Azur Lane Combat Strategies and Tips to Use in 2025

When playing the Azur Lane game for the first time, you need to know the tips and tricks, especially to master the combat. The combat is very strategic, and you need to know tactics to get better at it. So, let’s learn the best combat strategies and tips to use in combat in the game with this guide. Next, you can play Azur Lane on PC with LDPlayer. 

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Understand the Formations

Setting up your fleet’s formation before diving into battle is one of the slickest Azur Lane combat tips you can use to tilt the odds in your favor. This only kicks in for Campaign and Event Sorties, no for Exercises or Daily Raids, so it’s your secret weapon for the big fights. 

You’ve got three options in the pre-battle screen, each tweaking your fleet’s stats in unique ways. Picking the right one as an Azur Lane beginner can mean the difference between a smooth S-rank and a costly wipe. Let’s learn more about each formation.

 

Single Line Assault

This formation turns your vanguard into a full-on damage machine. It pumps up Firepower and Torpedo stats by 15%, making your destroyers, cruisers, and gunboats hit harder and faster, perfect for shredding enemy vanguards or bosses with big health bars. 

But your Evasion drops by 10%, so your front line’s more likely to eat hits. Use this when you’re facing squishy foes you can blitz before they fire back or when your vanguard’s tanky enough to absorb the extra damage. Pair it with high-DPS ships like Ayanami or Laffey for maximum carnage; just don’t expect them to dodge much.

 

Double Line Advance 

Double Line Advance formation cranks Evasion by 30%, letting your vanguard weave through enemy barrages like pros; it is great for maps with heavy torpedo spam or relentless airstrikes. The trade-off is a 5% dip in Firepower and Torpedo, so your damage output takes a slight hit. Roll this out when your vanguard needs to stay alive longer, like against beefy enemy fleets or drawn-out event stages. It’s a lifesaver for fragile DDs like Yukikaze.

 

Circular Defense

This one’s all about shutting down air threats and boosting Anti-Air by 20% across your whole fleet with no downsides. It’s perfect when facing enemy carriers or airstrike-heavy maps. Your vanguard and main fleet both get the buff, so even light AA ships can punch up their defense. Stack this with AA beasts like San Diego or Atlanta, and you’ll turn those enemy squadrons into scrap before they drop a single bomb. 

 

Acquire the Victory Conditions

Knowing how to win battles in Azur Lane is a must if you want to stack up rewards and keep pushing forward. Every fight has rules for victory, and meeting them decides your rank and your loot. Whether it’s Campaign maps or Event stages, nailing these conditions is one of the best combat tips to keep your fleet on top. 

 

How to Win

To claim victory, you’ve got a few goals to hit. 

• First, wipe out all enemy ships. If there’s a Flagship (the big boss ship) sinking, it counts as clearing everything else too, ending the fight right there. 

• Second, you need to finish fast, usually within 120 seconds, though some event nodes tweak that timer. Check the Pause screen if you’re unsure. 

• Last, none of the ships you bring into battle can sink; the ones already sunk before don’t count against you. 

Daily Raids and PvP Exercises mix things up with their own rules, but for standard fights, it’s all about these three.

 

Battle Ranks

Your rank decides your drops; higher ranks mean more and better stuff. Here’s how it breaks down.

• S-Rank is perfect; you win with all conditions, everything in time, and with no losses. S-Rank on boss nodes guarantees a ship drop, so aim high when it matters.

• A-Rank means you won but slipped on one, like taking too long. 

• B-Rank is a win with two misses, maybe losing a ship and running overtime. 

• C-Rank happens if you lose, say, your flagship goes down or time runs out, but you can retry after fixing your fleet. 

• D-Rank is a total wipeout, like losing all your main or vanguard ships, and you’re forced to retreat with no second chance. 

 

Understand the Types of Ships

Understanding the different ship types in Azur Lane is one of the smartest combat tips you can pick up. Each type has its own job on the battlefield, and knowing what they do helps you build fleets that crush it in campaign runs, events, or anywhere else. From tiny destroyers to massive battleships, here’s what each brings to the fight.

 

Destroyers (DD)

Destroyers are your fast, scrappy front-liners in the vanguard. They’re light on HP and armor but pack a punch with torpedoes and decent guns. They come with a high Evasion that they dodge enemy shots. Use them to soak up early damage and unleash torp spreads on clumped foes. 

