Ship combat

Ship combat is the essence of sailing in the Deadfire. Whether it's slaver scum, the Principi, or the Rauataians, you will have to confront enemy ships in battle on the open seas and defeat them - for experience, profit, and satisfaction.

Initiation
Ship encounters are started on the world map, once two ships come into contact. If the ship is hostile, you can transition to combat, close to board, or flee.

Patch 5.0.0 introduced a number of changes to the ship engagement UI. Prior to the patch, this occurred in a scripted interaction panel. Now it occurs directly on the map screen, and is extended depending whether you are in pursuit or being pursued, adding the ability to intimidate the enemy.


 * action_board.png Board: Board the enemy ship and engage them in deck-to-deck combat.
 * Skips ship combat and transitions immediately to close-quarters combat. This simulates ship combat, and will risk hull damage, sail damage and crew casualties (injuries and death).


 * action_fire.png Naval Combat: Engage in naval combat.
 * Begins ship combat

 Player pursuing enemy only 
 * action_intimidate.png Intimidate:
 * See Intimidate


 * action_parley.png Parley: Request parley and open trade.
 * Opens the trade window with the ship (only for merchant and slaver vessels).


 * action_leave.png Leave: Peacefully go your separate ways.
 * Leave the opponent be, exiting the pursuit window.

 Enemy pursuing player only 
 * action_leave.png Attempt to Flee: Attempt to escape. Failure will result in naval combat.
 * See Retreat


 * ic_ship_surrender.png Surrender: The enemy allows you to leave, but for a price.
 * See Surrender

There are two primary factors to consider when choosing whether to fight to run:
 * The size of the enemy ship: You do not want to tangle with a dedicated warship with a dhow. Even if you can deal damage, the cost to repair your own ship and heal up your crew, plus replace resources lost can put you under fast.
 * Your own status: Leaving behind a streak of sunk ships is nice, but running into another encounter with damaged hull and sails is far less pleasant. Make sure to keep the ship in good repair and stock up on cannonballs whenever you can.

Retreat
Successfully fleeing removes the enemy from the world map for a duration. Failing to flee starts ship combat at a initial duel distance of 300.

Should you choose to flee from a pursuing ship (either at engagement, or during combat) your chance to flee is calculated using: The formula is then:
 * Flee chance
 * The difference between the combat speed of each ship, clamped to ±75 (player - opponent).
 * The difference between the rank of each captain, clamped to ±5 (player - opponent).
 * A multiplier based on your current distance from the opponent (only if you flee during combat, fleeing at engagement is not affected by distance), calculated using  (you need a distance of 600m or more to not be negatively affected by the distance).

A roll between 0 and 1 is made, and if the result is <= the chance, the attempt to flee succeeds.

The base chance to flee is 45%. For each rank above the opponent, you get a bonus +3% chance to flee. For each point in speed above the opponent, you get a bonus +0.3% chance to flee. If the difference is negative (the opponent has a higher rank/speed than yours), this effect is inverted. Note that the chance to flee is limited to a range of 5% to 95%.

If your ship is the Rauatai submarine, fleeing is guaranteed (prior to patch 5.0.0, this was not the case).

You cannot flee if your current and maximum sail health is zero.

Surrender
To be spared by the enemy, you must pay a portion of your resources (money, food, drink, medicine, ammo, repair). This succeeds regardless of if you actually have the available resources or not. Prior to patch 5.0.0, surrendering was forced if you lacked a crew (regardless of if the opponent was hostile or not) - rejecting surrender immediately triggered a game over. Surrendering will result in:
 * -15% of current money (minimum of 500, rounded up to nearest integer).
 * -30% of current Food icon_ship_food.png and Drink icon_ship_water.png (minimum of 20, rounded up to nearest integer).
 * -30% of current icon_ship_ammunition.png Ammunition, icon_ship_health.png Medicine, and icon_ship_carpenter.png Repair (rounded up to nearest integer).
 * Gain 1 sailor tales.

