Update 12.0

Developer Bulletin Public Test News article

Captains! Due to the installation of the update, the server will be unavailable
from: Wed. Jan. 18 5:00 AM until: Wed. Jan. 18 8:00 AM Central

Update 12.0: Lunar New Year

♠ Airship Escort ♣ Japanese Cruisers in the Tech Tree ♥ Lunar New Year: Unique Pan-Asian Commander ♦ Early Access to U.S. Hybrid Battleships
♠ Ranked Battles ♣ Brawls ♥ Game Balance Changes ♦ Armory ♠ Content Additions and Changes ♣ Other Changes

Airship Escort

Update 12.0 brings back a familiar temporary battle type under a new name — Airship Escort.

Your mission remains the same — escort the allied airship to the destination point before the enemy team succeeds in doing so or destroy all opposing ships. Ships can affect the speed of the allied or enemy airships by remaining within a certain interactive zone around them. The game mode has been revised with a number of improvements:

• Tier VIII–X ships of all types are allowed to participate; battles are fought in a 12 vs. 12 format.
• Battles will be fought on a larger number of maps, and the airship routes have been updated on a number of old maps.
• Simultaneously slowing down the enemy airship and speeding up the allied airship will give the latter an additional acceleration. This prevents battles from taking too long when one of the teams is able to gain a serious advantage over the opposing team.
• The base airship speed has been reduced to prevent battles between equal teams from ending too quickly.
• Escorting your allied airship and slowing down the enemy one brings additional XP and Credits.
• We've reworked and revamped the combat interface.

Participate in Airship Escort to earn special achievements for this battle type, as well as earn  Community Tokens for completing special daily and weekly combat missions.

We regularly test new mechanics in temporary modes with an eye on introducing them into the game on a permanent basis, and this is also the case for Airship Escort. If the updated mode performs well this year, Airship Escort will most likely be introduced into Random Battles in the future.

Full details about the Airship Escort mode will follow in a dedicated article.

Japanese Light Cruisers in the Tech Tree

The ships of the new branch can definitely be called classic representatives of light cruisers: they have good concealment, mediocre armor, and multiple guns that fire rather small-caliber shells in an arcing trajectory. The higher the tier of the ships in the branch, the larger the number of their main battery guns and the longer their range of fire, but their reload time also increases.

Another distinguishing feature of the new ships is their large number of torpedoes with immense damage and range, as well as wide launch sectors thanks to the turning mechanic.

Lunar New Year: Unique Pan-Asian Commander

Starts: Wed. Jan. 25 4:00 AM Central

The second week of Update 12.0 kicks off the Lunar New Year celebrations. To celebrate the event, the new "The Age of Sa Zhenbing" collection is going to be introduced into the game. It reveals the biography of the famous admiral and the naval history of China in the era of armor and steam.

The collection consists of five sections, with four elements in each. Completing each collection section will bring you 1 day of  Warships Premium Account; the reward for completing the entire collection is unique Pan-Asian Commander Sa Zhenbing with 10 skill points and a special achievement.

Enhanced Skills of Commander Sa Zhenbing

Aircraft carriers

• Improved Engine Boost: +7.5% to the engine boost action time for squadrons instead of the standard +5%.

Battleships

• Emergency Repair Specialist: –4% to the cooldown time of the Damage Control Party and Repair Party consumables instead of the standard –3%.
• Vigilance: +35% to torpedo acquisition range instead of the standard +25%.

Cruisers and destroyers

• Consumables Enhancements: +12.5% to consumable action time instead of the standard +10%.

Unique Talents of Commander Sa Zhenbing

• High Alert: Activates once per battle upon earning the Combat Scout achievement and reduces the squadron preparation and main battery gun reload times by 20%.
• Torpedo Attack Expert: Activates once per battle upon hitting enemy ships with torpedoes six times and increases torpedo speed by 5%, reduces the Torpedo Reload Booster consumable cooldown time by 25%, and adds one charge of this consumable.
• Emergency Supplies: Activates after every 1,500,000 HP of potential damage earned and reduces consumable cooldown time by 6.5%.

