UWO PVP GUIDE
This guide is made out of all the PvP and general maritime knowledge known by the authors. The purpose of the guide is
to, of course, share it and hopefully help some new players or some experienced players in PvP. We won’t be writing about
grinding maritime in this guide, rather just focus on PvP not including land/deck battle, with emphasis on team battle. Of
course, all that’s said isn’t granted to be true, but is commonly accepted as the most convenient/efficient way to deal with
various PvP situations.
1.1 Ships
1.11 Ship stats
1.12 Sails
1.13 Cannons
1.14 Armour
1.15 Special equipment
1.16 Figureheads
1.17 Crests
1.2 Character equipment
1.21 Head
1.22 Body
1.23 Glove
1.24 Foot
1.25 Weapon
1.26 Accessory
1.27 Equipment set-ups
1.3 Skills
1.31 Character skills
1.32 Aide skills
1.33 Ship skills
1.34 Oxford skills
1.4 Melee battle
1.41 Melee attack & defence stats
1.42 Melee items
1.43 Retreat
1.5 Jobs
1.6 Aides
2.0 PvP Battle
2.1 team battle
2.12 Fleet composition
2.13 Battle campaign/ESF
2.14 1v1 battle
2.15 Real / unbalanced battle
2.2 Shooting and skill choice
There are quite a lot of guides on the controls/shortcuts and set up of your custom slots for battle and as such
so we will omit a specific section for them in this guide but throughout the guide may make reference to
efficient ways to carry out something in particular.
We can recommend you refer to Palariz’s post on the “UWO guide fair” thread page 2 for shortcuts and custom
slots which we think is well explained and detailed.
Most of the information in this guide comes from personal experience of the authors, other maritimer’s and the following
sources:
-Japanese wiki: http://gvo.gamedb.info/wiki/
– Taiwanese wiki: http://acg.gamer.com.tw/acgDetail.php?s=7501
– UWO database: http://uwodbmirror.ivyro.net/eg/main.php
– UWO community
Abbreviations
NC (refers to net marble cash and commonly used to define boats of a premium version, term “astro” also used)
PvP (Player versus Player)
P.P (Pierce Power –cannon)
NSD (Normal shot defence)
DSD (Double shot defence)
SSD (Smoke shot defence)
FSD (Flame shot defence)
HB (Heavy bombing)
SSB (Special smoke bomb)
PEA (Pre-Emptive attack)
WMB (Welcome melee battle)
NPC (non-player character)
The guide will consist of 2 parts; 1st part, which is more theoretical – describing preparation for battle, ships, items, skills
nd part more practical in nature, will describe positioning in battle, battle roles, when to shoot, skill selection and
etc. The 2
similar.
1. Part
1.1. Ships
PvP Ships in UWO
For PvP in UWO, you obviously need a ship. For PvP ships, the most important qualities are: Durability, armour, crew,
skills (mainly referring to optional skills which are unique to each ship), turn speed, cargo (the lower the better) and
ship part slots (5 broadside gun slots are at a massive advantage to one with only 4 for example). Speed is also
relevant; however armour and cargo’s effect on ship speed in battle is arguably as big as the ship’s sails.
Importance/priority of the previously listed qualities of ship depends on the battle. It generally goes like this (but
depends on individual’s play style) (left to right); ship part slots are always a »silent« priority.
Team battles: Durability, armour, ship skills, crew, turn, cargo. In 1v1s: crew, durability, armour, ship skills, turn, and
cargo. If fighting without melee in 1v1 (vs turtle): armour, ship skills, durability, turn speed, cargo. Ships for Real battle
(bounty hunting, etc.) are made similarly to team battle ships, albeit some put more priority on melee and ship skills
there.
I’ll list the most often seen & used ships for PvP and base the description on the original ship, and then add their astro-
version counterparts to the description. I’ll describe all 3 ship types (small, medium, heavy) for the ESF players as well
(or those who use light & medium ships for fun).
Light ships: They’re primarily used in ESF light ships, sometimes in player-organised light ship battles. There
are 2 ships that are the most commonly used:
1. Gunboat: It’s the most commonly used ship in ESF. It comes with relatively good stats important for PvP ships
compared to other light boats. It’s fast and agile, and its skills make it an ideal ESF light ship. Its 7 mod slots can
result in all stats relevant for PvP being maxed out. It has no astro version (as of yet).
2. Roman galley: The non-astro version isn’t really used a lot, and if it is, it generally dies quite fast in PvP due to
its low armour and durability and rather slow speed. However, when it stays alive, it can do a lot of damage in
melee, as it comes with good crew. Its astro version, Ambush Roman Galley is more widely used, as it comes
with 10 upgrade slots and 1 more broadside port (3), making it a good melee ship and cannon ship.
Medium ships: likewise with the light ships you will generally only encounter them in use in ESF’s so we shall list the
most commonly used variants in that circumstance.
1. Commander’s heavy caravel: The commander’s heavy caravel is an excellent all-round ship with good
durability, good crew, decent armour and good skills to suit its purpose. But is not a very quick ship in battle
and its lack of speed means it’s not an ideal admiral ship.
2. Commanders corvette: Commander corvette is a good compact ship which has good speed and high turn
speed allowing you to be extremely agile, its durability is also quite good but beaten by the Caravel and it’s at a
bit of risk to melee as it’s the lowest crew boat of the 4 examples but can have APN skill which helps
somewhat.
3. Commanders galley: The commanders galley is a reasonable ship but not hugely popular due to the fact that
its armour and durability are considerably lower than the caravel and the crew is not that much more in
comparison also a big drawback is this ship is only a 3 broadside ship, less of an issue with fusion’s ability to
add broadside but this means you will be 1 fusion improvement down in comparison to the rest which are 4
broadside as standard.
4. Armed Sha-chaun: The armed Sha-chaun is possibly the best choice at least for admiral roles due to its high
speed, durability that is superior to the carvel, armour almost on par with it and a reasonable size crew to
make it capable in melee battle. Its downfall though is it lacks a bit in battle skills which can be added
optionally at least.
Heavy ships: Heavy ships are the most commonly used ships for PvP in UWO. They’re seen virtually
everywhere as the main PvP tool. It’s essential to have at least a decent heavy ship for PvP.
1. Vaisseau: It’s often considered as the lower level non-astro ship adequate for PvP; however, it seems to be
used more as a grinding ship as ships advance. Its rather low durability and crew more or less take away its
ability to be a tank ship, limiting it to sniper role in team battles, as its 1208 durability (with 250 added) make it
rather easy to kill with critical hits. However, that doesn’t stop some warriors using it as a sniper ship due to its
agility. Custom Vaisseau, the astro version of Vaisseau, is used for same purposes
2. Armoured Vaisseau: Very similar to Vaisseau with its stats a bit enhanced, this ship isn’t used as much due to
its inferior agility compared to Vaisseau. However, this ship can have good armour. Their NC counterpart,
Modified Armoured Vaisseau is very similar to it, except with more room for improvements. For its level
requirements, it’s a nice ship. The Custom Armoured Vaisseau on the other hand is plain bad, as it needs a
higher maritime level to sail and barely offers any improvement from the original model.
3. Nordic galleon: This ship is a lot like the armoured Vaisseau, except that it is far more agile; however, it doesn’t
offer any melee skills without fusion. The ship and its astro version, Modified Nordic Galleon has enhanced
stats, however, is still not used a lot. It’s a rather weak ship.
4. Super Frigate: This ship was used a lot more in the past. It’s a ship very similar to the Nordic galleon, except
that it comes with WMB for some melee help, but its low crew (142) often make it a useless skill. It’s fast and
agile, and can be used as a sniper ship, but at the end, the usage of this ship today is very low. Its astro version,
Modified special frigate is similar in stats to it, but sees a lot more usage – especially as an aide ship due to its
decent cargo and support skills. Its second astro version, Modified super frigate is used a lot more. It has more
armour, crew and durability. It’s also fast and agile, and can reach stats similar to a first class Vaisseau, if crew
is maxed.
5. First Class Vaisseau: One of the better non-astro PvP ships, the first class Vaisseau comes with good durability
(1363 with 250 added), good crew (202) and armour. Since the introduction of grading, there are a lot of
different ship builds plans for this ship, however, primarily; it stays a tank ship as it’s not very fast. It’s a ship
used for virtually all battles, like its two astro versions which are very similar to it with more upgrade slots:
Festive first class Vaisseau, first class flagship Vaisseau. Its inferior astro version, Modified first class Vaisseau
comes with less durability, however, it’s still used a lot. The best first class Vaisseau ship type is the Ambush
first class Vaisseau, coming with a lot of crew, one more optional skill (improved gun port), more durability
(1406 with +250) and armour. The AFCV is one of the best all-around PvP ships in UWO, used from 1v1s to
team battles (all roles). The first class Vaisseau ship family is a set of ships which are often the basic PvP ships,
as they are so widely used they set the standards for other ships. Ships added in 2nd age, described later, are
slowly taking over the FCV’s role over.
6. Ironsides: the Ironsides is a highly agile ship with strong armour. It’s also unique for its optional skills, as it can
have direct hit prevention (DHP), which, when used, makes all shots to your bow count as broadsides instead
of critical hits. However, the non-astro model needs high levels to sail (69, 65. 70) and comes with rather poor
durability around 1250 and weak crew (153). It’s most often used in team battles. It has 3 astro versions: the
Custom Ironsides with a bit better durability and more improvement slots, but it’s not enhanced a lot, so it
isn’t used a lot, the Modified Ironsides, which sees a lot more use due to its higher durability (1335 with 250
added), armour and agility. However, it still lacks crew. It’s not only used in team battles, but real battles and
1v1s as well, as its high speed can make it out sail quite a few of ships and can avoid melee. The best ironsides
version currently in game is the Festive Ironsides, which is a great ship for team battles, as it comes with high
armour, durability (1420 with 250 added) and agility. Those gives it a good survival rate and make it a good
admiral ship (combined with direct hit prevention), however, it still lacks crew. Adding attack prevention net
(APN) to increase melee defence and retreat rate (look under ship skills) and crew via fusion can help all 4
ironsides version with its melee issues however, it’s still forced to flee melee a lot.
7. Norske Love: This ship is a direct upgrade from the Nordic galleon. It comes with good agility, armour and
decent durability, and with melee support (Welcome melee battle). However, it’s said to feel awkward to sail
but some have been known to use this ship to great effect, and considering it needs level 73 to sail, the better,
superior ships to it at level 75, make this a less common choice. It’s primarily used as a sniper ship in team
battles. Its astro version, the Augmented Norske Love is a direct upgrade, and is seen a lot more, particularly
in 1v1s and team battles as an all-around ship.
8. La Mort: first galley to appear on this list, the original version isn’t used a lot. When it is, it’s primarily a 1v1
ship due to its high amount of crew. If it happens to be used in teamwork in the future, it’ll be for its demo
work skill, but that’s unlikely as the durability and armour are not high.
Out of its 3 astro versions (Light, assault, augmented La Mort), only Light La Mort is generally seen in PvP – as
a pirate ship or bounty-hunting ship (depending on the mods). Basically team fights never see a La Mort type
ship used in them.
9. Neapolitan Galleass: A straight upgrade from the La Mort, the Neapolitan galleass comes with 273 crew,
interesting optional skills and decent durability. It’s sometimes seen as a 1v1 ship, and rarely in team battles.
Some people use it for pirating. Its improved version, the Augmented Neapolitan Galleass is a great ship,
coming with melee support which the original doesn’t have, and most of its stats enhanced. It’s a ship which
can be used for basically everything, much like the AFCV.
10. Applet: A ship similar to the first class Vaisseau in all stats, except its optional skills – by itself, it doesn’t have
any melee skills, and so isn’t used a lot. When it is used, it’s in team battles as a sniper and tank ship. Its astro
(NC) version, the Modified Applet has enhanced stats but no new skills added, so it’s used in similar fashion.
11. De Zeven: A ship very similar to the FCV, albeit with a bit less crew and welcome melee battle instead of attack
prevention net as its optional skill for melee. It’s seen to some extent in team battle mocks but also in real
battles and 1v1s due to its special sea mine, which makes the enemy ship flood when hitting the mine. It has
decent speed, durability and armour and, when used in team battles, is primarily a sniper ship, but it can,
however, tank. Ambush De Zeven is a ship very similar to it, except that it comes with more durability and can
be efficiently used as a team battle ship for all roles due to that.
12. Seeadler: the non-astro version is a ship similar to the FCV with the highest durability of any Non-NC battle
ship currently available, decent armour and crew, but with less turn and agility, which make it a rather slow
ship. It does have a rather odd set of skills, and can be used as a decent tank ship, but it doesn’t come with any
melee skills. Its odd optional skill set, slowness and large size, make it not a very common choice. Its astro
version, the Custom Seeadler has a lot more durability and more mod slots, and can be made into a strong
ship, which will still, however, only be really efficient in team battles due to its speed and skill set.
13. Santa Catalina: Currently the second highest durability non astro ship available beaten only by the Seeadler.
Santa Catalina comes with decent armour and rather high crew amount, albeit it lacks speed, but its
acceleration is good, so it can do a tiny bit of sniping, but not really with full efficiency. And even though this
ship is lacking any melee skill, it has one thing which makes it unique, other than the great durability and crew
– it can have demo work as optional skill, which can completely cripple the enemy team in battle when used to
effect. That’s the first reason on why Santa Catalina isn’t seen outside team battles, second one being its poor
speed, which is even more obvious in 1v1s.
14. San Felipe: This ship is considered a straight upgrade from the first class Vaisseau, as it can have drainage
pump, attack prevention net and cooperation enchantment as optional skills, which makes it a great ship for
team battles. It can tank and snipe, albeit it isn’t very fast. Its durability, crew and armour are good, but it
doesn’t stand out enough to be used in 1v1s a lot. It is possibly one of the more common non-astro ships to be
seen in mock battles, etc. due to its good survival rate and usefulness in team battles.
15. Ottoman Galleass: A ship used for PvP and sailing (as Nanban and speed ship, as it can be quite fast and have
good cargo). It’s another ship used basically everywhere, as it comes with good durability and crew, it is an
ideal melee ship because it can have direct hit prevention, which compensates on its rather low base armour.
Its row power helps it to gain speed in battles, where it mainly serves for a tank ship with strong melee stats.
However, it’s a ship capable of sniping, but it might feel awkward at doing that and with a setup for sniping in
this ship, you aren’t using it up to its full potential. Its high crew makes it an ideal ship for 1v1s. Its astro
version, Custom Ottoman Galleass is same with its usage to the original, but with enchanted stats which make
it a very strong ship.
16. Sovereign of the seas: A ship similar to the Santa Catalina, albeit with less acceleration, sovereign of the seas is
one of the best non-astro tank ships. It has good armour, durability and crew. However, its main problem is its
speed. It’s not a fast ship, and a lot of people say it feels awkward to use, so if this ship is seen in battle, it’ll
most likely be as a tank role in team battles. However, its astro versions, Custom Sovereign of the seas and the
Modified Sovereign of the seas, which are used mainly as sniper ships in team battles, however, they have
good stats and are able to tank efficiently as well.
17. La Couronne, Festive La Couronne& Custom La Couronne: Albeit the astro versions of the La Couronne are
better than the base, I’ve listed all 3 ships together, because they’re all very similarly used in PvP – somewhat
common. The other level 75 ships are better compared to the la Couronne, which have decent durability and
good speed; however, they don’t appeal to the general public because they’re nothing special. Since the
addition of fusion, their improved sea mine optional skill isn’t as special anymore. If this ship is used, it’s in
team battles mainly in sniper role.
18. Large Atakebune: One of the 3 Atakebune used in PvP (they’re all NC ships), the large Atakebune sees the least
use. It comes with 330 crew and rather poor durability, so it’s sometimes used for 1v1, very rarely in team
battles because the enemy team will generally focus on it, and with its weak armour and durability, it won’t
survive for a long time. It’s also not a fast ship. Assault Atakebune is very similar to the large Atakebune, but
seems to be used more, mainly for 1v1s due to its poor durability, armour in speed. But when the Atakebune
reach melee, for which their rowing and DHP help. The currently best Atakebune is the Modified Large
Atakebune, which has the most mod slots, armour and durability. It’s also the only Atakebune ship which can
have attack prevention net as an optional skill, so these ships can be built and fused in a great ship for melee.
It can also have DHP, and it’s near 1400 durability makes it survive for much longer than the other 2 Atakebune
when it gets focused on, so it can deal more damage in melee. It’s used in all fights.
1.11: Ship stats
With ship stats, I am referring to: Vertical sail, horizontal sail, Row power, turn speed, wave resistance, armour, durability,
crew, cannon slots, cargo. The most important are: Durability, armour, crew, turn, cargo. Soon, you’ll know why. (Note; the
icons used for photos are from an equipped AFCV, Ottoman Galleass – not all the ships have those stats)
Vertical sail: Icon: Vertical sail is arguably more important in PvP than horizontal sail. In UWO itself, vertical
sail is good for sailing against the wind and with wind blowing in from sides. In PvP, it’s believed to help with acceleration
in battle, which is quite important – in team battle PvP, the more experienced and team-battle orientated fighters will find
themselves sailing short distances a lot, and with higher acceleration, you sail them faster. Most of the non-NC ships have
vertical sails maxed and little to no horizontal added due to low improvement available but also because vertical sails are
generally considered of more value. Of course, the fact that battle ships mainly have higher horizontal sail by default and
with a mod plan like that, the sails even out, it’s not the only reason. That mainly applies to non-NC ships, where the low
amount of mods generally results in similar vertical and horizontal sails, whereas NC ships with more mods aren’t as even.
Damaged/ripped sails will reduce you maximum sail speed.
Horizontal sail: Icon: As previously mentioned, in PvP, the horizontal sails are seen as inferior to vertical sails.
Outside the PvP world in UWO, horizontal sails are best for sailing with the wind. In the battle ring, more horizontal sails
mean faster battle speed, which doesn’t really come in that handy most of the time, except for the more sniper orientated
people who don’t stop their ships or make a lot of turns. Of course, if you can add horizontal sails without sacrificing any
other important ship stats, you should do it when building the ship. Damaged/ripped sails will reduce you maximum sail
speed.
Row Power: Icon: Row power is a ship stat found on galleys and turtle ships. The normal ships can’t have it – it’s
0. The formula for rowing bonus is said to be: Rowing rank*0,1*ship row power = Boost in sail power/strength which is
unaffected by wind direction. Example, if you have 100 row power and r10 rowing, that equals to 100*10*0,1= 100.
Your ship will get a 100 boost in sail power/strength which is equivalent to an extra 222 vertical sail in a headwind or 118
horizontal in a tailwind circumstance, helps to see why row boats have such an advantage in headwind situations.
However, you only get the row power bonus when rowing skill is active, so it’s best to only use it in battle when you need
to accelerate or gather some speed.
Turn speed: Icon: Turn speed is a very important ship stat for a PvP build ship. Obviously, turn speed makes you
turn faster. More turn speed = faster turn. But there is a lot more to turn speed. When your ship turns, especially if it’s a
big turn, it loses speed. That’s why it’s recommended to make smaller turns in battle, because speed is important. But the
more turn speed your ship has, the less speed it will lose due to turning. However, if you make small turns and not big 90
degree turns, you probably won’t need a lot of turn speed.
Having an adequate amount of turn speed is important for 1 more reason; mid-turn critical. A lot of maritimer’s have
experienced them – your ship is turning, an enemy shoots and you get a critical hit whilst turning (More on critical hits
later on). That is because, when turning, your ship doesn’t make just 1 big turn in 1 piece. Instead, it makes a few smaller
turns, stopping at each of them for a very short time. If enemy’s cannons fire at your stern/bow at that point, you’ll get a
critical shot(getting a critical hit depends on your ship’s exposure of bow/stern part and enemy’s cannon’s firing time – if
the enemy’s cannon’s fire when you are exposed on those 2 parts, you’ll get a critical shot – more on that later).
