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Hōshō is the Tier III Japanese carrier: a balanced strike kit across dive bombers and air torpedoes without a single dominant weapon. The kit rewards reading the enemy AA and picking the squadron that fits the next target. Her air-torpedo alpha is among the heaviest in the cohort.
Use planes to keep destroyer lanes visible and strike ships separated from support. Hōshō should value clean torpedo/bomb approaches and preserve aircraft for the late game.
Hōshō’s balance changes make efficiency and aircraft preservation more important than volume.
5000.0 damage per air-dropped torpedo, best of T3 CVs. Each torp delete-strike hits harder.
3.1 km AA reach, bottom quartile of T3 CVs. Drops bombs and rockets land before AA bites.
Hōshō is available in the Offensive Strike Carriers branch of the Japan Tech Tree for 270,000 credits after researching it in the branch. Known module upgrades cost up to 54,000 credits.
Hōshō sits in the Offensive Strike Carriers branch. The highlighted path shows the local branch context inside the full Japan tree.
Build for aircraft restoration, survivability, speed, and torpedo/bomb consistency. Current advice should account for changed bomb damage/fire chance, hangar size, and aircraft HP.
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Where Hōshō sits among Tier III CVs (6 ships). Notable standouts are shown first; the rest of the cohort-ranked stats are in the expand below. Acquisition variants (Black Friday, Founders Edition) are counted once with their base ship, not as separate peers.
Not standouts for Hōshō -- here's where she sits on every other ranked stat in the cohort. Stats tagged NORM are tied across more than half the cohort, so the value is the cohort default rather than a standout.
Automatic Damage Control Party∞ charges · 90 s reload · 60 s active
Automatic Fighter4 charges · 40 s reload · 150 s active · 5 km patrol radius All values are ship base stats with modifications and upgrade changes denoted inline.
Numbers the spec table cannot show directly: alpha-strike math, DPM, dispersion, AP penetration. Click the formula chip on any row to reveal how it is calculated.
Sum across every AA aura on this ship of (aura.continuous_damage x 3.5 x aura.hit_probability). Here: (27×3.5×1) = 94. Covers AA-only mounts plus dual-purpose secondaries (Bismarck 105mm, USN 5"/38 cruiser secondaries) and dual-purpose main batteries (Sumner-class 5"/38, Akizuki-line 100mm). Formula validated against in-game captures on California, Sumner, Manfred von Richthofen, Dante Alighieri (exact) and within +/-17% on the remaining verified ships.Longest-reaching aura across AA-only + dual-purpose auras.SUM over AA auras of (aura DPS x aura range km). A plane crossing the AA bubble is exposed to each aura for a time proportional to that aura's range, so long-reach DPS is worth more than the same DPS in a short bubble. Units: DPS*km; used to rank overall AA threat across the cohort.Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.3.5 km × 57 + 30 = 229.5 m.Sum across all secondary families of (per-side barrels × 60 / reload_s × alpha), where per-side barrels = mounts × barrels-per-mount / 2 (the guns that bear on one broadside target). Per-family: 4×1 140 mm (2/side) × 60/8 × 2400 = 36,000. Assumes every shell hits (real hit rate is lower; the Brawl matchup tool on the Compare page folds in dispersion + target armor).Maximum HE damage per shell across secondary HE families. Best on this ship: 2400 from the 140 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 10% from the 140 mm family.Maximum HE armor penetration across secondary HE families (caliber × 1/6 for most nations; 1/4 for German/UK BBs). Shells whose pen falls under a plate's armor thickness shatter for 0 hull damage though fire chance still applies. Best on this ship: 23 mm from the 140 mm family.Hull HP 31,000 → 31,800 with hull upgrade, distributed across 5 hull zones, each with its own plate thicknesses, saturation cap, and pen thresholds. HP caps are estimated from the standard WoWs damage-allocation model.
Overmatched by 52+ guns across the bracket. Can’t reliably bow-tank; gets bow-citadelled and overpenned.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 10%, fires burn 60s. Range-by-range in the ballistics tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 13 mm primary (range 13–19 mm) | ≈ 1,590 (~5% of HP) | Overmatched by 203mm+ (Desert Falcon, Genova)Angle bounces 152mm13 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Bow-tank fits behind this exterior plate. Saturation is FAST here; the cap is often only a few thousand HP. |
| Hull (midship) | 20 mm | ≈ 23,850 (~75% of HP) | Overmatched by 305mm+ (Mikasa, Courbet)Angle bounces 283mm20 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 13 mm primary (range 6–15 mm) | ≈ 1,590 (~5% of HP) | Overmatched by 203mm+ (Desert Falcon, Genova)Angle bounces 152mm13 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 20 mm primary (range 6–20 mm) | no cap | Citadel pen: full damageOver-pen: ×0.10 damage | Effectively no cap; citadel pool sits at ~165k HP on every ship. An AP citadel penetration deals the shell's full damage, the biggest single hit available; only over-penetrations are damped, to ×0.10. |
| Superstructure | 6 mm primary (range 6–13 mm) | no cap | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage. HE-spam target, and the section saturates fast (often only a few thousand HP). |
Saturation cap = HP a section can absorb before further damage to it is reduced (the "bow-tank" effect). Citadel pool is ~165k on every ship (effectively no cap); damage is gated by pen/over-pen multipliers instead. Superstructure saturates fast but HE always pens regardless of the plate thickness. Rudder (and other module HPs) are a separate pool from ship HP: damaging a module doesn't drain ship HP. Incapacitated modules like the rudder and engine are restored by DCP, but secondary and AA mounts destroyed at 0 HP stay out for the rest of the battle.
Balance updates affecting Hōshō. Cards are condensed; use each source link for full context.
Every custom exterior Hōshō can equip, from in-game data.
Filtered to official World of Warships: Legends pages where this ship is a focus, reward, line member, or high-context variant mention.