There's just no possible way to kill a skeleton ship solo/duo with how many canon balls they're ship can take plus how many specialty balls they fire with the added bonus of their inability to miss, literally just got hit by 15 grog balls in one fight making it impossible to fight back or even repair ship. and after landing 8+ cannon shots on their hull and not even close to sinking the pirate ship. Even with a 4 man the ship can still take 10+ cball shots plus 2 powdered kegs and maybe start sinking. It just makes fighting them not worth it cause the loot they drop is usually garbage compared to hunting meg or kraken. Not saying they need to be nerfed to the ground just make them actually sinkable w/o having to waste 20+ planks and 40+ cballs to make a dent and maybe give them only 5 special shot of each ball or something
Skeleton Ships way too Over Powered
Personally I feel that the threat should scale similar to how the Kraken works.
As its mostly unavoidable, I think that the summoned ships that appear should either be slightly easier for sloops or perhaps the sloop skeleton ships should appear for them and give less rewards for the challenge.
Ships that already exist in the world should remain as difficult as they are since you have only yourself to blame for sailing too close to one of these.
@chanimal44 sorry to hear you had a bad time, but I don't agree with your conclusion that the ships are to difficult.
As a solo sloop I go out on big game hunting and skeleton ships are perfectly doable (have over 100 sunk at the moment and take out one almost every session at a minimum). We even have a pirate on the seas that solo killed 500 of them.
You might need to analyze your approach, there a couple of good guides out there that can help you out.
I would love a more varied skeleton ship type that could pop up, but I would be disappointed if it would be limited based on the ship type you have.
@cotu42 I, like you, don't struggle that much. I agree with you that its within a reasonably good sailors means to thwart the skeleton ships with relative ease, with some guides or understanding.
However, objectively I still feel its poor experience for newer/ less able sailors, particularly those without a crew size of 3 or 4 to rely on as a crutch. The game throws you from safety to full hellfire within a minutes notice, without any sort of way to practise or learn within the context of the game.
The result is they have to sink, and sink, until they learn. Many of us were already decent sailors before they introduced the cursed sails, given the chance to develop the skills necessary in a safer environment.
Like I alluded to earlier and in earlier posts, this all because the game forces it upon you with its RNG summons, if they were hazards in the world to be challenged or avoided then the player has some agency in their fate.
I would even have less of an issue with it if Order of Souls voyages sometimes gave you small scale ship events to partake in that scaled with reputation. Just something to train up people into having the skills necessary to counter the threat.
edit
I may have drifted off topic, apologies!
@chanimal44 They sure can be a menace, but far from unsinkable. The right tactics and approach are all you need.
Keep at it and sooner or later you'll find they're actually quite manageable.
Here's a few tips I came up with that might help you deal with them a little easier.
https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/76802/skelly-ships-solo-players-need-not-fear-them
Good luck, matey!
@macdoland well, all pirates are equal and have access to pretty much all content from day one.
The downside of this is that the game can be overwhelming. I wouldn't mind if Rare would consider reducing the spawn rates based on what they current voyage is on the table or something along those lines to provide unguided pirates a less intense experience.
All pirates will eventually have to learn to survive the challenges the sea provides and it usually is by sinking that provide the best lessons.
Games are about loss and wins. We cannot always win, else how are we going to improve? It is overcoming the challenges that make you feel good when you finally defeat it.
When Duo sloopin', my sloopmate and I always do the same routine that seems to work out for us most of the time.
As soon as the music chime goes, we raise sails, my buddy heads downstairs and prepares to repair and bucket.
I head up the crows nest and get a gunpowder keg. When the ship rises I immediately jump off the opposite side of the sloop from it and swim away. By the time I reach a good distance and baring any obstacles, usually the skeleton ship has rotated around and I climb aboard.
From there I just run downstairs drop the keg, and move to the far end. Normally that kills most of the skeletons on the bottom floor, I just mop up the survivors. From there its usually quite easy to keep the repairing skeletons from doing their jobs.
