I’ve decided to completely revamp the BattleTabs Tier List. It’s been a while since I last updated it and the dynamic evolution of the game and the meta, I think, requires this change for a truly good analysis of each ship.
This biggest change is the fact that there are actually two tier lists, one for scouting and one for attacking. More recently, as I’ve developed more in-depth strategies (that are confidential to me so don’t ask) and observed the meta, I’ve realized that there is one key aspect of the game that requires these separate tier lists. That aspect is that this game, as different as it is, still has the same goal as Battleship, which is to sink your opponent’s ships before they sink yours. How do you do that? Well, you attack. Attacking in BattleTabs will always be valuable, and no matter how good a scouter may be, four absolutely broken and unbalanced scouters will barely be able to win any battles. This is why having a vikings-style fleet will always be at the very least a decent fleet, because all-out attacking simply fulfills the one goal of each battle.
When you read this tier list, take that into account. Because attackers and scouters serve a completely different purpose, it’s hard to really rank them together. If you really want to, consider an S tier scouter on the same level as an A tier attacker, A tier scouter as a B tier attacker, and so on unless I specify in the analysis. If a ship is decent in both categories, there will be much more analysis in the attacking list, because of the reasons above, and because of how many ships that can only scout there are.
Disclaimer:
Many of my lists of statements in these guides are my own opinion, so you may disagree with points I make or tips I give. If you do, please don’t be rude about it, but open a thread in discord and discuss it, as that will be much more beneficial than just saying, “You’re wrong.” I also try to be as logical as possible and provide the most reasoning as possible so it’s also pretty insulting to me when someone is rude to me without providing any reasoning. In addition, I test extensively on my alt account and have a lot of data to work with, and I have more data from other players through the ship bounty (which you should participate in). That being said, I really truly appreciate it when there is discussion, because it helps everyone learn and get better at the game.
Contact me on discord by DMs (bpf#4243) or pinging me in the server if you have any questions or comments!
Notes:
- Every ship that can reasonably be seen to serve both as an attacker and a scouter have been put in both lists, but they may be put in different tiers.
- A+ has been removed, as the gap between S and A isn’t as big anymore.
- A “revealed tile” is a tile that has been changed color by anything, whether there’s a ship on it, it was missed, or was hit/sunk.
- When I refer to the space a ship takes up, I mean the outline of the rectangle it would take up if you drew a rectangle around it. Ex: Sea monster is 2×3
Important: I talk about the meta a lot, and that may make it seem like that is the deciding factor in the list. However, it’s only a small part of the actual ranking, as the list is primarily based on how well the ship would perform in a blank meta. You simply can’t make a tier list without talking about the meta.
BattleTabs Tier List 2024 January 2025 – Best Ship Tips
Scouting
F Tier
Skull Cove
Don’t even think of this as a scouter. You can’t choose when to use it, so it’s not a scouter.
D Tier
Pirate Thief
The Pirate Thief is a pretty good ship. Just not for scouting. Granted, if you get a blind hit with it, it does tell you what ship you hit. However, that isn’t helpful. This is because against big fleets, if you’re good enough you can figure out the exact placement without Thief anyway, and Thief isn’t a good matchup, because while you may be stalling one of their ships, they have another big attack charging. Against small fleets, the knowledge of what ship you hit is helpful, but it’s really hard to just hit a ship, and when paired with sonar, just use something like Kayak instead. It’s more consistent and covers more ground than the Thief. Really, just don’t use the thief for scouting. It’s not much of an attacker either, and won’t be that high either on that list, but because of its uniqueness and niche in the meta it is a solid B tier ship overall. I’ll go over why it’s good in the attacking list.
Sea Monster
At this point, I’ve given up on Nessie becoming a good ship so I’m keeping this analysis mostly the same. One extra shot doesn’t really do anything much for it.
Nessie is honestly not a horrible early game scout. Yes, it’s still really bad, but not completely useless. Early game, three four random tiles is pretty good because it’s unlikely you’ll hit an already revealed tile and there’s a reasonable chance you’ll hit at least one ship. Other lucky misses (not a typo) can eliminate a ton of spots where ships could be placed, but I still prefer regular cannon attacks because those are 100% guaranteed to be consistent if you’re skilled. Late-game, this ship becomes a complete joke. Don’t use it. It won’t do anything helpful, scouting or attacking wise.
