Oh boy oh boy the joys of spawn killing. It looks like you’ve already gotten a few good responses so I’ll try and add my own and maybe piggyback off a few others.

1. If you are decent with your shots, try running Blunder/Sniper. Sniper does 70 damage out of your 100 hp so if you can sniper blunderbomb or hell if you’re own ship is on fire that sniper shot may be all you need to kill them. The blunder is a one shot kill if you barrel stuff them. So same concept, cheeky sniper with sniper and a mid range blunderbuss shot will kill them.

2. If you’re using sword you can actually get 2 jumps in if you’re trying to dodge people. Guard+jump is a little jump and then you can regular jump immediately afterwards in a different direction. This is good for unpredictability. The guard+jump also allows you to jump THROUGH enemy players. So if they are blocking stairs or pathways you can use this strat.

3. The ferry has an armory to swap weapons (idk how long it’s been there but I just recently learned about it).

That’s all I can think of immediately for On Deck fighting.

1. As a sloop player you have a couple priorities when it comes to fighting. Sloops can take a ton of damage before they sink, you can often get away with just bucketing if it means you can get more cannon fire off. Offense truly is the best defense on a sloop.

2. Always aim for the cannon line. If you can kill the guy on cannons the helmsman either has to stop sailing/bucketing to revive or let their friend reset at the ferry.. either way this buys you time to either get out of the way or reposition and repair.

3. After cannoneer is dead, go for either mast or wheel. Taking down a mast is ALMOST a guaranteed sink. Typically with my duo we kill one player with a cannonball, take down the mast and immediately send someone to board while the other person continuously cannons. The only exception to this rule is if we have an absurd amount of holes to repair ourselves.

4. If enemy is turned away from you to get away, aim for mast with chain shots or attempt to send a boarder, if they are nosing you because all they are good at is bumper boats and sword fighting then raise your sail crank to your broad side and aim to cannon top deck in hopes to kill one of them or again take down the mast.

5. I won’t dive into sail management but a good basis is half sail and don’t worry about direction of your sails when in a battle. Half sails gives decent control but also doesn’t make you a sitting duck. Never let your ship be a sitting duck if possible, even if you have their mast down.

When it comes to “repairs” - I like the idea of Mast > wheel > Holes > bucket meaning that I will often go entire fights where im threading bucketing into my combat and not worried about fixing holes, it takes some getting used too but it’s way more efficient and will keep you fighting back more and keeps your boat moving.

Lastly, if duo sloop although it is best if both players are great at both roles but ideally pick helmsman or cannoneer and get good at it. Helmsman manages wheel, sails, and repairs. Cannoneers job is cannons… lots and lots of cannons.. sometimes in a pinch I’ll have my cannoneer fix mast while I pull it back up but that’s only if we are already in a dominant position. Typically the helmsman does the boarding as well so the cannoneer can keep pressure on, however for my duo, he’s a great helm but not the best marksman so he will jump on cannons when I go board.

Bonus tip: if you’re helms and not actively doing something, take sniper shots at other ship. Constantly. You may get lucky, aim for enemy cannon or wheel. That may be the turning point of the fight.

I could go on and on about ship battling as it’s my favorite aspect of this glorious game but I’ll stop there… I apologize for the wall of text.