The amount of these »smaller turns« depends on steering rank – higher, less small turns, and turn speed – higher means
less again. Ship crew’s ability is also a factor in turning – higher ability means better, smoother turns. So how much turn
speed should you have? The recommended amount for team fights and a fighter used to making small turns with at least
r10 steering is at least 14. –
For 1v1s, where you make a lot of bigger turns, anything above 15 is a good number. Some experienced maritimer’s agree
that having too much turn (above 25 for example) can be bad, as your ship turns too fast and you can easily overturn. The
recommended sails to use are so called »Battle sails« (sails with no speed penalty on them).Damaged rudder makes you
turn slower.
Wave resistance: Icon: Outside the PvP arena, it’s important for high speed, travelling with cargo and storm
sailing (need over 11 wave resistance). In the battle ring, there doesn’t seem to be much use to wave resistance – it might
reduce the amount of sailors lost to rough seas for a small %, but that’s it.
Armour: Icon: Having good armour on your ship is essential in the PvP ring. Outside of it, armour added by
plating’s affects your acceleration. It is the same in the ring – the more armour, the faster you accelerate. Contrary to the
popular belief, armour does go over 100 and still reduces damage taken (added in a recent update). Bullet proof armouring
(BPA) is an optional/original skill, which adds a hidden value of 10 armour to the ship.
Our testing on armour has shown that armour plays a significant role when reduction damage taken from a broadside hit
where it was seen that the effect is quite small once the hit is a critical. On broadsides, 1 point of armour seems to absorb
0.9 damage per cannon hit with (hit from a 5 broadside ship, you take 4.5 broadside damage less for each point of
armour). For critical damage, each point of armour seems to reduce the damage taken by just 0.2 per cannon hit with (1
from a 5 broadside ship). Armour also works in units of 1, not in units of 2 or 5 as some others might say. Higher the
armour, the lower the broadside damage will be and this is important as broadside damage which exceeds 20% your
current maximum durability will cause you to lose maximum durability at approximately 3.4% the total broadside damage.
Durability: Icon: Durability is one of the most important, if not the most important things on a PvP
build boat. When building a ship, you should prioritise durability. Generally, if you’re playing with defence skills on, the
more durability you have, the longer you’ll survive. That’s why ships with high durability are generally the most appropriate
for PvP (turn, crew, armour is important as well). You lose max durability when you receive critical damage from enemy
ship or when you receive a high damage broadside (20% of maximum durability at that time). Maintaining your durability
in battle is important, you must keep it at max all the time using repair. Keeping your durability close to max (Ex. not taking
critical hits and high broadsides) is also very important, because the more of it you lose, the bigger are the chances for you
getting sunk by the next critical.
You can’t restore your maximum durability back in battle – you can only do it outside battle using MCT (Master craftsman’s
carpentry tools, each adds back 1 max durability point) or LCCT (Legendary craftsman’s carpentry tools – each adds back 5
max durability points), or using the dock, which isn’t as convenient as it’s time consuming. You should replenish your max
durability after battle and enter all battles with maximum durability.
Crew: Icon: Crew is a very important feature on all the PvP ships, except maybe turtles – but you still need
enough crew on them to fire cannons with maximum efficiency. Not having enough crew will result in your cannons doing
less damage. The formula for minimum crew required is: (cannons in use * 0.875) +1. Crew also affects your melee stats.
This will be better explained in the melee sections of the guide, this is just a brief explanation. Melee is affected by the
amount of crew – more crew you have, the more defence and attack power you have. It’s also affected by crew’s Loyalty,
ability and fatigue.
(Left to right: fatigue, loyalty, ability). The more ability you have, higher your attack will be in melee, and the higher your
loyalty is, the easier you’ll retreat. You can raise your loyalty by using vintage of the covenant. The more crew you have,
the better it is. In longer battles, you’ll lose crew as time goes on as only 90% of any crew lost in melee can be revived with
surgery. So the more crew you have, the longer it’ll take for you to reach a critically low amount of crew, where you can’t
do full cannon damage anymore.
Cannon chambers: Icon: You need a sufficient amount of cannon chambers to equip enough cannons
you need- that’s usually, for heavy ships, 80 (from broadsides) and 10-20 (bow and stern cannon), so around 90-98 in total.
It’s believed (not confirmed) each cannon chamber counts as 1 cargo, so it’s pointless to add any more of them than
needed when building ships. Light ships and some ships like Ironsides need extra cannon chambers added if they want to
use the full cannon power potential.
Cargo: Icon: Blue line means the amount of provisions; red means the amount of trade goods and blank
(grey) means available cargo. In PvP ships, lower cargo is better, that’s why ships are built with -20% or -25% cargo. Less
cargo means more battle speed and more acceleration. A ship with a lot of cargo will turn differently than a ship with low
cargo. Don’t worry, if your battle ship will have low cargo – you can use aide ship’s cargo to make up for it. This’ll be
mention later.
1.12
Sails
Sail are added to increase the ship’s base stat for Vertical and Horizontal sail. Both Vertical and horizontal sail stat’s
perform to a different efficiency depending on headwind, sidewind or tailwind condition. This efficiency factored into the
sail’s stats give its boost to sail power/strength
Vertical sails are 45% efficient in headwind, 67.5% sidewind and 65% for tailwind.
Horizontal sails are 25% efficient in headwind, 67.5% sidewind and 85% in tailwinds.
Example: Improved gallant stay sail gives a sail power boost of:
(15 ∗ 0.45) + (15 ∗ 0.25) = 10.5 In headwind
(15 ∗ 0.675) + (15 ∗ 0.675) = 20.25 In sidewind
(15 ∗ 0.65) + (15 ∗ 0.85) = 22.5 In tailwind
The following sails which carry no turn penalty are commonly referred to as “battle sails” due to their common use in
maritime
The improved gallant staysail is generally the most popular due to ease of production meaning low cost on the player
market. It offers a reasonable +15 boost on Vertical and horizontal sails with no penalty on turn. Using the efficiency %
above for vertical and horizontal gives this an average boost to sail power of 17.7
The Special Fore royal staysail is an improvement on the above sail with a +24 boost for Vertical but a similar +15 boost on
horizontal. It also has no turn penalty imposed. This sail offers an average sail power boost of 23
The Special Fore royal staysail is an improvement on the improved gallant staysail with a +25 boost for Horizontal and a
+18 boost on Vertical. It also has no turn penalty imposed. This sail offers an average sail power boost of 25.5 The
production of both Special Fore sails are more complex due to recipe requirements thus carry a much higher value on the
player market compared to the Improved gallant staysail.
The reason no turn penalty sails are prioritised for battle ships, at least in non-NC versions is that turn is generally not
going to be 20+. However many NC ships can afford to improve turn considerably while not sacrificing more important
stat’s. This means there is a lot more options open as you can now allow for sails that carry a turn penalty.
The Main full rigged is a perfect example with considerable boost to both Vertical and Horizontal and giving an average sail
power boost of 26.6 while only carrying a -1 penalty on turn speed. This sail has the best performance of those shown yet
and also these can be gotten quite cheap as they are very common throughout the community rather than just maritime
players, making them an ideal sail if you can allow for the penalty.
1.13
Cannons
Cannons are your primary offence in naval battles and there is a large variety to choose from, we shall try to explain the
pros and cons of the most commonly utilised forms.
Cannons all have the following attributes:
Pierce power (Pierce power is a value relating to what damage potential the cannon is capable of, higher values
increase damage and likelihood of leaks)
Range (Range defines the extent in distance at which the cannon can effectively cause damage, is
extending by the ballistics skill)
Bullet speed (Bullet speed is a value of a shot’s velocity, the higher the value the greater the potential to cause
disorder of enemy ships and each value below 10 equates to a reduction in hit probability of 3%)
Burst range (Burst range is a value on the cannons probability to inflict secondary effects upon ship parts
(damaged sails/rudder) but also damage inflicted toward the crew)
Loading speed (Loading speed is a value on the speed at which a cannon reloads and correlates with gunnery and
also reloading if used. Master cannon at 1 loading speed and r20 gunnery reloads in 6 seconds whereas a master
carronade at loading speed 4 takes 5 seconds, the loading speed has a greater effect at lower gunnery ranks
however)
Cannon are classed depending on the type of shot which they use:
Normal shot is the type of shot used by Carronade, High Perrier and Rapid fire cannons for example. It can make a good
choice for PvP as many people will opt in favour of aides favouring double shot defence and they generally have a good
reload speed (exceptional in rapid fire cannons case but these guns are not favourable enough in pierce power and range
to be considered for PvP). This shot has no specific secondary effects other than the possibility of damaging sails, crew
disorder or leak’s.
Normal shot’s ship skill is heavy bombing which is an
active skill that causes the enemy’s ship speed to
reduce upon impact.
Aides defence skill is Normal Shot Defence (NSD)
Double shot is quite possibly the most popular choice for PvP due to its high pierce power giving it the ability to deal
considerable damage. However its range is quite short and has the poorest load speed of the available shot types, also the
aide skill Double Shot Defence is quite common as it’s what most will opt for when faced with the severe damage these
cannons can cause even against even a well armoured broadside (450+ damage from 5 x 1584 against 100 armour w/out
penetration). Because the range is short and these cannons will be utilized in close quarters however, it is likely that
evasion on its own will not offer sufficient protection against a critical hit. Like normal shot it has no specific secondary
effects except for a perceived increased likelihood of leaks due to increased pierce power.
Double shot’s ship skill is Armour piercing bullet
which is an active skill that will cause flooding of the
enemy ship upon a critical hit.
Aides defence skill is Double Shot Defence (DSD)
Chain shot is a pretty inferior shot type as its pierce power is considerably lower than the alternatives and also there is no
specific ship skill to compliment it, so as far as PvP goes it’s a poor choice. The only exceptions to this are the bow and
stern guns of this shot type (Bow angel & Stern angel) which have a good range and upon a critical hit will damage sails
and/or rudder causing the enemy ship to slow considerably. This shot also only has the normal secondary effects of
damaging sails/rudders, disorder and leaks.
Aide defence skill is Chain Shot Defence (CSD)
Grape shot is another less common shot type in PvP due to its incredibly low pierce power. It does however carry some
interesting effects such as reducing vigour of enemy upon a critical and also can cause increased crew loss compared to
other shot type. It should also carry the normal secondary effects of leak, disorder and sail/rudder damage by chance.
Chain shots ship skill is Explosive shell which is an
active skill that has a probability of causing major
disorder against a broadside hit and certainty with a
critical hit.
There is no aide defence skill available at present for
grape shot.
Smoke shot is a popular choice in PvP and more so since the introduction of Grand versions of the Cheminee which have
exceptional range, decent bullet speed and a high reloading rate along with more pierce power than the Master version
making them a great choice for sniping roles. Smoke shot have the effect of causing smoke upon enemy ship by chance on
broadside and certainty with a critical hit, this effect reduces their hit probability by 20% (essentially halving the
effectiveness of r20 Accuracy) it can also cause cannons to fail to load. This effect seems to last approximately 30 seconds
from tests done. Requires the consumable mysterious feather fan to remove smoke effect from ship
Smoke shot ship skill is Special Smoke Bomb which is
a passive skill that has a probability chance of
cancelling the skills the enemy ship has active upon
broadside impact and with certainty from a critical
hit, it will also apply the other smoke effects
mentioned.
Aide defence skill is Smoke Shot Defence (SSD)
Flame (incendiary) shot is another popular choice in PvP as they have similar ability to smoke shot in that they have great
range, high bullet speed, high burst range and good reload rate they also have some appealing secondary effects. The
Grand version of volkans is very strong in comparison to the master’s and even more pierce power than Grand Cheminee’s
but at a reduced firing range meaning they are not quite as suitable for the longer range sniping but still perform very well
in a sniping role.
Flame shot can cause fire which will have a random burn time upward of 3 minutes from tests conducted. If not
extinguished this will slowly reduce ship durability, damage sails and ship equipment. Another effect which Flame shot
possesses is the ability to cause random explosion of cannon shot the enemy currently carry, this can happen from
broadside or critical although more common from critical hits and more destructive in that case as even though only
usually a small amount of shot is consumed (1-5 shot) it can still cause a random increase to damage upward of 160 points
from what we have seen and that was from a broadside hit. That’s a pretty big increase to damage potential and not to
mention your slowing consuming up the enemy ships shot.
Flame shots ship skill is Armour deteriorating bullet
which is a passive skill that upon broadside has a
probability and certainty with a critical to reduce the
enemy ship’s armour rating randomly by about 1-5
points. This effect remains until the end of battle and
you cannot reduce the enemy below 50% of their
starting armour value.
Aide defence skill is Flame Shot Defence (FSD)
Commonly used
Having listed the shot types and explained somewhat their abilities and drawbacks in battle we will precede further and
point out which cannons of each shot type are most common.
Normal shot
1. Carronades
The Master Carronade is a reasonably strong normal shot with a maximum pierce power of 1104 it fits well in the role of
tankers who are in close but also mid-range sniping. It has high bullet speed and good range along with medium burst
range and loading speed. A set of 5 maximum pierce power Master carronades have the potential to inflict approximately
181 damage broadside and a 1155 critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
The Grand Carronade is an improved version of the master carronade with higher maximum pierce power of 1136 and
marginally increased range, identical bullet speed and burst range but 1 point lower in loading speed which is a non-issue
at higher gunnery ranks (R18+). A set of 5 maximum pierce power Grand carronades have the potential to inflict
approximately 199 damage broadside and a 1191 critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot
defence)
2. High Perrier’s
The Master High Perrier is ideally suited to sniper roles due to its increased range but it does lack in pierce power
somewhat. The maximum pierce power is 1040, it has great range and high bullet speed but minimal burst range and a
mediocre loading speed. A set of 5 maximum pierce power Master High Perrier have the potential to inflict approximately
145 damage broadside and a 1083 critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
The Grand High Perrier is an improved version of the Master Higher Perrier. We were not able to ascertain the max pierce
power but believe to be the same as the Master version at 1040. It has greatly improved range. It does however have a 1
point reduction on the Master High Perrier in bullet speed and loading speed and an identical burst range. A set of 5
maximum pierce power Grand High Perrier (we assume max pierce is 1040) have the potential to inflict approximately 145
damage broadside and a 1083 critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
Double shot
1. Cannon
The Master Cannon is possibly the best choice of cannon for tankers who being close to the enemy will be able to inflict
large amounts of damage even just from broadsides but also the shorter range means it’s possible to hit at a more point
blank range than other cannons. They have a maximum pierce power of 1584, good bullet speed, low burst range and poor
loading speed. A set of 5 maximum pierce power Master Cannons have the potential to inflict approximately 451 damage
broadside and a 1694 critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
The Grand Cannon is an improved version of the Master Cannon. It has a higher maximum pierce power of 1616 and
slightly increased range but otherwise similar bullet speed, burst range and loading speed. A set of 5 maximum pierce
power Grand Cannons have the potential to inflict approximately 469 damage broadside and a 1730 critical against 100
armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
Smoke shot
1. Cheminee
The Master Cheminee is a reasonable strength smoke shot with a maximum pierce power of 1040 but it has good range
and bullet speed with a high burst range and load speed. It can make a decent cannon for mid-range sniping especially if
used alongside the Special Smoke Bomb ship skill. This cannon still has value in PvP but is being outclassed by its more
powerful successor (Grand Cheminee). A set of 5 maximum pierce power Master Cheminee’s have the potential to inflict
approximately 145 damage broadside and a 1083 critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot
defence)
The Grand Cheminee is a high power smoke shot and can be used to devastating effect, it packs a strong hit on par with
the Grand Carronade at a maximum pierce power of 1136 and an impressive range that exceeds even the Master High
Perrier however this can lead to point blank shots being an issue. Coupled with Special Smoke Bomb ship skill make these
cannon a prime choice for a sniper role as they also have high bullet speed, burst range and a good reload speed. A set of 5
maximum pierce power Grand Cheminee’s have the potential to inflict approximately 199 damage broadside and a 1191
critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
Incendiary shot
1. Volkan
The Master Volkan somewhat similar to the Master Cheminee in more way than one, it has the same maximum pierce
power of 1040, albeit a slightly reduced range but similar bullet speed and load time with 1 point extra on burst range.
However also like the Master Cheminee it is being replaced by its stronger successor (Grand Volkan). A set of 5 maximum
pierce power Master Volkans have the potential to inflict approximately 145 damage broadside and a 1083 critical against
100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
The Grand Volkan is arguably the most destructive of the Grand cannon’s, true it is not quite the 1616 pierce power of the
Grand Cannon or the Range of the Grand Cheminee but its power along with its range give this cannon serious ability to
bring down a ship not to mention when you bring in the secondary effect flame shot has of magazine ignitions. It has a
maximum pierce power of 1168, not quite as impressive range as a Grand Cheminee means it is more effective for close to
mid-range sniping but can be poor for very close combat as point blank hits can have tendency to miss. A set of 5
maximum pierce power Grand Volkans have the potential to inflict approximately 217 damage broadside and a 1227
critical against 100 armour (not factoring in penetration or evasion/shot defence)
Loading speed
Below is a table which gives the reload time in seconds for each value of loading speed on cannons (1-10) at each value of
gunnery rank (0-20). The time given however is generally rounded up/down as the cannon reload bar only refreshes in 1
second intervals so even though it may say 5.7s it will take 6 seconds in game.
Gunnery
rank \
loading
speed
0 20.0 16.7 12.5 11.1 9.1 8.3 7.1 6.7 5.9 5.6
One 20.0 14.3 12.5 10.0 9.1 7.7 7.1 6.3 5.9 5.3
Two 16.7 14.3 11.1 10.0 8.3 7.7 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.3
Three 16.7 12.5 11.1 9.1 8.3 7.1 6.7 5.9 5.6 5.0
Four 14.3 12.5 10.0 9.1 7.7 7.1 6.3 5.9 5.3 5.0
Five 14.3 11.1 10.0 8.3 7.7 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.3 4.8
Six 12.5 11.1 9.1 8.3 7.1 6.7 5.9 5.6 5.0 4.8
Seven 12.5 10.0 9.1 7.7 7.1 6.3 5.9 5.3 5.0 4.5
Eight 11.1 10.0 8.3 7.7 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.3 4.8 4.5
Nine 11.1 9.1 8.3 7.1 6.7 5.9 5.6 5.0 4.8 4.3
Ten 10.0 9.1 7.7 7.1 6.3 5.9 5.3 5.0 4.5 4.3
Eleven 10.0 8.3 7.7 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.3 4.8 4.5 4.2
Twelve 9.1 8.3 7.1 6.7 5.9 5.6 5.0 4.8 4.3 4.2
Thirteen 9.1 7.7 7.1 6.3 5.9 5.3 5.0 4.5 4.3 4.0
Fourteen 8.3 7.7 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.3 4.8 4.5 4.2 4.0
Fifteen 8.3 7.1 6.7 5.9 5.6 5.0 4.8 4.3 4.2 3.8
Sixteen 7.7 7.1 6.3 5.9 5.3 5.0 4.5 4.3 4.0 3.8
17 7.7 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.3 4.8 4.5 4.2 4.0 3.7
Eighteen 7.1 6.7 5.9 5.6 5.0 4.8 4.3 4.2 3.8 3.7
19 7.1 6.3 5.9 5.3 5.0 4.5 4.3 4.0 3.8 3.6
Twenty 6.7 6.3 5.6 5.3 4.8 4.5 4.2 4.0 3.7 3.6
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten
(http://gvo.gamedb.info/wiki/?Bombardment)
Cannon Damage
The damage a cannon Is able to cause is dependant for the most part on its pierce power which sets the maximum damage
possible under ideal circumstance. There is however a variable in that shot only has a probability of impacting the ship this
% hit rate is directly affected by the cannon skills Accuracy and Ballistics which add per rank 2% and 1.5% to the hit rate
respectively.
