Revision 21

Overview

Cannons are the primary ship weapon in Windrose, mounted in each hull's cannon slot and crafted at the Shipwright's Workshop. Every cannon comes in three calibers (12-Pounders, 24-Pounders, and 36-Pounders) with three modification lines (Tempered, Perfectly Ordered, and Devastating). Each modded cannon has a Rare base tier that can be ascended to Epic using Tumbaga Ingot. This page indexes all twelve canonical variants, explains when each one shines, and documents the crafting recipes, plan vendors, ascension costs, and ship loadout picks for Naval Combat.

How Cannons Work

Cannons use four combat stats. ATK is a hidden base multiplier shared across every cannon at 380 at max rank. Damage is the per-volley number and scales with caliber: 1,500 for 12-Pounders, 2,000 for 24-Pounders, and 2,500 for 36-Pounders. Reload Time ranges from 11 seconds (12-Pounder baseline) up to 16 seconds (36-Pounder Tempered and Perfectly Ordered). Range and Accuracy ranks are ordinal (B, A, S) and are mostly B or A on lighter calibers. The 36-Pounders: Tempered is the only variant that reaches S rank in both.

Effective cannon range in the live build is approximately 185 meters for a straight shot. Heavier calibers hit harder per volley but reload slower and cost more to craft. Each hull class has specific slots that only accept certain calibers, so you cannot simply bolt 36-pounders onto every ship. A Ketch is locked to three 12-pound slots; a standard Frigate carries a mix of 12-pound and 24-pound guns; only the Blackbeard Frigate accepts 36-pound guns at all.

Caliber and Hull Compatibility

Modification Lines

Uncommon baseline cannons have no special effect and are strictly for filling slots when you have not yet unlocked a modded plan. Every modded line comes as Rare by default and can be ascended to Epic. The Epic bonus stacks with the Rare effect; it does not replace it, so an Epic modded cannon is always strictly better than its Rare equivalent once the Tumbaga Ingot cost is paid.

Complete Cannon Catalog

All twelve canonical variants, with their verified stats from the Rare or Uncommon tier. Epic tier shares the same Damage, Reload, Range, and Accuracy numbers as Rare; only the effect text grows.

Ship Weapon Plans

Every Rare modded cannon requires a corresponding plan (recipe paper) to unlock the crafting recipe. All nine modded plans drop from the same NPC: the Rogue Buccaneers Provisioner at ascending reputation tiers. 12-pound plans unlock at Rep Level 2 for 300 Piastre each. 24-pound plans unlock at Rep Level 3 for 400 Piastre each. 36-pound plans unlock at Rep Level 4 for 500 Piastre each. Plans are consumed on use, but one copy unlocks the recipe permanently, so you never need to buy the same plan twice.

The three Uncommon baseline cannons (12-Pounders, 24-Pounders, and 36-Pounders) do not require any plan. They are learned automatically once the Shipwright's Workshop is built, which is why they are the fallback option whenever you outfit a new hull before farming reputation.

Crafting Recipes

Every cannon is crafted at the Shipwright's Workshop. The recipe changes with station tier: each upgrade unlocks access to the next material pipeline while the old recipe stays available. Craft time is 1 second at every tier, meaning output is effectively batchable at 60 per minute. The station itself needs 15 Wood, 10 Coarse Fabric, and 5 Copper Ingot to build, and it must sit under a roof within bonfire range.

Baseline Uncommon Cannons

Modded Rare Cannons

All three modifications of a given caliber share the same ingredient list. The only difference from the Uncommon base recipe is that modded versions use Wooden Plank instead of raw Wood at Tier 1 and gain a Shipwright's Tools requirement at Tier 6.

Ascending to Epic

Every Rare cannon variant ascends to Epic at the Shipwright's Workshop by combining the base Rare cannon with Tumbaga Ingot. The Tumbaga requirement scales with caliber and is identical across modifications: 7 ingots for any 12-pound variant, 8 for any 24-pound, and 9 for any 36-pound. Ascending keeps the Rare-tier effect active and layers the Epic-only bonus on top, so the Epic cannon is strictly better once the ingots are available.

Tumbaga Ingots come exclusively from chests tied to Blackbeard Treasure Maps. Each treasure chest typically contains three ingots. The maps drop from named encounters and boss-tier enemies in Blackbeard's fleet. Because Tumbaga is scarce and competes with every other Rare weapon and piece of gear you might want to ascend, most captains ascend their ship's primary caliber first and leave secondaries at Rare.

Weak Spots

Every enemy ship has a weak spot on its stern, directly below the wheelhouse. Hitting this spot registers a critical hit and scales with the Tempered Epic bonus for a straight +20% damage. The stern is also the blind angle of the target: ship cannons are broadside weapons, and very few enemy hulls carry rear-facing guns, so a captain who can maintain a position behind the enemy's stern fires freely while receiving almost no return damage.

