Tier Explanation

Tiers

T0: Completely broken, most of these ships break the game in half.
T1: Very good, but not ridiculous.
T2: Good. Basically the standard for a “good ship”.
T3: Sub-par. The muddy brown mess where most unappreciated shipgirls find themselves. Nevertheless, you can still squeeze a couple of these into most content without significant issue.
T4: Actually bad, these will rarely be worth the effort to level/skill, if at all.
T5: If you read my analysis and STILL use these, I will be very sad.
T6: Bullins

XS: it would normally go in tier X, but something makes it kinda iffy. Please see analysis for further details.


Ships are tiered based on their AVERAGE performance across all relevant content (basically ch10-12 and events). RNG effects are assumed to have the AVERAGE outcome (also factoring how powerful the ship is when it FAILS to get its random skill procs).


PvP will not a tiering factor for the following reasons:

1. PvP has different considerations and slightly different mechanics from normal gameplay, and thus some ships that are rather crappy for normal gameplay are actually decent in PvP.
2. PvP is extremely optional. The only rewards are two crappy ships and slightly improved access to resources that you have sufficient access to without PvPing.
3. Due to reason 2 and some very crappy PvP metas, I have not PvPed “properly” or consistently in almost a year. I thus do not consider myself qualified to write on what makes a “good” PvP ship.

Ships that are infamous in PvP will have a small discussion in their analysis, simply explaining WHY they are so good.


CH13 is not a part of tiering, for the following reasons:

1. It is not currently out on EN.
2. CH13 is extremely warped, difficult, and unforgiving on your first clear. Even optimal fleets on manual are expected to get a B ranking for their first 13-4 boss clear. There are multiple mechanics (some new, some old) working against you, creating conflicts of interest in your fleet building, and making your viable ship options very narrow.
3. Most of the factors that warp the pool of viable ships for ch13 (specifically insane AA requirements and high Air Superiority quotas) are not present anywhere else in the game. CH13 represents an extremely small portion of game content, and judging ships based on their viability in roughly 5% of the game feels extremely wrong to me.
4. Following up from 3, many of the ships that excel in CH13 (coughs US BBs coughs) are extremely mediocre, or straight-up bad, in the other 95% of content. Meanwhile, numerous ships that are good in that 95% are completely shut out of CH13 by insane AA requirements and pressures from Air Superiority.

Overall, I am of the opinion that CH13 would be better addressed via a separate guide/tier list. It is an environment that does not properly represent the majority of the game’s content, and trying to play with it as your sole goal will hurt you in the long run.


Air Superiority (AS for short), the mechanic added with ch13, WILL be discussed briefly for certain ships. However, it will not affect a ship’s tier. This is for the following reasons:

1. It is not on EN yet.
2. I have very limited time to do these write-ups, and do not wish to have to re-write 50 carriers if Manjuu decides to release ch13 halfway through the project.
3. AS is a global mechanic. When it is added, it will affect ALL maps (not just ch13), including event maps.
4. Even when ch13 is added, AS will not impact tierings. Only ch13 REQUIRES that you work intensively with AS; earlier story maps are intended to be run on neutral AS, which is incredibly easy to meet. These maps also have very low standards for meeting neutral AS, to the point that a “normal” oilsaving fleet setup will probably get the highest AS bonus anyways.

OIL COSTS WILL NOT AFFECT TIERINGS IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM. The point of this tier list is to rank ships by average power level and usefulness, typically while the same level as the enemy. Not tell you who’s the most oil-efficient LB0 fox farmer.