Ghost galleon vs solo sloop.... when there are ghost sloops

@italicroom10598 I agree skelly sloops should spawn on player sloops but roaming and emergent skelleons came out with the same patch as the skelly sloops. They may be working more on the sloops knowing they would have some bugs. They may not be ready to be used outside the battle. I have faith they will eventually bring the skelly sloops out and have them in the rest of the world though.

When it comes to fighting skelleons on a solo sloop, they can be difficult. I've been shot off my ship before like you. I've been killed by cannons and snipers. I've even been clipped through my ship into the water by the skelleons figurehead. Also occasionally I'll be stunlocked by curses. They definitely have ways of ruining your day. However they do have weaknesses.

The most obvious is the unskilled helmsman always running into stuff. Try to use the environment to your advantage, either in making them hit stuff to cause damage, or to give you cover. They are not smart, they just try to position themselves next to you to fire on you, or if you are going too slow, they sail circles around you constantly peppering your ship.

Green cursed cannonballs are usually forgotten about while fighting a ship but they are very useful against skellys. They can't fire at you or repair their holes if they are dancing, sleeping, or puking. Shoot off 4 or 5 cannonballs and then use a green ball to stunlock them. A few seconds of them unable to do things can help get the water level up to the second deck or keep them from putting cannonballs into yours.

Try to grind your ship against theirs. Most of the time they won't even fire at you because you are below their range of fire. Hitting them initially will put a hole or two in each ship and yes they will repair theirs, but you can use your hole to bucket water into their deck repeatedly. You might need to adjust your wheel and sails to stay grinding against their ship but you essentially stop taking cannon shots from them while slowly raising the water level in their ship and keeping your water level down at the same time. Two days ago I was sunk, so I swam over and bucketed water from the sea into their ship until they sank. Then brought my rowboat over to collect all the treasure. Water from the sea doesn't fill it as fast as water from your own ship though.

They try to keep you in their cannon fire indefinitely. They always want to be shooting at you. That's where you need to avoid their shots. Use the sloops strongest attribute and maneuver your ship out of their fire. Try to zig zag back and forth behind them. Turning the opposite way of them and continually putting cannonballs into the back of their ship. Unlike player ships, skelly ships slow down with more and more water on them. A half full skelly ship is like a sitting duck and you're about to blast it in the face with a cannonball. A couple days ago I had one close to being sank and I was literally sailing circles around it. Most of the time its bow was pointed directly at me so it could not get a shot. It gave me time to repair, restock, and bucket. Eventually I put my last few shots into it and it went down. A nearby sloop watched the battle and later on talked about how I had taken it down like a beast.

Most everyone knows to hit a galleon on the lower deck since the mid deck won't fill with water until the lower deck has. People tend to overlook the fact that if a ship is beached, water won't get in at all. You can put 100 cannonballs into one but it's not going to sink if it's not in the water. You put one cannonball into it to ensure you get credit for it, then you either wait for it to despawn, bucket water onto it, or use a keg to try to push it back into the water. If it's possible to reach the ladder you could manually search the ship and steal the loot one at a time. Usually I just hit it with a shot and wait for it to despawn. Unless the hole I put in it is underwater and it's actually taking on water. Then I will hit that spot once every 10 seconds or so.

Skelleons in a solo sloop can be easy sometimes but they can also wreck you. I've had it end up both ways. They are not impossible or even unfair, they just take a different strategy to successfully sink. You can't just rely on putting holes in them until they go down, you have to have a good defensive strategy to combat the galleons main strength, it's firepower.

Each time one sinks you, think about how it sank you. What it did exactly that caused you to sink. Think about what you did in that battle to let it capitalize on your situation and do what it did to sink you. Think about other options you had at that moment and what might have worked better to keep them from getting the upper hand. I've found that sitting next to an island is a bad idea. They are circling you and will fire on you a ton. I don't do that anymore. Try to analyze each battle you don't win and find your fault to learn and improve from it. Learn how a solo slooper has to fight since they can't fight the same way as bigger ships with more people. Once you get that knowledge and that experience, and you figure out your strategy, you will be sinking skelleons single handedly and you will feel like a true pirate.

@italicroom10598 I used to think the same as you and always complain. but its a skill thing. these days i seek out every ghost ship i see and sink it. dont try out play it in sailing angles. either slow down and get real close which will make their guns shoot over you. or if you have plenty of planks just anchor. when anchored they circle you like megalodons. -- you will take a beating, but without needing to drive the ship there is plenty of time to repair and shoot back.

It's still hard solo, but its totally doable.