C Tier
Magic Mirror
The Magic Mirror is arguably the most fun ship in the game, and it’s pretty decent too in its niche, which is similar to the Pirate Thief’s. Due to its long cooldown though, you generally don’t want to use it to scout. It’s in C tier because scenarios will appear where mirroring a scouting ability is better than an attacking ability, but that is pretty rare and in general mirror shouldn’t be used to scout.
Sailboat
The only reason Sailboat is higher than the Mirror is because its cooldown is shorter. You still shouldn’t be using it to scout. It’s meant to be an attacker, and almost any other actual scouting ship will be better and faster. In a pinch, you can use it to scout but once again, those scenarios have something better you can do and rarely will it be optimal to scout with this.
Cartographer
Cartographer is also a very fun ship to use. It reveals a bajillion tiles at once. Why is it so low then? Honestly, I don’t even see it as much of a scout for a few reasons. The more controversial one is you can find ships just fine with precise shots, and faster too. Another one is that it sits there doing nothing for too long and the risk of it getting destroyed is too high, due to the long cooldown and large, easy-to-find shape. The last one is that you have to invest too many resources and valuable early-game turns setting up for it, and you might not even get to use it. A good player can find ships just fine without the Cartographer and put an actually useful ship in that final fleet slot. The main reason Cartographer is this high is because the other ships below are just that bad at scouting.
Crafty Crab
Another fun ship. All the fun ships are kinda getting the short end of the stick here. It’s better than Cartographer because it adds value to a basic cannon shot, and if you’re good with those, a couple lucky reveals can win you the game. However, it’s still RNG and not super reliable. In addition, it gets completely shut down by chunky fleets because you don’t want to be using your normal attack often, if at all because you need to use as many ship abilities as possible for firepower (it’s also just a bad matchup because decent Crafty Crab fleets struggle outgunning chunky fleets to begin with). You can see this ship more as a helpful side effect to your regular attack, which hopefully you use well.
Whale
This is literally hot garbage compared to the Conniving Cannoneer. It only reveals the tiles that you have to Coracle later, while CC attacks them all at once, but still has the same cooldown and obnoxiously large shape. When compared to its rival, the Crustacean, its pattern covers way less than the Crustacean does, and the Crustacean can even attack (sort of). The only reason to pick this over Conniving is for revealing to allow for Coracle to attack, but almost every other revealer outclasses this.
Chaotic Machinist
I mean a ship that sinks itself is never going to be that good, and this is the highest I can put the Machinist without feeling pain. Scouting wise, it can find multiple ships, and it can also find Coracles but there’s a few issues. First, it rarely survives past early or mid-game, and will almost never make it to late-game. By then, if you’re looking for the final ship or Coracle hunting, getting all those attacks is nice, but the Machinist is also ridiculously easy to find, and that’s if you haven’t hit anything with its ability yet. This means it’s outclassed by any revealer that can survive into the end-game consistently. Even with its unique aggressive purpose, just use Chaos Slug. It’s an even better Coracle hunter and much faster, and the recoil is much less. What I see as the biggest issue, is that it hurts itself (duh) BUT that tells your opponent where not just a ship is, but what ship it is, very important information for a game of BT, and you could have put something else useful in that final slot that could have remained in an unknown place to your opponent much longer. Chaotic Machinist is literally just a mid ship that you shouldn’t use.
Conniving Cannoneer
Now back to a relatively normal state, Conniving Cannoneer is honestly underused for its still amazing attack pattern. The longer cooldown makes it much worse at scouting though, for the same reasons as Sailboat and Mirror. In addition, your opponent has more time and breathing room to take advantage of the recoil because this ship isn’t as aggressive and spammable any more. However, its attack pattern makes it able to scout and attack at the same time so that’s the upside of using it to scout. It’s also very likely to hit something if you pair it with sonar.