The evasion skill on the other hand essentially counters Accuracy’s increase to hit rate in that each rank of evasion will
lower the rate by 2%. Leaks and flooding essentially nullify the effect that evasion will provide to cannon fire evade rate
thus making pails / drainage pump skill rather valuable.
Also if you notice if you don’t shoot cannons immediately after loading that eventually the red bars for them begin to flash,
this flashing has the effect of a +10% increase in hit rate.
This hit rate is also affected by wind direction (+20% when firing with wind direction, +10% when firing head wind). Figure
head cannon evade, each point is a -1% reduction in hit probability (ex. 8% for Garuda figurehead) and this effect is
multiplied by the oxford handling thesis I & II which multiply by x1.25 and x1.875 respectively, they stack for a x2.125 on
the figureheads evade stat.
A cannons bullet speed has the effect of -3% hit probability on each number under 10 (ex. -9% for grand volkans with
bullet speed of 7). Smoke effect on a ship also causes a 20% reduction in hit probability.
Shot defences operate different to evasion in that they do a damage % reduction rather than a hit probability reduction
this means they are not negated by leaks for instance which can reduce evasion’s effectiveness greatly. The effectiveness
of the shot defence seems dependant on shot type, with results as low as 40% average broadside reduction for Chain Shot
Defence to as high as 87% average broadside reduction for Normal Shot Defence (more on the shot defence skills in aide
skill section)
Penetration on the other hand is the only cannon skill to actually increase the damage rate of cannons by inflicting a set
increase dependant on the cannon’s gate (12, 14, 16, etc.) and skill rank
An approximation of the damage added with the penetration skill to a single cannon can be worked out using the following
for broadside, critical is double the broadside result. Multiply result by number of broadside cannons for total result.
cannon gate #
(
4
For example r20 penetration with 16 gate cannon will add approximately 20damage on broadside and 40damage on
critical per cannon.
16
(
∗ 20) + 1
4
4
16
(
∗ 20) + 1
4
2
= 20 broadside damage (20 ∗ 5 = 100 for 5 broadside ship)
= 40 critical damage (40 ∗ 5 = 200 for 5 broadside ship)
However penetration is not always so predictable in that R19 vs R20 penetration will actually cause the same resulting
damage increase at least with tests done using Master Carronades and Master Cannons.
For calculating an ideal hit from cannons like we stated when reviewing the commonly used cannons, we left out
penetrations increase to damage and likewise the reduction for evasion and shot defences for simplicity sake.
The formula used was extrapolated from a lot of damage testing and can’t be said to be 100% correct in all case’s but
certainly gives a good indicator of expected damage.
0.1123PN − 0.9AN + 2.2N = Broadside damage
(0.1123PN) ∗ 2 − 0.2AN + 4.4N = Critical damage
Where P = Pierce power of cannon (if not all the same, sum the pierce power and average)
N = Number of cannons
A = Armour
Critical hits cause a massive amount more damage than broadsides will and any damage received as a critical will reduce
the maximum durability of your ship (ex. a -1 critical hit from an out of range bow shot will still take -1 from max
durability).
However, normally maximum durability loss is a percentage of total damage done and that is approximately 3.4% (ex. 1200
critical you can expect to lose 40points from your maximum durability).
The point at which maximum durability begins to be taken due to broadside damage is determined by a percentage of the
current maximum durability, from testing we gather this to be 20%. This makes for another reason as to why higher
durability should be the favoured stat for battle ships.
(Ex. Maximum durability loss in a ship of 1400 durability won’t begin until broadside damage reaches approximately 20% of
that figure 1400*0.2=280)
1.14
Armour
Armour plays the role of reducing damage mostly from broadside hits and to a much lesser degree critical hit. Armour at
least the base figure for a ship before FS improvements, and any plating’s added affect the acceleration rate within the
battle ring (Armour increase from improvement was changed in the past so as to not have an effect on acceleration).
There are a vast amount of different armour plating to choose from but when it comes to battle it only makes sense to pick
the highest + Armour plating you can get your hands on. So for that reason we will cover the most common used plating
used in the PvP arena.
Armour plating has 2 basic stats, a direct boost to armour which is added to the ships un-plated value. It can be said that
each 1 point of armour will reduce damage caused by an individual cannon on a broadside by 0.9 and 0.2 for a critical hit.
Plating also has a speed penalty which is applied in a rather peculiar way.
The speed penalty on armour plating is only applied to the base stat of the boats vertical and
horizontal sails excluding FS improvement and any fitted sails. We use the plating above as example
and will use only a single plate, this mean we have a -18 ship speed penalty, you halve this value
and this is the % which vertical and horizontal sails are reduced.
We see in Fig.1 the base value of the boats vertical and horizontal sails with no sails and no plating
fitted. If we were to deduct 9% from each value we end up approximately 200 vertical and 100
horizontal, which referring to fig.2 is almost exactly what is given when the single +16/-18 plating
was fitted.
Due to the nature of how this penalty on ships base sails is applied, sails that are fitted and also the
improvements to sails from FS improvement experience no penalty.
Most commonly used Armour plating’s
The rolled and Hardened iron plate are still for the most part the standard in PvP although the higher armour Special plates
are slowly becoming more common and its blindingly obvious why when they have such improvement on armour,
although they come at a much higher cost and their durability is rather low (90 for Special hardened steel vs 120 for Rolled
iron) so they may not be feasible for every PvP encounter (Mock battle, Battle campaign, etc.) but it all comes down to
what you can afford.
The special plating’s have become very common place now and will in time set the new standard for armour plating. They
offer a pretty considerable increase in armour value than was possible previously. They are however more difficult to
produce in comparison to the easily produced hardened and rolled plates so for this reason people tend to keep these for
the more important PvP events like Epic Sea Feud (ESF) for example.
The Master’s hardened steel plating has an even higher armour value than the previous Special plating; however it is only
obtained through means of the cash shop and for that reason is not going to be something everyone will have access to or
be willing to use for every PvP situation (waiting 3 hours for empress to fix 25% durability gets old!).
The Damage formula given in the Cannon damage section can be used to see the effect a change in armour will actually
have toward broadside and critical damage.
0.1123PN − 0.9AN + 2.2N = Broadside damage
(0.1123PN) ∗ 2 − 0.2AN + 4.4N = Critcal damage
Where P = Pierce power of cannon (if not all the same, sum the pierce power and average)
N = Number of cannons
A = Armour
For an example we include a table showing the reduction the armour has on both broadside and critical damage when at
base armour (52) and subsequently when equipped with three of each plate shown above for comparison.
The damage given makes no assumptions on evasion / shot defence or penetration skill being active, therefore these
results are ideal case and actually lower than if penetration was employed (+100 possible broadside, +200 possible critical
@R20)
Armour 52 88 91 94 97 100 106
broadside
damage
from
5×1584
cannons 667 505 491 478 464 451 424
Critical
damage
from
5×1584
cannons 1749 1713 1710 1707 1704 1701 1695
This table makes it quite clear how armour is far more effective at reducing damage from broadside hits than it is a critical.
base armour 3x +12/-11 3x +13/-14 3x +14/-14 3x +15/-16 3x +16/-18 3x +18/-12
1.15
Special equipment
Special equipment is a slot on your ship where you can add parts to boost a range of things dependant on your own
preference and role. Light and standard ships only have room for single special equipment but heavy ships can fit two.
There are Stern castles which provide a boost to melee attack power (also forecastles but these are not as effective as we
will explain).
Rams which cause damage to both you and the enemy including maximum durability upon collision.
Corvus which used in conjunction with aboardage allows you to board a ship into melee from a much greater range. Also
necessary for the aide skill Restriction (more info on this in Aide skill section)
There are also auxiliary sails such as large spankers/sprits which don’t hold much value in battle but specific roles/ships
may benefit from the speed increase.
Stern Castles
Stern castles boost attack by adding 5x the melee battle support number of them to your attack, so a single large stern
castle for example has a melee battle support of 6, so this adds 30 attack to your melee. The boosts of stern castles are
halved in effectiveness if the enemy ship has the special stern castle skill.
With the explanation of how the melee battle support of extra equipment explained it’s easy to see why forecastles with
their inferior support are not going to be a prime choice of equipment so we will cover just the most common 2 stern
castles.
The large stern castle will offer 30 extra attack for each one fitted, is easily produced and a good economical choice for PvP
battles.
The heavily armoured stern castle is a bit more of a premium item in that it can’t be produced and is only obtained by
plunder of specific NPC fleets or some historical event rewards for instance, they are still very common however and each
will boost melee attack by 35.
Rams can be quite destructive in the damage they can inflict but it’s a double edged sword as you also receive some
damage to both maximum and regular durability on collision. Rams also carry a rather odd secondary effect of temporarily
evading melee for a very short period after a collision this can be quite useful in specific situations but not something to be
relied upon. But they could be quite a good choice for a sniper role and almost always used by turtle ship users where
other items except maybe sails will not benefit them, a sniper will generally have good pace in the battle ring so if they
strike an enemy the damage could be considerable and if they evade the attempt at melee it’s even better for them.
There are also 3 different ship skills that work in conjunction with rams
1. Improved ram (increases the occurrence and also the damage caused by a ram collision)
2. Special ramming (Increase to damage caused but also can cause flooding of the enemy ship)
3. Ramming tactics (a direct ram to the enemies stern will completely destroy rudder and can’t be repaired during
battle)
The two common rams are large rams and Huge rams. The ram attack number has to date been elusive to us in how this
decides/factors into the damage done but simply the greater the number the higher the potential damage upon collision.
However it is agreed upon by those with experience that speed and amount of cargo all play some role in damage caused,
for this reason it’s easy to see why using rowing skill for instance can be effective to increase ram damage.
Large rams are easily produced and can even be bought directly from weapon smith at shipyard in some ports (Istanbul,
Calicut, maybe others?)
Huge ram is made by a great success on the large ram recipe which in itself is a pretty easy production so these rams are
not too difficult to come by.
Corvus
Corvus are used alongside the aboardage skill which allows you to initiate melee battle at a greater distance between you
and the enemy ship, the greater the aboardage effect of the Corvus likewise the better the engaging distance.
Corvus is also required for the Restriction skill of aides to function. This skill restricts retreat of enemy from melee by
chance of 1 to 3 melee turns upon engaging.
Large Corvus is easily produced recipe and common on the player marketplace. Not of massive value in team battle or
mock battles, etc. unless your aide possess the restriction skill. More at home in real battle in terms of piracy where the
increased engaging distances can be massively useful for instance.
Auxiliary sails (spanker/sprits)
These sails offer little value in battle except for those who feel the speed is of more value than anything listed previously,
in combo with a ram for instance could be a good way for those in a sniper role to equip where the ram effect (along with
its secondary effect of sometimes evading melee) and the increase in max speed from the sail would be beneficial.
Because we don’t feel these need to be covered in depth with regards to this guide ill just refer to the 2 best of each type.
Spankers offered improved vertical sails while sprits offer improved horizontal sails, which would suit you more is
dependent on your circumstances.
The Large extra spanker is common and cheap on the player market, the improved version however is a cash shop item so
cost is much higher and for this reason probably won’t be a common choice.
The Large extra sprit is also common and cheap on the player market like the spanker version, but the improved version is
a cash shop item also so cost is much higher and probably not a great choice.
1.16
Figure head’s
Figure heads play quite a big role that sometimes seems to go overlooked and we shall explain why as we move on.
Figureheads all have 4 common attributes with a relating value to how effective it is at each (1-10, 10 being the best).
Crisis Protection (This is the figureheads ability to counteract natural
disaster effects for instance like plague, scurvy, fire, broadside wave’s, gusts of
wind, etc.)
Fatigue relief (This reduces the onset of fatigue in crew)
Capture sailors (Reduces the drop in sailor loyalty and also gives a boost to
melee defence)
Cannon evade (This is an increase in the evasion rate of cannon fire)
For the most part Crisis protection and Fatigue relief offer little to np benefit regards PvP. The exception would be real
battle where natural disasters could otherwise drop crew rate (plague, scurvy), damage ship parts and ships maximum
durability (high broadside wave). And because fatigue is a factor in melee attack maintaining low fatigue ensures max
attack stat.
The following two attributes of Capture sailors and Cannon evade play a fair more significant role in PvP.
Capture sailor reduces the drop in loyalty your crew will have (can be increased using Vintage of covenant) and this is
important as loyalty plays a factor in your melee defence stat, the higher the better your defence stat.
The other side to the Capture sailor figurehead attribute many don’t seem to have known about is that the value (4 in the
case of the garuda pictured above) offers a % increase on the defence melee stat. 4% boost from garuda up to the highest
attainable 10% boost for a Bald eagle figure which has capture sailor value of 10. This makes this quite important regarding
PvP and not something to be overlooked.
Cannon evade is the main use for figureheads when it comes to PvP, the reduction it contributes to cannon fire evasion is
1% per point it has (8% cannon evade in the case of the garuda), when you consider that an evasion rank offers
approximately 2% cannon evade you can look at the garuda as offering +4 ranks to evasion which is considerable and this
can be increased further through the use of the Oxford Ship handling thesis skill’s.
These boost the figureheads cannon evade by 1.25x and 1.875x for a total of
2.125 if stacked together. This would increase the Garuda figurehead rate of 8%
up to 17% (equivalent to almost 9 ranks of evasion!)
The most popular Figureheads tend to be the Garuda or the Faffnir but the Garuda is actually a better choice due to having
the same cannon evade but higher capture sailor figure.
The best all round albeit maybe not best purely for maritime figure head is the Bahamut but this is an Astro (NC) item and
quite expensive on the player market which doesn’t make it economical especially as figureheads tend to decay rapidly in
battle.
There is also cheaper options available from some ports Sculptor NPC such as the Dragon with cannon evade of 7 but no
other stats, it’s suitable for low importance PVP (Battle campaign, Mock battles) but otherwise we suggest using a Garuda
figurehead.
1.17
Crests
This section for Crest’s has been included purely to dispel any myth or suspicion that the crest worn plays any significant
role in battle whatsoever beyond looking aesthetically pleasing and maybe under some extreme circumstance a placebo
effect that the player feels he won’t perform as well without their “lucky” crest.
1.2
Character equipment and setups
In UWO PvP world, there are a lot of different equipment’s. Most of them can be acquired in game, and most are tradable.
The only noticeable exceptions are the Rong Fu Armour and Improved Wrought Iron Wrist Armour. You want to use
equipment’s for their attack/defence bonus for better melee stats (look at the melee section), and the skill bonuses they
give (look at skills section). Obviously, a more cannon-orientated fighter will use equipment which gives him better cannon
stats (= a cannon setup) and a person more melee-orientated will use a high attack/defence setup with bonus to melee
skills (= melee setup). There are a lot of setups and jobs, and it’s really hard to find one which gives you good
melee/cannon power, but there are some good setups. We’ll look into them later. It’s important to have a lot of PvP
equipment at your disposal for different situations in PvP.
Character Equipment’s
There are 6 equipment slots on a character – head, body, and hand and foot attire also weapon and accessory. We’ll look
into some of the most used PvP equipment’s for each slot. I’ll only mention gear bonuses relevant for PvP, so if the gear
has bonus for spice or metal trading for example, it’ll get left out of the description.
1.21 Head Attire – There are quite a few head equipment’s in UWO that are used for PvP, mainly used to boost melee and
some nice skill bonuses.
Special King Langling Mask: Arguably one of the best (and currently most expensive) head
gears in UWO, this mask not only gives you very good attack/defence bonus (20 attack and 50
def.), it also comes with the following skill bonuses: 2 evasion, 2 repair, 1 gunnery. It’s a mask
virtually any class can use, because as we’ll later learn, evasion is a skill everyone should have
at least on a decent rank. Its repair bonus will help you save timber and in a lot of setups; the
1 extra gunnery ranks the mask gives you is priceless. This mask can be used in basically all
battles.
Godly Helmet: This helmet is basically a downgrade from the previous mask, losing a lot of its
melee support (only gives 25 extra defence) and skills (2 evasion 1 guard bonus), it’s still the
best alternative to the special king Langling mask only due to its evasion bonus – it’ll come
very useful in a lot of situations and setups, but mainly used for team battles.
Silver Helmet: This headgear isn’t as widely used in team battles as the previous 2, as it
doesn’t give any cannon/evasive bonuses. However, it’s still used by more melee-orientated
people because of its great attack and defence stats. This helmet is used a lot for 1v1s where
melee is generally more important than evasion/cannon skills (More on that later). Mayan
Warrior Helmet is similar, but inferior, as well as Tiger Head.
Famous General’s Corinthian Helmet: This mask is very similar to the Silver Helmet, albeit a
bit inferior, as it doesn’t give a bonus to any melee skills. It’s more useful in 1v1s than in
team battles.
Cassador crown, Pirate crown, Corinthian Helmet: All of these masks are very similar to
each other, each giving some melee defence (crowns give 12 attack and 12 defence, helmet
gives 25 defence). They’re all pretty much only good for the evasion bonus they give, and
are used as cheap PvP equipment and can be used as that in any situation. However its
usage isn’t really recommended, there are better hats. (The pictured Corinthian helmet is
less common and has +1 surgery)
Close helmet: Even though it has no really good support skills, it’s
used by some people as a cheap mask to obtain melee defence.
Usage of this isn’t really recommended anymore, as there are
better hear equipment. Gladiator helmet and Scipio helmet are
similar, albeit with some less defence bonus but better melee
bonuses.
Scalawag hat: This hat is mainly used by snipers, sometimes by turtle users because of its
stats. It’s mainly used by snipers and people who avoid melee and close contact with
enemy.
VERSION 2: there’s another version of this hat, with a bit different. This is also a more
sniper-orientated hat but better attack and defence for melee.
There are a lot more hats, but these are the ones most widely used in PvP.
1.22 Body attire: Arguably the most important body equipment part, this is the »core« of your setup, as most of the body
equipment’s are orientated in melee, cannon or evasive stats. Choosing the right body attire for the PvP situation is
important.
Peascod-bellied Doublet: One of the best cannon gears in game, this is an equipment which
can be used by both snipers and tanks (look at the battle roles section) because of its good
bonuses, but isn’t that great in 1v1s. With this piece of equipment, you can make a lot of team
battle setups.
Armour of Light (light blue): Also a very often used equipment, it’s mainly used by snipers
because of its stats. Its decent attack and defence can help you build an odd tank setup with
decent cannon skills or get a good penetration rank in jobs that don’t favour penetration, but
that’s not really used a lot. It’s more or less only used for team fights, not so much 1v1s.
Rong Fu Armour : It’s untradeable and currently can’t be obtained in game, however, it’s a
very good equipment, used for all battles and roles because of its stats (40 attack,80 defence,
2 penetration, 3 accuracy, 3 surgery). It’s possible to make a lot of setups for all roles with
this, if you own one.
General’s Cloak: Very often used for 1v1s, real battles and by more melee-orientated
fighters because of its stats (20 attack, 80 defence, 3 swordplay, 3 assault, 3 sword mastery),
this cloak excels in sea and land battle. It’s not used that regularly in team battles, but can be
found on people who melee a lot. A 1v1/tank/melee setup is generally built around this
cloak, and you don’t often see any cannon-orientated people wear this in team battles.
