Why do we need aiming systems and propulsion?
How can (and most importantly, why should) we add 70% to the already existing 100%?
Find out everything about upgrades in this episode of How it Works!
Upgrades improve the combat characteristics of your ship.
In order to work, they need to be installed in special slots.
The higher the tier of your ship, the more slots she has.
You have options to choose from for each slot and the cost of the upgrades increases
for each next slot.
The value by which an upgrade improves the characteristics of your ship
is most often shown as a percentage.
For example, Air Groups Modification 1
adds +20% to the speed of aircraft returning to their carrier,
and Steering Gears Modification 1 reduces the rudder-shift time by 20%.
The mechanics are relatively straightforward.
However, if, apart from an upgrade,
a Commander's skill and signal affect the same characteristic,
those percentages won't be summed up— they will be multiplied instead.
That's why the result will be slightly bigger—as we explained, for example,
in How it Works: Fire—as a result, Fuso won't be on fire for 30 seconds
(that would be true if the values were summed up), but rather for 35 seconds.
Now let's calculate how much stronger we can make the AA defenses on Des Moines.
You can see in Port that her base constant AA damage is 379.
This is average damage per second within the effective area of all AA mounts.
Using the Auxiliary Armaments Modification 2 upgrade,
Commander's Basic Firing Training skill, and November Echo Setteseven signal,
we can get this up to 503 damage per second.
That might not seem like much: with just the upgrade,
the AA defenses on Des Moines will deal 436 damage.
Now let's install the Defensive AA Fire consumable
and activate the relevant Priority Sector.
Together with the upgrade, Commander's skill, and signal,
the damage will be 1,132.
With the upgrade alone, the damage is 981,
and if we don't use it, the damage will be 825.
The difference is clear.
If we consider AA shell blast damage,
which can be also increased with Commander's skills, upgrades, and signals,
then sure—aircraft carriers will be still dangerous,
but our Des Moines won't be a priority target for them anymore.
We're done with armament, but how do the survivability upgrades work?
We all know that a ship consists of parts and modules.
In How it Works: Modules, we mentioned that all modules have their own HP,
which isn't connected to the total HP of a ship.
Every time a module, such as a main battery turret, is hit, hit points are subtracted.
You can increase modules’ HP by installing upgrades.
For example, with the Main Armaments Modification 1 upgrade,
one of famous battleship Fuso’s turrets will have 22,500 HP.
It will be much more difficult to destroy or render inoperable.
When a shell hits a module, a critical hit check is performed.
For example, if the Modifications 1 upgrades for the main armament
and torpedo tubes are both installed on your destroyer,
and your Commander has the Preventive Maintenance skill unlocked,
then the chances that your torpedo launchers will break down
will be three times lower.
Let’s now look at accuracy upgrades.
Secondary Battery Modification 1 and Aiming System Modification 1
reduce the dispersion of shells.
You can learn more about the dispersion ellipse in our video How it Works: Firing.
In short, all shells fired from your ships fall within an area
called the "dispersion ellipse,"
and some upgrades can make this area smaller.
For example, the dispersion of shells fired from Yamato’s main battery
at the maximum range is 276 meters.
With the upgrade installed, the dispersion is reduced to 256 meters.
The same happens to the dispersion ellipse of secondary armament.
However, if you fire at a ship that has the Concealment System ugrade installed,
your dispersion ellipse will be 5% larger.
Enemy camouflage will increase it by another 4%.
That's a great reason to install Aiming System Modification 1!
Finally, we have one of the most interesting topics of today's video—
the specifics of the Magazine upgrade,
and whether we still need it when the Juliet Charlie signal,
which completely removes the probability of detonation, is mounted.
Let's return to modules for a second.
The magazine is also a module, and when it gets hit by an enemy shell,
the ship doesn't lose any HP from its total pool.
However, a critical hit to the magazine will lead to it detonating
and the ship sinking.
In order to avoid situations
where a ship with full HP is sent to Port after a single hit,
we've introduced the following limit:
if a ship still has more than 75% of its HP after a hit,
then the detonation chances aren’t even calculated.
However, if a ship is left with less than 75% of its HP, the detonation chances
directly depend on the remaining HP of the ship's magazine
(the lower the HP of the magazine, the higher the chances of detonation)
and on the amount of a single damage instance that module has received
(greater damage increases the chances of detonation).
A simplified formula for calculating the detonation chances might look familiar.
Put in numbers, we can see
that the upgrade reduces the chances of detonation threefold,
even if you have India X-Ray and Juliet Whiskey Unaone installed.
As to whether it's worth installing when you have the Juliet Charlie signal mounted
(which multiplies the chances of detonation by zero)—
it should be clear that you won't need to install the upgrade
or fear that some other signals mounted on your ship
might increase the chances of detonation.
We should also talk about the Torpedo Lookout Station upgrade.
Its benefits are very simple—no formulas—
you can see ALL torpedoes from a range of 1,800 meters.
The Commander's Vigilance skill adds another 450 meters to that range.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that there are upgrades
that are available only to specific ships or nations.
For example, U.S. battleships lack
the Aiming Systems Modification 1 and 2 upgrades,
but instead have Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1 and 2.
You now know how upgrades work,
so you can use them at their utmost efficiency
and improve those characteristics of your ship that will bring you victory in battle!