Nelson
Nelson is a battleship shipgirl in Kantai Collection, representing the lead ship of the Royal Navy's Nelson-class battleships. Recognized as one of the world's Big Seven battleships, she wears militaristic attire and presents an imposing, aristocratic presence. Introduced during the Autumn 2018 event, she combines a high-ranking demeanor with a boisterous, warrior-like spirit. In battle, she commands the fleet from the front line, utilizing a devastating fleet-wide coordinated attack as her signature tactic.
Overview
Nelson is a battleship shipgirl in Kantai Collection, representing the lead ship of the Royal Navy's Nelson-class battleships. Recognized as one of the world's Big Seven battleships, she wears militaristic attire and presents an imposing, aristocratic presence. Introduced during the Autumn 2018 event, she combines a high-ranking demeanor with a boisterous, warrior-like spirit. In battle, she commands the fleet from the front line, utilizing a devastating fleet-wide coordinated attack as her signature tactic.
Appearance
Nelson features long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a voluptuous bust. She wears a grey long-sleeved cropped jacket over a black buttoned wrap skirt, complemented by a red ascot tie with a red rose corsage. Her lower outfit includes black thighhighs with thigh straps and grey rudder-inspired footwear. On her head, she wears a headband designed after a ship's bridge and fire director. Her back rigging, attached via jointed arms from her waist, is asymmetrical: the right side houses units modeled on the front deck with main turrets, while the left holds the rear deck and secondary guns. Upon her Kai upgrade, parts of her attire and rigging take on a camouflage pattern, and an anti-aircraft rocket launcher is added atop a right-side turret. Her standing pose mirrors that of Bismarck.
Personality
Despite her aristocratic choice of words—referring to herself with regal self-pronouns and addressing others bluntly—Nelson possesses a highly boisterous, battle-hungry warrior spirit rather than refined delicacy. She eats heartily and is an extraordinary heavy drinker who can consume rum and scotch throughout the night without succumbing to drunkenness. Completely incompetent at domestic chores, she relies heavily on the Admiral for meals, though she takes pride in brewing her own black tea. While quick to dismiss minor flaws, she places supreme value on fleet teamwork and the execution of duty by every crew member.
Abilities
Nelson possesses high stats in firepower, armor, and durability while offering excellent fuel efficiency compared to vessels of similar combat capability. However, she is a low-speed ship with modest evasion, anti-aircraft stats, line-of-sight, and seaplane capacity. Equipping main guns of the 16inch Mk.I triple mount series grants her bonus firepower and armor stats, and pairing them with specific anti-aircraft guns allows her to execute a unique anti-aircraft cut-in. When sorted as flagship under specific conditions, such as using the Double Line formation, she can execute her unique signature fleet assault, the Nelson Touch.
Background
Nelson's origins trace back to the lead vessel of the Royal Navy's Nelson-class battleships. She made her debut in Kantai Collection as the final clearing reward for the Early Autumn 2018 event, expanding the roster of foreign battleships. Her prestigious framing and royal speech mannerisms derive from the historical Vice Admiral and peerage title associated with her namesake. Serving as a crucial power within the fleet, she actively engages in routine exercises and operations while keeping her younger sister ship, Rodney, in mind.
Relationships
Nelson shares a fond sisterly bond with her younger classmate Rodney. She maintains close ties with her fellow Royal Navy vessels, sparring with Warspite and regularly drinking with Ark Royal, even looking after the latter when she overindulges. She holds mutual respect for Nagato, engaging in rigorous two-hour training sessions with her. She also exchanges thoughts on fleet tactical formations with the American Big Seven battleship Colorado. Toward the Admiral, she exhibits absolute faith in their culinary skills, going so far as to suggest opening a restaurant together.
Trivia
Nelson was the first shipgirl in the game to use the archaic monarchical pronoun Yo (余) for herself. Her back-mounted rigging features a unique transformation mechanism: when activating her special attack, the units shift forward and join together on the left, causing her to resemble a single unified battleship chassis. During seasonal saury fishing events, despite lacking dedicated fishing equipment bonuses, admirals frequently appointed her as flagship because her special fleet attack reliably secured victories in difficult night-battle nodes.
