I originally posted this guide more than a year ago, but Sea of Thieves continues to attract new players despite being more than 3 years old. Since these new players tend to be overwhelmed by the variety of different cannonballs available to them, I wanted to update my guide and re-post it for everyone’s benefit. If more players know what the different cannonballs do and the times it makes the most tactical sense to use them; it should make combat more exciting for everyone involved. This is a long guide, so pour yourself a grog and make yourselves comfortable.
Cannon ammunition can be broadly divided into 5 different categories:
1) STANDARD CANNON AMMO - Can only be fired out of cannons. Crewmates won't take damage from friendly fire, but they will experience knockback.
Cannonball (Roles: Punch holes in enemy ships, fight off large PVE threats)
Cannonballs kill players with a direct hit, inflict 1 unit of damage to the wheel/capstan/mast, and open a level 2 hole in the hull. Cannonballs are the most common ammo type and are quite versatile. You should primarily use cannonballs to poke holes in enemy ships and fight off large PVE threats (such as the Kraken or Megalodon). Although you can use them to cripple enemy ships or disrupt the crew, the more specialized ammo types are better suited for this role. Cannonballs are also useful for bombarding the shore to take down tanky threats (such as skeleton lords or the crab ocean crawler).
When fighting enemy ships, you should aim for the lowest deck of a Galleon, the center of a Brig, or the front of a Sloop; hits to these areas will immediately let water in, whereas holes opened up in other areas won’t admit water until the ship has partially flooded.
Chainshot (Role: Cripple enemy ships)
Chainshot will instantly destroy a mast, wheel, or capstan with a direct hit, but will only open a level 1 hole if it hits the hull. Chainshots are rarer than cannonballs, but more common than cursed cannonballs. Chainshots inflict reduced damage against players/PVE threats and won’t disable skeleton ships, so save them for fights against player ships. Chainshots have a shorter range than other ammo types so you’ll need to aim higher than normal.
Chainshots are incredibly useful in crippling an enemy ship, yet they’re criminally underused by the current player base. Use them at your first opportunity! Too often, my crew will board an enemy ship in the middle of a fight and find a large stash of chainshot sitting unused in the supply barrel. With few exceptions, you should open a fight by shooting chainshots at your enemy’s masts; ships can’t sail if all their masts are downed and they take a long time to repair, giving you a major tactical advantage.
2) GRENADES - Can be thrown in addition to being fired out of a cannon. Crewmates caught in the blast experience the same effects as enemies, so be careful with friendly fire!
Blunderbomb (Role: Cause knockback, sabotage top-deck activity)
Blunderbombs deal 15% damage (50% on a direct hit) and apply a strong knockback to any players caught in the blast. If shot out of a cannon, blunderbombs can knock a ship off course (like a megalodon bite, or gunpowder keg explosion), although they don’t cause additional damage to players or any damage to ship itself. Like firebombs, blunderbombs appear to do increased damage to skeletons/phantoms/ocean crawlers, although they are less suited to killing them compared to firebombs. They’re quite useful at detonating gunpowder from a safe distance if you’re not carrying a pistol or eye-of-reach.
Blunderbombs have many specialized uses during ship-combat. Aim for the top deck to try and blast enemy players overboard or prevent them from repairing their mast/wheel/capstan. If an enemy ship is trying to ram you, several direct blunderbomb hits (fired from a cannon, not thrown) will knock them off course. You can also use them to knock players off your ladders.
Firebomb (Roles: Kill PVE enemies, area denial)
Firebombs set all creatures in the impact radius on fire, dealing up to 33% damage to players and killing most skeletons/phantoms/ocean crawlers unless the fire is extinguished early (CORRECTION: @galactic-geek has informed me that ocean crawlers are immune to fire). If it hits a ship, firebombs also start a persistent fire that will spread unless put out with a bucket of water. Thrown firebombs will start a small fire on impact, whereas firebombs shot from a cannon cause a medium-sized fire on impact. Players can extinguish themselves with a bucket of water (alt-fire with a full bucket), jumping into the sea, or exposing themselves to rain. If you extinguish a fire by dumping water on it, the water will evaporate. This means you can speed up your bailing if there’s a fire between you and the top deck; simply dump your water on the fire and go back for more.
Firebombs have multiple roles: use them to wipe out squads of PVE enemies, flush out players that have barricaded themselves in a chokepoint, or keep players from going where you don’t want them. Newer players especially tend to become flustered when their ship is set on fire. If you’re shooting firebombs at an enemy ship, you should aim for the captain’s cabin/wheel of a Galleon, the anchor of a Brig, or the wheel/capstan of a Sloop; these areas are more difficult to extinguish and deny enemy players the ability to interact with those ship components (without taking damage).