B Tier
Catamaran
Catamaran’s purpose isn’t really to scout or attack. It’s more to just be a threat, and you can’t rely on it consistently. However, it is quite good at both scouting and attacking when you get to use it, and if you use it wisely. It almost always finds at least a ship and has a decent chance of sinking a ship on certain maps. Recently, Catamaran has been getting off attacks more recently, and even though this is a scouting tier list, its niche in the meta as being a meatshield placed it this high.
Electric Eels
The Electric Eels are a pretty unique ship, because of how its reveal is different. It’s really good for guaranteeing a Longboat, Coracle, other main attacker or even Mutineers. It also pairs well with another revealer because that ensures you won’t miss the Eels. Missing is a big issue with the Eels. If you do, you’re pretty much done for because turn three is a very valuable turn, especially in the current meta. Missing means you can’t use it again until turn six, which is when you should be using your main attackers like Longboat. Basically, while the Eels give you a whole ship to attack perfectly, the problem with it is that missing its ability can cost you too much momentum and the game. Good players can also predict just fine without it, leaving another ship slot for something better.
Raft
I thought it would be right before Blunderbuster, but really anything that this can do for scouting Blunder does better. The long cooldown doesn’t justify using it as a scouter, although it of course can be used as one in a pinch. Just make sure to be really careful with where you target its ability, because a 2×2 section of tiles is very valuable.
Killer Squid
Very low cooldown and spammable ability, and the downside of two turn setup can kind of be downplayed if paired with something like Chaos Slug or Slug Squad. You might not reveal a ship, though. Now for the interesting part. The shape and rotations. You may have noticed that the squid didn’t move at all. That’s because… being able to rotate in any direction doesn’t matter! The unfortunate truth is that while yes, Squid is a better ship, revealers that are better than it are just still better than it, and because of the rather one-dimensional purpose of this ship that still gets outclassed means that it still really isn’t that good.
Sea Turtle
One of my personal favorite ships, the Turtle is a pretty fun ship to use and is kind of similar to the Thief, only it gives orientation instead of stalling. I think this is much better, because it lets you attack with precision the next turn and works with Longboat and Coracle. It can also hold its own in the end game against another large-ish ship because getting a hit means you know for sure how it’s placed. I know that I’ve said that good players can guess orientation, but the Turtle’s low cooldown and lack of possible punishment from your opponent if you miss makes it much better than the other ships with this issue. It’s still really easy to find, though, and the -1 cooldown effect if you hit doesn’t actually do as much as you would think, because there are other abilities you can and should be using.
Blunderbuster
The nerfs definitely hurt Blunder as a scouter a lot. But honestly, it was way too good as one, and in a pinch can still be used as one if needed, and having the bonus of often heavily damaging ships too, or even finding two at once if your opponent isn’t careful with placement. Blunder suffers from being a very versatile ship that just isn’t as good at what it can do when compared to other ships.
Valkyrie
Valkyrie is a unique ship that is quite good at scouting. In the end game, you’re often looking for the final ship, and the high amount of shots this has makes that chance much better for you. In the early game, you can also scout with this, even though it’s better suited for attacking. Make sure to put it in a good fleet, though. It’s better off being used as an attacker and good scouters will ensure that you don’t have to scout with this ship.
A Tier
Medium Galleon
Medium Galleon is a very good ship, and I’ll expand on that in the attacking tier list. For the scouting aspect though, its two precise shots and early first usage make it excellent at finding multiple ships, and it can consistently survive until the end game, where having two shots that can go anywhere makes it way easier to find that final ship. There’s no true right and wrong with this ship, and I’ll also explain that later on.
Kayak
For a ship that everyone wants buffed (for a fair reason), Kayak is still holding its own very well. As a scouter, it can pair with sonar to find a ship and when used with rocks well, it can eliminate what ship is there and how it’s placed. Throughout the rest of the game, the low cooldown makes it just fine for scouting and looking for another ship, and it often survives until the end of the game, and the aggressive searching greatly increases your chance of winning. The self-reveal is really annoying though, and if this gets hit early in the game, your chances of winning decrease greatly. It can also lose you games at the end of the game.
Octopus
I simply can’t put Octopus any higher. The low cooldown makes it much more spammable, and it can now be used early on, but it’s still RNG and easy to find. While the RNG issue is significantly lowered by the fact that it’s sonar, they can still land right next to each other or next to ships already found. The other sonar options also outclass it and do much better while being consistent, which the Octopus doesn’t have. It’s still a pretty good ship now, though, and not a bad choice to put in a fleet and I personally enjoy it a lot.
