We got Chapter 10 hard mode on the last update, which means Chapter 11 hard mode is not that far away. We are getting more and more high difficulty maps. Now is the perfect time to do a guide on building your boss fleet for late-game chapters.
Starting at Chapter 9, enemies have a high enough level to the point where the level advantage system becomes less effective, so building a well-rounded fleet for the boss fight is essential. This article will teach you how to build a proper boss fleet, so you are more prepared for these higher difficulty maps.
Contents
General Fleet composition for a boss fight
The main tank and the main battleship are overall the most important. In most cases, the boss fleet will have DMG dealers, the main battleship, the main tank, a utility or support, and a secondary tank.
Now, let’s go over each role and some candidates.
Boss Fleet: Vanguards
1.The main tank role
The main tank role is the leftmost position in the vanguard. This position tends to take the most damage, so we want to have a ship with high survivability in this spot.
For this role, any tanky ship with a high level will do the job, and here I will recommend a few ships which are currently the top meta pick for this role:
Noshiro is excellent at tanking torpedo/aviation damage due to her armor type. She also provides an awesome offensive buff for her vanguard. Overall she is my number 1 choice for this role in the current meta.
Roon and Zara are both tanky heavy cruisers with shields to protect your entire vanguard. Use Roon or Zara if your two other vanguards are on the squishy side.
Azuma is extremely tanky with high damage output, but she offers no utility of protection for you other fleet members, and she takes a long time to max out.
Portland Retrofit is by far the best tank for the early game when your ship levels are low. However, she does fall behind the others in the late game.
Best choices for the Tank Role
Ideal Choice
Keep in mind that Roon, Zara, and Azuma all need level 115+ to be good due to their evasion growth spike after level 110.
Early Game Choice
Portland Retrofit and Eugen are both very tanky in the early level. They are functional in late chapters but are not as good as the ideal 4 when max-leveled.
Other Choices
In the late game, the boss fights your vanguard damage output, so it is quite essential. Using three tanks with no damage output is generally bad, so you need to have a good mix of tanky ships and high damage ships.
2.The 2nd Tank Role
In general, the vanguard at the rightmost position takes the second most damage. So you want this ship to be somewhat tanky and provide damage output. There is a lot of good ship choices.
The secondary tank role is highly dependent on the boss. If your vanguard is not taking much damage, you can use a squishy damage dealer and vice versa.
The general rule is that any ship with around 4000+ max HP at Level 120 can fit this role. For chapters 12 and 13, anti-air is essential, so the choice is usually a cruiser with good anti-air.
3.The Middle spot
The middle spot in your vanguard is the protected spot; it takes the least amount of damage in all three vanguards. The middle spot usually goes to a squishy support/buff ship.
The squishy supports are any ship with survivability problems with a fleet buff that goes in the middle.
All damage dealer who is on the squishy side usually goes in the middle.
The rule is your most squishy vanguard goes in the middle.
4.The main damage dealer
This role is arguably the critical ship in the fleet. In almost all situations, you want to have a battleship with a barrage in this role, and this is due to 3 reasons:
- Battleship generally does single target damage.
- Boss armor type favors battleships on most maps.
- Barrage is excellent at clearing out mob spawns during the boss fight so your other ships can focus on the boss more.
- Battleship deal bonus damage to light/medium armor bosses with AP/HE shells. Meanwhile, carriers also do reduce damage to light armor bosses and normal damage to medium armor bosses. So, battleships are your main damage source up to chapter 12.
- Nearly all event battleships are pretty good as your main damage dealer.
5.The other 2 backline ships
It can be a battleship or a carrier. However, battleships and carriers have some flaws, so I do not recommend running 3 battleships or 3 carrier backlines.
For Chapters 9 to 11, carriers reduce damage to light armor enemies so the 1 carrier usually supports to help your vanguard survive.
Secondary battleship choices
Any battleship with high main gun damage or lock-on barrage will do fine as your secondary battleship.
Hardmode bosses are fairly tanky, so I would recommend using top-tier battleships.
Two carrier set-up for Chapter 12 and above
After chapter 12, due to the ACV system, we need to bring a set amount of carriers into the map or take bonus damage from enemy aircraft. So running two carriers with one battleship as main damage is a pretty good idea.
Carriers are very flexible and can do many things depending on your fleet build. In general, it is good to stick with two carriers from the top 5 because they are quite a bit better than other carriers.
Conclusion – Backline Ships
Chapter 9 to 11
- One barrage battleship as the main damage dealer with HE gun.
- One non-barrage battleship as a secondary damage dealer with HE gun.
- One support carrier or damage dealer if your vanguard is doing fine.
Chapter 12 and 13 and above
- One barrage battleship as main damage dealer
- Two carriers as damage dealers and ACV boosting
- If you enough ACV to get AS, you can run one carrier in the boss fleet.
- Nearly all bosses after chapter 12 have medium armor or above. AP shell or AP barrage on battleship will do significant damage to them.
Specific Counters
Bosses with rapid movement
- They move around a lot, so it is challenging to hit them, especially on auto. The solution is to bring ships with slowing ability.
Bosses with high evasion
- It is best to bring ships that can lower enemy evasion.