 

Cruisers (CL, CA, CB)

Cruisers come in three flavors: Light (CL), Heavy (CA), and Large (CB). Light cruisers are quick with solid anti-air and main guns, and they are great for picking off planes and smaller ships. Heavy Cruisers trade some speed for tougher armor and bigger firepower, making them brawlers. Large Cruisers, the rare heavyweights, blend battleship-level punch with cruiser agility.

 

Battleships (BB, BC)

Battleships are your backline bruisers. Standard Battleships (BB) bring raw firepower with massive main guns, shredding anything in range, perfect for boss kills. Battlecruisers (BC) trade a bit of that punch for speed, letting them reposition faster and dodge better. They’re Oil-hungry and slow to reload, but their barrages clear screens. 

 

Aircraft Carriers (CV, CVL)

Full Aircraft Carriers (CV) launch waves of planes, fighters for air defense, bombers for big damage, shifting fights in your favor. Light Carriers (CVL) are cheaper on Oil and often mix in some AA support. They’re clutch for maps with heavy air threats or when you need sustained damage without breaking the bank.

 

Submarines (SS, SSV)

Regular Subs (SS) dive in after battle starts, popping up to sling torpedoes at the enemy backline, which is great for softening bosses. Submarine Carriers (SSV) add a tiny air strike twist. They run on their own Oil pool and don’t fit standard fleets.

 

Other Types

You’ve also got oddballs like Monitors (BM), Aviation Battleships (BBV), and Repair Ships (AR). Monitors focus on pure gun damage with less armor, which is good for budget runs. Aviation Battleships mix guns and planes for hybrid power. Repair Ships heal your fleet mid-fight.

 

Create the Best Fleets

Azur Lane mixes strategy and mechanics into a combo that’s tricky but rewarding. So, understanding how to build your fleet is key. For battles, composition is everything. Every fleet splits into two parts: the vanguard and the main fleet. The vanguard usually destroyer 3 slots is your front line, packed with ships like Destroyers, Light Cruisers, or Heavy Cruisers to take hits and dish out torpedoes or quick gun salvos. The main fleet also has 3 slots in the back, loaded with heavy hitters like Battleships, Battlecruisers, or Carriers to blast enemies with big guns or airstrikes. 

A solid setup might be 2 Destroyers and 1 Light Cruiser up front for speed and dodging, paired with 2 Battleships and 1 Carrier in the back for raw damage. You can change it based on the fight, add a Repair Ship for long runs or swap in a Submarine for sneaky boss damage. The stronger your mix, the better that power number looks, and the easier you’ll win through maps and events.

To create the most powerful mix, you should go to the gacha system added to the game and try obtaining the best Azur Lane ships from it. When pulling out the ships from the gacha, always aim for the higher rarity ones as they have greater potential to work well till you hit the end game challenges. But since higher rarity ships are given low rates and the lower rarity ships are given high rates, it is hard to get the best ships easily from the gacha. 

For that, you can try rerolling in which you have to use the same account over and over again to play and reset the game data until you get your favorite powerful ships. Since it consumes a lot of time, you can start rerolling with multiple accounts at once using the LDPlayer’s Multi-Instance Sync feature. This will help you to reroll efficiently saving your time and you can also get the best ships of higher rarities very quickly. 

 

Go for Manual Combat

Combat in Azur Lane is a side-scrolling battle where your ship girls are loaded with their own gear and abilities. Here, you need to keep your fleet moving to dodge enemy fire and stay in the fight. Some attacks give you a heads-up with red danger zones like incoming shells or bombs so that you can scoot your ships out of the way. Others come as bullet waves, straight or swerving, and take a little practice to slip past. 

You might think auto-combat’s the easy fix, letting the AI steer for you, but it’s not efficient. The AI hardly dodges, so your girls soak up damage, and you’re left with failed runs or lost goals. Going manual is the best way to win combat in this game. You’re the one sliding your fleet around, dodging those hits, and keeping damage low. It’s a hands-on trick that turns tough battles into smooth victories. Once you master manual combat, every other thing will be easy. 

 

Conclusion

Learning the best Azur Lane tips and tricks for combat is great and useful for every player who wants to master the gameplay combat system. As you have gone through this guide, now you know what tips and strategies to use in mastering combat. So, get ready to crush all powerful enemies in this game with these combat tips.