Longsub
Longsub’s issue is that the meta hard counters it. The small fast abilities destroy it really quickly, while the big chunky attackers can just ignore it because sonar won’t do much to begin with, as all the ships are easy to find already. The self-reveal eliminates a ton of spots that other ships can be in, so you should put it on the edge or even in the corner. Despite all these issues, it still gives turn one sonar, which is ridiculously high value, and gives more the next couple of turns, letting you potentially find every ship before turn five. This makes it very valuable in Coracle matchups, but risky to put in a fleet because of its problems against so many ships.
See Slug
For how good it still is, this is honestly pretty underused. You can use it as a different kind of scouter, one that eliminates possible places for ships rather than actively trying to find one. It’s also a great Coracle hunter when you need it to be. Back when it was broken, it had no weakness and had no harm to you if you messed up, but it does now, like revealing a ship with your first reveal. That isn’t bad, but you get barely any value by doing that, even less than what the Eels would give you. It also has a cooldown of three, so it has the same issues as Eels, but is much more versatile and can be used in many fleets and it will succeed, particularly in Coracle-Longboat fleets, because one tile revealed is all Coracle needs, and eliminating possible ship positions makes Longboating much easier and lower risk.
Crustacean
Everything already here still applies. It’s not moving up a spot in the list, although it is a better ship now due to the Coracle buff, and the CD syncs very nicely with it and Longboat as well, making Crustacean-Coracle-Longboat a ridiculously powerful trio of ships.
Crustacean has always been a very powerful ship. The reveal pattern covers so much area and its unique shape makes it hard to sink quickly, despite how easy it is to find. That, in addition to how much value it gives negates the relatively late first usage (at least in the current meta). The only issue is that it doesn’t work well with much other than the Coracle and Longboat. It works amazingly with those, and I’m not saying it’s trash with anything else, but it’s just not as good. It’s also ridiculously easy to use in addition to all of its other perks.
S Tier
Mini Sub
Mini Sub is still really, really good. It finds ships effectively and quickly, and I don’t think trying to explain it on its own is fair here, because it’s lower purely because of the Chaos Sub, which I will compare it to. It has the advantages of survivability and end-game hunting, but the disadvantages of not having turn one sonar and being able to last a bit longer if it gets hit early on. The meta also contributes, because the meta favors more aggressive quick strategies, and the Mini Sub is simply slower than the Chaos Sub. It’s still a great ship though, and never a bad choice in a fleet. Minisub Kayak Cycle is arguably better in some scenarios than Chaos Sub cycle.
Chaos Slug
So basically everything I said before about the Chaos Slug still stands. The TLDR is that it’s a super aggressive spammable ship that does have a downside, but it rarely actually harms you (DM me if you want the entire old analysis). What makes it even more powerful is that Coracle is better now, and when Coracle is buffed, the scouters most used with Coracle also get better. So Chaos Slug is even better now. Yes, it might reveal your Coracle but the chance of that happening is really low. It’s now better than Slug Squad IN REALITY, NOT THEORY because Coracle doesn’t need a specific reveal, it just needs one tile with a ship. 3 random tiles being revealed every turn may seem worse than 2 of your choice, but that doesn’t matter because it’s still extremely likely that Chaos Slug will reveal a ship due to the sheer number of tiles being revealed.
Slug Squad
Slug Squad is like the fraternal twin of Chaos Slug. I would say Chaos Slug is better in reality, but in theory, Slug Squad is better because excellent usages can find ships very quickly or eliminate placements. The shape is also slightly better. It sucks it’s BC only, but thankfully Chaos Slug is still a thing and can be used in place of this in almost any fleet that you would use this in, and probably do the job better. The only con of this ship (Chaos Slug has this issue too) is that it doesn’t reveal whole areas, but I mean that’s what sonar’s for.
