AP/HE Shells

How do I know if my target is armoured or not?

Test it out. Testing is the primary method of discovering if a ship has armour or not.*

Fire a salvo at your target and follow it up by the other type of shells on your next salvo. 

You need to pay attention to the numbers that pop up over the enemy ship when you score a hit. If they are big white (deck), big green (belt) or big yellow (crit) hit then the shell is doing it's work.

If the digits coming up are small and grey coloured then the shell type you are using is less effective. Either because you fire HE against armour, or AP shells against no armour. Both resulting in a poor hit.

Once you determine if the target is armoured or not, switch to the corresponding shells to inflict maximum damage.

Usually a couple of broadside salvos will eat up any ship armour. If you are taking damage as well get those AP salvoes on target and switch back to HE after the armour is away.

* By knowing what speed your target ship goes when upgraded, see whether it is travelling faster or slower than the known value. It's still a guess if he actually has armour or not. But it's a safe bet that he has armour on board and that's what's slowing him down a few knots.

How much AP shells should I select?

In general it's always a good idea to be packing some AP shells. Usually you will want somewhere between 10% - 20% AP to give you enough throughout the whole battle.

In situations where there are lots of high tier battleships, heavy cruisers and even destroyers, you might lean more toward 20% AP.

You will have to gauge as well as you can if players equip armour. In general most of them do. (unless they travel very fast, in which case they probably are using a speed set up)

Recent Information

Lets get straight to it.

Quest Missions

Firstly the devs are currently working on Quest Missions which will give regular players daily challenges to overcome to earn some free gold.

To be released soon...

Harbour Assaults

The development team have announced (navyfield2.com) that their next main project is going to be Harbour Assaults. Which, let's face it, is a huge task.

It's a necessary step in development to provide navyfield 2 community that top level challenge and strategy that it deserves. Especially for the fleets who are active and want more of a challenge.

So the dev team are knuckling down on harbour assaults constructing it from the ground up to make it work smoothly with the current system. They also announced that testing will take place to work out bugs and issues as they go along, which is always good to know as it gets us involved too.

We'll have to wait and see how the blimps on our shipyards will work with the fleet/ harbour assault information. As they were added months ago (February?) and were directly for this purpose.

Fleet wars should also be heading our way, and whether that is separate to harbour assaults is yet to be determined.

Tier Increase - XII

And don't forget the devs haven't yet revealed when the new Tier 12 ships will be added. But  this will probably be further down the line this year as the leak was only in June.

Lots to look forward to on the horizon!

Captain's Log - Episode 5

Having several hundred matches under my belt I have a firm grasp of the game now.

Certain maps need to be played in certain ways. Ships need to be played correctly. Teams who work together (and work to their ship strengths) really stand out and just dominate a match. Fulfilling your ship roles are crucial.

Currently I drive a tier 8 BB (Bayern). In terms of size, it's more compact than previous tiers and, therefore, it's easier to evade shells from other BB's when at range.

I've learned to appreciate that you need to stick with your team and focus fire more so than before, as BB's don't perform as well on their own.To win battles you must reduce the enemy's offensive capability one ship at a time while keeping your ships in tact.

As most battles progress, picking the right target and picking the right time to strike is vital, asking myself:

• Is this target really worth attacking? Do I have an opportunity to break apart the enemy formation? Will I attract too much aggro and get sunk? Am I correctly positioned?
• Am I able to attack without being attacked? (am I scouted?) Can I retreat? Do I have back-up or not?

The play style of NF2 strongly encourages captains to stay with their team mates. The majority of battles can be won with superior numbers. BB's have lots of DP, but that can vanish if you get torpedoed, or shelled by the combined fire of multiple CA's/ BB's

BB's are vulnerable because of their slower speeds (when heavily armoured), slower turn rate and long reload times. However, get several of them together firing at one target and they will quickly devour it. 

The game is still fun and yet frustrating at the same time, as is the case in most random match made scenarios.

Ship and Item Setups

This is a basic guide ship item, ammo and armour setups. This is not a manual as to how to equip items, you should already know that.

Step 1

Ensure you have your scout plane item equipped. And use the slider to fill the ship with scouts.

Step 2

Ammo - your ship will always have ammo on board. In relation to HE and AP a good rule of thumb is about 10-20% AP.

As ammo is precious in a battleship count the number of shells in AP and divide it by the number of guns that will fire them, to give yourself as many full salvoes as you desire.

This would usually be around 6. Maybe more if you are against lots of high tier armoured ships.

Step 3 

Items

Every ship you have should be running a boiler item. This is a given as it counters the speed reduction of equipping any other items you put on board or adds extra speed if you can't afford (or don't want to equip) other items.

From then on it's up to you to decide how to use the other five item slots.

