Priority Destroyers

Revision Date: 05/Apr/2022

Tier 1
These DDs are all pretty good for the amount of XP you have to invest, either being at a strong max remodel very fast or being the best DDs in the game
- Yuudachi, Shigure
- Ayanami
- Asashio, Kasumi, Michishio
- Kawakaze (Although good, she is rare and only drops in 2-5)
- Shimakaze (Although good, she is uncommon. However, she can be constructed with the rare DD recipe.)
- Yukikaze (Although good, she is uncommon. However, she can be constructed with the rare DD recipe.)

Event-Only DDs
These DDs are only available in events so far and only have Kai remodel. However, their high stats and utility makes them Tier 1 DDs.
- Tashkent: 4 slots alongside high HP, Armor, and Luck stats makes Tashkent both flexible and powerful. She can easily deal TCI damage comparable to Shigure, although she will require torpedo weapons in all 4 slots to do so.
- Jervis: Although weaker than other Tier 1 DDs, Jervis provides a lot for a relatively low maximum remodel level. At Kai, she provides a 11 ASW Sonar, 55 luck, and the ability to automatically perform OASW regardless of stat or gear.  Also has the highest ASW score of all destroyers.
- Janus: Worse luck than Jervis, Higher remodel level, but provides a +13 Sonar and has the same features. Good to have for ASW Maps.

Special Priority
Shiratsuyu K2
Although pricey like her sister Murasame, Shiratsuyu provides a massive boost to the fleet. She has a surface combat stat total equal to Murasame with one more point of FP in exchange for one less point of Torp. This is important as she can also carry the Special Type 2 Amphibious Tank, although she cannot carry Daihtasu type equipment. As a result, this makes her combat performance similar to the BP Asashios for certain equipment setups but with a lower cost. Also makes her function similar to Kuroshio but with a lower cost. Finally, she has one of the highest base ASW scores of all destroyers. She is third place of all destroyers including Event and Reward Destroyers, second of all regularly available destroyers (Only 5 points behind Urakaze).

Also, her default gear is rather nice as she comes with the rare Type 22 Kai 4 Surface Radar with 4 stars worth of improvement. This is a 12 screw and 4 Type 22 Surface Radar value investment for free with only an AR cost. This makes her the most cost effective Action Report Destroyer.

Murasame K2
Murasame is 1 of 4 Action Report Destroyers, and a rather efficient member of the four. She is, in effect, a Tier 1 DD who is slightly more expensive than other Tier 1s. Although her stats are lower than Naganami K2, she provides a lot of functions for a low cost. She is a common drop; has high stats for both surface combat and ASW; a decent average remodel level; and can carry both Daihatsu Landing crafts and Command Facility items. A good investment, although less effective and powerful than Shiratsuyu K2.

Tier 2
Tier 2 DDs are a bit less important, but still quite good. These DDs have relatively high K2 without offering as much in return as the top tier, or have unique features but are weak in combat.
- Akatsuki
- Hatsushimo

ASW DDs
These DDs specialize in ASW but their specialization allows them to be considered as Tier 2.
General ASW DDs
- Libeccio
- Satsuki, Fumizuki
- Asashimo


Fletcher Class Destroyer
- Fletchers combined the ASW ability of the J-Class Destroyers with the AACI of the ducks. Unfortunately, they specialize in utility abilities and suffer in combat. Their combat stats are similar to the ducks, and worse than the J-Class Destroyers, B Kais, and D Kais.

Of note, while Fletcher has her Mk. II, she is perfectly good at Kai.

John C. Butler Class
- Samuel B. Roberts: Similar to Jervis, Samuel B. Roberts (Or Sammy for short) can perform an automatic OASW attack regardless of equipment loadout. Unlike Jervis, Sammy has low stats comparable to a Mutsuki K2. Use her in situations where you would use Satsuki or Fumizuki as an ASW ship.

