Exercises

Naval Exercises are practice matches where you combat the fleets of other admirals.

Benefits of Participating

The first and most obvious benefit of exercises is that participation is required for several quests. The exercise list is updated twice daily, so you get ten chances total to complete all your daily quests.

Exercises are also a very safe way of gaining experience for your ships. Ships cannot sink, and are automatically repaired back to their pre-exercise status after a battle has concluded, minus a small amount of ammo and fuel.

Finally, winning exercises generally results in your ships gaining morale. PvP modifiers for morale are generally the same as sorties; for example, a ship can gain morale by achieving MVP in an exercise. However, unlike sorties, returning from exercises does not drain morale, allowing admirals to easily generate morale for their ships for the purposes of sortieing or expeditions. Since achieving an S rank gives +1 morale to all participating ships, ships can go from 49 morale to 50, instantly sparkling them.

Heavily damaged ships cannot gain experience from PvP. They DO gain exp, but if they get hit, they will be treated as sunken, gaining 0 exp and lowering your battle rank.

When to Run Exercises

Flagship level /  Level of 2nd ship	1	5	10	15	20	25	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	99	110	120	130	140	150
1	0	3	15	35	63	100	145	260	408	510	519	527	536	553	554	560	573	593	618
5	10	13	25	45	73	110	155	270	418	510	519	528	536	553	555	560	573	593	618
10	45	48	60	80	108	145	190	305	453	512	520	528	536	553	555	561	574	593	618
15	105	108	120	140	168	205	250	365	503	514	522	529	537	554	556	562	575	594	619
20	190	193	205	255	253	290	335	450	509	517	523	531	538	554	556	532	575	594	619
25	300	303	315	335	363	400	445	509	514	520	526	532	540	555	557	563	575	594	619
30	435	438	450	470	498	505	508	513	518	523	528	534	541	557	558	564	576	595	620
40	516	516	517	517	518	519	520	523	526	529	534	539	545	560	561	566	578	597	621
50	526	526	524	524	528	528	529	531	533	536	540	544	550	563	565	570	561	599	623
60	536	536	536	536	537	537	538	539	541	543	546	550	555	568	569	574	585	602	625
70	546	546	546	546	547	547	547	549	550	552	555	558	562	574	575	579	590	606	629
80	557	557	557	558	558	558	558	559	561	562	564	567	571	581	582	586	596	611	633
90	570	570	570	570	570	571	571	572	573	574	576	578	582	591	592	595	604	618	639
99	597	597	597	597	597	597	598	598	599	600	601	603	606	613	614	616	624	636	655
110	600	600	600	600	600	600	600	601	602	603	604	606	608	615	616	619	626	638	656
120	609	609	609	609	610	610	610	610	611	612	613	615	617	624	624	627	634	645	663
130	631	631	631	631	631	632	632	632	633	633	635	636	638	643	644	646	656	662	678
140	664	664	664	664	664	664	665	665	665	666	667	668	670	674	674	676	681	690	704
150	707	707	707	707	707	707	707	708	708	709	709	710	711	715	715	717	721	727	740

Top horizontal row represents the level of the second ship in the fleet while the first vertical row represents the flagship level. Generally, if the sum of the levels of the ships in the top two slots in the enemy fleet is roughly fifty or more, you can expect a base experience of about 500. The other four ships in the enemy fleet seemingly do not factor into the experience formula.

At low Admiral Levels, players have very low level ships, so the experience gain from exercises tends to be bad (sometimes far lower than running sorties). Simply put, it may not be worth running many exercises until you reach higher levels. However, there is usually one admiral in your list that is three or four times your level. Even though you will likely be slaughtered by a superior force, the high base experience still means that you come out with a great deal of experience.

Similar to sorties, you gain more experience with an S rank than with an A or B rank. If you can spare the resources and are certain of victory, it is almost always worth it to enter night battle to finish off a wounded enemy fleet. However, note that both A and B rank yield the same amount of experience. There is no point pursuing night battle if you have already won, and cannot finish off the enemy completely.

Do note that exercises reset twice daily, once at 03:00 JST and again at 15:00 JST.  This means you can run a maximum of 10 exercises per day.

Fleet Composition

As always, the flagship receives bonus experience. Thus, it makes sense to place a ship you wish to level in the flagship slot.

Running carriers in exercises is not recommended. Any competent Admiral will equip their fleet with lots of anti-air, which can utterly decimate your planes. A competently equipped fleet can easily cost you 200-300 bauxite in planes. If you wish to level a carrier in exercises, consider equipping high angle guns on them instead of planes. Running a carrier with planes is possible, but you should exercise great caution in doing so.

Battleships should form the backbone of your fleet. Their high HP and armor means that they can take a beating, and their firepower makes them effective against all ship types. The number of battleships you use should depend on the number of battleships and carriers in the enemy fleet.

The air combat phase and the opening torpedo salvo can often determine who wins the fight. To this end, make sure you equip sufficient anti-air to neutralize your opponent's carriers. Fielding Kitakami and Ooi is also generally a good idea, as they can very easily oneshot ships.

If the enemy has many light carriers, light cruisers, or destroyers, consider using a sub. As in sorties, anything that can target the sub, will, so you can effectively divert a significant portion of the enemy's firepower to the sub. Light cruisers and destroyers will continue to target the sub (if it is still alive) in night combat, so use this to your advantage. You could also opt to run a fleet of mostly heavies and battleships, as their high armor will shrug off most attacks.

Facing Submarines

When facing a fleet entirely made of submarines, the line abreast formation is recommended. As the enemy fleet's formation is based on the composition of said fleet, a fleet of four subs will always be in echelon formation. This is advantageous for you, as the accuracy of their pre-emptive torpedoes will generally suck because of this.

Using high ASW ships is helpful, but not strictly necessary. You will still deal good damage due to the line abreast formation. Stacking ASW equipment on your ships is highly recommended. Add in any battleship to enable the second round of attacks. Finally, take a light carrier (or a carrier if you feel you don't need the extra attack) equipped with a Saiun recon plane. The Saiun will ensure that the Crossing the T (Disadvantageous) formation is avoided, which is very important, as this particular engagement form significantly hinders your ability to kill subs.

If the enemy fleet has a sub supported by a real fleet (battleships, carriers, etc), the battle becomes more difficult. Consider running Kitakami and Ooi with minisubs and ASW equipment. Their pre-emptive torpedo attack will prioritize enemy ships over the sub, and they have reasonably high ASW. When using the torpedo cruisers, you should use line ahead formation in order to maximize their accuracy, as this strategy hinges on sinking or critically damaging one or two of the enemy's ships to win the surface battle. Field one or more battleships to cement your surface superiority, and possibly a carrier (light carriers will target the sub and deal very little damage due to the formation) equipped with a Saiun. Adding another good ASW ship such as Isuzu Kai 2 is a good idea too. The main problem of this enemy fleet composition tends to be killing the sub, not killing the surface ships.

As always, there is still some RNG involved with this strategy. If the enemy manages to inflict enough damage to your ASW ships, your chances of killing the sub are slim. Even then, you will probably still come out with an A or B rank.

Fleet Formations

Your PvP opponent's fleet formation changes depending on the ship types of both player's flagships.

1. If your opponent has a submarine as flagship, and at least 4 ships in their fleet, their formation will be echelon.
2. If your opponent has an aircraft carrier as flagship and at least 5 ships, their formation will be diamond.
3. If you have a submarine as flagship and more than 1 submarine in the fleet, while the enemy has at least 4 ships, their formation will be line abreast.
4. In all other cases the formation will be line ahead.