Intimidate
Attempt to intimidate the opponent into giving up their goods. If you fail, you enter deck-to-deck combat. If you succeed, you gain a number of their resources (gold, food, and drink):
 * Money, calculated with
 * A calculated amount of stacks of Food icon_ship_food.png and Drink icon_ship_water.png, using
 * Food stacks - Fresh Fruit (always, between 20 and 40).
 * Drink stacks - One of the following: Water (10-15), Ale (3-7), Grog (1-3), Rum (1-3)
 * Average negative reputation (-4) with the faction of the intimidated ship.

Intimidate chance Intimidating a ship in pursuit is not based on random chance, unlike fleeing. It is determined using: The formula is then:
 * The difference between the rank of each captain, clamped to ±5 (player - opponent).
 * The difference between the number of defenders on each ship. The number of "defenders" on the player ship is essentially all available companions, plus all available crew members. The number of defenders on the enemy ship varies depending on the ship, as well as the current difficulty. The difference is clamped to between -23 and 10.

In order to successfully intimidate, the resulting value must be greater than 0.

Hostility
Ships belonging to a faction are generally friendly and can be sailed past without worry. However if you have a poor reputation with said faction (-3 or less) they'll become hostile when you sail past them on the world map. In addition to avoiding them altogether, you also have the option to fool certain factions' ships by flying their colors. Though keep in mind that this can have the opposite effect too, as some ships will actively hunt down ships that fly the colors of an opposing faction.

The following captains become hostile given a specific set of conditions. Captains belonging to one of the above factions will be hostile if either condition evaluates as true.

Execution
Unlike regular combat, fights between ships are resolved in a turn based system. Ships start a good distance away from each other (typically a few hundred meters) and the captains decide what action to take.

Both ships have 3 turns each round. At the start of each round, one ship wins the Advantage at random. The roll is modified by each captain's rank and the ship's combat speed. The ship with Advantage acts first for the round, has increased cannon range, and 50% bonus movement speed.

Each turn is divided into a few possible actions. These are:
 * "Brace for impact" was removed in Patch 5.0 (The Ultimate), and was replaced with "Give no Quarter!" and "Retreat!"

Combat resources
On "story time" difficulty, the hull and sail health of the enemy is reduced to 66% of the total (x0.66), and on easy difficulty it is reduced to 80% (x0.8).

Movement
Movement and positioning is a crucial part of ship combat. Your position relative to the enemy determines the accuracy of your shots, and the likelihood that you will be hit by incoming shots. Charging full speed at an enemy might seem like a good idea, but opens you up to raking fire - where incoming shots travel across the length of your ship.

You may only move (full sail, half sail, and ramming speed) if you have at least 1 deckhand, and may only perform a turning maneuver (port, starboard, jibe) if you have a helmsman. If a ship's sails are destroyed, the ship cannot perform a turning maneuver, or move at full sail.

Combat speed

The speed travelled during combat is determined using the following factors:
 * The base combat speed of the type of ship. Generally bigger ships will move slower.
 * Galleon: 40, Junk: 45, Sloop: 50, Submarine: 50, Dhow: 55, Voyager: 60, Longship: 70


 * Any ship upgrades that add to the combat speed.
 * If the ship has advantage (see above), this gives a +20 to combat speed.
 * If the ship is doing a full sail or half sail movement. Half sail movements will half the base combat speed.
 * If the amount of total deckhand ranks is less than the minimum required deckhand ranks of this ship type, the combat speed is halved (applied after upgrade bonuses but before advantage)

Hit chance and accuracy

 * Hit chance is the chance of being hit (also called defensive hit chance).
 * Accuracy determines the chance of hitting the target (also called offensive hit chance).

The chance that a shot will hit is determined with:. If the resulting value is > 100, the shot hits.

Before combat
 * Each type of ship has a different hit chance.
 * Each rank in cannoneer increases accuracy by 5.