Collection elements can only be obtained from standard and Premium "The Age of Sa Zhenbing" containers. The exchange rate for duplicates is 1:4.

In total, you can obtain 42 standard containers in Update 12.0:

• 23 containers for completing a special combat mission
• 10 containers in Battle Pass rewards
• 1 container for logging in to the game after the start of the event
• 2 containers in free daily random bundles
• 6 containers can be purchased from the Armory:

• 2 containers for Community Tokens
• 2 containers for Free XP
• 2 containers for Credits

This number of containers is sufficient to complete the collection.

"The Age of Sa Zhenbing" Premium containers will be available for purchase in the Armory and Premium Shop.

Each "Age of Sa Zhenbing" container includes:

• 1x Lunar Warrior expendable camouflage
• One item from the list below:

• 52% - 8x one type of common (grey) bonus { , , , };
• 20% -  120,000 Credits
• 14% -  6,000 Elite Commander XP
• 14% -  2,000 Free XP

• An element of "The Age of Sa Zhenbing" collection

Each "Age of Sa Zhenbing" Premium container includes:

• 10x one type rare (blue) bonus { , , , };
• One item from the list below:

• 60% - 15x one type of special (green) bonus { , , , };
• 15% -  25,000 Elite Commander XP
• 15% -  7,500 Free XP
• 10% -  3,000 Coal

• An element of "The Age of Sa Zhenbing" collection
  

In Update 12.8, standard "The Age of Sa Zhenbing" containers will become available in the Armory in exchange for  Coal.

We've added the ability to transition to the Armory directly from the collection screen to purchase the collection containers, as well as reworked the Collections section.

Early Access to US Hybrid Battleships

New U.S. Tier VIII–X hybrid battleships hit the seas in Early Access in Update 12.0.

The New York Port has been decorated to celebrate the event.

Ship specifics

• The 406 mm main battery artillery of the new ships has a good firing range but not the highest damage per minute.
• A squadron of bombers that carry HE bombs acts as aircraft armament.
• The large number of aircraft in each flight will allow you to deal significant damage to enemy ships.
• The vulnerable parts of the new ships are their large, lightly armored superstructures that house an aircraft hangar.

Early access

Starts: Wed. Feb. 01 4:00 AM Central

Nebraska — The final reward of the Premium Battle Pass.

Delaware — Can be obtained via random bundles available for  Doubloons.

Louisiana — Available to purchase for  Doubloons at the end of a sequential bundle chain.

In the third week of Update 12.0, players will gain access to the themed section of the Armory, as well as special combat mission groups. Completing them will bring you a new temporary resource — American Tokens. The final reward is Commander Statue of Liberty with a unique voiceover.

You'll be able to exchange your Tokens for sequential bundles that hold the following items:

• Stormy Sky permanent camouflages
• American Battleships commemorative flag
• A bonus package for VIII Nebraska
• Signals
• Expendable camouflages
•  Coal
•  Credits
•  Free and  Elite XP

During the Early Access period, you can obtain enough free Tokens in total to purchase the Stormy Sky permanent camouflage, as well as a bonus package for VIII Nebraska.

More details will be available in a dedicated article.

Ranked Battles

Update 12.0 kicks off Ranked Battles Season 10, which runs until the end of Update 12.1.

Battles will be fought in a 6 vs. 6 format with battleships, destroyers, cruisers, and carriers of the following tiers:

• Bronze League — Tier VI
• Silver League — Tier VIII
• Gold League — Tier IX–X

In Season 10, the rule for keeping a Star in the event of a loss is the same for all leagues. In the Bronze, Silver, and Gold leagues, only the top XP earner on the losing team will keep a Star. Taking this into account, we've changed the number of Stars required to complete the Gold and Bronze leagues.

In addition, we've reworked the interface, rule texts, and tooltips in the Port for Ranked Battles, as well as added a special mechanic that allows you to immediately receive all unclaimed rewards for victories if you quickly reach Rank 1 in a league.

