Equipment Guide.md

PVE Equipment Guide

This guide is meant to serve as both an in-depth guide to end-game equipment and a quick reference to compare pieces of equipment in a given slot. Letter grades represent general usability of a given piece of equipment. While the general information is applicable to all servers, specific letter grades may vary slightly for EN server where some equipment does not exist.

• S-rank equipment is going to be best-in-slot for most ships and in most use cases
• A-rank equipment is either easier to acquire than S-rank equipment and good enough for general use, or is more difficult to obtain while not providing enough of an appreciable difference in performance to be worth recommending in all cases
• B-rank equipment might not be strong enough to warrant a recommendation for general use, but occupies a specific niche that might make it best-in-slot for select scenarios or when equipped to certain ships
• Tentative stamps denote that a given piece of equipment's ranking is, due to limited availability and data, based predominantly on theoretical data

Table of Contents

• Destroyer Guns
• Light Cruiser Guns
• Heavy Cruiser Guns
• Main Fleet Guns
• Torpedoes
• Aircraft
• Anti-Air Guns
• Auxiliary Equipment

Destroyer (DD) Guns

General Primaries

• 138mm Single Mle1929 is the hardest hitting DD gun in the game, to the point where it's worth using even on ships with relatively strong barrages, despite its relatively slow fire rate. It also gives the highest firepower boost of any DD gun.
• 130mm Single B13 Pattern 1936 sacrifices same damage compared to the 138mm single, but has a significantly faster fire rate. Most worth using on destroyers who have strong gunnery output but still value rate of fire either due to a barrage or skill proc. Like other single guns, it has a relatively high spread.
• 120mm Twin QF Mark XII is the strongest readily accessible general-use main gun. It has high damage output with an average reload speed for damage-focused guns, and great accuracy. Its only downside is normal shells deal drastically reduced damage against heavy armour enemies.
• 127mm Single Mk30 is the fastest firing HE gun, while also having very high damage stats. It's a good choice for destroyers with both strong barrages and high gunnery stats. Its mild accuracy problems reduce its direct gun dpm somewhat, making it a poor choice for destroyers with weak barrages.
• 127mm Twin Mk38 provides a split of firepower and anti-air boosts. While its damage is good, its low firepower boost and relatively slow rate of fire cause it to fall behind other, more accessible alternatives.
• 100mm Twin Type 98 is generally used on ships with strong barrages. However, its damage output isn't too far behind other alternatives against most targets and its volume of fire is higher than any other gun.
• 120mm Single QF Mark IX and 76mm Single are the fastest destroyer guns in the game and used on an incredibly small handful of ships who are willing to sacrifice nearly all gunnery dpm for faster barrage triggers and/or skill procs. The 120mm trades a very small amount of reload speed compared to the 76mm for higher base damage and longer range.

Vanguard Auxiliaries

• 138mm Single Mle1929 gives the highest firepower boost and has very high volume of fire despite its long reload time.
• 100mm Twin Type 98 has relatively weak raw damage output. It's not too far behind the more damage focused guns on its own, but its low firepower boost widens the gap slightly more. However, the T98 has the highest volume of fire, which can assist in breaking enemy shields faster, increasing its performance beyond what stats would imply. Additionally, the T98 provides the highest anti-air boost.
• 130mm Single B13 Pattern 1936 provides the same firepower boost as the 120mm Twin. While it has a less accurate firing pattern, it has significantly higher base damage and its HE shells give it an advantage when fighting heavy armour enemies.
• 120mm Twin QF Mark XII has the highest firepower boost of any readily accessible gun with an accurate firing pattern.
• 127mm Single Mk30 is a more readily accessible alternative to the 130mm Single. Has the same downsides, but without the damage to compensate. Only useful when fighting heavy armour enemies.
• 127mm Twin Mk38 provides a split of firepower and anti-air, causing its effective damage output to be lower than its stats would imply. Its HE shells give it advantages against heavy armour, but the low shell velocity of HE shells cause it minor accuracy issues compared to the 120mm Twin despite the two guns having superficially identical shot patterns.