In combat
 * Hit chance is affected by last action.
 * Movement (Full Sail / Half Sail):  hit chance.
 * Maneuver (Turn / Jibe): -5 hit chance.
 * Accuracy is affected by last action, the cannons, as well as the relative position of the ships.
 * Turn: -10 Accuracy only if the Helmsman does not meet the minimum required ranks for the ship type.
 * Jibe: -30 Accuracy, an additional -10 if the Helmsman is incompetent (as above)
 * Hold position: +20 Accuracy.
 * The target ship is in parallel with your firing line: a raking fire, -10 Accuracy, +50% Sail/Hull Damage, +100% Crew Damage.
 * If the distance between the ships is out of the recommended range, accuracy is decreased proportionally but is reduced if you have Advantage in that round.
 * If you have advantage, the max ideal range for each cannon increased by 20%.
 * If the distance is below the minimum ideal range, accuracy is penalized by
 * If the distance is above the maximum ideal range, accuracy is penalized by
 * No accuracy bonus or penalty is given if if the distance is within the ideal range
 * The enemy ship gets a permanent -15 accuracy if the difficulty is Story Time.

Fire!
Cannons are fired in groups, based on the side of the ship they occupy (port, starboard, aft and fore). Cannons may only be fired if they are pointing at the enemy, and are manned by a crew member. Each gun requires 1 ammunition to fire per shot, and can be loaded with 3 types of ammunition, with the exception of fire-based weapons which use a special "fire" ammunition:
 * shipFire_cannonball.png Cannonballs nearly always hit an enemy ship's hull and have a low chance of dealing sail damage or belowdeck crew damage.
 * shipFire_chainshot.png Chainshot targets an enemy ship's sail and has a low chance of dealing abovedeck crew damage.
 * shipFire_grapeshot.png Grapeshot targets an enemy ship's abovedeck crew and has a low chance of dealing sail damage.
 * shipFire_fire.png Fire-based ammunition has a high chance of setting an enemy's ship's sails or deck alight.

Fire-based weapons (such as the Wyrmtongue and Magranite Firethrower) are their own type, and will not change even if you choose another type of shot. They have an equally split chance of dealing damage to the hull and sails, as well as to the above deck and below deck crews.

If hit, your attack will cause one of these damage types:
 * Hull damage: Once hull health reach 0, the ship sinks.
 * Sail damage: Once sail health reach 0, the ship can't turn, jibe, or sail at full speed.
 * Crew damage:
 * Helmsman (abovedeck): The ship can't turn or jibe.
 * Deckhand (abovedeck): The ship can't sail at full speed, or can't sail at all, depending on the total rank of deckhands.
 * Surgeon (belowdeck): Resting crew won't heal.
 * Cannoneer (belowdeck): The cannons they're in charge of can't fire.
 * Injured crew can't be assigned to resolve events.
 * If you board the enemy ship and switch to deck-to-deck combat, the enemy injured crew will be treated as knocked out.

It is important to note that the cannon damage (shown when hovering over a cannon) only applies when damage is dealt to hull or sails. If damage is dealt to the abovedeck or belowdeck crew, the damage is always 1, i.e. one crew member receives an injury as a result of cannon fire. The exception to this is Haeferic's Nose, which always injures two crew members.

On each successful attack on the enemy ship's hull, there is a 1% chance to hit their powder reserves. Doing so will immediately sink the enemy ship, ending the ship duel.

Report to...
This can be used to reassign your crew. Use this action to treat your crew injuries or deal with Ship duel events. Note that assigning ship duel events to your crew makes them unavailable, but their post is unchanged.

After combat ends, your reassignment will still be in effect. At which point:
 * Any resting crew gains no experience.
 * If a crew member gains a rank, they will gain rank in their last assigned post.

Crew injuries
Your crew may be injured as a result of successful attacks from the enemy ship (specifically attacks targeting crew), and even during ship-based scripted interactions outside of combat. Injured crew cannot take any action. For example, if your cannoneer is injured, you won't be able to fire the cannon they're in charge of.

During combat, use the "Report to..." action to move them to resting/reserve area. You'll need a surgeon to treat your crew's injuries. The treatment during combat is only emergency treatment so that they can return to work.

Crew injuries persist after combat and take several days to heal depending on the type of injury. Injured crew will yield a -2 Morale loss upon injury, and for every consecutive day they remain working in an injured state. You can heal an injured crew member by moving them to a reserve slot, which will use 5 Medicine per day. With a more proficient surgeon, the amount of days required to heal crew is reduced.

