Also known as S. Dragon
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Southern Dragon is a Tier VI Japanese IJN cruiser with the improved AP fuse: her AP shells arm at 60% of the standard armor threshold, so they citadel cruisers that would over-pen a normal CA round. Lean on AP into broadsides and short-angled cruisers - HE-spamming this hull leaves the cohort's best damage tool on the rack. Sonar (4.2 km on ships and 3 km on torpedoes, 94 s active, 180 s reload, long uptime) lights up DDs and torpedoes inside its bubble, which lets her contest the cap edge without taking the spotting cycle. Standout traits: top-decile punchy HE secondaries in T6 CAs (2,100) and top-decile HE fire chance in T6 CAs (17).
Sit 12-15 km from a contested cap where an island shadows you from the opposite battleship line. Hydro (4.2 km on ships, 3 km on torpedoes) lights up DDs and incoming torpedoes inside its bubble, so you can push the cap edge from cover without taking the spotting cycle; prefer cover positions over open-water flanks.
Her 203mm shells citadel cruisers on the wrong frame, and her 39,200-HP hull does not recover from a punished salvo. Pick rotations and angles deliberately; the chip-damage role pays better than the trade-blow role on a cruiser of this profile.
AP arms at 60% of the standard armor threshold (vs 0.9 default). Lets your AP pen broadsiding cruisers that would over-pen a normal CA, citadel hunts the cohort can't pull off, shared by 7/43 T6 CAs.
17.0% fire chance per HE shell, top decile of T6 CAs.
39200.0 HP, top decile of T6 CAs.
1.6 km torpedo detect, bottom decile of T6 CAs. Easy to dodge if targets are looking.
Southern Dragon is a Premium ship and not available to unlock in the Tech Tree. Acquisition path: Containers. Container chances are shown as the listed odds of receiving this exact ship, dividing grouped ship-pool odds across the resolved ships and including nested container paths when a crate can drop another crate.
Lunar New Year '25 crate
1.5%
Lunar New Year Premium ship
Event · Lunar New Year '25 crate · 1 of 2 ships
Piñata Chest
0.16%
Tier V or VI Premium ship
Event · Piñata Chest · 1 of 25 ships
Want the full picture? Each container page charts the odds as you open more crates — including pity guaranteed-reward timers and, for Fleet Members, pack math personalized to your port.
Pair with a commander whose unique skill complements her main armament; check the build tool for current recommendations.
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Where Southern Dragon sits among Tier VI CAs (43 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 Southern Dragon -- 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.
Damage Control Party∞ charges · 60 s reload · 5 s active
Sonar2 charges · 180 s reload · 94 s active · 4.2 km ship detect 
Defensive AA Fire3 charges · 140 s reload · 25 s active · ×2 flak burst boost 
Catapult Fighter3 charges · 80 s reload · 90 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.
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model: Horizontal scatter at a fixed 5 km, from the same verified dispersion model as the rows below - a knife-fight-range anchor comparable across ships.How wide your shells scatter at 10 km, from the same dispersion model as the max-range figure above. Picking a fixed range makes this number directly comparable from ship to ship: max-range dispersion makes a longer-range gun look worse even when it's tighter at any common range. The interactive Dispersion tab on the Charts card plots the full curve from 0 to max range.Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range: How tall the same scatter ellipse is at 10 km. Comparable from ship to ship for the same reason as the width value above.50%-hit horizontal radius: 50%-hit vertical radius: Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: . Matches the in-game spec card.Same formula at the ship's max firing range (18.6 km), where the shell has slowed to 365.5 m/s: .AP penetration at a fixed 5 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.AP penetration at a fixed 10 km, read off the same PC-validated ballistic curve as AP Pen Close/Far: the shell's impact velocity at that range fed through the canonical community AP formula . Fixed anchors make ships directly comparable at the same fighting distance; the Charts card plots the full curve.34 mm ≈ 203 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).floor(203 mm caliber / 14.3) = 14 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.All 10 barrels bear on the broadside.180 degrees / 4 deg/s traverse speed = 45 s.3,300 HE damage x 10 broadside guns = 33,000.4,700 AP damage x 10 broadside guns = 47,000.33,000 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 14 s base reload = 141,429.47,000 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 14 s base reload = 201,429.10 broadside guns x 60 / 14 s base reload = 42.9.42.9 shells/min x 17% fire chance = 7.29.detectability / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).range / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).4 launchers x 3 tubes.tube count / 2 (symmetric port/starboard launcher layout; common on cruisers and battleships with deck torpedoes).All tubes hitting one target: tubes x per-torpedo simulated damage = 12 x 15,933 = 191,196.One side firing, all torpedoes hitting: per-side tubes x per-torpedo simulated damage = 6 x 15,933 = 95,598.Sum across every AA aura on this ship of (aura.continuous_damage x 3.5 x aura.hit_probability). Here: (64×3.5×0.9) + (16×3.5×0.9) = 252. 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. Flak is NOT included: flak stops triggering once planes are inside 2.5 km, and its avoidable burst damage is shown separately in the Flak bursts section.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.4.5 km × 57 + 30 = 286.5 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: 4×2 127 mm (4/side) × 60/7.5 × 2100 = 67,200. 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: 2100 from the 127 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 8% from the 127 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: 21 mm from the 127 mm family.Hull HP 39,200, 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 124+ guns across the bracket. Can’t reliably bow-tank; gets bow-citadelled and overpenned.
Thin belt: battleship AP citadels straight through it broadside. Rely on angle, speed and concealment, never sit flat.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 30%, fires burn 30s. Range-by-range in the Compare tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 16 mm primary (range 16–30 mm) | ≈ 1,960 (~5% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 203mm16 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) | 32 mm primary (range 6–89 mm) | ≈ 29,400 (~75% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 410mm32 mm: HE pens from 203mm+ | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 16 mm primary (range 16–50 mm) | ≈ 1,960 (~5% of HP) | Overmatch not possible in its bracketAngle bounces 203mm16 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 102 mm primary (range 19–102 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 6–25 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.
Every custom exterior Southern Dragon 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.