Modern Warships might seem like a simple game at first but it features a number of surprisingly complicated mechanics. In this article, I will share a few tips that new players will likely find useful. By following these tips, you will be able to fight more effectively in the battle and build, upgrade and equip your dream fleet in a much shorter time.

Upgrade your ship and weapons

A newly purchased ship or weapon will only have part of its maximum potential. You will need to use upgrade points to improve their attributes such as ship health and speed and weapon damage and range. For the best performance in a battle, you will want to have a fully upgraded ship with fully upgraded armaments.

When you put points in an attribute, the first three upgrades are always successful. However, after this, the chance of a successful upgrade will go down on every upgrade level. This means you will need exponentially more upgrade points the more you upgrade a certain attribute.

So rather than focusing on a single attribute like speed or health, spread your points evenly across different attributes. You will probably want to upgrade all the attributes to at least level 3 at the start. Then upgrade each attribute to level 4, then to 5, and so on. This will make sure you make the most use of your upgrade points.

A ship with all attributes at 3 will perform much better than one that has one attribute maxed out at 10 and the other at zero. When you have accumulated enough upgrade points, you will be able to take your favorite ships to the max level where they will perform their best in battle.

Use your consumables at the right time

Coming under enemy fire will quickly sink your ship, but effective use of consumables can boost your survivability. There are three types of consumables in Modern Warships: countermeasures, damage control, and ammo reserves.

Countermeasures

Countermeasures are chaff and flares that are used to confuse enemy weapon systems. When you activate the countermeasures consumable, enemy missiles locked into your ship will lose their target and fly in a different direction, rendering them useless. 

You should try to use the countermeasures in a tactical way. This is because the consumable has a limited amount of uses and a cooldown period. So only fire the countermeasures when you absolutely need to. You can always see how many enemy missiles are locked into you by looking at the missile warning icon. Enemy missiles that are locked into you are marked by a red missile icon above them.

Most ships have anti-air CIWS (Close-in weapon system) that can track enemy missiles and shoot them down. The CIWS will usually be able to take care of one or two enemy missiles, so wait until you are under a larger enemy missile barrage before using the countermeasures.

Repair kit

Another type of consumable is the repair kit, also known as damage control. This consumable will repair your ship and replenish your health. Since the repair kit replenishes a fixed set of health, try not to use the repair kit until you are down to around 80% health. Otherwise, the healing effect will be largely wasted as you cannot be repaired beyond 100% health.

It’s a good idea to use your repair kits as soon as you have them available to maximize the number of heals per match. Keep an eye on the cooldown and listen for the audio cue which tells you the repair crew is ready and if you are below 80% health, use it right away.

If you ever run out of consumables, you can use the in-game shop to replenish them. Use the in-game cash to buy a set of consumables.

Ammo reserves

Many weapons in the game such as missiles have a maximum amount of ammunition you can carry in a battle. While this might not happen often, sometimes a match drags on so long you will actually run out of ammunition. When this happens, you can use your ammo reserve consumable to gain some extra ammo that will keep you in the fight for a bit longer.

While this is uncommon, it’s a good idea to keep your ammo reserves consumable stocked in the case you will run into a prolonged battle where that extra bit of ammo will give you an edge against your opponents.

Scout the map

Spotting the enemy fast is a key to gaining an advantage in the match. If your team fails to scout the map, you will be soon greeted with a barrage of enemy missiles from the other side of the map without any way of returning fire.

If your team has an aircraft carrier, launching fighter planes are the quickest way to reveal enemy positions. However, sometimes allied CVs will fail to do this and sometimes the matchmaker will put you in a lobby without aircraft carriers. In this situation, you need to rely on your helicopter to scout the map.

Simply launch your helicopter, switch control to it and fly it to the opposite side of the map. Hidden enemies are displayed as a red dot on the minimap. Head to the nearest red dot on the screen and soon enemy ships will be revealed. At this point, you can switch control back to your ship and start firing missiles at the enemy fleet.

