In late October 1942, during the Guadalcanal Campaign, "Jun'yō" took part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. At this time, her air group consisted of 18 Zeros, 18 D3As and 9 B5Ns. Her aircraft made hits on the carrier , the battleship and the light cruiser , but inflicted little substantial damage. A torpedo hit from one of her B5Ns, however, did force the Americans to abandon their effort to repair "Hornet". During this time, "Hiyō"s remaining aircraft flew to Rabaul on 23 October where they provided air cover for Japanese forces on Guadalcanal. A detachment from the air group was transferred to Buin, Papua New Guinea on 1 November and participated in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal later in the month. Those aircraft that remained at Rabaul flew back to Truk by 11 November, but the Buin detachment was ferried back to Japan on 14 December.