PvE Ship Guide/Tips :P (0 Hits From Red SoD)

[Adam Earlston]

Just a few tips from my experience soo far (why not):

**TL;DR: Build 2 platforms on the back of ur ship with 10 or more cannons on it, kite the SoD and never get hit, i have killed 3 red ships without being hit once. I usually get hit once by lower lvl ships mainly because i get lazy/get too close for a quick aggro/kill.**

Build a Brigantine even if ur solo IMO (im in a team of 2), maybe use Wiki to start off in a free port with Wheat, take it to another location that has elephants so u can farm Wood easily (the free port that has wheat also allows u to get like 30k Fibre in about 15 mins, its crazy), However when we did this, we used 2 rafts to carry the weight of the fibre/wheat and probably spent like 3 hours going north west or something to the nearest elephants, so idk if its more time efficient.

Ship Structure: When u build ur stairs going into the Deck, i suggest using a Roof and pressing T to turn them into large stairs, leave 1 extra hole in front of the stairs so ur head doesnt collide with the ceiling on ur way down. Build walls and a door at the top of the stairs to prevent access to strangers, then put ur preservation bags/lootable stuff like a smithy down there.
Leave most of the bottom deck with holes, if not all holes, so that u can fit the loom/tannery and a forge on both sides of the deck.

Sails: I suggest having 3x Large Speed Sails, so u get to places faster o.o ur choice though.

Cannons: The most effective build i have right now (also my 1st but i assume it is anyway) is 10 cannons on the back of my ship facing backwards (shoots the ships that are chasing u), 4 on the front and 2 on each side. With the 10 cannons on the back u will want to build 2 walls/stairs high, a platform for 5 cannons + wheel, then above that another 5 cannons. I also added stairs on the outside of the boat with a ceiling that has a ballista on both sides aiming forward, with the same design on the front but aiming backwards to shoot whales or animals that get close to the boat.

The Strategy: Aggro an NPC Ship of the Damned by driving towards it then doing a sharp turn with decent timing (side cannons usually aggro it here, if ur close enough for ur front cannons to attack before u turn, u will probably get hit), after ur turn have the cannons on the back start firing if they are in range (hold right click and select the ship, or press V), try to keep cannon range distance and press C if u think u are too far away (try not to waste cannon balls by missing. "C" stops shooting).
If you do that correctly then u should take no damage at all, against any lvl/colour SoD.
You should also gain a ton of ship lvls allowing u to increase the crew size to about 30 easily, then put a ton of points into Weight or whatever you want :P

Oh and recruit NPCs to control ur sails and shoot ur cannons, and select the back/front cannons whilst on the wheel with 1 and 2 keybind (will be purple when selected), and press C to cease fire so they dont shoot random fish whilst u are travelling.
Can also get high lvl NPC crew by killing SoDs.

Crew costs are cheap/easy to maintain.

[A Big Hairy Monster]

You can avoid having them shoot random fish by setting the cannons to only target ships before putting them on free fire.

[Adam Earlston]

Originally posted by A Big Hairy Monster:

You can avoid having them shoot random fish by setting the cannons to only target ships before putting them on free fire.

Interesting, does it get reset when i press C to cease fire though? Because i always switch between free fire and cease fire to save ammo when the ship is out of range but then prematurely shoot their load anyway.