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📖 Wiki›Combat Guide

⚔️ Combat Guide

Everything about combat — from decompiled game code and real PvP packet data

💥 Damage Calculation🛡️ Armor & Angles🔫 Cannon Mechanics💣 Mortar Mechanics🔥 Fire & Burning🏴‍☠️ Boarding💢 Ramming🧨 Powder Kegs🌊 Flooding & Sinking⛈️ Weather⛵ Speed & Mobility

💥 Damage Calculation

When a cannonball hits a ship, the game applies damage through a multi-step pipeline. Understanding this pipeline is key to maximizing your damage output.

Core Damage Formula

EffectiveHP -= HealthDamage × DamageModifier
  • HealthDamage — Raw damage from the cannonball (penetration × ammo factor × bonuses)
  • DamageModifier — Usually 1.0. On education maps: /1.5 for players, ×1.2 for PvP
  • DamageReduce — Target's damage reduction: min(99%, PReduceDamage bonus)

Hit Locations

🎯 Broadside

Full damage. Best angle for maximum penetration.

🔰 Bow (Nose)

Reduced damage via PReduceDamageToNose. Built-in game mechanic, not just a player upgrade.

⚠️ Stern

Normal damage, BUT: hitting the stern of a flooding ship causes instant sink.

⛵ Sails

Drastically reduced hull damage (0.65-1.88 vs 13-19 for hull). Sail damage calculated separately.

From our PvP packet data

Same cannon, same target: 18.83 damage broadside vs 5.93 at extreme angle — a 3.2× reduction from armor angle alone.

🛡️ Armor & Angles

Armor Calculation

Armor = BasicArmor × (1 + PArmor%) + MArmor
  • BasicArmor — Ship's base armor stat
  • PArmor% — Percentage bonus from upgrades/crew (multiplicative)
  • MArmor — Flat armor bonus from upgrades

Angle Multiplier

Armor effectiveness depends on the angle of impact. Hitting a ship broadside (perpendicular) is most effective. Angled shots bounce more.

EffectiveArmor = BaseArmor × AngleMultiplier
Broadside
1.0×
Full damage
Moderate Angle
0.6-0.7×
Reduced
Extreme (Bow)
~0.3×
Heavily reduced

Stern hits don't do bonus damage

Common myth! Stern hits deal the same damage as broadside hits. The SternDamage flag only matters when the target is already flooding — then it triggers instant destruction.

🔫 Cannon Mechanics

Reload Time

Reload time comes from the weapon's base stat, modified by crew efficiency and upgrades. Having too few sailors slows reloading significantly.

CrewEfficiency = ratio + ratio × (1 - ratio) / 2 × 0.75

Where ratio = min(1, currentSailors / requiredSailors). At half crew, you're at ~84% efficiency. At quarter crew, ~56%.

Penetration

Each cannon has a base penetration value. This is modified by ammo type and upgrades. If penetration exceeds armor, the full damage goes through. If not, damage is reduced.

Range & Accuracy

  • Max range bonus capped at +15
  • Cannonball speed: 45.76 base units
  • Double/Triple shot modes increase scatter
  • Scatter can be reduced via PReduceCannonsScatter upgrades

Damage Bonuses

  • PBallDamage — General damage increase from upgrades
  • Below 50% HP: PDamageCannonIfStrengthBelow30P activates (last stand bonus)
  • Front/back cannons can get PFrontAndBackCannonsAddDamage

💣 Mortar Mechanics

Mortars fire in an arc and hit the deck from above. They ignore armor angle — the plunging trajectory bypasses angled armor entirely.

Poundage by Ship Rate

Ship RateMortar Poundage
VII-VI6-pdr
V7-pdr
IV8-pdr
III9-pdr
II10-pdr
I11-pdr

Splash Damage

DamageFactor = 0.1 + 0.9 × √(1 - clamp(distance / splashRadius))

Direct hit = 100% damage. Damage falls off smoothly with distance from impact point, down to 10% at splash edge.

From our PvP data

All mortar hits dealt a consistent 12.0 damage regardless of angle — confirming mortars bypass armor angle mechanics entirely.

🔥 Fire & Burning

Fire is a damage-over-time mechanic. There are two types: microburnings (small fires) and big fires.

🔸 Microburning

4 damage per tick (1 second). Caused by round shots, heated shots, and some special effects. Reduced by PMicrofireFightingSpeed.

🔥 Big Fire

Sustained fire that deals continuous damage. Fighting speed boosted by PBigFireFightingSpeed. Damage reduced by PReduceBigFireDamage.