Marechal cuirass: This particular equipment is only available to those that have obtained the
Marechal title from Battle campaign (or those who have completed the memorial album
which does not require title and has slightly different stats +2 steering, +2 evasion and +1
first aid). High defence and steering, evasion and first aid boosts make it great equipment for
a tank role.
Cassador justaucorps: This piece of equipment isn’t used a lot anymore, but it’s basically a
scaled down Peascod-bellied Doublet with similar melee stats. The same goes for
Commander Justaucorps, except that it is a tiny bit better than the Cassador justaucorps.
Lace Coat: Not really used in PvP a lot, you might stumble
upon a pirate using it for its 2 rowing bonus. It does give a
decent attack boost but defence is poor. A Superior
alternative for PvP if row was necessary to you would be the
Dooseokringap of yi Sun-shi the drawback of this item is it’s
a cash shop item
Portuguese Admiral Outfit: Basically another inferior Peascod-bellied doublet, this piece of
equipment is generally more accessible and not really bad in PvP for a cheaper gear setup.
French Admiral Outfit: This one is used mainly in 1v1s and real battles by people who aren’t
too melee-orientated and/or use the turtle ship because of its stats. Attack and defence stats
are bad for a 1v1 fight offering poor melee support, but mine laying and accuracy generally
always come useful in 1v1 and real battles.
There are a lot more body equipment’s used in PvP, but these are the most commonly spotted ones.
1.23 Hand attire: Gloves generally don’t bring much support skills to the core setup, rather just add melee stats or 1, 2
rather not very useful skills.
Fool’s hands – high defence version: The 100 defence ones are the most commonly used
due to their melee support in pretty much all roles, classes, and types of battle. Their only
useful stat is 100 defence.
Iron gloves – shipwreck version: These gloves are sometimes used for 1v1s, real battles
and by turtle users because of their stats. But they are inferior to fool’s hands for 1v1 with
melee.
Kote: These gloves are mainly used in 1v1 by people who
prefer to have stronger attack over defence due to their
stats (10 attack 14 def., 1 assault 1 guard). Other than
that, they aren’t used a lot. Shinokote are similar, but
inferior gloves (7 attack, 10 defence power, 1 assault), as
well as Iron mittens –shipwreck version ->
Chain gloves: Rarely used, if so normally by snipers (15 defence, +1 gunnery, +1
reloading)
Wrought Iron Wrist Armour: Can be used by all classes due to its stats, its steering
boost can be quite important (look at skills section).
Improved Wrought Iron Wrist Armour: These gloves are, like Rong Fu Armour,
untradeable and currently can’t be acquired, however they’re good gloves for all fight
classes (20 attack, 15 defence, 2 gunnery 2 ballistics 2 arms)
There are a lot more gloves, but these are the ones mainly used in PvP (and only ones that are actually useful in PvP,
except for smaller defence boosts other gloves give).
1.24 Foot Attire: Similar to gloves, foot attire is just an add-up to the core set and usually brings in 1 maybe 2 skills or
melee stats to your setup.
Leather Boots/Riding boots – High defence versions: 100 defence boots like those
aren’t hard to acquire and are quite good in PvP, used in all sorts of battles and roles,
except turtle users and people who generally don’t melee. The only useful stat on the
boots is the 100 defence bonus, and that’s probably the best thing foot attire can
contribute to your PvP equipment in UWO.
Feet of the dead: Similar to Wrought Iron Wrist Armour, used rarely, but can be
useful due to its stats (6 attack, 18 defence, 1 steering) (due to its steering bonus).
Inferior to them are Chinese shoes (5 attack, 6 defence, 1 steering)
Korean Gaiters: boots also seen nearly everywhere except 1v1, these boots are used
by people who aren’t too keen on getting high melee stats and take use of the boot’s
evasion bonus (15 defence, 1 evasion)
Dux Greaves: Also used by people who prefer melee attack over defence, these boots
are mainly seen in 1v1s and real battles, but even there in small numbers (5 attack, 30
defence, no relevant skills for sea PvP except 2 sword mastery for deck).
Legate Greaves: less common but can be useful for making up a unique set up,
reasonable deference and a low attack boost. Pictured pair have nice skill boost of
First aid but also Repair.
Wrought Steel Shin Armour: Mainly used by pirates and those who want the extra
row rank and not too concerned with melee, these boots are not generally suitable for
use in PvP. An enchanted version is called Wrought Steel Shin Armour – Special (15
attack, 25 defence, 2 rowing), but these boots are untradeable and can’t be obtained
anymore.
There are other boots, but these are the ones that are most commonly seen in PvP.
1.25 Held Equipment’s: Bows, swords, spears, staffs, guns, daggers etc. Fall under this category.
These weapons are sometimes a part of the setup, or sometimes just extra attack/defence.
Excalibur: Used a lot in real battles, 1v1s, melee orientated people. This sword with its stats
(100 attack, 3 swordplay) offers a strong melee attack support which is useful for land battle
and deck as well.
Gae Bulg: Similar to Excalibur with 10 less attack (90 attack, 3 swordplay), some people
prefer to use this spear in case of deck battle because of its longer reach compared to
sword.
Balmung, Goliath’s sword, Fragarach: These weapons all have approximately same stats at
Gae bulg for melee bonus (90 attack 3 swordplay, 95 attack 1 swordplay 1 assault, 88 attack
3 swordplay and apply the same way, but aren’t as used a lot.
Katzbalger: It can have up to 100 attack and comes with bonus of +2 evasion. This weapon
can be found in all battles and in all setups, but mainly in 1v1s and tank setup in team
battle. It gives strong melee support and survivability with its evasion bonus.
Nanban Tsutsu: Used in real battles, 1v1s and team fights, this gun is also used by all
classes due to its stats (70 attack, 2 penetration, 2 sniping, 1 plunder). Its high attack makes
it semi-decent for melee fighters and 2 penetration useful for snipers or setups that lack
penetration power. Used mainly by snipers in team battles, but it’s often replaced with
The next weapon
Lacquered Gakgung: Usually seen utilised in team battle or for turtle ship users. Mainly
used by sniper roles due to its stat. Despite its low attack, the cannon skill bonus is very
good and can give snipers some good setups.
Koxinga Army Bow: Not really used a lot as snipers don’t often need much penetration
bonus and prefer gakgung’s bonuses for accuracy, it’s still a viable choice in some sniper
setups (60 attack 2 ballistics 1 reloading 1 penetration).
Sword of the sea people: Not really used by those doing PvP unless a pirate or such who
use it for its row bonus to gain extra speed in their galley.
Prestigious Gladius: An interesting weapon despite the sociability bonus, but not seen a lot
because it isn’t used in any of the more standardised setups, however, it can build an
interesting tank/sniper setup. Not seen outside team battles. (68 attack, 1 accuracy 1
evasion).
Great warrior’s spear- high attack version: This spear is widely used in 1v1s, real battles
and melee/tank orientated fighters in team fights. It can have up to 100 attack and has 2
assault and 1 swordplay bonus. In terms of melee, the assault bonus often makes it better
than Excalibur. However, if you’re way inferior in melee, its assault bonus won’t be much
good.
There are a lot more held equipment’s around, but very rarely seen in PvP.
1.26 Accessory: Accessories usually don’t give any big bonus or boost to melee stats, but they are generally important for
building the setup.
Tamsui Sea War Chronicles: This item is more or less used by everyone, everywhere. Its stats
are very good for all kinds of battles, because accessories don’t add much to attack/defence, so
it’s better to get some cannon skills bonus from it in 1v1s than 10 more attack from other
accessories which have more melee-orientated stats. (2 ballistics, 1 accuracy, 1 reloading).
Spanish General’s Staff: Used a lot in 1v1s and real battles, it’s similar to the Jade ornament.
It’s used for its mine laying bonus, which is important in those kinds of battles. Often used by
turtle ship user.
Koxinga papers: Very common item and cheap, it offers +10 to attack and defence and a +2
boost to sword play and first aid making it a particularly useful item for melee. Also has effect
of tactics meaning its Durability won’t degrade through normal use.
Inadome Gunnery Book: It’s a good alternative to Tamsui sea war chronicles, but tends to used
by people who mainly require the high gunnery rank and are more melee-orientated
Count Egmont’s Command Staff: Used mainly for team fights by both tanks and snipers, this
accessory gives 2 evasion, which is the only relevant skill for PvP on it. It’s not used a lot
because it’s hard to get, but it’s possible to build good setups with it.
Maritime Amulet, Temple amulet: Not widely used, but they’re useful because of their
steering bonus of 2. Maritime Amulet also has a bonus of 2 swordplay, and they both have 0
attack/defence. Inferior to them are the Introduction to Navigation, Burial Goods Amulet,
which give 1 rank of steering.
1.27
Setups
Setups are basically the combinations of all equipment’s/jobs/oxford skills used to obtain character skills/stats that will be
efficient for the type of battle/role you’ll participate in (look at skills, equipment’s, jobs, oxford skills sections)
I’ll list how an efficient setup for different situations/battles/roles should look like (1v1, team battle, real battle, sniper,
tank, admiral – refer to those sections of the guide for more information about that kind of battles/roles).However, I won’t
be putting in any examples that’ll make you feel limited only to them – it’s often best if you try to make your own setup
with the gear available or make the setup so it works best for you. None of these setups are obligatory.
1v1 battles: In 1v1s, unless you’re fighting turtles, it’s important to have strong melee and a decent damage output. It’s
recommended to use oxford skills for melee (melee tactics 1,2), good equipment for melee, Master cannon 16’s so you
force your enemy to use a shot defence/evasion and not go 3 offense skills with dealing high broadside, assuming you and
your enemy are similar in ship speed. If not, you can use others, such as grand cannons which do high damage at distance
as well. Stern castles for melee support and a ship with decent crew and durability not forgetting decent armour and speed
in battle are important. As for equipment, high defence and attack gear with bonus to melee take priority over cannon
skills.
Mine laying is also good to have. If you or the enemy is in turtle, skills like steering, mine laying and cannon skills take high
priority over melee, which is redundant. Cannon choice should stay the same. Best jobs for 1v1s are senior officer, sword
fighter (assuming a strong melee set up, beware this job does not favour repair) and guardian. DSD aide and Chester on
surgeon duty are recommended.
Sniper, tank, admiral = team battle: In team battles there are 3 roles: Sniper (priority on killing targets, cannon skills and
agility), tanker (priority on surviving, setting up Melee-to critical (look M2C section), melee and protecting the admiral and
finally the admiral, who must survive (look at the team battle, roles sections).
Players that are very good in team battles are often referred to as hybrids, they can tank and snipe. I’ll describe the setup
for sniper first: Snipers generally use cannons with longer reach (carronade, high Perrier, grand Volkan/Cheminee) and
therefor prioritise cannon skills (accuracy, ballistics, penetration). The melee stats aren’t that important for a sniper –
emphasis on his setup is on agility and cannon skills. However, a good sniper should always be able to tank, that’s why you
should try to have a decent rank of evasion. Nearly any special equipment on your ship is fine; its choice depends on your
personal preference. DSD aide and Alicia, Igor or Lancelot on lookout is recommended. The best jobs for snipers are
cannoneer, bounty hunter.
Tank is a role which helps snipers to get kills, protects the admiral and snipers and tries to stay alive (like everyone should).
Tanks should prioritise their survivability with high armour, high crew and high durability, as well as good melee stats and
max evasion. Best ship parts to use are cannons with high damage output, gear which gives good evasion and melee stats.
Special ship parts which should be used are rams, stern castles and Corvus. Same aides recommended as for Sniper setup.
The best tank jobs are bounty hunter, senior officer, filibuster, and scout.
Admiral’s setup should focus on only one thing – his survival. If the admiral dies, the battle ends, so it’s essential that the
admiral stays alive. Admiral’s setup must consist of highest rank evasion possible, high armour, crew and durability. Melee
isn’t as important as durability, but having high defence helps. If you’re feeling confident as admiral, you can use a similar
setup to Tank and assist your team. You should also count on a good team to protect you. Recommended aides are the
same as for tank and sniper. Best jobs are scout, senior officer and bounty hunter. Bounty hunter is the job that appears in
all 3 roles, and that’s because it’s the best job for the Hybrid role in team battle.
A hybrid is a PvP’er who can tank and snipe, and switch between the 2. The setup usually contains carronades, but some
use cannons too. This is a very important and hard role in team battles, right after admiral, as you can control the flow of
the battle. You should use whichever setup fits you the best for this, as you need a lot of experience to be efficient in this
role. However, as mentioned, bounty hunter job, carronades and a ship similar to admiral’s ship with the usual aides is the
most commonly used hybrid setup.
These 4 roles in team battles are explained more in-depth at the team battle section.
Real battle setup: Real battle is in a lot of views similar to team battle, except that there are no rules and that you must
expect anything (aides and navy NPC are common). The best setup to have is a setup good on melee, cannons, mine laying
and defence (evasion). I know it sounds hard to get all of those traits in a setup, but in real battle there are so many
options and variables, that a bit of everything in a setup isn’t that hard to achieve. You should use whichever setup you’re
the most comfortable with, and not necessarily the one with the most expensive gear – as long as you stand a chance
against your enemy, your setup is usually good. The real battle setup is probably the setup which is most dependant on the
player.
1.3
Skills
This section plans to try cover is best detail the relevant skills used in PvP this includes your own characters skill, ship skill’s,
aides unique skills and lastly Oxford skill’s which can either augment your own or uniquely offer some ability.
1.31
Character skills
In UWO’s PvP, character skills are essential. There is a massive amount of skills in UWO, but for this section of the guide, I’ll
only focus on the skills which are used in PvP (the essential ones). This section won’t tell you when to use which skill;
another section later on will cover that. To see which equipment and aides boost which rank, and which job favours which
skills, refer to the jobs, aides and equipment sections. (In no particular order of importance):
Rescue: An adventure skill for PvP might seem odd for the less experienced, but over the course of battle, as you’ll get shot
at, you’ll lose sailors to »rough waves«. You only lose a few sailors at a time that way, but as battle goes on, the numbers
will add up and you’ll suddenly find yourself with low crew. Using the rescue skill will bring those sailors back, no matter
how much time had passed before the sailors were thrown overboard. Higher rescue rank saves more sailors. Lifesaver
consumable also works but to a lesser degree.
Survival: Survival helps your sailors survive without food and water, and decreases the chance of scurvy and plague. Those
diseases can’t happen in battle, but sailors can lose loyalty if you don’t have enough water and food, and since you don’t
want to carry food in the battle (battle ship generally low cargo so provisions essentially only water, shot and lumber),
Survival skill will help you to keep loyalty and save you time otherwise having to use vintage of the covenant (gives loyalty)
often.
Steering: Steering is one of the hardest skills to grind, but it’s worth to get it at least to r10, as steering decreases the
damage you take from sea mines, helps your ship respond better and turn faster and take less mid-turn critical in effect
(ship stats – turn speed section).
Rowing: Rowing is not as essential as the other skills, but it can help you greatly in a row ship to make it speed up and
potentially catch up on enemies. The formula for the bonus sails from rowing is Rowing rank*0,1*ship’s rowing power. It’s
not a skill you should use constantly in battle, only in situations where you need to gain speed. Look at Row Power at the
ship stats section.
Evasion: Evasion is a very important skill for all kinds of battle PvP and NPC alike, as each rank of evasion gives you the
chance to avoid 2% of the damage received from the enemy, which adds up to 40% on rank 20. However, that 40%
decrease isn’t fixed – it can make you avoid anything between 0-40% of the damage at r20. Evasion itself against someone
with r20 accuracy and ballistics seems to take little effect, but when combined with the figurehead evasion bonus and ship
handling oxford skills; it seems to be more effective. Evasion’s effect severely reduced when your ship is leaking / flooding.
Mine laying: Mines, at least at higher ranks of 10+ are incredibly destructive both in damage dealt to ship durability but
maximum durability and ship parts. Each rank seems to add approx. 20 damage with a max possible damage of 250 usually
done by r15 mines but with low steering rank (steering helps to reduce mine damage) even r12 mines could do almost as
much damage. 250 damage causing mines will remove about 8-9 maximum durability with each impact.
Swordplay: Swordplay is very important for melee battle, as each rank gives 3 more attack points in melee. It’s also good
for land battles and deck but that won’t be discussed in this guide. You should have max rank swordplay if you are heavily
melee-orientated.
Guard: Guard is one of the 4 useable melee skills. It’ll (hidden) increase your melee defence for the melee round it’s used
in. It counters assault in melee and is countered by gunfire. You lose fewer sailors than usually when using guard, unless
you are countered. The higher the guard rank, the fewer sailors you lose (when being countered too) and the more of the
enemy sailors you kill if you counter their assault.
Assault: Assault is one of the 4 useable melee skills. For the melee round it takes effect in, your enemy will lose more
sailors. It counters tactics and is countered by guard. Higher rank also means you kill more sailors when countering in
melee and lose less when you get countered.
Gunfire: Gunfire is one of the 4 useable melee skills. In each melee round it’s used, it’ll decrease enemy’s attack and
defence by about 6-7% a round to a lower limit. However once you retreat and re-engage your enemy will have his base
melee stats back again (minus crew loss). Gunfire counters guard and is countered by tactics. When you counter guard,
your enemy loses more sailors and attack/defence than usual. When you are countered by tactics, your enemy will gain
more attack/defence from tactics than usual. Higher rank means the penalty for being countered is smaller, for counters
higher.
Tactics: One of the 4 useable melee skills. Tactics is the reverse of gunfire – it’ll increase your melee attack/defence when
used in the melee round. If you leave melee and re-engage, your melee stats will return to base. It is countered by assault
and counters gunfire. Higher rank means less crew lost for being countered, bigger boost in attack/def. when countering.
Leadership: Leadership, when used, takes away yours or a fleet mate / reinforcements in battle’s disorder. It doesn’t
matter if the enemy is in melee or sailing/anchored, if he is under the effect of disorder and you use leadership, it will
settle. That doesn’t mean that if enemy is in disorder when entering melee and you use leadership, his stats and his melee
enemy’s stats will return to normal – that will go away only once the melee has ended. Higher leadership rank help by
reducing the amount of sailors lost to a failed mutiny settlement and also higher chance of settling great disorder.
Surgery: Surgery will recover sailors lost in melee at the cost of one water provision per use of the skill. The higher the
surgery rank is the more sailors will be recovered. For every 10 soldiers lost in melee, 1 can’t be recovered with surgery.
Special lifesavers are the only item which can do that can fully restore crew that have been lost; this is a special
consumable item and cannot be used during battle.
First Aid: First aid helps you lose slightly less sailors to rough waters and grape shot cannons, and increases your defence in
melee by 3 points per rank of first aid. It also grants some extra defence in land battle.
Gunnery: Gunnery increases the reload speed of cannons (look at the cannon section), decreases the chance of misfire in
your cannons (means cannon doesn’t shoot when you fire) and decreases the damage your cannons take when firing.
Without this skill, it’s impossible to get far in PvP.
Ballistics: Ballistic skill gives your cannons 1,5% more stability/accuracy with each rank and increases the range of your
cannons; however, it doesn’t increase the damage you deal. For example, shooting an enemy from the same distance (not
close to point blank) without ballistics and with ballistics, assuming 100% hit rate, will not result in any change in damage.
Accuracy: Accuracy like Ballistics gives an improvement to your shot’s stability increasing the hit rate of your shot; also it
reduces the minimum range cannons can hit allowing a better chance of point blank hits landing. Each rank of Accuracy
increases hit rate by 2% for a total of 40% at r20 compared with 30% for r20 ballistics. The ability to hit close range and
much higher hit rate per rank make this cannon skill second only to gunnery in importance.
