Azur Lane(EN) In-Depth Equipment Guide Series: Torpedo Bombers
Torpedo Bomber Overview
Unlike fighters and dive bombers, the base damage stats in game actually refer to their torpedo damage for some reason. So it's actually okay to look at the stats in game.
Because torpedoes on torpedo bombers are not specifically named or tiered like dive bombs and MGs/cannons are, weapon tiering isn't as cryptic as fighters and dive bombers. The stat you see in game is what you get in terms of torpedo damage.
T3>T2 still mostly applies, but because the only weapons on torpedo bombers that are tiered are the AA weapons(machine guns and cannons), the disadvantages of T2 and T1 in terms of AA are probably not very apparent(torpedo bombers are not supposed to be good at shooting down other planes anyway). Torpedo damage is what matters, and it's accurately reflected in game. Therefore you can use your best judgment regarding using a T2 plane by comparing torpedo base damage.
Torpedo bombers can carry two kinds of torpedoes:
1. Common: This type of torpedoes travel in parallel to each other in straight lines from your side of the screen to the enemy's in a sweeping pattern. Good for AOE coverage.
2. Sakura: This type of torpedoes attemp to aim at specific enemies and travel in their directions. Found on Japanese torpedo bombers. Good for hunting down slow-moving/stationary strong enemies/bosses.
Torpedo bombers are a great source of touchdown/kamikaze damage, which is the damage you deal to the opponent's backrow in PvP after your planes exit off their end of the screen. Some of the torpedo bombers have kamikaze damage that are twice as much as the highest dive bombers and fighters.
The torpedoes used by these planes have different armor modifiers as surface ship torpedoes.
Against light armor: 80%
Against medium armor: 110%(vs 100% of surface ship torpedoes)
Against heavy armor: 120%
Torpedo Bomber Analyses
Barracuda
The stereotypical "best torpedo bomber".
Unlike fighters and dive bombers, the base damage stats in game actually refer to their torpedo damage for some reason. So it's actually okay to look at the stats in game.
Because torpedoes on torpedo bombers are not specifically named or tiered like dive bombs and MGs/cannons are, weapon tiering isn't as cryptic as fighters and dive bombers. The stat you see in game is what you get in terms of torpedo damage.
T3>T2 still mostly applies, but because the only weapons on torpedo bombers that are tiered are the AA weapons(machine guns and cannons), the disadvantages of T2 and T1 in terms of AA are probably not very apparent(torpedo bombers are not supposed to be good at shooting down other planes anyway). Torpedo damage is what matters, and it's accurately reflected in game. Therefore you can use your best judgment regarding using a T2 plane by comparing torpedo base damage.
Torpedo bombers can carry two kinds of torpedoes:
1. Common: This type of torpedoes travel in parallel to each other in straight lines from your side of the screen to the enemy's in a sweeping pattern. Good for AOE coverage.
2. Sakura: This type of torpedoes attemp to aim at specific enemies and travel in their directions. Found on Japanese torpedo bombers. Good for hunting down slow-moving/stationary strong enemies/bosses.
Torpedo bombers are a great source of touchdown/kamikaze damage, which is the damage you deal to the opponent's backrow in PvP after your planes exit off their end of the screen. Some of the torpedo bombers have kamikaze damage that are twice as much as the highest dive bombers and fighters.
The torpedoes used by these planes have different armor modifiers as surface ship torpedoes.
Against light armor: 80%
Against medium armor: 110%(vs 100% of surface ship torpedoes)
Against heavy armor: 120%
Torpedo Bomber Analyses
Barracuda
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+45 | 10.31s | 52 | 480 | 456 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 2x7.7mm MG T3 | 26 | 0.38s/wave | 24 | 80° |
| 3xTorpedo-Common | 3x288 |
Reload is very fast at +10, flies fast, and does tons of damage. Gold rarity allows it to give +45 aviation buff.
Common torpedo pattern is suitable for most situations.
It has the highest kamikaze/touchdown damage in the game at 480, making it PvP-relevant as well.
The purple T2 version of this plane is also very good. It has identical kamikaze damage but worse stats otherwise.
Obtainable from: UK boxes
Nakajima B6N Tenzan
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+25 | 11.63s | 48 | 168 | 398 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 2x7.7mm MG T3 | 26 | 0.38s/wave | 24 | 80° |
| 3xTorpedo-Sakura | 3x240 |
Torpedo damage is lower than the gold Barracuda, but the aiming pattern is useful against slow-moving or stationary targets(mostly bosses). For those situations, Barracuda is not going to hit with all of its torps, but this will.
For clearing many enemies this is not great, because it lacks AOE. Also terrible against fast moving enemies. It will just miss because torpedoes move slowly.
Kamikaze damage is much lower than the Barracuda. Generally not recommended for PvP. Also not recommended because the Sakura pattern will miss against enemy front row, unless you keep restarting the battle until RNG lets you hit them(some claim that this is actually a viable tactic early on).
Not as "universal" as torpedo bombers of the common pattern, but knowing when to use this will save you on certain hard maps.
Obtainable from: JP boxes, 5-4
Aichi B7A Ryuusei
The best Sakura pattern torpedo bomber in the game. Strict upgrades to the T3 Tenzan in every way.
Pretty strong AA capabilities for a torpedo bomber. Flies faster than the Tenzan and torps do more damage. HP is not much worse than the Barracuda either.
See above description for Tenzan to understand when to use this. In short, you want slow moving or stationary enemies for this plane to achieve its maximum effect. Otherwise the common torpedo pattern is much more relevant.
Obtainable from events only but the T2 purple version of Ryuusei is also very usable.