Main Fleet Auxiliaries

• While DD guns can typically deal with any solo suicide boats, their interception capability is much lower compared to CL guns, especially when fighting high densities of suicide boats. Light caliber guns have an inherently shorter range and lower base damage, which hold them back when the most valuable stats for interception are range and base damage. Consider using battleships that can mount CL auxiliary guns whenever suicide boats are an active concern.
• 128mm Twin SK C/41 is the strongest AP destroyer gun in the game. While its damage output is too weak to justify its use as a main gun, it has applications as an auxiliary gun as its AP shells give it the fastest reaction times of any light-caliber aux gun. However, its low damage may cause it to struggle to deal enough damage to kill suicide boats in the first place.
• 120mm Twin QF Mark XII has weaker interception capabilities than the 128mm Twin, but its high damage per shot allows it to get kills when equipped on ships that might struggle otherwise.
• 127mm Twin Mk38 has comparable performance to the 120mm Twin. However, the lower velocity of its HE shells cause it to struggle slightly when firing at extreme angles and it has a lower firepower boost.
• 100mm Twin Type 98 and 138mm Single Mle1929 provide the highest stat boosts in anti-air and firepower respectively, and are worth using when interception is a non-concern.

Light Cruiser (CL) Guns

General Primaries

• For any vanguard ship that can choose between equipping a DD or CL gun, always equip them with a DD gun. Light caliber guns have higher base dpm, and their faster fire rate leads to faster barrages and/or skill procs.
• Prototype 152mm Triple DP Mk17 addresses the primary issue holding back HE light cruiser guns: their wide spread. The Dual-Purpose Mk17 has damage stats that give it theoretical DPM comparable to the next strongest HE gun, but with ballistic characteristics more in-line with the AP guns that allow it to actually reach its theoretical DPM in practice. True to its name, it also provides a split between boosting firepower and anti-air, making it the only CL gun to do so.
• Prototype 152mm Triple BL Mark XXV is the strongest AP CL gun. It has an incredibly fast fire rate, the longest range of any CL gun, high base damage. However, its relatively wide spread for an AP gun may give it negligible accuracy issues at exceptionally long ranges.
• 150mm Twin TbtsK C/36 may not look impressive on paper, with low base damage compared to most alternatives. However, it has a hyper-accurate firing pattern and is one of the only CL guns in the game capable of actually dealing its theoretical DPM, and that's without accounting for AP shells' penetration capabilities.
• 150 Single SK C/28 is the fastest firing CL gun, and sees use on light cruisers who have exceptionally strong barrages.
• 155mm Triple has incredibly strong stats on paper. However, it has a very wide spread with a fixed pattern, meaning the shells will always be that far apart from each other, which causes it to bracket enemies when fired at even a moderate range. Still a potentially useful gun when fighting targets at incredibly close range or who have an incredibly large hitbox, at least until replacing it with a DP Mk17.

Main Fleet Auxiliaries

• Prototype 152mm Triple BL Mark XXV has the longest range of any CL gun, coupled with a high firepower bonus, making it the best auxiliary gun for general-use. However, it has a random pattern, which can potentially cause issues with interception. Similarly, its exceptionally long range also means it has a high likelihood of being on cooldown from firing at production types, further impacting its interception capabilities.
• 152mm Triple Mk16 is exceptional at interception thanks to its high damage per shell, wide spread, and zero second volley time.
• 155mm Triple is relatively weak at interception, thanks to its short range, non-zero volley time, and low shell density. However, it's a very accessible gun with a high firepower boost, making it a useful gun in any situation where interception is non-concern, or the gun itself is capable of handling any incoming threats.
• 152mm Twin BL Mark XXII has comparable interception capabilities to the 152mm Mk16, but it trades raw volume of fire for AP shells, and is useful in certain situations where the penetration capabilities of AP shells is desirable.
• Prototype 152mm Triple DP Mk17 gives a split of anti-air and firepower. Similar to the 155mm, it has a non-zero volley time, which impacts its interception capabilities, but it has a longer range, improving its reaction times, and its tighter spread increases its bullet density. Given its rarity and relatively weak interception, it's not the most useful choice for an aux gun, but it is also the only CL gun that provides a boost to anti-air.
• 150mm Twin TbtsK C/36 has a few advantages for interception in specific niche scenarios, but is generally poorly suited for general use. Its hyper-accurate firing pattern allows a ship to pump more concentrated damage into a single target than any other available aux gun. Additionally, its AP shells can penetrate, allowing it to deal with certain patterns of suicide boats that other, non-AP guns might struggle with.

