Research Ships
In the lab, upon reaching level 30, click on Shipyard. This is where you engage in research for PR (priority rarity) and DR (decisive rarity) ships. It's hard to get tier ratings for PR and DR ships, but they appear to all be at least A+ tier, and usually S or SS. This means they're valuable additions to your fleet, although different sources will prioritize different order. Regardless, you'll want to begin researching PR and DR ships as soon as you can.
The ships are grouped by level, PR1 through PR6. They require certain levels of Fleet Technology Points, with higher levels requiring higher levels of points. To review your current Fleet Tech Points, switch to the Fleet Technology tab under lab, and then click on Faction. If you want to understand where the numbers come from, click back to Fleet, then on the left, pick a faction. You'll see what goes into the points you have.
There are three ways to gain fleet tech points:
- Unlock Shipgirls in that faction.
- Max limit break Shipgirls in the faction.
- Get Shipgirls to level 120.
There are two ships that are considered immediate priority:
- Friedrich der Große - PR2
- Anchorage - PR4
You may not yet have the fleet tech for either of these. PR1 ships only require you have a certain number of ships of the corresponding faction.
Acquiring a Ship
Let's first explore the page. In the lower right is a button that is probably labeled PR1 for you. Clicking it gives you access to the six levels. I recommend you click on each, then click through each ship, just to get an overall feel for what's there. For instance, PR1 ships are:
- Ibuki - IJN Faction
- Izumo - IJN Faction
- Monarch - HMS Faction
- Neptune - HMS Faction
- Saint Louis - FFNF Faction
- Roon - KMS Faction
They may not be listed in this order.
Let's say you wish to start with Roon. If you click on her, you'll see you need 7 or more Iron Blood Vanguard Fleet ships in your Library. Hopefully, you have them. If you don't, you may wish to start researching another ship first, unless you're really close and can acquire the needed ships easily. Let's say you have the ships. You'll see a big, yellow Develop button. Click it.
You can only switch which ships you are developing every 24 hours. We recommend you pick one and stick to it until you have her.
At this point, you'll be presented with a tasks to perform. Most of them will be locked, and they automatically unlock over time. They'll tell you how long until they unlock, one-by-one. You have to fulfill each task, and then you'll have a Submit button to apply it. The first is probably called Combat Data Collection I. Later, there will be Combat Data Collection II.
I am currently working on Anchorage. She's almost done. For Anchorage, you must sortie and accumulate 1 million experience using Eagle Union Vanguard ships. That's not hard, it just takes time. In short, engage in battles, any battles that grant experience, but use a fleet with as many Eagle Union Faction ships in the vanguard (front line). You can come back to this page periodically and check your progress, although it only updates every 10,000 experience, so no instant gratification for you. Note that you will not receive credit for Combat Data Collection II until you have completed Combat Data Collection I, so be sure to check back now and then, and click Submit as soon as it's available.
Once you have hit Submit on all 8 tasks, your shiny new Shipgirl will appear in your dock. Congratulations!
Developing a Ship
Once you have a new PR or DR ship, you then need to develop her. That comes in two stages. In the Shipyard, navigate to your new Shipgirl. You will see over on the right side the DEV Level 1/30. You'll also see you can spend points to level her. Excellent. How do you get points?
You can have blueprints for that ship, or many of the earlier ships also have a catch-up feature, which lets you spend coins.
You get two free points per PR level every day. This will lead to an overall strategy, discussed below.
Every day, you'll want to pop into the Shipyard. Navigate to each PR level you've earned ships, and spend those two points plus any other blueprints you've acquired that day. The number of blueprints you have for each ship will show up on the bottom in the area where you click the Shipgirl when navigating to her.
You'll want to develop your PR and DR ships. Other people talk about "she becomes usable at dev level 20". Until she is dev level 30, plus you've done the next part of development leveling her, she won't be at her full power.
Once she reaches Dev Level 30, you then enter into the Fate Simulation phase. This is nearly identical, so I won't go into it. You'll want to run her Fate simulation to maximum.
Overall Shipyard Strategy
The PR and DR ships you acquire can assist in your fleet tech points, so it's good to plan accordingly. If you need points in a particular faction, that can guide earlier ships you may prioritize.
We recommend you research ship tier lists or do a Google query of "Azur Lane shipyard priority", or something along those lines. You'll probably find competing ship order choices.
Because of the two free blueprints daily per PR level, it's good if you open up as many PR levels as you can when they become available to you. For instance, don't do all of PR1 before doing any PR2. Because I wasn't aware of far too much, I actually did three PR1 ships first, although I don't remember if I had the Fleet Tech points to do a PR2 earlier, anyway, so I might not have really had a choice.
Acquiring Blueprints
You can acquire blueprints in a few ways. Some may drop during various missions and events -- I'm not sure. And you may be able to buy some at some of the ships -- also not sure. I haven't done so. There are three others you control:
The 2 daily blueprints per PR level -- you pick which ship to use them on
In the Research Academy, click on Research Focus. More info below
In the Shipyard, at the top, you can click on BP exchange.. More info below.
Research Focus and Catchup
Research Focus gives you blueprints as you complete Research. You can only collect so many of these free blueprints per level, and you should be mindful. When I first assigned my early focus, I didn't know what I was doing, and I selected randomly. Consult a priority list. https://samheart564.github.io/ECGC/research has a lot of very useful information. But note that you only get a maximum of 300 BPs at each PR level, so you'll want to focus carefully.
Note that there are actually two aspects here: Research Focus and Catchup. Catchup gives you blueprints specific to a particular ship. Research Focus focuses the research tasks you're given and what drops land from them. For acquiring PR and DR ships, it's really the catchup that matters.
BP Exchange
Along the way from events and missions, you'll acquire "General Blueprint - Series 4", 5, or 6. These blueprints can be traded for BPs specific to a specific research shipgirl by clicking BP Exchange in the upper right of the Shipyard. It is recommended you do NOT use the BPs for lower PR level ships, as you can level them using gold, and do not use Series 5 or 6 for PR4 and below. That's only advice, of course.
The shipgirl you're viewing when you hit PR Exchange controls which BPs you'll acquire. So click the Shipgirl, then click BP Exchange.
