Almost nothing is absolutely required to make a functional airship in this game. Ships without weapons can actually sometimes be viable, but we won't be covering specifics yet.

All you need to make an airship is a form of lift, and a way to move about. You don't need to go high or particurlarly fast, but being able to do both is very helpful.


This for example, is an incredibly cheap, and supprisingly decent medium level bomber, and it's only got two berths, for 6 sailors, a small propeller, and a tiny suspendium chamber. I could reduce the crew requirement even further by removing ths suspendium chamber and sticking a suspendium tank on instead, but the AI seems to be drawn towards shooting those, and suspendium explodes, so I didn't in this particular case.

Of course going bigger leads to a tougher, and more durable ship, but cheap spammable ships are a very valid tactic to go with, until your enemy start to counter your designs. The example above, for example will pretty much die immediately if shot at with a few rifles, or explosives. Larger designs with redundancies are less vulnerable to being knocked out immediately.

Overlays are a key tool to be using when designing an airship, landship, or building. They will show you where key weaknesses in your design are, and give hints on where you can improve on the designs. By default, the U key will bring them up as a shortcut key. Alternatively you can also click the button at the top of the screen to bring it up.

Most modules have different components that take up a large area of the ship, wether it be suspendium chambers, engines, or just a whole bunch of bunks, your ship needs to be moved around in. All guns start with one clip of ammo loaded at the start of the fight and all engines start with a unit of coal for example, but poor pathing choices means that you aren't going to be able to reload those guns or engines in a reasonable period of time.


This ship for example is divided by the suspendium chamber. If that's inaccessable for any reason, the rest of the ship would be cut off crom the coal store. Fortunately the design only requires coal at the rear section however to power the engine, and said blocking suspendium chamber.

This is a rather important overlay to look at occasionally. All components in a ship have a HP value that starts getting eaten away if the armor is broken through.
This overlay is showing the HP pool of the modules behind the armor itself. Adding armor won't actually increase this HP pool of the component, but surrounding the component with other pieces will make them tougher to finally kill. Certain decorations can also add additional HP to any adjacent modules they touch as well as evenly distribute extra HP to the rest of the ship, so even decorative figureheads can become integral in making a survivable ship design, as you can see with the dragon figureheads over the cannons.

All weapons carry a chance to set something it hits on fire, though explosives cary a higher chance (due to hitting multiple tiles), and flamethrowers have a significant (self) ignition chance. Modules themselves can also catch fire if hit while their HP is low. Should you decide to add water to your ship, this overlay will show how long it takes your crew to get the water from the fire point to the fire itself.

Generally sticking to under 4 seconds is safe for particularly flammable components, notably coal. Ammo, and other explodey weapons should have shorter times if possible.

Tools are optional, but good to have around if you want your ship to keep fighting. This overlay will show how long it takes to bring tools from the repair bay or machine shop to it's needed location. You can't repair armor with tools, but you can repair internal structure.

I'm unable to confirm this for sure, but a damaged weapon can potentially explode if it was previously damaged, while firing, leading to an explosion. Repair tools help to reduce that chance.

A fairly simple overlay. This shows how much time, in seconds it takes for ammo to reach its destination. If you can keep this metric under a second, you will have uninterrupted fire of the weapon meeting the time criteria.

Same as the above, but for coal and things which need to eat it to run. How much time it takes for coal to get to, commonly, suspendium chambers or engines of a variety of description, as well as a few specialty components. You want this as low as possible. You can get away with half the required time for the component to be reloaded, though that's incredibly dangerous in an actual combat situation. Not having coal usually means the ship will fall from the sky, or lose control of the engines.

Basically everything on an airship can explode. This overlay shows the intensity of any potential explosions, wether they be ammo explosions, suspendium explosions or potentially even rifle explosions. Try to keep key components out of the radius of the red tiles if you value them surviving a major explosion. This is especially true of ammo though, which likes to go off harmoniously if placed directly next to each other.


This ship for example will almost end up being bisected if the ammunition cooks off.
A good ship design, unless the vessel is designed to be disposable will try to ensure that an ammo explosion can still enable crew to move about the ship, as well as ensuring the ship can still move after the fact.

Note: The explosion overlay was updated. Any modules glowing Orange will be destroyed if ALL the ammo goes off at once. Anything else has a percent damage taken listed on it. This ignores armor!

Ships in airships have a drag value as more parts are added to a ship. Split between horizontal drag which will slow down a ships lateral movement and vertical drag which will reduce movement horizontally. This is partially to discourage "weaponized bricks" and encourage more build variety and creativity.



Notably, drag has a few rules and ways around them.

• Drag is caused by solid blocks which will push an "air line" above or below itself and apply a point of drag. This effect is made more severe the further the air has to travel in one move.
  
• Drag is relative to the size of the ship compared vertically or horizontally, a long slender ship will have less of a horizontal drag penalty than a box shaped ship but potentially massive vertical drag.
  
• If a drag line line needs to pass through 4 blocks to go above or below the ship, it will fail and pass around (through) the ship at significant cost to drag.
  
• Decks do not cause drag, nor will aircraft, nor sails.
  
• Deck/walled guns/telescopes are more vulnerable, but will induce less drag than a full blocked weapon.
  
• Most weapons will impart more drag than an enclosed block.
  
• Gaps will tend to induce significant amounts of drag as the air line(s) pass down into the gap to return to their normal line and then get forced back out.
  
• Many decorative and structural parts can be used to reduce drag, such as the keels/bows and solid shapes.

A few examples of ships with drag in mind and some without. You can overcome drag via brute force of course, but it is a mechanic to keep in mind. An inherently slow ship with low drag will usually be slower than a ship with high drag but more power behind it.