Chaos Sub
The Chaos Sub is so good. The main issue it has is the cooldown increase, but that’s literally the mechanic, and it has the tankiness to survive quite a while, even if it’s super easy to find. Turn one sonar is stupidly valuable and this synergizes so well with cycle fleets, where you can cycle abilities quickly. If you want to save it for late-game, you can and don’t have to use it after turn one to preserve the low cooldown for a while. That aspect of it makes it incredibly versatile and helpful. Even compared to the Mini Sub, where the Mini Sub will constantly get a sonar every other turn, it still takes three usages of each for the value to equal each other (CS turn 1, MS turn 2, CS turn 3, MS turn 4, CS turn 6, MS turn 6), and often those three usages take way longer than the theoretical six turns because you have other abilities to use. In addition, three sonars is all you really need against many fleets, as the fourth ship has hopefully already been found by you. Coracle hunting is the one scenario where Mini Sub is consistently better, but Coracle also has a bit of trouble against the Chaos Sub, because of how much tankiness it has and the self-reveal from it will help you find it much faster.
Attacking
F Tier
Sea Monster
Same as scouting, one extra shot doesn’t help whatsoever.
I mean I think everyone saw this coming. Sea Monster is hopeless as an attacker. It’s inconsistent and the odds of it winning a game for you are obscenely low. It often attacks already revealed tiles and is easy to find and sink. I didn’t mention the obscure in the scouting list because it does basically nothing. I wouldn’t have mentioned it here either but it’s a part of the ship so I have to. Obscuring is useless 95% of the time and your opponent will remember what they already hit. It only helps against Coracle, but your opponent probably has another tile with a ship revealed too. It’s perfectly fine to use Nessie for fun, but sadly there is no competitive viability whatsoever with this ship.
Crustacean
Yeah, this thing can attack. It’s pretty dumb, but it can still attack so it’s here in this list. It’s like Mutineers but worse. You get less tiles per turn with it, and are stuck with a fixed pattern that is amazing for scouting but complete trash for attacking, unless you’re using it on another Crustacean, but there’s issues with even doing that, because it’s a bad choice to make in a battle. If you fully reveal a Crustacean, use Longboat or something on it, because then you can Crustacean somewhere else to find another ship which will increase your chance of winning if you only have a Coracle left. You can use this with ships aside from Longboat and Coracle, but if you reveal something (assuming you have a second revealer), why would you ever attack it with the Crustacean? You should be scouting a whole different section of the map. If this is your only revealer, using it, revealing one or two tiles, and then waiting another four turns to Crustacean it is just stupid. Like please don’t do that. The only reason this is above Sea Monster is because it can clutch games once in a blue moon. Just remember though that this is still an amazing ship for scouting, and not meant for attacking at all. That’s more of a fringe benefit.
Mutineers
Mutineers has one amazing perk that gets outweighed by almost every other aspect of it, making it suck. The one perk is that it has an insane 2 tiles per turn, which is more than any other ship in the game. Everything else sucks, though. You need to have already revealed tiles to use it, and no revealer comes close to even matching that requirement, other than the Electric Eels and that’s only against big ships. It also could work with Cartographer, but that requires so much set up and you might not even get a good payoff, and then the low attack of the Mutineers is a bad thing because you have to slowly chip all the revealed tiles down while Coracle and Longboat would have sunk them in one turn. Essentially, the one perk of Mutineers becomes yet another weakness because of the fact you have to set up for it, making this one of the worst ships in the game.
D Tier
Chaotic Machinist
Chaotic Machinist is pretty trash. Honestly that’s pretty funny when you remember that it operates out of a bathtub and the developers said it’s part of a “scrappy” group of ships. Unfortunately, its ability is actual trash garbage attacking wise. If you’re hunting Coracle with it, you’re not attacking, you’re scouting. By definition, this can only hit five tiles. Nothing more than that. Every other attacker in the game can and will hit more tiles than this per game. In 99% of scenarios, you’re getting a one-for-one trade, which is almost never what you want in BT. The best reasonable attacking trade the Machinist can make is with Longboat, because then your opponent can’t use it. But what’s the issue with that? Well, you’re also losing a ship, and Longboat is likely to only be used once, and while it may severely damage two of your ships, just use something else that can also damage the Longboat. It’s much easier to deal with now due to the increased cooldown. There’s almost no reason to use the Machinist overall.