Heavy Cruiser (CA) Guns

• Unlike other vanguard caliber guns where no one ammo type is strictly superior, or if one appears to be superior it's due to characteristics aside from ammo type alone, the armour modifiers on heavy cruiser guns are drastically different enough that you will always want to use HE shells when fighting light armour enemies and AP shells when fighting medium and heavy armour enemies. For clearing fleets, the mixed armour types of the enemies encountered means either ammo type can be viable.

General Primaries

• Prototype 203mm Triple SK C/34 is the strongest AP CA gun. While it has a relatively wide spread, its fire rate and damage are so heavily improved over the next best alternative that it's worth using in all scenarios.
• 203mm Twin M1927 fires special semi-AP shells, which deal increased damage against medium armour and decreased damage against other armour types compared to standard AP shells. While the gun is slightly hampered by its incredibly long reload and animation times, its unique ammo type allows it to pull ahead in terms of damage dealt against medium armour compared to the prototype SK C/34. Additionally, it has a much more accurate firing pattern that can allow it to pull ahead in certain other situations, especially when utilising manual play in order to compensate for the gun's long animation time.
• Prototype 203mm Triple Mle1934 has the fastest fire rate of any HE CA gun and top-tier damage.
• Prototype 203mm Twin No.3 sacrifices a small amount of fire rate and damage per volley compared to the Mle1934 for superior target acquisition and volume of fire. It has the potential to pull ahead in certain situations such as when fighting more mobile targets, or in the presence of shielded enemies.
• 203mm Mounted and 203mm Twin SK C/34 are weaker, but more accessible versions of their respective prototype counterparts.

Miscellaneous Primaries

• Submarine Mounted 203mm Twin Mle1924 can only be equipped on the submarine Surcouf, and is the only gun she can equip.
• Prototype 310mm Triple and 283mm Triple SK C/28 both fire arcing shells, similar to a battleship, despite being vanguard guns. This allows them to bypass shields entirely, potentially increasing their damage output in practice. However, as large caliber guns, they can only be equipped on Azuma, while the Deutschland class can only choose the 283mm, whose AP shells make it poorly suited for their niche of bullying light armour targets.

Main Fleet (BB/BC/BM/BBV) Guns

• Due to the burst-damage nature of battleship main guns, they're grouped together based on their expected reload speeds. The highest direct damage guns tend to have firing timers longer than 20s, while the fastest guns have firing timers shorter than 18s and are generally best suited for use on ships with powerful skills that proc on main gun fire. This leaves a select handful of guns that fall into the 18-20s band. These guns have the potential to outdamage the slower guns under the right circumstances, while also still being fast enough to function well on ships with proc-on-fire skills.
  
  In general, battleships used for trash clearing will also prefer a gun with a faster fire rate due to their more smooth damage curve and the tendency for higher damage guns to overkill trash mobs.

