Leon Dreadpratt's Guide To Cannon Defense

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Getting Loot In Cannon Defense
This is my guide on getting far in cannon defense. I love cannon defense and have gotten pretty good. The biggest reason people play cannon defense is because it is by far the best way to get famed cannon rams. You get loot in cannon defense about every 6 waves. However each time you are not guaranteed togged famed or even a cannon ram. Past wave 20 you can hope to stat getting famed but you might have to wait as for as far as wave 30 or 40 if you are unlucky. Think of it like this. From wave 1-20 loot is what you might expect in a loot pouch, almost always common or crude, if you are lucky a rare, and if you are insanely lucky a famed. From wave 20-30 or 40 loot is what you might expect in a loot chest, mostly rare with the occasional common or even famed. Past wave 40 the loot is what you might expect in a skull chest, a pretty good chance of getting famed. However getting past wave 40 is obviously the hard part and the reason for this guide.

Practice Your Aim
To start off, if you want to get anywhere, you need to be good before you can start thinking about playing for famed. To get better, simply practice and play often. Don't worry about strategy or getting very far, just work on aim. If you want you can even play alone. Try and sink all those pesky sloops by yourself!

Organize A Good Group
Once you feel you have mastered aiming, you need some good friends. This can be very hard. Often, it is hard enough getting four people to start at the same time- let alone four good people. I cannot help you here; you need to figure out some way to organize this yourself. Either in the game, on the wiki, amoung real friends- however you can.

The Good Ammos And How To Use Them
Once you have a good group you need to have a strategy. The most important thing to know is that in the beggining, you need to save money for ammo later on. One of the most obvious signs of someone who has no idea what they are doing is one that buys every new ammo the second they unlock it. Ammo like target shot, smoke bomb, and hot shot are a complete waste of money. Even ammo as tempting as mines or scatter shot are best left alone. Of course if you are not planning on getting very far you do not need to worry about saving up and you can buy all the ammo you want. But if you are hoping to get anywhere, save up . Once you get far enough you need to know what ammo is useful and how to use it.

Powder Keg
At level 10 you unlock your first good ammo, powder keg. Now this ammo is extreamly expensive and only good if you know how to use it. Unlike some poeple think- it is  NOT a large mine. Although it floats, if a ship runs over it- it disappears without doing any damage. However, if you shoot it with round shot after it is placed, it explodes doing massive damage to a large area. This makes it extremely efficient for taking out a large group of difficult ships in one shot. The important thing, though, is  not to waste it - as it is extremely expensive. Only use it when you know it will be most needed.

Cold Shot
The next good ammo you get cold shot at level 13. This can help by preventing ships from moving as you pelt them with ammunition, like powder keg.

Bait Shot
The next useful ammo you get is bait shot at level 16. As you would think, this is best used on the largest, toughest ships of the heavy war classes that would pose a threat otherwise. Like powder keg, it is extremely expensive and you can not waste it.

Fire Storm
Finally, firestorm can be used like a cheaper, but slightly less powerful powder keg that does not have to be shot. It will do pretty good damage to a large area like powder keg, but without the need of a trigger.

Good Skills For Cannon Defense
Now cannon defense uses different ammo than the regular cannon you have on your boat even round shot. This means that giving round shot 1 or 5 skill points will not effect how much damage round shot does in cannon defense. However many of the passive skills can be extremely useful in cannon defense.

Shoot
Perhaps the best but most overlooks skill is shoot. Yes by shoot I mean the little cannon up in the top left corner that automatically gets 1 skill point. Now it may seem useless but this is extremely helpful for cannon defense. Not because it increases your damage but because it lets you shoot faster. If you leave this on 1 point it might take you a few seconds to shoot a round of 6 round shot. However if you put this on 5 you can shoot a volley inless than a second. Now this is extremely helpful: it helps you shoot rapid fire at large ships, it lets you shoot lots of rounds at those pesky light sloops hoping one will hit, it simply lets you get more shots fired meaning more damage delta.

Barrage
The second best skill for cannon defense is obviously barrage. Anyone who is smart has this on 5 anyway. It is like an extra skill point on every cannon and grenade attack. it goes with saying that I highly suggest you put this on 5 for cannon defense.

Rapid Reload
The final helpful skill is rapid reload. As its name implies this skill helps you reload faster. Though not necessary or s helpful it does help reduce the reload time of some shots that take longest to reload such as powder keg, bait shot, and fire storm.

Cannon Rams For Cannon Defense
Though it may seem ironic using cannon rams to get cannon rams certain rams can be very helpful in cannon defense. As I said above extra skill points on normal cannon ammo does not carry over to cannon defense. This means the only helpful cannon rams are the ones that give boosts to the passive skills named above. And out of all the cannon rams currently in the game the only ones that boost any of those are the gunners cannon rams giving a boost to rapid reload. This means that if you are playing cannon defense the only cannon ram that will help is one of those three.

Open Fire!
Make sure everyone in your group is familiar with these strategies. Once you have a good group of people who know what they are doing, you can finally play for real! It will take a long time  though. A good game can last hours. But in that one game you can get several famed cannon rams. Even the highly prized Revenant Cannon Ram!