Kantai Collection

[Blackbird]

A couple people on here are playing this, so I might as well make a thread =D.

If you don't know what Kantai Collection is, it's a Pokemon-like web-RPG where you recruit "kanmusu" ("fleet girls") who resemble WWII-era warships and battle alien fleets. It's got some lite dating-sim elements, but mostly it's a strategy rpg. Having fun with it so far.

Made some pretty good progress today: Got the second Heavy Cruiser -> Sendai ships quest chain done to unlock the third fleet.

It seems like at this stage of the game fuel is the real limiting factor, but with an extra expedition fleet, I should be able to keep the fuel rolling in.

Also had some lucky builds, I-8 and Souryuu!

I've found it's really helpful to use my subs on the early DD/CL heavy maps, too. Their offense kinda sucks at this point, but they prevent enemies from damaging other ships that are far more expensive/time consuming to repair, and by extension save a lot of fuel.

[KAI]

My 2nd favorite anime.

[Shepardus]

My Verniy/Hibiki is more khorosho than any of your kanmusu.



And you just have to accept that.



On a related note, the only episode in the anime that's worth watching is episode 6.

[S_Fang]

Seems an interesting game and not just for the femal cast and their massive amount of erotic fan-arts you witness during web browsing.

There's also another strategy game called Touken Ranbu, where you have to summon the spirits (all of them are males, FYI) of historical japanese swords and fight the demons.

Is a shame that I must make a VPN to play those games: my internet is unreliable in these days and the last thing I need is a chore than a fun experience between handsome/cute male swords and female ships.

[mariusrhpsd]

so, literally waifu farm ville

[Icarus]

A couple people on here are playing this, so I might as well make a thread =D

You already know I play it. :3

Also had some lucky builds, I-8 and Souryuu!

Christ, you are lucky. It took forever for me to get any other sub aside from I-168, and Souryuu was one of my last CVs. Out of all the ships I haven't acquired yet - about 15 total including event-drop/reward ships - I'm only really after I-401 to complete my 2-3 sub-cheesing squad. Musashi, Yamato, Bismarck, Taihou etc I can wait on.

I do kick myself for not taking part in the Autumn 2014 event though, but that was partly because I was on a three week holiday out of the UK, and a bit of that was in Japan. Because of that, I missed out on Akizuki, the best AA destroyer in the game, and Prinz Eugen, one of the best heavy cruisers, along with the rare equips they have. :<

[Shepardus]

Is a shame that I must make a VPN to play those games: my internet is unreliable in these days and the last thing I need is a chore than a fun experience between handsome/cute male swords and female ships.

For Kancolle you only need a VPN to enter the lottery system they have to limit the rate of new registrations. After that there's a thing you can do with some sort of API link to access the game without a VPN or even having to log in. I don't remember the exact details but it's explained on the Kancolle wiki. There's a Chrome extension called KanColle Command Center that makes managing the API link and some other stuff even easier too. For the lottery system I've heard that the Chrome extension "Hola Better Internet" is the easiest way to get a VPN connection, though I used a different VPN for that.

[Icarus]

Is a shame that I must make a VPN to play those games: my internet is unreliable in these days and the last thing I need is a chore than a fun experience between handsome/cute male swords and female ships.

For Kancolle you only need a VPN to enter the lottery system they have to limit the rate of new registrations. After that there's a thing you can do with some sort of API link to access the game without a VPN or even having to log in. I don't remember the exact details but it's explained on the Kancolle wiki. There's a Chrome extension called KanColle Command Center that makes managing the API link and some other stuff even easier too. For the lottery system I've heard that the Chrome extension "Hola Better Internet" is the easiest way to get a VPN connection, though I used a different VPN for that.

You can find a bunch of VPNs at http://www.vpngate.net/en/
I used that a lot until the wiki posted information on browser-cookie-hacking. Since then, I don't even need a VPN, I just go to the page, load it, get the API link and update KancolleViewer whenever required.