>20s

• 406mm Triple Mk6 has the strongest overall shelling output of any battleship main gun. The de facto standard damage-focused battleship gun.
• Prototype 381mm Triple BL MkIII sacrifices some shelling damage compared to the Mk6 for a faster reload speed and higher firepower bonus. Useful on ships who value the firepower boost more than the raw damage output, or for battleships that need to fire before other battleships in order to make use of proc-on-fire buffs, debuffs, or other effects.
• 380mm Quad Mle1935 is the signature gun of Jean Bart and the only gun she uses. Its high alpha damage and volume of fire give it potential use on other ships, especially for clearing fleets, but its non-zero volley time drastically reduces its efficacy against non-stationary bosses.
• Prototype 410mm Triple has comparable base stats to the Mk6, but fires AP shells. While this reduces its value as a general-use gun, it's a potent gun when fighting bosses with medium or heavy armour.
• 381mm Triple M1934 is something of a sidegrade to the prototype 410mm triple. While its unique gimmick gives it a slight advantage in very short fights, its demerit ensures that it fails to be a superior go-to AP gun. Predominantly used on Littorio for her skill.
• 406mm Triple BL MkI is nearly identical to the Mk6, but fires normal shells. Similar to the prototype 410mm, this makes it a poor choice for general use. However, its increased firepower bonus allows it to pull ahead of the Mk6 when equipped to battleships that ignore shell types, such as Massachusetts.
• 356mm Quad is a gun that is both incredibly weak and incredibly slow. It's primary use is as a potentially useful option on King George V, when the faster first round of shelling would prove useful. Additionally, it can be used as a more accessible alternative to the prototype 381mm triple for ships like monitors who care more about the firepower boost than the raw shelling damage of their equipped gun.

18-20s

• Prototype 406mm Twin Drh LC/34 shoots HE shells, uncharacteristic for an Ironblood gun. It has the highest damage per shell of any HE BB gun, meaning it inflicts the most damaging burn effects on enemies, while having a near optimal firing timer in order to maximise burn uptime. It performs well on battleships with exceptionally high gun efficiencies in order to best take advantage of this burn damage, on battleships who have both strong shelling output and a strong proc-on-fire ability, or battleships with a relatively weak proc-on-fire ability that still provides a source of additional, incidental secondary damage.
• Prototype 457mm Twin Mk A sports an impressive base damage per shell in excess of 200, more than 30% higher than the next strongest damage-focused guns including the Mk6, while also having a higher firepower bonus than any other gun in the game. While its prototype AP shells deal increased damage against all targets compared to other AP guns, they still limit its general usefulness. In a vacuum, this gun should be the absolute strongest AP gun, but falling within the firing band it does means battleships equipped with this gun may struggle to take advantage of damage buffs and debuffs granted by other ships in the fleet, allowing a slower gun to pull ahead in damage.
• 410mm Twin is a more readily accessible alternative to the 406mm Drh LC/34. Nearly identical attributes, but a lower firepower bonus thanks to its purple rarity and a negligibly slower fire rate.

<18s

• Prototype 381mm Twin BL MkII is the fastest firing battleship main gun with HE shells. It shines on ships with strong proc-on-fire skills and in trash clearing fleets.
• 380mm Twin SK C/34 is nearly identical to, but slightly worse than the 381mm twin, except it shoots AP shells. A weaker choice for general use, given the already limited applications of AP shells. However, its damage output against medium and heavy armour pulls ahead of the 381mm twin, and is worth using if another BB is present to keep burn DOTs up.
• 283mm Triple SK C/34 is the absolute fastest firing battleship main gun in the game, with the cost of sub-100 base damage and normal shells. Worthless for general use, but has some niche applications where the increase in fire rate is significant enough to make up for its shortcomings, such as when your ships significantly outlevel a given map.

