Azur Lane(EN) In-Depth Equipment Guide Series: Destroyer Main Guns
The purpose of destroyer main guns can be either skill trigger or damage output.
This lends to two kinds of min-max design for these guns:
1. Rate of fire(RoF) focused(more gun firing = higher chance for some skills to be triggered, damage is relatively irrelevant).
2. Damage focused.
Ammo modifier is highly unfavorable for DD guns that fire AP shells. Normal shells are also lackluster. Therefore when possible, HE guns should be your primary choice. Click here to see all gun ammo modifiers.
Destroyer guns have 360 degrees of turret rotations so characters using these guns can hit enemies in all directions, including backwards.
Regarding range stats:
In-Game Range: Purpose unclear.
Acquisition Range: The maximum distance from an enemy for the gun to rotate and attempt to aim.
Firing range: The maximum distance from an enemy for the gun to fire. If enemy moved outside of firing range after the gun fired, shells can travel up to 10 more distance units to chase it.
Destroyer Main Gun Analyses
Twin 130mm Main Gun B-2LM
Currently the highest theoretical DPS among DD guns.
Almost all stats)including range) are considerably better than other options. Ammo is normal, which is not ideal for DD guns. But even with this drawback the damage from this gun is still very high.
Limited by event availability.
Obtainable from: Events
Single 138.6mm Main Gun (Mle 1929)
Highest effective DPS among DD guns. Generally considered the best.
Because it is HE it competes with the gold 127mm twin for the HE gun spot, but of course this one is not strictly better.
Weapon stat boost is FP+35, which is not very common for DD guns because the weapon stat boost is often split between FP and AA. This becomes somewhat important if you would like to use this as a secondary weapon for back line ships or CA/CLs.
Shell output is very high, second only to the 100mm Twin. Consider this for shield break purposes in later maps.
Despite all other good stats, its rate of fire does suffer a bit. If your DD cares about firing-based triggers this may not be the best. However, if your DD cares about shelling damage the most and skill trigger second (like Z23 and others) this can be a great option.
Consider farming multiples of this gun and trying it out on CL/CAs as secondaries.
Side note: The T2 purple version still has very high adjusted DPS (35.17), slightly beating gold 127mm Twin but suffers even more form reload time issues.
Obtainable from: Events
Twin 127mm MK12 Dual Gun
High alpha damage, high DPS. HE shells.
If your DD's firepower and overall gun usage is favorable(including skills, weapon efficiencies etc), this is an excellent choice.
The reload is on the slower side. If your DD's main goal is to trigger firing-dependent skills, this gun will not be your best choice.
Has some AA specialization (Firepower+20 AA+25). AA light cruisers can usually equip DD guns as their main guns therefore this is a viable option for both gun damage and AA bonus.
Obtainable from: US boxes, 5-1, 8-1, 10-3, 11-1
Twin 100mm (Type 98) AA Gun
Lower alpha damage, and lower DPS than the 127mm Twin above. Shell is normal therefore no HE bonus. Rate of fire is faster.
Theoretical DPS is higher than the 127mm Twin(fast firing rate without much damage decrease), but due to ammo modifier, actual DPS is lower(this is why I advise against clicking on DPS sorting on various wikis as they can be misleading).
Performance is solid gold-gun tier. But might feel weaker overall compared to the 127mm Twin.
Suitable for DDs with more balanced goals. The kind of DD that can use the main gun well enough (high firepower high main gun efficiency), but also has a firing dependent skill that you plan to trigger at least sometimes. This is good for achieving that delicate balance.
AA specialization is even more lopsided than the 127mm Twin. This is +15 firepower and +30 AA. Therefore, this is also a good choice for AA light cruisers if they can equip this.
The very niche use of this gun is shield-break. This deserves its own article but briefly: enemy shields guards against hit-count, not against damage amount(i.e. a shield may disappear after let's say 8 hits of any bullet). Therefore, this gun's fast reload coupled with high number of shells per salvo leads to a high "shell number per second"(not damage per second). This will break enemy ships very efficiently and perform better than the slow-reload high-damage guns like the Twin 127mm gold on maps with many shielded enemies.
