August 2026 Major Update: PvP Rewards, RoE Update, Penetration Overhaul & other

Rules of Engagement Update

• When initiating a PvP attack, only the battle ratings of the attacking ship and its target are compared. The attack cannot be initiated if the target ship’s battle rating is more than six times the battle rating of the attacking ship.

• This restriction does not prevent a higher-rated ship from attacking a lower-rated ship. The total battle rating and size of the attacking and defending groups are not taken into account.

• Examples.

  • Lynx (BR 13) can only attack ships up to Diana (BR 78)

  • La Renommée (BR 38) is the lowest ship that can attack Victory (BR 216)

Ships, Equipment, and Rating

• Added a new ship parameter called Rating.

• A ship's rating consists of the following components:

  • Base rating. Equal to the ship's BR and present on every ship, regardless of equipment.

  • Equipment rating. The frame, planking, and installed upgrades increase a ship's rating. Rare woods and rare upgrades increase it more.

  • DPM modifier. A ship's DPM is taken into account when calculating equipment rating. If no guns are installed, the ship's DPM is zero; in that case, the equipment rating is also zero, and the ship keeps only its base rating.

• Increased the crew size of Belle Poule by 6, bringing it to 257 crew members.

• Increased the flight speed of the Balloon. The weight of the Balloon's hold does not affect its speed.

• Added two skins for Montanes.

PvP Rewards and PvP Modules

• Added rewards for sinking PvP opponents. The reward amount depends on the rating of the enemy ship: the better equipped the ship is, the higher the reward for sinking it.

• Added new PvP modules.

  • PvP modules can be obtained from chests available in the Admiralty.

  • PvP modules cannot be obtained through module exchange in the Bermuda Exchange.

• IMPORTANT: PvP reward chests will become available in the Admiralty one week after this update. Rewards for participation on the Test Server will also be distributed at that time.

Combat Changes and Balance

• Added a monetary reward for killing enemy crew members, using coefficient 17.55 per crew.

• Added the effect of a ship's HP condition on crew splinter damage:

  • Lower hp = more splinter damage

• Added the effect of a ship's armor condition on fire chance:

  • Lower HP = higher fire chance

• Updated the chain shot damage degradation curve. Chain shot now works on all ranges to allow kiting gameplay with long guns

• Modules and perks now provide greater reductions to horizontal and vertical dispersion.

• Modules now provide greater Sail HP bonuses.

• Armor repair cooldown has been increased from 10 minutes to 20 minutes. The Combat Repairs perk now reduces the cooldown by 17 minutes instead of the previous 8 minutes.

• Armor repair amount has been increased from 25% to 50%.

• Armor and Crew Repairs can no longer be used immediately at the start of a battle. When entering battle, repairs now automatically start with an initial cooldown and become available only after it ends.

• Sail Repair can still be used immediately at the start of a battle. Its cooldown and repair amount remain unchanged.

• The effect of the Combat Repairs perk now depends on the amount of damage dealt. If you kill the large enemy solo you will get the whole bonus. If 5 players kill the same ship they will get % of bonus depending on their damage dealt

Penetration Overhaul

• New side armor thickness values by ship rate:

  • 1st rates - 100 cm

  • 2nd rates - 96 cm

  • 3rd rates - 92 cm

  • 4th rates - 88 cm

  • 5th rates - 82 cm

  • 6th rates - 78 cm

• Penetration effectiveness now depends more heavily on distance, impact angle, and armor thickness bonuses. The new system uses several key distance thresholds:

• Maximum effective penetration distance — the distance at which a gun can penetrate a ship with no additional armor thickness modules and no angle applied.

• Medium penetration threshold — the distance at which a gun can penetrate a ship equipped with three blue armor thickness modules or a ship angled at 45 degrees.

• Close-range penetration threshold — the distance at which a gun can penetrate a ship equipped with three blue armor thickness modules and angled at 45 degrees.

• At point-blank range, guns may penetrate armor at angles greater than 45 degrees, up to an additional 10 degrees depending on the gun type

• Example values for 42-pounder guns:

  • Long Guns

    • Maximum distance: 1500 m

    • Medium threshold: 950 m

    • Close-range threshold: 400 m

  • Medium Guns

    • Maximum distance: 900 m

    • Medium threshold: 550 m

    • Close-range threshold: 300 m

  • Carronades

    • Maximum distance: 550 m

    • Medium threshold: 425 m

    • Close-range threshold: 300 m

• Long Guns and Navy Long Guns new dispersion values:

  • Horizontal dispersion has been increased from 4m to 5m per 100 m of distance

  • Vertical dispersion has been lowered from 10m to 7m per 100 m of distance

• Long gun damage to masts and sails has been increased by 22% to bring it on par with medium guns

• Congreve Guns damage to masts and sails has been decreased by 10%

• Base DPM increased for the following gun types:

  • Medium Guns: +15%

  • Long Guns: +8.95%

  • Navy Long Guns: +8.95%

  • Blomfield Guns: +15%

  • Congreve Guns: +15%

  • Carronades: +15%

  • Obusiers: +15%

• Structure Crit Damage Modifier lowered from 2.7 to 2.1

Conquest Mechanics and NPC Port Attacks

• Following player feedback, the logic used to select ports attacked by NPCs has been changed.