Torpedoes

Surface Torpedoes

• 533mm Quintuple Torpedoes have the highest volume of fire, average reload speed, and high alpha damage, making them the strongest torpedoes for general use on both auto and manual play.
• 610mm Quadruple Torpedoes have the highest alpha damage of all torpedoes. Their long reload speed and low volume of fire makes missing with these torpedoes incredibly punishing, and as such, they're poorly suited for auto play, but are ideal for killing bosses on manual play.
• 533mm Quint Homing Torpedoes sacrifice reload speed and damage for a mild homing effect and give the highest torpedo bonus. They have solid performance on auto and have niche use on manual, when either the homing effect or stat boost are desired.
• 533mm Quadruple Torpedoes have the same base torpedo damage as their quintuple counterpart and a significantly faster reload speed, but have a lower stat bonus and only launch four torpedoes per volley. Mostly used to stagger torpedo volleys on auto, or as a transitional equip until stronger torpedo mounts can be acquired.
• 533mm Quad Homing Torpedoes are a significantly weaker version of the quintuple homing mount. While they fire at a comparable speed to the 533mm quintuple mount and gain the homing effect, they're severely held back by their low damage per torpedo and low volume of fire. Functionally useless on manual play and provide little to no benefit over the stronger mounts on auto.
• 550mm Triple Torpedoes occupy the unique niche of having the fastest reload speed of any relevant torpedo launcher. However, while they have high base damage, the fact that they only launch three torpedoes per volley cuts significantly into both alpha damage and volume of fire, on top of being exceedingly difficult to acquire.

Submarine Torpedoes

• G7e Acoustic Homing Torpedoes have a similar homing effect to their surface damage counterparts, but still deal competitive damage while reloading faster than any other submarine torpedoes. Given the linear, targeted nature of submarine-launched torpedoes, the homing effect of G7e torpedoes gives them the best overall reliability.
• Submarine Mounted Mk16 Torpedoes have the longest reload speed, but also launch three torpedoes per volley instead of two, and have the highest base torpedo damage. Mk16 torpedoes are integral in maximising the amount of damage dealt by your submarines, but generally require equipped submarines to have extended combat time in order to offset their long reload time.
• Submarine Type 95 Oxygen Torpedoes offer slightly increased damage compared to the G7e, but trade the homing effect for drastically increased torpedo velocity. Overall, this does less to assist torpedo accuracy than the homing effect, and the difference in velocity between T95 torpedoes and other submarine torpedoes can cause issues with torpedo targeting that cut harshly into damage dealt.
• As all three submarine torpedo launchers are the same rarity with the same stat bonus, they contribute the same amount to a ship's combat power rating, which is the primary factor in the potency of roaming submarines' HP reduction effect. As such, the difference between the three torpedoes are only relevant when planning to call submarines into live combat.

Carrier (CV/CVL) Aircraft

Fighters

• For fighters, the damage stat displayed in-game is the anti-air damage dealt by the fighter's equipped guns and is not indicative of the amount of surface damage it will deal. For that, you will need to look at a given plane's loadout to see what bombs, if any, it is equipped with. For general use, fighter-bombers are preferred due to their ability to contribute surface damage to the fight, and the strongest payload for any fighter is 2x 500lb bombs.
• F4U Corsair (VF-17 Squadron) is the fastest fighter-bomber, and has unique bombs with slightly increased base damage. It has relatively weak anti-air guns, but gives a fleet-wide anti-air boost upon airstrike launch.
• F6F Hellcat has the strongest interception capabilities of any fighter-bomber. While it is relatively slow to launch, the difference between it and other fighters with the same payload is relatively small and unlikely to have any real impact, making it the strongest general-use fighter.
• Hawker Sea Fury has comparable interception to the Hellcat and reloads slightly faster. Its autocannons have a more narrow firing angle and longer reload speed than the Hellcat's machine guns, but deal slightly increased burst damage.
• A7M Reppuu is the fastest permanently available fighter-bomber, both in its reload speed and flight speed. While its bomb loadout makes it perfectly serviceable for PVE, it has certain characteristics that make it predominantly worth using in PVP: its fast speed allows it to bait out enemy anti-air fire, and it deals high kamikaze damage.
• Supermarine Seafang is the last gold rarity fighter with the 2x 500lb payload. While it's more than strong enough for general use, it falls behind the other listed planes in certain respects, making it weaker overall. Worth upgrading if lacking other gold rarity fighters.
• Me-155a has no bombs and therefore deals no surface, but is the second fastest fighter overall, the fastest gold rarity fighter, and has superior anti-air guns to the Hellcat. Potentially worth using when fighting enemies with heavy aviation presence, especially on carriers with weak fighter slots, but ill-advised on carriers with strong fighter slots who will generally benefit more from a fighter-bomber.
• Zero Fighter Model 52 is a relatively fast fighter that still deals some damage, although its 2x 100lb payload has slightly under half the base damage of a 2x 500lb payload and a significantly smaller blast radius. Mostly used for very specific reload tuning setups.

