Blackbeard Frigate

Blackbeard Frigate is the Blackbeard variant of the Frigate class in Windrose. A Frigate is a true ship of war, built to dominate open waters, and the Blackbeard variant sharpens the hull into a speed-and-firepower raider. It sacrifices armor and cargo space for a higher top speed and the ability to mount the heaviest guns in the game, making it the only ship in Windrose that can slot 36-Pounders in its main battery. Build one at the Wharf from the Ship Design: Frigate plan, then fit cannons, a hull bracing, a naval tactic, and boarding party gear before putting to sea.

Overview

The Blackbeard Frigate is the high-firepower raider variant of the Frigate class. Compared to the stock Frigate, it drops 50,000 hit points and 12 cargo slots so the hull can carry heavier guns and accelerate to a 20-knot top speed. Compared to the Brethren Frigate, it trades 90,000 hit points for 4 extra knots. The difference is drastic in both directions: the Blackbeard hull has 55% of a Brethren Frigate's hit point pool but sails noticeably faster and rotates the same way. That thin armor is the whole point of the variant. Every fight it wins is a fight it chose to start with a positional or cannon-caliber advantage, not a fight it survived by soaking damage.

The variant's defining feature is main-battery access to 36-pound cannons. No other hull in the game, not even the Brethren Frigate, can mount that caliber. The full broadside of twelve 36-pound guns is the single largest volley the game renders, and a clean broadside into an unaware target can strip half an enemy Frigate's hull in one tick. The tradeoff is that the 36-pound calibers reload the slowest of any main battery, so the Blackbeard Frigate's firepower is measured in broadside damage per volley rather than sustained damage per minute.

Strategic Role

The Blackbeard Frigate is built for high-speed assault: catch enemy ships in the open, land the first broadside from outside their optimal return range, then reposition before the enemy can line up a response. A 20-knot top speed lets it close or disengage faster than any other Frigate-class hull, and the 36-pound main battery means that the first full volley often decides the fight. Captains who enjoy this variant usually plan their engagements several minutes before the shooting starts: choose a wind angle that favors the Blackbeard's run, approach on a converging heading, and fire at the moment the enemy's firing arc has not yet rotated.

The inverse is just as important. A Blackbeard Frigate that sails into a 2v1 broadside is in serious trouble. Its 110,000 hit points cannot absorb the sustained fire that a stock or Brethren Frigate can, and the faster top speed matters less when two enemy hulls can cover each other's firing arcs. Captains who try to play the Blackbeard hull as a front-line brawler usually sink. The correct mindset is hit-and-run: one ship at a time, from a position that lets the Blackbeard choose when the fight starts and when it ends.

Against smaller classes like the Brig or Ketch, the Blackbeard Frigate wins almost every exchange simply because the caliber gap is so large. A 36-pound main volley deletes a Brig-class hull in two to three salvoes, and the Blackbeard variant carries the speed to avoid being kited at range. Against another Frigate, the matchup is tighter: the Brethren Frigate has nearly twice the hit points and more cargo headroom (52 vs the stock Frigate's 40), while the stock Frigate has 50,000 more crew capacity, and the Blackbeard has to win the positional battle before the damage trade begins.

Variant Comparison

All three Frigate variants share the same hull silhouette, mobility curve, crew cap, and plan progression, but their stat lines push them into very different playstyles.

Pick the Blackbeard Frigate when you want the strongest single broadside in the game and have the positional discipline to open fights at 20 knots. Pick the stock Frigate if you want a balanced all-rounder that can patrol, trade, or duel. Pick the Brethren Frigate if you prefer a slow brawler that can eat three or four volleys while your crew repairs between salvoes.

Blackbeard Class Progression

Within the Blackbeard tier itself, the Frigate is the capstone, with the Brig and Ketch as earlier stops. Each step up adds hit points, cannons, and cargo, at the cost of some agility.

Mobility

The Blackbeard Frigate shares the Frigate class hull silhouette, so gear-by-gear turn rates match the stock variant exactly. The Blackbeard Frigate's top-end speed reaches a Max Gear value of 20 knots, edging out the stock Frigate's listed 18 knots before any bracing or wind modifiers. The 20-knot maximum in the overview assumes a loadout without drag penalties. Hull Bracings, hold load, and wind angle still modify effective output on top of the baseline below. The reverse notch (Gear -1) pulls the hull backward while inverting the turn direction, useful for swinging a blocked broadside back onto a target in a narrow channel.

