fleet, gear....

[slim spruce]

.

[verbal jay]

Could post your current fleet and dock here

[slim spruce]

gotcha

[verbal jay]

only one upgrade

replace pennsylvania with saratoga

that's about it

[slim spruce]

and what about lb ing? I have quite a few bulins left

[verbal jay]

push helena one more limit break, limit break saratoga as much as possible

save the rest for when you cross lv 70

[slim spruce]

got it. what would you recommend for gear?

[verbal jay]

ok, go to item

craft up all your white and blue boxes up to purple

open them

open all purple and gold

[slim spruce]

how do you combine them?

[verbal jay]

if you have 5

when you tap on them

you have an option to craft

[slim spruce]

gotcha

[fast stratus]

Generally the blue/white gear should not be upgraded

[slim spruce]

fair enough

this is what I am working with rn

[fast stratus]

You could slap the purple steam catapult + purple plane on Saratoga, and equip her with any other plane just to fill the slots so that she could launch her planes earlier

Purple torpedos could go to Laffey for an upgrade

[verbal jay]

saratoga can't use avengers

it's a TB

and uni already has one

[fast stratus]

Oh right

Well, if anything, just slap planes on Saratoga if she's unequipped for lower loading times ig

[verbal jay]

as such, catapult to unicorn, purple torps to laffey, blue fire control to nelson, replacing the air radar

give 1 blue fuel filter to portland, 1 to laffey

are there any gray toolboxes?

[slim spruce]

nope

[fast stratus]

If you can get to B stages on the event you can probably still try to score for some purple gear upgrades there while levelling ships

[slim spruce]

I'm currently at B-1. I think I can clear B1- B2 at least.

which node would you recommend if I got B3 aswell? regarding gear

and lvling

[fast stratus]

Well, B3 would probably have higher EXP yields for levelling, but B1 gives access to a great BB gun

[verbal jay]

if you can reach b3, grind b3

for now, grind b1 yes

grind b1 till you can clear b3

[fast stratus]

B3 also drops Fargo / Queen Elizabeth if you ever plan on using those

[slim spruce]

yeah I pulled Fargo from the banner

and how would you go about leveling saratoga? just put her in the fleet and level or use data packs?

[verbal jay]

use datapacks

it shouldn't take too many to get to 50

[fast stratus]

She's a good investment so it's fine to spend some on her early on

[slim spruce]

this is what I'm currently working with

[verbal jay]

yep

that'll do

for quite some time

[fast stratus]

Yeah

[slim spruce]

is B3 clearable?

[fast stratus]

Five/most of those will carry to late game

[verbal jay]

the only possible changes are if you get hood or enterprise early

or even indiana i suppose

[slim spruce]

should I do my 3 pulls for Indiana or save up for the next UR?

[verbal jay]

with current levels, difficult

[fast stratus]

Save, JP's Anniv's around the corner

[verbal jay]

1 pull per day, if you really want to, otherwise stick to daily light

[slim spruce]

good advice

regarding the shipyard. I unlocked it today but I don't quite get the system behind it. I've noticed that you have to get a certain amount of ships tho. Would you mind explaining it to me and what I should do with the shipyard?

[fast stratus]

You can probably hold off on shipyard for now

[verbal jay]

^^

hold off ship yard

[fast stratus]

You need Tech Points - which mainly revolves on getting more ships from X Faction

[verbal jay]

but do - switch your research academy focus to PR4
and start doing research that doesn't cost coins

the free ones in other words

[fast stratus]

PR4 has so much great options so hopefully you could grab any one of those, soon at least

[slim spruce]

I got 18/700 xd

Oh wait I got 190/850 on Anchorage

[fast stratus]

The requirements vary per ship you want to develop, but PR1 should be the most accessible with their low reqs

Anyhow, if you decide to hit develop on any one of the shipgirls, you're locked from switching which shipgirl you want to develop for 24 hours

They're time-gated and requirement-gated meaning you have to wait ~1 week to unlock the requirements you see on the right side

One of the reasons you should hold off developing a shipgirl for now is because of the Combat Data Collection requirements since that'll be hard on ya early

And the other - the "Limit Breaking" process for research ships is different and requires getting prints through Research

[slim spruce]

wait for each requirement you have to wait 1 week?

