Easy Galleon Guide

[BlackenedPies]

This guide is for an easy effective brawl galleon appropriate for all levels. A brawl galleon is a mid to close range galleon and is great at disabling and killing.

The left side is gat double hwatcha and the right side is carronade hwatcha. You'll mostly engage with the left side, and the right side is opportunistic and good for close range.




The main deck engi brings lesmok ammo and a main engi kit. The main kit is spanner mallet chem spray. Chem spray on hull can be easily maintained by moving to hull during the gat reload. Regular ammo is used on the gat for mid range (450m) and lesmok for longer (765m). Jumping can be great for increasing speed by jumping onto stairs (you move slower on stairs/ladders) and jumping from upper deck to main deck. Stamina is used tactically for efficient cycles and is best for sprinting distances instead of short stops.

The gunner brings heavy clip, burst, and heatsink. Heavy clip makes the hwatcha accurate, but burst is the main hwatcha ammo for maximizing damage. The gunner will shoot the right side carronade with heavy clip for longer range, and heatsink is good for close. Using stamina as gunner increases arcs and reload speed, but stamina regenerates slowly so save some in case you need extra arcs.

The bottom engi brings spanner mallet extinguisher and burst ammo (alternative loadout wrench buff ext). They will be in charge of repairing engines and extinguishing fires. If the front guns are broken, the engi can help repair during the 14 second hwatcha reload. Using stamina as engi makes you run and is great for quickly moving to engines or top deck. Use stamina for distance sprints.

As pilot you want kerosene, phoenix claw, and hydrogen. Kero for speed, claw for turning, and hydro for up. Use lots of kero when you have to move and claw when you have to turn. Hydro should only be used for an instant (on off) because the effects last 5 seconds. Never hesitate to use tools, and you can burn while shooting. Kero and claw are cheap to use with great benefit. When making tight turns use neutral throttle.

Pilot stamina is very useful and easy on galleon. When you first spawn and have a plan where to go, I recommend immediately burning kero and using 2/3 of your stamina to start moving. The best uses for your stamina are to start moving, help turn, and going up or down. Normally you shouldn't keep using stamina just to move faster. Once you get the hang of it you'll find on galleon it's easy to save up stamina for big maneuvers.


The goal is to stay within 700 meters and use all 3 left guns on the target. At long ranges the gunner can use heavy clip hwatcha against heavy guns/engines, but will mostly use burst. If they are getting too far away, turn and burn towards them. Your most effective range is around 400m. At full speed the galleon is quite fast and you can often (carefully) use it as a giant ram.

The right side is great for closer range (400m max), and use it if it's quicker than turning to left side. Carronade is excellent at popping balloons, pretty good against armor/components, and very powerful when paired with a burst hwatcha. Double hwatcha is commonly seen on right side, but the extra disable is unnecessary and limits options. One burst hwatcha is plenty to disable a ship and doesn't do enough armor damage.

Popping balloon with carronade can be detrimental for a galleon due to low vertical acceleration. This isn't an issue against slow ships like galleons or pyramidions, but faster ships fall fast and are hard to keep up with. This leaves two options: save up stamina and use it to go down, or put one shot into balloon and the other into armor/components. The second option limits their movement while doing armor damage. Although slow, the galleon can pick up plenty of speed with high momentum.


Notes:

I recommend a pipe wrench as pilot to repair balloon and help rebuild. Moving from helm to balloon is quick, and can help while the main engi is busy downstairs. Unless maneuvers are needed, you are in charge of helping rebuild balloon and can also help on hull.

If necessary the bottom engi can come up to help repairs while the gunner shoots. The gunner can cycle between guns on reload and shoot all 4. If the bottom engi is rebuilding engines for example, tell the gunner to shoot the other gun during reload.

Having a buff engi is a great advantage for extra damage and buffed engines, but limits repair power. The buff hammer is useless while being disabled. On my galleons I always have atleast one buff engi (wrench buff) and usually two (gunner is replaced by spanner mallet buff). A galleon with buffed balloon, hull, engines, and guns is a deadly adversary.

[Quintessince]

Terrific little guide for a ship that I usually hate playing on! I have to say it makes me a little less nervous about maybe taking it out of the hangar now. Thank you for this!


A few questions about your alternate set up of 3 engi's-
Do you ever find yourself having issues with overheating your guns? As your gun/engi load out has no fire responsive items, would you ask your bottom engi to take chem spray instead and prioritize rotations on the guns?

And do you ever miss having gunner stamina? I can see how gunner stamina could be a crutch for a pilot who is having difficulty getting you into position- either against a quick moving target or simply not quite knowing the arcs, but what about the reload times? Or does having the buffed damage ultimately compensate for the inability to speed reloads.


