Help:Smoke

This article is under construction. Originally written by Mikabro (X@McQueen1919) in Chinese. Translated and adapted by Transporange. Adopted by User:Transporange‎

Overview

Smoke may be the only thing between Taihas and 6 Abyssal Princesses. Effective understanding and use of Smoke is key to reduce retreats and Damegami expenditure.

TLDR: Smoke reduces accuracy of both sides for: Artillery phase, Opening and closing torpedo phases, ASW, The Smoke Kai (from F115) and/or a Smoke are more effective trigger-wise and should be utilized. The flagship luck is critical for a good trigger rate. Best use case of smoke is for pass rate increase, notably in: Hard preboss nodes (e.g. spring 2024 E-4), TCF preboss nodes, Do not spam smoke in other situations, as it may just decrease the pass rate.

What is Smoke

Smoke Generators can be used in combat to deploy a smoke screen.

Example of a large smoke deployed.

• There are 3 smoke screen sizes, being Small < Medium < Large.
  • The maximum smoke size that can be generated is dependent on the number of smoke generators, being respectively 1/2/3.
  • Note that improvements also affect the maximum smoke level possible.
• It sharply reduces the accuracy of all fleets, proportionally to the smoke screen size (the hit rate is still capped at 11%).
  • This effect can be partially bypassed by using radars (both sides).
• The effect will last for the day battle, even so the animation will fade before the battle's end.

Smoke activation button next to the Formation ones.

• If equipped, it can be activated with a specific button when selecting the formation.
  • It can be activated multiple times per sortie until it triggers, being triggerable once, in day battle only.
• It cannot be activated in Exercises in the current implementation.
• The trigger rate is not 100% and depends on the fleet's flagship's luck , as well as the amount and type of Smoke Generators used.
  • For combined fleets, it is the luck of the main flagship.
  • The size of the triggered smoke screen depends on how many smoke generators are used.
• It will only trigger at the beginning of the Shelling phase.

The 3 different smoke size

• The trigger rate depends on:
  • The number of "Smoke Generators" in the fleet,
  • The flagship Level and Luck (secretary for Combined Fleets),
  • improvements of the generator.
• Regarding the equipment:
  • Each Smoke Generator (Smoke Screen) counts as 1,
  • Each Smoke Generator Kai (Smoke Screen) counts as 2,
  • improvements of the generator can also count as 1 ([1][2]).

Two formulas have been determined to approximate the trigger rate of smoke screens.

• The 2nd formula is based on the 1st one with additional hypothesis,
• A measurement of the trigger rate can be found here,
• Both formulas can be directly compared here.
• It is possible to have a total trigger rate for all 3 sizes of 100%, giving the FS has enough luck & enough generators are used.

Trigger Rate Formula 1 [3]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{P}_\text{0} = 3.2 - 0.2 \times \text{K} - \text{N}_\text{Generator} }[/math] If [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} ≥ 1 \text{ & } \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math], then [math]\displaystyle{ \text{P}_\text{0} = 0 }[/math] [math]\displaystyle{ \text{K} = \bigg\lceil \sqrt{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} } + 0.3 \times \bigstar_\text{base} + 0.5 \times \bigstar_\text{Kai} \bigg\rceil }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 1 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 2 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{P}_\text{1} &= 1 - \text{P}_\text{0} \\ \text{P}_\text{2} &= 0 \\ \text{P}_\text{3} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{P}_\text{1} &= 1 - \text{P}_\text{0} - \text{P}_\text{2} \\ \text{P}_\text{2} &= 0.05 \times ( 1 - \text{P}_\text{0} ) \times ( \text{K} + 2 ) \\ \text{P}_\text{3} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{P}_\text{1} &= 1 - \text{P}_\text{2} - \text{P}_\text{3} \\ \text{P}_\text{2} &= \min ( 0.3 ; 1 - \text{P}_\text{3}) \\ \text{P}_\text{3} &= X \times \text{K} + 0.15 \times ( \text{N}_\text{Generator} - 3 ) \end{align} }[/math] The X coefficient is unclear yet, being about 0.04~0.045.
With [math]\displaystyle{ \text{P}_\text{0}, \text{P}_\text{1}, \text{P}_\text{2}, \text{P}_\text{3} }[/math] the respective rates for the trigger of smokes levels 0 to 3, [math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} }[/math] the amount of Smoke Generators: Each base generator count as 1, Each Kai generator count as 2, A very high improvement level (~ ≥ 17) counts as 1. [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} }[/math] the flagship's luck, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{base} }[/math] the total improvement level of the base generators, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{Kai} }[/math] the total improvement level of the Kai generators,

Trigger Rate Formula 2 [4]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} = \max \big( 0 ; \min ( 100 ; 3.2 - 0.2 \times \text{K} - \text{N}_\text{Generator} ) \big) }[/math] If [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} ≥ 1 \text{ & } \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math], then [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} = 0 }[/math] [math]\displaystyle{ \text{K} = 5 \times \text{N}_\text{Generator} + 1.5 \times \sqrt{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} } + 0.3 \times \bigstar_\text{base} + 0.5 \times \bigstar_\text{Kai} }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 1 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} = 2 }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} ≥ 3 }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{Level 1}_\text{Rate %} &= 100 - \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} \\ \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} &= 0 \\ \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{Level 1}_\text{Rate %} &= ( 100 - \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} ) \times ( 1 - \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} ) \\ \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} &= ( 3 \times \big\lceil \text{K} - 5 \big\rceil + 1 ) \times ( 1 - \text{Level 0}_\text{Rate %} ) \\ \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} &= 0 \end{align} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align} \text{Level 1}_\text{Rate %} &= \min ( 0 ; 100 - \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} - \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %}) \\ \text{Level 2}_\text{Rate %} &= \min ( 30 ; 100 - \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} ) \\ \text{Level 3}_\text{Rate %} &= 3 \times \big\lceil \text{K} - 15 \big\rceil + 1 \end{align} }[/math]
With [math]\displaystyle{ \text{N}_\text{Generator} }[/math] the amount of Smoke Generators: Each base generator count as 1, Each Kai generator count as 2, A very high improvement level (~ ≥ 17) counts as 1. [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Luck}_\text{flag} }[/math] the flagship's luck, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{base} }[/math] the total improvement level of the base generators, [math]\displaystyle{ \bigstar_\text{Kai} }[/math] the total improvement level of the Kai generators,