Full-sail speed peaks at Gear 4 with a following wind, and the Blackbeard variant's sweet spot for approach is that top gear: use the speed advantage to close distance before the enemy realizes a Frigate is inbound. Once inside effective range, drop to Gear 3 (12 kn) to preserve enough turn rate to rotate the hull between volleys. Gear 2 (5.8 kn) is for stationary broadside exchanges against a crippled target, where the extra turn-rate headroom helps line up a finishing shot. Return to Gear 4 whenever disengaging, because the 110,000-HP hull cannot afford to sail in a straight line under fire.

Wind angle is more important for the Blackbeard Frigate than for any other variant. A following wind stacks on the base 20-knot figure to produce a real-world chase speed that outruns every hull the game can field except a Blackbeard Ketch and a lightly-loaded Brig. Plan approaches so that the wind is three-quarters off the stern when possible; this keeps the hull fast without pushing the turn circle wide enough to miss a broadside shot.

Build Cost

Construct the Blackbeard Frigate at the Wharf after learning the Ship Design: Frigate plan. The following materials are consumed when the keel is laid:

The build consumes the same eight raw crafting materials as the other Frigate variants plus a stack of 50 Shipwright's Tools. Expect several trips to the foothills and tar pits to stockpile Foothills Iron Ingot, Tarred Planks, and Tarred Fabric for the hull. Because the Blackbeard variant sinks faster in bad engagements, most captains stockpile a second hull's worth of materials at the home port before taking a fresh Blackbeard Frigate into contested waters.

Equipment Loadout

The Blackbeard Frigate carries four gear slots you fit at the Wharf interface once the hull is built: a main cannon battery, a secondary cannon battery, a Hull bracing, and a Naval Tactics selection. A crew equipment slot holds Boarding Party Gear for melee engagements. Combat output on this variant is disproportionately driven by the main battery, because the 36-pound option is the single largest damage step in the Frigate class.

Cannon Slots

The Blackbeard Frigate carries a main battery of twelve guns and a secondary battery of six. Main slots accept either 24-Pounders or 36-Pounders; secondary slots accept 12-Pounders or 24-Pounders. Each slot can mount the baseline cannon of its caliber or any of three ascended variants: Devastating, Perfectly Ordered, and Tempered.

Recommended cannon mix: 36-Pounders: Devastating on the main battery, paired with 24-Pounders: Devastating on the secondary. Devastating inflicts a raked debuff on any target struck by more than 50% of a volley, adding 10% damage taken per stack and stacking up to three times. On a Blackbeard Frigate the main-battery caliber makes volley hit-rate matter more than raw sustained fire, so reliably stacking the debuff in the first two salvoes is how most Blackbeard fights are won. 36-Pounders: Tempered is the pure alpha-strike option: waiting six seconds after reload adds 40% damage to the next volley, which synergizes with an Ambush-and-wait opener. The downside is that the six-second hold often conflicts with normal naval combat flow, since enemy ships move and firing arcs close before the window opens. 36-Pounders: Perfectly Ordered is rarely the right pick on this hull, because the 36-pound reload is already slow and stacking reload speed on a small number of frequent hits fits smaller calibers better.

Captains who find the 36-pound reload cycle too punishing can drop the main battery to 24-pound guns and play the Blackbeard hull as a pure-speed raider instead. That setup sacrifices the single-volley power spike, but it recovers the sustained damage that a 24-pound main offers and leans harder on the 20-knot top speed as the decisive advantage.

Hull Slot

The hull slot accepts the baseline Hull bracing or any of three rare-tier ascendable variants. Because the Blackbeard Frigate's 110,000-HP pool is the smallest of the three Frigate variants, the bracing choice is arguably more important on this hull than on the stock or Brethren variants. See Ship Cannon Loadouts for the full bracing reference table.

Recommended bracing: Hull Bracing: Keelhold. On a glass-cannon hull, the ability to keep pop-and-go repair kits ticking under fire is what turns a 110,000-HP pool into a sustainable combat hull. Pair Keelhold with Naval Tactics III: Stretch the Supply for extended engagements, or swap to Standfast if you are running a pure ambush build where a single burst absorb is worth more than reliable repair duration.

Naval Tactics Slot

The Naval Tactics slot holds a passive trait that is always active while the ship is crewed. Tactics cannot be upgraded or ascended like cannons or hull bracing; you simply slot the one that matches your mission profile. Blackbeard Frigates can slot any of the five standard tactics.

