As of this point the Sloop ship is very underpowered and takes some good tricks to keep afloat.
- Be on the Lookout
Whether you are sailing solo or sailing with a crew mate you must always be keeping your eyes out for enemy ships. This is especially important when you already have loot on your ship as having your ship sunk usually means bye bye to all that precious loot.
I’d recommend keeping your eyes out whenever you are not busy adjusting the sails, fixing holes in the ship, or steering the boat. Spotting enemy ships when they are very far away is key to survival because the goal in the Sloop is to escape rather than fight.
- Adjust Your Sail Angles
This is vital to both ships but especially the Sloop since you are reliant on the ships speed. A lot of newbie players don’t adjust their sails to the wind, furthermore not capitalizing on their potential maximum speed.
You always want your sails to be turned in the opposite direction from where the wind is blowing. So if the wind is blowing from the back left corner of your ship, then you want to angle your sails to the front right. You can tell when you’ve done this successfully because you’ll hear your sails crackle and pop and you’ll also see them get an arch to them rather than being near parallel to the board that supports them.
I’d also never recommend raising your sail length higher than 1/2 way up after you initially lower them. If you get yourself stuck in dangerous terrain then you must raise your sails to maneuver out but never go into an island or an outpost slow, you don’t have the time.
- Always Anchor Boat in Direction You’re Going to Be Leaving
You never want to get yourself into a sticky situation when you anchor your boat because time is the key to success. I personally always recommend coming in hot and making a sharp turn in whatever direction faces the sea.
You do that by beginning the drop of your anchor and turning your wheel all the way to either the left or the right (whichever direction will turn you towards the sea). When you stop you will spin like crazy almost to a 180 angle, leading you back out towards the sea.
It’s just as important to drop your anchor on the side of your island that’s closest to an outpost as well. Say you plan to take your loot back to an outpost after you find buried treasure on Cutlass Cay, the closest outpost is Sanctuary Outpost (may not be acccurate) and from Cutlass Cay the outpost is southwest. You don’t want to put your ship on the east side of the island, but put your ship on the southwest side of the island. That way it’s smooth and quick sailing to the closest outpost after your visit to the island.
- Avoid Engagement Unless Necessary
A lot of players will track you down and attack you just if they see you, but whenever you attack an enemy player you risk losing the fight which means losing any loot you may have. When riding on the Sloop, escape is your best skill so use it wisely to escape sticky scenarios with taking little to no damage.
I don’t recommend ever going up into the crows nest, especially if you are playing solo. Everything you really need to see you can see from the top deck of your ship, the crows nest takes awhile to get into, and then takes more time to get back to the bottom.
This is more of an annoyance rather than a trick but I’ve noticed on Xbox when a player nears you, the game lags for a couple seconds. I wouldn’t rely on this as being your technique for searching for boats but whenever your game lags I’d recommend checking around your boat for enemy players.
- Number of Voyages
I’d recommend doing the number of voyages equal to the number of players that you have in your game. If it’s you solo then I’d recommend doing 1 voyage and then returning to an outpost, and if it’s 2 then do 2 voyages at a time.
Doing it this way minimizes the frustration of getting your ship sunk. You will definitely have your ship sunk after spending time in this game, so only having a couple pieces of loot is better than losing 10+ pieces.
This is of course completely up to you, but if you want to play it safe then I’d recommend sticking to only a couple pieces of loot per trip out on your boat.
- **Little Tricks Within the Sloop **
When you are on the top deck of the boat near the wheel and the anchor, you can see the map, taking away your need to go visit it or needing a navigator. I’d recommend setting it at your destination so you can see your ship gradually reach your destination.
The wheel itself clicks 3 times total. When you are at the middle, the wheel will click, when you go as far left as possible it will click, and when you go as far right. Use this to your advantage when steering because it will greatly benefit you especially in heavy storms when you lose a lot of control over your ship.
Leave your cannons unloaded. When speed is key, you want to shoot your self out of cannons. You rarely want to fight so keeping your cannons unloaded isn’t too detrimental to your safety since it does not take long to load the 2 cannons on board. If you’re playing solo you must aim the cannon where you want before you get inside, but if you have a crew mate they can aim when you get inside.
This list is by no means a pro guide to mastering the Sloop, but I believe it is a strong guide to beginner players wanting to play on the Sloop and struggling.
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