Kagerou D Kai
- Urakaze: Of note, Urakaze is the strongest ASW Specialist. She is a common drop in many worlds, the only regular drop ship which comes with the strong but rare Type 95 Depth Charge equipment, and has the 4th highest base ASW of all DDs. Of all the regularly available DDs, she has the second highest base ASW after Asashio K2D.

Finally, her ASW score at remodel is 74, which makes her capable of basic Type 3 Synergy DCP/Sonar/Sonar OASW immediately and the strongest ASW Combo of DC/DCP/Sonar at 76. A good investment for OASW for any new player.

- Tanikaze: A much more difficult to find ship compared to  Urakaze, but provides both a Type 3 Depth Charge Projecter and a Type 95 Depth Charge. Their stats are roughly the same, but her rarity makes it a bit difficult. While she is still capable of basic DCP/Sonar/Sonar with Type 3 Sonars, her DC/DCP/Sonar OASW is at level 81. Not a great investment, but still quite a bit better than the competition.

AACI DDs
Kagerou B Kai
Currently, there are two Kagerou B Kais: Hamakaze and Isokaze. Their stat totals are only slightly higher than Tier 3 K2 Destroyers, but they provide an easily accessible AACI which can be valuable to new players. Compared to the Akizuki Class, the Kagerou B Kais have lower anti-air stats and a weaker AACI but they have better firepower and torpedo stats.
- Hamakaze: Uncommon Drop in many maps
- Isokaze: 1-6 Drop

Akizuki Class
The Akizuki Class are event only drops but they provide the best anti-air performance for Destroyers, with the strongest Destroyer class AACI and overall high AA Scores. However, their low torpedo stats and only higher than average firepower makes them ill-suited for direct surface combat.
- Akizuki, Teruzuki, Hatsuzuki, Suzutsuki


Tier 3
Tier 3 DDs are above average but not great. Although some of them have low remodel levels, they are barely stronger than the average Kai.
- Hibiki
- Hatsuharu
- Shikinami
- Fubuki, Murakumo
- Ushio
- Akebono
- Z1, Z3: Of note, Z3 has the somewhat uncommon and useful 3.7cm FlaK M42 at K2. Other than that, they're more or less equal to Kai DDs.

And finally, expedition DDs who can carry Daihatsu, but not much other use.
- Kisaragi, Mutsuki.

High Investment Tier
Blueprint Destroyers
Arashio/Ooshio (MED-LOW PRIORITY)
These two BP Asashios are very strong DD, easily comparable to Tier 1 DDs, and they are the best DDs vs. Installation bosses. Arashio has a slight edge in combat, but they both requires a blueprint that might be better spent elsewhere early on. Both of them have an associated that provides a nice reward, but Ooshio's quest provides the rather resource expensive Type 4 sonar while Arashio provides a Reinforcement Expansion.
However, the first of the two is at a medium priority while the second is at a lower priority.

Amagiri (MEDIUM PRIORITY)
Her Kai Ni is a standard beatstick with higher than average luck, allowing her to act as a TCI ship. Her Kai Ni D form is more useful. Although she loses stats in NB, she gains the ability to equip Landing Craft and Amphibious Tanks. While her firepower in this form is among the lowest of the anti-installation DDs, her special abilities makes her desirable for PT-Imp and Installation Boss nodes.

Amagiri in both of her Kai Ni forms share two unique ability. She will prioritize PT Imps if they are present and gains increased accuracy against them. Furthermore, ships in the slot above and below her are more likely to target PT Imps. Anti-Imp equipment is still suggested to maximize this bonus. While this is of limited use in regular maps, it can be extremely useful in events. However, this usefulness is offset by both her relative rarity and high level for Kai Ni D (89).

Finally, her quest provides an RE and your choice of a 12.7cm Twin Mount Type-B Kai 4 or 61cm Triple (Oxygen) Torpedo Mount Late Model. The quest is difficult, so it might not be easily accomplished without proper gear.