[Blackbird]

Seems an interesting game and not just for the female cast and their massive amount of erotic fan-arts you witness during web browsing.

I mean, it's pretty much just like Touhou. There's a big doujin community around it and the internet is going to create what it usually does for most things =P. The romance elements in the actual game are pretty limited, you can basically opt-out if you don't want to bother.

Setting up basically goes like this:

1 - Set up an account on DMM.com.
2 - Mod your cookies to make the browser think you are in Japan. Directions on how to do this are in the wiki. No proxy needed.
3 - Log in to the game during a lottery and get into an open server (may take a few tries). They announce server openings on their twitter channel.
4 - ???
5 - Great success! Poi Poi Poi etc.

Everything you need to know about the game/how to play can be found on the wiki. Knowing some Japanese helps a lot though!

[Blackbird]

So here's a question: Do you have to have a quest flagged in order to get progress credit towards it, or do you only have to take it when you're ready to complete it?

[Shepardus]

So here's a question: Do you have to have a quest flagged in order to get progress credit towards it

Yes. Half the time I spend in the game is making sure I have all the right quests activated before doing anything.

[TJB]

My journey to becoming the finest kuso teitoku began a few weeks ago, a mate who's been playing since 2013 got me into it.

I don't have anything to contribute as of yet but I started going for LSC more and uhh... No luck.

Recently threw Fusou into my first fleet. I r-really like her :3~

[ACSeraph]

Fuck yeah! High score!

[SuperSoaker360]

One of the cancers of the internet.

I would play it but is this one of those games where I have to have a wiki side-by-side to understand what I'm doing for the first good chunk of hours?

[S_Fang]

Thanks @Icarus, @Shepardus and @Blackbird. I managed to modify the cookies and installed Hola Better Internet, so I could create a DMM account and enter the online game section.

I first tried to join in Touken Ranbu, but the servers are full and I should wait for new ones in mud-April, so I have to try Kancolle for the time being.

By the way, I hope the wikis are very reliable, as I have zero knowledge about japanese, especially the characters.

[TJB]

One of the cancers of the internet.

I would play it but is this one of those games where I have to have a wiki side-by-side to understand what I'm doing for the first good chunk of hours?

More or less how I had to approach it. I found it rather shitty in the beginning for that very reason.

[Blackbird]

Yeah, at the moment I'm playing it pretty much side by side with the wiki so I can understand the stuff that's more Japanese heavy like the quest requirements. That doesn't bother me that much, but I could see it bothering other people. The wiki is pretty reliable though if you look through it, haven't really found anything that's not covered yet.

@ACSeraph For me, I think the most bizarre element of the game is that you can essentially cannibalize unneeded ship girls to make other ones stronger (via modernization) =P. You can also just straight up scrap them if you really need resources.

Progress: Got the Akagi quest done, so I've got 2 fleet carriers now. Still looking for a battleship though. Unlocked World 2 as well. Making pretty cautious progress through the worlds so I don't have enemies blowing holes in my ships =P. I've unlocked large ship construction too. Not sure I want to take advantage of it just yet, it's pretty expensive. I think the next step is to construct additional battlecruisers and unlock the 4th fleet =D.

[Icarus]

The game seems intent on giving me submarines today, as I've had three in a row from 1-5. Which is fine, as I might need to modernise a set of them for later stages.
Working through monthly quests and medal collection from the Extra Operations at the moment - 1-5 cleared, 2-5 about 40% done.
EDIT: 2-5 all cleared, 1-4 monthly quest done, going to start 3-5 in a sec. Once that's done, I should have enough medals to give Tone her major modernisation to CAV.

Yeah, at the moment I'm playing it pretty much side by side with the wiki so I can understand the stuff that's more Japanese heavy like the quest requirements. That doesn't bother me that much, but I could see it bothering other people. The wiki is pretty reliable though if you look through it, haven't really found anything that's not covered yet.

