Introduction
While you are leveling and progressing in Skull And Bones, you will see a glimpse of the loadout possibilities that will be more present and important in the future of the game, this guide is to help you understand the depth and the choices you are going to do during theorycrafting, this part focusing into the weapon selection.
Loadout tool
To help you out building loadouts, I can only advice you to use this tool.
https://skullandbonestools.de/en/loadout
Quick Review
We currently have 7 weapon types (excluding the auxiliary slot) in the game, with 2 weapons bound to medium ships and bow slot.
You can check for the stats, perks and analysis on the pages below.
https://thehelm.gg/quartermaster/all-deck/
https://thehelm.gg/quartermaster/topdeck/
https://thehelm.gg/quartermaster/bowweapons/
So, your weapon choices are going to be important, depending on your purpose, playstyle, and skill.
Long Range
The possible long range weapon choices are:
Long gun, long range, long reload time and high damage, it’s a solid weapon, the variety of it makes it important and valuable on multiple builds, the Fire Long Gun and Scurlock’s Long Nines being by far the best ones, because the mast breaker damages isn’t mitigated. Used either on the bow for offensive capacity, or either on the stern for fleeing possibility. I recommend only using it in bow/stern slots, since it’s only a topdeck weapon, you would loose too many gunports otherwise. Unless you are running a ship around mast breaker damages.
Ballista, high skilled weapon, can be compared as a sniper, up to 1350m range, high damage and medium reload time, it’s a good choice for offensive long range dps build. Only used on medium ships.
Medium Range
The possible medium range weapon choices are:
Culverin, medium gun, medium range, it’s neither amazing in anything either bad, it’s a solid choice for high gunports and continuous firepower. The basilisk is good being the best one yet. The carronades not having crew attack charging and low elemental damage, being amongst the less efficient weapons in the game.
Bombards, medium skilled weapon, medium to high range, the higher the range, more difficult to hit, it got high damage, medium reload speed, but a low projectile speed. It’s a solid choice for fortresses and some fights. The mons meg is being the best choice for fortresses, the dardanelles is currently one of the best weapon in the game, and the repair bombard being the best weapon for support builds. It is a top deck weapon, but can be used in all slots without any real dps loss.
Torpedoes, high skilled weapon, medium range, reload and damages, it is currently not a good choice, the trajectory and speed make it predictable on PVP, and difficult on PVE. Although Shalei torpedo can be used in explosive builds around the sloop and padewakang. Rahma’s look good on paper, but in reality the damage boost isn’t high enough. As a topdeck weapon, the best slot possible is either bow or stern, not possible to hit fortesses with it.
Short Range
The possible short range weapon choices are:
Demi-Cannon, shotgun type weapon, fire all guns at once, good damage and reload speed, it is an amazing choice for short range fights, the zamzama fire capabilities made it one of the best weapon in the game.
Sea-Fire, flamethrower, really short range, constant damage, high reload time, bound to bow slot and medium ship, it is a solid choice for short range and an amazing tool for fire status effect, the blue specter being the best one by far.
Auxiliary
The possible auxiliary choices are:
Rockets, short to medium range, high reload time, high damage and status effect, it is the best choice for short range fights, the termites being the best choice for plunders, the normal one being a good choice for fire status effect builds.
Mortar, high range weapon, high damages and reload time, it is the best choice for long range fights, the leopold being the best one currently, and the repair mortar for support builds.
Advices
It all comes down to your playstyle and build you are working on, for dps, the best current weapons are bombards and zamzamas, for support I advise using repair Bombard and Mortar, for tanks, it doesn’t really have an impact, since threat generation isn’t bound to damages.