Arare (LOW PRIORITY)
Arare is a bit of an under performer for her cost. Although her stats are equal to the T2 Destroyers, she costs a BP to gain these stats. Although able to equip the Type 2 tank, she is weaker than the above two destroyers, alongside Michishio who does not require a BP, by a thin margin. The Model C Gun she comes with is also available from Michishio for a lower resource cost, although at a higher level requirement. Finally, her quest provides some more niche equipment than Arashio or Ooshio.

What is notable, however, is that she currently has the highest ASW at K2 level, tying with Satsuki/Fumizuki while maintaining a much lower level. While this means she can hit T3 Sonar/T3 Sonar/T3 Depth Charge Projector OASW much more quickly than Satsuki, you would be paying a BP for an ASW Destroyer when many others are available. Her one notable use is that she is the strongest Single Item OASW DD, which lets her have a stronger combined OASW and TCI setup than comparable ships.

Uranami (LOW PRIORITY)
Uranami Kai Ni is a weaker Arare. Much like the other Blueprint Asashios, she can carry Landing Crafts and Amphibious Tanks. She also costs a Blueprint like them, but has worse stats. Her Firepower and night battle total is roughly equal to Amagiri Kai Ni D but without the benefits of a special ability. The bulk of her stats are gained from bonuses when equipped with the Long barrel AK4 gun. While this does maker her DA setups powerful, the requirement of always having a gun may not be desirable in Installation maps that require all three slots.

However, her quest is not particularly difficult and provides an RE and the desirable AK4 Long Barrel Gun, which is powerful on Ayanami, Akatsuki, and Fubuki Class  destroyers.

Kagerou (VERY LOW PRIORITY)
Kagerou shares a lot of similarities with Naganami K2 being that she reaches her full potential with a certain equipment set. However, she does so with Model C guns and Quadruple Oxygen Torpedo mounts rather than Model D Guns and Surface Radar. This makes her use somewhat awkward as her equipment bonuses has her lean towards a Gun/Torp/Torp cut-in setup, but her luck is too low to do a reliable cut in. That's also putting aside the fact that a third torp may be more beneficial to night combat damage.

Compounding this problem, her remodel contain any equipment exclusive to it. She can use all medium bulges, which could be handy for increasing her survivability should you K2 her. Overall, the return on interest for Kagerou is lower than Naganami. While she is a part of a questline which will provide a Prototype Flight Deck Catapult upon completion, it does require Shiranui, Kuroshio, and herself to be Kai Ni alongside two other blueprint Asashios.

Shiranui (VERY LOW PRIORITY)
Shiranui is almost entirely the exact same as Kagerou K2 in terms of bonuses and functions. They share the same yasen totals and gain the same bonuses with the same pieces of equipment. She also does not have any quests associated with her remodel. However, unlike Kagerou K2, Shiranui K2 can equip Fleet Command Facility equipment. She also comes with better stock gear. At remodel, she comes with a +5 12.7cm Model C, +5 25mm Triple Autocannon Mount, and T3 Active Sonar.

Kuroshio (LOW PRIORITY)
Kuroshio is currently the strongest of the three Kagerou Kai Nis. She has the highest firepower of them all, has the same bonuses as the other Kagerou Kai Nis, and comes with well improved usable gear. Furthermore, she can equip the Special Type 2 Amphibious Tank which allows her to do Anti-Installation work at a level equal to, or better than, Arashio/Michishio/Ooshio. Furthermore, she is one of the five blueprint destroyer Kai Nis required to unlock the Kagerou Prototype Flight Deck Catapult questline alongside two of the Blueprint Asashios.

However, she does have a few problems which make her a lower priority than Arashio/Ooshio. First of all, she is only able to equip Special Type 2 Amphibious Tank. Although this makes her slightly stronger than Arashio/Michishio/Ooshio when paired with Model C/D guns, she is still weaker than them because they can stack Tank Carrying Daihatsus and WGs as well. She also only gains bonuses for using Model C/Ds, losing out on Fleet Anti-Air. Furthermore, the Daihatsu Landing Craft (Type 89 Medium Tank & Landing Force) is more accessible than the Special Type 2 Amphibious Tank. Finally, she does not come with a Daihatsu while Arashio/Ooshio do. As a result, while Kuoshio is powerful, Arashio/Ooshio are much more flexible and can excel in the one area that makes Kuroshio standout.