3) GREEN CURSED CANNONBALLS – These cursed cannonballs affect all players in the blast radius (even crewmembers) but can only be fired out of cannons.
Grogball (Role: Prevent repairs, Hinder bailing)
Grogballs make all pirates/enemies caught in the blast radius extremely drunk (stumbling around, vomiting) for roughly 8 seconds. Unlike the wearyball/jigball, these effects persist even if you take damage. Grogballs are curious in that they tend to be more effective when used against larger crews. Here’s why: affected players will vomit once or twice on their own, but if their vomit hits another player, that player will vomit shortly after (and have they screen covered with green bile), potentially causing a chain-reaction of constant back-and-forth vomiting among the crew unless they space themselves out.
Affected players will find it nearly impossible to repair holes (they’re stumbling around too much) or bail water (vomit fills an empty bucket, takes longer to stumble topside). Shoot a grogball at the enemy ship once they’ve sent players to start repairs (you can estimate this to be approximately 10 seconds after you inflict damage, or if your cannon shots to the hull are giving you a hit marker). Grogballs also hinder your ability to aim cannons
Jigball/Wearyball (Role: Halt enemy activity)
Although they have different visual effects (wearyballs put players to sleep, jigballs force all affected to dance), wearyballs/jigballs are practically identical; they fully paralyze all players/skeletons in the blast radius for 5 seconds (technically, wearyballs are considered slightly worse than jigballs because affected players' models move close to the ground where they're harder to see, though their hitbox remains unaffected). This effect is broken if the victim takes damage.
Many players consider these cannonballs to be the most devastating green cursed cannonballs, although they’ve become less effective from their introduction following several nerfs. These cursed cannonballs can cause plenty of consternation among the enemy crew regardless of when you use them. They’re especially effective whenever the enemy takes damage; it will both prevent them from making repairs and cause a psychological effect (after helplessly listening to their ship get hit, they tend to overreact and abandon other priorities in their rush to make repairs).
Limpball (Role: Slow enemy pirates)
These cannonballs cause affected players to move slower and be unable to run/jump for 15 seconds, just as though they’ve dropped from a large height.
It's difficult to judge the effectiveness of these cannonballs; although their effects last for longer than most curses, it's harder for the deploying ship to see an immediate change in the enemy during a fight Use them mid-fight against the larger ships to hinder the enemy crew's attempts to bail water and resupply. They also have some utility in preventing players from jumping off their ship (although they can still use the ladders/cannons to leave); if the enemy ship is coming in to ram you, hit them with a limpball to prevent enemies from boarding you.
Venomball (Role: Damage/Blind enemy players)
These cannonballs slowly inflict 30 points of damage to affected players over 15 seconds. They also reduce visibility. The effects mimic what happens when you get bitten by a snake.
Players typically don’t bother to heal when they go below to make repairs, so shoot one of these over if you suspect the enemy crew to be busy bailing. These cannonballs pair very well with firebombs, as the effects of fire and venom stack. Venomballs become much more useful at night, as the reduced visibility coupled with darkness makes affected players practically blind.
4) PURPLE CURSED CANNONBALLS – These cannonballs affect ships, not players, although they don’t inflict any actual damage upon impact.
Anchorball (Role: Halt enemy ship)
As their name implies, these cannonballs will drop a ship’s anchor. Well, it would be more accurate to say it “activates” the capstan; anchorballs won’t prevent players with quick reactions from catching it before it fully drops. Additionally, an anchorball will raise a ship’s anchor if it’s fully dropped (and no players are trying to raise it). This means that you shouldn’t bother to raise your anchor if it’s dropped by a skeleton ship; skellies are dumb and will eventually hit you with another one, raising your anchor for you.
Anchorballs can prevent an enemy from fleeing or give you time to catch your breath, but they’re very hit or miss. If the ship’s anchor is successfully dropped, the crew must raise it before the ship can move again. However, if a player grabs the capstan, then nothing will happen. You can increase your chance of success if you follow-up with several blunderbombs (to knock them away from the capstan), or wait until most of the enemy crew is occupied with something else (such as managing sails or repairing damage) so they don’t have time to grab the capstan before it drops.
