Another year, another WOWS x AL collab which works out far better for AL players than for WOWS players. This year's collab works a bit differently from the previous years' collabs due to how the crates work, but the guide will still follow the same format as before: Separating purchases into 3 distinct sections, being "Great Value", "Fine Enough Value", and "Do not".

Section 1: Great Value

Gorizia for a fantastic price???

Seems like every year we'll get one ship super-discounted. This time it's Gorizia, a T7 Heavy Cruiser which is not a bad ship to pick up. Although, it's worth noting that even though Gorizia is a T7, her discounted price is still roughly equal to last year's discounted Montpelier. Also, because there's far fewer Italian ships compared to USN ships in WOWS, she'll also have less value as a captain trainer. Finally, her performance in operations, while decent, doesn't really compare with Montpelier's performance.

That said, because Montpelier isn't on sale this year, I'd still recommend picking her up. Next week though, since she's locked this week for some reason.

EDIT: Due to the fact that the premium shop 15% coupons wear off after 1 week, you will not be able to stack the 15% discount on top of this discount.

Section 2: Fine Enough Value

Marco Polo for a...slightly inflated price?

We still have single ship purchase options, but this year the prices seem to have inflated slightly. A T9 is now 123 CAD, compared to last year's 110 CAD, representing an inflation of almost 13 CAD. Almost a full 10%! This is most likely due to the new "rarity" system that WG implemented, where ships are now categorized into different rarities just like in AL. And, most of the collab ships seem to be "Rare", which makes them a bit more expensive than a regular T9 from before.

Now, do the rarities actually indicate anything relating to gameplay? Obviously not. Rare ships still play the same as other rarities. Higher rarity ships aren't inherently stronger than lower rarity ships. So, do keep this in mind when you're purchasing.

All the commanders for - JESUS that's a lot

There's a total of 48 AL commanders in WOWS now, goodness me. With these packs you can pick up all of the commanders for a total of 321 CAD. These packs contain only the commanders, plus a camo and a destruction effect added for padding. Again, there exist mods to replace captain voices. You don't necessarily need this to hear your favorite shipgirls speak new voicelines.

Some cosmetics for...I mean at least you can actually buy them directly now, that's better than before

This year sees the introduction of a brand new temporary currency: Azur Lane Tokens, only given to players who make purchases using cash, and can be used to directly purchase any AL camo for existing ships, or a destruction effect, or 2 common camos. This isn't the best still, since the tokens are still very expensive (Coming in at roughly 2 CAD per token), but at the very least if you were planning on spending cash, you can pick up some nice looking camos on the side now.

That said, I'm not sure if this "cash purchase" only applies to the crates I'll show later, or if it applies to premium shop purchases too. If it applies to the crate purchases only then disregard everything I said and put this in the final section.

The newcomers for...a middling price

Compared to last year's bundle, which contained a T7, T8, T9, and a T10, this year's bundle only consists of 2 T8s and 2 T9s, alongside 1 less commander. Overall, the value is still not the best, but it's definitely the most reliable choice you have of getting all the newcomers. Especially when compared to the alternative of:

Section 3: Oh No

Crates with horrendous returns which are required to gamble for likely the best ship in the collab for a ridiculous price???

You may have heard that Massachusetts and Shinano were being added as AL ships via this collab. But, that creates an issue: Massachusetts is a ship which isn't normally available for sale, and Shinano is a Steel ship which requires a ton of grinding to get. Compared to many of the other AL ships, which are mostly replicas of easy-to-obtain premiums or tech tree ships, if these 2 ships were sold directly, players could easily get their hands on 2 replicas of ships that aren't meant to be widely distributed.

So, what was WG's solution to this?

Crates within crates woohoo!!!

8% drop rates after a 20% yippee!!!

Obviously, gambling inside gambling! Please gamble 10 CAD per crate for a 20% chance of dropping a crate which then has a 8% chance of dropping the actual ship! And getting all the ships in the first crate won't even increase the odds of dropping the second crate! I LOVE GAMBLING!!!

By the way, if you though "well, if I don't want the ships, I can probably still get the captains, right?", you'd be WRONG! Because the captains themselves, aka, the voices, are ALSO LOCKED BEHIND THIS 20% UNBOX!!!

60% after a 20% isn't as bad as a 8% after a 20% but it's still a % after a % man

This is stuff that is reserved for either the super-lucky or the people who have actual tons of disposable income. This is a HORRENDOUS deal. DO NOT BUY IT.

Section 4: Free Stuff

I will say, though, this year's collab does bring some more free stuff for players to grind out.

New collection that can be 100% filled out if all the missions are completed which gives a free captain, camo, 3 common camos, and a destruction effect???

Old collection which can still be filled using daily crates which gives a free captain???

This year's collab gives us a new collection for us to fill out, and it can be completed 100% free. The missions are also pretty easy. It might look like there's missions which require specific AL ships, but they're 100% optional. You do not need AL ships to complete all the necessary tasks.

Section 5: Conclusion

Overall, the paid stuff for this collab is a lot worse than before, but the free stuff is also quite a bit better.

If you're a fan of a specific shipgirl, who happens to have an AL variant ship in WOWS, I'd recommend only purchasing her directly.

If you see yourself playing WOWS for a good bit in the forseeable future, I'd recommend picking up Gorizia.

If you have all the previous AL ships, and don't want the hassle or risk of unboxing, I'd recommend the big pack.

And, as per usual, there's two 15% discount coupons on the premium store you can use on your most expensive purchases to save some money.

Also, I just want to clarify something. Even though you might see I already have AL Shinano and AL Massachusetts from the screenshots, I STILL DO NOT ADVISE YOU TO DO WHAT I DID, WHICH IS TO GAMBLE. I HAD DISPOSABLE INCOME, TOOK A BIG RISK, AND IT PAID OFF FOR ME, BUT IT MOST LIKELY WILL NOT PAY OFF FOR YOU. I GOT EXTREMELY LUCKY WITH MY DROPS. YOU WILL MOST LIKELY NOT HAVE THIS LUCK. SHINANO AND MASSACHUSETTS ARE OBTAINABLE VIA OTHER MEANS, EVEN IF IT MEANS YOU MIGHT NEED TO WAIT A BIT LONGER. THE SHIPGIRL VOICES ARE AVAILABLE VIA MODS, WHICH ARE NOT HARD TO INSTALL AT ALL. EVEN THE CAMOS ARE AVAILABLE VIA MODS.

UNLESS YOU KNOW FULL WELL WHAT YOU'RE DOING, HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE AVAILABLE TO SPEND, AND HAVE ONLY CONSIDERED MAKING THE BET AFTER FULLY DELIBERATING ON THE POTENTIAL RISKS OF GAMBLING, DO NOT DO IT. I CANNOT STRESS THIS MORE CLEARLY, MASSA AND SHINANO ARE VERY BAD DEALS. ON AVERAGE YOU WILL SPEND ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY A MONTH OF RENT IN SOME COUNTRIES TO GET ONE OF THESE SHIPS. AND THE PITY RATE FOR THE CONTAINERS ONLY COMES AFTER YOU GET ALL THE OTHER SHIPS. MEANING, IN THE WORST CASE SCENARIO, YOU WILL BE SPENDING ((64.94/6)*35*18)=6818.7 CAD TO ONLY START GETTING GUARANTEED CRATES, AND THEN SPENDING ANOTHER ((64.94/6)*35*40)=15152.66 CAD TO GET BOTH SHIPS FOR A TOTAL OF ALMOST 22K CAD.

DO. NOT. GAMBLE.