If you run out of bananas you can usually find some in the barrel on the floor above.
Rarely do we ever need to fire a single shot at them.
@chanimal44 sagte in Skeleton Ships way too Over Powered:
There's just no possible way to kill a skeleton ship solo/duo with how many canon balls they're ship can take plus how many specialty balls they fire with the added bonus of their inability to miss, literally just got hit by 15 grog balls in one fight making it impossible to fight back or even repair ship. and after landing 8+ cannon shots on their hull and not even close to sinking the pirate ship. Even with a 4 man the ship can still take 10+ cball shots plus 2 powdered kegs and maybe start sinking. It just makes fighting them not worth it cause the loot they drop is usually garbage compared to hunting meg or kraken. Not saying they need to be nerfed to the ground just make them actually sinkable w/o having to waste 20+ planks and 40+ cballs to make a dent and maybe give them only 5 special shot of each ball or something
Me and my gf did the whole ship raid on a sloop when the Cursed Sails was there...there were no CCB and the supplies were capped-100 per barrel...and there were 5 waves instead of 3...wasn't a real problem
Never tried the raid alone, but single skeleton ships are very easy on a solo sloop...when the music starts get your supplies and look where they are coming from, than quickly ram them and try to stick next to them, than just bail water onto them...they're finished within a minute
Here's the thing, if we go back in time during the Cursed Sails event where people did the Ship cloud. At that time skeleton ships were this new thing, it was understandable that they were a challenge then, with the waves of ships sometimes two at a time. Strategies have formed since then, and now we talk about how challenging a single ship is.
When it comes down to it, if a sloop could handle the event back then solo/duo, you can handle a single ship. I understand they can be hard at first, but take some strategies from here and apply them ingame. A single ship should be easily manageable.
@chanimal44 Here's the strategy that I have been using that has proven to be very effective. It takes a little bit of time to kill them but it's a very safe way to do it. I'm hoping to make a video of it soon, just need some more footage.
- As soon as you hear the music start playing that indicates a skeleton ship is about to attack, head for the closest island. Bigger islands are better.
- You want to park your ship in shallow water close to the island to use it as cover. The important thing is to not get knocked off your ship while you approach. The safest way is to wait below deck and then drop your anchor when you are close to the island, but you can also simply raise the sails (more chance to get knocked off).
- Once you are close to the island, the skeleton ship will begin to circle it. Your first priority is to patch any holes you may have acquired on the way in. If you parked by dropping anchor, immediately raise your sails & anchor after patching. Turn your ship so that your cannons are facing out towards the sea (and the other side facing the island).
- The skeleton ship will only shoot at you when it has line-of-sight. If the island is big enough, or has enough cover, this will only happen when they are on the same side of the island as you. While the skeleton ship is in your firing window (the angle at which your cannons can hit it without moving the ship), light up the ship with cannonballs spread across the hull, below the water line. Do not stop firing unless it's an emergency or you are hit with a peace-ball.
- Once the skeleton ship leaves your firing window, head below deck. If the skeleton ship is stilling able to hit your bottom deck, do not patch, only bail the water. Once the skeleton ship is no longer able to hit you, patch the holes and then bail. If you are close enough to the island, and there aren't a lot of waves, the holes under the canopy (in the back) should not leak any water, so you can ignore them.
- Once you are repaired, restock on all your supplies, and get ready at the cannon for the next pass of the skeleton ship.
Repeat 4-6 until it sinks. This strategy works because it gives you a window of time to breathe and focus only on repairs, and also a window of time when you should only focus on offense. It takes longer to kill the ship, but it's very safe. The alternative, if you aren't able to make it to an island, is to steer your ship into the skeleton ship and "hug" it as long as possible. Bail your water onto the skeleton ship to make it sink.
@xcalypt0x that's some nice strategy...but for me too time consuming, with ramming them and bailing water onto them it's done in a minute...but for beginners it's probably a good tactic to learn
