Azur Lane Background Auto-Search and Idle Farming Guide

To run background auto-search in Azur Lane, you must unlock Clearing Mode on your target stage by lowering its danger level to Safe and enabling Fleet Lock. Once active, this feature lets your fleets resolve continuous combat loops in the background while you navigate menus like the Dorm, Depot, and Shipyard.

How to Set Up Background Auto-Search

Before launching an idle farming session, verify your stage prerequisites on the map preparation screen:

Verify Clearing Mode: Ensure the stage displays Safe status and has Fleet Lock turned on. Maps without Clearing Mode require manual movement and trigger ambushes, which disables automated queuing.
Configure Run Count: Tap the Auto-Search toggle and select your desired number of repeat runs.
Start the Sortie: Begin the combat loop. The battle view minimizes into an active tracking widget, allowing you to return to the main port screen.

While background combat is processing, you can collect finished commissions, manage shipyard research projects, and adjust gear in your depot. However, you cannot deploy ships currently assigned to the active background sortie into separate combat modes, such as Exercise battles or Operation Siren.

Managing Morale and Dorm Rest

Every combat encounter drains ship morale. Allowing morale to drop below critical thresholds reduces combat experience gains, and fighting at zero morale causes affection loss.

Place Both Fleets in the Dorm: Assign all active Vanguard and Main Fleet ships to the first floor of the Dorm before queuing long runs to sustain morale regeneration.
Enable Low Morale Auto-Stop: Turn on the auto-stop threshold setting in the auto-search menu. This automatically pauses the loop if any ship enters low morale.
Rotate Fleets on Fast Stages: Lower-tier maps often clear faster than the Dorm can restore morale points. Alternate between two separate farming fleets to give ships adequate recovery time.

Oil Cap Stages and Farming Efficiency

Because background auto-search burns resources rapidly, limit extended idle sessions to stages with an oil cost cap. Maps in World 1 through World 8 do not feature oil caps; deploying high-rarity fleets on these early stages will consume your oil reserves at full fleet cost per encounter.

World 9 and above, as well as hard-mode event stages, enforce an oil cap that fixes the maximum oil deducted per battle regardless of fleet rarity:

Map Bracket	Oil Cap Status	Farming Focus
World 1 to World 8	None (charges full fleet cost)	Restrict to manual low-cost fleets; avoid long idle loops.
World 9 to World 11	Capped per battle with bonus clear gold	Balanced ship leveling, general coin accumulation, and low gear requirements (e.g., 9-1).
World 12 to World 13	Higher oil cap with heavy EXP and Cognitive Chips	Late-game leveling and Priority Ship grind. World 12-4 offers high gold and no suicide boats, but demands strong anti-air gear.
Major Event D and SP Maps	Event-specific oil cap	Event milestone tokens and event shop currency.

Common Interruption Triggers

Background loops automatically stop when specific operational conditions or limits are reached:

Full Dock Capacity: If your ship inventory fills with drop ships, the loop halts immediately after the current battle finishes. Keep at least 30 to 50 empty dock slots open before starting long sessions, or retire and enhance ships beforehand.
Full Depot Storage: Running out of inventory space for gear and design blueprints pauses stage repetition.
Fleet Defeat: A loop aborts immediately if your vanguard is wiped out or the flagship sinks, preserving remaining oil. Ensure your fleet can reliably survive the stage before walking away.