A Basic Guide to Ships

A simple beginner's guide to understanding ships. Includes ship features, and both material & Gilda Star costs.

Introduction

Notice! It's been a long time, I apologize, but I've finally updated this guide as best I could to match the 2.0 build.

So I'm sure by now you've seen ships around Archeage, and it's no surprise that you can someday make one of your own. In this guide, my goal is to help you understand what kinds of ships you can get in this game, and let you know what you need to make one of your own!

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Almost all of these ships will require a cost of Gilda Stars.
  
• When a ship is destroyed, it requires a Shatigon's Sunglass to repair. These require a high-level alchemy skill to make.
  
• Most of these ships were designed to be used by a crew, and not just a single person.
  
• The blueprints of the ships can be traded or sold. As long as they aren't placed in the water and the ship isn't complete, you can trade these with whomever you like (including on the Auction House).
  
• Only one person can own the ship, and they cannot be traded. If you're in a group, know who is going to be the most active and trustworthy.
  
• When building a ship, you must first place a dry dock. This will require an initial cost.
  
• For almost all of the ships, their blueprints can be found on the Mirage Isle. There are a few exceptions however.
  
• Trust nobody on the open sea. Unlike the land, which is mostly safe before level 30, all of the open waters are home to bandits and thieves. I've been murdered by my crew and had my supplies stolen before. I've also ganged up on and murdered the fellows I was paid to protect. In this game, anything goes.
  
• You cannot desummon a ship that is in combat, is harpooned, or has a tradepack on it.
  
• Your glider will be unpredictable in the ocean. You'll get a turbulence debuff which has a chance to throw you around in circles as you fly. However, Griffins are immune to this debuff. They can glide over the ocean with no problem.

Equipment

Almost all ships come with unique equipment. Here are some examples of what you'll find:

• A scuba tank
  
• A portable grenade launcher harpoon
  
• A harpoon
  
• A cannon
  
• A radar
  
• An instrument
  
• Trade Pack slots

Scuba Tank
This is exactly what is sounds like. It does count as a tradepack. After your ship spawns, it needs to charge for 5 minutes. After that, it has a 10-minute lifespan. This can be used for multiple different things.
For example, when you murder someone who has a tradepack on their back, it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. You can carry these on your back to swim down and take your loot.
Also, there are some mining nodes that only spawn underwater. If you're a miner, you'll end up falling in love with these tanks.
One last thing, when you're ship is being attacked, you can grab one of these before you abandon ship. Chances are, you'll have at least some time before they follow you (if they even still care at all).

Portable Grenade Launcher Harpoon
Doesn't it sound great? This also does count as a tradepack. While you have it, you have access to shooting missiles off the side of your ship. Use it carefully, however, as it is only useful for fighting ships. It is extremely inaccurate, and takes a lot of time to shoot & recover before you can do any other actions.

Harpoon
As you'll see below (see Harpoon Clipper), you'll fall in love with these rather quickly. They can grab any surface, to either hold down enemy ships for naval combat, or grab a terrain to... well... have an open mind!

Cannon
A simple cannon. Chances are, you won't be using them tooooo too much. If you or the enemy has the opportunity to board the other ship, naval combat will end quickly.

Radar
This is very usefuly when it comes to searching for ships. This is a static piece of equipment on your ship. It reveals all the ships on your map around you, and chances are these ships will be out of your render distance. If you're taking expensive cargo, or looking for a kill, this'll be your toy.

Instrument
Ships that were designed for a crew will have some sort of instrument on them (either drums or a bell). This is mostly for entertainment, or a warning if someone sees trouble.

Trade Pack Slot
More expensive ships will have these slots on them. Normally, when a tradepack falls on a boat, it sinks. Immediately. It breaks physics. These, however, keep physics intact. They're great for taking cargo.

Materials

You'll notice that as of recently, ArcheAge requires you to get "Materials" before placing a ship dock. This is due to the new changes they're bringing with the ships. Because the ocean is its own endgame now, they want it to be just a little bit harder to get to it.

I've gone ahead and uploaded a picture of the materials required for each dock now. These materials do not count as a tradepack, so don't be afraid to make them before you're ready to place the ship. In fact, sometimes you might even find them on the Auction.

To craft them, you need to go to the Shipyard Workbench in either Austera or Ezna. You can also find the materials for the materials in the Materials section of the Machining menu.

Rowboats

Whoever thought these would get their own sections? Rowboats are simple. The can carry one or two people, they sometimes have a light to turn on, or a fun mechanic for the passenger, and that's it!

There are three main types of Rowboats that I know of:

Rowboat
This is the simple Rowboat that you get just by questing. If you accidentally miss this ship, you can always craft it at a Woodworking Bench for 10 Lumber. It's squishy as anything, and they only plus side to this... thing is that you get a Merit Badge the first time you have one.

