Like Warspite and Jervis before her, she is given typical Germanic features as commonly pictured of Britons by the Japanese: Long blonde hair with blue eyes with a well-endowed figure. She wears a military uniform consisting a light gray long-sleeved shirt and a dark gray pencil skirt with grey thighhighs, a red ascot, and headgear consisting of antennae and other components, similar to those worn by Nagato and Mutsu. Her machinery includes her famed 16-inch guns, all gathered to her right side with smaller cannons at her left. Nelson also has a remodeled form which includes a slight change in color scheme for her shirt and her machinery. Nelson's strictly military appearance contrasts greatly with Warspite's regal one due to their respective classes' namesakes being of admiralty and of royalty respectively.
In the game, Nelson is given a special power known as the Nelson Touch, in which part of her machinery, particularly the large guns, transfers to the front of her abdomen. In the game, Nelson in flagship position uses this form on her simultaneous cut-in attack alongside ships in positions 3 and 5 (must not be carriers or battleships). Nelson's Touch form, meant to evoke the historical battleship's hull length, unwittingly became meme and parody fodder instead. The name "Nelson Touch" is a historical term, referring either to Vice Admiral Nelson's naval strategy that he used to great success or the broader sense of naval superiority the Royal Navy enjoyed during the 1800s after the British victory in the Battle of Trafalgar despite Vice Admiral Nelson's death during that time.
The historical HMS Nelson had a mixed history, spending much of it in repairs, but saw her main action in the Mediterranean escorting convoys to Malta and bombardment actions for Operation Torch, Sicily landings, and Salerno. She also supported the Normandy landings and in the final months of the war operated against the Japanese off Malaya. Both the Italian Armistice and the surrender of Japanese forces in Malaya were signed on board the historical battleship. She served as a training ship after the war and was used as a target ship before being broken up in 1949.