C Tier
Skull Cove
I am aware of the slight controversy surrounding this ship. Some people think it’s really good, and others think it’s bad. It’s a bad ship. But I’ll list the perks first. It attacks when it isn’t your turn and hits a ton of tiles, and has decent bulk. You can also use it to hide other ships. The downsides are that it leaves you with only three ships with usable abilities, and can be outplayed ridiculously easily, and sometimes you don’t even need to outplay because it won’t do anything helpful. While really fun, it’s not a good choice to use in something like a tournament and has almost no competitive usage. If you want a ship that’s intimidating and a threat just use Catamaran, or even Magic Mirror.
Pirate Thief
I know I said Pirate thief is B tier overall, so you’d expect it to be higher up to balance out the horrible scouting rating. The truth is, it’s not great at attacking either. Its niche and special ability and potential makes it a B tier ship. Yes, the stall is great. The ship’s also hard to find and the ability is spammable. The one key problem is that no matter how much you stall, you’re still only hitting one tile per turn, which is way too slow, even with the stalling of the other ship. This is because your opponent has three other ships with their cooldowns still lowering, and against vikings-style fleets, there’s nothing you can do about it. The Thief is excellent against Coracle fleets, though, because you can attack their revealers before they can be used. It’s still not really a good attacker in that matchup either. You just weaken their scouter with the Thief until you can finish it off with some sort of attack so that you don’t have to stall another turn, because while you can, there’s still other ships you’ll have to deal with. Basically, the Thief has a nice niche usage but generally isn’t the best to use.
B Tier
Magic Mirror
Again, we have more of a niche ship, rather than a straightforward attacking ship. It tends to be used as an attacker, because you want to mirror those big attacks that your opponent has. Like who can resist the idea of two Coracles, only the second one has more bulk? And a lower cooldown? The problem is, your opponent can just outplay the Mirror. In many scenarios, they just don’t use the ability you want to mirror. That’s arguably the purpose of Mirror, to be a threat, but really you want to attack with it in the end. Much more rarely and only at higher levels of play, if they don’t mind sacrificing a scouting ship, they’ll just use their ability and let you use your ability on that ship. It also suffers from the same shape issue as the Cartographer. It’s too easy to sink before you can get one usage out of it. Blunderbuster and Raft both also have this issue, but it’s very rare that your opponent will sink one of those before you can use it at least once due to the lower cooldown. The Magic Mirror is still really fun though, and worth using just for casual play.
Catamaran
I mean, Catamaran isn’t a horrible attacker. It just isn’t reliable. Most of the time, you won’t be able to use it once, and when you do, it’s hard to get value out of all the tiles it can hit. However, when it is aimed well, it can cause mass chaos and destruction for your opponent, which is why it’s such a threat and a very good tank, except against Coracle-Longboat fleets. You can also just completely sink ships whose shapes are in straight lines if you have moderate luck. All in all, Catamaran is rather unreliable, but devastating when you get that good usage of it.
Sailboat
Sailboat’s in a rather unfortunate spot. Buff it, and it becomes overpowered. Nerf it, and it becomes unplayable. Right now, it’s usable, but it’s outclassed by too much. While it does technically have one of the best general attacking patterns, it’s harder to hit all three shots unlike the ease of the heavier hitting attacking ships that are better than it. It’s still a pretty good attacker though, and putting it in a fleet is never a bad choice due to the excellent shape and consistency.
Raft
Raft is basically a worse Blunder, which is kind of sad, although the guaranteed 2×2 means it can always one shot other 2×2 ships. This versatility it has over Blunder on that point is the main saving grace of the Raft. It’s also ridiculously easy to use. It can still work in cycle fleets, too, as the much needed consistent extra firepower. I do have issues with Coracle having the same CD as this thing, but I do want to fix that in the near future ;). So I’m not going to say much else for now, but basically it’s a fine ship that is struggling to find a solid point to just sit and do its thing without being over or underpowered.
Blunderbuster
Yes, Blunderbuster is still up here. Despite the nerf it received, it still works just fine as an attacker, although it can be pretty slow at times. The efficiency it has is no longer as prevalent, but its edge targeting and amazing power on confined maps can’t be ignored. The overcharge is also still a very devastating attack if used well. The problem is that some ships just do Blunder’s job better. It’s nice to have both an attacker and scouter in one ship, but why not just have one very powerful scouter and one very powerful attacker instead? That being said, it’s still a versatile ship and quite viable.