Recommended tactic: Naval Tactics III: Stretch the Supply. Paired with a Keelhold bracing, it turns every Combat Repair Kit into a significantly stronger heal and keeps Grog-based crew buffs active for the full fight. On a hull with only 110,000 hit points, any percentage boost to healing is effectively a linear boost to time-in-combat. Ambush is the pick for premeditated first strikes, especially with a Tempered main battery, because the two-minute peace requirement is easy to satisfy when the Blackbeard variant sails faster than any target can scout.

Crew Equipment Slot

The crew slot holds Boarding Party Gear, a single uncommon-rarity item crafted once at the Shipwright's Workshop and then upgraded through fifteen levels. The Blackbeard Frigate keeps the same 50-strong crew as the other Frigate variants, so boarding output is identical to the stock and Brethren hulls once the enemy ship is crippled. However, the Blackbeard variant finishes enemy ships with its broadsides more often than the other variants, so boarding as a finisher is less common here than on the slower Brethren Frigate. Prioritize the boarding gear upgrade only after the main battery and hull bracing are fully ascended.

Recommended Builds

The Blackbeard Frigate has three main build directions, each leaning into a different edge of the glass-cannon identity. Swap gear at the Wharf when mission profile changes.

High-Speed Raider Build

• Main battery: 36-Pounders: Devastating × 12

• Secondary battery: 24-Pounders: Devastating × 6

• Hull bracing: Hull Bracing: Keelhold

• Naval tactic: Naval Tactics III: Stretch the Supply

• Crew: Boarding Party Gear at the highest affordable level

The default Blackbeard loadout. Devastating on both batteries stacks raked debuffs inside two salvoes, Keelhold keeps combat repair kits active through incoming fire, and Stretch the Supply extends healing and crew buffs through longer chases. This is the build most captains should run first, before experimenting with Tempered or pure-speed variants.

Alpha-Strike Ambush Build

• Main battery: 36-Pounders: Tempered × 12

• Secondary battery: 24-Pounders: Tempered × 6

• Hull bracing: Hull Bracing: Standfast

• Naval tactic: Naval Tactics I: Ambush

Built around a single enormous opening salvo. Ambush adds 130% damage to the first volley after two minutes of peace, Tempered cannons add another 40% if you hold the trigger six seconds after reload, and Standfast provides a burst-shy cushion if the ambush fails to cripple the target. On a solo merchant intercept this build can one-shot a Brig-class hull and cripple a Frigate-class hull in a single broadside. The discipline cost is high: hold too long and the target rotates out of arc, fire too early and the bonuses do not land. Community testing has shown that Tempered underperforms in most real combat because the six-second hold conflicts with normal combat flow, so only run this build if your playstyle actually supports patient ambush timing.

Anti-Frigate Dueling Build

• Main battery: 36-Pounders: Devastating × 12

• Secondary battery: 12-Pounders: Perfectly Ordered × 6

• Hull bracing: Hull Bracing: Iron Resolve

• Naval tactic: Naval Tactics V: Silence the Guns

For Blackbeard-versus-Frigate brawls against stock or Brethren opponents. Silence the Guns cuts the enemy's reload and damage by 20% for 30 seconds on every hit, Devastating 36-pounders stack the raked debuff, Perfectly Ordered 12-pounders keep reload speed high from frequent small hits, and Iron Resolve scales damage resistance as the fight grinds the Blackbeard hull below 30% health. This is the build to pick when you expect to fight another Frigate and cannot count on running away: it turns the Blackbeard variant's weakness (low HP) into a damage-resistance window during the comeback.

Sailing Tips

The Blackbeard Frigate rewards aggressive positioning more than any other Frigate variant. The hull is fragile enough that a single mismanaged broadside exchange can cripple it, and the 36-pound main battery reloads slowly enough that a missed first volley often hands the initiative to the enemy. Most Blackbeard captains develop a short preflight checklist they run before engaging.

• Never sail in a straight line under fire. A 110,000-HP pool is shallow enough that a single clean Brethren Frigate broadside cuts it in half. Drop to Gear 3 and start turning the moment incoming shots start landing, even if the turn pulls the hull off the intended course.

• Pick the wind before the fight. The 20-knot top speed matters most when the wind is three-quarters off the stern. Plan approaches so the target is upwind of you, which lets the Blackbeard close under sail advantage and disengage on the same heading if the fight goes badly.

