As of 10/21 patch, Helena and Cleveland will no longer in the Light Construction Pool. Buying them in the Guild shop is the fastest way to obtain them.

Quick tips for the people watching this video over a year later: Unicorn has a retrofit now, she can now heal the backline with her first airstrike each battle and starts each battle with a preloaded airstrike. Helena and Unicorn can now be bought from the guildshop instead of farming them. Illustrious (a SR carrier missing from this list, probably do to not being very good when the list was released) can be bought from the medal shop and has a unique augment at max limitbreak that greatly increases her power. Montpelier (mentioned as a replacement for cleveland) has gotten a unique equipment turning her into a one-girl tank-AA-Dps monster. Some "muse" ships like Roon Muse where added to the core data shop, after buying independance look to pick them up if you want to (they are very good). And with the addition of Prinz Eugens unique augment she becomes usable even up to (but probably not including) chapter 14.

Portland retrofit is definitely missing from this list. Everyone gets her form the beginner exam quests and she is the best non PR non event boss tank.

I'm going to ask you to reconsider adding Hood as the lone BB/BC to this lovely list. I've only been playing 6 months, but she carried me through early & midgame more than any other ship with her consistent, reliable performance and everlasting grace. I'm still using her in OpSi right alongside Monarch, and despite the conventional wisdom she is Hood's "replacement", with lesser gear and in off-Flagship position, Hood still steals MVP for mobbing half the time. One of my earliest oaths, and I literally own all of her skins (because they were actually available unlike most ships!). Very easy to obtain via the medal exchange or rookie exam reward, no need for gacha luck!

Warspite is best girl and I will fight you about it. The advantage of her not giving any buffs us you can match her with any fleet.

I instantly fell in love with Vittorio Veneto's L2D skin. Nothing beats animated swimsuits! She also makes Pasta more viable.

Eugen is just a wall of health, wish they gave her hull class a bit more oomph, even the siscon is a better tank than her and she's 1 rarity lower.

As an old salt in this game, I can confirm that PR ships take forever to max out. I joined during the first run of Fallen Wings in year 1. While there are things I'm still learning about this game (mainly equipment and META in latter stages), I know a few things myself. PR ships take forever. I only recently got my last ship in PR1 to Dev 30, still working on the last 2 from that season for Fate Sim. PR2 I only have one ship left there for full fate sim which is a work in progress and I still don't have the two DR ships maxed out yet. PR3 I only have one ship at Dev 30 and one other that's close (and PR4 is still new lol). Point being, Neldrin is `00% correct that these ships aren't newbie-friendly. Sure, start on them as soon as you can, but don't expect to get them operational (sans maybe Anchorage since from what I've heard she only needs to be Dev 15, same with Agir, to be effective) in a short time span as they're meant to be longer-term projects despite what you may see in the Official AL Discord trophy room channel of power grinders unlocking each member of the season once per week (which I too am guilty of). Some additions that weren't mentioned is definitely Portland retrofit. Easily droppable from many stages and she may show herself in your event builds or in the exchange. Shouhou is essentially a discount Unicorn but you have to retrofit her first. Erebus is a great backline grinder for low oil 1:1 fleets or 3:1 PR grinding fleets. Phoenix for the same reason but in reverse, she still carries me in 12-4 because of her zombie skill. Leipzig when retrofitted is a great ship. As someone mentioned build ships that you may come across either in daily builds or event builds by happenstance, I'll also include some that they didn't. Shoukaku is a pretty good carrier with a damage debuff skill on plane launch (special). Swiftsure has both buffs and debuffs, one of which being for AA (light). Hyuuga after retrofit, she gains a skill called Melee Artillery which targets suicide boats or ships that get past your vanguard and almost nullifies the lack of a secondary weapon (heavy). Jean Bart has some nasty crits, has a preload, and is meant to be played manually with the quad 380 mle gun; while meant to be paired with Richelieu for the french faction buff, she can do fairly well on her own (heavy). Illustrious because of her Armored Carrier skill (special). Shangri-La is basically Hornet made into an Essex-class with her first skill, she's not bad but not as good as Essex with her buffs (special). Takao/Atago as if you play manual you can EX mode clear in one torpedo wave if you play your cards right and RNG is in your favor (heavy/medal shop). There isn't much in the way of destroyers. I've heard Malin/Triumphant are decent on top of Yukikaze but I haven't really raised them up so I can't really speak on them.

