Pillars Of Eternity 2: Managing your ship and crew Pillars Of Eternity 2 Guide and Walkthrough

This page explains the aspect of ship and crew management in Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire. This topic can be divided into following individual points:

• Shipboard Crew - Who does what?
• Taking care of supplies and morale of the crew
• How to increase the crew morale?
• Upgrading your ship
• Spyglass - where to buy it?

Shipboard Crew - Who does what?

Managing and controlling a ship is a difficult task, requiring at least a few people on board. In the ship management menu (which you can launch using the ship icon or the "H" button) you will find several different positions to fill. You can hire the crew at the port, where you have to pay more for experienced people, but then you will get better bonuses in combat or travel. Each employed member of the crew has a position that he or she occupies - it can be a beginner surgeon or a deckhand. The experience in various functions is shown by stars next to their names - the more stars of the candidate, the better his/her experience.

In the description of the sailor in you will find out what function he is most experienced in.

Each crew position plays a different role on board:

1. Captain - it's your character. The more experienced captain makes his ship the first to move in a sea battle.
2. Deckhand - they are the basic crew. They influence the speed of movement of the ship on the map, as well as during the sea battle.
3. Boatswain - he has the same function as Deckhands, but additionally he provides bonuses during random event. For example, you can extinguish fires faster thanks to Boatswain.
4. Helmsman - responsible for all turns of the ship during the sea battle. An experienced helmsman makes the ship more difficult to hit.
5. Cannoneer - they are responsible for handling the cannons on the ship. The more experienced they are, the more accurate the shots will be.
6. Surgeon - during travel and fighting, the crew may suffer from various ailments, which reduce the quality of the tasks performed, and may even lead to the death of the crew. The surgeon is responsible for treating the ailments faster and reducing the consumption of medication, but if a sailor catches four injuries or illnesses at a time, he will die for sure.
7. Navigator - increases the speed of movement of the vessel on the map.
8. Cook - reduces the amount of food consumed by the crew.

Victorious sea battles make the whole crew gain experience and all members are gradually promoted to the next level.

It is worth mentioning that the crew can be acquired not only in the port - sometimes we will gather the crew after performing a mission or after providing assistance to a given person.

Grading of the post is done by moving the portrait of the person to the selected slot.

Taking care of supplies and morale of the crew

The employment of the crew in the port is only the beginning of the expenditure. Every person on board must be remunerated and provided with food and drink - all these goods are taken every 24 hours during the game, and their amount depends on the experience of a given sailor (the more experienced the sailor, the more resources he requires). Supplies are only collected if you travel by the ship - if you cross by in a city, the crew is not being paid. In addition, you will also need to take care of amount of medication, cannonballs and tools to repair your ship. You can buy all these supplies in a port, but you will often find them during your exploration of the world.

You must pay attention to the marked values during each voyage.

The area selected in the screenshot indicates the most important indicator and values that you should check during your travels by ship:

1. Hull Health - This is the "'health" level of the ship. The hull level is lowered during combat, and if it drops to zero, the ship will sink.
2. Sails Health - The sails are responsible for the speed of the vessel. If the sailing level falls to zero, the agility of the vessel in combat is significantly reduced.
3. Injured crew members indicator - defines how many people in the crew are injured.
4. Morale - determines the satisfaction of the whole crew. High values provide the crew a chance to receive experience bonuses. In turn, low morale may even lead to a rebellion of the crew.
5. Food supplies - specifies the amount of food that is to be consumed by the crew. A hungry crew loses morale, and a lack of food for 15 days can cause the death of the sailors.
6. Drink supplies - specifies the number of drinks to be used by the crew. A thirsty crew loses morale, and lack of access to beverages for 3 days can result in the death of the sailors.
7. Medication - determines the number of drugs available on the ship. The medications are used to deal with the ailments and injuries of your sailors. The surgeon reduces the number of medications required to heal the sailors.
8. Ammunition - determines the current state of cannonballs and gunpowder. These are the resources used for each gunfire.
9. Tools - determines the Health of tools used to repair the hull and sails.
10. Money - the crew is not working for free. Every 24 hours, a given amount of coins is taken from your bag as a payment for all crew members.

Food and drinks for the crew must be placed in the marked area.

Remember that the bought supplies are not consumed automatically by your crew - you need to place them in the special inventory space marked in the screenshot above. Food and drinks are taken from the left, so you can determine which supplies are consumed in the beginning.

How to increase the crew morale?

It is not difficult to guess that morale plays an extremely important role when traveling by ship. Here are several ways how to effectively increase the morale of the crew:

1. More expensive food and drinks - although your crew will not die by drinking water and eating dryers, such a set doesn't affect morale well. If you want to raise the morale of your crew, you need to invest in something better. Several bottles of rum, fresh fruit and meat will quickly increase the level of satisfaction - you can buy better stock in the harbor, as well as from merchants and innkeepers.
2. Victory in sea battles - winning duels on the water also has a positive impact on the morale of the crew. Try to win every sea battle - sailors' satisfaction and experience will grow rapidly. On the other hand, remember that losing or escaping the battle may decrease the morale of your crew.
3. Treasure sharing - although your crew is not working for free, sailors are still counting on a share of the spoils they have earned. Winning a sea battle will allow you to plunder an enemy ship - if you want to raise the morale of the crew, share with them the achieved treasures. You can make decisions in the scripted interactions scene.

Upgrading your ship

The crew is important, but the condition of your vessel is relevant too. The vessel's characteristics are defined by four statistics:

1. Hull Health - This is the "'health" level of the ship. The hull level is lowered during combat, and if it drops to zero, the ship will sink.
2. Sails Health - The sails are responsible for the speed of the vessel. If the sailing level falls to zero, the agility of the vessel in combat is significantly reduced.
3. Combat Speed - determines the speed at which the ship will sail, reverse or get to full speed during sea battles. The speed of combat is influenced by deckhands and ship improvements.
4. Travel Speed - determines the speed at which the ship moves on the world map.

In the port you can buy an elegant hull.

These statistics can be improved by purchasing new equipment for the vessel. The table below describes what can be upgraded on the ship and how it affects the ship's statistics. These items don't always affect the same statistics - there are different types of sails or hulls, where usually more expensive items affect several statistics, and cheaper items affect only one of them.

In addition, you can purchase reinforcements that increase the hull's health but reduce the speed. It is also worth to check new guns, which will increase their damage or range. The last valuable upgrades are the Captain's HQs, which improve the look of the Captain's room, and the Menagerie - the enclosure for the pets.

Spyglass - where to buy it?

You can buy the spyglass from the merchant trading in the marked building.

The spyglass is a very useful tool, and it's, in a sense, a ship upgrade. You can buy it in the Queen's Berth in Neketaka; the Sanza's Map Emporium, to be more exact, for 5000 coins.

What benefits does the spyglass provide? You can use it in paragraph dialogues by interacting with "still" ships - that is ships that wrecked or infested (not those that are sailing and belong to a faction). Doing that will trigger a scene where you have to decide what to do with the ship. The spyglass will allow you to check whether there are pirates aboard, or if the infested ship is dangerous.