A Tier
Kayak
Not gonna lie, Kayak is pretty insane right now considering the massive downside it carries. It’s certainly not at the strength of its old glory days but is still very very good. The self-reveal is a pain in the butt, but aside from that, good players can use the Kayak so well. The rapid fire attacking of two tiles provides speed and consistency that no other ship can give in the same way. It forces your opponent to play the game faster, and if they’re using a generally slower fleet like Coracle-Longboat, they need to take risks or they won’t beat you. And even with the self-reveal, it still generally survives a long time, because it’s only 1×2. Finally, it happens to have some of the best synergies in the game, with Chaos Sub cycle or the classic Mini Sub cycle. Absolutely ridiculous synergy (although with Chaos Sub it tends to rely on the whole fleet to cycle, while Minisub-Kayak can carry you through entire games). The self-reveal is definitely a deterrent, but don’t let that be the only reason you don’t use Kayak in a fleet if you decide not to use it.
Conniving Cannoneer
I think most people thought I would place this lower. It’s still a good ship. It has one of the best attacks in the game, and can still be considered a main attacker. Your opponent now has more time to take advantage of the recoil, but playing its attacks right will cripple your opponent too badly to do anything about it. You can also take advantage of the longer initial cooldown to scout a bit more to ensure you’ll get good value out of its attack, as most fleets have at least one weirdly shaped ship, and this ship specializes in hitting those that no other basic “attack a certain pattern” ship can do. In the end, this is extremely underrated, and still very viable. You don’t have to use it with Skull Cove either, that literally just makes it worse.
Valkyrie
I realize that everyone thinks Valkyrie is broken and overpowered. It’s really not, but it is really good. It starts really slowly, but as soon as a ship gets destroyed, it begins to get more value. If this is your last ship, it is absolutely devastating and can win the game pretty easily. It’s also pretty easy to use decently. The problems with it are minor, but still need to be addressed. If it dies early, it gets almost no value and isn’t worth the ship slot. At least other ships get the full use of their ability. Valk doesn’t. Some players also save it until a ship gets destroyed. Honestly, that’s fine, but there are some scenarios and matchups where spamming the ability is better and if you want to really use Valk well you have to recognize those situations. Also, because players save it, there’s a chance of it being found. When it is, players use it right away out of fear that it will be sunk soon, more or less holding up a sign to your opponent saying, “You hit my Valkyrie!” Don’t let all these downsides scare you, though. Valkyrie is still a very good attacker and scouter.
Coracle
“But bpf coracle’s broken it only has a CD of 5 why would did you get it buffed waaaaaaaaaahhhhhh” Okay. Yes, Coracle is very, very good. It’s heavily prevalent in the meta due to its ridiculous ability. The self-reveal it has is also really easy to get around, and access to powerful revealers makes this even better. If you’re just looking for reasons why it’s good and if you should use it, stop reading this now. Use the Coracle. It’s very powerful. Now, I’m going to explain the issues with it. It is still very susceptible to random bad luck or stupid random collateral damage from Vikings-style ships. It can also just get destroyed randomly in general. This is all because of its 1×1 shape, making it very hard to find but super fragile, and it’s the reason why many players won’t use Coracle in tournaments due to the high risk factor. If Coracle truly was broken, everyone would be using it in every battle and it would be all over top play, but it’s not. It’s still very, very good, though.
Medium Galleon
In addition to being a very good scouting ship, Galleon is also one of the top attacking ships. It has many uses, such as finishing off ships late game or sinking your opponent’s Blunderbuster or Raft before they can use it. This all comes from its consistent targeted attacks. It sacrifices the spammability of Kayak but gets more precision instead. It also has no self-reveal and more tankiness. Against chunky fleets, it may struggle, but if used in a proper fleet, it provides the extra juice you need to win that otherwise hard matchup. Against small fleets, it’s great at scouting out and then quickly sinking that Kayak or Coracle. It sucks that it’s BC only, but it will also be the next ship released out of BC so that’s good news for everyone without it. The one weakness it has is that you need more firepower in addition to it, but since all fleets ideally already have that, you should be fine already.
