I bet someone told you to buy Pyotr Velikiy in the past. It’s unavoidable. Pyotr is not only a meta ship, but also widely considered to be the best ship in the whole game. And in this article, I explain why.
First, let’s look at the armament of the ship.
What is Pyotr good for?
To understand why Pyotr rocks, you need to first understand its role in a battle. Pyotr is supposed to be fighting in the front lines, that is why it’s so heavily armed. In fact, it’s a contender for the most heavily armed ship in the game, it shares the no.1 spot with ROKS Jeongjo the Great (known also as “Batch 2”).
Ships are usually ranked by the types of ships it can combat and how well they do it. In Pyotr’s case, it can combat every single type of ship very effectively. For example: its 2 torpedoes, 3 grenade launchers and 6 AA make it perfect for fighting submerged submarines. 6 AA will protect you from ballistic missiles while you can shoot subs with 2 torps and 3 grenade launchers (if the grenade launchers aren’t A-22 Ogon, which can only destroy torps but not damage subs).
Pyotr might not be the best at fighting all types of ships (it struggles a little when fighting fast, maneuverable targets because it’s slow and can only hit the fast ships with the cannons and missiles. However, if it does get close, it will shred all ships in the game except Yamato which still beats it in close range. No, Missouri does not. Keep in mind tho, to achieve this kind of firepower you must have certain equipment.
My recommendation is this:
- X-51 (missile)
- Monarc (cannon)
- A22 Ogon (grenade launcher)
- Physic (torpedo)
- Full THEL (air defense)
- The fastest helicopter you have
This loadout sacrifices some of the anti-submarine capability that comes with regular grenade launchers for the best damage against surface ships that comes with A-22. The A-22 Ogon is a semi automatic grenade launcher that can be 100% accurate if you time your shots, or you can fire all shots quickly at close range and deal an insane amount of damage, on pair with Missouri’s main cannons.
Using X-51 is also the best option for Pyotr as it fires 3 missiles at the same time and you can control all of them. X-51 is a very flexible hypersonic missile that deals a ton of damage and cannot be flared. It’s laser guided.
You can deal 130k damage with one shot of missiles and cannons alone, not to mention the added damage from A-22 (78k not counting critical hits) and Physic (71k) which combined boost that damage to an astonishing 280k in a single burst.
The playstyle
Pyotr’s playstyle centers around destroying vulnerable targets such as carriers first. If you do not kill the carriers as soon as possible, there’s a chance you’re going to be focused by multiple bombers/strike fighters/drones and die. With the carriers out of the way, switch focus onto the ships closest to you. If there’s a destroyer hiding behind a rock on Greenlands, rush it before it leaves its hiding space and tries flanking you. Submarines won’t be a problem to deal with, so feel free to leave them until the other ships have been dealt with. However, don’t ignore them and don’t let them surprise you.
Of course, you should spot with you helicopter at the beginning of the match. This is especially true when playing solo or on a map with a lot of direct lines of sight such as storm and unexplored rocks. This is a little less meaningful on maps with enclosed spaces and a lot of cover like arctic and islands of Iceland.
Keep in mind that you will be focused by the enemy if you give them a chance. Avoid that by applying counter pressure (shooting at them a lot, lol) or applying counter pressure while moving to cover.
Things you should avoid
Not paying attention to your positioning. Going out into parts of the map that don’t have any cover such as rocks, islands or glaciers is not a smart choice. Pyotr is a big, slow target and if you give the enemy enough time to land a lot of shots on you, your 396k hp means absolutely nothing. Be aware of your surroundings and the enemy’s position, which ships they’re using, their level, etc..
Trying to hit fast, maneuverable targets at long range with A-22. Be aware that hitting fast moving targets at long range with A-22 is very difficult and you should probably conserve your shots. You don’t have unlimited ammo after all. Same goes for torpedoes.
Offline grinding with Pyotr
Pyotr is quite useful for offline grinding as well, albeit I still prefer Yamato. Both are premium ships, meaning they give you 20% more gold and dollars in both online and offline.
It has plenty of HP and AA defence, meaning it’s very survivable. However, I suggest you switch your missiles a bit in offline as X-51 really doesn’t work well against the bot AA. This is because the AI has no latency which is otherwise present when you’re playing against real players and allows the hypersonic missiles to hit the target consistently. Without it, they get blocked naturally because of the low HP (for example, X-51 has 20 HP compared to SCALP’s 125 yet SCALP gets blocked more easily in online).
Switch the X-51 missiles for X-35. They’re very useful in offline due to them being hard to block by bots and their fast reload. Other than that, you can keep the loadout you use for online.
Any map is viable.
For more information, check our articles on grinding gold and dollars offline.
Conclusion
People love Pyotr for a reason. It’s the best counter against submarines, as well as battleships and carriers. It’s very flexible in terms of firepower variety. It feels good to use (unlike Yamato which is more of a tool), is good for offline grinding, and fairly cheap at only 11k gold.
Personally, this was my main ship for 70% of my career in the game, then I got bored of it after almost a year of using it and I switched to ROKS Jeongjo the Great (Batch 2). Absolutely worth it if you’re planning on saving up 11k gold.
