Ship Locking
Ship Locking is a mechanic that forces Admirals to use a wider variety of ship girls during events. It is meant to simulate the feel of a multiple-front operation where ship girls dispatched to one operation area are unavailable to be dispatched to others.
Tagging
At the start of an event, no girl is tagged. Any untagged girls dispatched to an operation area will be tagged with the appropriate lock.
- The relevant tag will be applied immediately after the start sortie button is pressed to all the girls in the fleet.
- This includes the escort fleet in combined fleets.
- Tags apply individually to girls. Duplicates may be used under other tags..
- All tags in effect on a given map are displayed on the minimap next to it, and are further explained in the Ooyodo note.
- Some tags may be used and so applied on several maps, as well as several tags can be used on a single map.
- Girls used in the Event's Support Expeditions are not tagged.
- Girls used in those Support Expeditions are not subjected to any form of tag restriction.
Tags are often references to historical fleets related to map operation.
- Some tags may be more straightforward, being named after the type of fleet (e.g. Combined Fleet, Transport Fleet, ...).
- On the wiki, tags will be referred to by their color sometimes for convenience.
E5 of the Summer 2022 Event used a different locking mechanism, only locking fleets to specific tags after reaching certain points on the map.
- This locking mechanic can prevent players from accidentally locking ships with the wrong tag.
Tag restrictions
Tags are here to restrict where and when girls can be sorties.
- Ship locking restrictions do not apply to Easy and Casual difficulties in all event maps.
- When playing in those difficulties:
- Girls are still tagged to the relevant tags.
- It is possible to sortie girls with any tag on any map.
- It is possible to mix girls with different tags within the same fleet on any map.
- Tag routing might cause routing issues in those situations when applicable.
- When playing in those difficulties:
- Ship locking restrictions apply to Medium and Hard difficulties.
- On the last map of every event, tags do not apply to Medium, just like in lower difficulties.
- When playing in those difficulties:
- Girls will not be able to sortie to maps that do not match their tag for the duration of the event.
- Tag restrictions apply to both fleets in a Combined Fleet.
- It is not possible to mix tags in the same fleet, even so both tags are used on the map.
- On certain maps, it is possible to use 2 different tags within the same fleet in all difficulties (E4 of Winter 2022 Event and E3 of Spring 2022 Event so far).
- Starting from Winter 2022 Event, after the final event map is cleared tag restrictions stop getting enforced on every map .
- This makes tag restrictions act the same as in lower difficulties for every previously cleared map, regardless of the difficulty said maps were cleared.
- Tag routing "may" still apply depending on the map.
- This allows players to focus on completing the event, before coming back later to farm ship drops or other resources with fewer restrictions.
- Ship locks do not affect girls in regular Sortie maps, exercises, nor expeditions.
The number of tags and their associated restrictions can vary from event to event. Please refer to the current Event page for up-to-date details and trends.
Tag routing
On some maps, tags may affect routing.
- On some map, the effect can be applicable for every difficulties.
- When a single tagged girl or a certain threshold of tagged girls of a specific tag is used in a fleet, the routing will change.
- This change is only noticeable when using mixed tag fleets.
- Using an untagged girl in such a fleet will lock her to the said route's tag.
- This change can be the route the fleet will take, or the starting point where it will start.
- On certain maps, this mechanic can permanently lock a player to clear the map, and so the event, regardless of the difficulty.
- A locked player can in theory bypass this issue by using brand-new girls.
- This change is only noticeable when using mixed tag fleets.
- In harder difficulties, this should not be a significant issue, since tags are almost never mixed, but in lower ones, using mixed tag fleets can cause some trouble when trying to reach a specific routing.
- Bug
When the starting point is decided by both the fleet type (single/Striking Force Fleet) and the lock, the game does not check if the fleet is single or striking but just blocks the 3rd fleet from sortieing.
Since Summer 2021 Event, a new button is available in the Fleet menu during events, when selecting a ship. On the top-right corner, it can either display :
- All the ships,
- Only tagged ships,
- Only untagged ships.
Tips
- It is highly recommended to wait until ship locking information for the event has been figured out before starting. This can prevent important girls to be locked on "wrong maps".
- Having dupes of certain girls can give more leeway with planning ship locks. Please refer to the help page for advice on which girls to dupe (this does not take into account the historical importance of girls).
Past Ship Locks
Ship Locking was introduced during the Summer 2014 Event and came in almost every event since. The average number of tags per event is increasing each event, making ship locking planning more and more important. The maximum amount of tags in a single event ever seen is 11.
- Tagged ship girls were unable to be dispatched on event support expeditions during the Summer 2014 Event. This restriction has not been implemented since that event.
| Summer 2014 Event |
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| Fall 2014 Event |
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| No locking |
| Winter 2015 Event |
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| No locking |
| Spring 2015 Event | ||
|---|---|---|
| E-3 | E-4 | E-5 |
| Blue | Green | Orange |
| Summer 2015 Event | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| E-1 & E-2 | E-3 & E-6 | E-4 | E-5 |
| Blue | Green | Yellow | Orange |
| Fall 2015 Event |
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| Winter 2016 Event |
|---|
| No locking |
| Spring 2016 Event | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| E-1 & E-4 | E-2 & E-3 | E-5 | E-6 |
| Blue | Green | Orange | Yellow |
| Summer 2016 Event | ||
|---|---|---|
| E-1 | E-2 | E-3 |
| Blue | Green | Yellow |
| Fall 2016 Event | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| E-1 | E-2 & E-3 | E-4 | E-5 |
| Blue | Green | Yellow | Orange |
| Winter 2017 Event |
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| Spring 2017 Event |
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| Summer 2017 Event |
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| Fall 2017 Event |
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| Winter 2018 Event |
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| Early Fall 2018 Event |
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| Winter 2019 Event |
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| Spring 2019 Event |
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| Summer 2019 Event |
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| Fall 2019 Event |
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| Hinamatsuri 2020 Mini-Event |
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| No locking |
| Summer 2020 Event |
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| Fall 2020 Event |
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| Spring 2021 Event |
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| Summer 2021 Event |
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| Fall 2021 Event |
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| Winter 2022 Event |
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| Spring 2022 Event |
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| Summer 2022 Event |
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| Early Spring 2023 Event |
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| Summer 2023 Event |
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