Dive Bombers

• Bomb damage does not scale linearly with payload weight, and larger bombs only provide a small increase in damage. As such, quantity of bombs is generally preferred to quality of bombs. Additionally, the damage stat shown in-game for any given dive bomber is a meaningless, arbitrary number that is in no way related to the bomber's actual performance.
• SB2C Helldiver has the strongest bomb loadout of any dive bomber by a wide margin, but is also the slowest. Strongest dive bomber for general use, especially on carriers with strong dive bombers.
• Fairey Firefly has an average reload speed with average damage, but its main appeal is its anti-air guns. Equipped with the same autocannons found on Royal fighters, the Firefly is capable of dealing fighter-tier anti-air damage, but as a dive bomber, is incapable of the same automatic interception as a real fighter, its guns only being beneficial after launching a full airstrike.
• D4Y Suisei has a relatively weak payload, but is the fastest true dive bomber. It has niche use in reload tuning and can be a strong choice on carriers with weak dive bombers, or in situations where a stronger dive bomber would overkill enemies.
• Ju-87c 'Stuka' is the only other bomber that can compete with the Helldiver in terms of raw damage potential. It reloads slightly faster, but its 100lb bombs have a small blast radius, which can cut into overall reliability.

Torpedo Bombers

• B7A Ryuusei launches torpedoes that converge on a point rather than in a parallel spread. While typically used for its superior damage capabilities against bosses where all torpedoes will hit the target, Ryuusei can be a strong general use torpedo bomber. If it misses its intended target, the torpedoes will fan out, similar to a torpedo volley launched by surface ships, and are still capable of hitting auxiliary targets.
• Fairey Swordfish (818 Squadron) trades some of the Barracuda's damage for the ability to slow enemies hit by its torpedoes. While weaker than a Barracuda if your fleet is incapable of capitalising on the slow-down effect, the utility it provides can be incredibly powerful when paired with battleships. Predominantly used against bosses that move too fast for a Ryuusei to be reliable.
• B6N Tenzan is a weaker, but more accessible alternative to the Ryuusei.
• Torpedo Squadron 8 is a very unique piece of equipment. It launches incredibly weak TBD Devastators for the first airstrike of its equipped carrier. However, for every subsequent airstrike, the Devastators are replaced with TBF Avengers which have the highest base damage of any parallel torpedo bomber.
• Blackburn Firebrand has the same damage output as the Barracuda, but with a slower reload speed. Similar to the Firefly dive bomber however, it's equipped with fighter anti-air guns and is capable of dealing massive damage to enemy planes after launching an airstike.
• Fairey Barracuda is a relatively fast, parallel spread torpedo bomber with no real stand-out characteristics. Predominantly used for trash clearing, especially on carriers with weak torpedo bombers.
• Fairey Albacore is the fastest torpedo bomber and deals the same damage per torpedo as the Barracuda, but launches one fewer per plane and sacrifices some aviation boost due to its lower rarity. Given the nature of parallel torpedoes, the loss of one per plane represents a much lower loss in actual damage output relative to the loss in total potential damage. Use with care.