Ship duel events
During ship combat, a number of events can occur as a result of being critically hit by an opposing ships cannon fire. These events often cause immediate (or per turn) sail damage, hull damage, crew damage or resource loss, and can be resolved over a certain amount of turns otherwise your ship will continue to be negatively affected.

Resolving an event simply means transferring available crew away from their stations to the event in order to address the issue. This can be done with the "Report to..." action. The more crew members that are assigned to the event, the faster it will be resolved - though a maximum of 4 crewmembers can be assigned to deal with the event at one time. For each crewmember assigned to the event, amount of progress per turn made towards resolving the event is increased by one. For example for a Deck Fire (which takes 12 turns to resolve) takes one crewmember 12 turns ( and  ), two crew 6 turns (  and  ), and three crew 4 turns (  and  ).

With a skilled boatswain on board, the progress per turn is multiplied. For example, with a novice boatswain and two crew members assigned to the event (2 total, not including the boatswain), the progress per turn is, taking 5 turns using the same example. See Ship crew - Job rank bonuses for an overview of job bonuses. The boatswain does not need to be assigned to the event for this bonus to apply.

Multiple events can be applied to the ship to a maximum of 4 active events at once, and with no duplicate events. Some events will supersede others.

Every cannon hit has a chance of being a critical hit, and therefore triggering an event. The crit chance is solely determined by the rank of the Cannoneer manned to the cannon being fired. See Ship crew - Job rank bonuses for more info.

The events Damaged Hull and Damaged Sails do not occur as a result of critical hits, and are instead applied when the hull health and sail health (respectively) goes below 50%. In addition, some events only occur as a result of certain damage types (currently only hull or sails). Fire-based cannons (Magranite Firethrower and Rathun Fireshot), excluding the Wyrmtongue can only trigger Deck Fire and Sail Fire events, while all other cannons can trigger all events (with the exception of the "Damaged" events).

Enemy ships do not simulate duel events (only the player ship has to deal with them), though they are affected by the damage caused by events, and changes in stats.

Conclusion
Combat can come to a conclusion in a few different ways:
 * Retreat: Only available before initiating combat. If the ship is non-hostile, this will not result in negative effects or morale loss.
 * Surrender: Can be chosen at any time during combat, though you will have to pay the price. The enemy ship will demand a portion of your supplies to let you free.
 * Fled: Occurs if either ship travels more than 600 meters from the other. Fleeing from an inferior enemy results in -10 crew morale. Enemy ships are only likely to flee if they are inferior, or are merchant ships.
 * Sunk: This occurs when a ships hull health reaches zero.
 * If The Defiant sinks, you and your party are dead and you'll be forced to reload a save. Note that on "Story Time" difficulty, the player ship cannot be sunk.
 * If the enemy ship sinks, you are victorious. This net you morale, crew experience, crew ranks, and a random set of loot - usually an assortment of food, drink, coin, and ship upgrades. Instead of stashing the coin gained, you can choose to share it with the crew for a morale bonus, depending on the amount gained. Move the coin from the loot box to your stash to share only a portion of the coin.
 * Defeat: After boarding (or being boarded by) the enemy ship.
 * If The Defiant is defeated, this is the same as defeat in regular combat. You can choose to re-load the autosave from when you boarded, or one prior.
 * If the enemy ship is defeated you gain the same as above, but usually more of it. The loot from the defeated crew members (including clothing, armor and weapons) will also be among the recovered loot.

Discounts

 * The Shipwright's Plight gives you 10% discount at the port shop in Neketaka.
 * Splintered Reef has a permanent 10% discount. You can use the port shop without having to fight or complete the associated quests.
 * Every point of positive reputation with a faction gives you a -5% discount at any faction store:
 * Max reputation with the Vailian Trading Company will give you a 15% discount at the port shop in Port Maje.
 * Max reputation with the Príncipi sen Patrena will give you a 15% discount at the port shop in Dunnage.
 * Max reputation with the Royal Deadfire Company will give you a 15% discount at the port shop in Sayuka and Uto's Gunsmithy.

Quest rewards
At the beginning, you won't have much money, so you'll have to deck out your ship with rewards from quests:
 * Completing The Shipwright's Plight gives you the option to buy 4 Iron Thunderers at a significant discount of all up ( if you have Rational 2 disposition).
 * A Sinking Feeling and A Bigger Fish gives you Bardatto Hull and Valera Sails respectively. But their concurrent quest Family Pride should also be dealt with immediately.