This is yet another reason to not just sort by DPS and call it a day. Actual weapon performance in this game depends on far too many factors other than DPS.
Obtainable from: JP boxes, 9-4, 12-4
76mm Artillery
The famed "blue 76™".
Extreme rate of fire specialization with no damage to speak of.
If a firing-dependent skill is crucial for your DD, you will choose this gun. This gun can easily achieve 100% skill coverage for ships like Ayanami and Yuudachi, meaning that their first skill buffs will carry them throughout the entire battle.
Because barrage/danmaku are also triggered by firing for most DDs, you can use this gun to maximize their triggers.
Just know that using this will mean they do next to nothing in terms of gun damage. Then again, if they are bad at using main guns you might as well sacrifice that for something better, like their skills.
This is by no means the "best gun" for every DD with a barrage/danmaku(as many people believe). You need to decide for yourself if it's worth it based on specific skills.
Obtainable from: US boxes, 3-3
Twin 120mm Main Gun
Highest theoretical DPS in all DD guns.
Plays similarly to the gold 127mm Twin. Same damage per shot but slightly faster reload.
Then why the hell is this purple? Because it fires normal shells instead of HE.
Therefore actual DPS is not as high as the gold 127mm Twin. Again, do not simply click on a dumbfuck theoretical DPS sort button on a wiki to figure out what you should use. Think about what is really happening and what you are trying to achieve.
The inherent weapon modifier for this gun is 125%. Both of the gold 127mm Twin and gold High Angle 100mm(gold Akizuki gun) are 110%(to find out what weapon modifiers are, click here and scroll to the bottom). Therefore actual damage output of this thing isn't too much lower than the gold 127mm Twin.
Another interesting thing to note is that this gun has no AA specialization. It is a flat +25 firepower. This is actually more firepower than the gold 127mm Twin and the gold 100mm Akizuki despite being a rarity lower.
Tighter dispersion than the gold 127mm Twin (10 vs 16 degrees). Tighter spread and more accurate shots.
Taking all these factors into consideration, overall this gun is probably only slightly worse than the gold 127mm Twin because of the lack of HE. The value of HE depends on your map but in most PvE situations, you do want HE. Therefore you probably want to eventually transition to the gold 127mm Twin.
The rate of fire is on the slow side, similar to the gold 127mm Twin. Don't use this on a DD that really depends on its firing-based skill triggers.
Obtainable from: UK boxes, 4-2, 8-1
Single 127mm Main Gun (US)
Just like how the 120mm Twin purple above is sort of a downgrade from the gold 127mm Twin, this purple 127 Single can be seen as a "downgrade" of the gold 100mm Akizuki gun.
Stats first: Flat +25 firepower with no AA specialization and 125% weapon modifier, the same as the purple 120mm Twin above. For damage output these stats are more favorable than the gold 100mm. Something to think about.
Higher alpha than the gold 100mm. Theoretical DPS is quite a bit lower than the gold 100mm, but this has HE ammo, making its actual DPS at least on par or slightly higher than the gold 100mm.
Dispersion is 15 vs gold 100mm's 10. In addition, this has some weird extra dispersion that isn't stated by the stats. It shoots three times per salvo with its single barrel (pew pew pew). Every pew has a chance to "wiggle" +/- 25 degrees. Firing animation delay is actually considerable, which adds to the effective reload time.
This is probably all nitpicking so in practice this is not going to be MUCH worse than the gold 100mm and they are more or less interchangeable(assuming you don't care about 100mm's AA). This is partially why the gold 100mm is less sought after than the gold 127mm Twin.
Again, this plays similar to the gold 100mm so you want to use it on DDs with balanced goals. This fires fast enough to trigger some skills, and you don't lose out too much gun damage compared to the 76mm blue.
Obtainable from: US boxes, 3-2, 10-1, 11-1
Twin 128mm Dual Gun (SK C/41)
AP DD gun with the highest DPS as of now.
