My Solo Brigantine Tips

  • There are tons of solo sloop tactics but rarely solo brig tips.

    I have some insight into what its like, your potential, pros and cons and how to make your life at sea relatively comfortable manning the brigantine.

    I also have info on why you may choose her over a sloop in some instances. Ive been sailing her for almost since she released in all kinds of scenarios. Im at a stage where im just as comfortable sailing a brig solo as i am a sloop. It does take some getting used to, you will have advantages in certain activities and disadvantages is others but i promise you, the brigantine is more versatile than most people think.

    Pull up a stool, pour a grog and hopefully you may find something interesting. Feel free to chip in with your own.

    First things first.
    Why?

    The sloop is amazing, a jack of all trades ship. But it can get boring after a long time. Its really easy to sail and its reliable and you are oretty safe against every PVE enemy and any player crew with less experience than you but its not incredibly fast. Its that speed you gain from the brigantine that makes it feel fresh and fun. I think of the two ships as a sloop being a warship and the brigantine being a fast smuggler. A ship you use to go fast, hit hard and disappear. Your experience will be familiar yet different.

    1. Modes of travel.
      Brigantine has 2 modes.
      Sloop mode and Travel /Escape mode.
      With a sloop you can drop the sails when you see barrels at sea. You can do this too on a brigantine and turn around and harpoon that loot, but you gotta be ready. Have only your main sail down if you plan on stopping now and then and grabbing stuff you pass.

    Going somewhere specific or are hunting skelly ships or anything else? Activate travel sails. Both sails down. Cross winds is the optimal speed, approx 230m/s, youll be the fastest thing that floats.

    1. Visibility is important.
      You have 2 choices.
      Get torn sails and keep your sails fully down for maximum speed or slightly raise main sail to provide visibility. You are usually fine in open waters but its wise to keep visibility near rocks and islands etc. I use to use torn sails but its not much different slightly raising and when caught wind you can see well.

    2. You turn slower than a sloop but its manageable if you can multi task.
      Most important sail is main.
      Second sail is a little booster.
      When you turn, dont turn all the way. Turn part way then move sails. By time thats done youll have turned properly. Turning circle isnt that bad and you mostly travel is straight lines anyways but you will be shocked just how efficient and easy it is once you are used to it.
      Its good for both sails but prioritise main.

    3. You are a formidible skelly galleon hunter but you are weaker than a sloop.

    Essentially you have traded the relative tanky safety of the sloop for more speed... To find targets quicker. Mitigate the trip and from the ammo barrel by putting a storage crate on the top grate near 4 cannons. You can grab food, cannon balls from it in an instant, you can peak below to see water level and run down when you need to. You cant take endless hits like a sloop, after 4 or 5 shots or so from enemy you best go repair (which is the price you pay for speed)
    However speed is your friend here....

    Skelly galleons are pretty easy in travel sail mode. They will get their hits on you but eventually end up chasing you from behind in a circle unable to hit you. You can raise main sail to let it catch up then just before you get into their range lowee it again. You cna find you can hit them hard and not take a single shot most of the time and is a very quick way to sink them.

    Downside is once its sunk...
    Its possible to lose where it sunk due to your speed so best thing is drop anchor as soon as you hear the music note (Check for other ships first because usually anchor down is a no no), As you anchor quickly check where galleon is with compass, memorize it, finish repairs if any and sail over to where it went down.

    Its worth noting.
    Travel sails (Both down) are best whwn fighting skelly galleon. Using just main gally gets a lot of hits on you. Double and you will only take a couple. Skelly sloop tho you can do whatever, its only like 10 hits so just use main for them.

    1. Point both front cannons forward and two back cannons back.
      As you pass a target you can get a cheeky second hit. Useful for ghost fleet.

    2. Coming up to an island raise front as its coming up. Go from travel mode to standard mode. Youll have slightly better turning circle and have main right by your side for those last minute adjustments like you would do on a sloop.

    3. Two interiors.
      Many people think inside the cabin is cramped. I think its due to the darkness. If you wanna make it brighter put on either parrot hull or night parrot hull. It has a white brighter wood and makes it more inviting at night.

