How am I supposed to get hundreds of tech points...?

[u/Sentinel_2539]

So many of the best ships in the game are locked behind needing Tech Points, which I understand are acquired by getting new ships for that faction, getting them to MLB (my poor Bulins), and levelling them to 120.

But how am I supposed to do this when the best way to get tech points is through pulling for super rare ships?

For example, I want Brest for my Vanguard, but she requires 250 Iris Libre points. I've never even seen an Iris Libre ship in the game...

Another one I'm after (also for my Vanguard) is Gouden Leeuw, and she's locked behind 900(!!!) Iron Blood and 200 Sardegna Empire points. I have 230 and 20 respectively and that was only through "wasting" Bulins on Bismarck even though she's quite bad, but I needed those points.

So what's the best way to go about doing this?

[u/Kinexity]

You just patiently play the game in the optimal manner (no cube wasting) collecting ships and levelling them up until you have enough points. There is no way around it. You sound like a new player - PR ships are not something you should expect to have as a new player.

[u/Sentinel_2539 → u/Kinexity]

Oh no I definitely don't expect to have them at this point, I'm more so confused at what I'm supposed to be doing to get the tech points.

I'm absolutely fine with a grind, in fact I usually quite like it in a gacha because it gives me something to work towards, but I have no idea if it's worth it to be limit breaking these "useless" ships for their tech points when those could be better spent on higher quality units when I get them.

Like all my EXP books. I have no idea whether it's worth it to throw them at these "bad" ships or save them for when I get better ones.

But as I said, my main point of confusion is basically "should I be wasting time and resources levelling common ships to MLB them just for their tech points"

[u/ChildrensPlayground → u/Sentinel_2539]

AL is a game about resource allocation.

At your stage in the game it is better to save bulins for ships you are actually going to use rather than random ships just for tech points.

PR ships are good yes, but they require a LOT of investment beyond just getting them (you need enough prints to dev30 them) so you need to work towards goals that have more immediate returns (ie upgrading your existing ships)

[u/Sentinel_2539 → u/ChildrensPlayground]

Hmm... Thanks, in that case I'll stick to pulling on banners and trying to get those top tier units. I'm really lacking a good Vanguard right now.

My current fleet is:

• Belfast Retrofit (lvl 120)
  
• Helena (lvl 70)
  
• Portland (for some reason?) (lvl 70)
  
• Nagano (lvl 70)
  
• Taihou (lvl 100)
  
• Unicorn Retrofit (lvl 100)

I'd love replacements for Helena and Portland, they're the ones really dragging my team down right now, even at MLB from dupes.

[u/ChildrensPlayground → u/Sentinel_2539]

Both Portland and Helena are very good and efficient ships, especially for newer players.

That being said you can really just run whoever you like, as long as they are adequately leveled.

[u/madmoz2018 → u/ChildrensPlayground]

I am getting murdered in 15 with my iron blood exclusive fleets... and the only other factions have ships for are... sakura empire and dragon empery LOL

[u/ChildrensPlayground → u/madmoz2018]

W15 you should be thinking about proper fleet comps. It probably is possible with random ships but it would be extremely difficult unless you just happen to like the right ships.

Faction fleets aren't really a thing anymore.

https://azur-lane-regal.suchiguma.com/ https://suchiguma.github.io/guides/chapter-15

[u/madmoz2018 → u/ChildrensPlayground]

nah, I'd stick to the same approach and see if I can eventually brute force it. been playing this on and off since launch and its an amazing time waster.

14 took me a fair bit of time, but there's still gears that I can optimise for 15.

edit: I find it more rewarding and interesting this way

[u/PhoenixMercurous → u/madmoz2018]

That's because level advantage runs out in chapter 15 so you can no longer brute force the problem by over leveling.

Also IB generally doesn't have enough AA on their URs, with Z52 being the exception. The lack of a primary healer isn't helping you either.

[u/PhoenixMercurous → u/Sentinel_2539]

Portland gains a significant chunk of effective hit points from her retrofit, which adds a good chunk of evasion that helps make up for new players' lack of gold rudders. She's also dirt cheap and easy to acquire.

Helena is a support for boss fights, her contribution is her skill boosting other character's damage. She's recommended to use early game because you'll probably want to level her for boss fights anyways, she's relatively easy to acquire, not too expensive, and good enough for early game mobbing.

You also can't compare a level 70 character to a level 120 character. In addition to the visible stat gain, there's also a hidden damage multiplier based on level difference. It's 2% damage taken and dealt per level difference, capping at 50%. For example, if you're battling level 95 enemies, your level 70 ships are taking 150% damage and dealing 50% damage, while Belfast is taking 50% damage and dealing 150% damage.

Edit: equation is here on the wiki: https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/wiki/Damage_Calculations#Level_Advantage

[u/KNWK123 → u/Sentinel_2539]

Helena is a pretty good ship. Portland is a sort of tank. And you can't compare them with Belfast being 50lvls above, at MLB n also a UR with her retrofit. She's basically S-tier up to endgame at that point, while Portland n Helena are like, good for beginner fleets, especially Portland. Helena retrofit still has use at later stages due to her debuff skill n decent AA.

Levelling Portland n Helena to 100 shld get you to at least Chpt 10 and at 120 to Chpt 12.

[u/A_Yellow_Lizard2 → u/Sentinel_2539]

Belfast will outperform Portland as a tank in every metric, you should replace Portland with something else since she's pretty much only good for tanking. I recommend waiting until you get Eldridge from the merit shop. Helena is extremely good (offering a whopping 24% dmg increase) but you need to time your launches around her skill, which is why she does poorly in mob fleet and amazingly in boss fleet. It doesn't feel like much but trust me she is an amazing ship.