Penetration: Penetration is a skill which improves your damage. The rough formula for extra damage dealt with
penetration on a broadside is:
skill is usually necessary for killing experienced players or players who run a very defensive gameplay.
cannon gate
4
∗Penetration rank+1
4
Reloading: This skill stands out on the list, as it is not essential. It’s a skill which, with a good setup, is absolutely not
required in PvP. Other skills give you better use of them. Only time this might come in useful is for harassing enemies, and
even that will do very little.
Repair: In battle, you need to repair all the time, keep durability at maximum. Repair skill does that. Each time you use
repair skill, you use 1 timber to repair around 75 durability at r15 and around 100 at r20. The higher the repair rank, the
more durability you repair per use.
Fire Fighting: This skill is not very important, as sand bags easily replace it. However, it does help with extinguishing raging
fire from the set fire skill (not if you’re the one who used the skill). Higher the rank, the bigger the chances to extinguish
the raging fire of you or your teammates.
Arms, Management skill and Navigation: These 3 are passive skills and are necessary for you to be able to use your
optional/original ship skills. Without them, you’ll lose a massive advantage you’d ordinarily gain with those skills.
Sword mastery, throwing and sniping: These skills are non-important at least in the naval side of PvP covered in this guide,
they are important skills when it comes to land battle however.
1.32
Aide skills
Aides contribute a large number of unique ability skills like obstruction, restriction, ambush, detour, seize cargo, etc. We
will however only cover those relevant to PvP for the purpose of this guide.
The most valuable Aide skills available are the shot defence skill’s simply for the fact at how effective they are at damage
reduction making them invaluable in PvP especially against strong Double shot cannons or Grand volkans for example. So
we will cover them in depth before progressing to the other skills.
These shot defences are a ranking skill (1-10) dependant on your aide’s lieutenant trait, reaching r10 at 90s+ traits. The
damage testing of the defence skills were done without the penetration skill active but we understand penetration to
reduce the shot defence’s effectiveness somewhat rather than the extra damage from penetration being reduced by the
normal %.
Double Shot Defence (DSD) is arguably the most important shot defence to have due to the high damage rate that double
shot cannons can deal, which would quickly deteriorate maximum durability even from broadside damage.
From tests conducted on DSD show it offers on average a 57.5% reduction in damage to broadside. (Minimum was 54.6%,
maximum was 59.7%)
For critical damage it gives a pretty firm 30% reduction (29.5% average from our test sample)
Normal Shot Defence (NSD) is less common but not to be dismissed, the only issue is no aide currently offers both double
shot and normal shot defence so this defence tends to lose out to double shot defence, which is rather obvious on a
comparison of destructive ability of both.
From tests conducted on NSD show it offers on average a remarkably high 87% reduction in damage to broadside.
(Minimum was 83%, maximum was 93%)
For critical damage it gives a pretty firm 30% reduction (30.1% average from our test sample)
Flame Shot Defence (FSD) defence is becoming another important choice given the rise in the use of the Grand Volkan
cannon in PvP which can be very damaging at higher pierce power. Is our understanding the shot defence may also give a
reduction in the chance of fire and magazine ignitions however we were unable to prove beyond doubt.
Damage test using FSD show it give an average broadside damage reduction of 65% (minimum value of 60%, max of 68%)
For critical damage the reduction is 30% (29% average from our test sample)
Smoke Shot Defence (SSD) is another important skill defence to consider given the wide use of the Grand Cheminee which
can cause high damage at a long range making this an important defence skill. May reduce smoke effect from forming on
ship but was not proven beyond doubt.
Damage tests with SSD show it to offer a rather high average broadside damage reduction of 68.5% (65% minimum value,
max of 72 %)
Critical testing show a reduction of 30% (29.6% average from our test sample)
Chain Shot Defence (CSD) is really not a concern for PvP as the pierce power of such cannons are really quite low so they
don’t pose much of a risk in comparison to other shot types, however it has included for the purpose of listing all currently
available shot defence’s.
We carried out some damage testing with chain shot and found the broadside reduction to be a rather low 40% and critical
reduction was like all tested previously at 30%.
With the Shot Defence skills covered the remaining Aide skills of value in PvP are mostly offense skills and some are really
useful in a PvP situation.
Starting with probably the most valuable one of Obstruction, this skill has a chance effect (with the effect increasing in
chance the higher the traits are for lieutenant duty 100s being max) of blocking the use of any melee item used by the
enemy ship during melee battle. This can make retreat attempts by the enemy using withdrawal bells difficult on top of
blocking drill of destruction, loaded bomb, etc. attempts by them. This can making holding the enemy in melee easier
while waiting on team mates to line up for a critical hit on them and vice versa can block their attempts to retreat and get
you hit by a critical until a team mate can assist. So really it is a very useful aide skill to consider but not just for team
battles, it holds its value in all PvP from 1v1 mocks to piracy and bounty hunting.
The next being restriction, it restricts the enemy ships ability to retreat from melee battle by random chance of 1 to 3
melee cycles upon beginning melee, although this skill will only function when there is a Corvus fitting as a ships special
equipment. The ability to hold a ship in melee like mentioned in the Obstruction skill aide skill holds a lot of value during
PvP making this a useful skill and deadly if utilised by a melee powerhouse such as an Atakebune or if enemy had been
caught in disorder.
The remaining Aide skills are Enhanced shot skills for flame and grape shot’s, they increase the normal effects of these
cannons.
Enhanced flame shot increases damage while increasing the outbreak of fire damage and magazine ignitions, also has the
effect to consume the enemy ships water upon combustion of the ship.
Enhanced grape shot causes the drop in the enemy ships vigour (by chance?) on broadside hits where as this effect are
normally only seen on critical hits without this skill.
1.33
Ship skills
Ship Skills is an area with a huge range of different effects from melee and cannon fire to ramming and mine
improvements we will do our best to explain the use and value of each ship skill utilised in PvP as well as explaining why
some others are not a great choice.
Navigation rank 2. Gives a large increase in the ships turning speed during battle but this skill is an active skill making it a
poor choice for any maritime especially PvP vessel, with there the better passive alternative of Improved rudder if turn
speed is a particular concern.
Navigation rank 5. This passive skill reduces the penalty rowing ships experience while executing a turn with rowing skill
active. This is another skill that really holds little value for PvP on a galley as you generally won’t be using the rowing skill
for any length of time except maybe in brief bursts and galleys with high turn rate (20+) generally will perform fine without
this skill. This skill cannot be inherited via fusion.
Navigation rank 3. This skill is an active skill that stops the chance of a critical hit on the bow from occurring and is a strong
defensive skill for PvP and in particular in a 1v1 situations where it can aid in getting closer to and getting into melee with
otherwise defensive or sniper style fighters or if Heavy bombing is in use making it difficult to get close while not receiving
a hit to the bow. This skill cannot be inherited via fusion.
Navigation rank 7, Management rank 7. Improved rudder is a passive skill that increases the turning speed of the ship and
while it’s not generally an opted for skill, in some circumstances where a ship might not have great turn speed it would
make a far better addition than the Enhanced ship handling skill mentioned above.
Management rank 10. This skill reduces the damage to ship parts due to use and disaster. While it would seem of use in
reality it’s not something you are going to want to choose over other skills for PvP at least, it would probably make a great
addition to a maritime grinding vessel for instance but no use for combat.
Management rank 10. Like the previous skill it is a pointless skill to add to a vessel for PvP as most people will use the
oxford General Check skill which repairs both sails and rudder damage when using the repair skill which in PvP situations is
a nearly constant thing so damaged sails are basically never a problem and those without General Check will carry the
spare sail consumable.
Navigation rank 8, Arms rank 8. This skill serves only to reduce the assault from nearby NPC fleets and has zero value on a
PvP ship.
Management rank 5, Arms rank 5. Moored mine is an effect to mines you have laid that causes the enemy’s ship to
drastically slow down and can also hinder the turn the ship was making at the time of impact with the mine. It certainly has
value in PvP but it’s not often seen in favour of other mine effect ship skills.
Arms rank 2. This is an active skill that is only effective when using normal shot cannons. It causes the enemy ship to lose
maximum speed upon impact and can be quite a strong effect essentially making an enemy a “sitting duck”. Is a common
skill in PvP and certainly is worth considering.
Arms rank 6. Another active skill this time only effective when using grape shot which tends to rule out its use in a lot of
PvP situations as the effect is only by chance (unless a critical), needs to have skill active and also because grapeshot
cannons are quite weak. With the effect applied to the ship it causes great disorder that can be difficult to settle without
higher ranks of leadership (r10+)
Arms rank 4. This skill is a passive skill that adds the effect of “degrading” enemy ships armour by chance for broadsides
and certain for a critical. It is only effective when using flame shot. It tends to reduce armour randomly about 1-4 points
each time the effect is applied and can only reduce to 50% the original armour value. This effect lasts until the battle ends
so it can certainly be used to devastating effect if a battle continues long enough.
Arms rank 8. This skill is an active skill and only effective when using double shot. It has the effect of causing flooding on
the enemy ship only upon a critical hit however. Despite how common double shot is in PvP this skill on the other hand is
not usually seen used alongside that shot type. Its drawbacks are it will only apply the effect from a critical hit and having
to have the skill active at the time is another problem so it see’s little use for the most part.
Arms rank 10. This skill is passive and only effective when using smoke shot. Its effect is the cancelling of the enemy’s
actives skill by chance on broadside and certainty with a critical. This skill has quite a strong appeal in that it is passive and
also can be very effective at causing the enemy to lose split second focus if his skills get cancelled, not to mention the
other appealing effects which smoke shot offers on its own. With smoke shot bow and sterns available and the long range
offered by grand Cheminee’s make this a great all round offensive skill but especially for snipers. Take a situation where
you land a long range critical with the smoke shot just as the enemy enters melee, suddenly he is prime target for a “melee
to critical” as any of defence skills that may have been active will have been cancelled.
Arms rank 5. This skill increases loading rate by 50% but only when you are at a stop with sails folded. This skill is not
incredibly useful in PvP as there is very few circumstance you will be stop with sails folded and the main one being while
parked on the bow/stern of an enemy ship in melee and the fact is if you miss the critical hit on release its very unlikely the
reload increase will be sufficient for a second attempt. Ideal skill for grinding cannon skills, but offers little value in a PvP
situation.
Management rank 5, Arms rank 9. This skill adds +10 ranges to cannons and a believed +2 hidden value on gunnery giving
you a better reloading speed, however this reload increase is of little value if already at r20 gunnery. This skill is certainly of
value in PvP in that it augments gunnery skill allowing you to dress for better stats elsewhere making your choice of
equipment setups more flexible but it is not an essential skill and if you can hit r20 gunnery the benefit to reloading speed
is essentially lost and +10 to range offers little benefit.
Navigation rank 1, Arms rank 2. This is a skill used during melee and has the effect of permanently (until battle ends/sunk)
damaging the enemy ships Sails, Rudder and also causes flooding. The effect that gets applied depends on the amount of
times the skill is applied with success (possibly dependant on crew size? Unconfirmed). The list of effects is the following
per use from the second use onward. 2 – Flooding of ship, 3 – Damage to sail, 4 – Damage to sail and flooding, 5 – Damage
to rudder, 6 – Damage to sail, rudder and flooding. Sail and rudder damage cannot be repaired and flooding lasts for 1
minute. This can be a crippling skill when used in the right situation and due to the severity of the effect applied. Also
retreats from melee when demolition work has been used experience a greater delay which causes many people to miss
the timing for a melee to critical “m2c”, the time to fire is no when the “retreat successful” appears but instead when the
flooding, etc. damage caused by demo work appears.
Navigation rank 3, Arms rank 4. Training bomb (TB) is another melee based skill similar to demolition work. Training bomb
has the effect of detonating an average of 25% cannon shot the enemy is holding at that instant upon success. Average
damage per shot exploded is 15 (Ex. successful use against a ship carrying 100 shot will do approximately 400 damage).
This skill is similar to the consumable Loaded explosive but differs in that it consumes slightly more ammo (25% vs 22%)
and causes less damage per shot exploded (15 vs 20 damage) also it has a much greater chance of success than Loaded
bomb and also as it is a skill it is not blocked by obstruction. This makes a rather strong PvP skill in almost all circumstance
such as 1v1 where you might melee the opponent when they are not fully repaired and using this skill which can finish
them or even in team battle where it is unlikely to cause a sink but the ammo consumption can cause the enemy to run out
prematurely.
Navigation rank 6, Arms rank 8. Pre-emptive attack (PEA) is a passive skill that boosts your attack and defence in melee
battle by 20%, however because this skill ensures you are the attacker in melee (sword) and taking the first hit, you will
trigger your opponents Welcome melee battle skill 100% of the time. For the same reason it’s not wise to add PEA and
WMB to the same ship as PEA’s effect of giving the sword counters WMB’s effect of making you the defender, so WMB will
fail to ever trigger except maybe in exceptional circumstance against another ship with PEA (untested). PEA against
another ship with PEA both cancel out and neither ship gains the attack/defence boost.
Navigation rank 9, Arms rank 7. Special stern castle (SSC) is a passive ship skill that reduces the enemy stern castle melee
support by 50% (Ex. enemy has 2x HASC adding +70 attack to melee, this skill reduce it to +35attack). Is quite a useful skill
but of course is completely useless if the enemy has no stern castles equipped.
Navigation rank 8, Arms rank 8. Attack prevention net (APN) is a very useful and strong defence skill for PvP. It gives a 30%
boost to defence power and also increases the chance of successful retreat (believed only when using the button to
retreat, not with bells of withdrawal). These two features make APN an excellent skill in PvP and even more so in team
battle environments.
Navigation rank 4, Arms rank 3. Improved ram is passive ship skill that increases that frequency and damage caused by
rams, it only active when there is rams fitted as special equipment. Can be commonly found on turtle ships and some
galleys where it can be used effectively but to a much lesser extent are ram skills seen on other types of ship.
Navigation rank7, Arms rank 7. Another passive ram skill similar to Improved ram in that it increases damage somewhat
but also an added effect that it can causes flooding of the enemy ship upon successful strike making this possibly more
useful in PvP than Improved ram as flooding can only be countered by drainage pump and it slows the enemy ship while
also making evasion less effective. Also requires ram as special equipment to work.
Navigation rank 5, Arms rank 4. Ramming tactics is slightly difference in that it does not offer any increase to damage but
upon a successful strike to the stern the rudder will be completely destroyed (like damage from Demolition work, can’t be
repaired during battle). This makes applying the effect rather difficult at least in any PvP situation besides possibly piracy
where you will be approaching your enemy in a lot of cases from the rear. Also requires ram as special equipment to work.
Navigation rank 2, Arms rank 1. Set fire is a skill which causes a Major fire to ignite on your own ship! It is a skill like repair
in that you must select it to use it but it does not stay active once ignition has occurred. You cannot extinguish the fire you
have started yourself with buckets or firefighting but anyone struck by you (only enemy) and also gets a major fire can
attempt to extinguish it using both methods. It is believed the damage caused every 5 seconds from the major fire is 20%
current durability to ship who started the fire and 15% to any boat struck by you (enemy only and % unconfirmed). As well
as this major fire started on enemy ships can damage sails, consume their water and cause magazine ignitions to occur.
Any ally that melee’s an enemy ship in major fire started from your side will only ignite in a normal fire. It’s quite a
destructive skill but it’s a double edged sword considering the large damage the offending ship also receives so it’s rarely
seen in use for PvP but not to be dismissed.
Navigation rank 6, Management rank 6. Coop enhance is an extremely useful skill in a team battle or any battle where you
have fleet mates fighting with you. It is a passive skill that increases the frequency of and damage of combo hits on the
enemy from cannon fire. It can play a crucial role in taking down high durability ships and even weak shots fired from afar
are counted in the combo and can considerably increase the damage or critical that was being landed otherwise. From
experience broadside combos over 1000 damage have been seen although quite rare. This effect also applies to your
entire fleet making it an incredibly useful addition in any situation besides 1v1.
Navigation rank 9, Management rank 6. Command post is a passive skill and like cooperation enhancement will apply to
your entire fleet. It’s effect is the removal of the disorder effect from happening from cannon fire you receive which make
this skill quite valuable as it is just life that you will always get such a disorder when you least want it! It has no effect on
Great disorder which still must be settled with leadership skill or indeed the disorder that loud bombs cause when used in
melee battle.
Navigation rank 3, management rank 2. Repair support skill is a passive skill that is applied fleet wide and increases the
durability restored when using repair skill by 50%. Quite a good skill for PvP but not generally opted for over more offence
type skill unless someone is solely playing a support role in battle. Common addition on aide boats along with other such
fleet wide skills for use in real combat (piracy, bounty hunting, etc.)
Navigation rank 6, Management rank 5. Intensive repair is a passive skill that only functions when you are at a stop with
sails folded in which case the amount of durability your repair increases 100% the norm. It does not apply to fleet
members and the restriction of having to have sails folded really hinders the usability of this skill, a far better option for
PvP would be repair support skill instead.
Navigation rank 7, Management rank 7. Medical support is very similar to repair support skill except it’s a 50% boost on
crew surgery amount when surgery skill is used, it’s a fleet wide skill and also passive. Would make a good addition on
support ship as surgery is generally never favoured in the common battle jobs and if roaring sea mine is in use for instance,
surgery can becomes crucial.
Management rank 5, Arms rank 5. Bullet proof armouring (BPA) is a passive skill that gives the ship it’s fitted to a hidden
+10 on its armouring value. This is quite a good skill defensively but if armour of ship is already quite high (90-100+) there
is likely to be a more suitable skill for PvP. This hidden armouring value to our knowledge does not affect the ships
acceleration inside or outside battle.
Management rank 3, Arms rank 3. Drainage pump (DP) is an often overlooked skill but it’s a valuable tool in almost all PvP
situations, understanding that leaks and flooding both essentially nullify the effect of evasion (if active) has in evading
cannon fire. Also this skill is neither active nor passive but like repair in that it’s just a click to use affair. It can also be used
while you are in melee which is where it can be extremely useful for stopping the leak your opponent may have caused
with a drill of destruction for example. Also only drainage pump can stop flooding caused by demolition work, special sea
mine, special ram, etc.
Management rank 6, Arms rank 6. Sea mine search (SMS) is a passive skill that highlights enemy mines location in your
vicinity in red in similar fashion to how ally mines are shown in yellow. The mines can only be discovered once within some
range to your ship and once discovered remain so until exploded or battle end, even if ship with SMS is sunk the
discovered mines remain visible throughout. This ship has some value in PvP for its ability to show mines but simply there
is going to be situations where you cannot avoid a mine hit and also mines tend to have a somewhat bugged triggering to
them in that they can explode causing you damage if you turn sharply while not even close to them. For that reason Sea
mine removal certainly has far more value albeit it is an active skill but it discovers and highlights mines to the fleet just as
this skill does, but also removes the chance of any exploding on you and removes them entirely once you’re in a position
where they would have otherwise exploded.
Management rank 9, Arms rank 7. Sea mine removal (SMR) is an active skill that is arguably one of the more important
defence skill’s available for ships. Upon activation it discovers any nearby mines and colours them in red (rather than
yellow for ally mines), the discovered mines are visible to your whole fleet also. If your ship manoeuvres into a position
which would otherwise have detonated a mine, you will instead remove the mine completely from the battle field
rendering it harmless, this is quite a strong ability when used against enemy using special mine types (flooding, great
disorder) or who has particularly strong mines. Highly recommend as a PvP ship skill. Even with this skill active you can still
receive “splash” damage from mines that have detonated near you.