KancolleViewer (https://github.com/Yuubari/KanColleViewer) can help you keep track of everything in the game, from your ships and what they have equipped, to what daily/weekly/monthly quests are up. You still have to play the game though, but it takes a lot of issues out of organising your stuff. It's a desktop app that uses IE as a base, and is totally safe from ban hammers, as it doesn't modify any of the data it pulls in. Probably the best and most complete of the Kantai UIs, though Windows only.

Kancolle Command Center also does what KCV does, but within Chrome. http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/User_blo ... and_Center

I use KancolleTool on Mac (https://kancolletool.github.io), which works well but is becoming a little outdated, however it's very lightweight on resource usage, so I can leave it up while I have all of my design/development stuff open.

You can also be entirely anal with organisation, and keep a Google Doc. >_>

Progress: Got the Akagi quest done, so I've got 2 fleet carriers now. Still looking for a battleship though.

Akagi is great, although she chews through bauxite during the early levels, and you'll soon learn that bauxite is especially hard to acquire. Kaga is who you want to try and get though, if you want high-performance CVs, as with the right equipments, she ends up being the most powerful carrier in the game (even ahead of Taihou, who has a unique advantage through being heavily armoured). Battleships are also decent, but I wouldn't prioritise acquiring them until you get to World 2-4 onwards, due to their resource consumption and long repair times, especially when instant repairs are at a premium. Focus on levelling up your CA, which are capable of matching BB in firepower and can actually do more damage if you equip for a double-attack, and don't take forever to repair. CLs are also good stand-ins for even lower resource usage.

Also be aware that after World 2, the maps start having little gimmicks and optimal fleet compositions you need to prepare for - World 3-2 for example can only be completed with 6DD, while 2-5 is best run (from experience) with a CLT 3CA 2CAV composition.

[Blackbird]

Will definitely check out the Chrome version, not too fond of IE.

I've discovered the joys of 1-5 leveleling. It's like the devs put this map in the game just to make leveling up your CVLs, CLs, and DDs super easy. The subs are 99% likely to get wiped out before attacking, so it's very safe and efficient. Got Hiyou and Junyou up to around ~lvl15, got Chiyoda to lvl 12 (unlocking the mini sub preemptive attacks, sweet), power leveling my better CLs and DDs. Maybe I'll just keep going until I get 1st Kai on my relevant CLs?

I've got Maya as well. I need to find a good place to level her up, I hear she's one of the better early CAs.

[Icarus]

I've discovered the joys of 1-5 leveleling. It's like the devs put this map in the game just to make leveling up your CVLs, CLs, and DDs super easy.

I'd be careful of that. Seasonal event maps have difficulty scaling based on your HQ level, and 1-5 is known to drive your HQ level through the roof - you'll end up with an unbalanced fleet of varying low-to-mid level ships and a very high HQ level come Spring Event 2015. Many new players have been unable to progress in the events when the game suddenly boots them up to the next tier of difficulty, and their ships aren't strong enough to deal with the much tougher enemies.
You're better off levelling as normal and keeping it balanced, and only going into 1-5 to do quests and get the monthly 1-5 clear medal, which you need for remodelling blueprints. Don't forget, you can also use expeditions to level up some ships if required.

[Blackbird]

Ah, knew there had to be a catch. Looking at the wiki, 1-5 does offer a lot more HQ exp than the previous maps. That said, 90% of the HQ exp seems to come from defeating the boss node. I think I should be pretty safe so long as I exit before the boss each time. I think defeating the boss grants medals, so I should probably do that eventually, but looking at how quickly it scales up the "rank", I think I might pass for now. Actually, knowing how HQ exp works now, it seems like a really strong strategy to defeat boss nodes only if you need to progress, at least early on.

My next major goal is to strengthen my fleet enough to take on 2-2, as that map has transport enemies which can be destroyed for lucrative daily quests.