    4. You can still pvp.
      But not as directly as a sloop.
      Get them to chase you, pass a fort and grab the cannon there. Chain them and then sink them. Your ship will be safetly out of harms way but you can do it. Or use a rowboat and do some strategic kegging on unsuspecting ships.

    5. Cursed cannonballs are your kryptonite. If a player anchor balls you and they board, its over unless you can kill them quick because anchor takes too long. If anchorballed by a skelly ship its tense but prioritise getting it back up. Your speed is your best defense. You will survive, just get moving and eventually as mentioned above, skelly gally wont be able to get you as you on blind spot.

    6. When you need to do voyages and cant be bothered to get in prolonged chase, use the brigs speed to escape. You can flee a brig using a brig by using the skelly fort tactic if you have a persistent one on yoyr tail.

    7. You can kill every pve threat as a solo except the Kraken. Kraken comes just run. They been patched where they cant block you in anymore.

    8. Never forget you are a glass cannon. You trade safety and tankiness for speed. Sail over a keg patch it asap.

    9. Ghost fleets can be challenging but possible. Theres 2 methods.

    Sail into the path and stop with sails. Shoot as they come close and rotate or...Sail by them at high speed firing at them, repair then come back, rinse and repeat.

    1. Escape skelly galleons by anchor balling them or rigging ball in cross wind or use passing rocks to cause an obstruction. If there isnt any go to an island, let them rotate and slip away.

    2. Dispatching megs is easy if you just stop. Just use the cannons and repair after every hit. Slower than a sloop but you dont want to be messing with the wheel, just focus on firing and repairing.

    3. Your speed is great for snagging those reaper chests before sloops can get them and you can do last minute escapes of approaching ships.

    4. Patience. Its difficult at first. But it does get easier and enjoyable. Then going back makes you a better sloop pilot too as all of those things you did in advance you do on a sloop making sails and helms work super efficient.

    Thats pretty much it.
    A ship that lets you do everything, almost.
    Sloop will get you there slower but you are a warship. Brigantine lets you glide faster at the expense of more fragility. But its managable.
    Theres something nice about being the fastest thing on the seas and sometimes its nice to just do lengths of the map as full speed looking for interesting happenings when you run out of voyages.

    Thanks for dropping by.

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  • Too hard to give up the maneuverability of the solo sloop

    To me the only real benefits of solo brig would be if you wanna open up the crew or invite friends at some point (this is the main benefit) and maybe keeping pirates at bay that don't feel like engaging with a 3 man ship (or so they think)

    To me it just doesn't bring enough pros to outweigh the cons while solo

  • @wolfmanbush
    Its a lifestyle choice.
    This post wasnt to really discuss the difference between both ships. But more to show how one manage the brig better and make it more comfortable.

    The sloop is more easier for sure.

    Its like cars and motorcycles.
    Both travel on the road but are completely different experiences.

    The main intention is to help any aspiring solo briggers improve their enjoyment of the vessel.

    Safe seas.

  • People who don't want to PVP but want to solo voyage should play brig if they can handle it.

    Its speed makes for a very good voyaging ship, and allows it to avoid PVP encounters more easily. Only downside is kraken and skele ships but even then, other players are the bigger threat depending on what you are doing.

    Sloop should just have a faster top speed when sailing straight honestly so that the tradeoff isn't so pronounced. Right now the sloop is just a super easy vessel so long as you stay alive (tough in PVP encounters vs brigs or gallies), but is overall very underwhelming to voyage in due to its sluggish speed.

  • @daringclarky

    You can still pvp.

    But not as directly as a sloop.

    Get them to chase you, pass a fort and grab the cannon there. Chain them and then sink them. Your ship will be safetly out of harms way but you can do it. Or use a rowboat and do some strategic kegging on unsuspecting ships.

    This is not a ship specific tactics, this is non-naval combat tactics. Is a brigantine as a solo able to hold its ground in a naval battle? I cannot imagine making the swap, sloops are just so versatile and durable.

  • @cotu42 said in My Solo Brigantine Tips:

    @daringclarky

    You can still pvp.

    But not as directly as a sloop.

