Escort Vessels Tier List

This is a list of all escort vessels in the game along with my thoughts on their usefulness.

Introduction

Generally speaking, escort vessels that increase your carrier and escort defenses are the most valuable. Having enough of them allows you to shrug off attacks without having to deploy CAPs or AAs and continue your operations without interruptions. Prioritize your defenses. Everything else comes after.

A-rank

These are very useful throughout and should be used at all times once you unlock them.

Brooklyn (Type II)
Carrier Defense +2, Escort Defense +2

This is the new Brooklyn that was added in Update 1.0. The name is supposed to be Type II but it is currently displaying Type I in-game (listed at the bottom of the unlock). This is the only escort with +2 on both carrier and escort. It is easily the first recommended unlock in any campaign and will remain useful for the rest of the campaign. It is also highly recommended in sandbox as you could get 5+ strength incoming attacks in your very first mission and things will be very chaotic without any additional defense.


Atlanta (Oakland)
Escort Defense +2, Carrier Defense +1, Active: +2 defense for either carrier or escort for 3h (8h cooldown)

This is one of three vessels that have a total of +3 defense. While it has 1 less carrier defense than the Brooklyn, its active ability provides another +2 which gives you some tactical flexibility. Unlike Free CAPs, this active ability increases defense by +2 for the entire duration regardless of number of attacks and has a reasonable cooldown - much more useful when it comes to late game. The only drawback is that it only does so for either the carrier or the escort but not both (while CAPs and AAs increase defenses for both).


Independence (Type II)
Escort Defense +2, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Free Mission (14h cooldown)

This vessel also has +3 defense total, and its Free Mission can be used to deploy a CAP, counter submarines, counter scouts, recon, attack a straggler, or most likely - deploy a friendly CAP to protect mission objectives while you're stuck recovering a large strike force which has no way of being canceled or paused. Definitely take this when you have to protect objectives. Very versatile.


Casablanca
Escort Defense +2, Active: Remote Pick-Up (16h cooldown)

While lacking in Carrier Defense, the Remote Pick-Up is extremely useful for recovering your massive strike groups which would take forever to land on your main carrier, allowing you to keep your CAPs, anti-scout and anti-submarine operations going, or launch & recover even more attacks. This also allows you to strike beyond your recovery range and avoid putting your carrier in danger.

B-rank

These are useful but less effective in the late-game.

Saipan (Type II)
Escort Defense +1, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Free CAP for 6h (6h cooldown)

This is available from the start and remains useful up until around middle game. However, as each CAP only works against one attack, it is considerably less useful toward the end where you'll have as many as 3-4 incoming attacks going on at once. But it is still somewhat usable as most attack patterns have one very strong attack in the middle of weaker attacks, so you can time the ability to that exact wave and let your residual defense deal with the rest.

It also has only two hit points. In the event that the escorts actually take a hit, it is in considerable danger of sinking.


Fletcher (Type II)
Escort Defense +1, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Refresh AA (10h cooldown)

If all your AAs are out, activating this can give you back those 3-5 defenses. However, like CAPs they are only good for one attack, take up valuable crew transfer time, and have long cooldowns. This is actually quite useful but there is another factor: you also have a commander ability that does exactly the same thing, but doesn't take up an escort slot. This knocks it down into the B rank. But still, if you lack the commander points or if they're usually stuck doing Cryptanalysis, then this escort can do it.


Cleveland (Type I)
Escort Defense +2, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Defensive Strategy 2h (16h cooldown)

Defensive Strategy prevents your escorts (but not carrier) from being damaged when facing attacks stronger than the available defense during the duration. Together with its +2 escort defense, this makes it a strong addition to your fleet - for a while. However, unlike the Atlanta which can buff either your carrier or the escorts (and has a longer duration at that), it is considerably less flexible and you will have to reach for other solutions when an attack comes up on your carrier. It is most useful when you have less escort defense than carrier defense, but there are so many more ships with more escort defense than carrier defense and rarely the opposite. Once you've buffed up your fleet with the likes of Atlanta, Independence II and Casablanca, what you want more of will be carrier defense.


Chicopee (Type III)
Supplies Capacity +10%, Active: Reduce the cooldown of another escort by half (6h cooldown)

This synergizes very well with Free Mission and Remote Pick-Up allowing them to be vastly more useful. However, you're giving up 2-3 defense points which is simply too much and will not work in the late game. It is fun while it lasts though.

C-rank

These are too situational, few opportunities to be useful.

Sangamon
Escort Defense +2, Active: Decoy 2h (12h cooldown)
Saipan (Type I)
Escort Defense +1, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Free Counter Scout (10h cooldown)

These two are similar in that they prevent you from being attacked for 2 hours at a time. The duration are just too short to really matter. Eventually you will be attacked (or out of cooldown) and you want to be able to deal with that, rather than counting on not being attacked.

Decoy and Counter Scout can synergize with the Surprise Attack commander ability, but the opportunity to use it is too few and far between. It's not completely useless but there are better things to take.