• Avoid 2v1 broadsides at all costs. The Blackbeard Frigate cannot survive crossfire. If scout reports show two or more enemy ships in formation, either peel one off with a feint or disengage and come back for a single target.

• Manage hold load. The 28-slot cargo is already smaller than the stock Frigate's 40, and a fully loaded hull accelerates and turns slower. Dump heavy low-value cargo before engaging a fleet so the 20-knot top speed survives the fight.

• Aim for the hull, not the sails. Damage kills ships; sails matter only if the target is trying to flee. The 36-pound main battery is built to delete hull points, so commit to finishing the target in two or three salvoes rather than chasing a disabled-rigging kill.

• Pop Combat Repair Kit under fire; save long-duration Repair Kit for after the fight. Combat Repair Kits restore 30% over ten seconds and, with Keelhold, keep ticking through incoming hits. Long Repair Kits restore more overall but any stray cannonball interrupts the heal, which is catastrophic on a 110,000-HP hull.

• Pre-load both batteries before the opening volley. The secondary 12-pound or 24-pound guns reload faster than the 36-pound mains. Staggering the opening salvoes lets the raked debuffs refresh rather than overlap wastefully.

Restoration and Loss Recovery

A Blackbeard Frigate's restoration cost is listed as High, matching the other Frigate variants. In-field repairs on foot require Wooden Plank, Nails, fabric, and Rope in stacks that scale up sharply from what a Ketch or Brig needs. If the hull sinks, it respawns at the Wharf for a lump-sum wood cost and triggers another set of consumables. Because the Blackbeard variant takes risks by design, keep a reserve stockpile at the home port equivalent to at least one full rebuild. Captains who grind Blackbeard hulls without a reserve often lose a raid, sink, and have no way to get back on the water until material runs are done.

Restoration time also scales with damage state, not just cost. A Blackbeard Frigate at 10% hull will sit in the Wharf queue longer than a Brig at the same percentage, so even a shortage of Combat Repair Kit during a fight can compound into downtime afterward. Dock with at least 30% hull health remaining if you want to turn around a second sortie the same play session.

How to Unlock

The Ship Design: Frigate plan is a late-game acquisition tied to faction reputation. Reach Reputation Level 4 with the Brethren of the Coast faction in Tortuga, then purchase the plan from the faction vendor for 3,000 Piastres. The same plan unlocks all three Frigate variants at the Wharf, but the Blackbeard variant has no separate unlock cost, so most captains roll straight from the stock Frigate into a Blackbeard build once the plan is learned.

Reputation with the Brethren of the Coast is earned through faction-aligned contracts, fleet engagements, and trade missions out of Tortuga. Plan the reputation grind before the Frigate transition so the final 3,000-piastre purchase does not stall a session. Once the plan is learned, any Wharf of sufficient level can build the Blackbeard hull, and the build materials listed above can be stockpiled in advance.

Although the Blackbeard variant's aggressive profile feels thematically aligned with pirate factions like the Rogue Buccaneers, the plan itself comes from the Brethren of the Coast, same as the stock and Brethren variants. The variant choice is a build-time decision at the Wharf, not a separate faction gate.

Ascension Synergy

The Blackbeard Frigate benefits heavily from ascended cannons and hull bracings at the Shipwright's Workshop. Epic-tier ascensions for 36-pound cannons consume Tumbaga Ingot among other high-end materials, so plan the metal grind alongside the reputation grind. An Epic Devastating ascension adds reload speed on top of the raked debuff, which is a larger practical upgrade on this hull than on the stock Frigate because the Blackbeard variant needs every salvo to land. Prioritize ascending the main battery before the secondary, then move to the hull bracing, and save the boarding party gear for last.

See Also

• Ships: the top-level Windrose ship index.

• Frigate: balanced stock variant with 160,000 HP and 40 cargo slots.

• Brethren Frigate: 200,000-HP tank variant for sustained fights.

• Blackbeard Brig: smaller raider with similar speed-and-firepower philosophy.

• Blackbeard Ketch: light-class raider and scout.

• Wharf: where ships are built, rigged, and repaired.

• Cannons: overview of cannon calibers and variants.

• 36-Pounders: main-battery caliber exclusive to this hull.

• Naval Combat: the broader naval combat system.

• Ship Customization: the four-slot gear system.

• Ship Cannon Loadouts: full cannon and bracing reference tables.

• Boarding: crew-versus-crew boarding actions.

• Brethren of the Coast: faction that sells the Ship Design: Frigate plan.

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