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With more than 600 unique ships in Azur Lane, which ones are the best for your fleet?
In this post, all ships of Ultra Rare rarity are listed based on their performance.
There are lots of ships that’ll do well on any fleet, but here are some of the ships that do better than most – Musashi, Ägir, Shinano, Vanguard, New Jersey, and Hakuryuu. If you manage to pull any of these ships, it’ll be a great decision to spend resources on them and put them in your fleet.
You can find more details on these ships, as well as other UR ships, below.
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Azur Lane Ultra Rare Ships Tier List
With more than 600 unique ships in Azur Lane, it can be difficult to know which ships you should go for and invest resources in.
Because of the sheer number of ships in the game, only UR ships are ranked. They are the ships that you want to use when you acquire them.
There are ships of lesser rarity that are strong and will do well on the right team, but, in general, UR ships are the strongest.
In the following tier list, all UR ships in Azur Lane are ranked based on how useful they are in a fleet. Both PvE and PvE are taken into consideration. As only UR ships are ranked, the tier for each ship is compared to the other UR ships in the game, not all ships of all rarities.
| Ship | Tier | Type | Rarity | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unzen | S+ | Heavy Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Sakura Empire |
| Kearsarge | S+ | Aviation Battleship | Ultra Rare | Eagle Union |
| Musashi | S+ | Battleship | Ultra Rare | Sakura Empire |
| Ägir | S+ | Large Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Iron Blood |
| New Jersey | S+ | Battleship | Ultra Rare | Eagle Union |
| Vanguard | S+ | Battleship | Ultra Rare | Royal Navy |
| Ulrich von Hutten | S+ | Battleship | Ultra Rare | Iron Blood |
| Friedrich der Große | S+ | Battleship | Ultra Rare | Iron Blood |
| Implacable | S | Aircraft Carrier | Ultra Rare | Royal Navy |
| Shinano | S | Aircraft Carrier | Ultra Rare | Sakura Empire |
| Yorktown II | S | Aircraft Carrier | Ultra Rare | Eagle Union |
| Hakuryuu | S | Aircraft Carrier | Ultra Rare | Sakura Empire |
| Shimakaze | S | Destroyer | Ultra Rare | Sakura Empire |
| Plymouth | S | Light Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Royal Navy |
| Kronshtadt | S | Large Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Northern Parliament |
| Azuma | S | Large Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Sakura Empire |
| Guam | S | Large Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Eagle Union |
| Hindenburg | S | Heavy Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Iron Blood |
| Yuudachi | A | Destroyer | Ultra Rare | Sakura Empire |
| Brest | A | Large Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Iris Libre |
| Drake | A | Heavy Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Royal Navy |
| San Diego (Retrofit) | A | Light Cruiser | Ultra Rare | Eagle Union |
| Warspite (Retrofit) | A | Battleship | Ultra Rare | Royal Navy |
| Bismarck Zwei | B | Battleship | Ultra Rare | Iron Blood |
| Laffey II | B | Destroyer | Ultra Rare | Eagle Union |
The current tier list is based on the rankings by the Azur Lane community.
When creating your fleet in Azur Lane, you should also consider factors other than just the power of individual ships. Learn more about these factors in our Azur Lane fleet building guide.
Ships in Azur Lane can be categorized into three main categories based on their position in battle: Backline, also known as the main fleet, Vanguard, and Submarine.
Ships that belong to the Main Fleet category are ships that position themselves in the back of the battle and fire powerful weapons like Air Strikes and Artillery, besides their regular attacks.
The Vanguard is the 3 ships that you control in battle that fight at the frontline and have special weapons, including torpedoes, besides their regular attacks.
Submarines are assisting ships that do damage to enemies automatically in battle and when you move around the battle selection map. You don’t actively control submarines in battles, except for in a few special stages.
Here is a short description of each tier:
S tier – Ships in the S-tier are the best in the game, will do well on any fleet, and bring extraordinary power. If you acquire any of these ships, consider bringing them on your fleet as well as spend significant resources on increasing their power further.
A tier – Ships in the A-tier perform very well in battle and are definitely worth bringing on your fleet if you pull any. All ships in this tier have a lot of potential but fall short of those in S-tier.
B Tier – Ships in the B-tier perform as you’d expect from powerful ships capable of taking on the strongest enemies. You can bring B-Tier ships on your fleet, but you’ll probably end up switching them out sooner or later.
C Tier – Ships in the C-tier are below average in terms of power and usability. These ships are not the greatest and will have to be replaced at some point. You can use C-tier ships to progress, but when you reach later stages, you shouldn’t spend a lot of resources on them.
D Tier – Ships in the D-tier perform way below what you’d expect from top ships. These ships should not be heavily invested in, as they will be replaced soon. At the beginning of the game, you can use D-tier ships with no problems, but you will struggle later on if you don’t acquire better ones.
What Is the Best Starter Ship in Azur Lane?
You can choose between 3 different ships at the beginning of the game: Z23, Laffey, and Javelin.
There is a slight difference between these three ships in terms of stat structure and gameplay.
Later on in the game, you won’t really notice this, however, and will acquire the other two ships through gameplay.
Z23 focuses on damage, having the highest firepower of the three, as well as a skill that compliments her firepower, Ironblood Vanguard, which increases her firepower by 30% for 8 seconds.
Laffey is a more balanced ship with a more balanced stat distribution. Laffey’s skill is Solomon Wargod, which increases her firepower, evasion, and reload time by 20%. If you’re looking for a solid overall ship, Laffey is the one for you.
Javelin is a special ship as she doesn’t have higher defense or firepower than the other two, but she does have slightly higher survivability because of her incredibly high evasion stat. Her skill, Javelin Raid, further boosts her evasion by 30% for 8 seconds, making her even harder to do damage to.
All in all, if you’re looking for damage, go with Z23. If you want an overall solid ship, choose Laffey, and if you want a special evasive ship, pick Javelin.
If I had to rank the three ships on how good they are, I would rank Laffey as number one, Z23 second, and Javelin third. However, as mentioned, they are very close in terms of how good they are, so you can pick whichever as still be just fine.
That’s the tier list on the best ships in Azur Lane.
Want to help improve the rankings in this tier list? Share your input in the comment section below.
