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Our favorite Azur Lane characters

Let’s take a cruise through our favorite Azur Lane characters, see what they can do on our teams, and what their real counterparts are.

Azur Lane characters - a character wearing a white shirt, white hat, and a black jacket

Azur Lane has hundreds of characters – over 400, in fact – all based on real-life naval vessels. So, we thought we’d pick out a few of our favorite Azur Lane characters to give them a spotlight. The game is a 2D shooter-turned-RPG, where tactics and strategies matter – along with your flotilla of six ships.

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Here are some of the best Azur Lane characters.

Azur Lane characters Akagi wearing red and black clothing on a blurred background

Azur Lane Akagi

Akagi is an antagonist in the main story, so you should recognize her if you’ve played any of the game’s story. She works as part of the Sakura Empire, and her design is based on the IJN Akagi aircraft carrier. This vessel sank during the Battle of Midway and even showed up in Pearl Harbor.

You can get Akagi on your team as a drop from the boss fight in chapter three, and she’s a good unit with a six-star, super-rare ranking. Having her on your team can add significant all-plane efficiency, and some hangar capacity, and boost your torpedo bombers.

Azur Lane characters Atago wearing white and black clothing on a blurred background

Azur Lane Atago

Another super rare gal is Atago. She’s in the heavy cruiser class and is based on the IJN Atago. The ship itself takes its name from Mount Atago near Kyoto and was a significant cruiser in its fleet.

Her combat capabilities include torpedo and gun efficiency, along with a 15% chance of enabling a second wave of torpedo attacks. In the story, she’s an antagonist and sister of Takao. She makes her appearance in the final boss battle of the Effort, Hope, and Planning event.

Azur Lane characters Belfast wearing a maids outfit

Azur Lane Belfast

Another key character in Azur Lane’s story is Belfast. She’s a protagonist and a constructible unit that you can create. As her name suggests, she’s based on the HMS Belfast, which is now permanently docked in the River Thames as part of the Imperial War Museum.

In-game, Belfast is a maid of the Royal Navy, but her skills are excellent despite her role. She can increase the damage of your ships, burn enemies, and even deploy a smokescreen – overall, she’s a very helpful unit for your flotilla.

Azur Lane characters Bismarck wearing a military uniform and holding a flag

Azur Lane Bismarck

Bismarck, a battleship class character in the Iron Blood faction, is right up there in our Azur Lane tier list. Her skills add tons of main gun efficiency to your team, and she ensures that your first volley will crit every time.

The Bismarck ship in real life is one of the largest battleships ever built in Germany, and indeed by any European power. Though the ship was active for eight months, it only completed one operation. In real life and in the game, Bismarck’s story entwines with that of Prinz Eugen as they set out on a raid together.

Azur Lane characters Enterprise next to a boat and an eagle

Azur Lane Enterprise

Azur Lane’s Enterprise made it into this year’s top ten in the popularity contest, and for good reason. She’s the main protagonist in both the game’s story and in the anime. In terms of her skills and what type of unit she is, she’s in the aircraft carrier class and is a super rare character. You can construct her, or get her as a reward in quests.

Her design takes from the USS Enterprise, a carrier built for the US Navy. This ship also took part in Pearl Harbor and earned 20 battle stars for her duty. The ship was, however, reported as sunk three times by the Japanese, but Enterprise made a return after each alleged sinking.

Azur Lane characters Musashi surrounded by a sword, armor, and mechanical items

Azur Lane Musashi

Another of the top entries in 2024’s popularity poll is Musashi. She’s an ultra-rare battleship character in the Sakura Empire faction. A cool factoid for you – her voice actor, Lynn, also voices Genshin Impact’s Damselette.

Mushashi’s skills allow you to reduce the damage your ships take and also fire supporting barrages at the start of a battle. She can apply the ‘Musashi’s Guardianship’ state which stops all ramming damage, too. Her real-life counterpart fell as it was sunk by a US air attack, so let’s hope your in-game gal fares better.

Azur Lane characters New Jersey's splash art showing her in a dark environment

Azur Lane New Jersey

Next up, we have the USS New Jersey, an Iowa class battleship that went through four decommissions before finally being struck. Don’t worry, in the game, New Jersey won’t leave you so easily. She’s an ultra-rare character who’s part of the Eagle Union faction, and you can construct her.

Her skills include main gun efficiency, the chance to fire extra special barrages that will crit, along with inflicting armor break onto enemies. New Jersey is a very strong unit, as all ultra-rares are, and is very much worth building if you happen to have her.

Azur Lane characters Prinz Eugen's splash art showing her surrounded by artillery

Azur Lane Prinz Eugen

The aforementioned Prinz Eugen, an antagonist of the game, is a heavy cruiser in the Iron Blood faction alongside Bismarck. She’s the first boss you come up against in the game’s tutorial, so get ready for a fight. Eugen’s skills add a lot of weapon efficiency, so she’s a helpful character to have in your fleet.

You can obtain her through login events in the game, or you can construct her. In terms of the real-life Eugen, it set out with Bismarck to destroy a British ship but then went off on its own adventure to take down merchant ships.

Azur Lane characters Roon in amongst guns and armor

Azur Lane Roon

We’ve got another Iron Blood faction member here – this time, it’s Azur Lane’s Roon. She’s also another heavy cruiser but is not based on any one real-life ship, despite there being an SMS Roon in the German fleet. Roon comes from a collaboration between Azur Lane and World of Warships.

In order to get her, you must complete some research tasks. These are:

  • Accumulate one million XP with Iron Blood vanguards
  • Complete five research projects
  • Gather ten T2 cruiser retrofit blueprints
  • Accumulate two million XP with Iron Blood vanguards
  • Complete eight research projects
  • Gather five T3 cruiser retrofit blueprints
  • Gather 20k coins
  • Gather five wisdom cubes

Then, you can get her on your team. Though it’s a bit of an effort to get Roon, her skills pay off. As you level her up, you gain buffs like Siren Killer and All Out Assault, and she increases her rarity as you pass certain thresholds.

Well, there you go – there’s a tour of our favorite Azur Lane character shipyard. If you fancy checking out some more mobile games, we’ve got some AFK Journey codes, Free Fire redeem codes, and Guardian Tales codes for you.