Ship outfitting

Outfitting is the gear you bolt onto a ship to change how it performs: better planking, a faster rig, reinforced masts, grappling hooks, a bigger powder magazine. Two captains in the same hull can sail very different ships depending on what they fit. Browse every fitting under Ship outfitting.

Fitting out your ship

You can only change outfitting while you are in port. Open the outfitting window, drag fittings into their slots, and confirm. Until you confirm you can revert your changes, so it is safe to experiment.

Slots

A ship has two kinds of slot.

General slots take any fitting marked Ship Outfitting: General. This is by far the biggest group, and it works on every ship.
Size slots for hull, sails and guns. These only take fittings made for your ship’s hull size: Small, Medium, Large, Huge or Colossal. A Medium rig will not fit a Large ship. Your ship’s hull size is shown on its ship page.

General fittings are grouped into categories by the part of the ship they improve: cannons, powder room, bulwarks, crew quarters, grapples, masts, planking, rigging, rudder, anchors, sails, bow, stern, internal structure, stealth, spotting and a few more. The category tells you what kind of bonus to expect.

What fittings change

Every fitting page lists its exact modifiers. The common ones:

Firepower: cannon damage, short-range damage, accuracy, reload rate and maximum range.
Toughness: armor integrity (more armor hit points), structural integrity, extra strength for the bow, stern or broadside, and damage resistance for hull, masts and sails.
Defense: crew, hull and sail defense make those areas harder to hit. Crew damage resistance keeps your sailors alive under fire.
Sailing: maximum speed, downwind or close-hauled speed, acceleration, and turn rate (including turning while slow or stopped).
Open sea: open-sea speed, stealth (enemies spot you later) and spotting (you see them sooner).
Boarding: grappling offense, grappling defense, maximum crew and crew recovery.
Trade and utility: cargo capacity, skill energy, experience and loot bonuses.

See Ship combat for what armor, structure, sails and crew do in a fight.

Trade-offs

The strongest fittings usually cost you something. A race-built hull gives a big speed boost but lowers your armor. Overloaded cannons hit harder but expose your crew. More explosive powder adds damage but slows your reloads. Boarding gear often trades grappling defense for grappling offense, or the reverse. Read the penalties as well as the bonuses before you fit something.

Piling up the same bonus from several fittings gives diminishing returns: each extra fitting adds a bit less than the one before. A balanced ship usually beats one that stacks a single stat.

Quality and binding

Basic fittings can be traded freely. Uncommon, elite and unique fittings are stronger, may have a level requirement, and bind to you when used, so you cannot sell them on afterwards. Some fittings are limited to one career. Many fittings come in numbered tiers (1, 2, 3 and so on) that scale with level, so look for the highest tier you can use.

Where to get fittings

Each fitting’s page has a How to get it section. The main sources are:

Loot from defeated ships. Most general fittings come from here.
Mission rewards, often as one of several rewards to choose from.
Exchanges, where you trade in tokens, commendations or faction rewards. Each career also has its own exchange.
Crafting. Players build hull, sail and gun fittings for each hull size at an Outfitter. Check Recipes and the crafting guide.
Other players, through the auction house. See The economy.

Quick tips

Fill every slot. Even a low-tier fitting is better than an empty slot.
Fit for the job: speed and cargo for hauling, armor and reload for fighting, grapples and crew for boarding.
Match the hull size. Check the size in the fitting’s name before you buy.
Spread your bonuses across different stats instead of stacking one.
Refit in port before a long trip. You cannot swap fittings at sea.