• The smoke gives an Accuracy malus to both fleets when used:
  • Please note that these are initial estimations and are subject to change.
  • It is currently unknown if the airstrike accuracy is affected by the smoke.
  • Some modifiers are near impossible to determine because the fleet hit the lower bound hit rate (11% hard cap).
  • There are some inconsistencies between "old" and "new" enemies.
  • Having a (surface ?) radar equipped reduces the smoke effect for both fleets, but only for the shelling phase.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Mod}_\text{smoke} }[/math]
Day Shelling
Fleet	Radar Equipped	Type 1	Type 2	Type 3
Allied	No	< 0.3	< 0.33	< 0.37
	Yes	0.35	0.25	< 0.37
Enemy	No	< 0.69	< 0.7	< 0.7
	Yes	0.91	0.83	0.75
Special Attacks
Allied		1
Torpedo Phases
Fleet		Type 1	Type 2	Type 3
Allied		0.45	0.42	0.42
Enemy		0.7	0.6	0.5
ASW
Allied		0.25
Enemy		1

• AA effects:
  • The smoke affects the allied shootdown but not the enemy shootdown.
  • No fixed shootdown above 2 has been observed under a smoke.
  • The guaranteed shootdown does not seem to be affected.
  • A modifier to the Adjusted AA is suspected but there is not enough data to confirm it.
• The Smoke reduce the Anti-Air Rocket Barrage trigger rate either directly or by reducing the Adjusted AA.

For Jiga: Potential update of Category

• Airstrike Accuracy remains buffed from Plane Proficiency. This serves as a remark and is not important.
• Smoke on ASW: We know that Smoke reduces ASW accuracy, but not as severe as Artillery accuracy. Abyssal Evasion is not affected. However using smoke and proper ASW is mutually exclusive. It would be a curiosity outside of practical combat considerations.
• Small smoke affects opening torps, Medium smoke affects Artillery phase, Large smoke affects Closing torps.

==>WTF ?

• There are currently two formulae for smoke rates.
  • [5] by Yumemi
  • [6] by Xe.
  • There is a calculator for smoke rates as well at docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tEqI13g2LmzR0L8N-I39W6mgmAyc8DxJ-R0_qlEkjlQ/edit if this is useful. Aircalc uses Xe's formula when displaying Smoke rates.
  • The main difference between the formulae comes from the luck thresholds.

Why Smoke

The main effect of Smoke is reducing accuracy from both sides.

• This clearly helps with preboss pass rates. However offence is the best defence, we would have killed everything first if we could.

Hence the main use of smoke is when it is impossible to sink the enemy that will retaliate hard . Examples include:

• Preboss nodes with several Princesses or strong ships like Battleship Re-Class,
• When using a TCF,
• One submarine nodes where no ASW can be used,

Conclusion

• Smoke is used to avoide unsinkable enemies.
• At minimum, medium size smoke should be guaranteed for good effectiveness.

How to Smoke

As written in the Smoke Template, Fleet Flagship Luck and Smoke improvement levels affects smoke proc rates. Clearly the better your smoke generators are, the less taxing is on your Luck mods. We provide some calculations for Newbies and Fossils, with the assumption that you need to guarantee Medium smoke.

We write "you need A/B " to mean that "by Yumemi's formula you need A , by Xe's formula you need B ".

This means you have a the Smoke Kai +2 from 2023 Summer E1H and the Smoke Kai from Miyuki K2 quest. If you only use these two Smoke Kai it takes 122/114 to guarantee Medium smoke. Clearly someone lost his head. Hence we add an extra Smoke to the mix. It takes 26/29 . For fossils, please get both Smoke Kais and one Smoke +10, as well as Flagship Luck ≥26/≥29.

You don't have Smoke Kai from Event, so we assume you will use Miyuki's Smoke Kai and two Smoke . You will need 37/54 . A big challenge. We provide three solutions.

• Well at 29 you have 9% of Small smoke. You can pray to RNG.
• Get your main Yamato to 37 . This works for the first formula, and also crosses a threshold in the second formula.
• If you can spare a slot, plug a Smoke +0. Then you need 10/17 . Perfectly doable.

Depending on the situation you may use any of the three above. Be prepared and get two Smoke and one Smoke +0 .

Smoke luck mods

For this purpose you should mod Kai Ni

If your fleet has no touch but needs smoke, just plug a high luck ship as Flagship. It is only when you need touch attacks that your Flagship is fixed. has 40 , also has at least 31 if you ring her. However has 18 before marriage.

What about Musashi K2?

If you do Event RTA, Musashi K2 deserves luck modding. For non-RTA players, we note that although Musashi K2 Flagship gives a stronger Touch (Yamato K2J third shot will be heavier), you may get hard blocked via a Fast or Hotels ≤ 1 navigation check. Luck modding Yamato K2 will do.