Taking to the Skies: Getting the Proper Ship in the Air

Flying silly builds with no strategy behind them are fun for the first 10 minutes of the 45 minute or longer match you're about to throw yourself into.

Like I mentioned last time, the first ship I flew did not work remotely, and it was very frustrating. Knowing every detail of the game will take you months, so here we're going to talk about the two easiest to pick up ships and their optimal loadouts and flying styles. Try them both, and pick your favorite.

The Gat/Mortar Pyramdion (sometimes called 'Metamidion') is the basic kill ship. You have two sets of two guns pointed directly ahead and directly to the port (left from helm) side. Your front guns are going to be used more often, and you're going to want to put the gatling gun on the front-starboard (right from helm) and the mortar on the front-port side. Your port guns will be used less, and are really just backups in case you get in a pinch, so I recommend you put a flamethrower on the port-front slot, and a flare gun on the port-rear side. Conversely, one of the Pyramidion pre-sets is very similar to this build, and you can use that one too.

As the Pilot of a Metamation, you point it at the ship you want to kill, and drive forward so your guns are in range. Use pilot stamina to turn faster, raise and lower faster, or move forward faster. As the Main Engineer, you run around on the bottom deck in a nice circle tending to the 3 engines in the back (you can hit the main one from below!) and making sure the hull stays spick and span. Use engineer stamina to run and jump better. As the Secondary Engineer, you're going to be on the mortar and tending to the balloon. Split your time between the two and don't get 'gunner vision.' Explosive weapons (like the mortar) are only effective when the hull armor goes down. A black cloud will drop from below the target ship, a wrenching mechanical sound will emit, and hitmarkers will go from white to red. When you see red, it's time to make the ship dead! As the Gunner, you're on the front-starboard gatling. Shoot, and keep shooting. Lesmok when you're out of range, and greased when you're in range. Shoot the hull, and keep shooting it. If the other ship is firing back, aim at where the bullets are coming from and shoot more. Use gunner stamina to aim further than you usually could or to reload faster.

The Hawacha Goldfish (sometimes called a Hawachafish) is a personal favorite of mine, and a ship I flew for a long time once I had it recommended to me. In fact, a Goldfish with a slightly different loadout is my favorite ship of all time to fly, and I have several hundred hours behind a Goldfish helm. She's an exciting beast.
Anyway, the loadout is very simple here. One heavy gun pointing forward, and two light guns (one pointing port, and one starboard). Your heavy gun is going to be (shockingly) a Hawacha, and your light guns are going to be Gatling guns. Again, there is a Goldfish preset similar to this build that you can take instead, but I'm going to go into specifics of what I've laid out here.



Piloting of a Hawachafish is again very simple, just make sure your ship is pointed at the bad guys. This will net you a solid disable (assuming everyone else is doing their jobs) and open up the kill for your allied ship (hopefully a kill ship). No plan survives first contact, however, and you'll often need to get the kill yourself. This requires a little bit more skill, not only as a pilot, but as the Captain of your ship. After your Gunner shoots off the Hawacha, he should stay in the gun so he can increase the reload time if need be, and be able to shoot it the exact second it's loaded. In order to get that armor break mentioned above, you're going to need to 'turn the gatling.' That is, position your ship so that the gatling is in arc, but not by a lot (you want to be able to swing the Hawacha back around before the enemy can repair their hull!) Once you see the armor break, swing back around so your Gunner can unleash the now deadly payload of the Hawacha.

Engineering is also a bit more difficult, as Goldfish traditionally require 'splitting the ship.' That is, the engineers split the ship in half, and tend to their own part, only moving to the other half of the ship in case of emergency. Usually, on a Goldfish, this split is front/back. One engineer fixes the guns and the hull, and the other focuses on the engines and balloon. The engineer in the front is usually the one to get on one of the side gatling guns and do that hull strip when necessary. Remember, if a singular component outside of your 'zone' is taking too much pressure (the hull, for example), don't be afraid to run over and give a hand repairing.

As the Gunner, your job is shoot. You almost NEVER want to leave the front gun (except to hop out quickly to repair some damage it may have taken). Your one exception is when you have nobody to shoot and the hull is taking a lot of hits. In that case, run back the 20 feet and give the engineer a hand until the other engineer can show up. Usually, you want to use Burst Rounds to do maximum damage to as many bits of the enemy ship as possible, and sweep your mouse up and down the hull to break all of their things. It's rather satisfying.


Well, this post has managed to be somehow even longer than the one before it. Next one should be shorter, as we move from some of the more technical aspects of the game to Guns of Icarus Online's other strong point: the social game.

Clear Skies!

Preparing the Storm: Choosing Classes and Selecting Ships

Just because you can, does NOT mean you should. Guns of Icarus online has hundreds of thousands of possible ship loadouts, and 24 tools and ammo types across 3 classes, so there's no shortage of possible ways to play.