Anti-Air (AA) Guns

• Anti-air damage works off a pool. Every ship equipped with AA guns contributes damage based off their AA stat and efficiency, with the reload and range of the fleet AA based off the average reload speed and range of all guns in the fleet. As such, there are two main roles for AA guns: damage and acceleration. Due to the limited window of time your fleet has to deal anti-air damage, your main goal with an anti-air setup is to maximise the number of damage ticks, and then maximise the damage per tick. You will generally equip a purely damage focused gun on whoever has the highest effective AA in your fleet, accelerators on every ship with weak effective AA, and pad out damage as necessary by equipping the 40mm quad Bofors on ships with above median effective AA.
  
  In practice, the difference between a fully optimised AA setup and one that uses whatever gold rarity guns you have access to is very minimal. Anti-air damage does not win battles; surface damage wins battles.

Damage Guns

• 40mm Quad Bofors can fill the niche of both an accelerator and damage AA gun, and forms the foundation of a strong AA setup. While a mix of different types of AA guns will always provide the most gains, a setup that uses exclusively quad Bofors will be stronger than any other mono-gun setup.
• 40mm 8x Pom-Pom is one of the strongest damage-focused AA guns, with the second highest base damage per hit and a relatively fast reload speed. While it has a low base range, as range is calculated based on the average range of all AA guns in your fleet, this is generally a non-concern unless you're attempting to utilise more than one Pom-Pom.
• 113mm Twin QF Mk I has the second highest base damage and range of any AA gun, but it also has a relatively long reload speed. This gun has potential to be incredibly powerful when used responsibly, but poor usage will only cut into your tick rate, decreasing your margin of error and providing very little tangible benefits.
• 134mm Twin High-Angle QF Mk I has marginally higher base damage than the 113mm Twin, but with a significantly longer reload time. Generally less useful as an actual anti-air gun, but it does give a small boost to firepower. The stat boost is mostly only useful on destroyers, who also have the reload stat necessary to best compensate for the long reload speed.
• 100mm Twin High-Angle T98 and 105mm Twin SK C/33 are strong guns if you lack other gold AA guns, but have lower damage than both the 113mm and Pom-Pom, making them suboptimal in all scenarios.

Accelerator Guns

• 40mm Twin Bofors STAAG is relatively slow for an accelerator gun, but it brings relatively high base damage and long range. The STAAG also gives a bonus to accuracy, making it the de facto strongest AA gun for every ship when actual AA damage is a non-concern. Generally speaking, ships with lower base accuracy, such as battleships, have higher priority for this gun than others.
• 40mm Twin Bofors T98 is a Japanese Bofors variant. While it lacks the accuracy boost of the STAAG mount, the Type 98 makes up for it by shooting even faster, making it the fastest reloading gold AA gun in the game. It's optimal on ships who have low effective AA but whose base accuracy is high enough that the accuracy boost of the STAAG would be wasted, such as low-AA destroyers and light cruisers.
• 40mm Twin Bofors Hazemeyer and 37mm Twin ACAD Mle1936 are simply weaker variants of the STAAG and Type 98 bofors respectively. The Hazemeyer mount is the predecessor to the STAAG mount, and while it shares the same niche, it shoots marginally slower and has half the accuracy boost. Similarly, the French 37mm ACAD fills the same niche as the Bofors Type 98, but it is weaker in every respect. Still usable guns, given the rarity of research equipment, but suboptimal.
• 90mm High-Angle M1939 is to the Hazemeyer what the Hazemeyer is to the STAAG. While a technically functional anti-air gun, it completely lacks the accuracy boost of the late-war British Bofors guns, while also failing to match the speed of the Japanese Bofors or the 37mm ACAD.
• 20mm Twin Oerlikon and 25mm Triple T96 are purple rarity accelerator guns that should only be used for manual play. They both cut into range and tick damage by a very significant margin and are only worth using in order to push your reload speed below the threshold required to gain an extra tick of damage.

Auxiliary Equipment

• More in-depth guide to auxiliary equipment can be found here.