Complete Guide on Ship Cannons

Cannons is a labour intensive job. Most of the high-end Cannons require a lot of raw material, which can only be obtained from a handful of Ports (Hamburg n Barcelona)

Favor Skills

Mineral Trading (mineral trader)

Industrial Goods Trading (mineral trader)

Firearms Trading (arms trader)

Weapon Trading (arms trader)

Casting (mineral trading, arms trader)

Types of Cannon Ammunition

There are 6 types of Cannon Ammunition, each has a different effect. They are:

Standard Shell

No special effects

Dualshot Shell

Does extra damage to ship equipment

Grapeshot Shell

Targets ship crew. Critical hits drain enemy vigour

Chainshot Shell

Damages ship equipment

Flameshot Shell

Causes fire

Smokescreen Shell

Reduces enemy accuracy

Cannon Material

The 1st ingredient is either Cannons or Ammunition

Cannons

Purchased from London, Seville, Barcelona (require investment)

Crafted from 4 x Coal + 4 x Iron using the Firearms Production Technique Book [casting level 11] (Barcelona, Ceuta, 20,000D)

Ammunition

Purchase from Lisbon, Barcelona

Crafted from 2 x Coal + 2 x Iron using the Firearms Production Technique Book [casting level 5] (Barcelona, Ceuta, 20,000D).

Bronze

Purchased from London, Plymouth

Crafted from Copper Ore + Tin Ore [casting level 7] using the Book of Alloy Smelting (Dublin, reward after 300,000D in investment)

Iron

Purchased from London (require investment), Dublin (require investment), Amsterdam

Crafted from Iron Ore [casting level 5] using the Book of Refining Metal (Lubeck, 120,000D)

Steel

Purchased from Barcelona, Beirute, Jaffa

Crafted from Iron Ore + Graphite [casting level 6] from the Book of Refining Metal (Lubeck, 120,000D)

Lumber

Purchased from Oslo, Helsinki

Notes on Ports for Crafting Ship Cannons

Because of the restrictions on the materials required for crafting Ship Cannons, there are only two viable Ports that is suited for crafting Cannons. They are Barcelona and Hamburg.

Barcelona

Barcelona is the ideal location for crafting Cannons because the Port exports Cannons, Ammunition and Steel. Only Spanish players will have the option to purchase Cannons from Barcelona, therefore making Barcelona a Cannon Port exclusively to Spanish players.

Another advantage of Barcelona is that it sells the rare item of Steel, which is needed to craft high end Cannons.

For the recipes that require Iron instead of Steel, Barcelona is a short trip away from Algiers, that stock Iron Ore that can turn into Iron with the Book of Refining Metal.

The disadvantage of Barcelona is that you can't craft Ship Cannons that require Bronzethere.

Hamburg

For Cannonsmiths of other nations, Hamburg is the next best Port. However, crafting Cannons in Hamburg takes longer than in Barcelona, because most of the raw materials need to be crafted first.

Cannons and Ammunitions can be crafted from Coal and Iron with the Firearms Production Technique Book (Barcelona, Ceuta, 20,000D).

Coal is available in Hamburg.

Iron can be made from the Iron Ore in Hamburg with the Book of Metal Refining (Lubeck, 12,000D).

Finally Bronze can be smelted by combining Copper Ore with Tin Ore in Hamburg using the Book of Alloy Smelting (Dublin, reward after 300,000D in investment)

Whilst most of the items for crafting Ship Cannons are available in Hamburg, it does not have Steel. It takes too long to craft Steel from around Hamburg, therefore its recommended to make Ship Cannons that use Iron instead.

Notes of Crafting Cannons

Unlike crafting other materials, when there is a 'big success' you don't receive an extra Ship Cannon.

Each time you can only produce 1 Ship Cannon from the materials.

However, when you do get a 'big success' you will receive additional stats to your crafted Ship Cannon.

A 'big success' cannon will have the following additional properties:

Durability --- +10

Penetration --- x1.04 ~ 1.10

Range --- +1

Reload Time --- +1

Notes on Ship Cannons that sell 

In late game, the most preferred Ship Cannons are 14-Master Carronades. These Cannons do the most damage.

Other popular choices are 14-Master Perrier for increased range and 14-Gate Haiperie.

A cheap alternative is either the 14-Master Demi-Cannon or 16-Master Demi-Cannon
This cannon are made from Strengthening of Regular Cannons (all six Capitals, 800,000D after investment) or made from the Book of Large Cannon Casting (all six Capitals, 200,000D after investment).

For melee players, Grapeshot and Chain Cannons are preferred because Grapeshot can kill enemy crew, and Chain Cannons rip through enemy sails. The preferred Grapeshot Cannon is 16-Master Speed Cannon and the preferred Chainshot Cannon is the 16-Master Angel.

Both of these Ship Cannons are crafted from the Strengthening of Special Cannon recipe book (Calicut, 200,000D after investment).

Finally, some players like to use Flameshot Cannons, because at high level, they can guarantee burning, causing massive damage overtime against enemies.

The Flameshot Cannon of choice is the 16-Master Draconis or 16-Master Anne Fehr, both are crafted using the Strengthening of Special Cannon recipe book (Calicut, 200,000D after investment).