Longboat
Yes, it’s been nerfed three times now. But it’s still one of the best attackers in the game. It guarantees a sunken ship, and can still heavily damage more than one ship. Coracle-Longboat is much harder to use now, because of the clashing cooldowns, but it’s still very viable, and you can use this in most other fleets. Again like Conniving Cannoneer, you can use the longer cooldown to scout more (not that you really have a choice), and use its ability with even more certainty. Without the looming possibility of instant random death and reliance on another ship like the Coracle, it is much more versatile than just Coracle but many other ships too. I simply can’t stress the importance and power of independently targeted attacks. If you tend to miss its ability, just ask anyone in the discord for some tips on how to use it. Practice is also very important. It’ll really help you out in the long run.
S Tier
There’s nothing here. None of the attackers are outright broken right now.
Niche
So this is a bit weird. Some ships have a certain purpose, and it’s not attacking or scouting, and therefore seem really weak on the rest of the tier list. However, they still have their unique purposes and some of them are really good. Because of that, I decided to make this third section to help you get a better idea of those ships. I’ll be putting the tier where the ship is in the last sentence of each analysis, rather than the format I was using above.
Sea Monster
Do I even have to say that the extra shot does nothing? I guess I do if you didn’t read the analysis for the scouting and attacking of Nessie.
She’s back for redemption! Too bad she doesn’t get it. Being the only ship with obscuring is cool and all that, but obscuring is useless. First and foremost, your opponent can just remember what tiles were obscured. It’s not that hard to do. That alone completely destroys this. But let’s go further. Against sonar, it literally will never give any value, because it’ll likely obscure a tile that sonar says a ship can’t be on. Amazing. Very helpful. Even against Coracle fleets, it’s unlikely that you’ll obscure a tile with a ship on it, because it’s RNG, and your opponent already has more tiles without ships on them revealed. Basically Nessie is still stuck in the F tier because this unique ability she has is useless.
Skull Cove
Skull Cove’s niche is being a threat. Your opponent can’t attack it because they risk being attacked back, and you can hide ships next to it. However, the attacks are RNG and aren’t good despite being used on your turn, because you only have three ships with actual abilities to choose from, like I said above. Don’t use this. The other tank in this list is much much better. This is in C tier.
Electric Eels
The Eels are a pretty decent ship in general, and they’re in this niche list because it is a very different revealer. It pairs well with Longboat and is the only ship Mutineers works reasonably well with. Missing its ability is extremely costly, but it’s very nice against chunky fleets so that you don’t get too confused by placement. There isn’t much else to say, really. You can still use Coracle with it if you want, but I would recommend using Longboat as well. This means your fourth ship has to be another revealer. Overall: B tier.
Magic Mirror
Mirror’s goal is to also be a threat, except not a tanky one, rather one you can still threaten with and counter attack with. It’s pretty good at it, but the chance of it being sunken before you can use it is pretty high. It intimidates some opponents really well, but weaker players won’t realize what it does while top players will outplay it or outvalue it. So it’s decent, around the B tier.
Pirate Thief
It’s not as good as I initially thought it was. It’s still too slow. However, stalling ships is really powerful, especially against revealers which prevents Coracle from doing anything too. The idea is if you can stall one ship while sinking another, that’s getting really good value out of the Thief. Otherwise, just 1 on 1 stalling still means your opponent has three other abilities they can use, so you have to make sure you’re getting a positive trade to get good usage out of this ship. Sadly, that’s really hard to do, even for top players. In theory, it’s high A tier but practicality and reality wins over for this ship, making it B.
Catamaran
Still a very threatening tank, but its niche as one fell off due to the nerf of other Vikings-style attackers and the buff of Coracle. Vikings-style fleets are still good, though, and Catamaran works just fine as a tank. After all, you’re not trying to really get off an attack with it. Overall I would rate this as a lower B tier ship.
Wow, this took forever to write. I hope you got something out of it! I hid a message in here so if you can find it DM me and I’ll give you a reward.
No one’s found the message yet which is hilarious.
by bpf#4243