The 2026 Holiday Convoy mostly rewards patience: aim for free tokens first, keep an eye on the 3,000-doubloon bundle every update, and use coal only as a late top-up. Steel and Research Points should remain your last-resort resources.
What is the 2026 Holiday Convoy?
The Holiday Convoy is a long-running event introduced with update 15.7. On the EU server it runs from August 13, 2026 to February 11, 2027, across six consecutive updates. Tokens can be earned until February 2, 2027, then spent for a few extra days.
The core loop is simple: earn Holiday Convoy Tokens, then choose how to spend them. The event includes 11 rare, epic or legendary ships, up to 18,000 doubloons, and a resource-conversion system that can get very expensive very quickly if you act impulsively.
How do you earn Holiday Convoy tokens?
You do not need to burn resources to start benefiting from the event. Tokens are awarded every day just for playing:
| Daily threshold | Reward |
|---|---|
| 1 battle | 400 tokens |
| 3 battles | 800 tokens total |
| 5 battles | 1,200 tokens total |
Randoms, Ranked, Co-op and Clan Battles count, as do Operations, Brawls and several event modes.
Across the whole event, a player who consistently hits five battles per day can theoretically collect 207,600 free tokens. Even lighter activity adds up well:
| Daily activity | Maximum tokens |
|---|---|
| 1 battle/day | 69,200 |
| 3 battles/day | 138,400 |
| 5 battles/day | 207,600 |
The lesson is straightforward: time is your best token source. Dumping hundreds of thousands of coal into the event while free tokens are still available for months is usually a bad trade.
Can you convert coal, steel and Research Points?
Yes. Three permanent resources can be turned into tokens:
- 10 coal = 3 tokens
- 1 steel = 3 tokens
- 2 Research Points = 3 tokens
Steel and Research Point conversion is not capped. Coal conversion is capped at 650,000 coal, which equals 195,000 tokens.
Once you translate the event prices into resources, the cost becomes much more obvious:
| Reward | Coal equivalent | Steel equivalent | Research Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier VIII Rare ship | 200,000 | 20,000 | 40,000 |
| Tier IX Rare ship | 280,000 | 28,000 | 56,000 |
| Tier X Rare ship | ≈ 466,670 | ≈ 46,670 | ≈ 93,340 |
| Tier X Epic ship | Not possible with coal alone | ≈ 133,340 | ≈ 266,670 |
| Tier X Legendary ship | Not possible with coal alone | 180,000 | 360,000 |
| 3,000 doubloons | 30,000 | 3,000 | 6,000 |
The 3,000 doubloons bundle: easy to overlook, hard to replace
During each update covered by the Convoy, a 3,000 doubloons bundle is available for 9,000 tokens. Across all six updates, you can therefore claim up to 18,000 doubloons for 54,000 tokens.
The important catch is that the bundle does not roll over to the next update. If you skip it during its availability window, that opportunity is gone.
| Goal | Approximate time |
|---|---|
| 9,000 tokens | 23 days at 1 battle/day |
| 9,000 tokens | 12 days at 3 battles/day |
| 9,000 tokens | 8 days at 5 battles/day |
For a regular player, claiming the 3,000-doubloon bundle every update is absolutely realistic. In pure value terms, it is one of the best parts of the event.
Which ships are available in the Holiday Convoy?
Seven ships were known from the start of the event: Bismarck '41, Yimeng, Messina, Independencia, Prins van Oranje, Georg Hoffmann and Kitakami. Four more ships are expected to join later: Rodina, Tōgasa, Latouche-Tréville and New Jersey.
That is exactly why you should not rush your spending. Early in the event, you simply do not have the full picture yet.
Which ships are actually worth your tokens?
Bismarck '41 is the accessible option: 60,000 tokens, true Tier VIII premium status, and an objective even a light-activity player can realistically reach.
Messina is probably one of the best choices at 84,000 tokens. As a Tier IX premium, with SAP-focused gameplay and a Smoke, it has real value if you enjoy active cruisers.
Yimeng costs the same, but it should be picked because you genuinely want that gameplay — not because it carries a “rare Tier IX” tag.
On the Tier X side, Prins van Oranje, Georg Hoffmann and Independencia may all be worth it, but at 140,000 tokens you have to think in opportunity cost: each Tier X picked here closes the door on several other reward combinations.
The New Jersey and Kitakami cases
New Jersey is announced as an Epic Tier X ship costing 400,000 tokens. That is massive, but still mathematically possible without spending steel or Research Points: after 207,600 free tokens, you still need 192,400 tokens, which is roughly 641,340 coal.
So yes, New Jersey is theoretically reachable with maximum free tokens and almost the entire coal conversion cap. No, that does not mean you should dump 600,000 coal into the event right now. Finish the grind first, then calculate the real deficit.
Kitakami, however, pushes the concept much further: 540,000 tokens. Even after the maximum free tokens and the 195,000 tokens from 650,000 coal, you would still be missing 137,400 tokens, or about 45,800 steel or 91,600 Research Points.
Which resource should you convert first?
For most players, the rational priority order is:
- Free tokens first.
- Coal, but only as a late top-up for a precise goal.
- Research Points, with much greater caution.
- Steel as the very last resort.
Coal is the most logical permanent resource to convert if you absolutely must finish a goal. But “most logical” does not mean “free”: 200,000 to 300,000 coal still represents months of accumulation for many players.
Steel and Research Points should stay protected. Spending tens of thousands of steel in the Convoy can effectively cost you a steel ship. The same logic applies to Research Points.
Three strategies depending on your player profile
| Profile | Recommended approach |
|---|---|
| Casual player | Take the free tokens, aim for the 3,000 doubloon bundles, and maybe target Bismarck '41. Avoid using steel. |
| Regular player | The theoretical 138,400 tokens from 3 battles/day unlock a Tier IX ship, the doubloon bundles, and sometimes a very reasonable coal top-up. |
| Very active player | With 207,600 free tokens, several combinations become excellent: 18,000 doubloons + one rare Tier X, or 18,000 doubloons + Bismarck '41 + one Tier IX. |
One of the best examples is 18,000 doubloons + Bismarck '41 + Messina or Yimeng, for a total of 198,000 tokens. That fits entirely inside the free-token maximum. Another strong case is Bismarck '41 + Messina + Yimeng: 228,000 tokens total, which is only 20,400 tokens above the free-token cap — roughly 68,000 coal.
That is what a smart conversion looks like: topping up an already profitable plan, not liquidating your account at the start of the event because a shiny button is begging you to click it.
Conclusion: sometimes the best choice is simply to wait
The 2026 Holiday Convoy is generous. With up to 207,600 free tokens, a very active player can already aim for a rare Tier X ship, several premium ships, or the full 18,000 doubloons while still keeping enough tokens for a ship.
But the event is also designed to make saved resources feel temptingly disposable. That is where you need discipline.
The optimal strategy is simple: play first, stack tokens, collect the temporary high-value rewards, and only convert resources at the end — and only if a specific shortfall remains.
For most players, heavy steel or Research Point spending is very hard to justify. And if you are aiming for New Jersey or Kitakami, do the math before you click.
