WHAT EQUIPMENTS SHOULD I USE IF I HAVE NOTHING BUT CRAP RNG HATES ME HALP: Transitional(Bad) Equipment Guide

A very common problem new players face is that they have no resources to buy equipment boxes. Once they do, they roll bad RNG. Then they cry because they can't follow some guide that tells them how to equip their ships.

This is what this guide is for: When you don't have the "best" equipment on some tier list you're following, what is the next best(or next next best) thing?

I will introduce some purple and blue equipments that you can use as you transition. Some are keepers that carry you to end game, others are not. I will specify it for each.

DD Guns

These two are fine.

If you don't have these, I wouldn't bother with blue guns other than the 76mm. T2 versions of the gold guns are fine. But if you can you should still use these 2 because they are T3.

KEEP OR SCRAP: I would upgrade them to +6 while waiting for the gold DD guns(or the blue 76mm) to come, but given that they are both T3 weapons(therefore no corresponding gold versions) and that their stats aren't really all that bad, you are free to go beyond +6 if you wish. Definitely not a total waste if you do. They can remain as weapons for your second line DDs until more gold guns rotate them out.

CL Guns

Normally you probably don't want to use this one on a CL, but since we are talking about bad situations, you can try to use this as an AP gun instead of the ideal AP gun TbtsKC. 

Keep in mind the bullets have large spreads. It's better on crowded maps or you need to get close. There is like... really no good AP guns out there. So we have to pick a gun with good stats despite of shitty firing pattern.

KEEP OR SCRAP: You can upgrade it to +6 if you're using it on a CL. However, the firing pattern of this actually isn't bad as a BB/BC secondary gun. If you do plan to use it that way after you transition to better equipments, feel free to go beyond +6.

T2 version of the Belfart gun. Normally I would recommend a purple T3 weapon but all the T3 purple CL HE guns have large spreads. You can use this while you wait for the gold one.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Scrap. Upgrade to +6 at most. Purely transitional until you get the T3 gold one.

CA Guns

Atago gun is fine for now. Though most other CAs benefit more from AP guns. This is T3 so there's no better versions of the exact same gun(203mm No.3 doesn't count).

KEEP OR SCRAP: You can use this as a transitional CA gun first before you get the gold Eugen 203mm. After that, if gold 203mm No.3 didn't hit EN yet, you are free to upgrade it further for Atago. I probably wouldn't waste too much to go all the way up to +10 though.

Poor man's Eugen gun.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Don't go past +6 (I'd probably go for even less). Once you get the gold T3 version, scrap.

BB/BC Main Guns

MK6 and 410mm Twin are really not that hard to get. I have never heard of people not getting those. But if you don't have them, these guns are fine. Picked some representative ones because they are HE. You really do NOT want to use AP(not even that dumbfuck gold one), at least not for PvE right now because unfavorable armor modifiers. So fuck'em. And fuck these too, as soon as you get the two good purples.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Scrap them all. You really should be using MK6 and 410mm Twin. Upgrade minimally.

This is slightly worth mentioning.

For ships like Hood that have firing-based skill triggers, you want fast reload. And 381mm Twin(fastest firing gun right now) isn't always available. If you want to use a transitional RoF gun, you can try this guy. The reload is not much slower.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Purely transitional. Because it's blue it doesn't even go past +6.

BB/BC Secondary Guns

You want gold 155mm, purple 152mm AP or triple 152 HE for big secondaries and 127mm HE gold for small secondaries. If not I have a few shitty guns you can use.

This is actually okay as a secondary. But then if you're new every Tbst is precious to you and you probably want to use it on a CL instead. If RNG decides that you get a buttload of this gun, you can use it as a transitional secondary.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Definitely keep. This is a good CL gun after all. After your'e done transitioning give it back to its rightful owner(a CL).

This thing again. Not much to say. Just like how it's a shittier version of the gold one for CL, it's also a shittier version here as a secondary.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Transitional. Don't invest too much. Pray that you get Belfart gun soon.

T2 version of the gold. Not much to say here. Purely transitional before you get the good ones. For small secondaries it's usually better to use HE. If you can find other HE DD guns you can use those too. Having said that, don't use the T1(blue) version of this. Not only the stats suck balls, it doesn't even have HE ammo for god knows why.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Scrap it. +3 is fine. +6 if you must.

Aka "the antenna guy". This thing is okay as an AP gun for a small secondary. At least the guy carrying this can fend for himself against one suicide boat in front of him. Maybe.

KEEP OR SCRAP: It's a T3, but don't invest too much but if you must +6 is alright.

Torpedoes

If all your torps are blue it probably doesn't really matter which ones you use. Once you move into purples there are two shitty torps that are usable.

It's not really hard to get this one because it shows up a lot in boxes. This is a really decent budget torp.

Damage is the same as gold quint, just 4 shots instead of 5. Reload is slightly faster though.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Actually you can keep this forever if you want. Go ahead and do up to +8.