Dunkerque is (and has been since she first released) my favorite ship. I love all my girls, but Dunkerque is special. I just found your channel, and this is solid advice. Good call, advising new players to not worry about PR too much. I'm hardly a new player, having been playing since the launch on global. I do enjoy these kinds of videos though.

You picked some good starter ships, but I can add some more. 1. Enterprise and Illustrious. Enty shows up early, and pushing her skill to the max allows her to club enemy fleets like baby seals. Illustrious is tough, and provides good support. Both of them can equip SR bomber squadrons to further enhance performance. (If Enty isn't deploying McClusky VB-6 by mid-game, you're doing it wrong, shikikan.) 2. Portland. The Sweet Pea, properly geared up and retrofitted, will grind mobs and airstrikes very well. And once Indy-chan shows up her siscon battle skill makes her even better if they're paired in your vanguard fleet. 3. Prinz Eugen. Not just primo waifu bait, Prinz has nicely balanced firepower for guns & torps, and Unbreakable Shield saves wear and tear on the vanguard. 4. Nevada. You get a powerful early BB with cheaply available upgrades, and she refits up to a relatively powerful Rare with good mob-busting firepower, and her skills both reduce incoming damage and increase outgoing. 5. Ranger. Another economy upgrade & refit, Ranger's skills allow for mob-crushing airstrikes on the early levels AND they also work nicely in conjunction with other CVs and CVLs. 6. Any of the Brooklyn class cruisers, which aside from Helena tend to show up early. Add Autoloading and SG radar and watch them machine-gun your enemies with 152mm and 127mm rounds.

You can buy blueprints for PR1 ships. The first few Blueprints each day (resets at 4:00 AM UTC-7) are free and their price gradually increases. This way you can buy 7 blueprints every day for 1200 coins (or more BP's for more coins) You can use this to get your ships faster.

warning: opinion might be biased because i mostly run a full eagle union fleet as someone whos been playing for a couple of years, i can agree with this list. tho i wanna add, of all the ships mentioned, heavy emphasis on helena, and san diego. helena is the ultimate support for your boss killing needs... assuming you can actually use her supportive capability. meaning, actually timing your attacks with her debuff. this can be done by either playing manually, or equipping the right gears in your ships to sync with the timing of her debuff. in my humble opinion, if you're not syncing with her debuff, might as well replace her with someone else. san diego is probably your mvp in world 13 boss fleet, due to the sheer amount of planes you have to deal with. and its no different for the mob fleet, so i'd suggest grinding for a 2nd anti air ship in the pr. as far as i know, the options are seattle, and cheshire. by the time you reach world 13, you should be able to get a dev25+ pr ship or two.

This was a good video as always, but i will have to say a few things - You didn't mention Shouhou (who is actually the earliest healer ship you can get in story (2-2 through 4 + guild shop) vs. Unicorn (4-1 + guild shop). Unicorn is better but Shouhou retrofit is actually pretty strong as well (and a bit more offensively powered too) (I only mentioned this because you did mention other cleveland sisters etc, and you didn't mention Shouhou (Retrofit) at all. ), If I missed this, i'm sorry. I will say - as someone who does have Venetto/Belorussyia/New Jersey etc - I still use Monarch, Warspite, and Hood in my abyssal/late game and they do masterfully. they might not be as overpowered as the new ones, but I do feel they are still great choices for beginners for late game content (especially since a lot of those ships won't be available fora year, and there are only 3 SSR Battlecruisers (off the top of my head) in Hood, Amagi (event) and Odin (PR). Hood especially is still one have at high levels you never know when battlecruisers will be called upon. I will say it is still easy to save resources (as a beginner if you've unlocked research) and still save resources for events. I only spend cubes on turbo researches (Face D and Rainbow D) and those are rare. We get enough notification to stop spending on PR and save for events (without not doing research ships). especially with the PR1 coin system (and i'm pretty sure PR1 catch up is still there) having Monarch/Roon even faster is a great thing for beginners to have - and it shouldn't cripple them for an event either.

Unicorn, Helena, Independence, Enterprise. Four ships that you’ll be using 5 weeks or 5 years into the game.

independence is amazing! i would list her as a must build for beginner together with helena. there's a newbie pack that offer a thousand core data if you wish to obtain her quick

Hood could be a worthy consideration (on rare occasions the Hard Mode demands BattleCruiser (BC)). Akashi might be over-rated though. Missing a back liner solely for Akashi's AA and minimal healing seems more and more like a bad trade nowadays.