• The new logic is designed to regularly test a clan's ability to defend its ports on a more predictable schedule.

• The frequency of NPC attacks depends on the number of clan ports eligible for attack. A battle is usually scheduled within the listed interval, but in some cases the date may shift by 1-2 days.

  • 1-4 ports: one port battle every 6-8 days.

  • 5-9 ports: one port battle every 5-7 days.

  • 10-14 ports: one port battle every 4-6 days.

  • 15-19 ports: one port battle every 3-5 days.

  • 20 or more ports: one port battle every 2-4 days.

• Maximum number of Raider Port Battles per day (one maintenance cycle):

  • Caribbean server — 6 Raider Port Battles.

  • Peace server — 4 Raider Port Battles.

  • There are no nation-specific limits on the number of Raider Port Battles.

Crafting and Trading Updates

• Profit from trading has tripled on average.

• Ship crafting recipes have been significantly rebalanced. All ship recipes now require doubloons. Larger ships require more resources to craft.

• Examples on new ships costs:

  • Bellona new cost: 1 089 321 reals, old cost: 45 299 reals, New PvE kills required: 29.95, old PvE kills required: 1.25

  • Frigate new cost: 352 672 reals, old cost: 22 571 reals, New PvE kills required: 14.24, old PvE kills required: 0.91

  • Brig new cost: 41 616 reals, old cost: 6699 reals, New PvE kills: 5.40, old PvE Kills: 0.87

• Cannon crafting recipes have been rebalanced. Higher-caliber cannons now require more resources and doubloons.

• Crafting experience gains have been adjusted to account for the new ship and cannon recipes.

• Increased the chance of crafting a purple- or gold-quality ship in capturable ports

Loot Update

• NPC ships will now carry more following trade resources:

  • Arabian books

  • Chinese books

  • Chinese tea

  • Cuirass

  • Dutch Laudanum

  • East Indian spices

  • European books

  • Gobelins tapestry

  • Gold ingots

  • Historical Artifact

  • Jutland Amber

  • Languedoc Violins

  • Madagascar Jewels

  • Olmec stone mask

  • Parisian Furniture

  • Pearl necklaces

  • Pearls

  • Porcelain

  • Silver ingots

  • Topaz

• These resources are consumed in Kingston/Port Royal, Cartagena de Indias and Nassau.

• Dutch Fleets will now carry more rare modules.

• NPC ships in the Solo Area will now carry fewer rare modules and guns. Log data showed that these ships yielded a disproportionately high amount of rare loot compared with other activities, such as sinking Dutch Fleets or NPC Raiders.

• For example, current amount of gold modules per month (30 days):

  • Solo Area: 9407 modules

  • From Raiders: 381 modules

  • Dutch Fleets: 330 modules

NPC Update

• NPC ship bonuses have been adjusted to provide one type of bonuses instead of various types.

• The distribution of Open World NPCs has been rebalanced in favor of individual ships over large fleets.

Tutorial and Progression

• The Endurance exam has been replaced with the Intro Exam, where players are required to deal damage to ships of an enemy flotilla.

• Adjusted the point costs of several perks.

• The Prepared perk has returned. Prepared perk loads your guns at the start of the battle.

Interface and Quality of Life

• The clan management interface has been updated to match the general style of the game UI.

• Improved the fleet control interface in battle.

• The fleet control interface on the battle map now allows you to open a ship's hold by selecting that ship on the map. The conditions for opening a hold have not changed.

• Added new helpful gameplay tips to loading screens.

• Updated gun tooltips with new important combat stats.

• Improved localization.

• Updated ship tooltips with new important combat parameters and the ship rating.

• Mast HP is now displayed in the battle interface for the player’s ship and targeted ships.

Fixes and Technical Changes

• NPCs are now better at choosing a tack toward the player when the wind is unfavorable.

• Fixed an issue where only some of the eligible ports were being considered when assigning Delivery missions. As a result, more Delivery missions should now be available.

Spotlight image by Sato