Fletcher (Type I)
Escort Defense +1, Carrier Defense +1, Torpedo Defense 4h (10h cooldown)

Even in late game, submarines don't show up all that often. You might go an entire mission without seeing any.


Cleveland (Type II)
Escort Defense +1, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Ricochet 3h (10h cooldown)

It can save your carrier from a powerful attack in a pinch, but your escorts are quite valuable themselves and you don't want to get them damaged either. If you have low-hp escorts (like Saipans), they are far more likely to be sunk than your carrier. It's better to take an escort who can provide CAP or defense instead of just redirecting the hit.

But still, as there are many ships with more escort defense than carrier defense, some attacks may be more powerful than carrier defense but less than the escort defense. Even so, it only works on one attack per activation (and not for all attacks like the Atlanta).


S (Type II)
Radar Range +50, Active: Cargo Sinking 2h (12h cooldown)

This can be fairly useful in the early game when you need to attack a huge fleet that has a support ship providing some bonuses. However, it takes 2h to execute, and does not guarantee that it'll hit the one you want. In fact, there are support ships in enemy fleets which actually give YOU bonus offense and you don't want to hit that. Most of the time it's too slow and too unpredictable to be really useful. Also, you're giving up valuable defense.


S (Type I) Radar Range +50, Active: Radar Boost +200 miles 0.5h (5h cooldown)
S (Type III) Escort Defense +2, Radar Range +50
Sims Escort Defense +1, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Radar Boost +100 miles 2h (6h cooldown)

Radar can be useful when you're hunting something down and you're going toward them, but it is not useful at all defensively because enemy attack ranges are huge and, because of how the game works, you are considered detected at all times once the fighting starts. It won't ever replace Recon. Again, you're giving up Carrier Defense for this which is usually not worth it.

In missions where you're required to stay hidden for the entire length of the mission (and therefore no attack), you can maximize your radar which can help you avoid being detected by enemy radar (since you'd see them and their radar range before you get too close). This is useful, but their costs must be kept in mind. The points you invest in them cannot be recovered should you need more defenses in other missions.


Chicopee (Type II)
Oiler ships support, Supplies Capacity +25%, Replenish Squadrons (1 time per mission)

Once per mission, it can give you two planes you lost and you only get two of the same type. I know people say it saves you supply points, but this was not the case for me as the replenished planes disappear after the mission. You can try it out to see if it works for you. If it does work, 2 points per mission is quite a lot early game, but meaningless late game.

Mid-battle, if you lose a lot of squadrons, this can be your saving grace but generally speaking you should not be taking that kind of losses. It is also less likely to be a problem late-game as you can carry quite a lot into battle.

Again, this is not worth giving up 3 points of defense for.


Brooklyn (Type I)
Carrier Defense +2, Active: +2 DEF for maneuvers vs. land bases

With the addition of Type II Brooklyn with superior escort defense, there is no real reason to pick this over the Type II. Land bases, especially in the campaign, are rarely tough targets and don't usually need any assistance from active abilities. However, this is still one of only two escorts with +2 carrier defense so it is still more useful than those with +1. I'm classifying this as C-rank for being very situational (for its maneuver bonus vs. land bases), but other than that there is no reason to pick this at all over Brooklyn Type II.

D-rank

These are generally never useful.

Independence (Type I)
Escort Defense +1, Extra Maneuver Defense +2
Sims (Type II)
Escort Defense +2, Extra Maneuver Defense +1

This gives a small amount of extra defense for your air strikes maneuvers, which can add up if you stack multipliers on them, but you're also giving up a lot of carrier defense for that. Usually there is enough maneuver defense without the need for this, and when you don't have enough, it's usually because an enemy unit is disabling defense in some slots entirely, in which case this won't help either.

Note: Many people have written in that they've found good success with the extra maneuver defense. Even after reconsidering this, however, I still maintain that these escorts should be avoided when playing the campaign. These ships do not maintain their usefulness into the late game where the need for defense is paramount. Resources that are spent on these ships are irrecoverable and will hurt your long-term prospect.


Chicopee (Type I) Supplies Capacity +25%, Carrier Defense +1
Cimarron (Type II) Resupply Speed +20%, Escort Defense +1

You rarely have any problem with supplies in most missions. You cannot attack at night anyway and the enemy usually will not attack you at night either, which is the perfect time to resupply each day. Heck even if you resupply mid-day, it's rarely a problem. These two also have no active abilities to speak of.


Cimarron (Type I) DC Repair Speed +20%, Radar Range +25
Cimarron (Type III) DC Repair Speed +20%, Escort Defense +1, Active: Escort Ship Repair (18h cooldown)
Cimarron (Type IV) DC Repair Speed +20%, Carrier Defense +1, Active: Extra DC team 2h (6h cooldown)

DCs already work very quickly even at their default speed. Even if you need more speed, that need tends to be temporary, which is what crews are for. It's not worth giving up an escort slot for what one experienced crew can do.

Escort ship repair is not completely useless, but it's better to prevent that damage from happening in the first place by deploying escorts with better defenses.