Practical weak-spot engagement looks like: slow to three-quarters sail to tighten the turn radius, angle diagonally across the target's wake, fire the aft-side broadside into the stern, then break off before the target swings its own broadside around. Tempered Epic cannons are built around this loop. The Rare-tier +40% buff for holding fire for 6 seconds stacks multiplicatively with the Epic-tier +20% Weak Spot bonus, which is why Tempered on a Blackbeard Frigate with S-rank range is the highest single-volley damage configuration in the game.

Ammunition

Cannons alternate between two ammunition types during combat. Standard Cannonballs are selected with the 1 key and deal raw hull damage. Chain Shot is selected with the 2 key and shreds sails and masts, applying a speed and turn-rate debuff rather than hull damage. Neither round is consumable: ammunition is effectively infinite in combat. The finite cost is the cannon itself (unlocked via plans) and the reload timing, not the shot.

The standard workflow on a hauler farm is: open with five or six chain-shot volleys to strip the target's sails, switch to cannonballs, beat the hull down to the disabled state, and stop firing the moment the Boarding Combat prompt appears. Continuing to fire cannonballs after the prompt sinks the ship and loses the cargo. Against escort patrols that do not carry loot worth boarding, standard cannonballs finish them faster; save chain shot for anything that might try to flee.

Wave Mechanics

Cannon fire is physics-based, not stat-based, which means it interacts with the ocean. Waves physically block cannon shots: when a large swell rises between your hull and the target, the volley hits the wave crest instead of the enemy. Greater distance and higher tides make this worse, which is one reason why closing range matters as much as aligning broadsides.

Cannonballs also travel in a natural arc. Aiming at the visual center of a distant target overshoots, so the community convention is to aim slightly lower than center and let the arc land on the waterline. Right-click shows a white trajectory arc that turns red when the line crosses the target, which is the fastest way to judge lead and drop on a moving enemy. Time broadsides for the moment your own hull peaks on a wave rather than when it troughs, or shots will plow into the water a few meters short of the target.

Naval Tactics Synergy

Cannon effects stack with every active Naval Tactics buff and with Grog crew drinks. Notable pairings:

• Broken Rhythm reduces enemy damage and reload speed by 20%, which widens the window to stack Raked on a Devastating loadout.

• Gunroom Grog gives a flat -15% reload time for 30 minutes per brew. It multiplies with the Perfectly Ordered +30% reload buff, turning the 12-pound reload cycle from 13s into roughly 8s during the buff window.

• Stretch the Supply extends Grog duration by 200%, which is the difference between a single fight on Grog and a full patrol route on Grog. Strong pick on any cannon build that relies on reload or Weak Spot cadence.

• Hull Bracing: Keelhold keeps repair kits active while taking damage, which matters during broadside duels where the Devastating Raked stack keeps the target pinned.

Best Cannon by Ship Class

There is no universal best cannon. The right pick depends on the hull, the typical engagement, and which plans you have already unlocked. The table below covers the community-converged loadouts for every hull that exists in the launch build.

Uncommon baseline cannons are not wasted. They are still the correct fallback on a new hull or when you are rebuilding a fleet after a wipe. A Ketch with three baseline 12-Pounders can clear any patrol tier up through mid-game; the upgrade to Perfectly Ordered is a convenience buff, not a requirement.

Boarding and Cannons

Cannons and boarding are paired systems. Cannons exist to bring a target into boarding range. Over-firing cannons after the Boarding Combat prompt appears sinks the ship and loses the cargo, which is why the single most common early-game mistake is continuing standard cannonball fire past the disabled state. The full loop looks like:

• Use Chain Shot to disable the target's sails and prevent escape.

• Switch to Cannonballs and drop the hull to the disabled state.

• Stop firing the moment the boarding prompt appears above the target.

• Press Space to initiate the Boarding Combat sequence.

• After the board, repair at a Wharf if the cannon row took hits, and refit from the Shipwright's Workshop if any cannons were destroyed.

See Also

• Ships: the hulls that mount cannons

• Naval Combat: broader combat system, controls, and wave mechanics

• Ship Plans: overview of every ship-related recipe paper

• Shipwright's Workshop: primary crafting station for cannons and fittings

• Ship Customization: pairing cannons with hulls, hull mods, and tactics

• Naval Tactics: combat buffs that stack with cannon effects

• Rogue Buccaneers: faction whose Provisioner sells every modded plan

• Tumbaga Ingot: weapon ascension material used for Rare-to-Epic upgrades

• Cannonballs: standard ship ammunition

• Chain Shot: sail-targeting ammunition

• Boarding Combat: the loot path that cannons set up

• Wharf: where cannons are equipped, repaired, and removed