... the freaking Akajhit got me 🤣 The fact that is a robot voice doing the pun doesnt help either 😂 Stellar video as always Nel! Im not exactly a beginner, but how wish i search for videos like this sooner, since only until recently, ive been sleeping on helena for sooo long

And here I did 13-4 with Portland on mobing duty... One of the 1st ships You get for free xD I know she's RNG heavy, but all things considered. She made it ^^

Idk if it changed or not, but getting Akashi is HELLA TOUGH. You have to complete an entire set of missions to get her and some of them take forever such as the supply your dorm with snacks mission 15 time. That alone take a minimum of 3 weeks

Just discovered this channel, pretty nice, good content, just subscribed. I'm not exactly new to the game anymore, over one year playing and doing Ch13-3 at the moment, gonna start Ch13-4 once I complete the current event. Very nice list, but I would suggest the addition of Portland instead of Sandy. The reason being that, maybe I was just unlucky in the pulls, but she's not That easy to drop in the pulls because of the quantity of girls in the pulls, though I do agree that she and Helena are Must have for any fleet composition for late game, excluding event exclusives. For me at least was easier to get both Akagi and Kaga then it was to get Sandy, but I can't say this is the situation for everyone. So, I would actually suggest a new video on the same topic, but focusing on where to get "early" ships that will help even at late game, like the Foxes, the Bunnies, Saratoga and Ark Royal for exemple. Even though they are not "best in slot" ( though Ark Royal is since god knows when Shinano will be back), they can complete Ch13 with proper gear, so I always recommend them to new players. Keep up the nice content, I'm definitely following the channel now, it is quite fun.

i'm less than a week old in this game and your guide has been truly helpful and some good anime humor. Thanks alot!

This is an excellent guide for beginners and an awesome video hatts off to you! Guild shop is a reliable source for getting great ships including Phoenix for farming! Lastly Shouhou is a fine alternative for unicorn also you won't be sent to jail for oathing her 😅😜

praise you, captain. i have decided to maintenance Z23 and Helena, and the game content feels like a breeze.

I'd personally put Warspite on this list, since she has an accuracy that most BBs/BCs can't even compare with, and her retrofit further improves her already really high damage and accuracy, her skills makes her viable for pretty much any fleet, even if it's mob, or boss. Warspite is a must have, even if the retrofit can be a bit expensive early game.

Thank you. You offered a different opinion on what I usually see.

London You can get her from World 2 (aka super early) with some luck, and with her retrofit she is has a decent dps and she buffs the entire vanguard.

Your channel is underrated. Subscribed.

Gotta say, maybe it's just my stubbornness, but Eugen was my go to tank clear through world 8. Supreme survivability until planes are a big deal. And probably a similar thing, but somehow Hood feels like she does better than Monarch even in world 12. Also quite shocked to not see Enty on this list. Top tier carrier, the bane of PvP existence (along with NJ and Warspite). More of an Essex fan myself but Enty is available pretty much right away if you get the 80 MoH for exchange.

I'd argue that the starters are also a good investment but not quite for lategame in story mode, but for general use and for events, especially so with their Retrofits, as in if you're in doubt of who to slap on a fleet, you can always count on them. Z23 and Laffey have very consistent gun damage (with the former offering some defensive support and the latter being all offense), while Ayanami has burst damage with her insane TORP stat, though it's understandable she can't quite make this list because it requires investing heavily into 3 other DDs. Javelin does fall off a bit in this regard since she's more geared for evasion tactics (even if I _do_ use her in my late game mobbing fleet lmao, but this is me being mostly stubborn/bias because she's my favorite starter). There ofc are better DDs like freaking Suzutsuki or Tashkent that are overall better, but the starters are still very reliable. Also, the invitational letters we get often with the chinese new year and the game's anniversaries give us easy access to Enterprise plus a few other SRs, tho for a newbie Enty is definitely recommendable, because she requires minimal book investment to get her going. I think that the other ones have already been mentioned at length in other comments. On another note, I think it's good for newbies to keep at least single copies of the EXP boosters for the eventual and inevitable grind for PRs (Houshou, Langley, Amazon, etc.) where possible for future-proofing.

I named 5-6 after Kamen Rider after oath. San Diego is Yusuke Godai Unicorn is Hojo Emu Akashi is Masamune Dan Cleveland is Kazumi Sawatari Helena is Banjou Ryuga Also my favourite is Saratoga and Amagi which I names them appropriately. Saratoga is Tsukasa Kadoya. Amagi is Tendou Souji.