    Get them to chase you, pass a fort and grab the cannon there. Chain them and then sink them. Your ship will be safetly out of harms way but you can do it. Or use a rowboat and do some strategic kegging on unsuspecting ships.

    This is not a ship specific tactics, this is non-naval combat tactics. Is a brigantine as a solo able to hold its ground in a naval battle? I cannot imagine making the swap, sloops are just so versatile and durable.

    I never said they would be better than a sloop. But im just sharing tips to use.

    The intention of the thread is to give all the tips i have learned to help make the ship more comfortable.

    Every tip ive given has been tried and tested and works. Sloop is better in some areas agreed as is the brig. There are pros and cons.

    Against a competent crew, its not possible to directly fight in pvp in a solo brig unless you get lucky. Due to how fragile it is. But you can hit them and flee baiting them to chase you. Then you can finish them off as you pass a fort and keep your ship safe. Its worked a quite a few times for me in the past.

  • @daringclarky

    I use the land cannon defense as well, btw if you know island cannon positions it isn't limited to forts and that is more of a general tip than a brigantine specific one.

    That is however if you get chased or can bait them into it, if you want to contest or get contested at a FotD or other cloud events there isn't an incentive to chase you.

    Since you state that a brigantine is a vessel to use when you are not willing to contest islands and events, I will stick to my sloop 😎

  • @cotu42 Not all tips are brigantine specific. Im simply sharing every tip thats helped me make the brigantine more helpful and comfortable.

    Hope that makes sense now.

  • @daringclarky

    It is a pretty good list, I was just wondering if it was a viable option for naval combat or if in your experience it is just a bit much for one to handle.

    Only used the brig as a solo vessel for a little bit when it came out to try it out and swapped back to the sloop. On top of that my playstyle has become even less evasive than back then.

  • @cotu42
    Thank you.

    From what ive found. In a solo brigantine i can hunt PVE threats very well, use it as a voyage vessel and not worry about other ships as much.

    For pvp i have 2 options.
    I could use a rowboat and do sneak attacks and keep my brig as a distant basd of operations which is pretty cool.

    Or..
    I can attack directly with the brigantine but it never ends well haha. Brigantine solo is too much in pvp against conpetent crew.. HOWEVER thats only if you want your ship to survive.

    You could make your brig a fireship as a method of pvp. What you do is take a keg, use the brigs speed to catch the sloop, hop on with keg and use the keg to damage them. Scuttle when you get a chance and if they have loot, your rowboat is a short swim away from where their ship sank. Its worked a fair few times. Its totally suicidal but its good if you fancy a fight and dont plan to keep your ship. You can still walk away with their flag and loot, you just gotta kill everyone though. Its not very practical but if you really want their grade 5 flag its worth a shot.

    But you are right about one thing, you could just invite a crew when you see a ship you wanna take aswell :)

  • @daringclarky

    I consider myself victorious if my ship is still floating in most cases. I don't even necessarily need theirs to sink. My philosophy is that if my ship is still floating at the end, the spoils are mine to claim and my session will not come to an end.

    Not that I never used my ship as a decoy and voluntarily sent if off to make a rowboat escape. I have also claimed islands as my new domain after a sink while combating other crews for its treasures. Yet these are more situational calls.

    The presence of another crew has not been a deterrent for me in a long time. I claim the area around me as my own and need a ship that can help me to enforce my style/code, even if it glides a bit less quickly on the waves. Plus I simply really like naval combat.

  • @cotu42 Yeah i totally get it.
    The brigantine just cant compete with the sloop on a pvp standpoint as well as the sloop. It can do it but just not as well.

    If you solo a brig and wanna pvp and dont wanna sink your brig.
    All i think you can do is use rowboats for covert operations.... Blast past them and keg them (quite risky too) or just hope for the best and directly fight them but use cursed cannonballs to minimise the hits.

    It will be a headache and it wont be practical or easy but it will be a pretty fun and painful challenge at times.

    You have the benefit of being able to escape if it gets too much, only if you havent been chain shotted or anchorballed haha.

    Yeah pvp is tricky in a brig.
    Its fine against inexperienced players but i think id get owned against a competent sloop crew. But at least i can escape and use other tactics.

