Revision 4

Brig is a stock variant of the Brig ship class in Windrose. A brig is a versatile war-capable ship that stands between trader and warship. Favored by captains who expect trouble. Stock ship variants have balanced stats, no real strengths or weaknesses. Build one at the Wharf with the right Ship Design plan, then outfit the cannon, hull, naval tactics, and boarding party slots before setting sail.

Overview

Strategic Role

The stock Brig is the balanced loadout: neither the fastest raider nor the toughest fortress, but versatile enough to handle escort, trade protection, or first-encounter combat. New captains who just finished the tutorial typically build a stock Brig first because every naval-tactics and hull-bracing combo the class can mount is available out of the box.

Build Cost

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

Equipment Loadout

Each Brig carries dedicated slots for ship cannons, hull bracings, naval tactics, and crew equipment. The following items can be mounted on Brig at the Wharf interface once the hull is built.

Cannon Slot

Hull Slot

Naval Tactics Slot

Crew Equipment Slot

How to Unlock

To build Brig you must first own the Ship Design: Brig plan. Ship design plans are typically rewarded through faction reputation quests, purchased from Provisioners at matching reputation rank, or dropped by named ships during fleet engagements.

See Also

• Ships The top-level Windrose ship index

• Wharf Where ships are built and rigged

• Naval Combat The broader naval combat system

• Boarding Crew-vs-crew boarding actions

• Blackbeard Brig The blackbeard Brig variant

• Brethren Brig The brethren Brig variant

Officers and Crew Animation

The Brig's 50-crew capacity is split between standard sailors and a separate NPC type called Officers. Officers are exclusive to ships, improve vessel capabilities through their assigned roles, and unlike standard crew they cannot die during combat. That makes Officer assignment a permanent investment rather than a churn slot; a downed sailor can be replaced after a bad boarding, but an Officer carries between engagements without risk of being lost to a single bad fight.

Crew animation cycles: the Brig is the ship class currently receiving the most crew-related gameplay development, and the crew on deck have full animation cycles to match. Sailors fire and reload cannons during naval combat, sleep in hammocks below deck during downtime, and sing sea shanties while sailing in calm water. The animation set is most visible on the Brig because of its larger crew capacity relative to the Ketch, and stepping below decks during a long sail shows the off-duty cycle directly.

Enemy Brigs Cannot Be Captured

Boarding an AI-controlled Brig in open-water combat lets the player fight its crew in melee, but does not transfer ownership of the hull. Once the deck is cleared the ship cannot be sailed away or added to the player's roster; loot drops into the inventory, and the hull either sinks or remains as a static wreck. Every player Brig has to be built from scratch at the

AI Brig-Class Variants

Beyond the three player-buildable Brig variants (default, Blackbeard, Brethren), the Brig family includes a roster of AI-only entries the player encounters at sea. Faction Interceptors and Cutters share a baseline 500 hitpoints and a top speed near 16 knots, balanced to be fodder encounters that can be sunk quickly during faction-flagged patrols. A scripted Quest Brig is the exception, with a meaningfully larger 700 hitpoint pool and a faster 21.8-knot top speed; it appears in scripted mission contexts rather than in random patrol spawns. None of these AI Brig variants can be captured or recovered as a player-controlled ship, regardless of how cleanly the deck is cleared.