Ballastball (Role: Killing blow)
These cannonballs force the affected ship to sink low in the water for 7 seconds, causing all holes to admit water, regardless of their location. Although the effects wear off after 7 seconds, the ship may not rise back up if too much water has poured in.
These are without a doubt the most devastating out of anything in this list (especially against Galleons) and you should base your strategy around them if you have any. They are most affective if used after you’ve peppered the enemy ship with cannonballs. The reason for their effectiveness is that most crews don’t repair holes that aren’t currently leaking water (such as the mid-deck of a Galleon) during the heat of battle. A popular strategy employed by sloops to kill larger ships is to cause a lot of harmless damage that doesn’t admit water (which most crews will ignore), before hitting the ship with a ballastball; all those “harmless” holes suddenly begin flooding the ship at an alarming rate.
Barrelball (Role: Deny supplies, kill skeleton galleons?)
These cannonballs prevent players from accessing their food, plank, and cannonball supply barrels for 15 seconds. I’ve heard that these cannonballs also prevent the crew of skeleton ships from repairing anything for the duration, but I haven’t had an opportunity to verify this myself.
Following the introduction of supply crates and rowboat chests to the game, these cannonballs have become less effective against players; they don’t prevent you from using supplies you already have in your pockets, nor do they prevent players from accessing supplies stored outside of those specialized storage barrels (such as the aforementioned supply crates). If crews have dedicated cannoneers and repairers, this can force them to trade jobs, which can have a slight psychological effect. If it’s true that these prevent skeletons from repairing their ship, then you would get more value deploying them against skeleton ships.
Helmball (Role: Redirect the enemy, shenanigans)
These cannonballs prevent players from being able to manipulate the ship’s wheel for 15 seconds.
These cannonballs have some niche uses. Some crews will raise sails and rotate their ship to keep you in their firing line; these cannonballs will disrupt that tactic.
Use them near islands/rocks to possibly cause the enemy ship to crash. They can also force a ship in a turn to continue along the turn, giving your ship the opportunity to reposition (or flee). Ultimately, they'll most likely remain in storage, as most other cannonballs are more effective.
Peaceball (Role: Prevent return fire)
These cannonballs force all cannons on the affected ship to point fully upward for 5 seconds. Crews must then manually move them back into position (taking 1-2 seconds) before they can resume fire.
Peaceballs are primarily used reactively; if you find your ship entering the enemy’s line of fire, you can prevent multiple broadsides if you can hit them with a peaceball first. This will give you several seconds to get out of the way or continue pelting the enemy with impunity.
Riggingball (Role: Slow/stop enemy ship, sabotage mast repairs)
These cannonballs forcibly raise all the sails (and prevent players from interacting with them) for 8 seconds, causing the affected ship to slow to a stop. This has the added side-effect of preventing players from raising their mast if it’s been downed. Players can easily lower the sails again once the effect ends.
My primary use for the riggingball is as a followup to a successful chainshot hit to the mast. Skilled players can grab the sail line and save their mast from going down, but these cursed cannonballs prevent anyone from interacting with the sails for the duration. They’re also a safer (yet less effective) version of the anchorball, as you cannot prevent the effects from taking place. Be aware that ships with all sails raised (and raised anchor) can still rotate in place, so a competent crew will keep your ship in their firing zone while waiting for the curse to wear off.
5) GHOSTLY CANNONBALLS – These cannonballs can only be acquired by completing a Flameheart world event and collecting the ghostly cannonball crate from the Burning Blade's loot.
Phantom cannonballs and phantom flame cannonballs are merely re-skins of standard cannonballs and firebombs, respectively (although you can’t throw phantom flame cannonballs), so consult those sections for information and advice. However, they occupy cursed cannonball inventory space, so you can effectively carry up to an additional 10 cannonballs more than you normally can.
Wraith cannonball (Role: Shock and awe)
These rare cannonballs break multiple holes upon impact with a hull (one level 2 hole and several adjacent level 1 holes) and knock the ship off course (like a blunderbomb), They also make a loud scream as they fly through the air, which has no in-game effect but probably startles the person holding the controller.
Wraithballs are essentially superior versions of standard cannonballs, so you should use them anytime you have a clear shot and it's not optimal to use a more specialized cannonball (like a chainshot).
Closing comments and credits
Most of the tactical tips presented here are my own, but I consulted the Sea of Thieves wiki and ToejahM's video on the subject matter to fill in any gaps in my knowledge. @galactic-geek provided feedback to the current topic, while @IDNeon and @Last-Dragonborn provided feedback in the original topic, all of which I've incorporated here.
-Limbic
