"Special Attacks", or "Touch", are special combats mechanics involving specific ships combinations in a fleet, in order to trigger a powerful attack, involving a unique animation and sometimes a unique "Touch CG" for the involved ships.
There are 4 main types of Touch currently in the game, the "Big Seven Touch", the "Yamato Touch", the "Kongou Touch", the "French Touch", and the "Submarine Touch".
There must be 6 or more surface ships in the fleet.
There must be no submarine in 6-ship fleets. In 7-ship fleets, only 1 submarine is allowed.
There must be no surface ship in the fleet sunk or evacuated via FCF during a sortie, making the remaining total < 6. Ships in the escort fleet are not counted.
The 3rd and 5th ships must not be any CV/CVB/CVL/SS/SSV.
They can be heavily damaged (大破).
There must be 6 or more surface ships in the fleet.
There must be no submarine in 6-ship fleets. In 7-ship fleets, only 1 submarine is allowed.
There must be no surface ship in the fleet sunk or evacuated via FCF during a sortie, making the remaining total < 6. Ships in the escort fleet are not counted.
In single fleet, Double Line needs to be selected.
The 2nd and 3rd ships in the fleet must be FBB/BB/BBV.
They must not be heavily damaged (大破).
There must be 6 or more surface ships in the fleet.
There must be no submarine in 6-ship fleets. In 7-ship fleets, only 1 submarine is allowed.
There must be no surface ship in the fleet sunk or evacuated via FCF during a sortie, making the remaining total < 6. Ships in the escort fleet are not counted.
Another "Touch Helper" must be in the 2nd position.
She must not be more than lightly damaged (小破).
When using Musashi Kai Ni as the helper in the 2nd position with a Nagato-class Kai Ni in the 3rd one being lightly damaged (小破) or better, there is a random chance to trigger the "3-Ship Special Attack" instead.
There must be 6 or more surface ships in the fleet.
There must be no submarine in 6-ship fleets. In 7-ship fleets, only 1 submarine is allowed.
There must be no surface ship in the fleet sunk or evacuated via FCF during a sortie, making the remaining total < 6. Ships in the escort fleet are not counted.
The modifiers are post-cap on day battle, and pre-cap on night battle.
The equipment bonuses do not stack further than 1 radar and/or 1 AP shell per ship.
Only ships equipped with those equipment will get a bonus for their attack(s).
The attack will consume extra ammo from participating ships when triggered. The total ammo consumption will be x1.6 of the original ammo consumption of those ships when the attack is triggered.
The touch:
Can be triggered even if artillery spotting fails to activate.
Can only be activated once per sortie.
Has a chance to trigger every time the flagship takes a turn at shelling.
In single fleet, if it fails to trigger in day battle, there is a chance to trigger it in the follow-up night battle.
If the 3rd ship is lightly damaged (小破) or better, there is a random chance to trigger the "2-Ship Special Attack" instead.
If the 3rd ship is moderately damaged (中破) or worse, the "2-Ship Special Attack" will trigger instead.
There must be 6 or more surface ships in the fleet.
There must be no submarine in 6-ship fleets. In 7-ship fleets, only 1 submarine is allowed.
There must be no surface ship in the fleet sunk or evacuated via FCF during a sortie, making the remaining total < 6. Ships in the escort fleet are not counted.
The modifiers are post-cap on day battle, and pre-cap on night battle.
The equipment bonuses do not stack further than 1 radar and/or 1 AP shell per ship.
Only ships equipped with those equipment will get a bonus for their attack(s).
The attack will consume extra ammo from participating ships when triggered. The total ammo consumption will be x1.8 of the original ammo consumption of those ships when the attack is triggered.
The touch:
Can be triggered even if artillery spotting fails to activate.
Can only be activated once per sortie.
Has a chance to trigger every time the flagship takes a turn at shelling.
In single fleet, if it fails to trigger in day battle, there is a chance to trigger it in the follow-up night battle.
There must be 5 or more surface ships in the fleet.
There must be no more than 1 submarine in 6-ship fleets. In 7-ship fleets, only 2 submarines are allowed.
There must be no more than 1 surface ship in the fleet sunk or evacuated via FCF during a sortie, making the remaining total < 5. Only ships in the escort fleet are counted for combined ones.
Despite several devs' announcements, other equipment surch as the 35.6cm Twin Gun Mount Kai 2 and "advance Radars" do not provide any bonus to the touch [4].
The attack will consume extra ammo from both participating battleships when triggered. The total ammo consumption will be x1.2 of the original ammo consumption of those ships when the attack is triggered, hence:
If it is triggered in a night battle in a normal node, it costs 6 % extra ammo.
If it is triggered in a night battle node, it costs 2 % extra ammo.
The Night Assault can be:
Activated in the same battle as another separate special attack.
Activated twice per sortie, during night battle only:[1][2][3][4][5]
The other "Touch Helper" must be in the 2nd position.
She must not be heavily damaged (大破).
There must be 6 or more surface ships in the fleet.
There must be no submarine in 6-ship fleets. In 7-ship fleets, only 1 submarine is allowed.
There must be no surface ship in the fleet sunk or evacuated via FCF during a sortie, making the remaining total < 6. Ships in the escort fleet are not counted.
In single fleet, Double Line needs to be selected.
If the Touch triggers twice in a battle, only a single will be consumed for this battle.
If the Touch triggers in multiple nodes, one will be consumed for each node it is triggered.
It does not consume any extra ammo.
If the game is refreshed before the battle ends, then no material will be consumed even if the touch triggered.
Trigger rate is affected by the Level and luck stat of the participating ships[1].
Submarine Radars affect the trigger rate, each increasing the trigger rate by about 10 %[2].
It has a chance to trigger every time the AS takes a turn at shelling.
It can trigger in both day and night for the same battle.
It can only trigger once during day battle.
If it fails to trigger during the day battle, there is still a chance to trigger it in the follow-up night battle.
If all enemies sunk, then touch stops early.
The attack order is always (where among the attacking submarines, 1 is upper one and 2 is lower one):
1-1-2-2 for 4 attacks,
1-1-2 or 1-2-2 for 3 attacks,
1-2 for 2 attacks.
If touch stops early, then attacks can be just 1-1
Also note that the actual order may be different from client animation of who shoots torpedoes, which always assigns attackers alternately like 1-2-1-2 or 1-2-1 or 1-2, so you may mismatch the real attack.
The touch can be activated multiple times per sortie.