Ngl, I got Bismarck, Hood, and Enterprise early on and they're still my main boss and PVP fleet. *Hail Ironblood!*

Imo Portland and Phoenix are way too good to not include in a beginner list, idk when Arc Royal is droppable, but depending on that she should make the list too, especially with her new retro. And as a sidenote, shouhou is a playstyle choice for a healer with good dps, I dont value her more or less then unicorn, she does thing a bit different but in their core they are both great healers.

Current favorite ship: Kazagumo even with all the other solid ships in my IJN faction fleet Kazagumo keeps getting MVP. She is outperforming Nagato and Noshiro for example and is lower level than all other the other 5 ships in her fleet. Just a bit ago all 3 of the escort mission daily Kaza got MVP in then right after did my fierce assault daily and she grabbed 2 out of the 3 battles MVP of it. Give her the twin 114 mk IV and for torp if you don't have the rainbows give her the 533mm quad magnetic she self 15% reloads buff plus with Nagato another 20%.She launches torps very fast and with Noshiro buffing her torp 20% she becomes a monster because Kaza currently has the 6th highest torp stat. Add all this together with her red skill that lowers her torp time by 3 sec every time her fierce assault procs she is just insane. Drop in Jintsuu if you want overkill Kazagumo madness.

Poor Neptune's like an oversized DD, got outclassed quite hard by Suzutsuki sadly

If i were to pick some ships that are user friendly in regards to how easy is getting them it would be Helena due to be a good aa platform and helping to de buff enemies with her retrofit San diego because is (to me) an AA specialist Prinz eugen, granted her FP sucks but it can be improved with the Fire radar, Fumo25 or sg radar gold, but only if the user need a good tank for the vanguard Leipzig because she can buff the entire vanguard with or without being iron blood Unicorn due to her healing and buff Enterprise because her rng skill Besides them i aslo think its better to invest in developing event ships due to being "better" than the ones in the vanilla game and PR ships even them are slowly getting his light out for new events Example Prinz Heinrich that to me is a better Roon and maybe Mainz

I would suggest Warspite, Shouhou, and Enterprise too.

my current favorite right now is laffey retrofit (my current strongest) and taihou cuz of her oath skin hehe

My favorite is prinz eugen

honestly... this just feels like a good way to become a Eagul Union or Royal Navy main... you missed on Z-23, Mutsu, Scharnhorst or smaller ones like Akatsuki, Shigure, Z-1 and Z-46. Now sure, you may be really bad at the gacha, but every few pulls you'll at least get Hyuuga or Ise, who are also worth a while... there are other ships which people could've gotten while working their way up to 12-1 or 13-1, but going more strictly by your list, these are all I could think of for now

Instant like and subscribe due to the Khajit pun. I cackled.

Surprisingly, META Junyou has been my got-to carrier. With the built-in Japanese torpedo-bomber that triggers every 20 seconds and one slot each for the three aircraft classes, this Jeep Carrier thinks she is a fleet carrier. She certainly hits like one, on par with Enterprise, surprisingly. At least for me.

Everyone seems to have forgotten how easy to get and powerful Ark Royal is with converging torpedo bombers. Hell, even the farmable purple ones give her more damage against bosses than any ship, especially if her skill procs. And in late game, I found that her damage output rivals Shinano and Hakuryuu if sufficiently buffed (by QE and Sirius which are also easy to get)

Only ship you need to get started, is Enterprise. ALL the way up to W11, I have had ZERO issues with bosses. But even then, my main issue, is the second fleet.

I'm fairly new to the game (been playing for 4 days now) but I got lucky on carriers on a few rolls that I got (enterprise, yorktown, hornet, intrepid). I wonder if they are worth investing in.

No Portland or Phoenix? They’re excellent boss and mob fleet ships respectively that can be used even in chapter 13. You can even use Portland in 14-1 & 14-2 due to her high evasion.

Whats a good ship fleet formation with mikasa/warspite

>Portland in thumbnail >Portland not on list Seriously, she's the best CA tank for early game and is still very viable in the late game too. There's a reason I'll stick by her being retrofit priority #1. Also, Akashi is not a healer, stop that.

one and only prinz eugen

my fave ship would still be Comet and the QEB class (QEB = Queen Elizabeth Battleship class) but if Yamato or Shikishima(WoWs) were to be added they would be my fav unless Warspite does more maximeme shit again

I was only person still use Portland at pvp at Avrora server :)

Le Terrible is my favorite rn!!

