After the anniversary update with the new damage system taking out a ghost ship while solo has obviously gotten harder. I know taking them solo is supposed to be hard but i used to be able to do it somewhat effectively. Now they seem to be able to hit the mast/capstan and rinse me and im struggling to take them down anymore. Any tips? Im open to just accepting a solo battle is futile now as well
Ghost ships tips
@termin8a
Grind hard up against/beside them and turn into them maintaining the same speed. This will hopefully put a hole or 2 in your ship. Bucket water out of your ship and into theirs. They will shoot you with their guns but not cannonballs.
Easy!@hynieth i got lucky in devils roar with that tactic. gunpowder and then they beached so i was able to just bucket water onto their ship from the island hahaha
@termin8a even with the new damage the premises to take down a skeleton ship alone is the same.
- Approach them as close as possible so they cannot shoot at you, Ram them, bail water from your ship to theirs.
- Use the Harpoons!
What is really difficult/impossible is Ship Raids when we have more than one skeleton ship at the same time. Because even if we approach one we still have the other shooting us from afar.
In this situation my only advise is to avoid to go there solo.
I can't do it...Even with a crew, I would advise to go there with a great stock of Gunpowders. And use them a lot!
@timboagogo said in Ghost ships tips:
@termin8a
Grind hard up against/beside them and turn into them maintaining the same speed. This will hopefully put a hole or 2 in your ship. Bucket water out of your ship and into theirs. They will shoot you with their guns but not cannonballs.
Easy!This is my solo tactic too. After locking on and matching speed, i also steer away for 1 or 2 seconds, just to create 1 or 2 metres of space, then ram them again to create extra holes. With the expanded ship damage, 1 small hole can take forever to fill a ship, so 3 or 4 holes is quite managable.
The extra holes also benefit by reducing the time for potential players and megs to attack, and reducing the time the sniper has to use all your bananas. Dont forget to jump on their ship and take their CCBs while locked on :)
@nunoazuldimeter
Agreed. Fleets are just about impossible now while solo. Even duo is ridiculous. I find the best tactics involve sailing blindly away from the event while repairing, then sailing back in....like a coward.@nunoazuldimeter said in Ghost ships tips:
What is really difficult/impossible is Ship Raids when we have more than one skeleton ship at the same time. Because even if we approach one we still have the other shooting us from afar.
In this situation my only advise is to avoid to go there solo.
I can't do it...I managed to solo a fleet on a brig with the new ship damage. Was dinking around waiting for the wife to join and just did quick passes through the combat zone from end to end taking shots and keeping the anchor up. Quick repair when I reached out the other side, then went back through.
Took a bit of time, but doable :)
@nunoazuldimeter Wife was showering and I finished when she got done, so I'd say 45-60m or so? I believe there was 3 sloops and 4 galleons.
@archangel-timmy Aye, it took a lot for my taste. 😅
60 min for a raid of 5/6 ships...You say you just passed the raid zone side to side, shooting and patching?
I'll try that next time.@nunoazuldimeter It isn't something I would normally do as it isn't very efficient at all, lol. I was just killing time loading the ship at Sancuary waiting for the wife to get on when I saw the cloud North of Sailors Bounty, figured why not?
I just cut through the battle zone firing away and repairing as I sailed out the other side. It was easier to cut through along the outer edges as the ships would only be on one side rather then peg me from both.
I have found sailing upto a small high rock / island and anchoring with your bow close to it works well.
When the Ghost Ship comes around the Island you can keep it under sustained fire. It will mainly target the rear of the ship where the holes are less critical.
As it passes the rear of your ship you can patch anything critical and prepare to engage from the other side when the ship comes back into range.
When it travels around the island you can repair back to 100% and resupply.
How do you manage this solo? Normally if you swim toward a Ghost Ship it will turn hostile and sail off before you can get onboard. Assuming you do get onboard, I would have thought there would be a high probability that your own ship will be sunk before you can get back to repair it.