    I kinda feel like Han Solo being able to just escape and cross the map with ease. I think thats why i always choose her.

  • @wolfmanbush Maneuverability of sloop and brigantine and galleon is the same. Its forward speed that makes turns wider. So if you match sails you will get the same turns. 3/4 of front sail on brigantine will match sloop full sails (or as I prefer 1/4 front and 1/4 of back). A 1/4 of back sail on galleon will match sloop turns.

  • @jadescissors32 Interesting...
    i hadnt really noticed this.

  • Do smelly gals spawn on brigs? I'm a noob 0lease explain.

  • My tip is simple, don't do it.

    You trade more disadvantages than you do advantages. Neat, you got a faster ship, but everything scales accordingly. Bigger ships spawn on you, more intimidating Kraken wails on you, and player dealt ship damage can much more easily overwhelm you.

    You get what in return? Faster speed and cannons you can't even make do with? Brigs don't bail faster, and the fact that its longer means it will take much more time and effort to patch the ship than it would a sloop. Your ownly hope is to outrun players, but the stakes are even higher considering you have less wiggle room to make an error.

    I can say with certainty, that no undermanned Brig sunk me while I was slooping. The sloop is just a great ship, I will say that until the end. I will never understand how people think they are in on some secret op strategy with this, when you break down the pros and cons, they don't add up in favor of it.

  • @daringclarky I think everybody assume sloop is better just because they see its smaller. But this is game so mechanics are simple. I solo brigantine often simply because I find it most deadly ship on the SoT. I win plenty of solo battles too. With two sails set at 1/4 you get brig moving like sloop and if you get chain shoot is mostly one sail. I had a cannon battle with 3 man brig, while solo on brig, and I lured them at the island with tons of rocks around. I was maneuvering my ship around rocks and their ship while two players were trying to jump on board and third one was steering. Few cannon shots forced him to go repair, and that's where their ship started hitting rocks and finally sunk. I got their flag and couple things, while they were tossing angry slurs over voice comm from island. Funny they called me a noob , and yet they sunk with only few cannonball hits LOL.

  • @nabberwar said in My Solo Brigantine Tips:

    My tip is simple, don't do it.

    You trade more disadvantages than you do advantages. Neat, you got a faster ship, but everything scales accordingly. Bigger ships spawn on you, more intimidating Kraken wails on you, and player dealt ship damage can much more easily overwhelm you.

    You get what in return? Faster speed and cannons you can't even make do with? Brigs don't bail faster, and the fact that its longer means it will take much more time and effort to patch the ship than it would a sloop. Your ownly hope is to outrun players, but the stakes are even higher considering you have less wiggle room to make an error.

    I can say with certainty, that no undermanned Brig sunk me while I was slooping. The sloop is just a great ship, I will say that until the end. I will never understand how people think they are in on some secret op strategy with this, when you break down the pros and cons, they don't add up in favor of it.

    This thread isnt for that type of discussion mate.

    Its to share tips for would-be solo briggers who enjoy it and wanna make it easier.
    The pros and cons of sloop vs brig is well known.
    Thanks

  • @jadescissors32 said in My Solo Brigantine Tips:

    @daringclarky I think everybody assume sloop is better just because they see its smaller. But this is game so mechanics are simple. I solo brigantine often simply because I find it most deadly ship on the SoT. I win plenty of solo battles too. With two sails set at 1/4 you get brig moving like sloop and if you get chain shoot is mostly one sail. I had a cannon battle with 3 man brig, while solo on brig, and I lured them at the island with tons of rocks around. I was maneuvering my ship around rocks and their ship while two players were trying to jump on board and third one was steering. Few cannon shots forced him to go repair, and that's where their ship started hitting rocks and finally sunk. I got their flag and couple things, while they were tossing angry slurs over voice comm from island. Funny they called me a noob , and yet they sunk with only few cannonball hits LOL.

    Well played.
    Im not even gonna defend the brigantine on the forums anymore.
    The more people unaware of how awesome it is the less brigantines on the sea chasing us and more sloops we can easily evade! Haha

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