Winged Love Paddle

This rowboat used to be acquired during Valentine's Day. It actually does have some abilities. The driver can speed up (it looks quite goofy trying to turn while going fast) and use a duck horn. The passenger can also sprinkle flowers on the driver.

Lonely Isle Dinghy

This is a cash-shop Rowboat that was introduced during Valentine's Day as well. That being said, I myself have never once seen one in the world. I'm not sure if it even has abilities or not.

Clippers

Clippers are probably the fastest ships in the game. The only have one sail, but you can add a Caernord Sea Serpent Propellant, and upgrade the sails. Together, these will make the ship pretty dang fast. Now, the blueprints for these things cost 50 Merit Badges, and there are two. The Harpoon Clipper is on the Nuian side of the Mirage Isle, and the Adventurer's Clipper is on the Haranyan side. Here's the price once you have the blueprints:

• 1 Iron Pack
  
• 1 Lumber Pack
  
• 1 Fabric Pack

A Clipper will be the first actual ship you can make. The Rowboat is nice, but it's soooo much better to use one of these. All Clippers have a few things in common:

• They use the Triangular Sail.
  
• They're cheap.
  
• By default, they cannot carry tradepacks.
  
• They are very squishy to damage.
  
• They are very fast, especially when upgraded.
  
• They're very common to find.
  
• They have a single (but portable) harpoon grenade launcher. This counts as a tradepack, and can be replaced with another Scuba tank if you want.

Clippers start off with either a Harpoon in the front (Harpoon Clipper), or a cannon on the side (Adventurer's Clipper). Both of these can be switched out later, so only placement is important. They also both have a hapoon cannon on the back which cannot be switched out, so don't even worry about getting it for the harpoon. Only chose your clipper based on location of your stationary gun.

The harpoon on your clipper can be used in a couple fun ways. For example:

(not my video) Video is owned by SKRUZO and members of The Jempire guild.

Fishing Ships

(a pack of wild Fish-Find Longliners in their natural habitat)

There are two fishing ships in the game as of right now. The only different between the two of them is their design, so we'll just talk about the first one now.

To make it, you'll need:

• 250 Gilda Stars (for the blueprint)
  
• 1 Fishing License (for the dry dock)
  
• 1 Fish Finder (for the dry dock)
  
• 1 Fish Crane (for the dry dock)
  
• 1 Solid Shaft (for the dry dock)
  
• 2 Lumber Packs
  
• 2 Iron Packs
  
• 2 Fabric Packs

This ship is made specifically for fishing. You can go out to deepsea and fish all day. When you catch big fish (which count as tradepacks), you can bring them back to shore and sell them for gold.

This ship contains:

• A Harpoon
  
• 6 Tradepack Slots (2 are reserved for big fish)

The only reel use for this ship is fishing. It'll be a prime target for pirates, so watch the faction chat before heading out to sea. The fishing meta used to be "find a pack of ships and stay in it." So at one point you'd see tens of fishing ships out at a time all together. Somewhere along the line that changed, and now you rarely ever see more than one per school of fish. There are still plenty of fishing ships out there, since there are still plenty of schools of fish spawning, but the fishing ships adapted from herds to isolation.

BONUS POINTS: find the pun

Now as for the other type of ship, there's another way to get a fishing ship now. If you save up 700 Merit Badges, you can just buy a fully made fishing ship. No strings attached. No materials, no building, it's all ready to go.

I personally think this is the game's attempt to get fishing boats in herds again to make some more competition in the ocean, but that's just my thoughts.

Merchant Schooner

Like the name suggests, this is the merchant vessel of the game.

This ship is rather expensive, the blueprints themselves cost a whole 400 Gilda Stars, but we'll talk about why it's worth that right after the cost. First, here's the basic materials:

Again, the blueprint for this thing costs 400 Gilda Stars. However, that & the Materials are the only expensive parts about this ship. This ship is terrible in combat, and only has one use - trade pack runs. Remember how I said this is a good ship? Well...

20 Trade Pack Slots

Now, with 20 Trade Pack Slots, you can easily pull over three hundred gold a trip. Or, even 80 Gilda Stars! This ship can make you rich, and it'll pay for itself in less than a week. I know guys who can pull over 1,000g a day with this baby and a friend. However, you should avoid going alone. Not only is it next to impossible to safely load this thing up, but you'll also be a big target for pirates if word gets out that you have a full load.

Small Warships

There are two main types of Small Galleons in the ocean. First, we have the Nuian's ship, the Eznan Cutter. Second, we have Haranya's rival to the Cutter, the Lutesong Junk. They can be acquired on the Mirage isle on their respective sides for 250 Gilda Stars.