I ask these more out of the fact that the groups that I run with aren't the highest levels and while I have some command of the game, I know I'm not amazing so I go back and forth about the value of repairing power vs the utility of having a gunner. Plus in a solo queue situation it isn't always easy to convince a crew to go all engi's haha.

Thanks for any insight and the great post!

Quin
o7

[Kamoba]

The triple engineer lpadout Blackened uses is very effective, as long as the two engineers with chem spray cycles up there is no need to worry too much about over heating, however it can take a while to get used to chem spray, which is why many vets encourage lower levels to start using chem as soon as possible.

Stamina reload bonus from gunners is more effective than the arcs.for pilots who are able to keep their guns in arc, and in most cases the added reload speed is not needed, but it certainly has its place.

[Alistair MacBain]

I might just missed it but for the bottom engi and gunner/gungineer there is also the possibility to have the gunner/gungineer just as that when using the only hwacha side. Let him shoot both guns in cycles. Thats easy doable and even more with the changes to reload.
The second guy/engineer than is free to help repair all over the ship.
Idea behind this is to have more repair ability with a tiny downside. You aim to get the enemy disabled with the first hwacha volley anyway. After that is done the second is in theory just the finisher which is used once the gatling stripped the enemy hull. At that point the second hwacha is used for its explosive potential to get the kill on an enemy. And even with longer rotations one player can handle 2 hwachas. For the carro, hwacha side you obv need 2 people to maximize potential.

[BlackenedPies]

@Quin

For 3 engi I have a front minotaur-carronade. I also use 3 engi for very long range with hades double lumber, double carro right side. The other loadout I use is the "meta" with a gunner and hades lumber flak, hwatcha carro. The setup in the guide is a better alternative to the common quad hwatcha and it's safe to have a gunner.

Regarding keeping up chems on the bottom, I used to have the spanner mallet buff on the front two guns (with hwatcha) and the wrench buff chem on the rear two but my strategy has since changed. Chem can be very useful, but fires on bottom deck mostly aren't a significant problem and I've switched to extinguisher. Disables are a much bigger issue and chem spray reduces repairs per second. Guns getting flamed out is uncommon, but in that case the engi runs over and gives it a quick extinguish. Fires on the top deck is the bigger issue. Effective chem cycles is superior, but I haven't had the problem of major fires on the bottom deck and it's easier to keep guns fully repaired and buffed without worrying about chems. Fires don't deal much damage to components.

I also switched the spanner mallet buff to the rear two and wrench buff to the front. This gives more efficient engine repairs and allows the use of moonshine if necessary. When not directly engaging, the wrench buff goes to top deck and buffs engine, balloon, hull (in that order if there's time). When in trouble one engi (usually spanner mallet buff) goes to the top deck to repair and buff while the other repairs and buffs engines. If necessary, everyone goes to top deck and the buffs work together.

Gunner stamina can be very useful for arcs, but good positioning and buffs helps make this unnecessary. The goal is that the extra buffs makes up for extra arcs. Stamina reload can reduce the reload time by a max of 1.6 seconds, but refills very slowly and doesn't increase dps by much. Unless you find yourself never needing arcs, I recommend saving at least 1/3 stamina in case. On the left side I use a heavy clip minotaur which has excellent arcs including vertical. The minotaur does shatter damage and can 2 shot heavy guns and engines, but has a 9 second reload.

@Alistair 
I mentioned it, but unless specific repairs are needed it's safer to keep them on the guns to prevent disables.
One thing I didn't mention is to not be on the gun until you're ready to shoot. This is to keep it at full health and immediately repair if it takes damage.

[MightyKeb]

I think it'd be helpful if you could also provide information on specific ship matchups. Otherwise, fine guide!


Now we just need one for the squid.

[BlackenedPies]

Galleons are vulnerable to being disabled because the heavy guns are easy targets with lengthy rebuilds. If both hwatchas are disabled, the gunner should move to the rear gun to help rebuild quicker. A great tactic is prebuilding guns: rebuilding until it's one hit away. For example, this can be used to wait until after the next enemy hwatcha volley to rebuild and shoot during their reload.

Brawl galleon is most effective against other brawl ships and risky against long range. This galleon is most effective against ships with an effective range of around 400m. Having lesmok ammo and two hwatchas gives the galleon an advantage against close range ships because it can start engaging at longer range.

It's important not to engage too early or late. Engaging early against longer range ships means they will be at their most effective. Engaging too late against close range ships lets them shoot first and the possibility to outmaneuver- which is easiest at close range. A tactic against long range ships is rushing in low to close range to maximize disable from two hwatchas. Anticipate close range opponents using hydro and be ready at moment's notice with hydro+stamina.