A group of ships locked to the AL missions of the Summer 2014 Event.
A group of ships locked to the MI missions of the Summer 2014 Event.

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 most of the time, for convenience.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Tag routing

On some maps, tag may affect routing in 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 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.
  • In harder difficulties, this should not be a major issue, since tags are never mixed, but in lower ones, using mixed tag fleets can cause some trouble when trying to reach a specific routing.

Locks in the Fleet menu

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 10.

  • 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
Fall 2014 Event
No locking
Winter 2015 Event
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
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
Spring 2017 Event
Summer 2017 Event
Fall 2017 Event
Winter 2018 Event
Early Fall 2018 Event
Winter 2019 Event
Spring 2019 Event
Summer 2019 Event
Fall 2019 Event
Hinamatsuri 2020 Mini-Event
No locking
Summer 2020 Event
Fall 2020 Event
Spring 2021 Event
Summer 2021 Event
Fall 2021 Event
Winter 2022 Event
Spring 2022 Event

See Also

Help:Ship Priority