  • Heated Shots: ×0.9 hull damage but ×7 sail damage + creates fire areas
  • Phosphorous Shots (arena): special burning effects via BCannonBallFosforEffects
  • Fire areas persist on the water — sailing through them ignites your ship

🏴‍☠️ Boarding

Boarding is close-range ship-to-ship combat where your crew fights the enemy crew directly.

Key Mechanics

  • Musketeers provide defense bonus: BBoardingStartsMusketeersDefence
  • Protection damage modifiers vary by crew type
  • Chance to steal a cannon on successful boarding
  • XP bonus awarded for boarding victories
  • NPC targeting follows specific priority rules

Boarding tip

Load up on boarding crew (Musketeers, Soldiers, Mercenaries) before engaging. Sailors fight too, but with lower damage and health. Having the crew advantage is usually decisive.

💢 Ramming

Ship-to-ship collisions deal velocity-based damage. Higher relative speed = more damage.

Hard Impact

High speed collision. Full damage + physics knockback. Can cause corpus critical (speed drops to 30% for 10 seconds).

Soft Collision

Low speed bump. Ships push apart, no damage dealt.

From our PvP data

Reef collision damage ranged from 12-23 (glancing) to 73-156 (hard impact). Damage is asymmetric — the faster ship takes more.
  • PAddCollisionDamage upgrade increases ram damage
  • BDestroyFloodingShopByCollision: ram a flooding ship to finish it
  • Ramming a flooding ship reduces their flooding by damage/maxHP

🧨 Powder Kegs

Drop explosive barrels behind your ship. They detonate when an enemy enters the trigger radius.

TypeDamageCountReloadCost
Small Gunpowder125425s30g
Small Flaming100225s80g
Gunpowder350450s150g
Flaming200250s300g
Large Gunpowder500690s300g
Large Flaming400390s600g

Flooding interaction

Powder keg hits on a flooding ship trigger instant sink — same as stern hits, mortar hits, and fire while flooding.

🌊 Flooding & Sinking

When a ship's HP reaches zero, it doesn't immediately sink — it enters a flooding state. During flooding, the ship slowly takes on water and can still be saved with repairs.

Instant Sink Triggers

While a ship is flooding, any of these damage types will cause immediate destruction:

Stern HitPowder KegMortar HitBurning (if burn > 0)Fireworks
This is why mortars and stern shots are so dangerous in the endgame — they're not about raw damage, they're about finishing off flooding ships before they can repair.

⛈️ Weather

Weather affects visibility, wave height, and wind power. Storms move across the map.

Sea States

StateWave HeightWind Power
☀️ Calm0.3m15%
🌤️ Restless0.7m40%
⛈️ Storm1.1m70%
🌪️ Dangerous Storm3.5m100%

Sky & Visibility

Sunny
Fog: 0%
Cloudy
Fog: 10%
Rain
Fog: 40%
Heavy Rain
Fog: 60%
  • Storm areas move across the map (crossing time: ~23 minutes)
  • Wave height scales 0.6×-2.06× based on water depth
  • Wind changes direction every 20 seconds, weather shifts every 60 seconds

⛵ Speed & Mobility

Speed Calculation

Speed = BasicSpeed × (1 + PSpeed%) + MSpeed

Cargo Penalty

Carrying cargo reduces your speed. The heavier you are, the slower you go. Trading ships with large holds can still move fast if they have speed upgrades.

Damage Speed Reduction

Taking damage while in marching mode reduces your bonus speed proportionally. The formula:

SpeedLoss = Damage / (1 + currentHP) × 100 + SailDamage × 100

Mobility

Mobility = BasicMobility × (1 + PMobilityBonus%) + MMobilityBonus

📊 Data Sources

Formulas extracted from decompiled game code (Common.dll, Reskana_7_0.dll). PvP damage data from 125 network packet captures. Angle multipliers, stern mechanics, and mortar bypass confirmed through real gameplay testing.

📌 See Also

🔫 WeaponsAll 42 weapons — damage, range, and reload stats💣 AmmunitionDamage modifiers and special effects for each ammo type🛠️ Ship UpgradesBoost your ship's combat performance🚢 ShipsBrowse all 62 ships with full stats⚙️ Game MechanicsTechnical deep-dive into all game systems🏟️ ArenaPvP arena mode — apply your combat skills

⚔️ Combat

Combat Guide·Weapons·Ammo Types·Ship Upgrades·Game Mechanics