[Icarus]

Ugh, 3-5 is such a pain. 100+ instant repairs and nearly 10k in each resource depleted in an evening trying to get the final kill for this month's medal.
Getting Tone to CAV status (lv70 + blueprint) is a small consolation prize.

EDIT: Finally done with 3-5 for this month. :3
Chikuma with the ridiculous double-crit attack on a 48HP kill target.

[Blackbird]

Making some steady progress. Reached 2-4, which I gather is a bit of a gatekeeper to the rest of the game? Progress on the main maps is a bit slower now because you need carriers to proceed, and if they get hit, it's a long repair time. I could be a bit more liberal with my repair buckets I suppose. Aside from that, I've found that the PVP arena is a really fast/safe place to level your carriers and heavy cruisers because there's no consequence for losing (repair wise). Got my CVs and CVLs to around 20, approaching 1st Kai.

The highlights:

Got Kitakami! Sniper torpedoes are go.
Got Houshou. Not super exciting, but she's got nice utility as an efficient expedition CVL.
Got 3(!) of Chitose (Seaplane Tender). Leveling them up to get more seaplane bombers and mini subs.
Got 3 Maya as well. Leveling them up to get air radar (and in the longer term, AA fire directors).
Got Izumi. Lvl 12 Kai, so I promoted her fast. Nice to have a CL with 3 slots, and I got an air radar too.
Got 2 Mogami. Same deal, lvl 10 Kai, more seaplane bombers.

Battleships are still eluding me though, none yet!

With the seaplane tenders, I'm thinking I should leave one of each unpromoted just for their utility as efficient expedition ships? It seems like they're required for some expeditions as well.

[Icarus]

Reached 2-4, which I gather is a bit of a gatekeeper to the rest of the game?

With the right ships, 2-4 isn't difficult. Now 3-2, 3-4, 4-4, and the Extra Operations, however…

Aside from that, I've found that the PVP arena is a really fast/safe place to level your carriers and heavy cruisers because there's no consequence for losing (repair wise).

PvP is great for speedlevelling, with the only problem being you only get 10 attempts per day at it. It's a shame you only joined recently, as one of the rewards from the Winter 2014 event was Katori, a training cruiser who grants a scaling bonus to experience gained in PvP and a specific expedition based on her current level.
However, with the right setups, you can get very efficient experience from PvP for any ship type.

With the seaplane tenders, I'm thinking I should leave one of each unpromoted just for their utility as efficient expedition ships?

That's what I use them for. Chitose AV and Chiyoda AV are not nearly as useful as their CVL forms - their CVL forms are considered some of the best in class - but there's a specific repeatable expedition and quests that require them in their AV form.
They do have a bonus in that they can equip both bombers and the minisub, though, so maybe at a higher level, they have some use.

[Blackbird]

On that 2-4A grind >_<. After looking around, general consensus was that the best way to clear this map was to get your major ships to Kai, and preferably have 2 or more BBs to supplement your carriers. I'm still really lacking in BB class, but I did get one though: Fusou! Promptly promoted her to BBV. The game also trolled me and gave me another Fusou right after, haha. 2-4A levelling kinda sucks though, you have to cycle ships all the time because of morale. Heavy cruiser class is pretty solid now, got most of the better ones working towards Kai.

I discovered a pretty cool trick to get morale quickly. PVP battles don't decrease your morale like regular sorties, so if you can somehow get an S rank without going to night battle, you can immediately sparkle an entire fleet (if they're all at base morale). I've been watching for PVP encounters that are easy to beat (sometimes players will intentionally leave only one ship in there for that reason) and then you can get all your expedition destroyers sparkling at once. I've been able to accumulate a pretty solid pile of resources from that. The tradeoff is that you don't get to use the exp to level combat ships though.