If you are playing an aircraft carrier on your team, make sure you spot the enemy as soon as possible. When the match starts, launch your fighter planes, switch control to them and fly to the other side of the map as soon as possible and your teammates will thank you.

Early scouting is a key tactic to winning the game. With effective spotting, you stand a much better chance against the enemy team.

Know your weapon types

There are plenty of different weapon systems in the game and each of them has its particular use. Knowing how to use them will benefit you in the battle.

Missiles

You will be relying on the missiles to do the most damage to your opponents. Using missiles is easy, simply point your camera at an enemy ship and a targeting reticle pops up. You will need to wait a few seconds until the missiles are locked into the enemy before you can fire. After firing, the missiles will automatically track their target and hit it.

Keep in mind that missiles can be destroyed by enemy air defense systems and their targeting can be disrupted by the countermeasures consumable. Fire a large barrage of missiles after the enemy has used their countermeasures to improve your chances of a successful hit. If your ship has multiple missile slots, you can experiment with different missile combinations or launch patterns to gain an advantage in the battle.

Cannons

Many ships in the game have cannons in addition to the missiles. While they do not do as much damage as missiles, cannon fire cannot be shot down by air defense systems or fooled by countermeasures. After you have fired a barrage of missiles, while they are reloading, switch to the cannon to deal some additional damage to your enemies.

Keep in mind that, unlike missiles, cannons do not have automatic targeting. This means you will have to lead your target more the further away they are if you want to guarantee the hit on the enemy ship.

Anti-aircraft weapons

Anti-aircraft weapons defend your ship against enemy aircraft and missiles. These weapons come in form of guns and missiles. Anti-air missiles are good at stopping enemy missile fire while anti-air guns are effective against enemy aircraft. While anti-air weapons can offer some protection against missiles, they are not foolproof. If you come under a large missile barrage, a few missiles will eventually go through the defenses. This is why it’s important to combine anti-air fire with the countermeasures consumable to fully protect your ship.

Torpedoes

Submarines are heavily reliant on torpedoes but some surface ships are also armed with them. Torpedoes work similarly to missiles as they will automatically home to their target but they travel on the surface or under the water. This means they can also hit hostile submarines in addition to surface vessels. While they can’t be shot down by anti-air defenses, they are vulnerable to grenade launcher fire.

Grenade launchers

This is a manually aimed weapon type that is most useful for destroying enemy torpedoes. If there are no incoming torpedoes to deal with, you can also use them to deal additional damage to enemy submarines or surface ships. Keep in mind that most grenade launchers can also do damage to underwater targets.

Autocannons

Autocannons are weapons that automatically track enemy surface targets and deal damage to them. You cannot manually control them. While they do not deal as much damage as missiles or cannons, they can help you bring down your enemies faster by dealing damage over time.

Many higher-tier aircraft carriers feature even four or five autocannon slots which deal a significant amount of damage, even as much as to nullify the health gained from enemy repair consumables.

Play in offline mode to rank up fast

It’s pretty fast and easy to get up to level 10 in Modern Warships. After that, the game progress will slow down quite a bit. After level 5 you can choose to play either offline or in an online mode. Online is a good way to test your skills against real players, but it’s often much harder to get a good amount of kills, damage, and experience points to rank up.

This is where the offline mode comes in. By playing the offline mode against bots you will have a much easier time gaining XP quickly. This will allow you to unlock new gear faster and complete the daily missions quickly.

Simply grind the offline mode and use the resources to purchase new ships and equipment. You can then use these newly-acquired goods to effectively fight your enemies in the online mode.

Complete the daily missions to gain useful resources

Modern Warships features a daily mission system that can grant you useful resources, such as weapon modules, gold, and dollars. You can also gain battle pass points using this system which lets you progress in the battle pass. Even if you are a free battle pass user, the system has useful rewards for you.

To get your daily rewards, simply complete all the missions in the list and claim your reward. If there are some missions that you find too hard or time-consuming, you can replace those missions by clicking the icon next to the mission. Keep in mind that this will cost you a bit of gold.

By combining the daily rewards with the battle pass, you can gain useful resources that help you progress in the game and grant you an advantage in the battle.