Azur Lane is one of the best live 2D side-scrolling RPGs that also has a gacha system attached to it! Players can traverse through the thick waters and collect cute ship girls that have access to deadly nukes! Command a fleet of ships and manoeuvre them to eliminate your enemies. Dodge incoming projectiles and dominate your opponent with your own firepower in this bullet-hell madness! Loved by millions worldwide, Azur Lane is available as a free-to-play game on both Google Play Store and iOS App Store.

Azur Lane is almost a decade old game, but the developers at YoStar Games have kept it quite fresh over the years by adding more mechanics that enhance the overall look and feel! The graphics have been reworked so many times, it almost feels like it was released yesterday. Players can enjoy a tactical and strategical team-building experience in this PvE-friendly RPG. In this guide, we are going to be explaining some of the core gameplay systems that every new player should know about. A lot of veterans have shared keen interest in sharing their own beginners guides on the official reddit. We have compiled the best information from all resources to ensure our readers get the right information! Let’s get right into the guide. 

Understanding the Gameplay Mechanics

If you want to succeed in Azur Lane, you need to have access to as many ships as possible. The game has a gacha function wherein you can build ships using Cubes and Gold. The ships take some time to build on their own or you can choose to simply quick build them. Each ship is assigned a role and rarity to them, advancing their value than peers. The higher the rarity, the stronger the ship is generally considered. To tackle the diverse PvE game modes available in Azur Lane, players will need a lot of different ships to ensure team formation is smooth. Do not worry as the game is quite generous with the summoning currency. It even goes as far as offering free ships to new players, provided they complete certain missions. 

It will take a significant amount of time and resources to fully prepare a fleet for combat. As a result, picking the appropriate ships to invest in early on is crucial. Although rarity is a useful metric for evaluating a ship, it is not the only one. For example, investing in Portland, a rare unit, yields higher returns than in Prinz Eugen, an SR unit. Although tier lists might offer different viewpoints on which ships are superior or inferior, it’s important to keep in mind that they are inherently arbitrary. The two most crucial things early in the game are levels and making sure every ship is geared. In the early game, the ship itself is irrelevant.

The core combat system of Azur Lane is quite easy to understand but difficult to master. You, the captain, are required to generate a team formation of 6 ships. 3 of them will be in the battle and the rest of the 3 will remain dormant on the shorelines to provide tactical support. The community calls the ships that engage in battles as “Main Fleet” and the ships that stay outside the vicinity of battles as “Support Fleet”.  Players can choose which ships goes into either of the fleets. The battles themselves are easily automated if you want to, with your ships moving on their own as well as casting abilities on their own. However, if you want to defeat stages efficiently, we would recommend manual battles as you can easily dodge incoming attacks and have higher rate of success. 

Azur Lane: All You Need to Know About Equipment

Much like any other RPGs in the market, Azur Lane also has a lot of unique growth systems that allow players to make their ships stronger. While majority of the strength increase comes from equipment and the rarity of the gear you wear, some of it also comes from doing basic deeds such as levelling up ships. A strong fleet of ships must have high equipment attached to them in order to successfully win fights. The CP (Combat Power) requirements only get high as you progress. You can view the overall CP of your fleet on the right-hand side. Here are the top ways a new player can get access to strong equipment:

• Tech Boxes – In addition to many other places, they can be acquired through daily raids, maps, purchases from the store, and quest rewards. Additionally, you can stack five T1 (pink) chests to one T2 (blue) and five T2 into one T3 (purple), which has the potential to contain purple rarity equipment that can be very helpful to you in the early game. In the future, obtaining T4 (gold) chests might be necessary in order to have a chance at obtaining gold rarity equipment, most of which are regarded as BiS equipment.       
• Maps – Each map has a specific set of blueprints for equipment (BPs) that can be dropped and used to create the actual equipment once enough have been collected. Gold equipment BP drops that can be farmed are possible from boss nodes in World 5 and beyond.
• Research – Some research grants BPs for equipment, some of which are not available in maps or chests.
• Core Data Shop – After obtaining a specific quantity of Core Data, players can purchase limited gold to rainbow rarity equipment in the Core Data shop. There are stores during certain events where you can exchange quest-related currency and map clearing points for restricted gear.

Understanding the Different Currencies

Players will have access to 3 major currencies when they enter Azur Lane as a new player. These currencies are going to define your progression rate as they influence almost every system in the game. Players will find it much satisfying if they know how to get these currencies and where to spend them. A judicious usage of these currencies will lead to a stronger account eventually. The major currencies and their uses are as follows:

• Coins– Coins are the primary currency in Azur Lane. It is available abundantly via events, quest rewards, stage rewards, and more. It is used majorly for summoning new ships, ship upgrades, equipment upgrade, and more. 
• Oil – Oil is also one of the primary currencies in Azur Lane. It refills on its own passively over time but can also be purchased using Gems. It is used only for participating in the PvE game modes of Azur Lane.
• Gems – Gems are the premium currency in Azur Lane. Gems are quite rare to obtain but they can be accumulated via events, quest rewards, and missions. Players can use Gems primarily to purchase Wisdom cubes as well as replenish Oil. 

Playing Azur Lane on a bigger screen of your PC with BlueStacks without worrying about battery drainage and smooth gameplay, is highly recommended.