Most of them suck.

The game has very specific mechanics like damage charts, airship armor/hull stat charts, a 7 tier meta "rock, paper, scissors" chart, and actual freaking physics, you guys. It's all immensely complicated, and it can take months to get enough of a feel for it to come up with a new meta build. This is why I don't recommend you do what I did and just have everyone be gunners and throw a bunch of flak guns on a Galleon. Even if you DO pretend you're in a pirate ship. The gimmick wears off fast when you're in matches for probably close to an hour because nobody could 'break armor' and access the permanent hull (perma-hull) that would net the kills needed to win. 

We called it a night, and through intense searching to find out what was wrong that evening, I discovered the difference between all component types, and advantages to bringing a certain 'Golden ratio" of classes. I've already linked the tables, so I won't go super deep into specifics here, but your best class distribution is Pilot/Gunner/Engineer/Engineer. The two best starting ships are gatling gun/mortar Pyramidion and Hawacha Goldfish. 

We'll start on the smaller, more personal level of class loadout. As a beginning Pilot, you want Phoenix Claw, Impact Bumpers, and Kerosine. Phoenix Claw will help you turn better, and Kerosine will make the ship move faster. However, BE AWARE, as both of these tools will damage your engines. Try to get in the habit of turning them on in a pinch, but don't forget to turn them off when you don't need them. The tools at your disposal is what differentiates classes from another, so don't be afraid to burn those engines! Impact Bumpers reduce impact damage to your ship, so use them before you crash into a wall (you'll crash into many). For your singular engineering tool, you're going to want a spanner for quick emergency repairs (you don't want to be off the helm for long). Your gunning ammo is irrelevant. At this level, if you're shooting, you're playing your role incorrectly.

As the Gunner, the tools (or ammos) you're going to want are dependant on the ship your captain brings. Generally, you're going to want Greased Rounds, Burst Rounds, and Lesmok rounds. Greased is (generally) going to help you deal more damage faster, burst is (generally) going to make explosive disable weapons disable better, and Lesmok is (always) going to increase the distance and speed your bullets travel. Your piloting tool should be the spyglass (click on enemy ships while holding it to have them show up on the map) and engineering tool should be the pipe wrench (a nice balance between repair and rebuild). As a final note: UNLESS YOU ARE USING A SHOTGUN-LIKE WEAPON, AIM FOR THE HULL OF THE SHIP.

The standard engineering kit for both engineers is Rubber Mallet/Shifting Spanner/Fire Extinguisher.

The Spanner is for repairing broken components (red circle) and needs to be 'spammed' for maximum effectiveness. The Rubber Mallet is for repairing damaged components (yellow circle), and will 'clock' when you hit a component with it. This means that it will no longer be responsive to repairs until the circle is filled. Take this opportunity to do tend to other parts of the ship that need tending to. Your fire extinguisher is for putting out fires. Shocker.

Bring a spyglass for spotting, and greased rounds are a nice safe bet for most weapons.

This post is getting long already, so we'll go over the types of ships you'll want to bring next time.

Clear Skies!

In the Sky on a Whim: The Best Way to Get Started

Star Trek: Into Darkness: not remotely Steampunk, but goddam was it an exciting movie. When my friends and I saw it, we wanted to be a bridge crew. Fortunately for us, there was a little action airship combat game on sale, so we all pitched in to pick it up. This is the IDEAL way to start Guns of Icarus Online, as learning the game can be difficult, but it's not as bad when nobody on board knows what they're doing.

You can run the tutorials while in some sort of chat program with your friends, but as soon as you get in your first lobby, you're gonna wanna switch to in-game chat. It's not so crucial now, but good habit forming is important. 

The Novice Lobbies are an excellent way to start off slowly. Lots of more complicated mechanics are locked, and everyone is more or less as confused as you are. This insures you won't get stomped in higher-level lobbies, but also allows you a space to experiment without worrying about upsetting the more competitive players. At this point, the most fun part of the game is going to be messing around and trying new things. Figure out your playstyle and find out what's fun to you. Higher leveled players cannot get into Novice Lobbies, so this keeps you from getting destroyed (not fun).

Finally: stick to preset loadouts on beginner ships. As fun as the Galleon may look, it's extensively difficult to fly, engineer AND gun on. The Goldfish and Pyramidon are very good fun. If you want to do a combat role, bring the Pyramidion with a front gatling gun and mortar. If you want to play more disable/support, bring a Goldfish with a front Hawacha.

I'll go a bit more into ship loadouts and my experiences (positive and negative) next post.
The next two posts will be mostly informational, so if you're looking for a specific role, it will be bolded for you.

Clear Skies!