Look at the picture carefully. This is the purple 610 triple (T3) NOT the purple 610 quad (T2). The T2 quad is such a piece of shit. Don't use it by mistake.

This one on the other hand is quite good. The ammo is the same as the gold 610 T3 quad therefore same damage and everything, just 3 shots instead of 4. Reload is faster than the gold 610 quad. It's analogous to the relationship between the 533 T3 quad and the 533 T3 quint.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Budget version of the gold 610 quad. It's actually pretty good. Due to the difficulty of getting the gold 610 quad you might want to invest in a few of these for your DDs that don't have gold quads yet. Around +8 is fine.

Fighters

T3 Corsair. Everyone has a buttload of these from 3-4 failing to get Akagi and Kaga. If you don't, then you're doing RNG wrong.

Best purple fighter. It's actually not that hard to get a gold fighter from boxes but if you don't, I'm sure you got these.

KEEP OR SCRAP: This is pretty good. If you for some reason absolutely can't get a gold fighter go ahead and mod past +6, but I doubt you will.

I don't think I need to talk about the other fighters tbh. Everyone jumps on the 3-4 bandwagon as a new player anyway so everyone has more than enough of these. No need to touch the other ones.

Dive Bombers

There are a LOT of terrible bombers in this game and most of them are Japanese. You can try using them but I wouldn't upgrade too much despite of them being purple. Let's talk about a few notable ones.

99 Kanbaku is pretty meh. But hey at least it's a T3 plane so its weapons are T3.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Scrap. Purely transitional. It's not that hard to get the SB2C so you probably shouldn't get this past +4 or so, +6 if you are progressing in the maps and RNG really hates you.

BTD-1 T2 edition. T2 stuff is just depressing. For planes, it means all of its weapons are nerfed compared to the T3 equivalents. "1600 lbs x2" my ass.

KEEP OR SCRAP: If you have really shitty luck and have to use a T2 bomber, I guess you can use this one. Even the T3 version is overshadowed by SB2C so you can imagine how this one performs. Reserve your +'s to a minimum then scrap it once you get something better.

Here's a blue. Probably the best blue dive in the game. It's T3 so at least the weapons are okay.

The Dauntless carries the same T3 2000 lbs that SB2C carries. Same bomb on a worse body. Besides because this is blue, the bomb stat will only be able to be buffed to +6.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Because of the T3 weapon it's a pretty good budget bomber. But it simply has too many limitations being a blue plane. Feel free to +6 if you can't get purple bombers since it doesn't cost that much. Eventually you will rotate this out and move on with your life.

Torpedo Bombers

Actually don't ignore the Tenzan. It has the aiming firing pattern and is the best torp bomber of this pattern that is normally obtainable from the game.

Only listing it here because you use the sweep attack pattern a LOT more on maps so this is probably not ideal.

You should still keep a few Tenzan around for event and later map bosses that are stationary.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Keep until strictly better versions of this get added to the game. For now you can go beyond +6 if you like.

The Avenger is the famed "budget Barracuda". Damage is exactly the same except it reloads slow.

If you can afford the slow reload, by all means. The damage is pretty great.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Keep until you get gold Barracuda. If you wish you can upgrade this to +8 or so and keep this for your second line CVs until you get enough Barracudas for everyone.

T2 Barracuda. This is ok. Weaker but kamikaze damage in PvP is the same as the gold T3 version.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Scrap. Same idea as the purple T2 Eugen gun. You can upgrade this but I wouldn't advise going past +6. If you want to go further I'd honestly invest in an Avenger.

Probably the best blue torpedo bomber. This really isn't saying much though.

Hopefully you can rotate out blue torpedo bombers soon.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Just move on. Invest minimally if you must.

AA Guns

The game has WAY the hell too many AA guns. You probably have a few gold AA guns already. but just in case you don't, you can use the following. I'm not gonna spend too much time on this one.

Nerfed version of the Roomba 113. Not much to say here.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Transitional until you get the better gold AA guns. This isn't that bad though so going past +6 is fine if you really need to.

Nerfed Bofors. Same idea as above.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Transitional until you get the better gold AA guns. Same as above.

Auxiliaries

These used to be great and the purple one was the default equipment for everybody until they changed the reload equation a while ago. Now you're far better off equipping people with other things. But for early game these are alright if you have nothing else.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Not worth your investment. Placeholder for better things in the future.

Baddie version of the T3 gold SG radar. Stats are bad, and the skill that comes with it is weaker too.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Transitional. The ambush-avoidance skill isn't even related to how many +s you put on it so I wouldn't bother adding any if you are just using it for the skill.

Aviation buff is worse than the gold T3 catapult, but is the same as the purple T2 catapult.

It has the plane HP buff skill that the T2 catapult doesn't have so there's no reason to use the T2 catapult instead of this thing.

KEEP OR SCRAP: Transitional in the aviation sense, but the skill is rather unique. Therefore you can't say this is strictly worse than the gold catapult. After you transition to gold catapult I'd still keep a few of these around. Feel free to go beyond +6.