Unicorn’s Performance
What is Unicorn’s Optimal Setup?
Values of Her Fighters and Air Raid CD
Contents
Basic Discussion:
The Focus of This Analysis
In general, people tend to observe that Unicorn should launch her planes as fast as possible to ensure the most of her healing potential. However, this isn’t really the case upon a closer inspection of Unicorn’s overall performance with various fighters of varying reload times. Indeed, the actual advantage one would gain in maximizing Unicorn’s heal isn’t enough to compensate for her overall DPS loss in a battle.
Contrary to popular belief, Unicorn can still dish out damage and there is no need to ruin her potential damage in the spirit of gaining 1-2s in speed for the first air strike. Most battles last only up to the minute mark and rarely past the minute and a half mark. It is within this scope that we will focus our attention.
The General Equipment
We will be focusing on these four gold-rarity fighters: A6M5 Zero, A7M Reppuu, Supermarine Seafang, and the F6F Hellcat.
Unicorn’s torpedo bomber will the venerable Fairey Barracuda with double gold catapults to maximize her damage potential. We shall also assume a 200 affection Unicorn, that is a Unicorn with 12% stat bonus.
We will be, naturally, assuming a level 100 Unicorn at MLB.
Below is a table of the four fighter stats:
| Fighter | Aviation Power | RoF | Base Total Bomb Damage | Armor Modifier (Light) |
| A6M5 Zero | 45 | 9.52s | 346 | .8 |
| A7M Reppuu | 45 | 10.44s | 720 | .8 |
| Seafang | 45 | 10.60s | 720 | .8 |
| Hellcat | 45 | 10.90s | 720 | .8 |
This is all base, that is no influence from Unicorn’s stats.
Barracuda’s stats are as follows:
| Barracuda | 45 | 10.31s | 864 | .8 |
Now the Double Catapult stats are as follows:
| Double Catapults | 200 |
That is, a flat increase of 200 to Unicorn’s aviation.
Throughout this entire test we will assume we have a target that cannot evade and all bombs hit perfectly. In addition the Barracuda will have converging torpedoes. This is for the sake of simplification. Note that in a realistic scenario, the Barracuda will average 1 to 2 torpedoes and the 100lb bomb of the Zero will be slightly less accurate.
Now below is a table of Unicorn’s stats at level 100 with max affection and being affected by the equipment she will be using. Since all fighters give +45 to her aviation, there is no need to have multiple tables of her stats:
| Aviation: | 592 |
| Reload: | 175 |
| Efficiency in Fighters | 1.3 |
| Efficiency in Torpedo Bombers | 1.3 |
Notice that we are rounding down as this is a standard procedure for Azur Lane in terms of calculations. We are also concentrating on the values that matter.
Analysis
Values of Her Fighters and Air Raid CD
Here we will establish a table of the fighters with consideration of her Reload. In addition we will include the Barracuda’s:
| Plane | RoF (s) |
| A6M5 Zero | 8.12 |
| A7M Reppuu | 8.90s |
| Seafang | 9.04 |
| Hellcat | 9.29 |
| Barracuda | 8.79 |
Let’s find the actual air raid CD. Observe that the air raid CD formula is as follows:
n=13[Sum of Plane Type x Plane RoF]nTotal Planes
And the remaining formula of the air raid CD (the length of the equation is rather long):
(Weighted Average)*2.18*200100+Reload(1+Skill Bonus)+0.3s = Total CD
Observe that Unicorn’s plane loadout is 3xFighters and 3xTorpedo Bombers
Taking these factors into mind, we will calculate her Total CD for the 4 unique setups:
| Plane Setup | Total CD (s) |
| Zero + Barracuda | 18.73 |
| Reppuu + Barracuda | 19.58 |
| Seafang + Barracuda | 19.74 |
| Hellcat + Barracuda | 20.01 |
From this and the Total Damage with reference to her coefficients, we can determine the average DPS of each setup to be:
(Note we are shortening the setup names to just the fighter)
| Plane Setup | DPS |
| Zero | 1315 |
| Reppuu | 1587 |
| Seafang | 1574 |
| Hellcat | 1553 |
Remember this is just for light armor. For medium to heavy armor, the Reppuu/Seafang/Hellcat will perform even better in terms of DPS.
Thus to put everything together into a single table:
| Plane Setup | Total CD | DPS |
| Zero | 18.73 | 1315 |
| Reppuu | 19.58 | 1587 |
| Seafang | 19.74 | 1574 |
| Hellcat | 20.01 | 1553 |
Then, using the Zero as the base, we can find the overall advantage the Zero will get in terms of Total CD:
| Plane Setup | Total CD Advantage (Zero’s Advantage) |
| Reppuu | 0.85s |
| Seafang | 1.01s |
| Hellcat | 1.28s |
Then to plot our figures, we will get:
Which only gives us what we would expect, however, notice the small effective distance in a 1 minute and 30s battle. It isn’t stupendously big as one might hope for. However, this graph doesn’t really grace us with much info considering Zero’s competitors are roughly clustered. Let us focus on the Reppuu from now on in comparing Zero’s performance to its peers. So our graph will now be:
Now to find the difference for a more clearer idea:
That is, within a course of a 90s battle, we would be at a 20.86% completion advantage if we were using a Zero over a Reppuu. Now what about in terms of DPS?
While initially there isn’t much of a difference, but by the 60s and the 90s mark we can see that the loss from using the Zero is massive.
Below is a table of the three specific times, 30s, 60s, and 90s. Following that is the total theoretical damage dealt by Unicorn.
| Time Marks | Total Damage Difference |
| 30s | 8160 |
| 60s | 16320 |
| 90s | 24480 |
It can be safely establish that by this point that the A6M5 isn’t optimal.
But let us calculate Unicorn’s healing. We assume that health can exceed the actual cap and to make computations easier, we will be dealing with % of health heal. That is since the % heal is fixed, we can stack % healed:
At the 90s mark, the Zero would have “healed” a grand 1.67% of the frontline’s health over the Reppuu. At the more valid 60s mark, this would be, instead, 1.12%.
Conclusion:
Unicorn should focus on equipping fighters that can provide a nice dosage of DPS while retaining a decent speed. However, the Zero does not fit this criteria. Indeed, Unicorn should equip either the Reppuu (preferred) or the Seafang with the Hellcat being her last resort. Potentially the Me-155A may be a choice to consider as well, being faster than the Zero, however, it trades its bombs for AA duties and speed.
Amendment: Me-155A
The Me-155A is a less popular idea ran around for Unicorn in order to speed up her air raids. We can quickly prove that this is even worse of an idea than the Zero. The Me-155A’s max stats are as follows:
| Plane | Aviation | RoF |
| Me-155A | 45 | 9.24s |
Then we can find that its Total CD (with Barracuda) will be: 18.47s. This is a mere 0.26s faster than the Zero. In practice this is so minor it is negibile and theoretically, it doesn’t provide a sufficient boom. In addition, you are dealing no bomb damage thus making this trade the worst possible. Compared to the Reppuu, you will gain a minor increase in overall Heal % while dealing 0 damage to enemy units at the same time:
At 90s this is 2.21% overall more health healed than the Reppuu and at 60s it is 1.48%. It is very likely since your bombers aren’t doing any damage that your units will take more damage than they will receive in heal. Or rather, the overall healing advantage will be effectively less than the theoretical advantage.
NOTE: The one thing the Me-155A has compared to all other options is that it can provide the best air superiority. So use it if you really need AA.
