What's the point of boarding ships?

[Salem Graves]

How I understand it is, you get more loot from cleaving ships, so is there any reason to board ships? Besides to be a little gamey and board ships when you're overwhelmed by too many ships and need a quick and easy hp refill?

[Pantherr]

Health refill and a quick break from the action is about it really. Cleaving gets you more stuff in general so I rarely board.. Cleaving is fun :)

[Grubbs008]

There's one lieutenant that increases your ships health by 50% on a cleave. So with that, there is no point in not cleaving.

[Vampire Detective]

Cleave it or leave it.

[😎Astran😾]

If you board and kill the crew then the sharks (sometimes) appear and eat the bodies. And that's about it thus there is no point not to cleave.

[Bstel]

Cleaving is always the better option most of the time. I only board if I feel overwhelmed and want a quick break. Boarding (and naval combat in general) in AC4/AC Rogue was done better, IMO, especially in Rogue. Enemies can board your ship, which adds some nice mix to encounters. That, and boarding ships give you options on what to do and not just give you loot.

[Digstar]

Originally posted by Virazol Kaine:

How I understand it is, you get more loot from cleaving ships, so is there any reason to board ships? Besides to be a little gamey and board ships when you're overwhelmed by too many ships and need a quick and easy hp refill?

I board ships because it's fun. More hands on if you will.

[bum]

i like watching my brother (OR SISTER) destroy goons

[ehyder]

I thought you got access to the chests if you board? I could have sworn I saw the chests sink to inaccessible levels when I cleaved.

[CommandDork]

Ya - there are chests aboard. Two i think. But I rarely board. If I do, it's just to mess around with newfound power skills and knock people about. Otherwise cleave, baby, cleave.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Number of chests depends on the type of ship.

Conceivably you could knock enemies out and recruit them after boarding, but it's difficult because your lieutenants or your own swings might kill somebody KO'd on the ship while anybody who gets launched out of the ship will pretty quickly die.

[Mujokan]

Pretty sure I did recruit someone once when I forgot to switch away from paralyzing arrows. But anyway the answer is, do it if you feel like it, even if you get an extra piece of gear or something it's not a massive incentive. The fights are somewhat perfunctory compared to Black Flag but then it's a different setting.

[Moving Target]

Cleaving is a quick and easy way to eliminate mercenaries lol

[darkdisciple1313]

Yeah, boarding ships is a little superfluous if you can get just as much leet loot by splitting the suckers in half. Plus, it's so, so satisfying. I like to imagine the various semi-boss characters you have to chase down awaiting your presence on deck, only to see your ship bisect it instead.

"Hey, that's not faaaaaaaair!"

*drowning f/x*

*sharks frenzied chewing f/x*

[Mikey]

When you sink a ship you get loot

When you cleave a ship you get more loot, and a little health

When you board a ship you get loot, a lot of health AND you get to rummage through the 1-3 loot boxes on deck (they aren't included in the other loot packages, but can be "salvaged" by diving down to them in case of accidental sinkage)