Revision 8

24-Pounders is a 24-pound ship Cannon, the baseline Uncommon variant. It is a powerful, well-balanced gun that forms the backbone of many mid and late-game naval batteries. The ship's voice.

Overview

Across all twelve canonical Cannons variants, ATK caps at 380 and every cannon inside a caliber shares the same per-volley Damage. What the modded variants add is a passive effect, not a bigger base number; the 24-Pounders baseline has no such passive, which is why it sits at the bottom of the performance ladder for its caliber while staying the most available.

Damage Output Math

At 2,000 Damage per volley and a 13-second reload, a single 24-Pounders gun outputs roughly 9,230 Damage per minute in sustained fire, ignoring accuracy and range falloff. The 12-Pounders baseline manages about 8,180 DPM (1,500 Damage every 11 seconds) and the 36-Pounders baseline reaches about 10,710 DPM (2,500 Damage every 14 seconds). The 24-pound gun therefore sits almost exactly between the two calibers on raw throughput, which is the arithmetic reason it shows up as the main battery on every balanced hull in the fleet.

DPM scales linearly with the number of guns in a broadside. A Frigate firing all twelve main-battery 24-pounders at once delivers 24,000 Damage per broadside, or roughly 110,800 DPM if every volley lands cleanly. Miss rate, weak-spot positioning, and hull armor chew into that number quickly, which is why accuracy and range ranks matter almost as much as the damage line in a long engagement.

Caliber Comparison

Baseline cannons at each caliber share the same ATK and rarity. The only numbers that move are Damage and Reload, plus which hulls will accept the slot.

The 24-pound caliber is the broadest mid-game option. It is the first caliber a balanced Frigate captain can mount, it is the heaviest caliber a Ketch-class raider can carry at all, and it is the starting main-battery slot for every Frigate-class variant. A 36-pound gun only exists on one hull in the game and trades a full second of reload for roughly 25% more damage per shot; a 12-pound gun fits everything but caps at three-quarters of the 24-pound's per-volley damage.

Fits Ships

Frigate-class hulls mount 24-pound cannons in their main battery by default. The Blackbeard faction's upgraded hulls, including the Blackbeard Brig and Blackbeard Ketch, can also field 24-pound guns as an upgrade from their lighter base loadouts.

On the stock and Brethren Frigates the 24-pound slots sit in the main battery, arranged six guns per side. The 12-pound secondary battery is smaller and sits closer to the bow and stern to cover angles the main guns cannot. On the Blackbeard Frigate the 24-pounder can fill either role depending on whether the captain wants peak per-volley damage (36 main + 24 secondary) or a deeper 24-pound inventory for mixed engagements.

Crafting Recipes

24-Pounders is crafted at the Shipwright's Workshop. Each station tier accepts a different material pipeline, letting you re-craft this gun with whichever ingots and planks your base currently supports. Craft time is one second per gun across all tiers.

Unlike the modded variants, the baseline 24-Pounders recipe is available by default at every workshop tier. No Recipe Papers are consumed, no reputation gate applies, and the recipe is shared between singleplayer and co-op sessions.

Material Upgrade Path

Each step up the workshop tier ladder swaps in a tougher metal and a tougher plank. The caliber behaves identically across all three tiers: the same 2,000 Damage, the same 13-second reload, the same Max Level 15. Upgrading the crafting tier does not change the gun's stats; it only changes which raw materials you are comfortable spending.

The L11 recipe is the same pipeline used by every modded 24-pound variant at their own L11 tier, so a captain who has already stocked Mire Metal Ingot for Tempered or Devastating guns can craft baseline 24-Pounders as a drop-in spare without any extra farming. Mire Metal is sourced by fighting Plague Thralls in the Cursed Swamps for Quagmire Powder and mining Ancient Scraps from dead-tree deposits in the same biome, then combining two scraps and one powder at a Large Smelting Furnace to produce one ingot.

Baseline vs Modded Variants

Three Rare modded variants share the 24-pound caliber. Each ascends to Epic by consuming Tumbaga Ingot at the Weaponsmith Workshop, which tacks a second passive onto the Rare effect. Plans for all three drop from the Rogue Buccaneers Provisioner at Level 3 faction reputation for 400 Piastre each.