Management rank 1, Arms rank 3. Special sea mine is a passive ship skill that causes flooding effect to be applied to mines,
which the enemy ship can only stop if they have Drainage Pump (DP) (otherwise flooding effect tends to last 1 minute).
Flooding reduces evasions effectiveness making this sea mine effect quite useful for PvP as not everyone will have DP to
counter the flooding.
Management rank 2, Arms rank 3. Roaring sea mine (RSM) is a passive ship skill that applies a great disorder effect to any
mines an enemy ship strikes, this effect can be difficult to settle without high leadership rank and if not settled and enter
melee your stats will be halved and your opponents doubled like regular disorder. Crew fatality becomes a problem if this
mine is being used often and leadership can’t settle it as you can only ever restore 90% of the crew lost in melee, so even if
they only get a single assault on you taking 60 men before you retreat you’re going to be 6 men down that can never be
restored via surgery. Sea mine removal is recommended for situations where you will encounter such mines.
Management rank 9, Arms rank 9. Improved sea mine which is passive and increases the damage which mines laid can
cause upon detonation. Unconfirmed reports state it increases damage by as much as 30-50 meaning a possible total of
300damage per mine. However this skill comes with a downside in that it consumes twice as much shot per mine and
considering the damage is nowhere near double it seems somewhat of a waste. Personally would rather lay 2 x 250 mines
with increased chance at least one will get struck that waste 2 shot on 1 mine with only a small damage increase that
might never get hit or possibly even removed.
Navigation rank 9, Arms rank 10. Assault deck battle (ADB) is a passive skill that increases the chance to initiate a deck
battle which can only be done between the two admirals in battle. Is of no relevance to the PvP explained in this guide,
deck / land battle is another form of PvP in its own right.
Navigation rank 5, Management rank 8. Deck barrier (DB) is the reverse to ADB in that it reduces the chance that deck
battle can be initiated between the two admirals in battle. Is of no relevance to the PvP explained in this guide, deck / land
battle is another form of PvP in its own right.
Management rank 2, Arms rank 3. Evade Melee battle is a passive ship skill that gives a highly reduced chance that you
can be caught in melee battle. Currently very few ships can have this skill on the ship and it is not possible to inherit it with
fusion so it’s not often seen in PvP but for those ships that can get it make for great sniper role ships because of it.
Navigation rank 7, Management rank 7. Watertight bulkhead is a passive skill that makes the ship immune from leaks and
flooding caused by any means (melee item, mines, ram, cannon fire, etc.). This skill is most commonly seen fitting to turtle
ship’s but is a strong defensive skill which would be of use on any PvP ship.
Arms rank 5. Gunboat refit is a newly introduced ship skill with fusion and not often seen in PvP as of yet. It is a passive
skill that to our understanding gives a 5% increase in damage dealt with cannon fire but also makes you receive damage
from cannon fire at an increased rate of 5% and increases damage dealt to you in melee battle. Could possibly be a good
addition to a sniper ship/turtle ship?
Arms rank 5. Armoured ship refit is a newly introduced ship skill with fusion and not often seen in PvP as of yet. It is a
passive skill that provides a 5% reduction in damage received by cannon fire but at a reduction in the ships maximum
speed and turning ability. The benefits we are not sure totally outweigh the negatives with this skill and having not seen it
be particularly popular we expect others may view it similarly.
Arms rank 5. Melee battle ship refit is a newly introduced ship skill with fusion and not often seen in PvP as of yet. It is a
passive ship skill that gives an increase in damage to enemy in melee while reducing damage received in melee it does
however have the drawback of increasing damage received by cannon fire by 5%. It is our understanding that this skill also
reduces the retreat chance for both sides in melee.
Management rank 8, Arms rank 9. Welcome melee battle (WMB) is a passive ship skill that greatly increases the defence
stat of melee (100% Increase) assuming it meets certain criteria to trigger. To ensure that WMB works you need to make
your sailor ability is as low as possible. This can be done by firing all your crew including aide ship crew and rehiring all
novice sailors this will usually give you 0 ability and about 30 loyalty for your sailors stats. It gets more complex however in
that crew size also plays a factor in deciding which ship will get the defending position in melee and thus the WMB boost if
fitted.
Example: A 200 crew ship vs 210 crew ship, both with 0 sailor ability and both having WMB skill, the larger crew boat will
always get the defence boost for WMB. Only if the larger crew ship’s ability increases to a point will it lose out to the lower
crew boat (assuming the 200 crew ship remains 0 ability) and this point has been difficult to work out.
200 vs 235 crew with the lower crew at 0 ability the higher crew did not lose WMB until 16+ ability, under the same
scenario 200 vs 270 crew the higher crew boat didn’t lose WMB until 26+ ability.
Assuming two boats identical crew size and both with WMB and both with 0 sailor ability, the ship which will receive the
defence boost in this situation is a 50/50 chance either way. Pre-emptive attack (PEA) will cause ships WMB to always
trigger.
1.34
Oxford skills
Oxford skills are extremely important and hugely beneficial to PvP combat as many not only augment your own skills but
also offer some unique bonus/boosts depending what you choose, so it is important to understand them and how they
affect you to be sure you pick the right combination as you can only have a maximum of 5 active.
We don’t intend to go into any detail on land or deck battle in this guide as it’s a separate form of PvP in its own right thus
we have omitted any of the land battle oxford skills.
Gunnery Aid 1 augments your gunnery skill by +1
Gunnery Aid 2 augments your gunnery and penetration skill by +1
Gunnery Aid 3 augments your gunnery, penetration and ballistics skill by +1
Gunnery Aid 4 augments your gunnery, penetration, ballistics and accuracy skill by +1
(All the Gunnery Aid skills can be stacked with each other for a total +4 gunnery, +3 penetration, +2 ballistics and +1
accuracy)
Strengthen Melee 1 increases melee attack power by 5%
Strengthen Melee 2 increases melee attack power by 10%
Melee Tactics 1 increases both attack and defence in melee by 10%
Melee Tactics 2 increases both attack and defence in melee by 15%
(All of these Melee skills can stack with each other for a total attack increase of 40% and defence increase of 25%)
Plunder Aid 1 augments your plunder skill by +1
Plunder Aid 2 augments your plunder skill by +2
(While not strictly relevant to a lot of the PvP discussed in this guide these skill are beneficial in real combat, for the
most part piracy, and stack for total of +3 to plunder skill.)
Handling skills 1 increase the Cannon evade stat on figure heads by 1.25
Handling skills 2 increases the Cannon evade stat on figure heads by 1.875
(These two handling skills can stack for a total increase of x2.125 the figureheads original cannon evade figure)
Efficient repair 1 gives approximately a 10% chance that no lumber is consumed when using the repair skill
Efficient repair 2 gives approximately a 20% chance that no lumber is consumed when using the repair skill
(Should stack for 30% if used together)
General Check gives the ability to repair both damaged sails and rudders in combat with the use of the repair skill.
(Excluding damage done by ramming tactics and demolition work)
Life saving techniques 1 gives approximately a 10% chance that no water is consumed when using the surgery skill
Life saving techniques 2 gives approximately a 20% chance that no water is consumed when using the surgery skill
(Should stack for 30% if used together)
1.4
Melee battle
Melee is a pretty comprehensive area when taking into account the skill’s (character and ship), character equipment and
consumable items which can be used, not to mention the tactics that can be used to make the most of melee battle. It
requires a section on its own just to detail all of these things and have left it till we had covered most of the bases
previously (at least the equipment and skills).
To start we will explain who in melee battles make the first move and the possible implication of this to the defender.
When melee battle begins a number of factors decide who takes up the attacker (sword) or the
defending side (shield) as seen in the picture to the right.
It is known that the ship with the highest crew and/or sailor ability will get the sword (omitting the
complications of WMB and PEA ship skills which can also affect this) and thus the other party will
be the defender (shield).
WMB requires low sailor ability (lower than enemy ship) for the skill to activate and it will always
make you the defending side in melee battle (shield)
PEA makes it clear that it gives you the first strike in battle, so assuming not in melee against another ship with PEA
(otherwise PEA for both ships will cancel out) you will always be the attacker (sword) in melee battle.
The attacker (sword) always makes the first strike at the end of each melee cycle
Only when the attacker (sword) has made its strike is the defender’s (shield) action performed.
The melee cycle takes approx. 6 seconds for the progress bar to cycle, then each sides action takes 1 second each and
the process repeats. Getting this timing down can be important for melee-criticals.
This means for instance if you are the defending side and attempt a retreat, the attacker will still get to make his strike and
only then will your retreat succeed or fail, this is important to know if you are in a situation where crew has gotten low.
There is an exception to this however when using the retreat button rather than bell of withdrawal which we will explain
more in the retreat section.
There are four character melee skills. Assault, Tactic, Guard and Gunfire
Assault is the most likely skill to be used purely for the extra damage it can cause to enemy ship’s
crew per melee cycle assuming good rank and your attack vs their defence stats. It is not favoured
by most of the better PvP jobs except senior officer and Filibuster. Assault is countered by the
Guard skill and itself counters Tactics.
Tactics is a useful skill to raise both attack and defence stat by approx. 5% per use up to an upper
limit (+100% it would seem but PEA at 20% both attack & defence, APN at 30% defence, college
skills etc. seem to take up this upper possible limit also). Can be risky to use this considering it is
countered by assault and that is a very commonly used skill so beware! Countering gunfire causes
an increased boost to stats. Tactics is countered by Assault skill and itself counters Gunfire.
Gunfire skill is used to drop the enemy ships melee stats in reverse to how tactics increases your
own. It reduces similarly at approx. 6-7% per use to a lower limit (50% base melee stat before any
boost from ship or oxfords applied). Countering Guard with this skill causes a greater drop to their
stats. Gunfire is countered by Tactics skill and itself counters Guard.
Guard skill is mostly just for countering assault with it having no real other benefits with its use so
probably the lower importance melee skill considering it’s unlikely to win you a melee fight, prolong
it at best.
1.41
Melee battle attack and defence
Your stats for attack and defence in melee are dependent on a large amount of variables and we will try explaining how
your stats are affected by each. Below are the formula for both attack and defence.
Melee attack power = (Crew / 2) + (Stern castle melee battle support × 5)
+ (Maritime level / 2) + (Swordplay rank × 3) + (Personal equip attack stat/ 4)
+ {(Sailor ability – 2) / 10} – {(fatigue + 5-x) / 10}
Melee defence force = (Crew / 4) + (Maritime level / 2) + (First aid rank × 3) + (Personal equip defence stat / 3) +
{(Sailor loyalty -1) / 10}
(http://gvo.gamedb.info/wiki/?Boarding)
Starting with Attack, we can see that for every 2 crew you earn 1 attack point in melee
Stern castle battle support increases attack 5 times the equipment support (large stern castle is 6 so this will increase
attack by 30 points, 60 if two were fitted)
Similar to crew you earn 1 attack point for every 2 maritime levels.
Each swordplay rank provides 3 attack points.
Your personal equip stat is the stat provided in character info. This value is divided by 4 and the result is your melee attack
increase (Ex. 100 attack Excalibur will provide 25 attack points for melee)
Your sailor ability also plays a role to a much smaller extent in your melee attack (0 attack increase at 0 ability, 10 attack
increase at 100 ability, 1 attack increments for every 10 ability). This crew stat increases from melee battles, docking after
sailing some length of time, etc.
Fatigue on the other hand reduces your attack stat to a small degree (-1 point for every 10 fatigue points to a total of -10
attack at 100 fatigue). The unknown factor in the fatigue part of the formula remains unconfirmed but it is our belief this
may have some relation to figureheads fatigue relief.
Next we will cover the defence formula, less variables at play so it’s easier to understand how each affects it. Every 4
sailors will account for 1 defence point.
Likewise for attack with defence you also earn 1 point for every 2 maritime levels
First aid provides a 3 point boost to defence for each rank.
Your personal equipment defence stat is this time more important than attack with it only being divided by 3, rather than 4
for attack. (Ex. 100 defence boots will provide 33 defence points in melee)
Sailor loyalty like sailor ability for attack, plays a role in your defence stat. (as far as we are aware every 10 increments of
loyalty is 1 point to melee defence)
There are however other items which both expand and also decrease on these base melee figures such as Ship skills,
Oxford skills, Melee items (covered separately) and even could be said ship status’s (disorder). We will cover these other
items next in best detail we can.
Special stern castle (SSC) is a passive ship skill that reduces the enemy stern castle melee support by 50% (Ex. enemy has
2x HASC adding +70 attack to melee, this skill reduce it to +35attack). Is quite a useful skill but of course is completely
useless if the enemy has no stern castles equipped.
Pre-emptive attack (PEA) is a passive skill that boosts your attack and defence in melee battle by 20%, however because
this skill ensures you are the attacker in melee (sword) and making the first hit, you will trigger your opponents Welcome
melee battle skill 100% of the time. For this reason it’s totally unwise to add PEA and WMB to the same ship as PEA’s effect
of giving the sword counters WMB’s effect of making you the defender, so WMB will fail to ever trigger except maybe in
exceptional circumstance against another ship with PEA (untested). PEA against another ship with PEA both cancel out and
neither ship gains the attack/defence boost.
Attack prevention net (APN) is a very useful and strong defence skill for PvP. It gives a 30% boost to melee defence and
also increases the chance of successful retreat (believed only when using the button to retreat, not with bells of
withdrawal). These two features make APN an excellent skill in PvP and even more so in team battle environments.
Welcome melee battle (WMB) is a passive ship skill that greatly increases the defence stat of melee (100% Increase)
assuming it meets certain criteria to trigger. To ensure that WMB works you need to make your sailor ability as low as
possible, this can be done by firing all your crew including aide ship crew and rehiring all novice sailors this will usually give
you 0 ability and about 30 loyalty for your sailors stats. It gets more complex however in that crew size also plays a factor
in deciding which ship will get the defending position in melee and thus the WMB boost if fitted.
Example: A 200 crew ship vs 210 crew ship, both with 0 sailor ability and both having WMB skill, the larger crew boat will
always get the defence boost for WMB.
Only if the larger crew ship’s ability increases to a point will it lose out to the lower crew boat (assuming the 200 crew ship
remains 0 ability) and this point has been difficult to calculate thus far.
200 vs 235 crew with the lower crew ship at 0 ability the higher crew did not lose WMB until 16+ ability.
Under the same scenario, 200 vs 270 crew the higher crew boat didn’t lose WMB until 26+ ability.
Under the condition where there are two boats, identical in crew size and both with WMB and both with 0 sailor ability,
the ship which will receive the defence boost in this situation is a 50/50 chance either way. Pre-emptive attack (PEA) will
cause a ship WMB skill to always trigger.
Melee battle ship refit is a passive ship skill that gives an increase in damage to enemy in melee while also reducing
damage received in melee, it does however have the drawback of increasing damage received by cannon fire by 5%. It is
our understanding that this skill also reduces the retreat chance of both sides in melee.
That covers the ship skills that affect melee the remaining skills are the oxford skills which boost attack and/or defence
depending on selected skills, the oxford skills are in a previous section but will copy here as they are relevant.
Strengthen Melee 1 increases melee attack power by 5%
Strengthen Melee 2 increases melee attack power by 10%
Melee Tactics 1 increases both attack and defence in melee by 10%
Melee Tactics 2 increases both attack and defence in melee by 15%
(All of these Melee skills can stack with each other for a total attack increase of 40% and defence increase of 25%)
Lastly, figureheads are also an item which increase melee stats, defence at least. The capture sailor value on figureheads is
ability for the figurehead to reduce loyalty of sailor dropping but also is a % boost on melee defence. The figurehead with
the highest capture sailor value is the Bald eagle with a value of 10, this equates to a 10% increase in melee defence. That
is pretty significant and certainly worth considering if gearing for mainly melee battle.
1.42
Melee items
Here we will list the most common melee items and describe the effects they carry. All of the below items have the chance
to be blocked by yours or the enemy’s obstruction if using an aide with it.
Bells of withdrawal – This is the most common melee items and is absolutely a necessity for PvP, using this
item aids in making a retreat while reducing crew damage if failed. Using this item and failing will be same
damage as if no action was performed during melee in comparison to retreating with the button which upon
failure causes increased crew loss on that melee round. Always keep these stocked and no reason not to as
readily available from pedlars.
Firebomb – This Melee item causes the enemy ship to ignite, taking 10% the current maximum durability on
ignition and continued reduced damage from the fire if left to burn. Quite a good item to have especially for
1v1 situations where they may not have repair support once engaged in melee.
Loaded explosive – another very useful item to keep stocked, it has a high fail rate but upon success will ignite
approx. 22% of the current shot they are carrying and inflict approx. 20damage per shot which explodes. This
is a huge reason to never carry a massive amount of shot into battle, damage over 1200 has been seen caused
by these when opponent stocked too much!
White smoke bomb – very useful item against ships with a high attack in melee, this item will drop on first
use their attack stat by 20% and 10% the initial attack value for each subsequent use to a max drop in attack
of 60%. Also applies the smoke effect to their ship which reduces their cannon fire hit rate by 20% and only
stopped by the Mysterious feather fan consumable item.
Drill of destruction – this item can be important for team battle where use prior to release from melee will
cause leaking which will to a large extent null their evasion skill if active, this makes sinking them from your
team mates critical hit more likely. However this effect only last about 20 seconds and can be stopped by
both pails and drainage pump, only drainage pump can stop it while still engaged in melee however.
Loud bomb – This item is a little underrated in our opinion as many seem to think its only effect is disorder
which of course is easily settled by you or a team mates leadership skill but there is another effect applied by
this item in that it reduces both attack and defence of the enemy in melee by approx. 7.5% per use. This can
be pretty useful for some circumstances.
Forged correspondence – This item we included because it is actually seen quite often in PvP yet despite
testing we were not able to work out what effect is actually applied with it. It’s claimed it reduces sailor
morale and when used their ships sailor count in melee will appear blue, but what this effect actually means
we were not able to ascertain. Our opinion is it’s not an item worth having.
Heady wine barrel – This melee item reduces the enemy’s vigour, beyond this we can’t add much detail on
how much it reduces, etc. as it remains untested as we do not see it as ultimately useful for PvP.
Foul incense – This item causes an increase in the enemy ships sailor fatigue, fatigue does play a role in melee
attack stat but the effect this would have, even if you maxed the enemy’s fatigue, would be a minimal drop
(~10 attack). As to whether this item can cause sailors to collapse from fatigue by extreme use remains
unclear at this time. For the most part we do not see this as an effective melee item and its lack of presence in
PvP currently would suggest also.
1.43
Retreat
Retreat from melee can be performed one of two ways, using bells of withdrawal which is a
melee item that reduces the damage caused to crew if the retreat attempt fails. Also you can
retreat using the command button shown in the picture to the right. But this carry’s a risk of
larger crew loss should the attempt fail. Also it should be known that having higher sailor
loyalty than the enemy is known to make it more difficult for them to retreat from you and
likewise make it easier for you to retreat.
These two actions are slightly different in how they work however, beyond the obvious extra crew damage using the
button. If you are the defender (shield) in melee and make and attempt using withdrawal bells you will have to wait until
the attackers action has been performed before you can retreat / or fail the attempt depending. And even if successful you
will still have taken damage from the attackers strike for that round. Also Obstruction is a common aide skill in PvP which
had a chance effect of blocking all melee items including bells of withdrawal, this can make retreats difficult.