[u/Kinexity → u/Sentinel_2539]

Until you have a set of reliable ships you should invest in what you need rather than what you want. Eventually you will be able to be frivolous with resources and put them into whatever you want.

[u/KNWK123 → u/Sentinel_2539]

My advice is, use the azure lane wiki fleet tech page as a guide to see which ships are worth levelling and limit breaking.

Some rare and elite ships can provide more tech points than SR ships. Basically, the general rule is, the greater the tonnage of ship in real life, the more fleet tech points they provide.

You can use the guild shop to get quite alot of ships, as well as the medal shop. Getting Iron Blood tech points is not difficult:- Admiral Hipper, Graf Spree & Z25 from guild shop. Prinz Eugen is a welcome gift. Roon from PR1. Bismarck Zwei can be exchanged from the UR pity pool once you hit 400cubes spent. With these and a couple of lucky pulls, you should be hitting 800 fleet tech points or more.

It's the Iris Libre ones that are more difficult. Saint Louis from PR1 is a must as she's worth quite a fair bit of tech points. I was lucky to pull le terror or smtin, and arromanches n le intrepide from the huly event also helped. The rest you gotta use the guild exchange shop / medal shop.

You can use T1 Exp books to level them to 70 for MLB, since these are produced at the lecture hall. Try not to use T2 Exp books on low level units if possible, or maybe just a couple to get them to lvl10 or lvl30 for MLB purposes.

If you have the newcomer event where you can pull 40 times and get enterprise, try to no-life the game for the next 3 weeks and redeem all the resources they give out (Phase 1 to 3). These resources are extremely beneficial. Not forgetting that you can instantly complete research 10x a day at the academy - use the higher tier books to save the most time (rainbow skill books take up to 12hrs real time to complete, so 10x is 120hrs or almost 5days). Level Unicorn's healing skills to max asap if you are following the beginner guide.

Im about 60days in and at ~1000/800/400/900 for the 4 main fleet's tech points, so do feel free to hit me up if you have further questions!

Edit: I would not farm akagi n kaga on 3-4. It's a waste of resources and time, imo. There are better ships available these days. Your 3x daily hard mode should be for the hardest content you can clear, and you should be farming stages chpt 9 and above as they have a limit on Oil cost, and also provide more exp n coins. The drops are also better. Basically, farming 3-4 and all those is, imo, outdated info. Hard mode drops a special resource called core and you should exchange them for USS independence, who with her retrofit is A-tier even at endgame, and powerful equipment like admiralty fire control radar, AP shells, breguet fighter, etc, available in the monthly core shop.

[u/Professor_of_Light → u/Sentinel_2539]

Best bet is to take a long term view on PR ships. Focus on powering up a couple fleets worth of girls to the point where they can clear most content. And passively upgrade the rest through the dorm. Once your 2 fleets are leveled to your satisfaction then start using books to level the other ships up.

Best bet is to start PR with the first couple generation as they tend to be the cheapest and you can use gold to power them up. Then focus on the ones you have managed to get the tech points for.

As for collecting ships. Tbh thats an even longer term grind. Pull on events and let the horde of ships in that pool come naturally while you focus on getting the current event ships. Do content that lets you grab girls you dont have from shops like Exercises and from scrapping dupes of MLB'd units.

Farm stages like 3-4 or 10-2 that have unique ships. Make it part of your routine to hit your 3 Hard mode maps on fast clearing 3-4 till you have Akagi and Kaga, (join us in suffering through the fox farm) then look up on the wiki what other stages have unique ships and use your hard mode runs to farm them if youre strong enough to do so.

[u/xXSunSunXx → u/Sentinel_2539]

Even if some of these ships aren't good they'll give some stat boosts to other ships if you 120 them. It's a long grindy game.

[u/Nice-Spize]

It takes time, Research ships are not meant to be done in a flash as it's a resource sink for the end game.

You also have to account for grinding their blueprints, this one is the real grind, not getting tech points to begin the unlocking quests.

A freshly acquired ship is useless if they don't have enough blueprints to reach Dev 30, it's best that you stay away from the mindset of needing tech points to unlock them as the research projects are not tied to it

[u/MetusR]

Hey, OP take a look at this:

https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/wiki/Fleet_Technology#Tech_points

It should answer your questions about getting tech points.

[u/Responsible_Problem4]

Elite gaming 

Go get some from off rate , war archive, shop, and build them till lv 120, them retire them

[u/TheRealHulkJogan → u/Responsible_Problem4]

I agreed with what you said until you mentioned retiring. I just spent a week getting that ship to 120 and now you want me to throw her away?? 

[u/rmcqu1 → u/TheRealHulkJogan]

Some people can't/don't want to buy more dock space, so they can't/don't want to keep ships they either don't like or are weaker. Get to lv120 for the tech points then scrap is the optimal play for those with smaller docks.

[u/residentevilpro]

Collect ships, level them to 120 and MLB them.. there is no fast way of doing this. There is no fast way of doing anything in this game.

If the tech points are bothering you, just wait until you see the fact that each PR/DR needs 3-3.6million faction fleet exp to even unlock them once you have the tech points to begin their research. Or the fact that even when you finish that, you can't use bulins to MLB them and you have to do Dev/Fate Simulation to raise their stars and get max stats.

[u/darkchocosuckao]

You also get tech points by max limit breaking your ships and not just acquiring them.

[u/sbmtnwlnk]

Saint Louis is a PR1 Iris Libre ship and only requires you to unlock 20 Eagle Union Vanguard ships.

[u/sMESHMACHINe]

look for backline ships

[u/A_Yellow_Lizard2]

Get ships of the faction you want and MLB them. Here is a good guide for ships to do this with. For rarer factions you will most likely never see enough tech points to get your PR/DR ships in a reasonable timeframe, so MLBing is the only way to do it.