Briefly on the T2 purple Ryuusei: Slightly slower reload than the T3 purple Tenzan, but higher flying speed(same as T3 gold Ryuusei at 52 vs Tenzan's 48), slightly more kamikaze damage(188 vs 168) and slightly more AA(T2 Cannons vs T3 MGs, sort of apples to oranges but you get it).
Basically the T2 Ryuusei is interchangeable with T3 Tenzan, and the T2 Ryuusei is much easier to drop than the T3 Ryuusei in events. If you have the blueprints you can feel free to make a T2 Ryuusei if you don't have enough Tenzans.
Obtainable from: Events
TBF Avenger
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+45 | 11.37s | 52 | 188 | 433 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 2x20mm Cannon T3 | 40 | 0.65s/wave | 36 | 80° |
| 1x13mm MG T3 | 18 | 0.45s/wave | 30 | 180° |
| 3xTorpedo-Sakura | 3x260 |
Pretty strong AA capabilities for a torpedo bomber. Flies faster than the Tenzan and torps do more damage. HP is not much worse than the Barracuda either.
See above description for Tenzan to understand when to use this. In short, you want slow moving or stationary enemies for this plane to achieve its maximum effect. Otherwise the common torpedo pattern is much more relevant.
Obtainable from events only but the T2 purple version of Ryuusei is also very usable.
Briefly on the T2 purple Ryuusei: Slightly slower reload than the T3 purple Tenzan, but higher flying speed(same as T3 gold Ryuusei at 52 vs Tenzan's 48), slightly more kamikaze damage(188 vs 168) and slightly more AA(T2 Cannons vs T3 MGs, sort of apples to oranges but you get it).
Basically the T2 Ryuusei is interchangeable with T3 Tenzan, and the T2 Ryuusei is much easier to drop than the T3 Ryuusei in events. If you have the blueprints you can feel free to make a T2 Ryuusei if you don't have enough Tenzans.
Obtainable from: Events
TBF Avenger
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+25 | 14.57s | 48 | 406 | 439 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 2x7.7mm MG T3 | 26 | 0.38s/wave | 24 | 80° |
| 3xTorpedo-Common | 3x288 |
Known as the "budget Barracuda".
Damage stat on the torps are exactly the same as the gold Barracuda.
Reload is much much much slower though. If you used this plane the slowdown is very noticeable.
Other than torpedo, the other stats are slightly worse. Kamikaze damage is still very decent at over 400, just not as high as the Barracudas.
If the slow reload bothers you you can use the T2 purple Barracuda instead. It does less damage but reloads faster.
If the slow reload bothers you you can use the T2 purple Barracuda instead. It does less damage but reloads faster.
Transitional plane for the common pattern until you get the gold Barracuda. It's rather easy to obtain.
Obtainable from: US boxes, 5-1, 9-1
Swordfish
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+25 | 11.97s | 45 | 306 | 418 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 2x7.7mm MG T3 | 26 | 0.38s/wave | 24 | 80° |
| 2xTorpedo-Common | 2x288 |
Torpedo damage is identical to the gold Barracuda(and the TBF Avenger), but only fires 2 torpedoes per plane instead of the normal 3 as its peers.
Flying speed is slower than most other planes. Touchdown damage is decent but much lower than the Barracudas and the Avenger.
Can be seen as the "fast reloading" version of the TBF Avenger at the cost of -1 torp per plane. You can try it out to decide whether you want the slow-reloading high-torp number TBF Avenger or the fast(er) reloading and low-torp number Swordfish.
Obtainable from: UK boxes, 7-1
Firebrand
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+45 | 11.64s | 50 | 420 | 456 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 4x20mm Cannon T3 | 80 | 0.90s/wave | 36 | 80° |
| 3xTorpedo-Common | 3x288 |
Otherwise pretty close to the Barracuda in terms of performance. Takeoff CD is different so if you want to stagger your multiple CV launch times, it can be somewhat useful I guess. Otherwise there isn't really a case in PvE where you'd sacrifice stats for extra AA on a torpedo bomber.
Fixed event exclusive equipment as of now. This is a pretty good (almost) gold Barracuda equivalent for new players despite of it being less useful to old players.
Obtainable form: Events
TBD Devastator
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+12 | 14.13s | 48 | 300 | 303 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 2x7.7mm MG T3 | 26 | 0.38s/wave | 24 | 80° |
| 2xTorpedo-Common | 2x215 |
Pretty high damage for a blue plane, at 2 torpedoes per plane. Touchdown damage is also decent.
Probably not strictly better than the T2 blue planes. Some other blue planes do have 3 torpedoes per plane. You can compare their stats side by side to decide what you want to use.
Valid transitional choice either way.
Obtainable from: US boxes, 2-4
Nakajima B5N(Type 97 Kankou)
Stats
|
Takeoff CD
|
Flying Speed
|
Touchdown Dmg
|
HP(CV at Lv 100)
|
| AV+12 | 13.37s | 48 | 148 | 274 |
Weapon
|
Damage
|
Reload
|
Range
|
Firing Angle
|
| 2x7.7mm MG T3 | 26 | 0.38s/wave | 24 | 80° |
| 2xTorpedo-Sakura | 2x164 |
This is the blue T3 option for the plane Sakura torpedo pattern.
It will attempt to aim at enemies just like the Tenzan. Effectively using this plane requires situational awareness(see Tenzan's discussion).
Fires two torpedoes per plane. The T2 blue Tenzan also exists and fires 3 per plane(at a lower damage of 150). Similar to the TBD Devastator, this T3 blue isn't completely superior to the T2 blues.
Obtainable from: JP boxes, 2-4
References: Chinese Azur Lane Wiki: http://wiki.joyme.com/blhx/%E9%A6%96%E9%A1%B5