This is way late, but currently my favorite ship is Akagi, her airstrikes have carried more than one of my games.

Funny, helpful. Subbed

Ty for the guide sensei

Well, thx for the video... Now I know I was lucky that I got unicorn in the 1st five builds. I thought she won’t be that good because I got healing this easily…

im at a very high level and have lots of good ships by now but im proud of my girl nimi shes been through my journey as a shikikan to a point were shes one of my most high level shipfus 119 now xd

Takao is my favourite right now

my fav ship is monarch.her barrage has save me multiple times

Emden and Enterprise are my two (3) favorites rn

Portland retro is just the best lol. Her damage isn't that bad, pretty tanky, medium armor,decent AA, decent EVA after cheap retro

YES prinz heinrich is my favorite ship rn too

Any build have it's own hi and low end benefits.

My favorite ship is USS Milwaukee (in game as Murmansk) [totally not because I'm originally from Wisconsin, why would you suggest such a thing].

Event locked: New Jersey because OP Non event locked: Helena because +35% damage.

Brigado pelo vídeo ter legendas em português, ajudou muito.

subscribed

I made Queen Elizabeth as my Lead Ship cuz of her skills

Suzutsuki is my fave for me

Why is Akashi on the list?

Thank you, any update?

great thing now we have permanent events, some limited ships are made permanently available and a lot of µ ships are available, as well as the µ auxiliaries also, as a rectification after a year for whoever stumbles across this comment, Montpelier is way better now that she has a custom Augment Module that allows her to be a main tank

Been playing for years. I wanted to add that though Helena is a strong ship, most of her effectiveness revolves around manual play and timing shots. Shes no where near as effective in autoplay, as more often than not, her Radar pops during backlines CD's and its largely wasted. So if you mainly Auto play like I think majority of people, Helena is largely a pass as other than her radar, shes a meh ship. Better off with Seattle in that spot. Also to new players, dont focus so much on ships with "shields" they are usually weak and dont last long enough to make a difference. Ships like Prinz Eugen etc are fine starting out, but be looking to replace her quickly as her damage output is very low. You highly underestimate Warspite. Sure she doesnt get "support" abilities, but what she brings is an S tier boss option. She has one of the highest single target bursts in the game and causes all other HMS main fleet ships to switch to her target. I have her paired with Vangaurd and Monarch in the backline for my boss fleet and in EX event runs easily breaks 450k damage combined. The rest of the guide is pretty much spot on. San Diego is invaluable and is a legit top option regardless how far into the game you are. Shes pretty much a must have chapter 13/14 for her god-tier AA. Follow a good reputable tier list like this one: slaimuda.github.io/ectl/#/home and swap out ships as you aquire them. Eventually you'll want to phase out anything not in the top 2 tiers for a class, unless youre building around a specific niche you need a lower tier ship for (rare).

What is the best ships fot eagle union? Most of my ship is eagle union. Tnx

Favorite ship rn is Yat Sen

Ohhh we have same favorite ship tho HAHAHAHA comrade🤝

Can i replace Cleveland with Montpelier? I just got her yesterday

My favorite ship is taihou.

Me knowing that I don't have any of the units: "Welp, gotta rack my brain up for strategy I guess"

Is retrofit ayanami good? For late game?

my fav ship is pamiat merkuria. reason: she's a woman of culture

i dont need repair ships for my first fleet cause of Nagato but i use unicorn at my second fleet that made me use my second fleet more cause of CLUTCH MOMENTS XD cause of unicorn My fave? Nagato of course not because shes a YEETER but because shes a LOLI XD

Me like amagi. Play since launch never oath someone until getting amagi and oath her.

Can anyone help I keep getting slot of super rares

thx

Favorite ship for me right now is Centaur. Recently got her and she is hawt.

Unicorn (retrofit)

watashi number one

I like taihou.... for.... reasons....

best ship in my opinion Intrepid. i love her desing and lines and the engrish she speaks top quality waifu

Looks like we are on same ship, don't we?

Where is Saratoga!?!?

Roon is still my favorite a yandere and a tank

I've been playing for a little over a year and just use whoever is hot

I prefer my own advice, just use whoever you think is cute and cry if they arent strong enough...

akashi oh yeah you mean SCAM CAT

Laffey

so Bismarck is not a beginner ship?

4:25 Patrician taste.

ilove your pliss make more.

H-How did Yoimiya get in here? XD