Broadside Bay guide: ships, weapons and how to win

Pick your ship

Every ship has its own hull, speed and slots. In a team of five, one Mender or Warden makes the other four better.

Know your seven weapons

Range is in metres. A gun fires once per cooldown until its magazine is empty, then reloads; the ring around your crosshair shows the reload, and charging weapons fill it as they charge.

Hit moving ships

1. 1The target lock finds an enemy ship in view by itself: the crosshair glides onto it and stays on it. F (or the lock button on a phone) turns the lock on and off; Q and E switch to the ship on the left or right.
2. 2The lock moves your crosshair, not your view. Look round freely by dragging; a moment after you let go, the view turns slowly back to the locked ship.
3. 3The lock aims at where the ship is now. Fast shots land before it has gone far; for a slow one such as a torpedo against a ship sailing across you, turn the lock off with F and aim ahead of the ship yourself.
4. 4Turn on AUTO FIRE with Shift to fire your gun whenever an enemy is lined up, and keep your mind on steering.

Sail smart

• On a keyboard, W, A, S and D sail the way you press, relative to where you look. On a phone, point the left stick where you want to go.
• Fire, then turn behind an island, a cliff or an ice wall while you reload. A ship in the open with empty guns is the easiest target on the map.
• When a ship hides behind low cover, use the Mortar: torpedoes stop at land and sandbars, but a mortar shell arcs over.
• Repair buoys restore 100 hull and then take 45 seconds to come back. Below a third of your hull, head for one.
• Stay in the Mender's sight if you have one: the healing beam needs a clear line.

Play each map

• Pick a map on the card at the bottom left of the harbour, or leave it on Random for a different map every match.
• Neon Circuit: a gate wall before each bay sends you left or right, then three walled-off ways: a lit tunnel to the reactor core, or a channel down either flank.
• Foundry Docks: rows of steel blocks with covered alleys between them. No alley runs straight on, so a fight can come from any corner; listen for the shots.
• Halo Station: four spoke tunnels lead into a ring canal round the hub. Fights in the ring go round and round, so a Bulwark at a spoke's door is hard to pass.
• Serpent Rapids: a winding river between canyon walls, and a side channel down each flank with a current. Sandbars in the bends stop torpedoes but not shells.
• Frost Gate: an ice maze with narrow doors, zig-zag corridors, floe fields with a drift current, and a glowing red gate in a ring of ice. Short sightlines favour the Blaster, and a Bulwark can hold a door on its own.

How a match is won

Every captain has one life. Sink every enemy ship to win early. After five minutes, the team with more ships still afloat wins, and if that is even, the team with more hull left.

So in the last minute, a ship that runs to a repair buoy can win the match for its team, while a brave last charge can lose it.

Get stronger between matches

• Win coins, experience, trophies and a crate. Open crates for gear in four rarities: Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary.
• Merge three copies of the same item and rarity into one of the next rarity, and level items up with coins.
• Each win earns 30 trophies. Seven leagues run from the Shallows to the Maelstrom, and higher leagues win better crates.
• Daily and weekly quests pay coins, experience and crates, and every captain level brings a Small crate and 150 coins.