While Azur Lane may be a great game, it’s still – quite unfortunately – trapped within the confines of a mobile game structure. Like many other freemium mobile games, it requires constantly accumulating components to play properly; in this case, it’s Oil, a resource consumed by your shipgirls whenever they sortie various battles. Inevitably, playing for a while will cause Oil to run out, and with it being replenished every hour, it’s best to focus on another aspect of the game that doesn’t require much of your attention and can be left running as you quit the game.
In the case of Azur Lane, this is called Commissions, missions that allow you to send shipgirls away on various endeavors for gaining EXP, resources, and other valuable items. Commissions in Azur Lane are there to give your other shipgirls something to do whenever you’re running low on oil, or it can also be a great way to get tons of resources while you’re away from the game during longer periods of time. Commissions are unlocked when you hit level 10, with one slot unlocking immediately for up to six shipgirls to be chosen. The other three slots are granted once you’ve completed maps 1-4, 2-4 and 3-4, for up to four fleets with six shipgirls each.
Running Commissions
There are many types of Commissions, although each of them has a required player level before they appear. Higher player levels also mean better Commissions with greater rewards, but there are also other requirements to consider such as:
- Shipgirl level – all Commissions require that at least one ship hit the level requirement. This is certainly useful for some Commissions, especially higher ones, as they allow the properly-leveled shipgirl to carry five others, especially if there’s tons of EXP involved.
- Number of shipgirls – all Commissions require a certain number of shipgirls in a fleet in order to run. However, since there’s no actual penalty or additional requirements for running beyond the needed number, it’s recommended to always fill in all of the six slots in order to get the most out of the Commission in terms of EXP.
- Shipgirl class – all Commissions require different kinds of classes, with some of them allowing for more than one in order to fill up the slots.
In addition to these requirements, it should also be noted that shipgirls in your current fleet formations cannot be automatically sortied for Commissions. In order to place them, you must manually remove them from their fleet formation or via the prompt that will appear if you try to place them from the Commissions screen. In addition to this, shipgirls currently on Commissions cannot be sortied for regular missions, change equipment, be enhanced or undergo Limit Breaks. This is worth noting if you’re planning on sending them on Commissions that last for longer than five or six hours.
Some special Commissions also require Oil, with exorbitant costs particularly reserved for high-EXP payout Commissions. While Commissions can be cancelled after they’re run for whatever reason, the Oil cost that you paid will not be refunded. As such, always carefully plan your Commissions before running them, especially those with greater Oil costs.
Types of Commissions
There are several types of Commissions, each giving out different kinds of rewards ranging from Coins, Oil, Cubes, Drills, Furniture Coins, Skill Books, various Improvement Materials, Equipment Boxes, and Ship Blueprints. In some rare cases, they can also give out Rubies or even shipgirls themselves. However, one constant is the set amount of experience which all participating shipgirls will receive upon completing the Commission.
- Daily Resource Extraction – one of two kinds of Daily Commissions that are always available to the player. The first 10 Daily Commissions are always of this kind, and they typically range from one to two hours each. In terms of rewards, Daily Resource Extraction is your best source of Oil, as almost all of them give out this resource in addition to several others. Once you hit level 50, and with one shipgirl fully decked out at level 100, you will also start to see Commissions that reward you with Cognitive Chips for raising shipgirl level beyond 100.
- Extra Commissions – unless you’re really grinding it out, it may be rare for this Commissions to appear. Extra Commissions only become available once you’ve done all 10 Daily Resource Extractions for the day. These Commissions are a bit more random in terms of their rewards, with some offering tons of Oil, Coins or EXP. They can range from anywhere between 20 minutes to eight hours, so it’s worth noting that they may not be the best time investments when it comes to Commissions.
- Major Commissions – the Daily Commissions tab is populated by four of the Daily Resource Extraction or Extra Commissions, and one Major Commission. Major Commissions allow players with less time on their hands to effortlessly level up their shipgirls, as these commissions give out the biggest EXP rewards. They are also a good source of Coins, but these benefits come at a much greater cost. All Major Commissions require major Oil investments, from 800 to 1200. They are also longer to run, requiring anywhere from eight to ten hours. That said, they’re really good for catching up newer shipgirls to put on your fleet. They are also good sources of other resources, as there’s always a set amount of drop for any of the following: Cubes, Gear Parts, Blueprints, Drills, Skill Books or Equipment Boxes.
- Urgent Commissions – these Commissions appear randomly whenever you finish a Campaign battle. However, they also disappear after a certain amount of time, which puts them under the Urgent tab of the Commissions window. All Urgent Commissions require Oil to run and give out randomized rewards, with the duration ranging anywhere from 30 minutes to 12 hours. It’s also the only Commission type that gives out rewards like Rubies, Azur Lane’s premium currency, as well as other shipgirls as possible drops.
- Night Commissions – named as they always appear a few hours before the daily reset, which is every 12:00AM PDT for English servers. Four hours before the reset, four Night Commissions will appear under the Urgent tab, persisting for three hours after the reset. In terms of rewards, some of these Commissions are your best sources of Furniture Coins, Oil and Coins. However, they’re also time-consuming, lasting from five to eight hours each. They also give out random drops like Drills, Skill Books or Cubes.
Helpful tips to remember for Commissions
- Once you’ve got four Commission slots unlocked, it’s good if you can always keep all of them busy at all times for best efficiency.
- If you want a proper shipgirl rotation when it comes to Oil harvesting Commissions, you can manually put level 1 shipgirls to give them some EXP. For some reason, once you start receiving higher level Commissions, the game will start prioritizing higher leveled shipgirls all the time in Auto-fill mode. To bypass this, manually place level 1 shipgirls to push them up several levels, which should now make them available for rotation on the Auto-fill as well.
- Major Commissions are very big undertakings, especially at higher levels. It’s common sense that you do not cancel them unless it’s really important, but even then, if you’re planning ahead, it should never pose a problem. It’s also important that every slot always gets filled in order to maximize its high Oil cost.
- It’s always good to reserve one or two fleets nearing reset for Night Commissions, as the rewards for these are always good.
- Azur Lane’s server maintenance and downtimes always happen during reset, which could spell a few hours of waiting for those who are avid players. When there’s one coming up, it’s good to maybe reserve your Major Commission so that it finishes near the estimated time of the end of server maintenance, so that you can finish up on it by the time you start your regular playthrough. You can also do the same for Night Commissions as they become available a few hours before the daily reset.
- Always check on your Urgent Commissions tab after every bout in Campaign mode, as you never know what you can unlock there.
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, a guide to raising shipgirl affection here, and a complete guide to Retrofitting viable shipgirls here.