AP shell modifies for DD guns are extremely punishing. Even the German AP-specialized DDs can't compensate for it .
It has potential as a secondary gun for back row ships. AP shells have higher velocity than HE shells so this gun may be useful against fast-traveling suicide boats (such as those seen in daily raids).
It's possible that DD's AP usage might be buffed in some ways in the future. When that time comes, this gun may become good (or they'll just take the lazy route and make a better AP gun than this as an event reward).
Obtainable from: DE boxes
Twin 120mm Mounted Gun Model 1936
Very high alpha damage, theoretical DPS is also very high.
Comparable to the other purple 120mm Twin (see above). High theoretical DPS undermined by unfavorable ammo type (normal).
More punishing slow reload than the other 120mm Twin. Coupled with worse dispersion, this gun is a slight downgrade from it.
Not a very coveted event gun as its functionality is easily replicated by another gun. If we were to nitpick we can probably say that the 17x4 gun damage vs the 15x4 of the other 120mm gives this gun a slight edge as a secondary gun for backrow ships because alpha damage matters more than reload in killing suicide boats, but... yeah.
Obtainable from: Event
127mm Mounted Gun
Time for some Allies bias.
This is one of the few cases where a T3 weapon is actually less used than a T2. But I guess because this is a Japanese weapon it's supposed to be terrible cuz Allies bias. This game is called "Azur Lane" after all, not "Crimson Axis".
Slow reload similar to gold Twin 127mm. Damage is lower.
The purple Twin 127mm(US) T2(the T2 version of the gold Twin 127mm) is actually slightly higher in DPS than this gun despite lower rate of fire and being T2. Kinda makes you think.
The saving grace is that this thing at least fires HE. This can't be a bad thing for DD main guns.
Also the game displays this as firing 2 shells at the same time. It's actually 4... but this still doesn't really help to make this a better gun.
Because the rate of fire is slow, it doesn't really help if you want to trigger skills/danmaku.
And if you want damage output, there are better choices out there.
Use this as a transitional weapon if you must.
Obtainable from: JP boxes, 6-4, 8-1, 10-1, 12-2
Single 130mm Main Gun (T2)
Normally we don’t talk about T2 weapons but it doesn’t seem that the T3 purple version of this is coming out soon so we’ll talk about it here.
Blue gun with normal ammo. Performance is rather average. However it does have the highest range stats among all DD guns in the game as of now.
When the purple version of this comes out it may have some interesting use if the stats are reasonable. As of now the blue version’s other stats don’t justify using it for the range.
Feel free to experiment with this gun as secondary weapon for backrow ships, though. The 65 acquisition range may be helpful in improving reaction time against fast-moving suicide boats.When(if) the purple T3 version comes out, I’m assuming that the range would stay at 65 only with better stats (and being +10 moddable), which would make it much more of a backrow gun contender than this T2 version.
Obsolete. See below.
Obtainable from: Anshan class stock weapon
Single 130mm Main Gun (T3)
The purple T3 gun is finally released.
As expected all stats are better than the T2 version. As a bonus, ammo is switched from normal to He as well.
Solid choice for a top tier DD gun. Overall performance slightly worse than the French 138.6mm (Le Triomphant gun). However the faster reload may be useful for skill activations.
Quantity limited by events as of now.
Obtainable from: Event
130mm Single Mle1924
High shell output blue DD gun(x5 pattern). Performance is on the high-end among blue guns.
May be helpful to players who started playing this game at the time of the event in which this was obtainable, as this is a good choice for a transition gun. However, to most players this is likely an event souvenir/collector item.
Obtainable from: Events
Twin 134mm AA Gun
One of the few AP DD guns. Not a primary choice for DD main guns as AP shell modifiers are very punishing.
It fires 2 shots at once in parallel, and that's it. Not the 2x2 pattern you see in the better guns.
Very low DPS for a purple gun.
Some AA specialization exists. Firepower+10 and AA+15.