[fast stratus]

Ah my bad, 24 hours each requirement for a total of ~1 week

[slim spruce]

gotcha

[fast stratus]

They're ships meant to be completed throughout a duration so you don't have to worry about them, and there's catch-ups in place to be able to get a headstart as well

[slim spruce]

so when should I start committing to one of those ships and most importantly: who?

[verbal jay]

you commit to fdg or anchorage first

when? when you can reach w12

[fast stratus]

If you could reach Chapter 11/12

[slim spruce]

so not anytime soon

[fast stratus]

Probably not within a timeframe of 1 month?

[verbal jay]

^

[slim spruce]

yeah that's manageable

one more question tho. What should I do with grey copies? Retire or lvl one up to lb for free gems?

[verbal jay]

enhance

[fast stratus]

Use them for enhancing

[verbal jay]

use it to enhance your fleet

[fast stratus]

I suggest holding onto Ranger/Hermes/Langley though

[slim spruce]

nevada and oklahoma aswell or use em for enhancing?

[verbal jay]

why

[fast stratus]

Well Ranger at least; the other two is just: Hermes is at least decent, Langley for Levelling CVs in the long run

[fast stratus]

Enhance

[verbal jay]

no

use them for enhancing as well

no reason to keep the common CVLs when he has 2 carriers

no one actually uses langley for levelling CVs

ranger is an extremely budget option if you lack... say saratoga

if he ever needs them, he can get them easily

[fast stratus]

Fair enough

[slim spruce]

would you recommend saving the blue ships or use them for enhancing aswell?

[verbal jay]

retire blue ships for medals

[slim spruce]

all of them?

[fast stratus]

Dunno if there's notable blue ones lately

You can also get them easy anyway like said before

[verbal jay]

all save like 2 copies of portland keep those to max limit break

same for penny i guess

[fast stratus]

Shouhou has a decent retro?

If you're lacking healing iirc

[verbal jay]

not worth

unicorn exists

unicorn retro is far far far far far better

[fast stratus]

Well if he's only lacking

[verbal jay]

why would he lack

you only ever need 1 healer

[fast stratus]

mmm I guess I'm just stuck with old AL experience so I'm probably wrong

[slim spruce]

I've always wondered how this retrofitting process works. Bc I only see yellow retrofits. so how does my let's say portland from rare to SR?

[fast stratus]

Yes she turns purple

[verbal jay]

portland goes from blue to purple

[slim spruce]

is that the max for her?

[verbal jay]

retro only ups rarity by 1

[slim spruce]

gotcha

[verbal jay]

the real value is the stat/skill upgrades

[fast stratus]

There's good low-rarity retros but that's probably just for me when I used them for oil efficiency clears

[verbal jay]

and oil efficiency doesn't really exist anymore

or rather

low oil

[fast stratus]

Pre-chapter 9

at least

[verbal jay]

not worth

unless you're farming, yuudachi or something

[fast stratus]

Twin CVs 😔

[slim spruce]

so you recommend not retrofitting Portland or am I wrong?

[verbal jay]

retro unicorn first

then portland

then laffey

[fast stratus]

If you're lacking a tank, but ^^

[slim spruce]

and how do you get all the mats for retroing? bc that's quite a lot of stuff you need

and is it required to complete the whole tree?

[verbal jay]

campaign hard mode

yes it's required

[slim spruce]

when do you unlock HM?

[fast stratus]

Clear the Normal Mode (The four stages) of the map/chapter

[verbal jay]

...immediately after finishing chapter 1

[slim spruce]

bruh

and all the mats I need are obtainable in HM?

[verbal jay]

yes

hard mode is time gated though

[slim spruce]

only 3 a day?

[fast stratus]

You need Bulins/Copies too for retros

[slim spruce]

full lb?

[fast stratus]

Yeah, you need a Full LB ship, then Bulins again to Retrofit

[slim spruce]

alright, so do I use my grey + blue copies evenly to enhance my ships or do you have any preferences and pump em all into one?

[verbal jay]

grey only

focus on backline

retire blue

[slim spruce]

and keep one copy of each grey or just use em all?

[fast stratus]

use 'em all unless you're planning to use those greys/level those greys/blues

[verbal jay]

^

[slim spruce]

currently not but maybe later. Isn't there like free gems for lb ships of the same category?

[verbal jay]

yes, but you wont have the resources to spare to level said ships

at least, not yet

[slim spruce]

so just pump em all into my backline for now and much later on in the game I just farm em and lb them?

[verbal jay]

backline first, then frontline

ad yes