The difference when using the button is that even if you are the defending side (shield) and make a retreat attempt if
successful you will retreat at the moment when the attacker would have taken his strike against you and it won’t have had
an effect, this can be very useful to throw off the timing of anyone who may happen to be trying to land a critical hit on
you once you had retreated. APN skill comes in handy for this as it increases the success rate for retreating using the
button (believed this increase is only when using the button not also bell of withdrawal but unconfirmed).
There is another situation that can change the timing of release from melee and this is when Demolition work has been
used, assuming it has been used enough times to successfully cause damage, upon release from melee you will receive the
normal “retreat successful” blue text above the ship but about 1-2 seconds later the damage the Demolition work caused
will appear in text in same area only then do the ships actually leave melee with each other, meaning if you try to land a
critical on the “retreat successful” text it will not count. Instead you need to try land the hit when the damage text appears
(Ex. “flooding!”). Usually if a team mate who has used demolition work will signal so with the number 6 or spam 66666 in
chat depending to alert that retreat will need to factor in Demolition works delay.
1.5
Jobs
In UWO PvP, the choice of job will generally depend on the type of PvP and your intended setup. Different jobs have
different expert skills and favoured skills, and a 5 rank difference in your skills is considerable, so having the right job is
very important. I’ll describe the most used and the best jobs for PvP battles currently available in UWO
Senior Officer:
One of the most used jobs in PvP, Senior officer is a job with great balance of melee and cannon skills, together with
evasion, which make it a good job for 1v1s, real battle and the tank role in team battles. It goes best with cannon 16s, as
they don’t require high penetration ranks, which this job lacks, to do big damage. The lack of steering can be a drawback,
but it can be boosted with equipment/aides if necessary.
Bounty Hunter:
This is arguably one of the better job for all roles in team battles due to its balance between defence skills (evasion,
steering) and cannon skills. It does lack nearly all the melee skills however except swordplay, and accuracy skill. But with a
good setup, you can get a decent rank of accuracy, and having strong melee isn’t that important in team battles. However,
due to its weak melee ability and no accuracy, this job is not recommended for 1v1 situations.
Cannoneer:
This is the only job which favours all the cannon skills, at the lack of melee skills and evasion. This job doesn’t see much use
in 1v1s except for some turtle ship users, and any other people who avoid melee, and is sometimes used in team battles as
the job snipers will use. The lack of evasion makes it a job with poor survival rate if you get surrounded in team battles,
unless you build a setup which gives you a lot of evasion bonuses.
Guardian:
A job not really seen outside 1v1s and real battles, as it lacks most of the melee and cannon skills. However, it is the only
job which has accuracy, gunnery and mine laying favoured, so a lot of people use it in 1v1s and real battles to do a lot of
damage with sea mines, which are a big factor in those battles.
Scout:
Scout is very rarely used, as it is considered inferior to the Guardian job due to no gunnery, accuracy and repair. However,
some people use the scout job if they’re very dedicated admirals due to the job’s expert evasion along with steering and
mine laying favoured skills. However, it is hard to make a setup which can make this job anything more than a weak
tank/admiral.
Filibuster:
This job isn’t used a lot, as it requires 3,000 notoriety to use. When it is used, it’s for all sorts of battles, as it’s balanced
between melee and cannons, and steering as its expert skill make it good for tanks and admirals in team battles.
Swordfighter & Pirate:
These 2 jobs are very rarely seen besides real combat (piracy–bounty hunting), as they are not good jobs for cannon
fighting, however, they can both be used in 1v1s (although swordfighter is poor choice with no repair favoured) with
emphasis on melee or in team battles as tank roles, who are also only focused on doing damage via melee.
1.6
Aides
Aides- best aides for PVP in UWO
Aides are a very important feature in UWO PvP word, outside and inside the battle ring. You can only carry 2 aides with
you once you reach level 40 in one class and your first aide has hit level 20 in one class. Of course, most of the dedicated
Maritime’s have more than 2 aides. Picking the right 2 aides to take with you is very important. Aides are valuable because
of: 1) Aide ships 2) aide support skills 3) aide skills. After the description of those 3, we’ll describe the best aides for PvP.
Aide ships: Because your main battle ship is expected to be low on cargo hold, aide ships are nearly essential for longer
battles, as with their extra cargo, you shouldn’t run out of provisions (mainly water, timber) as fast. To sail an aide ship,
your aide needs 50 trust and sufficient level (same level as regular characters in UWO need to sail a ship). The most
commonly used aide ships are the ones with high cargo, such as trading large galleon (TLG), trading galleon (TG), and astro
merchant ships.
However, some maritimer’s use the ships like MSF (modified super/special frigate), MAV (modified armoured Vaisseau), CV
(custom Vaisseau), MFCV (modified first class Vaisseau), MF (modified frigate) and even some turtle variety’s (CSTS, MSTS)
. Those ships are good, because they can carry a good amount of cargo and have good support skills on them, which will be
beneficial to the whole fleet once the aide is called in battle. Those skills are mainly cooperation enhancement, repair
support, surgery support, command post. (Look under ship skills section). Even after the aide gets sank, those skills will
remain in effect. Aide ships are generally only used in real battles, sometimes in 1v1s. If the aide ship loses in melee battle
any equipment and/or trade good/provisions it had are susceptible to
plunder
Aide ship example:
This is not the best aide ships for battle, as the stats are not particularly high.
But the skills are good as most apply to the whole fleet.
Aide support skills: Aide support skills give you a +1 to that skill when the aide
has unlocked the support skill and is on the right aide duty to use it. Aide
support skills are can be quite useful, but not as crucial as the unique aide
skills for PvP.
Aide skills: These are active or passive skills such as the shot defence which is
active you can use from the use skill menu compared with Obstruction which
is passive. Once your aide meets the requirements to unlock them and is on
the right duty, you can use them. Arguably the most useful aide skill is Double
Shot Defence (DSD) followed by Obstruction. Look at the aide skills section for more.
Best aides for PvP: These are the most commonly used and the better choice aides for PvP, some used more than the
others. They’re the most popular generally due to their support and aide skills. (Look at the skills section)
Hernan: Despite being an astro aide, Hernan is probably the most used aide in PvP, and arguably the most useful. He excels
at his lieutenant duty – he gets a gunnery, ballistics and tactics bonus. However, he’s so popular due to his aide skills – he
gets Double shot defence (DSD), Fire shot defence (FSD) and Obstruction (skills section). His skill combo makes him good
for tankers, snipers (team battle roles section) and arguably the best aide for 1v1s, real battles with his shot defences and
obstruction. His DSD is essential and Fire shot defence is very useful with the rise in Grand Volkans in use.
Sigfried: Much like Hernan, Sigfried also excels at Lieutenant Duty. He supports you with gunnery, ballistics and
penetration and gets the following aide skills on lieutenant: Double shot defence, Smoke shot defence (SSD) and chain shot
defence. DSD is essential in PVP, and SSD is also very useful with increased use of Grand Cheminee’s. He isn’t an astro aide,
and is widely considered as the best free PvP aide. He’s better than Hernan for 1v1s if you’re in turtle or enemy is in one,
assuming the enemy isn’t using fire shot.
Lancelot: He’s the same like Sigfried in the Lieutenant duty, except the lack of SSD and chain shot defence. However, he
does come with a good lookout duty – he boosts evasion and steering (skills section), which make him quite an adjustable
aide, but he is an astro aide.
Alicia & Igor: they are both aides mainly used in team battle fights, as they give a steering and evasion boost on lookout
duty, same as Lancelot. Igor is an astro aide.
Chester: He’s the best surgeon aide in game, as he gives a bonus to repair, first aid, surgery, shipbuilding and mine laying.
That makes him a great aide for 1v1s.
Jafar: Jafar is an interesting alternative to Double Shot Defence aides, as he instead has Normal shot defence (NSD). He
excels in lieutenant duty, giving you NSD, accuracy, gunnery and guard bonus. He’s not really good in real battles or 1v1s,
but he’s sometimes used in team fights if the enemy is mainly using normal shot – however, you’ll be very vulnerable to
double shot cannons users, so he’s a risky aide to use.
2.0
PvP battle
In UWO’s PvP, there are different types of PvP, going from land battle duels, team fights, 1v1s etc. We won’t be writing
about deck battles and duels, as there is already good guides/information available about that already and a different form
of PvP to the mainly naval focus here. The type of the PvP battle will greatly affect your choice of ship, setup, aide, battle
tactics etc., so it’s important to know a few things about each type of PvP so you can prepare. Of course, this isn’t the only
way to fight in the described types of PvP – but it’s commonly accepted to be the most efficient way.
The PvP battles there are: Team battles (mocks, Epic Sea Feud (ESF), Battle Campaign (BC)).
There are 1v1 battles and real battles (piracy, bounty hunting, etc.)
Fighting in uneven teams is also a type (2v4 for examples).
Team Battles
This section will in-depth explain team battles, the team-setup and roles (fleet composition, team work, fleet roles:
admiral, tank, sniper) and the various types of team battles (mock battle, ESF, BC).
Team battles are one of the most common type of PvP battle happening in UWO with various mocks, ESF once a month
and BC, which is sadly rather inactive of recent.
Regular team battles
This Section will probably be the longest, as ESF and BC are more or less based on the regular team battles. As time went
on and the evolution of team battles progressed, the majority of maritimer’s on this and other servers have all reached
very similar team battle tactics. I’ll do my best to describe the tactics often used.
The basic team battle model is a 5v5 mock battle; however, the tactics used in it generally apply to anything up from 3v3 to
10v10. However, in battles under 5v5 things and especially under 3v3, fighting is different than in battles with more
participants. We’ll look into that later. In mocks, teams are assumed to be somewhat even and there generally isn’t any big
imbalance, so each team in mock should generally stand a chance.
To start explaining team battles, we need to look at a mock battle first. Mock battles are generally organised events, where
a lot of people gather and fight in PvP. A team battle is just like every other battle excluding Battle Campaign. There’s an
admiral and his allies, and once the admiral dies, the battle is over, so it’s utmost important to protect the admiral. Ship
loses max durability and durability, sailors can be lost and equipment on ship/character can be broken.
You still consume money to pay the crew, aides. And use provisions, however, less food and water are consumed in battle
than outside the battle ring. Once your ship is shipwrecked, you can’t rescue yourself and fight on – you stay shipwrecked
until the end of the battle. You also can’t use items like MTT and MCT during the battle, so make sure you take equipment
into battle that has adequate durability. But unlike any type of real battle or NPC battle, excluding ganador, you do not lose
items/ducats/cargo when getting sank in a mock battle.
As previously mentioned, it’s important to protect the admiral in team battles, and protecting him should be your top
priority, because the moment he is sunk, the battle ends. It’s also important for everyone in battle to repair all the time, try
to stay alive and do teamwork. The ultimate goal is to kill the enemy admiral and win. Remember, you’re only good for you
team alive, so you staying alive is going to be more important to the team than trying to get all the kills!
Roles in team battles
Different players have a different play style over time 4 main different »roles« have appeared in team battles. These roles
apply to all types of PvP battles, somewhat excluding 1v1s. One’s role in battle generally depend on his personal
preference, team’s needs and if he is the admiral or not. Your role dictates what you should be doing in battle (example:
sniper role is the main killer/critical dealer – more on this later). All roles should do a few mutual duties: protect the
admiral, repair, and stay alive. Some might argue that getting kills is also something which everyone should be doing, but
often, it’s more important to forget about the kill and protect your teammates/go to be an aid to them – that often applies
to the tank role.
The 4 roles are: Admiral, Sniper, Tank and the Hybrid. I’ll describe each one and what their setup should be and their roles
in battle.
Admiral: Admiral has 1 role: to stay alive and avoid danger at all costs. If the admiral dies, the battle is over, so no matter
how good your team is, if you’re the admiral, you must play carefully. Admiral role shouldn’t ever stay isolated in battle or
take any big risks, as they can result in loss of maximum durability/crew (meaning with less durability, you’re more likely
not to survive a critical hit if you get one). Of course, that doesn’t mean admirals should just sail around and avoid
everyone. Instead, they should help their team, however, if that can result in their death, it’s better to avoid such situation.
As the admiral, you should stay with your team, where you aren’t outnumbered by enemies. You can still melee people, try
to park up for melee-to-critical (admiral should only do that if it isn’t a risk for him, like losing a lot of durability or risk
getting killed/outnumbered). In general, your whole team will try to protect you from enemies and then you and the
enemy admiral will probably be the »centre of battle« (where most of the action is happening in battle). Battle will often
break down to 2 or more »smaller battles« (example, a 5v5 battle will turn in a 3v3 and 2v2) – when that happens, you
should stay in the smaller battle which has more of your allies in it, as you won’t risk getting outnumbered there. If you are
outnumbered, use all the defence skills at your disposal and try to reach teammates, who should be coming to aid you.
As admiral you will get focused on a lot by the enemy team and your whole team will be counting on you, so this role is
generally reserved for the more experienced players.
Setups for admiral: It’s the best to use a ship with high durability, armour and decent crew. You should have skills like APN
or WMB on your ship, sea mine removal is recommended for battles with mines allowed, as you need to maintain high
durability. It’s also good to have skills like drainage pump or watertight bulkhead, as leaking can greatly decrease your
evasion effectiveness and thus your survival rate. You should consider using handling skills 1&2, together with an 8 evasion
figurehead and r20 evasion, an aide with double shot defence and a secondary shot defence is advised – preferably
Hernan, as his obstruction skill and double and flame shot defence are very valuable. As the admiral role is reserved for the
more experienced players, you can see admirals using all sorts of cannons and jobs, but all of them have a high
durability/armour ship in common and r20 evasion. Which cannon you use is generally a personal preference, as long as
you stay alive. Bounty hunter, senior officer, filibuster and scout are the most used admiral jobs.
Tank: Much like the Admiral, the tank role is trying to stay alive as long as possible, as often, admiral’s survival depends on
you. Tanks are often around your admiral and enemy’s admiral, melee-ing enemies, protecting the admiral and setting up
melee-critical. Tanks are in the centre of the battle all the time, putting pressure on enemy team and relieving the pressure
off their team. As a tank, you don’t focus on getting kills, but assisting your snipers on getting kills and saving your team
mates from harm, mainly from melee-critical by engaging the one parking on your teammate in melee. The admiral counts
on you to protect him if he gets in a bad spot and the sniper needs you to get his kills. As a tank, you won’t cover big
distances in battle, unless your admiral does that or you’re in a part of the battle where your team is in a superior position
and your teammates in another part of the battle ring are outnumbered.
Of course, if you see an ideal opportunity to get a kill, you should go for it (if it doesn’t mean risking any teammate or the
admiral). Tank’s process of work (generally): you grab an enemy in melee, use the drill of destruction (to cause leak and
nullify their evasion) or other items if they have drainage pump/watertight bulkhead, or use melee skills to decrease their
crew’s numbers. You should try to hold that enemy in melee until someone from your team comes to melee-critical them,
however, if you see someone from the enemy team coming (he’ll most likely try melee-critical you) and no one from your
team coming, you should retreat melee and return to a defensive stance. Of course, if your admiral is in danger, you go
straight to him and protect him.
Setups for tank: Similar to the admiral, it’s best to have a ship with good armour and durability, as you’ll take a lot of
damage, and with good crew (you’ll melee a lot and lose some crew as time passes on). You should also use handling skills
1&2, together with an 8 evasion figurehead and r20 evasion, an aide with double shot defence and a secondary shot
defence – preferably Hernan, as his obstruction skill can assist in keeping enemies in melee longer. A ship that has a
watertight bulkhead or drainage pump to increase your survival rate.
Skills like APN and/or WMB are almost a mandatory thing for a tank’s ship. You’ll generally be using double shot cannon
(16) as they are high damage output and your close quarter combat nature will force enemies to use defence skills around
you, any special ship part will do but ideally stern castles to assist you melee attack. A lot of tanks also put emphasis on
melee strength, but that isn’t necessarily required, using just ship skills like demo work and training bomb is also effective.
Of course, having a strong melee setup to force enemies to surgery a lot can be good. Most commonly used jobs are senior
officer, filibuster, and scout.
Sniper: Sniper is the role which often decides the battles, as his role is the one getting the majority of kills. Unlike the
admiral and tank, sniper generally isn’t in the centre of the battle – he sails just at the edge of it, so he doesn’t get caught
in melee a lot. That doesn’t mean that he sails very far away – a good sniper will be very near to the enemies and the
centre of the battle, but won’t enter a lot of risky situations, unlike the tank. Sniper will also cover longer distances in
battle, as he won’t be in melee a lot and will sail faster. However, just sailing around the centre of the battle isn’t
necessarily productive – the best snipers will follow behind their allied tanks, wait for them to enter melee with the enemy
and park up for melee-critical. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the sniper never does any teamwork – all the best snipers
will still assist in others getting kills if it’s convenient, and of course protect the admiral. That’s why a good sniper should be
able to tank to an extent. If snipers get caught in melee by the enemy, they will most likely get focused on by the enemy
team, because with them gone, a lot of threat is gone for the enemy – a good sniper can bring major trouble for the enemy
team – so a sniper needs some defence skills and survival knowledge to survive those situations.
As a sniper, you can risk using less defence skills and losing some max durability to broadsides, as you generally shouldn’t
be in bad positions where you risk death, or in a tank’s role (for any length of time at least). However, the best thing to do
is to only use 3 offensive skills (accuracy ballistics and penetration) when there’s no big threat around you or when you are
in a position to do a melee-critical at the expense of a long-distance critical or a strong broadside. If there’s risk around
you, it’s good to use defensive skills, avoid melee and sail to a safer position.
Setups for sniper: Snipers put emphasis on speed, agility and strong cannon power. Melee isn’t that important for them.
However, their ships still generally need good durability and armour to survive any potentially risky situations, however, it
if they play really carefully and far away (not the thing to do), durability isn’t important, but a sniper like that won’t be
useful. It’s good to have high rank cannon skills – r20 is it’s possible, and use cannons with long range (carronades, volkans
and Cheminee’s including their ganador Grand versions) and with the ship skills that go together with them – heavy
bombing to harass enemies with slowing them down, special smoke bomb to turn enemy’s skills off and potentially kill
them and Armouring deterioration bullet with fire cannons to decrease enemy’s armour (look at ship skill’s section).
Oxford skills like handling skills 1&2 are, of course, recommended. Aide with Double shot defence is something which you
really consider, but unlike tanks and admirals, it’s not very important for that aide to be Hernan with his obstruction –
melee isn’t as important. So Hernan and Sigfried come to a tie here, as Sigfried gives bonus to penetration if needed and
covers double shot and smoke shot. Best jobs are cannoneer, bounty hunter (bounty hunter arguably better as it gives
better survival rate with evasion at the cost of some cannon stability without accuracy favoured).
Hybrid: Hybrid is the ultimate team battle role. Hybrid is, same like the admiral, a role reserved for the most experienced
fighters. Hybrids are players that are very good with sniping and tanking, and they do both roles during the course of the
battle. If the situation calls for sniper, a hybrid will play like the sniper, and if the team needs a tank, he’ll play as a tank.
That kind of play style is hard to achieve, as it needs good situational awareness and an excellent balance of skills in
tanking as well as sniping, however, once achieved, you’ll be one of the most useful players in your team.
It’s hard to describe a Hybrid’s setup, as it can basically be anything mentioned in the previous 3 roles, or all of it mixed up.
However, the setup will most likely have high durability, evasion and good cannon skills, so the best job to use is usually
Bounty Hunter, while some use a senior officer job setup with boosted penetration as it favours the melee side of tanking,
and some cannoneer with boosted evasion as it favours the cannonry side of sniping.