Details about the upcoming season are available in a dedicated article on our website.

Brawls

Update 12.0 features two Brawls in different formats.

The first one involves Tier VIII ships in a 6 vs. 6 format.

Base earnings in Brawls now depend on the battle duration. Earnings will be lower in short battles; protracted battles will bring more XP and Credits compared with previous versions of Brawls in similar formats. The changes will affect all Brawl formats except 1 vs. 1.

You can read all the details about the upcoming Brawls later in separate articles (Brawl 1 and Brawl 2) on our website.

Game Balance Changes

Balance Changes

We’re tuning the balance of certain ships based on our analysis of their combat effectiveness and your feedback.

British Tier IX battleship Marlborough

• The amount of damage received by hull parts and restored by the Repair Party consumable has been increased from 50 to 60%.

British Tier VI battleship Renown

• Main battery reload time has been reduced from 26 to 25 seconds.

U.S. Tier IX cruiser Buffalo

• Main battery reload time has been reduced from 11.5 to 11 seconds.

Pan-Asian Tier IX cruiser Dalian

• Main battery reload time has been reduced from 5.5 to 5.2 seconds.

Pan-Asian Tier IX cruiser Sejong

• Main battery reload time has been reduced from 5.5 to 5.2 seconds.

Changes to Combat Instructions for superships

In Update 12.0, we've updated the Combat Instructions interface and made it more intuitive and convenient. Descriptions of ship performance characteristics and the Equipment section in the Port have also been changed.

In addition, we've changed the settings for Combat Instructions for super battleships.

German battleship  Hannover

• The number of qualified gun shots has been reduced from 12 to 10.

Japanese battleship  Satsuma

• The number of qualified gun shots has been reduced from 12 to 10.
• The inactivity period after which adjustment fire progress starts resetting has been reduced from 50 to 45 s.
• After this time, progress will now also decrease more rapidly — by 20% instead of 16.7%.

Soviet battleship  Admiral Ushakov

• The number of qualified gun shots has been reduced from 12 to 10.
• The inactivity period after which adjustment fire progress starts resetting has been reduced from 60 to 50 s.
• After this time, progress will now also decrease more slowly — by 15% instead of 16.7%.

ASW armament for Dutch cruisers

Depth Charges have been added to researchable Dutch cruisers.

Tier	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X
Maximum Damage	2000	2000	2000	2000	5000	5000
Number of Charges	2	2	2	2	2	2
Bombs in a Charge	4	4	6	8	4	4
Reload Time	40 sec

Changes to Operations

We've made changes to the composition of enemy ships to reduce the complexity of both Operation Hermes and Operation Aegis.

Armory

When Update 12.0 goes live, IX Hector — a cruiser that is an enlarged version of the Dido-class light cruiser — will become available in the Armory for  46,000 Research Points. Compared to her prototype, she has more powerful artillery and torpedo armament.

The ship is armed with fourteen 133 mm guns housed in seven turrets, as well as four quadruple-tube torpedo launchers. The ship features tube-by-tube torpedo launching capabilities, and the torpedo launchers have convenient torpedo launching sectors. Her main battery guns deal high damage per minute, but they shoot shells with low damage and armor penetration. The cruiser has good concealment and maneuverability but a small HP pool and weak armor. The cruiser has access to the Damage Control Party and Repair Party consumables with standard settings, Crawling Smoke Generator, and a choice between Defensive AA Fire and Short-Range Hydroacoustic Search in a single slot.

Content Additions and Changes

The update brings the following items to the game:

• The Double-Flavor Hot Pot, Braised Shrimps, and Braised Fish in Brown Sauce patches
• The Dumpling expendable camouflage
• Colossus, Illinois, and Daisen commemorative flags
• EAT PLAY TALK 2022 commemorative flag and achievement
• The Salamander and "Hurricane: Salamander" achievements

We've updated icons for a number of achievements and in-game resources.

Contents of the Lunar New Year Containers

The contents of the Lunar New Year standard and Premium containers are going to change with the start of Update 12.0.