@termin8a It is doable, soloed one fleet yesterday, another today.
Sail at the edge of the fleet's playground so you can quickly disengage if need be. Sail from side to side and in corridors inbetween the waves that makes skellies spawn on top of the waves and you get easy shot below their waterline. It's possible to sink a galleon or sloop in 10 shots and less if you hit lowerdeck well.
To beat a roaming skelly just pull up next to them as they're sailing from island to island or standing by one, match the speed and start putting holes to lowerdeck, then turn away and let them chase you upwind. When they're behind you chasing and no longer firing slow down and slightly turn they will keep turning into you and in effect face your cannon.
You can also attack them from behind while sailing but that requires more effort to maneuver and jump from cannon to wheel and back constantly in order to adjust turns and fire.If you get into deathzone in front of gally's cannons... use cursed balls on the crew or turn away and run or pray.
Also, if you don't feel like sinking skellies on open sea with maneuvers and cannons only, consider using...
- islands/rocks for cover
- gp barrels for more bang
- megalodon as your frenemy
- storm as your battleground
- ram and bucket
Wish you success.
@biter-wylie That's where the island comes in, if you aggro a ship while near an island it will circle the whole island, so you have ample time to board and boom it ^_^
@biter-wylie if your really lucky they ram the island and get stuck just be careful they still fire back
@hynieth I've just discovered the same tactic and it's now worked three times in a row, although I had been doing something slightly different.
- I would park next to an island (the skelly ship will circumnavigate the island rather than your boat giving you time to repair your boat between passes)
- Then jump off your boat with a powder barrel and intercept them whilst they are sailing around the island
- set it off on their lower deck (I've been having brief trip to the ferry at this point after blowing myself up too)
- respawn on your boat, fix holes and repeat. Normally 2 or 3 barrels do the trick.
But I'm gonna try out your suggestion of running to the bow to avoid the blast and defending the holes
@pithyrumble said in Ghost ships tips:
Play in the red to get the fleets to back off if you need a breather. I haven't been able to get a random spawn to follow me yet. Anyone been able to lure one into the red yet?
Do you mean red sea? Skellies won't go there, they will either turn around or dive into the sea.
I did my first successful solo Skelly Fleet Battle the other day. I’d only tried a couple of times since Cursed Sails. With the latest update, it’s a bit easier (no constant anchor drops). I got a Galleon, then two sloops, then two Galleons. I did sink twice during the final wave, but had fortunate respawns.
Raising the sail to half and doing a fairly tight circle can help. If you get knocked off, you can more easily get back to your ship that way. You can adjust the circle to focus on one ship. When they ram, bail water into them. If there are two, the circle can sometimes lead to them to hitting one another.
Frankly, I was surprised that I got as far as I did without sinking in the first two waves. I brought 8 GP kegs and ended up never using them. I’m looking forward to doing more and earning my bone crusher capstan and wheel.
@entspeak Impressive for your first to have been done after the added damaged is seriously impressive.
I remember battling for a good couple of hours to do my first one solo. This was shortly after cursed sails. Only for a server merge at the end as the loot was floating. I think I got one sea fareres chest (I didn't rush to get the good stuff, as it was quiet at the time) I am a big enough man to say I cried a little that night.
Also taught me no matter what...grab the good stuff first
@badassfro It was the end of the night and my stream. I had a ton of resources and was turning in some loot from my Kraken encounter. Was going to call it, but saw the cloud and a friend offered to join me. So, I thought, why not. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the game to launch, so I said, “Time to tilt at windmills!” I honestly thought I’d be done in the first wave.
@entspeak said in Ghost ships tips:
@badassfro It was the end of the night and my stream. I had a ton of resources and was turning in some loot from my Kraken encounter. Was going to call it, but saw the cloud and a friend offered to join me. So, I thought, why not. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the game to launch, so I said, “Time to tilt at windmills!” I honestly thought I’d be done in the first wave.
Savor that glorious feeling and allow yourself to feel proud, it's well justified!
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