Temporary DC team can be useful if your carrier is heavily damaged and some slots in the DC department are disabled and the crews are injured. But you know what's better at this point: having enough carrier defense so you never get into that situation in the first place.

[nemune]

There are several requirements, but radar augmentation is a fairly useful ability.
The main difference between aerial reconnaissance and radar vision is that it does not require an 'Identity Target' mission.
When conducting air reconnaissance, it should be randomly sprayed at the enemy's expected point, and even if the enemy fleet is found, additional aircraft payloads are required through the 'Identity Target'.

However, the radar field of view is different. In particular, the combination of 'enhanced radar' and 'scouting', which can be obtained from the beginning, can provide the closest point of the maximum radius of an aerial reconnaissance through an omnidirectional field of view.
This is a way to dramatically reduce aircraft payloads, making it irrelevant to turn all aviation operations 'Air Strike'.

And, I think that the 'Sims (Type 1)' class is Rank A's frigate that gives not only reconnaissance capabilities but also fleet defense capabilities.

[Princess-Luna]

i use the combo of Independence (Type II) and Chicopee (Type III) to reduce the free mission timer always to 5 hours. when attacking an enemy i use 3 squadron (stacking %+ ATK) to get rid of the most annoying ship for free and then using my actual airstrike to make it easier on the first strike. its really nice just having a suicide mission on 5h cooldown with both of these (you can also use other missions out of recovery like recon or identify) and having a CAP for emergencys if i cant make it in time but got the ability ready.

[Deron8564]

TY much, @Mizstik

[Mizstik]

New ships from 1.0 update added to guide.

[Deron8564]

The new Brooklyn sub (latest patch) gives a constant intrinsic +2 defense to Carrier AND +2 defense to Escort fleet. You give up the utility bonus of the other Brooklyn (extra damage when near enemy base) but in exchange you get plus 2 defense to both. This is a potential game changer. IMO, this should be the very first upgrade you get in campaign and basically run with at least one Brooklyn sub for each mission.

[Mizstik]

I can see your reasoning, but for me I've never really needed those maneuver bonuses so it feels more like "nice-to-have" rather than essential, or even "save you in some situation" - you just don't really need to unlock it. Not only that, but it loses its effectiveness later on. I see that a lot of people favor this escort though.

The first unlock, IMO, should still be ships with more defenses. For me, it's the Atlanta that is really the top tier one. If you have enough defense, you are much more free to launch & recover and that's much more true at the beginning. Casablanca is not really needed until a bit later.

Independence 2 cooldown is actually only a little above the norm. For example, Decoy, Counter Scout, Torpedo Defense, Refresh AA, etc. all have 10 or more hours of cooldown. This difference is even less once you get to the Essex, and then you can launch 2 in the same day. It is the only one that can launch Friendly CAPs in protection missions which made the A-tier for me.

[hashishmaria]

Nice breakdown, though I would disagree with Independence type 2 being A-rank. It is just one launch every 14 hours- which make it one per day effectively (or even less, if you tend keep that ability in reserve). Also sending out 3-squads mission is nice, though you almost never use 3 squads. it's usually to few for a strike and other missions use 1-2 squads, which can be easily launched by your carrier.
On the other hand Independence type 1 should be higher, as those +2 maneuver DEF can be VERY useful, if used correctly (especially early-mid game). It lets you focus more on attack and one-shot lots of fleets. Combine that with surprise attack and you can get VERY powerful strikes.

And Casablanca IMHO should be a rank of it's own, because it's must-to-have and the very first escort you should unlock. The remote pickup effectively doubles either your attack range, or the rate in which you can operate your landing deck. Especially if you're playing aggressively.

[Mizstik]

Devs did say they "reworked" detection but I don't have the details.

Even before the patch, though, there were indeed some methods where prioritizing stealth is a workable strategy. For example, if you max out radar in sandbox (like putting 5 subs in your escort), go on sandbox and only pick scouting missions, you'd finish the level basically instantly. Then you just keep doing that and keep getting points to upgrade everything else.

For the main campaign, though, there are many situations where you are forced-reveal and forced-attack (even forced-teleport and then unable to control movement) so on the whole I would still maintain the defense-first priority.

[Bramborough]

Now that I've actually upgraded to a few of these vessels, wow, I should've done it earlier instead of prioritizing carrier upgrades to get to Yorktown. Pretty powerful.

I'm finding now, also, that it's possible to regain "permanently undetected" status (seemingly after Hotfix 4 going by patch notes, but I didn't really notice it occurring until Hotfix 5). Doesn't happen every time, there might be some RNG involved, not sure. But it happens often enough for me now that I'm wondering if perhaps Sangamon might have come up a bit in value? Especially as it's availabe-at-start (in sandbox anyway), and doesn't burn any Upgrade Points (although it's pretty pricey in Command Points).

[DKATyler]

Yep, I use the Sangamon to survive the low carrier/escort ratings. And that one, I don't disagree with it being C tier. Yes, I am facing *15*x3 incoming attacks on the carrier at once but I did roll fire suppression so my carrier's tanky.