By cheeky1467 with elp Latest Season PR9 release PR7 fate sim PR7 catch up PR6 DR5 coining

This mini guide is intended to provide the most complete information for new players to select their research focus although older players may learn something new too We list the advantages and disadvantages of focusing on each season to help you make an informed decision Alternatively you may follow the overall recommendation directly See Cheeky s Guide to Priority Research and Development for other aspects of research

New players select PR DR 8 as your Research Focus Season 8 has flexible rainbow ships and provides the best medium to long term value Gear wise the Mecklenburg gun is in a class of its own right now and has the best longevity and impact of any season s gear

PR DR 1 3 Do not focus on these seasons Do build the ships They can be coined to be used for combat or protocore Read the ECGC guide linked above to learn more Do not focus on these seasons Are you drunk There is no reason to focus on these seasons PR DR 4 4 of 5 ships are still strong and decently relevant before endgame Most of the gear are good and some have BiS usages Fast to complete the season Ship focus is redundant and expensive because there is coining Gear focus is redundant because all the gear can be crafted in the Gear Lab albeit some of it is expensive All the ships have been powercrept to some degree and half of the good gear have as well The season has catch up and coining for all ships letting you complete the season quickly But the season is retired Because all the ships can be coined and all the gear can be crafted in the Gear Lab there s no need to focus on PR4 In the long term you re kind of just wasting time if you do PR4 research focus Past that fatal flaw Season 4 has solid gear and ships especially if you re new The 4 ships other than Marco Polo are very useful before endgame and Aegir can still tank in endgame From the gear Tenrai and Saiun are still relevant in endgame with Tenrai being used for campaign and heavy bosses and Saiun being a converging TB for any boss BF 109G is very good for new players and Aegir gun is the earliest good accessible CB gun PR DR 5 Plymouth is a strong DR ship and still a relevant entity Some other ships are decently relevant before endgame Plymouth gun is the best CL gun and Harbin Gun is a good DD gun Fast to complete the season Ship focus is redundant and expensive because there is coining Gear focus is redundant because all the gear can be crafted in the Gear Lab albeit some of it is expensive Other than Plymouth the ships aren t standouts The other gear are mid Somewhat high tech point requirements The season has catch up and coining for all ships letting you complete the season quickly But the season is retired Because all the ships can be coined and all the gear can be crafted in the Gear Lab focusing Season 5 is a waste of time The only quarter decent reason to focus on PR5 is for Plymouth and her gun but she is coinable Brest is quite redundant in 2026 with how many other CB and non CB tanks there are Harbin Chkalov and Rupprecht have either been powercrept or have many alternatives As for gear besides Plymouth gun the rest of the gear isn t too much to write home about PR DR 6 Shimanto is extremely strong for all of the later campaign chapters performing better than many rainbow ships The season has catch up and gold ship coining making it a faster to complete Hindenburg gun is one of the best CA guns and Flandre gun is great against medium and heavy bosses Hindenburg is powercrept and Kearsarge is somewhat niche The other gear are mid Has high tech point requirements Hindenburg gun has been powercrept by Moskva gun While better than 4 and 5 because of longer term value Season 6 is the last season you really want to focus on out of 6 7 and 8 Hindenburg and Kearsarge while situationally good are somewhat niche in their use cases Hindenburg can and usually should be replaced by a good buff debuffer and Kearsarge strongly prefers to fight light armor bosses with Yorktown II and or Lexington II Among the PR ships Shimanto who is extremely relevant in campaign can be finished quickly just by doing catch up and coining once you unlock her And Flandre and Felix are solid but not that remarkable The Hindenburg gun is the second best CA gun against mobs and medium bosses It also ties or closely trails Drake gun against heavy bosses meaning that light armor bosses are Hindenburg gun s only weakness But because Moskva gun is a straight upgrade Hindenburg gun s worth has dropped Flandre gun is one of the great gold 20s AP BB guns good against medium and heavy bosses Besides Felix gun as a budget CL gun the rest of the gear is bad PR DR 7 Nahkimov is among the strongest ships in the game currently Napoli is the tankiest vanguard ship in the game currently not that useful though Bayard is decently tanky and has higher personal damage output than even Plymouth