Skelly Fleet battles are a little intense for soloing

The balancing is alright, idk why ur having issues with skelly fleet, theyre already nerfed in solo. Every wave is against sloops, until the final one which produces galleons. The galleons are not too hard to take down either, try not to slow down, and hit the galleons below the water line like u would with regular galleons. Make sure ur hitting different sections between each hit, otherwise ur not going to be doing much if u continue hitting the same location. If u do it right they should go down in less than 5 minutes. If ur getting bobarded know when to escape to repair and give u time to join back into the fray.

If it's too hard u can try ur hand with ghost ship battles or try to open up ur crew to an extra hand.

If it were any easier the loot wouldn’t be worth the time. It feel like i only won because i used fire against paper.

Just practice and learn the AI is actually silly sometimes and can get stuck on rocks if left alone. Fight during a storm so they fill up faster muahahaha

Fire is your friend in these events. Helps keep their deck skellies thin. Also the best use case for storageballs. I did a few of these solo over the weekend and the only one that gave me trouble was a shadow skelly crew galleon at night... one reason to keep flares.

I really hope they don't nerf this event more than it already has been, it feels like a decent challenge and one that is going to test your prioritisation skills, which is a big part of solo slooping. Patching shouldn't be your main concern, if you've only got a few holes, just bucket. Obviously, you also want to be careful to not get one-balled, and keep an eye on your health. If you're getting overwhelmed, back off and repair. It's a lot to juggle, but it will help you to improve.

All of these make sense. Thanks for the tips!

I love the skelly fleets.
They balance nicely for solo - far better than emergent random Galley spawns that can finish a pirate off with cannonball spam and curse balls.

Only danger you can have is watch for ships at Reapers Hideout, K-9 or Sea Dogs Tavern as that can scale up the Fleet to the point where it is not even worth trying.
For example a Brig was at Reapers for me and 2 Galleons spawned in the wave. I made a quick exit.

My tips :

• Sails up past half way prior to the skelly ship spawns, slowly moving forward. They will sail alongside and you can send barrages to the sloop spawns (x2).

• When Galleon spawns harpoon the ship and you will be pulled alongside and can send cannons to it, aim low. Shots high are wasted. Use fire liberally on the deck and scattershots are handy below.

I generally try to avoid fighting round Sea Dogs Tavern as loot has a habit of not spawning here after a sink. Unsure if that has been patched or not.
Avoid Reapers for poor visibility.

Storm can be frequent annoyance in this area - which would discourage me from even attempting it or at least trying to sail to the calmest waters. Trying to collect loot in the midst of the storm is peak frustration.

Some folk advocate parking by a rock for the event but I find the above strategy of slow movement fine.

I can still get sunk by complacency occasionly - not keeping on top of repairs and a one ball takes you out.