Firebrand is a special cannon round. They are blazing balls of fire that inflict moderate impact damage, but can also set a vessel on fire - thus causing continual damage over time at a percentage of the ship's overall health. Firebrand round becomes available at cannon skill Level 8.
Increasing this skill improves the damage caused, plus increases the amount of time the fire burns the enemy ship. Firebrand rounds can be purchased at any gunsmith.
To use Firebrand, be stationed at a cannon and press 4 or click 
. Once three rounds have been fired, it will take several seconds to reset. You can improve your reload speed by using the Passive Skill Rapid Reload.
Below is a table of Cannon Damage and Fire Burning Duration for Firebrand:
| Rank | Damage | Duration | Burn Hits | Burn % per hit |
| 1 | 533 to 589 | 8s | 7 | 0.5% |
| 2 | 546 to 603 | 8s | 7 | 0.88% |
| 3 | 558 to 617 | 8s | 7 | 1.25% |
| 4 | 571 to 632 | 8s | 7 | 1.63% |
| 5 | 584 to 646 | 8s | 7 | 2.00% |
| *Only with Cannon Ram Boost | ||||
| 6* | 591 to 653 | 8s | 7 | 2.66% |
| 7* | 597 to 660 | 8s | 7 | 3.33% |
| 8* | 604 to 668 | 8s | 7 | 4% |
- Please note damage ranges listed are before any additional damage bonus, i.e. Barrage.
East India Trading Company moderate level and heavy warships also carry these rounds. All Royal Navy warships do as well. Jolly Roger's flagship, the Harkaway, has also been seen using Firebrand ammo.
Strategy[]
In Ship PvP, firebrand rounds can also create a visibility problem for deck guns as fires and smoke rage on deck. It is also very effective for taking down sails.
Firebrand Broadsides[]
With Ship Customization, when pirates reach Rank 4 Hull Upgrades, they can choose between 4 different upgrades. Two of these upgrades are the Fortune Hunter and the Firestorm upgrade. The Fortune Hunter upgrade starts out giving a 10% chance of a cannonball in a broadside being a Firebrand cannonball, while the Firestorm upgrade starts with 20%. If a pirate chooses to progress to Rank 5 or 6 in either upgrade, they will have an even higher chance of Firebrand broadsides.
Game Notes[]
- In Ship PvP (SvS), there used to be a bug where firebrand would be the only thing that could damage ships with Take Cover active. It was later fixed so all ammo would do damage.