Ship specifications can be seen in this window. Click on the yellow rectangle to view the ship parts with detailed descriptions. Click on the red rectangle to view final ship specifications after being modified with ship equipment and crew skills. In this article we will explain how to interpret those data into a meaningful perspective.
MAIN GUN
Caliber
The most important thing about caliber is overmatch. If your ship’s caliber is the same or bigger than the overmatch threshold, you can penetrate the enemy from the front. Below is the relation between caliber and ship bow armor that can be overmatched.
- 203 mm AP can overmatch all cruisers up to MMweight 6.0.
- 380 mm AP can overmatch all ships up to MMweight 7.6, except Gneisenau, Ersatz Yorck, and Wichita.
- 406 mm AP can overmatch all cruisers except Wichita, Oregon City, Des Moines, and Pr66.
- 510 mm AP can overmatch all ships except Montana and Pr66.
Ammunition Type and Its Properties
These determine what kind of damage you can inflict to the enemy. This is especially important with HE shells. Even if the shell has big fire chance and damage, low penetration (<35) means it’s going to be hard to penetrate BBs at MMweight 8.0 above. If the ship has unique ammunition such as MAP, you have to understand when to use it. MAP’s effect is similar to overmatch. It can penetrate and citadel ships from the front. However, it can’t penetrate belt armor as effective as AP. Read more about damage and ammunition here.
Shell Velocity
The shell travel time to hit the target is related to the initial shell velocity and air drag. The initial shell velocity can be seen from the gun description, but the air drag cannot. If in battle the shell travel time is long (>13 seconds), it’s hard to hit enemies so maybe it’s better to get closer to the enemy. Therefore, shell travel time is very important to decide the ideal fighting range of your ship.
Reload and Turret Rotation Speed
These are related to the effectiveness of your ship at close combat, especially if it’s a battleship. Battleships that have slow reload and slow turret rotation speed are generally not suitable for close combat because the enemy can out-turn your gun and shoot you before your guns can react. At long range combat, the turret rotation speed has less impact.
HULL
The best place to see hull characteristic is actually at the red rectangle shown in the picture above. There are important parts that you should see:
Durability (HP)
This is the HP before repairs. The maximum HP could be much higher, depending on your effectiveness in using the repair consumable. Keep in mind that large HP pool doesn’t guarantee your ship to survive longer.
Rudder Shift Time and Ship Turning Radius
These are very important in battleships and big cruisers. Ships with bad maneuverability are more vulnerable and therefore less suitable for close combat, except if they have good armor.
Ship Concealment (Surface and Air Detectability Range)
This is very important in cruisers and destroyers. You must compare a ship’s detectability with other ships and see which ships are stealthier. If the enemy team has a stealthier ship, you have to move more carefully. If you get detected during a vulnerable moment (for example you’re broadsiding in open water), your ship might get attacked by multiple enemies and sink quickly.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to properly analyze armor scheme in this game. We can only see the minimum, maximum, and belt armor thickness. Even the armor viewer and module viewer won’t help much. To know how the ship armor performs, you must experience it in battle.
TORPEDO
If the ship has torpedoes (not plane-launched), you can see the torpedo specification. If the range is <10 km, it’s short, so you may need to train engine maintenance crew skill to increase the range. If the speed <70 knots, it’s slow, so you may need to launch torpedoes closer. Aside from reading the specification, it’s important to look at how many torpedo the ship has in the model. Even though the individual torpedo damage is high, if the ship has few torpedoes you must calculate carefully before rushing the enemy. Keep in mind that all ships except destroyers have torpedo damage reduction, so the actual torpedo damage will be lower than maximum damage.
FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM
The accuracy value is important. Higher number means better accuracy. If the accuracy is below 700, it’s bad and you should fight at <15 km to actually hit something. If the accuracy is >780, it’s very good and accuracy module is most likely not needed anymore. Beware that the accuracy value is not always accurate. For example, the Des Moines has very high accuracy value on the description but in actual battle it’s poor.
The firing range is less important than accuracy. Ships with long range but low accuracy won’t be effective at long range anyway.
The secondary gun range is only good if it’s more than 7.0 km (like German Battleships). With that range, equipping secondary gun enhancement module can be beneficial.
[CV] SQUADRON COMPOSITION
Aircraft carrier (CV) doesn’t have main gun and fire control system specification. Instead, it has squadron composition. Each CV has several choices of squadron composition that you can choose based on your playstyle. Generally, a balanced composition of fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers are preferable for beginners. Maximum aircraft per wave is less important.
PLANE
For CV, plane is the primary armament. Fighters are for protecting allied ships from enemy plane strikes. Fighters can also be used to protect dive bombers and torpedoplanes when they’re attacking the enemy ship. Dive bombers and torpedoplanes (collectively called strike planes) are the main damage source of CV. A good plane strike can one shot every ship even one tier higher. British CVs have two kinds of strike planes: the fast but low damage planes or the slow but high damage planes. Choose one based on your playstyle.
For non-CV ships, plane is a nice addition to help against CV attacks and spotting. However, not having a plane doesn’t automatically make the ship bad.
ENGINE
The top speed is important because it’s related to the maneuverability of the ship. Slow ships will struggle to disengage when the situation becomes bad. Slow ships will also struggle to ambush and chase the enemy. In some ships, the top speed can be increased by engine overload consumable.
- For battleship and CV, <29 knots is slow, 29-31 knots is average, and >31 knots is fast.
- For cruiser, <33 knots is slow, 33-35 knots is average, and >35 knots is fast.
- For destroyer, <35 knots is slow, 35-38 knots is average, >38 knots is fast.
Acceleration is very important. A good acceleration and deceleration allow more effective speed juke. Speed juke is a technique to dodge enemy attacks by changing the ship’s speed. Most ships have standard acceleration and reverse level with some exceptions such as British battleships. Acceleration can be increased further with engine overload consumable, engine enhancement module, and crew skills.
- For battleship and CV, the standard is acceleration level 2 and reverse level 4.
- For cruiser, the standard is acceleration level 3 and reverse level 6.
- For destroyer, the standard is acceleration level 6 and reverse level 20.
Acceleration is related to the ship’s top speed. If the ship has slow top speed, it will accelerate slower than ships with fast top speed even though the acceleration level is the same. Deceleration is related to the reverse level and deceleration coefficient. Unfortunately, we can’t check the deceleration coefficient of ships. So far, the only ships with high deceleration coefficient are French destroyers and Algerie. Those ships can stop from full speed very quickly compared to other ships. This means speed juking with them is easier.
Naval Creed: Warships Guides 
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