Economic Strategy

Battleship Craft is mostly oriented toward shipbuilding and naval warfare, thus leaving little

Resources (left) and Rare Metals (right), your two currencies.

for economic tactics. However, as long as there is an economy, there is a strategy for it. And when there is a strategy for it, then it should be followed for the best results. 

Currency Conservation

While no currency is lost because of lost battles due to the absence of repair costs, they will be depleted through a desire for upgrades and new ships with their new weapons, equipment and armor. This is more so prevalent with Rare Metal, due to the inability to earn it through regular gameplay. However, this can be applied for weak navies as well in regard to resource. 

One obvious form is to break up warships deemed unnecessary or obsolete for parts: a bank of parts will be retained, and can be used on more advanced warships. This is useful for ships bought from the shop merely for parts, such as the Fortress Pisces. However, some warships may have parts that would be useful on other ships but the warship itself may not be unnecessary or obsolete.

Sometimes the only parts you want from the warship, which would otherwise still have a useful hull, is the high-cost and high value equipment and weapons such as aircraft, Mk 45 5 inch guns, AAA, rare metal weapons, and decorations which enhance visibility and accuracy (ie. Reconnaissance Plane and Rangefinder+Radar respectively). The question comes down to whether the warship is worthless (which it isn't) or retain them on the ship. 

A simple solution is to have a "shared" pool of such parts, where high-cost but high value parts can be deleted from ships when not necessary and reapplied to other ships. While untimely and somewhat inefficient, it is better than not having the component on said warship. This system works for a few high-value parts: heavy guns can go under this system, but is generally agreed to buy a new gun, and this system would be completely inefficient regarding armor. However, it enables every ship in your fleet to have access to such weapons where necessary, especially if you remember their placement. Candidates for this system include any rare-metal weapon, the Mk45 5 inch Gun and the Type 96 AT/AA 25mm Gun.  

Currency Obtainment

Perhaps this is the general focus for strategy in all situations. And the ships will be ranked according to their efficiency of obtaining currency during Single-Player Battle:

1. Battleships: These are the most efficient warships in the game, cost-wise. They possess the armor and firepower to bring down other vessels. And since they use their guns for firepower, they are able to deliver  a significant amount of firepower in a short period of time. While the costly to build, especially the armor and anti-air defenses, they are very economically capable, and will soon pay off their investments. This is because this type of warship can destroy ships the fastest in close-combat, the type of battle most encountered in Battleship Craft PvE. Because of this, it can complete missions faster than other ships, and thus earn the most money. The best type of battleship in this case is the Battleship Killer, whose forward-firing armament will quickly out-damage any warship in moments. Otherwise, a normal Battleship will suffice.
2. Submarines: These are fairly inefficient vessels, given their tricky nature, slow speed and lack of long-distance firepower. However, their value lies in the ability to almost assure victory, as long as the depth is below that of what is capable of destroying the submarine (ie. five blocks down) and if the builder knows how to build submarines, will benefit from their relatively low cost. Since no ship in PvE can reliably engage submarines, they are perfect at lower levels as a way to obtain large sums of cash, albeit slowly. Despite the fact that an individual torpedo tube costs 70000, it should be noted that a submarine only needs two, totaling 140000 resource. However, minimum battleship armament costs can exceed 280000 resource. Thus, they are relatively cheap and can be built with novice resources. These vessels are best employed to earn experience, since victory is foolproof. However, well-built submarines can rival the money-making capacity of battleships. These vessels are rare and battleships are generally the best way to earn money for most players.  
3. Aircraft Carriers: Though they are fairly powerful, they are exponentially more expensive than even submarines and thus the least efficient. Though tactics are straightforward, they take a long time to deploy their firepower, and its firepower is more easily cut down if their AAA is good. Fighters will eliminate bombers quickly. However, give it some time and it will destroy. They are generally less efficient than submarines, as they take about the same amount of time to reliably destroy a fleet but require more money to make effective (four torpedo tubes cost 280,000 resource and three 46cm Guns cost 270,000, where a fleet of twenty divebombers costs 1,000,000 resource, excluding the 4,000 resource runways needed to deploy them).

Prioritization of Purchases

This is an important aspect to getting a warship into service quickly. The priorities will be listed in order from first to last. This is for battleships and surface combatants.

1. Boilers: A ship isn't a ship if it can't move. Exceptions go to fortresses.
2. Weapons: A ship cannot fight if it doesn't have guns to shoot back. Exceptions go to rams. 
3. Armor: How else do you tank the hits? Exceptions go to floats.
4. Decorations: Beautiful ships don't make powerful ships.  No exceptions.

Suggested Investments

• 30.5cm Gun+: A versatile weapon, this gun is often the heaviest weapon smaller vessels and carriers mount, and functions as the secondary or even tertiary batteries of cruisers and battleships.
• 46cm Gun: Heavy destructive firepower. 
• Mk 45 5 inch Gun: A dual-purpose artillery piece, it is capable of inflicting heavy damage on light vessels and damaging critical components of heavier ships. It can be mounted on even the smallest of vessels.
• Reconnaissance Plane: See far and wide.
• Rangefinder+Radar: Accurate guns.
• Large/2x3x1 400mm Armor: The ability to take up hits is the hallmark of this armor. 
• Angled Boilers: Big power.
• Underwater Torpedo Tubes: How submarines make battleship captains cry.

Overview

If you use your resource and rare metal wisely, then you can make your navy better, stronger and superior more quickly than the fiscally irresponsible.