Daisen is one of the best gold BBs Most of the gear are decent and some have BiS usages Nakhimov strongly prefers to be paired with Moskva or Soyuz Bayard s AA is nothing to write home about and she lacks utility for endgame use Daisen is still only an SR BB roughly comparable to the older UR BBs against light armor but dumpstered by them in all other content and by newer UR BBs Halford is mid Has high tech point requirements and no catch up You want to focus on Season 7 mainly for Nahkimov and La 9s which really dominate against medium armor The caveat however is that Nahkimov really needs Moskva or Soyuz to stand on top Napoli is the tankiest vanguard in the game currently but she s lacking damage and utility diminishing her competitiveness for current endgame content Bayard will be useful as a vanguard ship who can do everything albeit not as well as newer rainbow ships Daisen is one of the best gold BBs which could be useful if you cannot afford to max three rainbow BBs by the time Daisen is maxed As a new player maxing three or four of these ships gives you a very strong roster The La 9 is the highest damage airplane against medium armor and the highest damage fighter against heavy It does 43% more damage against medium armor than the second best which is BF 109G La 9 also beats the next best fighter against heavy FW 190 A 6 by 52% damage You will want several copies of La 9 The VIT 2 Mode Change is also really nice to have as a timing option but with Saiun Ju 87d and Ryuusei as the timing sidegrades and FW U2 doing the same damage as VIT 2 but reloading faster it s not necessary to have PR DR 8 Mecklenburg is one of the best BBs in the game Gouden Leeuw is a really strong campaign ship The Mecklenburg gun is very meta against medium and heavy bosses Best long term value The gold PR ships are all worse than Bayard and Daisen in Season 7 at least until fate sim in August The gold gear is also really mediocre Has high tech point requirements and no catch up Season 8 has the best long term value to focus on because it will be the latest of the current seasons to get various catch up mechanics Starting focus on the newest season lets you do hard work for this season and easy work when you return to an earlier season If you start with the second newest season then you would end up doing hard work for both seasons Mecklenburg is one of the strongest BBs in the game currently particularly for heavy armor and she isn t as reliant on Bismarck Zwei in the way that Nahkimov is reliant on Moskva or Soyuz Gouden Leeuw will be very useful in campaign if you re lacking ships like Guam and Laffey 2 but if you already have a lot of the good AA ships for later campaign stages her value drops by a decent bit For new players Gouden is great to use everywhere because she is less reliant on having rainbow gear than Napoli The gold ships and gear are noticeably worse overall compared to previous seasons Although the Mecklenburg gun is only 7% more damage per salvo than the Champagne gun against medium armor and 15% more against heavy armor the faster reload is very beneficial in META Showdown But it is a smaller upgrade compared to the Champagne gun than the La 9 is to the BF 109G Mecklenburg gun is now the best 20 second BB gun against heavy and second best after Rafaello s limited SAP gun against medium Like the La 9 you will want a few copies of it PR DR 9 Both DRs are relevant and strong across a wide range of content Takahashi is a solid ship for late campaign stages The Ta 152 is currently the best Dive Bomber for medium and heavy armor bosses Several of the gold gear are strong Orage and Duncan are mid While the DRs and Ta 152 are very strong currently it doesn t look like they ll shake up the meta much Has high tech point requirements and no catch up Overall PR9 is a strong season and a good choice for research focus However my recommendation would be to do PR8 first Valparaso s performance is a bit up in the air at the moment due to her powerful long range secondaries and utility being almost a first in the game and something of an unknown Conservatively she doesn t appear to be strictly better than any existing UR BBs in the game Max Immelman is one of the main fleet ships with the highest damage period However the current balance of power July 2026 tends to favour UR BBs over UR CVs for single target bosses The former are also easier to max since the only real concern is getting 3 good BB Guns i e 3 Mecklenburg guns and 3 Mk 7 or Lion guns versus potentially up to 5 La 9s HVAR Hellcats 2 to 3 Ta 152s and 6 gold converging Torpedo Bombers And for the main campaign there are plenty of good SR CVs that match or even exceed the performance of UR CVs like Max Immelman From PR8 Mecklenburg and Gouden Leeuw are still solid ships in their own right but the Mecklenburg gun is in a class of its own right now with the best longevity and flexibility of anything either season has to offer