Also been playing a bit more attention to modernizing. I realized that since I have no intention of promoting my subs for a while, that I should probably just modernize them to max. The same for the units I've gotten to Kai, they won't promote again for a long time, so I might as well upgrade them now. Preemptive attacks seem extremely important as you get further in the game to control the effect of RNG and reduce damage, whether it be an opening shot or just having the range to go first in the attack order (BBs).

Kinda creeping up on that level 40 rank increase, a bit worried about that. I'd like to reach 3-2 at least before rank goes up.

[Icarus]

On that 2-4A grind >_<. After looking around, general consensus was that the best way to clear this map was to get your major ships to Kai, and preferably have 2 or more BBs to supplement your carriers. I'm still really lacking in BB class, but I did get one though: Fusou! Promptly promoted her to BBV. The game also trolled me and gave me another Fusou right after, haha. 2-4A levelling kinda sucks though, you have to cycle ships all the time because of morale. Heavy cruiser class is pretty solid now, got most of the better ones working towards Kai.

When I cleared 2-4, I had 2BBV FBB 2CV CVL - Fusou, Yamashiro and Hiei were my battleships, with Akagi, Hiryuu and Ryuujou as my carriers. The game hits hard in that map, and often sends you off in the wrong direction - if you go north, just retreat immediately. Remember, the less fuel and ammo your ships have as the sortie goes on, the less accurate and more susceptible to being hit they become. For 2-4, you want to take the shortest possible route to the end, so you have the highest possible chance of fighting the boss node for a decent rank.

[Blackbird]

Finally cleared 2-4! Final fleet composition:

Lv29 Kirishima Kai
Lv27 Haruna Kai
Lv39 Fusou Kai
Lv35 Akagi Kai
Lv35 Souryuu Kai
Lv30 Hiyou Kai

Getting a Saiun from crafting helped I think, because getting T-Disadvantage on the final node basically brings your damage output to 0 on this map. Found Hiei from the boss node, now I just need Kongo to unlock the 4th fleet.

[Icarus]

The new World 1-6 map is interesting. It's a resource farming map, where the end "boss" is actually a random resource stockpile you deplete each month, unlike the other Extra Operations where you bosskill each month for a medal. What's interesting is that it's not really that challenging if you have very high level ships - I'm using CL 5DD of between lv68-71, two of which are armed with Type 91/94 AAFD for a specific node on the route, and the very first attempt I tried, I kind of walked it with only Ayanami being shot to medium damage during the double-aerial-bombing node, mainly because AACI never triggered on either Shigure or Fubuki.

I can see this route being a pain in the ass for lower level players, and for those who insist in using high-armor slow ships like BB and CV, but in terms of monthly resource gains, it's quite nice. There are reports of players getting 1000 of a particular resource during a map clear, so this is a nice resource booster. Shame the ship experience on this map is pretty shitty.

I wonder if the stupid routes on this map have rare drops.

EDIT: 10cm HA + Type 94 AAFD get!
Shigure and Fubuki are already making good use of it, and I have a 12.7cm HA + Type 94 AAFD cooking in the oven. Slowly getting prepared for Spring Event 2015.

Finally cleared 2-4!

The struggle begins now. :V

[Blackbird]

From what I've seen, the 10cm HA + AAFD is pretty much the best destroyer weapon atm. Nice pickup. Haven't tried 1-6 yet. I could probably clear 1-5 now though, I have the right unit composition to do it. It probably can't hurt to do so now actually, because my rank is already over 40 (and won't be to 80 for some time) so going ahead and completing it now can't really hurt the difficulty setting any more.

Recent pickups:
Yukikaze. Really like this destroyer's design, particularly her weirdo headgear and antiquated looking horn. A good unit too! I should be pretty set on good destroyers once I get them leveled up, have all the better ones except the rare Amatsukaze and the unavailable Akizuki.
Yamashiro and Ise. Together with Hiei from 2-4, I should be set on BB class for a while once I get Kongou.