Each Lunar New Year container includes one item from the following list:

• 32% - 10x one type of special (green) bonus { , , , };
• 29.6% - {FXP}} 5,000 Free XP
• 29% - 3x Lunar Warrior camouflages
• 8% - 1 day of  Warships Premium Account
• 0.9% - The Lunar New Year permanent camouflage for one Pan-Asian ship { Fenyang, Anshan, Loyang, or Huanghe }, or the Garuda permanent camouflage for Irian or Siliwangi
• 0.5% - A Pan-Asian ship { VIII Fenyang, VIII Loyang, VIII Irian, VIII Siliwangi, VI Anshan, or VI Huanghe } with a  Port slot and 10-skill-point Commander.

If you already have all items from the "Ships" or "Permanent Camouflages" groups, you'll receive  250 Doubloons instead.

Each Lunar New Year Premium container includes one item from the following list:

• 48% - 8x of one type of special (green) bonus { , , , };
• 22% - 20,000  Free XP
• 9% - The Lunar New Year permanent camouflage for one Pan-Asian ship { Fenyang, Anshan, Loyang, or Huanghe }, or the Garuda permanent camouflage for Irian or Siliwangi
• 8% - 8 days of  Warships Premium Account
• 8% - 14x Lunar Warrior camouflages
• 5% - A Pan-Asian ship { VIII Fenyang, VIII Loyang, VIII Irian, VIII Siliwangi, VI Anshan, or VI Huanghe } with a  Port slot and 10-skill-point Commander.

If you already have all items from the "Ships" or "Permanent Camouflages" groups, you'll receive  1500 Doubloons instead.

We've added new portraits for U.S. Commanders and updated a number of old ones.

The Mid-Autumn Festival permanent camouflages for VI Dunkerque, VIII Prinz Eugen, VIII Kaga, and VI Warspite have been updated.

The Royal Navy permanent camouflage for VIII Lightning is no longer available for purchase in the Exterior tab, but it is still available as a reward for completing the Royal Navy Destroyers collection.

The following ships have been added for testing by developers, supertesters, and community contributors: IX Daisen, VIII Colossus, I Hércules, II Almirante Barroso, III Vicente Guerrero, IV Córdoba, V La Argentina, VI Almirante Cochrane, VII Coronel Bolognesi, VIII Ignacio Allende, IX Santander, and X San Martin.

Future Changes

The contents of a number of containers are going to change in Update 12.1.

A number of ships will be removed from Premium Ship Special containers to make their contents equal to those of Premium Ship containers. Compensation in Premium Ship containers is given in  Credits; for Premium Ship Special containers —  Doubloons.

Journey to the West and Air Supply Premium containers

The contents of the Journey to the West containers and the Air Supply Premium container are going to change.

Each Journey to the West container includes one item from the following list (the percentage indicates the drop chances of each group of items):

• 40% - 8x one type of special (green) bonus { , , , };
• 14.6% -  5,000 Free XP
• 8% - 3x one type of rare (blue) bonus { , , , };
• 8% -  2,000 Coal
• 2% -  250 Doubloons
• 27% - 1 day of  Warships Premium Account
• 0.4% - One Pan-Asian ship { IX Bajie, IX Wujing, VIII Wukong, or VIII Sanzang } with a  Port slot and Commander with 10 skill points.

If you already have all the items from the "Ships" group, you will receive  5,000 Free XP instead.

Each Journey to the West Premium container includes one item from the following list:

• 40% - 15x one type of rare (blue) bonus { , , , };
• 16% - 8 days of  Warships Premium Account
• 11% -  99,000 Elite Commander XP
• 10% - A Pan-Asian ship { IX Bajie, IX Wujing, VIII Wukong, or VIII Sanzang } with a  Port slot and Commander with 10 skill points
• 10% -  32,000 Free XP
• 8% -  12,500 Coal
• 5% -  1250 Doubloons

If you already have all the items from the "Ships" group, you will receive  32,000 Free XP instead.