Beginner build

 * Buy a Vailian Hullbreaker in Port Maje before and after the digsite for each.
 * Get Haeferic's Nose for free by visiting Neketaka (only if you bound the souls during The White Forge in The White March - Part I).
 * Buy a Royal Bronzer from Uto's Gunsmithy in the Brass Citadel or from Sayuka for.
 * With these four guns you can fire-jibe-hold repeatedly and sink nearly every ship using the starting sloop. It is important that you hold position before firing as this nets you +20 accuracy, which is very big in the beginning.

Flamethrower build
This build focuses on minimizing cost while allowing you to complete ship bounties.

It is possible to complete Bounty - Rock-Stomper Rodul with minimum build but you'll want to train your cannoneers by defeating the easier targets first.

Note that this build specializes in taking down bigger ship: Dhow, Galleon, Junk, especially Dhow. It has harder times taking down Voyager and even if you win, the booty is not so good. You'll want to hunt down Dhow for some better booty. The water around Crookspur has a lot of aggressive slaver ships.


 * Build
 * Ship: Default (Dyrwoodan Sloop).
 * Sails: Valera Sails.
 * Hull: Bardatto Hull, preferably The Red Dream.
 * Port cannons: 2 × Iron Thunderer, preferably Wyrmtongue.
 * Starboard cannons: 2 × Magranite Firethrower.

The minimum cost for this build is :
 * Complete The Shipwright's Plight.
 * Complete A Sinking Feeling.
 * Complete A Bigger Fish.
 * Buy 2 × Magranite Firethrower.

Extra costs:
 * Buying The Red Dream costs extra without discount.
 * Buying 2 × Wyrmtongue costs extra with discount.

Versus Voyager or Longship.
 * Combat
 * Attack from a distance with port cannons (Iron Thunderer or Wyrmtongue).
 * Longship (Rathun) generally has high combat speed and tends to charge right at you. Stop your ship outside the range of your cannons and wait for it to come then fire, aiming at their sails first.
 * Voyager, on the other hand, may try to flee when they're at disadvantage. Similarly aim for their sails first, or don't let them get further than 400m.

Versus other ship types.
 * Approach the enemy ship and maintain a distance of 75m-150m, optimally 100m. Then bombard it with starboard cannons (Magranite Firethrower).
 * The recommended range for Magranite Firethrower is 0m-75m, but if you approach too close, the enemy will try to ram you and bring it to deck-to-deck combat. Of course, if you're sure they won't do that, you should approach as close as you can.
 * If you manage to destroy their sail, they'll be incapable of turning, so approach as close to 0m as you can.
 * If the enemy turns the bow of their ship to you, be careful and take some distance.
 * If the enemy turns the stern of their ship to you, try to take out their sails. If you succeed, your victory is guaranteed (as you as you don't run out of cannonballs).

Versus Fyrgist's ship - The Heaving Harlot. This Junk's decked out with powerful cannons and manned by high level crew. It can be a challenging combat. You'll want your crew at maximum possible rank and some luck.
 * The enemy's portside has 3 × Vailian hullbreaker and 2 × Double bronzer. If they turn these cannons at you, run as far as you can. Getting hit by these can sink your puny sloop in one shot.
 * The enemy's starboard has 3 × Imperial long gun, 2 × Wyrmtongue. If they turn these cannons at you, approach and duke it out with them. The Imperial long guns have a high chance of missing, but the Wyrmtongues can be a problem. Your Magranite Firethrowers still have the advantage in damage output so you can win with some luck.
 * First, let's assume the enemy will use starboard cannons, your chance of winning is slim otherwise.
 * Approach the ship, aiming for 75m distance.
 * Start the combat by normally aiming at the hull. After a few rounds, if it looks like you can quickly take out their sails, switch your target to the sails, destroy it, then approach as close you can. You'll want to take out their sails or sink them while they're still using starboard cannons.
 * You'll probably lose the first few times so remember to save before trying.
 * You'll get Kapana Taga if you win.