Next goals:
Get Kongou and unlock 4th fleet.
Find Uzuki, who triggers a chain of quest completions that ultimately let me get more resources from daily quests.
Level up more destroyers to Kai. There are a bunch of quests that I can't really complete because they're underpowered atm.
Reach 3-2 so I can level efficiently.

One thing I noticed is that, after the first 3, it's very difficult to get the 4th unique sub in your fleet. I-16 is drop only, Maruyu and I-401 are large ship construction only, and U-511 is event only. It looks like I can also explore World 4 as well if I want to. Any reason to go there right away?

Edit: Just randomed Kongou off 2-2 boss node. 4th fleet is go!

[Icarus]

From what I've seen, the 10cm HA + AAFD is pretty much the best destroyer weapon atm. Nice pickup.

Yeah, it's the best in that it combines a normal 10cm HA (the best DD weapon and AA support equipment) with an AAFD, freeing up an equipment slot for other things. With one of these, you can run another 10cm HA and an Air Radar (Type 13 Kai desired), and your DD will anti-air cut-in a ridiculously high number of times, while maintaining its usual level of firepower any other time.

I have this and a maxed Type 91 AAFD, and in my recent runs of 1-6, both Shigure (who has the 10cm HA + AAFD) and Fubuki (who has the maxed Type 91 AAFD) have been shredding the enemy bombers. My aim at the moment is to farm as many of these as possible, so all of my high-level DDs have at least one each, and to get a few of the 12.7cm HA + AAFDs for heavier ships. The problem is that Fubuki, Hatsushimo and Maya have to be levelled to 70+ to get one, and then there's the crazy amount of screws and spare guns required to upgrade them. >_>

Haven't tried 1-6 yet. I could probably clear 1-5 now though, I have the right unit composition to do it. It probably can't hurt to do so now actually, because my rank is already over 40 (and won't be to 80 for some time) so going ahead and completing it now can't really hurt the difficulty setting any more.

1-6 is good if you have the ships for it. The resources will be useful, at the very least, and you might get a decent drop from the run - I picked up a third duplicate Hamakaze from the node before the resources (a free Type 94 Depth Charge), who I'll be powerlevelling up for another Type 22 Surface Radar.

Yukikaze. Really like this destroyer's design, particularly her weirdo headgear and antiquated looking horn. A good unit too!

Yukikaze has luck that is rivalled only by Hatsushimo (at maximum level) and Shigure, but for sheer firepower, she's one of the best. Arm her either for night double attacks and daytime AA (2x 10cm HA and a Radar), a 300HP+ night torpedo cut-in (2x Oxygen Torp and a Radar), or for balance (2x 10cm HA and an Oxy Torp), and watch her wreck stuff.
I tend to prefer the 改二 DDs though, as they have a small amount more survivability than Yukikaze does.

Find Uzuki, who triggers a chain of quest completions that ultimately let me get more resources from daily quests.

I got the rabbit from 2-5 only just recently. One of the hardest to find, imo.

One thing I noticed is that, after the first 3, it's very difficult to get the 4th unique sub in your fleet. I-16 is drop only, Maruyu and I-401 are large ship construction only, and U-511 is event only. It looks like I can also explore World 4 as well if I want to. Any reason to go there right away?

Iku (I-19) is one of the harder subs to get. I wouldn't recommend farming 1-5 for her, as it'll drive up your HQ level. She does drop in other maps though, so she'll appear eventually.
Getting to 4-3 will help in your leveling, as you can run the two submarine nodes with DD/CL and powerlevel them. The only problem is you might get sent to a node before them which has gold BBs (aka a free ticket home and a spent bucket or two). I usually reset if I do, saving the resources and buckets, but wasting more time as I have to wait for morale to top out before I can try again. When done correctly though, a flagship DD/CL can get 2300+ exp per pair of sub nodes, and other ships get about 1k.