Both of these ships have the same prices, in addition to the Gilda Star cost:

• 5 Lumber Packs
  
• 5 Iron Packs
  
• 5 Fabric Packs

Now, when it comes to details, the design is what stands out the most. They do have their similarities:

• 8 Cannons
  
• 6 Scuba Tanks
  
• 1 Radar
  
• 4 Trade Pack Slots

Now let's get back to the design. The Eznan Cutter has a crow's nest. Anyone can climb up to the top and look out to see the world. The radar is also up there. The Lutesong Harbor, however, doesn't have a crow's nest. Instead, their radar is on the main floor with everyone else. So what's the difference? Well, in real combat, it's gonna be a little hard to get the guy off the crow's nest to come down (as the wind tears up gliders and fall damage can be devastating in a fight).

A lot of the players I've talked to prefer the Lutesong Junk for its practicality over the Eznan Cutter. However, the other major group of people I've talked to dislike the Lutesong Junk simply for its design and prefer the Eznan Cutter, even if it's more difficult to work with.. In the ocean I've personally seen more Eznana Cutters (from both factions). It all boils down to which one your crew thinks is cooler.

The Black Pearl

Here we have it, the last section! ...and, the hidden ship.


Like I said before, the Black Pearl is special. It cannot be bought in the Mirage Isle. Instead, you need to find schfifty five pieces of paper.




There are only 19 creatures in the game holding these papers, so have fun grinding.


This ship is basically a rare Galleon. It is about the same in size and power, but when someone renders in your sight with the black flags of death, you know it's already too late.

The Enoan Galleon

You know that ship hanging out around Two Crowns and Solis? The big one which looks like a prop? You can get one. The blueprints are a really rare drop, and you need a ton of them. After that, you need the following supplies:

Last I heard, only one guy in the entire world had it, and he was on a Korean server anyway. It took the effort of the entire server to get it for him. This information is probably dated, but he was still definitely the first.

I've never actually seen one of these in the world before, but I can tell you what I know from the props.

• Lots of Cannons
  
• Lots of Trade Pack slots
  
• An Entire Room for the Captain
  
• A Piano in the Captain's Room
  
• A Man-Powered Propellant (possibly*)

I'd love to say more about these massive things, but there just isn't much known about them yet. They're huge, they're scary, and you'll definitely not want to see a pirate one coming at you... but that's just about it.

*There is something that is man-powered in the middle, but I don't know what it's purpose is, as I have yet to actually use one myself. From what I've heard, when people turn a wheel in the middle, the ship moves faster for each person turning. Until these things become more popular, however, we won't know for certain for a bit.

[Yawanoc]

Good point, thank you. I've been meaning to sit down and update this guide again, but I just don't have time anymore. That's a helpful link!

[sebc1985]

I used this to build my seawhip Its great for quick solo hauls and has not weight handicap. 1 driver, 3 passengers and people can also hang off the side rails.

I used it to suicide drop on a pirate ship. kill my boat but meh 10 sand is nothing. Anyways if you build the boat, hope this can help along the way.

http://archeage.mmodex.com/crafts/crafting-the-seaskimmer-speedboat/

[ahferroin7]

As of mid October 2016, there are now speedboats too. I have no idea how much they cost to make, but I got one off of a credit purchase I made. The game lists them as clippers in the summoning info. General info about the high tier one:
* 4 Trade Pack slots.
* 4 seats.
* Very low profile (It's hard to see one at night or from a distance), much smaller than any other clipper, although bigger than a rowboat.
* No customization options.
* No weapons.
* 2 built-in speed boosts, one has a high chance of sending you off course and requires good timing to get the most of it, the other costs eco-friendly fuel, and neither gives all that much of a boost.
* Top speed is essentially the same as a regular clipper, but it accelerates to that speed much faster.
In essence, they're mostly a vanity item. I could see someone possibly using one for trade runs because they're hard to spot, but other than that the only practical use I can see is as a scout for a larger group of ships.

[bha]

Great guide!

[Arkanosis]

Enoan galleon scraps aren't rare drops. Each lusca drops one, it's just you need a fleet to gather them.

[Yawanoc]

Sorry it's been a couple of months since the guide's been updated! It should now have more of the features and be updated to 2.0.

[Walmartguide]

where do u get one of the bigger galleons?

[1010011010]

hey, on the the lute song junk its says 5 ironpacks , 5lumberpacks and fabricpacks. and finally smale warship compontens. where do i get warship compontens?

[Yawanoc]

^_^ good luck

[allkeyshop Atlas]

im 21 lvl tnx on your guide i gona make ship soon