Fleet composition
One fleet can have max up to 5 members in it, and can request 5 more allies in via request reinforcement skill
(Reinforcement order is consumable which has the same effect). Fleet composition is the most important for the fleet with
the admiral. The admiral who makes the fleet should be careful on how he invites his chosen 4 maritimer’s in – if they are
divided by roles, the 2 tanks should be first to be invited and the snipers last two. That means that once everyone follows
the admiral, the tanks will be right behind the admiral and the 2 snipers behind, meaning that once they are engaged in
the battle (all the team members should be following the admiral), the tanks will be right behind the admiral to protect
him and the snipers will be behind in a spot convenient for them to sail behind the line admiral/tanks have formed and
reach their sniping position.
Getting in formation after the battle has started:
This means the establishment of the centre of battle and getting the admiral, tanks and snipers in positon. This process
mainly applies for 5v5, but works in battles with more sailors as well – it just takes a longer time to reach it, and it might be
divided into multiple smaller battles. These are probably the most efficient ways to establish the centre of the battle but of
course battle can be chaotic and these are ideal case:
The admiral goes melees the other admiral, while the 2 tanks move in behind him to protect him and melee the other 2
tanks. The 2 snipers move in front or behind to find their best position. This is a bit risky, as the admiral can get isolated.
Another option to do this would be with everyone except the admiral going towards the enemy team, while the admiral
goes behind the lines and avoids any bigger dangers. The two snipers at the rear are free to find their best position
although wise to keep watch of the the enemy tank left roaming.
Of course these are ideal scenarios and battle for the most part is chaotic and unpredictable a lot of the time so after the
battle centre is established, it’s hard to predict what will happen. The battle can stay as is it, with one big centre, or divide
itself into smaller battles.
Team work
The basic of team work is the melee-critical, often referred to as m2c, melee2crit.
The melee to critical team based move is of massive importance in PvP as in many cases it can be the only effective critical
attempt on some players.
The Process generally will take 3 possible routes with a fleet member having gotten into a melee battle with an enemy ship
where he will either
1. Continue the melee battle if he feels he is in a superior position
2. Retreat to aid fleet mates elsewhere
3. Attempt to hold the enemy and signal to team mates this point (generally by spamming the number 3 in party chat/say
to alert fleet mates he is attempting to hold the enemy ship until someone can set up)
At this point it is important for any nearby fleet mates who are able to, head to the bow/stern or both if enough members
free. Generally the fleet mate in melee will use a drill of destruction in the melee cycle prior to release to increase the
chance of landing a full strength hit on the enemy (this will generally be done during a 3333 alert of will say “drill”)
Before this point it is of importance for you to realise if your fleet mate is the attacker or defender in melee as this will play
a part in the release time from melee.
If he is the attacker he will retreat immediately when the melee cycle ends if successful.
Whereas if defending, the enemy will get to take his melee action first which itself may be a retreat attempt before your
fleet mates retreat attempt will happen.
When it comes to the retreat cycle the fleet mate will usually announce this by spamming 1111 in party chat/say.
A melee cycle last approx. 6 seconds with a 1 second where each sides action is performed so if you can gauge that time in
your head since the last cycle you can be more prepared for the upcoming release from melee assuming a success.
At the time of release you need to fire the instant “retreat successful” blue text appears.
The exception to that is if demolition work has been used in which case there is a delay and you should refrain from firing
at the “retreat successful” blue text and instead fire upon seeing the damage text from demolition work appears (Ex.
“Flooding!”)
Any nearby fleet mate paying attention should also fire upon the enemy also as if the enemy turns they might land the
critical but also there is always a chance of getting a combo which can be crucial in taking down high durability ships
especially running defensive game style.
The melee-critical is the most basic and fundamental part of teamwork, and it is good teamwork if you help set melee
critical up for your team mates (tanks and some admirals do that), get critical hits/kills with melee critical (sniper’s role)
and protect others from melee-critical.
Of course, other things are considered team work as well, such as fleet members staying together and protecting each
other, focusing fire on one enemy and signalling what you’re doing in melee, calling for help, dedicating repair and surgery
support, etc.
Signalling what you’re doing in melee is generally a thing of agreement and isn’t something fixed, but I’ll list an example,
the signalling method which is commonly used. It’s a number system, generally said in party chat (in say chat if there are
allies in battle that got in via request reinforcements, but sometimes it’s wiser not to say it, as that way the enemy can see
what your intentions are). Say the number as soon so that you can to give your team time to react.
Use is generally 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 9.
1 meaning retreating melee this round when I am the attacker in melee, 2 meaning I am retreating this melee when I am
shield in melee, 3 meaning I’ll stay in battle 1 more round (either use item or skill), 4 meaning that I will melee the nearest
person to me, 6 lets team mates know you or the enemy has used demolition work and to expect the delay upon retreat
and 9 is a call for help.
Battle Campaign
Battle campaign is similar to the normal PvP arena in UWO – it’s attended for 2 weeks in a month, starting on 7th. Battle
campaign is special for one thing, that being, after you die, you respawn after waiting for 20 seconds, and there are no
admirals. Each time you die, enemy team gets 4 points (assuming game was set up with standard 4/4/4 point system), and
each time your team kills someone, your team gets 4. The match ends upon the first team to reach a score of 52 or else
after the 15minute time per round has expired. Your equipment loses durability, however, at round’s end or when you die,
your ship’s durability returns to how it was when you came to BC. After the round ends, you gain a small amount of ducats
and patriot awards, depending on how well you and your team did.
Due to the respawn time and various players in BC, albeit the sniper, tanker and hybrid role still exist, a lot of players are
focused on playing sniper, and they aren’t as careful as usually, so you see people using offensive skills when they should
be using defensive skills. There’s a lot more deaths in BC but also others get a lot of kill likewise because of this. What
works in BC generally won’t work to the same effect in team battle where there is admiral to protect.
So you can think of BC as a mock without admirals and the ability to respawn, with all else the same, except that there’s
less teamwork, more sniping with all kinds of cannons and in general, more careless fighting.
Epic Sea Feud (ESF)
ESF is an event which happens once a month, and it involves a lot of players doing PvP. It’s still similar to mocks, except
that you can lose/gain fame, and it’s nearly always 10v10, as you will get reinforcements coming into battle a lot of times.
We will only briefly mention on what PvP is like in all 3 rounds of ESF. The one thing which applies to all 3 rounds of ESF is
the urge to kill the admiral as quickly as possible, to gather the points and move on to the next fleet to gather more points,
so you can contribute more to the ESF scoring.
In light round, where all the ships are weak, there are a lot of cannons with long range (high Perrier’s, grand volkans, grand
Cheminee’s…), so there’s a lot of sniping, and nearly no tanking. Fighting in the light round of ESF is very hard for the
admiral, as 1 shot from medium range can kill you. In ESF light round, people generally sail around with 3 offensive skills
and snipe everyone. Melee and tanking is virtually non-existent except for the rare case some people use commander’s
galleys and focus on melee knowing gun boats are weak in that sense but with good support it’s a hard kill to achieve.
Medium round is similar to regular team mock battle, except that ships generally die much faster. All types of cannons and
roles can be found, but there’s still a majority of sniper-orientated players.
Heavy round: there isn’t really much to say about heavy round, it’s very much the same to the regular team battles
mentioned previously, albeit with more chaos and usually increased sniper roles. There’s generally more focus on the
admirals than usually.
1v1 Battles
1v1 battles are very different from team battles, as preparation is a lot more important, your actions have far bigger
consequences, melee plays a bigger role and it’s generally more boring to fight a 1v1 than it is to fight other battles, as it
can get repetitive running circles with the same ship for several minutes.
For 1v1 melee is of course very important (assuming enemy not in evade melee ship or turtle ship), along with ship,
cannons, armour, provisions and your aide choice.
For 1v1s, preparation is everything. You want to check enemy’s ship and prepare accordingly if you can get the chance, for
example, if they have a PEA ship, you’ll obviously want a melee ship (refer to ship skills & melee section), and if they’re in
WMB/APN ship you’ll want to get crew with lowest possible ability assuming they don’t have significantly more crew than
you or else your WMB is very unlikely to trigger unless they forget to refresh sailors similarly also you will want highest
loyalty, for easier retreats in melee but also slightly increased defence in melee. You also need decent equipment and
preferably melee oxfords for that extra advantage in melee.
Why is melee so important in 1v1? If both sides have prepared well, they will be in a stale-mate position with cannon
fights, as they will both bring the right shot defence (it is important not to take a lot of broadside damage, because
together with sea mine damage, you might find yourself in a massive durability shortage, or dead), and both sides will
most likely lay down sea mines in equal amounts (mines also play a very important part of 1v1s, as they often deal more
damage than cannons as they always take some maximum durability – special types of sea mines can offer advantage, and
sea mine removal offers a massive advantage, as you’ll avoid big durability losses and maintain high max durability, so that
only leaves melee as the part of the battle, where one has a superior advantage, assuming one side is using WMB. If both
are using APN or PEA, then melee can be quite equal as well, but that can change in just a few turns of counters in melee
or good damage from loaded explosives or firebombs. (See melee items)
It’s crucial to bring high penetration cannons in an 1v1, as that way, your enemy generally won’t be able to go 3 offensive
skills and deal big damage to you. It’s also important for your ship to be fast, so you can catch up on the enemy or avoid
melee with him and try to shoot him down or kill with sea mine/broadside combo if he is superior in melee. Generally in
1v1s, critical hits won’t happen so often – you can control your ship and to an extent predict your enemy’s moves.
Laying sea mines is important as well, as they will put big pressure on the enemy. If you can call aide ship, go ahead – it’ll
be distraction for the enemy and if they are in melee, you get a chance for melee-critical kill (generally aides only utilised in
a real combat situation). Using defence in 1v1 is also very important, unless your enemy is doing weak damage, or,
combined with sea mines, you’ll have troubles repairing and keeping up vigour food and concentration on steering,
shooting, etc.
It’s also important to have good custom slots set but this should always be the case not specifically for 1v1 situations.
Keeping high loyalty is important too, as you might get disorder melee’d and escaping fast from situations where your
melee is inferior is very important. Aide like Hernan is highly recommended, but Sigfried works as well. If your melee is
superior, be close to the enemy and enter melee all the times. If not, sail away from him and bombard him and lay down
sea mines, but don’t go too far away, as you will do weak cannon damage and the enemy will be less likely to hit the mines
you lay. You can only lay 10 mines, so you must be tactical with their usage.
It’s also important to bring proper amount of provision – generally do not stock over 150 ammo, or you risk huge damage
from loaded explosives/training bomb, food is not essential and only consumes room better allocated for other provisions,
lots of water and timber.
The only way to really become good in 1v1 like any PvP is by practice, preparation and a decent ship. Or if you fight an
enemy with inferior PvP ability, then you might get lucky and finish them off with a critical
1v1 with no melee: If you are fighting a ship with evade melee or in a turtle ship, you can do the same as described and
hope you get lucky with melee with the evade melee ship, but considering the chances against you should rely on it, then
it’s the same way you fight turtles: you prepare yourself a ship with good durability, armour and speed, strong cannon gear
with boosts to mine laying and steering and defence skills and then you basically just bombard it and putting pressure on it
by dropping some sea mines as well and ideally have SMR active as turtle will generally use mines often.
The winner is usually the one with bigger patience, as these fights get very boring and repetitive. The one with greater
speed generally has the advantage, as he can make swift and unpredictable turns to land a critical hit on an enemy not
anticipating that. You could say that speed is very important in 1v1 for fights with no melee. If the enemy is in a turtle ship,
you don’t need to worry about bringing water or how much ammo you should carry. If the enemy is superior in speed and
is basically circling you, it becomes a game of patience. DHP skill on your ship will help in these situations.
Real battles
There isn’t really a lot to say about real battles and what is meant by this are generally the acts of piracy and bounty
hunting by or against you. Because team real battles are similar to the team battle section description and the 1v1 real
battles are going to be identical in most cases to previously described 1v1.
Of course, you should consider the fact that there are no rules in a real battle and it’s a do as necessary to win
environment.
so you should expect aide ships, Navy NPC, deck battles (certain condition for this), sea mines (usually agreed to not use in
mocks), so that will of course affect your setup, as sometimes, you need to prepare for the chance of deck battle and the
battles in general going to be »dirtier«, and before grand atlas update at least, gear can be plundered if you lose
melee/deck, so people usually don’t bring in their best gear in the fight unlike mocks.
Perhaps the difference in team real battles is, that people generally take bigger risks and play more individually, so also
more sniper orientated, but there are also those fighters who are dedicated to tanking and lay a lot of sea mines, melee a
lot.
As said in setups for real battles earlier, the way you fight in real battles is what’s the most comfortable for you, so it’s hard
to write anything more than a general guideline, as nearly everyone fights a bit more differently in real battles.
Unbalanced fights
This is referring to fights like 2v5, 1vX, 3v4 etc. I’ll write about this in briefly for real battles as well as mocks, as they’re very
similar, except of a bit different setup in real battles due to possibility of deck battles.
When you are on the side with the advantage, it’s quite simple. With teamwork, you adopt your individual roles and make
your attempt to bring down the enemy fleet.
If it’s real battle, you might want to focus on the admiral, as they’ll probably be trying to retreat due to bad chances of
victory, but you should still protect yourself, because you shouldn’t underestimate the enemy, so don’t forget defence
skills and teamwork.
In mocks, you should focus on killing the weakest enemies first, unless your team is superior, then you just aim to kill the
admiral, or whoever you get the chance to kill, just like in a regular mock after you’ve gained advantage. Is more common
than it should be to see a lot of people do mistakes of playing all carelessly without defence skills and teamwork once they
have the advantage, and that often backfires on them, when they die of a silly death due to that and the battle situation
changes again. If you’re a group of players against 1, surround the single player – don’t give him the place to move around
or the chance to gather speed. Melee him down and use melee items to decrease his durability before you melee-critical
him, or, if he is in a turtle, surround the turtle and shoot at it until sunk.
If you’re on the side with disadvantage, you should do the same as the enemy – focus on enemy’s weakest team members
and kill them with teamwork. This might be significantly harder and you might just be delaying your incoming death, but
it’s better to go out fighting. Teamwork is a lot more important, and if you can play cleverly, read your enemy and get the
weakest member alone, you can, with good teamwork, eliminate him and repeat the process. But if the enemy is good,
you can’t expect to get far. It’s essential to play more defensively and not stay in melee for long, as it gives your enemy
even more of an advantage and opportunity to melee-critical you if they are performing any sense of teamwork together.
2v2s, 3v3s.
These are similar to imbalanced fights – you focus on the enemy’s weakest link and eliminate him with good teamwork to
gain advantage, while staying defensive and careful. In these smaller battles, melee is also very important, as you’ll put
pressure on enemy to repair and surgery. If the enemy is in turtles, then it’s the best if everyone in your fleet focuses on 1
in the enemy fleet, as always in these kinds of battles.
Bounty hunting / Piracy
These both fall under the same fundamental principles of the PvP explained already and for the most part will fall under
the 1v1 category or unbalanced fights, the difference is in the pursuit of the person you’re trying to engage, apart from
that everything mentioned previously still remains relevant to these things. It’s no surprise that the strongest pirates and
bounty hunters are generally strong in all forms of maritime battle as it all operates to the same basics. Discussing being
successful in these two pursuits besides the battles is a whole other topic than we would be covering here, and it really
requires a broader knowledge on the game (known popular ports, routes, reasons for taking such routes, etc.) these are
generally only going to come from experience of trial and error assumptions in a lot of cases.
2.2
Shooting and skill usage
Shooting
This section mainly refers to when you should shoot and how you should shoot (what skills you should have on) and who
you should shoot.
When to shoot(This is referring to team battles): You should generally only shoot when you can feel like you can do a big
broadside hit to the enemy (decreases their max durability), when your shot will be a critical hit (also decreases max
durability of the enemy and slows them down, and if you have smoke/fire shot they’ll get smoke/fire effect and maybe
more, depending on your ship’s skills) , or when you think your shot, combined with allies cannon fire, will result in a
combo which could potentially sink the enemy or at least heavily damage him.
It’s not wise to shoot your cannons without thinking and firing them as soon as possible just for the sake of it – it’s better
to hold fire and gain charged red flashing cannons(10% more cannon accuracy), and shoot when you do big damage. Doing
small damage is useless and wastes your ammunition.
In 1v1s, you should generally shoot as often as you fell you can land even a half decent hit to put your enemy under
pressure and for a chance of them getting in disorder, and potentially in disorder melee. But if your enemy is very far away
and your cannons do little damage, there’s no point in shooting and is better to save your shots.
How to shoot: This will be a short explanation, as it’ll be explained more in-depth in the skill usage section. Generally, if the
situation allows you, you should maximise the damage by using 3 offensive skills (penetration, accuracy and ballistics), and
be close to the enemy (no range penalty on damage). However, if there’s risk of melee with other enemies around, risk of
you dying or taking huge amounts of damage with low chances of you in succeeding killing the enemy, you should keep
defensive skills on and deal with less damage or not shoot at all.
Also is worth noting that it is possible to fire cannons individually rather than all together using the f2-f6 keys, in rare
circumstance you can fool your opponent into thinking you’re on a reload phase and he may attempt a more risky
manoeuvre which leaves you with 4 cannons left loaded to deal a heavy blow with. Unlikely to sink any decent durability
with only 4 cannons with the exception maybe of high pierce power double shot cannon but it certainly would get their
guard up to be caught like this.
Who to shoot: As said previously in the when to shoot section, you should shoot those whose max durability you can
decrease/kill them with your shot. The enemy team’s admiral should be the priority however. When you see 2 or more
potential candidates who you can critical/kill, you should generally focus on the weakest one in durability, as he’ll be the
most likely to die, unless you know if anyone of them isn’t using defence skills. It’s easier to fight the enemy team if they
have 1 player less rather than 2 weakened players.
Skill usage
In this section, I’ll be mainly referring to which skills you should use in which situation in PvP. You can only run 3 skills, so
it’s important to run the correct 3.
Your main goal in battle is to stay alive and protect the admiral. So it’s wise to use defence skills (evasion, double shot
defence, X shot defence, sea mine removal) also aboardage when surrounded so you can get into melee quickly and buy
yourself some time.
The only time you should use all offensive skills (accuracy, ballistics, penetration) is when you’re in a safe position –
meaning there’s no enemies around you and you’re in a good position to score a critical hit on an enemy or deal decent
damage to them. Of course, if you’re in a position where you can kill or seriously damage an enemy and you risk taking a
lot of broadside damage from the enemy, you can risk getting the shot at the cost of some max durability.
You should generally stay in a full defence setup all the time and only use all 3 offence skills once you are in a positon for a
critical hit, generally via the melee-critical method. But if you prefer to play more offensively, it’s recommended to avoid
the centre of the battle and the more crowded areas.
However, you should still use defence skills when you’ll be heading in melee, as you’ll increase your chances of surviving a
melee-critical (you can’t really tell how unlucky you’ll be in melee and how long you’ll need to retreat – enemies can come
and surround you in the time needed for that).
You should refresh your skills when you get the opportunity (no enemies around you). You should do it regularly, so you
don’t get caught by surprise once all your skills are suddenly deactivated.
A quick method to “kill” or refresh your active skills is to click them with mouse and press Enter to instantly end their use.
This can become extremely quick with practice and is almost essential for quick skill swopping between a defensive and
offensive role over the course of battle.
Special thanks:
Worrad & shinee for loan of ships for testing
mc1996 for consenting to being a guinea pig for some tests and also building a boat for a theory test.
Rhiyuki for some information on Grand cannons
Belgae & Pupshark for help in getting screenshots of some missing equipment.
gracieFox for loan of a specific ship part for testing.
Sir Thomas Gresham 