectiveness scales with the AA stat ( ) of the ship triggering it.
Requirement
- One of the following sets:
- Heavy Main Gun , Type 3 Shell , plus Anti-Aircraft Fire Director (AAFD)
- High-Angle mount (main gun or secondary) plus AAFD
- 10cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD plus AA RADAR
- 25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment), AA Gun (any) , plus AA RADAR
- Achievable by any surface ship.
- Either 12.7cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD or 90mm Single High Angled Gun, plus AA RADAR
- Can be supplemented with an High-angle Mount + AAFD
- As both 12.7cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD and 90mm Single High Angled Gun are considered secondary guns, only ships capable of equipping them may use this setup.
- Akizuki has a built-in AA fire director, which allows her to trigger AACI without an AAFD with the following setup
- Maya Kai 2 may trigger AACI with a unique setup:
- 25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment), plus High-Angle mount (any)
- Isuzu Kai Ni has a built-in AA fire director that can used be using the following set up:
Notes
- 10cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD, 12.7cm Twin High-angle Mount + AAFD and 90mm Single High Angled Gun can substitute for a regular High-angle mount. Their built-in AAFD functions when paired with an AA RADAR.
- Slots otherwise empty can be equipped with anything else without disabling the Anti-Air Cut-In.
- A maximum of 1 ship will perform AACI per battle (regardless of how many ships are capable of doing so, or whether it is a Combined Fleet engagement), and due to AA stat of the ship performing the cut-in affecting the number of planes shot down, it may be desired to limit the number of ships with AACI setup.
- Successful enemy AACI will not display; typically, greater than normal losses of planes after a battle can be attributed to enemy AACI.
- Does not affect the determination of Air Superiority.
- Cannot shoot down pure enemy fighters, as usual.
Effect
- Provide an AoE blast on all the incoming enemy bombers, from the ship who is triggering it. (source 1, 2, 3)
Trigger Chance
- AA stat ( ) of the ship performing the cut-in (equipment bonuses included) affects trigger rate. The correlation seems to be about +0.4% trigger rate for every point of AA ? (source 1, 2)
- Air radars provide marginal bonuses on AACI:
With an AA Cut-In from a ship with high AA stat ( ), it is possible to obliterate all incoming bombers before they inflict any damage, and even prevent opposing carriers from shelling since they have 0 bombers left. In PVP Exercises, opposing fleets can do AA Cut-Ins, but the animation is not shown.
There are reports that enemy ships in map 6-2 might be capable of doing AACI. Other than that, there is currently no enemy ship capable of blasting all of your bombers with AA weapons.
Fleet Anti-Air Defense
Each enemy bomber slot is assigned at random to a defending ship. Those ships then, for each assigned enemy slot, have an approximately 50% chance to shoot down enemy planes. The number of planes shot down is given by the equations below:
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Shot Down} = \text{Floor((Ship AA } + \text{Floor(Fleet Anti-air} \times \text{Formation Modifier))} \times 0.2125\text{)} }[/math], where
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Fleet Anti-air} = \text{Floor(} \sum^\text{All slots}\text{Equipment AA Bonus} \times \text{Equipment Modifier)} }[/math]
The "Fleet Anti-Air" bonus is the sum of every equipment slot of every ship in the fleet (including the defending ship).
Equipment Modifiers
Equipment Type | Modifier |
---|---|
46cm Triple Gun Mount | 0.25 |
High-angle Mounts | 0.35 |
AA Radars | 0.40 |
Type 3 Shell | 0.60 |
All other equipment | 0.20 |
- Any equipment that gives an anti-air bonus will contribute to shooting down enemy bombers.
- The ship chosen to defend against bombers is not necessarily the ship targeted by that slot.
- The ship selected to defend is not necessarily the target of the bomber. Any allied ship, including submarines, may be chosen to defend against bombers.
- The forward sliding and machine gun animations seem to have no correlation with the calculations.
- These calculations only apply for the allied fleet's anti-air defense; enemy fleets seem to use a different formula.