Acquisition range is very high at 62, second only to the 130mm Chinese gun. This is useful as it can start aiming at incoming ships earlier than other guns. This is especially relevant for backrow ships using this as secondary reacting to fast moving suicide boats.
Because this gun only fires one time per wave/attack, it has no firing animation delay (the same is seen in the blue 76mm). Coupled with AP’s faster shell velocity, this can theoretically be a niche anti-fast suicide boat weapon for your backrow. The mediocre damage does hurt its effectiveness, though.
Obtainable from: UK boxes, 4-1, 9-3
Triple 102mm Auxiliary Gun
Lowest DPS among all purple DD guns.
Fires normal shells.
2.87s reload, about 1.5s higher than your average DD gun reload.
Picture looks like a triple but it fires shots sequentially with base dispersion of 20 degrees. It has the same +25/-25 degree random wiggle with every shot as the purple 127mm Single, except the purple 127mm Single is actually a good gun.
The name claims that this is a secondary gun, but... I have my doubts. It might be "better" as a secondary gun for BB/BC than as a main gun for DD because of the dispersion, but there are better options out there for each purpose.
Unless there are some hidden stats or mechanics that isn’t discovered yet, it is baffling why this is purple.
Obtainable from: UK boxes, 7-1
Single 120mm Main Gun (UK)
The second highest rate of fire after the blue 76mm(0.76s reload vs 0.67).
Higher damage per shot (11 vs 7) than the blue 76mm.
In short, this is a gun that isn't fully committed to rate of fire and wants to do slightly more damage.
Minmax artists will probably deem this a useless attempt though.
In early game, this is quite interchangeable with the blue 76mm for DDs with good skill triggers. Everyone is so fixated on the blue 76mm because it's famous, but why not be a hipster and use this? It's barely any different in practice. At the very least, it's another usable rate of fire gun in your equipment pool. So you should be happy about this option.
Obtainable from: UK boxes, 1-4
Single 127mm Main Gun (UK)
Worse version of the blue 120mm Single above.
Same reload at 0.76s at a lower alpha damage at 7. Range stats are also worse.
Probably not.
I guess this is another ROF gun in case you don't have the 76mm. Can't hurt to have more options in the pool, right?
Obtainable from: UK boxes, 3-2
Single 127mm Main Gun (DE)
German blue 127mm Single. Germans like to meme AP shells in everything, DD guns included, which is pretty dumb due to the unfavorable ammo modifiers.
Popping one shot(literally one bullet) every 1.11s is just depressing. AP just makes it worse.
Even if someday DD AP guns become relevant, there are already better options than this. See above.
Obtainable from: DE boxes, 1-4
Twin 102mm Auxiliary Gun
1.52s reload is way too long for two shells doing 7 base damage each. Inherent gun modifier is cut down to 110% too for some reason, when nearly all other blue DD guns have 125%. Normal shells are not helping either.
Second lowest DPS among all T3 DD guns.
Obtainable from: UK boxes, 3-3
Single 120mm Main Gun (JP)
This is the Japanese attempt at a blue 120mm Single. As expected, it's worse than the UK one.
The UK one traded a little bit of ROF for damage, but it's still usable as a ROF gun.
This gun has worse alpha damage, AND worse reload at 1.02s. This is just too much for the very little damage it does.
Despite of both guns being T3 and same rarity, this actually seems to be strictly worse. In fact this gun has the lowest DPS among all T3 DD guns in the game. Allies bias strikes again.
Obtainable from: JP boxes, 2-4
Reference: CN wiki at Joyme: http://wiki.joyme.com/blhx/%E5%85%A8%E6%AD%A6%E5%99%A8%E5%AF%B9%E6%8A%A4%E7%94%B2%E8%A1%A5%E6%AD%A3%E4%B8%80%E8%A7%88
Reference: CN wiki at Joyme: http://wiki.joyme.com/blhx/%E5%85%A8%E6%AD%A6%E5%99%A8%E5%AF%B9%E6%8A%A4%E7%94%B2%E8%A1%A5%E6%AD%A3%E4%B8%80%E8%A7%88
