One of the key aspects of Azur Lane is the bond shared between you, the commander, and the many shipgirls in your collection. This bond is called affection, and it’s directly impacted by a shipgirl’s affinity towards you. While on the surface this may be nothing more than a quirk that tons of players will find strangely appealing, there is great value in increasing your shipgirls affinity thanks to the healthy boost in stats it adds. With this guide, we’re taking a look at how affection works and how you can ultimately increase your affection with shipgirls to get the benefits that come with it.
Status
There are six affection statuses, each denoting a certain range between 0 to 200 to show a certain shipgirl’s affinity with you. The higher your affection status is, the better the bonuses the shipgirl gains.
- Disappointed (30 and below) – the lowest affection status, which is only possible if you keep sortieing with a shipgirl that’s completely demoralized. You’d be hard-pressed to actually reach this level, unless you try really hard for some reason that’s known only to you.
- Stranger (31 to 60) – this is the baseline status, as all new shipgirls start at 50. This status offers no bonuses or special effects.
- Friendly (61 to 80) – the first increase in status occurs 11 points after your first shipgirl acquisition. This status increases all base stats of the shipgirl (except for speed) by one percent. This number may not seem like a lot, but the higher the stat, the bigger difference it makes.
- Crush (81 to 99) – the next increase is pretty high up, but the bonuses make it a little more worth grinding for. This status increases all base stats of the shipgirl (except for speed) by three percent.
- Love (100) – the penultimate status is one that you should aim for if you’re playing as a mostly free-to-play player, as this range increases the shipgirl’s base stats (except for speed) by a cool six percent.
- Oath (100 to 200) – this status is only possible with an item called a Pledge Ring, which increases the affection cap of your shipgirl. If the shipgirl has an Oath skin, you also unlock it. Once the Pledge Ring is given, it increases all the base stats of the shipgirl (except for speed) by nine percent. However, a second reward tier is possible at 200 points, after which the shipgirl ups those gains by 12 percent.
It should be noted that Pledge Rings are bought with Gems, which are bought with real-world currency. There are instances when the game will give out free Gems, so if you really want an Oath for a shipgirl it is possible even without spending money. That said, at some point during playing, the game will give you a free Pledge Ring to use with any possible shipgirl.
Statuses for shipgirls can be checked in the Docks, and they can be viewed at the upper right of the shipgirl’s splash art. It’s worth noting that with each status, the shipgirl’s lines in the Docks will also change to reflect their growing affinity.
Increasing shipgirl affinity
There are three main ways to raise shipgirl affinity, but all of them are a bit grindy, so be prepared. It’s nigh impossible to lose affinity with a shipgirl though, so there’s no need to worry if you find yourself not using a particular one for sorties for quite some time.
- Using shipgirls in sorties (except for exercises) will raise their respective affection by 0.0625. Once every battle, an MVP is chosen, which goes to the shipgirl with the best performance in the fleet. The MVP gets 0.125 affection per battle.
- In your HQ there is a space called the Dorm, where your shipgirls can relax and passively gain EXP after sorties. Shipgirls placed there will sometimes display a heart icon, which you can tap to increase her affection by 0.1 to 0.3 points. Giving shipgirls different kinds of food affects the chances of heart icons appearing.
- In the home page you can select a shipgirl to act as your secretary, and shipgirls that get this honor will gain one point of affection every 300 to 320 minutes. This is a good way to passively gain affection in addition to using that particular shipgirl in sorties, so keep that in mind. However, affection gain as a secretary stops at 90 points of affection, by which you have to do either of the two former options to raise those 10 final points for the Love status.
Stay tuned for more guides on Azur Lane. Check out a recommended shipgirl guide for Destroyers (DD) here, Light Cruisers (CL) here, Heavy Cruisers here, Battleships (BB) and Battlecruisers (BC) here, Aircraft Carriers (CV) here and Light Aircraft Carriers (CVL) and Repair Ships (AR) here. You can also check out a cost-effective low-level farming guide for materials and resources here.
