Your journey takes you to many different islands, so it’s necessary to have a ship. Once you leave your home island of Kephallonia, you have access to a ship. Head to the upper deck, where you can take command of your ship, steering it to your destination. You can either use the rowers, which is slower and useful for exploring locations and for combat, or you can bring in the oars and open up the sails to trigger travel speed. Travel speed is much faster and is useful for traveling long distances. When you approach major ports or harbors, you can have the ship automatically dock, allowing for easy transition to the mainland. If you are ever at any port that your ship is not docked at, you can summon your ship to that port. While on board, you can access ship-based missions from the message board located at the base of the main mast. Use these missions to gain valuable resources, experience, and money.
Ship-to-Ship Combat
There are many vessels in the open water, not all of them friendly. Pirate ships will always attack you on sight. Merchant ships, on the other hand, have no combat capability. However, if you attack a merchant ship, you raise your bounty meter. If you are currently being hunted by a mercenary, they will pursue you out onto the open water with their own ship. The Athenian and Spartan navy ships will typically ignore you unless current quest objectives make them your adversaries.
Ship-to-ship combat consists of two main tactics: ramming or attacking with your archers or javelin throwers. To ram an opposing ship, order your rowers to increase speed while aimed at the enemy’s broadside. The rowers can only increase speed for a short time, so make sure you are close enough to effectively utilize this ability. You can instead choose to have either your archers or javelin throwers attack the ship. You can concentrate your javelin or arrow fire by holding the trigger. It takes a bit longer, but does more damage. Once an enemy ship is reduced to zero health, you can sink it by either ramming it or shooting it again. Sinking ships is a great way to gain valuable resources, which can be used to upgrade your equipment and ship.
If an enemy ship is attempting to ram you or shoot your vessel, you can brace for impact, lessening the damage your ship takes. However, the best method for avoiding damage is to simply not be in their firing angle. Maneuver your ship in such a way to avoid exposing your broadside to an attack. You can also use Boost to drift. This increases your ship’s agility, letting you position for attack or defense.
Before sinking a ship, you can choose to board it once it is at zero health and has the anchor icon over it. Board a ship to claim whatever treasure it holds before sinking it to the bottom of the sea. However, you must defeat all the crew in combat. Stealth isn’t an option here, so make sure your melee skills are up to the task. If you have any Lieutenants assigned to your ship, they join the boarding party. A successful boarding also regenerates your health. Once you’ve defeated the crew and claimed the ship’s treasure, return to your ship and sink the enemy vessel.
Ship Menu
Although your ship is well equipped to handle early skirmishes, you’ll want to spend the resources you’ve acquired to make the Adrestia truly formidable on the open waves no matter what you face. When you open the Ship menu, you’ll see a vast amount of information on your ship’s vital statistics and upgrade capabilities. You can upgrade your ship’s damage capabilities, armor, and look. Once you complete the first few quests aboard the Adrestia, you are able to recruit special lieutenants who have passive abilities that improve your ship’s capabilities. You can recruit these lieutenants by knocking out enemies in the world instead of killing them. Use Ikaros to view an enemy’s potential ship bonuses when deciding whom to recruit. For more information, see the Reference chapter, which provides details on all of these upgrades.