The three modded lines solve different problems. Tempered rewards patient captains who can hold fire six seconds for the 40% damage volley and pays off further at Epic with a 20% weak-spot bonus, which pushes its range and accuracy ranks from B to A. Devastating applies a stacking debuff that eventually raises all incoming damage against the same target by 30%; it pairs best with a second cannon set or boarding party that can capitalize on the debuff. Perfectly Ordered is the most forgiving of the three: just land a shot after every reload and the 30% reload buff stays up almost continuously, which is ideal for new captains still learning volley timing.

When to Use the Baseline

The baseline 24-Pounders is the most accessible cannon of its caliber. It requires no Recipe Papers, no faction reputation grind, and no Piastre outlay. It trades mechanical effect for raw availability, which matters in four concrete situations:

First Frigate build. A new captain who has just unlocked the Frigate can stock all twelve main-battery slots with baseline 24-Pounders from the L1 Copper recipe for 180 Copper Ingots and 180 Wood, then sail out without waiting on a Rogue Buccaneers rep grind. Every modded plan demands at least Level 3 with that faction, so the baseline is usually the first 24-pound gun a captain actually fires.

Mid-campaign re-arm. After a lost engagement or a Naval Tactics swap, replacing a damaged cannon is faster and cheaper with the baseline recipe than re-rolling the modded recipe. Keep a small stockpile in ship cargo so you can swap guns at any Wharf between missions.

Secondary-slot filler on the Blackbeard Frigate. That hull's secondary battery can run 12 or 24 pounds. Running mixed 24-pound baseline guns in the secondary frees up Tempered or Devastating inventory for the six main-battery 36-pounder slots where the Epic effects scale harder.

Spare rack for boarding captains. Captains who focus on boarding and Naval Tactics II: No Quarter care less about peak DPM and more about keeping a full gun row operational. The baseline is the easiest caliber-24 gun to keep in reserve.

Outside those four cases, a modded 24-pounder will outperform the baseline on equivalent ammunition. If the L11 Mire Metal pipeline is already running and the captain holds Rogue Buccaneers at Level 3 or higher, the better long-term investment is to stock one modded caliber-24 variant for the main battery and one for the secondary rather than cycling baseline guns in every slot.

Tips for First-Time Frigate Captains

Keep twelve guns in reserve. A Frigate's main battery is twelve slots and individual cannons take damage over time. Crafting thirteen or fourteen baseline 24-Pounders at build time gives an immediate replacement if a broadside knocks out a gun mid-fight.

Pair with B-rank hulls first. Baseline B-rank accuracy and B-rank range favor close-to-medium engagement. Close to roughly two-thirds of the ship's effective range before firing; the damage per shot is competitive but the miss rate at long range chews into DPM harder than with the A-rank Tempered line.

Watch the reload cadence. Thirteen seconds between volleys is slow enough that a skilled target can steer out of line. Synchronize broadsides with a hard turn so the enemy faces a full volley and not a trickle of single-gun shots.

Upgrade the workshop before the gun. Tiering the Shipwright's Workshop from L1 to L6 does not change gun stats but it does swap in cheaper ingredient ratios as the player's biome loot shifts. A mid-campaign captain sitting on a stack of Foothills Iron and Timber should re-craft at L6 rather than burning fresh Copper.

Do not craft the L11 recipe too early. Mire Metal Ingot is a late-game material gated behind the Cursed Swamps biome. Spending fifteen ingots per baseline gun is a waste of material that could go into 24-Pounders: Tempered or a Hull Bracing upgrade. Only use the L11 baseline recipe when the endgame pipeline is fully operational and Mire Metal is in surplus.

See Also

Cannons: full roster of every ship-weapon variant.

Naval Combat: how broadsides, weak spots, and stacking debuffs resolve into damage.

Ship Customization: pairing cannons with hull class, hull bracing, and naval tactics.

Shipwright's Workshop: primary crafting station for all cannon calibers.

24-Pounders: Tempered: disciplined-broadside Rare variant.

24-Pounders: Devastating: stacking-debuff Rare variant.

24-Pounders: Perfectly Ordered: sustained-reload Rare variant.