Each Air Supply Premium container includes one item from the following list:

• 68% - 14x one type of rare (blue) bonus { , , , };
• 12% - One of the following ships: { VIII Graf Zeppelin, VIII Hornet, VI Béarn, VIII Aquila, VIII Indomitable, VI Ark Royal, VIII Chkalov, VIII Saipan, or VIII Kaga } with a  Port slot and Commander with 10 skill points
• 10% -  12,500 Coal
• 10% -  32,000 Free XP

If you already have all the items from the "Ships" group, you will receive  2500 Doubloons instead.

Distant Voyages container

The Distant Voyages container is going to be updated. The container will now drop three items at once. At the same time, the drop rate of the permanent camouflage has been increased: It will be included in one of the slots with a 50% chance of dropping.

• One item from the list below:

• 33.3% -  10,500 Elite Commander XP
• 33.3% -  3,500 Free XP
• 33.3% -  225,000 Credits

• One item from the list below:

• 50% - One of 309 permanent camouflages — 50%. Breakdown:

• 20% - Special permanent camouflage
• 17.5% - Rare permanent camouflage
• 12.5% - Unique permanent camouflage

• 46.8% - One of 78 types of expendable camouflages. Breakdown:

• 39.6% - 35x single-colored camouflages
• 7.2% - 25x abstract or thematic camouflages

• 3.2% -  1,500,000 Credits

• One item from the list below:

• 33.3% -  10,500 Elite Commander XP
• 33.3% -  3,500 Free XP
• 33.3% -  225,000 Credits

If you already have all the items from the "Permanent Camouflages" group, you will receive  2,500,000 Credits instead.

RIP FXP ships

In Update 12.4, IX Groningen, X Hayate, IX Azuma, and IX Ägir will no longer be available for purchase in the Tech Tree for  Free XP. At the same time, players will have the opportunity to purchase these ships in the Armory in exchange for  Coal.

The return of Division Star

Throughout Update 12.0, Clan members will have access to special victory bonuses in the form of a Division Star.

• You can get a Division Star by playing as part of a Division with your Clanmates.
• A Star is issued to each member of a Division for the first victory gained by that Division during Update 12.0. Additional stars can be obtained by getting Coordinated Attack and Shoulder to Shoulder achievements.
• A Star can be obtained in Random, Co-op, and Clan Battles, as well as in Operations.
• Earning a certain number of Stars unlocks access to various rewards.
• If you switch Clans, any Stars and rewards you previously earned remain with you.
• To see the roster of Clanmates who you can combine your efforts with in a Division, as well as the list of rewards you can get, navigate to the Division Star tab in the Clans section.

Other Changes

• The numbering of game updates has been changed.
• We've updated the animation of all flags in the game — their movement is now more realistic. Their lighting has also been improved. Flags now look like they are made of real fabric.
• Detailed information about what enemy ships received damage upon player spotting has been added to the post-battle statistics.
• Because more than 6 months have passed since the separation of economic bonuses and exterior aesthetics, the clarification that camouflages only change the ship exterior will be removed from the descriptions of various bundles in the Armory and Premium Shop.
• Fixed a bug that caused secondary battery guns to miss enemy ships at close range or those located on the edge of the map.
• If there is a discount for purchasing a ship in the Tech Tree, it's no longer taken into account when selling the ship. The income gained from selling a ship is equal to 50% of her cost in  Credits.
• Added sound for unarmed torpedoes colliding with ships.
• Added crash sounds for jet and turboprop aircraft.
• The Swift Fish skill for aircraft carriers has been renamed Swift Flying Fish.
• A number of fixes have been made to the battle camera for submarines.
• The Recruiting Station and Naval Battle banners have been returned to the Port.
• Updated the text of the tooltip about the beginning of the Brawl.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused shots not to be fired at the aiming point when quickly moving the aiming reticle.:* Fixed the point-scoring settings in Domination mode on the Warrior's Path map.
• Fixed bugs in the characteristics of the Depth Charge Airstrike armament for Japanese cruisers:

• VII Omono, VII Tokachi, VII ARP Myōkō, VII ARP Ashigara, VII Southern Dragon, VII Eastern Dragon, VII ARP Nachi, VII ARP Haguro: The number of available flights of the Depth Charge Airstrike armament has been increased from one to two.
• VIII ARP Maya: Maximum range of the Depth Charge Airstrike armament has been increased from 5 to 7 km.

