Just managed to kill a Skeleton Sloop with... a single cannonball

  • So i've never had this happen quite this quickly before. A skeleton sloop was hanging around near the island I was treasure hunting on solo, so once I finished I decided "sure, what the hell, why not?" and decided to engage it.

    I ended up firing a single cannonball shot into it just below the water line, then realized I only had the single cannon ball on me. I was going to run over and grab some more but i still had a few firebombs, and it was close so i figured i'd toss them, then it dawned on me to load them into the cannon instead, so i fired three firebombs into it along it's length, pretty much setting the entire deck ablaze. At the same time they opened fire, hitting me a few times, and since i was close to the island I also had to dodge rocks, so I did that, went down and fixed holes real quick. Then grabbed a load of cannon balls, turned around, sailed back toward them, preparing to engage again only to catch up just in time to see them sinking... It doesn't get much easier than that (without cheesing them with kegs)

    My guess is the flames kept them busy/damaged enough that they never had a chance to repair? Anyway, a singe cannon ball shot kill (without hitting a powderkeg) definitely has to be a record for me that I don't see myself beating any time soon :)

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  • skelly ships regularly are sailing around with water they have taken in from the rain, random damage that skelly ships sometimes take.

    A shot here a shot there a bump into something here a bump into something there.

    Sometimes they sink as you pull up to take a shot.

    My favorite is always hitting the keg with the first ball which triggers the second keg then it sinks.

    Congrats on the sink.

  • @exquizardus9352

    What Wolfie said. Plus your observations are correct. Skellies will not repair if on fire. Pro tip 😆

  • @wolfmanbush said in Just managed to kill a Skeleton Sloop with... a single cannonball:

    skelly ships regularly are sailing around with water they have taken in from the rain, random damage that skelly ships sometimes take.

    A shot here a shot there a bump into something here a bump into something there.

    Sometimes they sink as you pull up to take a shot.

    My favorite is always hitting the keg with the first ball which triggers the second keg then it sinks.

    Congrats on the sink.

    Haha, yeah good point. I hadn't really thought of that, they might have already been damaged and rained on. Plus we were both close to an island, and I had to dodge rocks, so maybe they hit one or two as well while I was repairing ad turning around. That would explain how quickly they sank. Skellies...not the brightest. Still easy loot is always nice

  • @pithyrumble
    Nice! That is very useful to know indeed. I usually have a few spare firebombs on hand. That could definitely make looting skeleton ships much easier. I think Wolfie probably nailed it as well. It was probably already damaged. Plus where we were sailing was filled with rocks. They very well might have hit a few while I was repairing and turning around. It was definitely a nice easy way for some quick loot before returning to port :)

  • Sail into the fleet battle and out again. It will literally sink itself since the skellies don't repair if they're not aggro'd.

    PvE knowledge is priceless

  • My theory is that skeletons don't spawn on skeleton ships until a player is close enough. Too many resources spent on something players wouldn't even see.

    So if a skeleton ship hits literally anything, a keg, a rock, etc. while sailing around, it will just take water until it sinks since there are no skeletons to repair , or until a player gets within whatever the arbitrary render distance is for skeletons aboard to spawn. I've seen skeleton ships just sink off in the distance for no apparent reason, though I can't rule out they didn't hit a keg or something.

    So the bigger question is: if a skeleton ship sinks, and nobody was around to see it, did it truly ever exist?

    Answer: Probably yes, free loot in the water.

  • @exquizardus9352 iv had this happen too saw a skeleton sloop fired one cannon ball and they sunk I didn’t even lite them on fire it was pretty funny

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