Since battleships are the largest and most imposing warships on the seas, many people are eager to get their hands on one of them. There are two battleships in Modern Warships, USS Missouri (BB-63) and IJN Yamato. So, which of them is a better investment for your gold? Is there even a place for a battleship in a game of Modern Warships?
The truth is that Yamato and Missouri are both ships that don’t fit the game properly. They only have a few specific purposes: fan service, ship variety and bait for newer players to purchase gold. Beginners often look at the price tag and assume that Missouri must be better since it costs more. But that’s actually untrue. Let’s look at their equipment:
Missouri
Yamato
Based on the equipment, you might think Missouri looks better. But upon further examination, you’ll see that might not actually be true. We need to think about how these ships will actually perform in battle.
Let’s take a look at Missouri’s advantages over Yamato.
- It has better air defense
- It’s faster
- It’s better suited for long-range, because of the 2 missile slots
Now let’s see Yamato’s advantages over Missouri.
- It has way more hp
- It’s capable of healing more hp with a single repair kit
- It has better spotting equipment (the hydroaircraft)
- Its cannons are much better than Missouri’s (more damage and better accuracy)
- Its hitbox is smaller, therefore harder to hit on Storm
- It costs less
- The equipment you get immediately upon purchasing Yamato is unchangeable, meaning you only have to upgrade it. With Missouri, you need to buy better equipment to achieve its full potential. Yamato is a better buy for newer players, equipment-wise.
Based on this, we see that Yamato actually has more advantages than Missouri. But there is actually more to this. To examine the effectiveness of these ships, we need to look at the big picture.
What’s the purpose of a battleship?
Think of battleships as tools: purposefully built to be great for offline grinding and missions, but unable to compete with other ships when playing online. That is why battleships always die first: they are easy targets. Bad AA, maneuverability, speed, and the lack of firepower at medium to long ranges make them less than suitable for matches that often put you in a situation where you need to deal with an enemy 8 km away from you.
In an online game
As we discussed previously, neither Missouri nor Yamato is especially great when playing online, because of their class as battleships. But if you would have to pick one, which one would perform better?
Missouri
Missouri’s problem is that in an online game it just doesn’t work as well as its competitor, the Pyotr Velikiy. Missouri’s cannons are very inaccurate, even less accurate than Yamato’s. If you don’t count the cannons, the only other weapons you can deal damage in medium to long ranges are the 2 missiles. That is tier 2 worthy.
The sad part is that Pyotr Veliky equipped with certain equipment can outmaneuver and outgun Missouri even at close range. I have actually tested this, A-22 grenade launchers alone are superior to Missouri’s main guns at all ranges. Anyway, that’s not the point of this article. The point is, you will absolutely not be using Missouri when playing online.
Yamato
Yamato is even worse for online, although it can outgun Pyotr at close range. It’s basically a missile/aircraft magnet because of its bad AA. It’s so bad it can’t even stop a single missile. However, you do not want to get up close to Yamato though because it’s gonna shred you at close range. Other than that, Yamato is not a threat in online, at all.
When playing offline
As you already know, offline play is where battleships shine. Let’s compare the two when playing this game mode to see which one is better.
Missouri
Missouri is okay for offline but far inferior to Yamato (I’ll get to that later). Missouri’s cannons are effective against bots. This is not only because they cannot counter them, but also because they take no measures to avoid you. Bot submarines don’t stay underwater and bot ships don’t distance themselves from you. However, the missiles are ineffective against bots as they can and will block them every single time without fail, as you only have 2 of them.
Missouri also has an AA gun which can help you shoot down planes that are very close to you but it doesn’t really help in other circumstances. In fact, the Bofors cannon is actually a disadvantage. Firing it will unfocus your main and secondary guns, which means they will take a while to get to their highest accuracy again. Missouri will also die faster than Yamato because of its smaller health pool.
Yamato
Yamato is far better than Missouri for grinding missions and offline in general. Its cannons deal a lot more damage and there are more of them. Yamato also has 504k hp which is the most out of all buyable ships in the game (100k more than Missouri). The main cannons are capable of destroying ships with 2 bursts, making it the go-to for the “get kills” missions. While the ship might be slower than Missouri bots don’t run away from you ;). Personally, I prefer using Yamato for offline grinding even though I own all ships in the game.
Conclusion
All the points summed up, Missouri is better than Yamato for playing online but still sucks at it. Yamato is better than Missouri for offline. It is actually one of the best ships for playing offline battles. As a side note, in a 1v1 battle, Yamato will always beat Missouri, as the 2 missiles Missouri has do not deal enough DPS to be able to destroy Yamato. Missouri’s cannons only work at close range. Both ships will need to get in close range to effectively use their main guns and at this distance, Yamato will be at an advantage because it has better guns.
In my experience, Missouri is the only ship I regret buying. It sucks in online and it’s mediocre in offline. Pyotr is better at both game modes, and it is 5k gold cheaper. Honestly if you want a battleship, save 2k gold and your will to live by buying Yamato, because at least Yamato does something right.