• Fixed the characteristics of X Ragnar's AA defenses: Damage by medium-range AA guns has been reduced from 673 to 669.
• Fixed a bug in secondary battery aiming angles for IX Wujing and IX Alsace. The aiming angles will change by 1°, which will not affect the combat efficiency of the ships.

For a complete list, please refer to Player Support.

• It's now possible to complete some tasks of the Five Epochs of the Navy campaign in Ranked Battles.
• Improved the geometry and textures of the following ships: Midway, Repulse, Småland, Missouri, Balao, Sinop, V-170, Renown, Edinburgh, Yodo, Takahashi, Shinonome, Shimakaze, and Atlanta, as well as the Blazing Tropics camouflage for Atlanta and the Varg and "The Last Conquest" camouflages for Bismarck.
• Fixed a number of graphical errors in visual effects for ships.
• Fixed bugs for a number of maps and Ports.
• Fixed a bug that caused traces from bomb and rocket explosions not to be displayed on land.
• Fixed a bug that caused the siren sound to be played incorrectly when capturing a Key Area in the Standard Battle mode.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the sounds of secondary armament gun shots from being played.
• Fixed sounds for obtaining a number of containers.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the sounds of squeaking mice from being played in Port Azur Lane – Dorm.
• Fixed engine sounds for ships and boats in the Port of Hamburg.
• Fixed a bug that caused the confirmation window for demounting / selling upgrades to not correspond to the player's choice in some cases.
• Fixed a bug that prevented camouflages from being displayed on the ship visible in the Port.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game client to crash when following a submarine in Spectator Mode while she was sinking.
• Fixed a number of bugs in the visual effects for the shipbuilding process in the Dockyard.
• Fixed a bug that caused the bonuses of the Helmsman skill to not be taken into account on the rudder indicator.
• Fixed a bug that caused the "Go back" button to exit to the Port when viewing a ship in the Battle Pass window.
• Fixed a bug that caused aircraft models in Hōshō's squadrons to collide when performing maneuvers.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Free Look Camera from returning to the starting point after having used the camera by holding the RMB.
• Fixed icon for the De Zeven Provinciën flag in the Port.
• Fixed a bug that caused incorrect animation for the American Cruisers container appearing on the cargo ship.
• Fixed a bug that caused the detectability parameters of a number of ships to be displayed incorrectly in battle.
• Fixed the countdown timer in the Arms Race mode when viewing battle replays.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused main battery guns and torpedo launchers to twitch when they were locked using the <Ctrl+X> keys.
• Fixed the display of Admiral Schröder in the Naval Base Port.
• Fixed a bug that caused the submarine diving planes to freeze when using the Enhanced Rudder Gears consumable.
• Fixed a bug that caused compensation for camouflages granted as rewards for completing collections to be given to players in Credits instead of Doubloons.
• Fixed the text in the tooltip of the "Ready!" button in Clan Battles and Brawls.
• Fixed playback of game interface sounds when activating the Airstrike armament.
• Fixed the point-scoring settings in Domination mode on the Warrior's Path map.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game client to crash when transitioning to the News tab.
• Fixed the description of Z-35's gun fire-control system module.
• Fixed the description of Z-42's propulsion module.
• Fixed a bug that caused environmental sounds and music to stop playing in the Port and in battle after visiting the Santa's Gift tab of the Armory.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the player's name to be displayed incorrectly in post-battle statistics.
• Fixed display of the opposing team's Bounty icon.
• Updated features of U.S. battleships in the Tech Tree.
• Fixed a bug that prevented interactions with items in the Armory that were located in the center of the screen.

Notes

[transmission ends]