Fletcher (LOW PRIORITY)
From an objective perspective, Fletcher Mk. II is a strong DD. Her high AACI call, high luck, and automatic OASW abilities are combined with a decent yasen total. Her quests provide some of the best OASW gear available and she can prove extremely useful in multiple situations. However, she has several problems.

First of all, her availability is currently questionable. At best, she is a limited drop and can be hard to find. Although good for what she is, the difficulty in finding her currently ensures that you may have two or three ships which fit in the OASW or AACI role. While she may be better than them at it, she's not significantly better.

Second of all, her quests are not feasible for new players. They all call for having multiple unique American, British, Dutch, or Australian ships. Given this guide is aimed to the more newer player, it is guaranteed that most of you reading will not be able to meet the requirements for her quests. While her quests provide good gear, such a limit makes it hard to recommend her.

Tan Yang/Yukikaze (LOWEST PRIORITY)
Tan Yang/Yukikaze is a hard cost to justify. At a staggering 3 Blueprints, she is the most epensive Destroyer Remodel available. However, at the same time, what she gives is rather moderate. Although she gains a lot of strong synergies and the boost of night power allows her to hit nighttime cap with only 2 torpedoes, she's already perfectly good at Kai. It'd be better to just leave her at Kai until you really have nothing left to use Blueprints on.

Action Report Destroyers
Umikaze (LOW PRIORITY)
Umikaze is the most flexible of the Action Report Shiratsuyu DDs, able to equip both Landing Crafts and Amphibious tanks where her sisters have one or the other. Her statline total is also similar to Murasame and Shiratsuyu, featuring a total of 154 in yasen compared to their 156. However, she also has the worst Firepower of the three. Being that this is the most important stat for anti-installation duty, it is less than ideal. Her remodel also provides no gear worth of note, lacking a CK2 and providing only basic ASW gear. Finally, she's also even more difficult to find than Kawakaze. Overall, not all that important to bring to K2.

Action Report and Blueprint Destroyers
Naganami (LOW PRIORITY)
Although Naganami K2 has extremely high combat potential, she only reaches this potential with two Model D guns. Of which she only comes equipped with 1. Without it, she fills a role occupied by multiple Tier 1 DDs. Combined with her already high K2 level and the fact she requires both a blueprint and action report, this makes her a rather low priority DD to K2.

Her most notable feature outside of her combat is that she unlocks the Quarterly Quest Bq6, which proves your choice of either Type 13 Air Radar/Type 22 Surface Radar/Action Report and either Gun Improvement Material/Present Box.

Asashimo (LOW PRIORITY)
Asashimo is another repeat on the tried and true Yuugumo K2 DD formula. High Night Battle Stats, bonuses with Model D guns, and some bonus equipment. Interestingly, she actually does provide some rather nice bonus equipment. She comes with a +4 Type 13 Kai Air Radar like Yuugumo, but also comes with a +4 25mm Triple Autocannon Mount (Concentrated Deployment).

Much like Kazagumo, she can carry Type 2 Amphibious Tanks. However, there are better DDs for this job. She also takes a reduction to ASW Stat, which does reduce her usability as an OASW ship. It does bear to mention that it's a roughly 7 level difference between her T3/T3/DC OASW at Kai and Kai Ni. Given the increased number of easy access K2 DDs with OASW, this is less of an issue but it is one to be aware of. Overall, she's lower in importance than Naganami herself, but higher than other Yuugumo K2s.

Akigumo (LOW PRIORITY)
Akigumo is a derivative of the Yuugumo K2 DD formula, taking cues from Kagerou K2 formula as well. She gains bonuses with both the Model D and Model C series guns, and boasts an additional bonus with Skilled Lookouts. The combined bonuses makes her the strongest Yuugumo or Kagerou Kai Ni ship in DA when equipped with a Model D Gun, Model C Gun, Surface Radar, and Skilled Lookout in Reinforcement Expansion. Furthermore, the way her bonuses align makes her the strongest DD when equipped with GTRL DDCI. However, all her quests require three other Yuugumo Kai Nis. Finally, her low luck makes her a worse TCI pick than Naganami or Asashimo. While she's certainly strong in a vacuum, she does have her limits in performance.