If you only want armour, a 2 deck 3 belt setup is a good idea for Heavy Cruisers and Battleships in general matchmaking games.

DD's suggested setup are belt armour and bulkhead. Belt helps you shrug off some damage up close when engaging larger targets (bb/ca). Bulkhead for when keeping your hull reliability up (improve the rate at which your ship slows down when taken heavy damage) . Remember that DD's benefit least from armour. Agility is their biggest asset.

CV's can benefit by having armour too, especially with the DP increase they have. Many players get caught out thinking a CV won't have armour. They fire HE rounds to find they are mistaken. It can spare a CV from sinking one or two salvoes early by piling on the armour.

High tier battleships benefit from a reload item to counter their slow main gun reload and armour to help against attacks from support ships. It depends on how you play, if you tend to get too close some belt will help. If you stay at long range, some deck will be best.


Heavy cruisers can benefit from the reload item to increase their (already great) dps even more. A little armour can help, but speed is probably more important.

Submarines benefit from boiler and torpedo reload. Don't bother with armour as you don't have enough DP anyway, plus you need as much speed as possible as you are the slowest ships in the game.

Step 4

As a final suggestion, save up some gold items for Fleet battles and Harbour Assaults. These items provide twice as much benefit over their standard counterparts. Don't waste gold items for general matchmaking though.

Captain's Log - Episode 4

Nearly a month of playing I have a decent battleship with a scout and anti-aircraft guns.  The Mackensen is... interesting. It's so big and the guns spray shells all over the place, but it's definitely a joy to be able scout where I want instead of relying on my team for light.

 AA works well against enemy scouts when on auto aim, and German ships seem to possess strong aa shells and good aa range. I tried manual aiming for a while. It's proving tiresome to aim the secondary guns and main guns. But it is possible.

Some games are very interesting but most are just a matter of sticking to your team and avoiding the rushing ships and bombers.

Matchmaking is pretty much players getting to understand the game. And win percentage is affected by this. But it's only a means to an end.

Because credits are in short supply I'm saving up for the next ship, and only spending xp on the research to get their.

This seems to be what it's like for mid-tier ships. Conserve credits to purchase the next one. Until it takes longer to get the next ship, then upgrades could be (credit) purchased

Long Term Motivation

As a navyfield 1 player coming into NF2, I already know there is going to be a big grind ahead to get the high teir ships and officers.

What can you do to help make things more bearable?

• First, you can remember that NF2 is only a 7 months release and as a new game it still has problems to be worked out.


• Second, learn about the game by reading in-game and online information, going to the nf2 wiki and learning from your own gaming experience.


• Third, set yourself small targets to reach the bigger ones. Here are several things that you can monitor to help in this regard:

• Be time efficient. Don't wait around for several minutes for a loss. Quit and get a new match started.
• Battle efficiently every battle. Supporting and attacking with a team. Earning as much xp and credits as possible.
• Small targets like every 100k, 200k or 500k experience you attain, as a marker to where you want to get to.
• Making the most of xp boost and discount gold events.
• Platooning. Team up for better chances of winning.
• Being part of a Fleet. This is a big one. Fleet mates are your friends. They can spur you on, congratulate you when you get your next ship, share funny experiences, teach you things, provide useful info and have a laugh with too. Strong motivation!

I joined a fleet on the very first day on NF2. I've chatted to them. Do the same, be part of a family, be active and friendly. Join a fleet immediately.

Other Points to Remember

Realise what you can do in the game. Make it enjoyable by engaging with your fleet and by being active. Notice them in battles, tell them when they did something amazing (good shot, nice torps) or laugh when they crashed into an island or sunk a team mate accidentally.

Drive different ships, there might be another ship you could get quicker. In game: Capture bases, focus on AAing, try to learn manual aiming, chat to teammates as they will appreciate the banter and/or teamwork.

Try a new nation: IJN have mean torpedo ships, USN have great CV's, UK have strong BB's and SS, KM have great accuracy.

Remember if you are a non-premium player you wont advance as fast.

Having the top tier ships super fast won't matter because there are no Fleet Battles or Harbour Assaults.

Remember how much time you put in will be what you get back: if you do a couple of hours every day you will eventually get somewhere (tier 8+ ships) in a months time.

Avoid directly comparing NF2 to NF1 where they gave free gold accounts and credits and experience came much more easily.

The developers want to encourage players to spend money now. They will try to limit what non-premium players can do, whilst allowing premium players to feel that they have gotten ahead for money they have spent. 

In time events will come along so that everyone can get some premium items and ships.

Put up with any issues. Things will change sooner or later.

Remember you still get exp and credits if you take part in the battle.

Navyfield Newsletter - Reinforcements Have Arrived

As a brief summary of recent changes to Navyfield 2 the development team have issued the following newsletter: