Complete Guide For Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic

Active updating - comment with questions or additions.

Guide

An important message to Ubisoft and the Silent Hunter community:

As of today (2020-04-28) I will no longer be participating in the SH5 franchise. I will do my best to continue answering questions to support gamers who want to enjoy this software, but I will not be purchasing content in the future. I don't feel that Ubisoft has met my expectations in creating a polished finished product, and I don't forsee any improvements in this game since there's no direct financial incentive for the management team at Ubisoft to invest developer time on such activities now that consumers have already bought the product. While this was not the case a decade ago, I see this becoming a general trend in the gaming industry- producers make something just good enough for people to buy it, then they abandon the software to repeat the cycle in subsequent years. As participants in the free market we vote with our wallets. As such, we need to provide the Ubisoft management team a clear financial incentive to produce more polished games and see a return on investment by doing so. I recommend that consumers stop purchasing content in this series until we start to see active support of the software from Ubisoft.

Community members: please feel free to post your grievances in the comments section. Should Ubisoft decide they want to cooperate with the community they'll want to know what the action items are to send to their developers.

Ubisoft: If you're interested in changing my mind and the mind of other consumers you'll need to work with us to restore consumer confidence.

Sincerely,

-Sandman

Updates:

Potential additions: Evasion strategies, Hydrophone, and RADAR.

24 September 2020 - Updates to this guide are indefinitely suspended. Please direct your complaints to Ubisoft.
10 April 2020 - For questions you'd like a response to, please comment in English. Thanks.
20 June 2018 - Convoy Attack Section added
18 June 2018 - Graphics issues section added

Keyboard Commands

ESC – Exit Menu

F1 – Help
F2 – External Camera
F3 – Event Camera
F4 – Submarine (First Person)
SHIFT + F1 – Tube 1
SHIFT + F2 – Tube 2
SHIFT + F3 – Tube 3
SHIFT + F4 – Tube 4
SHIFT + F5 – Tube 5

F5 – Man Deck Gun (Surfaced, calm sea)
F6 – Man Flak Gun (Surfaced, calm sea)
F7 – Battle Stations
F8 – Silent Running (Submerged)

F9 – Overcharge Diesel Engines
F10 – Overcharge Electric Motors
F11 – Overcharge Torpedo
F12 – Pre-heat Torpedo

Print Screen – Captures Screenshot

` – All Stop
1 – Ahead Slow
2 – Ahead One Third
3 – Ahead Standard
4 – Ahead Full
5 – Ahead Flank
SHIFT + 1 – Back Slow
SHIFT + 2 – Back One Third
SHIFT + 3 – Back Standard
SHIFT + 4 – Back Emergency

BACKSPACE – Pause Game

TAB – Cycles through TAI positions

W,A,S,D – First person movement keys (hold shift to speed-walk)
CAPSLOCK – Toggles first person speed

R – Surface The Boat
SHIFT + R – Blow Ballast (surfaces the boat quickly)
F – Periscope Depth (sets depth to 13 meters)
SHIFT + F – Sets current depth as new depth
V – Dive (sets depth to 40 meters)
SHIFT + V – Crash Dive (dive quickly to a depth of 70 meters)

Y – Sonar Decoy (for buying time when diving to escape a destroyer)

O – Chronograph (a clock with a stopwatch built in)

\ – Sets time compression to 1x

G – Crew Management
H – Systems
J – Torpedo Management
K – Captain's Log

ENTER – Status Report

SHIFT + Z – Hide HUD

SPACE – Interact/fire weapon/select target/deselect target
SHIFT + SPACE – Fire Torpedo

INSERT – Raises attack periscope
SHIFT + INSERT – Raises attack periscope fully
DELETE – Lowers attack periscope
SHIFT + DELETE – Lowers attack periscope fully
HOME – Free view camera up
END – Free view camera down
CTRL + MOUSE UP – Free view camera up
CTRL + MOUSE DOWN – Free view camera down
PAGE UP – Raises observation periscope
SHIFT + PAGE UP – Raises observation periscope fully
PAGE DOWN – Lowers Observation periscope
SHIFT + PAGE DOWN – Lowers observation periscope fully

LEFT ARROW – Rudder 5 Degrees to Port (does not add 5 degree increments)
SHIFT + LEFT ARROW – Hard to Port
RIGHT ARROW – Rudder 5 Degrees to Starboard (does not add 5 degree increments)
SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW – Hard to Starboard
UP ARROW – Increase speed incrementally
SHIFT + UP ARROW – Ahead Flank
DOWN ARROW – Decrease speed incrementally
SHIFT + DOWN ARROW – Back Emergency

- (NUM PAD) – Decreases time compression incrementally
SHIFT + - (NUM PAD) – Minimum time compression
+ (NUM PAD) – Increases time compression
SHIFT + + (NUM PAD) – Maximum time compression
. (NUM PAD) – Sets course to periscope bearing
0 (NUM PAD) – Rudder Amidship

Stations/People

PEOPLE AND LOCATIONS:

Forward Torpedo Room
Kurt Faust has the ability to overcharge torpedoes trading accuracy for range, and the ability to pre-heat torpedoes making them do more damage and go faster.
Passive abilities include a faster reload speed, a lower chance of dud torpedoes, and an increase of torpedo range and damage.

Radio Room/Fore Quarters
The Hydrophone, and Radar (when available) stations are in this area of the boat. The Soundman Benno Scheu can be found here along with the Radioman Wolfram Raabe and the Watch Officer Dieter Epp.
The Radioman is able to send messages that are difficult to intercept, and has the passive abilities of a longer radio range and longer/faster radar range/response.
The Soundman can reveal enemies where they were previously unseen, and can show ships on the map as if you had a visual contact with them. The Soundman also has the passive abilities to give your hydrophones a longer range and detection speed along with a reduction of darkness penalty when scanning for ships while surfaced at night.
The Watch Officer can be found in the Fore Quarters while submerged and on the conning tower while surfaced. The Watch Officer can be asked to man the deck or flak guns.

Command Room/Conning Tower
This part of the submarine has three levels – the top of the conning tower which is outside and contains the UZO (functionally a periscope), the attack periscope which is in the second level of the conning tower, and the observation periscope which is in the command room. Note that the observation periscope is more visible to other ships than the attack periscope.
The conning tower has the Executive Officer Erich von Dobenecker, the Navigator Emil Dübler, the Chief engineer Josef Erdmann, and on top the Watch Officer Dieter Epp.
The Executive Officer (XO) has the active abilities to call battle stations, and rig the boat for silent running.
The Navigator has the passive abilities to increase the operating depth of the submarine, make surfacing and diving happen faster, and to maneuver the submarine faster.
The Chief Engineer has the ability to increase repair times, reduce the rate of flooding, and repair damaged systems on the submarine.
The Watch Officer can be found in the Fore Quarters while submerged and on the conning tower while surfaced. The Watch Officer can be asked to man the deck or flak guns.

Aft Quarters/Galley
This area contains the Bosun Herbert Heine and the Cook Olaf Hackländer.
The Bosun has the passive abilities to keep morale higher and calms the crew reducing carbon dioxide consumption. The Bosun's active abilities include Propaganda – which increases the crew's morale, and Riposte – which speeds up torpedo reload times.
The Cook has the passive ability to increase the maximum morale value and the active ability to cook a special meal increasing morale.

Diesel Engines
The diesel engine compartment contains Willi Pelz the Diesel Engine Officer. The Diesel Engine Officer has the passive abilities to make the boat charge the batteries faster, run quieter/faster. The Diesel Engine Officer can temporarily overcharge the diesel engines or electric motors making the boat move faster.

Electric Motors/Stern Torpedo Room
The gunner Max Bauer can be found here, and has the passive abilities to increase range, and accuracy along with the ability to decrease weapon loading times.

Forward Deck
The forward deck has the deck gun mounted on it. See: “Deck Gun/Flak:” under STRATEGY.

Starting a Campaign

To begin a campaign, click "NEW CAMPAIGN", enter a name when prompted, then click the first picture in the campaign tree. You have to start the campaign in 1939, the start of the war.
When you press "START GAME" in the lower right hand corner of the screen you are given the option of completing a tutorial - this is helpful to do even if you've played the Silent Hunter games before. Warning: once you begin the tutorial you have to complete at least the first mission to continue ANY campaign.

I recommend starting with Medium difficulty, and High if you are comforatable with manually finding torpedo solutions. Realistic is for hardcore simulator fans - this will remove all external views making the game exclusively first person.

General Strategy

NOTES:

• The player can only use type VIIA, VIIB, and VIIC U-boats. These are awarded to the player throughout the campaign.
  
• Just because you can see the enemy, does not mean that they can see you. U-boats are smaller and lower profile. This makes you harder to spot and harder to hit.
  
• The sonar thermal layer is at a depth of 40 meters. Once you dive deeper than this, destroyers and other pursuing craft will not see a sonar reflection from your submarine. Be careful, they can still hear you.

STRATEGY:

Merchant Attack With Automatic Torpedo Solution
When you come across a single un-escorted merchant vessel, you should always attack it. Use the marking tool to mark the merchant's positions as time goes on. Once you have two marks you can draw a line that represents the merchant's course. The best place to attack from is a perpendicular angle to the merchant with about 1 kilometer of range. You may have to outrun the merchant before setting your angle up. Note: the visual range circle does not mean you will be spotted immedietly apon entry to the perimeter of the circle, however the closer to the ship you are, the more likely you are to be spotted. If you are spotted by any ship, that ship will begin to zig-zag or vary its speed to make a torpedo solution hard to get.

Once you are in a position to begin your attack (perpendicular, right outside the visual range circle) you should dive to periscope depth and set course so you will be in range when the merchant goes by.

Go to a periscope (or the UZO if you are surfaced), and select your target. The TAI will display a line coming from your submarine with numbers 1-3 and a similar line coming from the merchant vessel. Your goal is to allign any two of the numbers so they are in the same spot (3 on top of 3, 2 on top of 2...) etc. If you are lining up the 3s, and they are at different distances, then aim in front or behind the merchant's 3 (if your 3 is further away, aim in front). Luckily if you are in close range, this doesn't need to be done with surgical precision. Note: In WW2 U-boat Captains/XOs often aimed slightly forward from center on the enemy merchant because the merchant could accelerate if they saw the torpedo's bubble trail.

Once your solution is set, fire two torpedoes.


Wait for them to impact - if they miss then you should either let the merchant go, or if possible allign yourself for another attack run. Once two torpedoes (or more depending on the size of the enemy ship) have impacted, surface and man the deck gun by pressing F5. Note: you are able to open the conning tower top hatch at a depth of 6.5 meters. Depending on the year, you may not want to expose yourself to gunfire by surfacing.

At this point go to the conning tower and scroll forward with your mousewheel to select the binoculars and press the spacebar. Keep an eye on the enemy ship, as your gunners will keep on attacking it even after it begins to sink. Once the deck gun has finished off the merchant, adjust course and leave quickly- often a destroyer will come to hunt you down. Note: The top bar represents the merchant's structural intergrity and the bottom bar represents the merchant's bouyancy.

Torpedoes:
Different torpedoes are good for different uses. The TII (G7e) torpedo is electric powered, and does not leave a trail of bubbles. This makes it hard for enemies to see and avoid the torpedo (destroyers are mobile enough to adjust course and make your torpedo miss). This torpedo is useful for striking warships and a good strategy would be to use them in the stern torpedo tube. The TII electric torpedo historically had problems with depth keeping and detonation, so be careful when using it on high realism. I generally avoid using this torpedo due to poor range and speed.
The TII travels at 28 knots, and has a range of 3 km. The TI (G7a) torpedo is steam powered. The TI has a longer range and multiple speed/range settings – 5 kilometers at 44 knots, 7.5 kilometers at 40 knots, 12.5 kilometers at 30 knots.
Torpedoes should impact enemy ships as close to a perpendicular angle as possible to avoid bouncing off the hull without detonation. If a ship is chasing you, set the torpedo depth to a level just under its keel and use the magnetic trigger.
Torpedoes are most effective within 2 kilometers, and the ideal range is 1 kilometer +/- 400 meters. Be careful as ships can spot your periscope – this is especially important when dealing with destroyers. A first rate manual torpedo solution can easily sink ships at 2000 meters.

Deck Gun/Flak:
The flak gun can be manned in case of air attack by pressing F6 in calm waters, or by talking to the officer on the bridge (additionally the captain can walk up to it and use it). However, it is much more effective to crash dive than to attempt to shoot down airplanes which can sink your submarine with one bomb.
The deck gun is useful for finishing off enemy merchant vessels, and can be manned by pressing F5, talking to the officer on the bridge, or by manning it yourself. The deck gun shoots two types of munitions: the HE round and the AP round. The HE round is good for hitting an enemy ship at long range and doing damage to the structures on board. Alternatively, you can choose to use the AP rounds which can be shot just below the waterline to help sink the enemy ship whilst also doing structural damage. The deck gun is most useful at close ranges, which makes it impractical for attacking warships, as warships have a lot more guns than you do.
To have your gun crew automatically shell a ship, go up on deck in first person view. You will need to man the deck gun, then with middle mouse scroll up select your binoculars. You can look at a ship and the crosshairs will turn red. Press spacebar to begin the attack.

Manually Finding Torpedo Solutions

To accurately fire a torpedo a submarine needs to know the torpedo's speed, the target's speed and heading, and the submarine's speed and heading, and the distance to target. The following steps will acquire all the required info.

Here's an example with directions

This is the target ship:

Step 1: Target Type

Select a target vessel by aiming at it and hitting the spacebar. The first thing you want to do is find out what you're looking at. On the XO's dialogue it will say "I have an unknown ____". The blank will be filled with a rough estimate of ship type - freighter, tanker, destroyer. Click the ship type to specify further what it is. A book with profile views of ships will open up - find the ship you're aiming at in the book and click the small box under the picture. A green check mark will be superimposed on the picture indicating you've made your selection.
In addition to the range data you will now be able to get, a hull section is shown on the torpedo depth control area under advanced torpedo controls. If you're using a contact detonator you will want the torpedo to impact as perpendicular as possible to the ship's hull, so keeping it close to the surface might be good. If you are using magnetic detonation, you might want the torpedo to explode under the keel of the ship. A deeper depth setting is useful here.

Step 2: Bearing

Next you will input the bearing of the target ship. This is the number you see in your periscope - it's relative to your boat, with bearing 0 being your bow, and 180 being your stern. This part is pretty simple, just point at the center of the target ship and record that number.


Step 3: Range

Click "range" and aim your periscope at the waterline of the target ship. Click "use the stadimeter" and aim the periscope at the highest point on the target ship - this includes everything on the ship, so if a flag pole is the highest thing on the ship, aim at the top of the flagpole. When you have it, left click to generate a range estimation.
Keep in mind you can also make range estimations if you don't have the time for this. A type VII U-Boat is 67 meters long, so you can make rough estimates in boat-lengths.

Step 4: Speed

Here you can either estimate speed (most merchants go about 8 knots), or by taking two seperate distance measurements you can calculate the speed of the target ship. This ship is stationary, so 0 will be manually inputted into the TDC.

Step 5: Angle on Bow

Angle on bow is where your boat is with respect to the target ship. The diagram shows a generic ship with the bow pointing upwards. You can drag a small circle around the ship to indicate where the torpedo will be coming from. A negative number means you're off the target ship's port side (the target ship's bow is facing the left in your periscope). A positive number means you're on the starboard side (the target ship's bow is facing the right in your periscope).
If you are playing on a gamemode where the ships show up on the map as red silhouettes, you can get much more accurate estimations by using the map tools.

Fire the Torpedo

Results:

The torpedo is a bit off - this was caused by an inaccurate estimation of Step 5. We still get an impact though.
This means engagement distances should be kept close. Try to keep your attacks between 200 and 800 meters.

Sonar

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Your submarine when you start the game and when you take command of new subs, will come with hydrophones along the sides of the hull, this system is not very effective and cannot measure directly in front or behind the sub. The first upgrade you should make should be buying the KDB rotating hydrophone for 1500 reknown.

The hydrophones are extremely effective sensors and will typically have a longer range than what you can see through the periscope, and will not give away your position like RADAR will. You can hear individual contacts up to 20 km away, and convoys up to 100 km in theory. In average conditions you should be able to hear individual ships about 6 km away with relative clarity. As you push the limits of your listening ability, you will need to start closing hatches in the sub or shut down the motors.

An important consideration in the way they programmed the game is that you can hear ships through land. e.g. you hear a sound contact north, you adjust course to follow, but it turns out you were hearing a ship in a port behind the peninsula.

The sonar can be difficult to use for beginners because it doesn't give you a quantitative idea of how far away a contact is. You can still find the target ship's speed, course, and by knowing their bearing at different times. Below is a relatively complex example of doing this where your ship changes headings partway through tracking and intercepting the target ship.

This example is done with a maneuvering board, a tool which has been used by navies for hundreds of years. The one in this example uses yards, so if you want to print one out to generate solutions you will need to change your units to yards.


More examples can be found in the NGA manual regarding maneuvering boards https://msi.nga.mil/MSISiteContent/StaticFiles/NAV_PUBS/RNM/310ch6.pdf.

Convoy Attack

You can be alerted to a convoy either by intercepting radio messages or by making physical contact. Radio-contacts are generally difficult to pursue if not in your immediate vacinity, but if there is one nearby, your best bet is to predict where they are heading with intuition. Generally they are coming from or going to ports, and your best bet is to patrol choke points and be waiting for the convoy when it comes. Visual and sonor contacts are much more straightforward.

Convoys with merchants generally move at around 6 knots or so, some go faster. But if you ever find yourself guessing the speed of a merchant vessel - 6 knots is the best guess. Use the hydrophone to listen for warships. They make a different noise, which you will be able to recognize with practice.

Example: I have spotted a task force at long visual range. The first thing to do is estimate distance. The stadimeter becomes wildly innacurate at long ranges, but as you play the game your intuition will get better and you'll be able to guess pretty accurately.

The first step is to pick a target ship in the convoy. I generally pick one on either the front or rear end of the group to make it easy to find again if I break visual contact. Start by finding the distance and bearing of the target ship, as well as noting the time (Press O to open the clock while in periscope view).

On your TAI map, draw a line from your submarine to where you think the target ship is (on the correct heading). Note the time of day or start the stopwatch. Here I have taken a few measurements with the stadimeter, and I marked the ranges where the ship could be with a separate line, and with a mark in the center of that line. Do everything you can with the game paused, since you are essentially acting as multiple crew members.

Next wait and watch where the target ship goes. After several minutes go by, find the distance and bearing of the same target ship again. Mark it on the map. Now you will be able to calculate the speed of the ship since you have an idea of how far it went in a given amount of time. The target ship, a troop transport covered about 1000 meters in 5 minutes, after doing the math, that puts it at about 6.4 knots. I've narrowed down the ranges, and drew a circle within which I'm fairly sure the target ship is.

I now know that I am heading the wrong direction with respect to the convoy, but I know the speed and heading of the target ship. Since I'm well out of firing range, I need to intercept the convoy at a point where they will be in the future. I've picked an intercept point with which to start through intuition, and i have plotted course (above image). The following process may need to be repeated if your intercept point wasn't a good guess. At their current speed, the convoy will take 20 minutes to cover the 4000 meter distance to the point where I plan to intercept them. I need to make sure I can be there, or at least within range to fire a torpedo. I would have to cover 8000 meters to be on top of the target ship, but I will try shooting from 2000 meters away. This gives me 6000 meters to cover in 20 minutes. I will have to go about 8 knots to make this happen, so I set my submerged speed to ahead flank. There is a destroyer heading towards the position I was at earlier (surfaced) but it does not seem to adjust course towards the noise I'm making, so I will assume the sea state is rough enough that they can't hear me.

The destroyer is now coming directly at me. I want a rough estimate of the distance, so I pick a random class from the identification book and take a measurement with the stadimeter - 5000 meters, and moving fast. This method works well with destroyers because they are generally similar in height. I now dive to avoid the destroyer, but this will break my visual contact with the target ship. If I made the correct assumptions, the convoy will be where I want it to be when I come up to periscope depth. Now is a good time to start listening with the hydrophone if conditions allow - at flank speed it can be difficult to hear anything over the motors.
After diving to 40 meters, the destroyer slipped right by without dropping any depth charges.

I surface at my intercept point and it looks like all my assumptions are correct. There are several troop transport ships directly in front of me. I pick the closest ship as a target and start entering the data into the TDC.

At this point the destroyer is coming towards me again, so I fire all 4 torpedoes in salvo mode and prepare to dive. I will sometimes turn the boat 180 degrees and fire the rear tube if I think I can get a hit.

My TDC solution was just good enough to score a hit.

Graphics Issues

Many of you may have low frame rates and poor performance. This is because the game does not support all that many drivers, and Ubisoft will probably never fix that. Ultimately, it could be your Intel integrated graphics running the game because your NVIDIA card is not supported.

Supported GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT / 9 / GTX 200 series or ATI Radeon HD 2600 / HD 3000 / HD 4000 / HD 5000 series

Laptop GPUs may or may not work. I can confirm that the NVIDIA GTX 765m does not work.

Easter Eggs

If you find any easter eggs in the game, comment and I'll add them to the guide.

I have found that if you use the windows print screen function at any point during the game, your clipboard image will be the pin-up girl from the intro.

Evasion

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Escort Ships

Destroyers and other small escort ships are surprisingly easy to sink when they aren't looking for you - you can find them anchored at ports, and patrolling ports at low speeds making torpedo solutions easy. But most of the time you come in contact with them, they present a serious problem to your sub. But of course you will often find yourself hiding from destroyers when attacking convoys or working your way through the English channel.

Destroyers change course and speed in combat making it nearly impossible to get torpedo solutions on them. When

[Chavohawk]

How do you use the Sonar (or how do you know the soundman is using it?)

[Shultzye]

I purchased SH5 years ago. Last year I upgraded to Windows 11. A few weeks ago I was interested in playing SH5 again so I placed the disk to install the game. It would not work, some message about cant connect to the internet. So I'm thinking if Steam is selling the game it must be something that works so I spent the $10 to purchase. Same issue. Something about not connecting with the internet. It never did play so I requested a refund. Steam refused the refund due to it was showing I had 4 hours of playtime. It now shows 8 hours of playtime and I haven't played one second. Steam keeps referring me to Ubisoft even though I purchased the game (a second time) from Steam. Ubisoft sent me an email stating they would have to get back with me later due to their help desk was overwhelmed. That was Jan 29th and I'm still waiting.

[cwilli24]

Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic when launched Uniby screen states looking for updates then a screen pops up stating it needs a proxy. I have the other Silent Hunter games and haven"t had an issue starting a game. Any help would be appreciated.....

[supb5307]

it keeps saying internet acces

[rickd95880]

THE CODE WHERE TO APPLY IT

[bierbaumbuzz]

my controls to operate the sub no longer hold at start of game ?? its worked since 2018 but now in may 2023 its stopped ??

[Sandman]

@herkules007 (please use English. I speak German but not everyone else does) and @stoneturk1923 I think that you guys are running into an issue with the game's DRM. If I recall correctly it needed to have a connection to the Ubisoft server to function. So there's an element of the game's functionality that's out of your control.

[Sandman]

@gbain63 and @I P Standing, all I can say is that the game has a lot of bugs and the reason you're having those issues is because Ubisoft published an unfinished product and didn't fix or finish it later.

[stoneturk1923]

I TOOK THIS GAME. I FIRST LOADED .I NEVER PLAY. I’M USE WIN 10 PRO PROGRAM. MY LAPTOP HP 450 G7 ( İ7 10510U 16 RAM 2 GB MX250 GRAPHIC 512 SSD ) I TAKE THIS GAME BYE STEAM. BUT I DIDNT PLAY. WHEN I WANT TO PLAY: THE WINDOWS ARE WROTE: ‘’ A SERVİS IS UNAVAIBLE AT THE MOMENT. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER’’ HOW CAN I SOLVE THIS PROBLEM. CAN YOU HELP ME.

[herkules007]

Kann das Spiel nicht Spielen Sever Ubisoft Dienst nicht Verfügbar. Wissen von diesem Problem machen nix was soll das