Takanami (LOW PRIORITY)
Takanami's a fairly standard Yuugumo Class Kai Ni, with 1 extra FP per gun. She lacks any quests as of the time of writing. Furthermore, her low luck makes her unsuitable for a Cut-In ship, even amongst the Yuugumo Kai Nis. However, she does give an improved +8 Skilled Look Out, which is both a relatively rare item and provides 2 additional points of firepower from improvements. As of writing, there is no other way to acquire an improved Skilled Look Out.

Yuugumo (LOW PRIORITY)
A weaker Naganami without the Quarterly quest. The only notable item provided by her is her relatively easy PvP quest (which also requires Naganami to be at K2), as it provides your choice of either three Irakos or a Type 2 Depth Charge and either a Reinforcement Expansion or Medal. She does also provide a +4 Type 13 Kai Air Radar, which can be a bit helpful.

Yuugumo Kai Ni is needed for several Yuugumo Class Kai Ni (featuring Akigumo Kai Ni at times) related quests.

Yamakaze (LOW PRIORITY)
Yamakaze K2D is the preferred form of the two. In this form she serves as a decent Installation killer because she can equip both Tank and Landing Force equipments. She also has an extremely high ASW for an installation ship, topping the list of Installation Killer ships at 83 ASW when level 99. Finally she has several easy quests that can be done at K2. The quests provide up to two of the high ASW Stat Type 3 Kai Active Sonar and a 61cm Quadruple (Oxygen) Torpedo Mount Late Model.

However, she has an extremely high cost for what she provides. First, she needs to be Level 91 and consumes a Blueprint and Action Report for her K2D form. Furthermore, she has the lowest total night battle stat amongst the installation killers, which limits her usefulness outside of installation work. Finally, she has notably low firepower, at 60, which only makes her the 2nd weakest installation killer who is not Satsuki or Fumizuki.

Makigumo (LOWEST PRIORITY)
Makigumo has the same stat total as Yuugumo, but skewed towards Torpedo stat rather than Firepower. Although she can equip Daihatsus, her positioning means there is a strong chance other DLC carrying ships are available to the player. Her lower FP also makes her worse at anti-installation Duty than Kuroshio, who would also be equipped in a similar fashion but with much better performance. For a lower cost of 1BP as well. Makigumo's gear at remodel is nothing to speak of, carrying a plain 12.7cm Model D Kai Ni gun as her only notable piece of equipment.

Finally, her quest is more difficult than Naganami and Yuugumo's Kai Ni quests for worse payout. It requires a sortie to W5 from 5-3 to 5-5 and provides either a New Model Gun Mat, New Model Air Mat, or Daihatsu Landing Craft as well as either a Skilled Crew Member or 4 Screws. None of which are groundbreaking, valuable, or vital.

Kazagumo (LOWEST PRIORITY)
Kazagumo has marginally better stats than Makigumo and Yuugumo, but much like them; she simply does not bring much to the table for her cost. She can carry Tanks, but there are much better ship for that purpose. Like Kuroshio. This situation is made worse by the fact that she does not currently have a quest associated with her; so the reward for your investment is simply the gear she comes with at remodel. Said remodel stock gear is also not particularly good either.

Okinami (LOWEST PRIORITY)
Okinami is another basic Yuugumo K2. She can carry a Type 2 Tank like her sister Kazagumo, but offers nothing new in terms of performance and equipment. She does have a quest which is easy to complete, but the rewards are nothing particularly notable beyond a single New Model Gun Material or New Model Rocket Development Material. She does come with the standard 12.7cm DK2 gun, but also has a +8 T3 Sonar. For those looking to make more T4 Sonars, this can be a nice bonus to help offset some of her costs.