Stats

• HP: This value is how much damage the armor can take, before it breaks and exposes the module underneath this. Higher HP armor gives you a general purpose buffer for damage.
  
• Weight: How heavy is the armor you're mounting? This will have an influence on the speed of all vehicle types, and the service cieling of airships. This stat is mostly irrelevant for buildings.
  
• Damage Absorption (if applicable): How much damage the armor can ignore of the named damage type. Absorption has a chance to negate damage taken, so for example, if heavy steel armor is shot at with a gatling gun, it has 12 pierce resist, the gatling does 6 damage per shot, as a result, the armor has a 50% chance to take 1 "chip damage", otherwise, the damage will be 0. Otherwise, the damage of the gun will have it's damage subtracted by the absorption value of the armor.

"Don't lean on it too hard."
Why use it? It's FREE, it's light, and that's about it. There's not much going for it, except the fact that it's the second lightest armor in the game. It can absorb 2 pierce damage though.

Why not use it? Unless you have a very specific idea which requires the lightest possible mass and lowest cost, it's a terrible idea to use this armor. Everything can go through it, even rifles. That tends to mean lots of ammo explosions. It's also completely useless against explosives, which will shred off almost all of this plate.

"It's armor, but it will still splinter like nobody's business."
Why use it? A large HP pool to add on top of your modules, as well as a fairly decent pierce absorption make this quite an acceptable armor against lower caliber weapons, such as rifles. It can withstand a singular shot from a cannon as well, which is quite good for the price.

Why not use it? It's got some pretty poor blast damage absorption compared to steel wall armor, and as a result tends to be weak to explosive weaponry.

"I heard you liked barrels. Apparently barrels make good armor."
Why use it? "Barrel armor" has rather high HP at 75 per block of armor, and has some decent damage resistances against piercing and blast, triple that of regular wooden armor. It's also the same price as steel armor. This is actually a fairly decent armor to use on buildings, with its relatively high HP compared against brick.

Why not use it? It is notably heavy, and costs a fair amount. It will slow down a ship mounting it exclusively, and it will significantly drop the service ceiling of the ship mounting it, a bit more than steel armor.

"You can lean on this wall, but you'll probably end up denting it."
Why use it? It's the same price of wooden armor, and it has a higher resistance against explosions, while also keeping some pierce resistance. It's the same weight as wooden armor and is also almost capable of ignoring flak guns.

Why not use it? Wooden armor can resist a cannon shot, this armor can't. As a result, wood holds out slightly longer against larger guns, as well as smaller caliber guns, like rifles. This armor is best for dealing with small explosives.

"You actually can stop small arms fire for once!"
Why use it? It's got noticeable blast and piercing resistance, capable of ignoring rifle fire, as well as flak. It's got the same HP pool as wooden armor, and is overall very good armor.

Why not use it? Weight, mostly. Cost may also be a factor.

"Stops small arms and a variety of cannon balls."
Why use it? It's twice as good as regular steel armor in every metric (except HP and blast resist, barely), and can ignore a large majority of weapons, including some powerful explosive weapons like grenades, but not bombs or guided missiles.

Why not use it? It's very heavy, and very expensive to field.

"Bricks! Glorious bricks!"
Why use it? It's FREE, and it's got a lot of HP, at 45.

Why not use it? It's extremely heavy, as it's intended for buildings, and it has no damage absorption features. Enough rifle fire can easily get through it if they all hit the same spot.

"Your standard castle wall."
Why use it? It's rather cheap for armor, a lot of HP, great for buildings. Some resistances, but not much.

Why not use it? There's no reason to not use it on a building. Using it on a ship will basically prevent it from moving however due to the sheer mass.

"Made of stones bigger than your whole body"
Why use it? Take regular stone wall and add half of all the stats, and double the blast resistance.

Why not use it? It's MASSIVE. I don't think it's possible to make a ship armored completely in this type of armor.

This requires clearing an Elder Dragon (and rarely, standard dragon) nest in order guarantee that it can be used by your Empire in Conquest.

Why use it? It has NO weight, it's got a HP pool comparable to barrel armor, and it's nearly got the blast and pierce resist of steel armor.

Why not use it? Killing an Elder Dragon nest is very hard to do without specialized ships. It's also very expensive to field.

This armor requires clearing a Turtledove nest to be used by your Empire in Conquest.

Why use it? HP of steel armor, a bit of pierce and blast resistance, and the kicker here is, the armor generates it's own lift. Enough to get most small ships off the ground on their own without added suspendium.

Why not use it? It's a bit expensive, on par with steel armor, but doesn't net you the damage resistances that steel provides.

"Paper armor is still armor right?"

Why use it? It weighs literally nothing and has a tiny HP pool, enough to stop one musket ball. It's also free.

Why not use it? Wooden walls are the same price and at least offer some semblance of protection compared to canvas.

Boarding ships is a thing in this game, and without proper planning, chances are that you're going to lose your ship unless you plan ahead to deal with boarders.

What is the goal of a boarding team? Their primary goal is to reach the bridge and take it out, if they successfully manage to do that, they will offically capture the ship (note that this does not apply to mech spiders, or any monsters, who just want to kill the crew). If the boarders can't clear the bridge for a variety of reasons (the vessel doesn't have one, or it got blown up) boarders will try to hunt down any guards. If that's not the case, they will try to take over important rooms, starting with engines first, then going for weapons (usually). If all of those are completed, the ship is captured.

Unfortunately, there is no hard counter against being boarded, but there are plenty of soft counters you can add onto your ship to make boarding a nightmare.

• Guards are almost overpowered, a single guard barrack can usually withstand an assault from most types of humanoid boarder.
  
• Speed counters most boarders, except Air Dragoons (though that depends on the command cooldown). If you dodge your ship out of the way of boarders, they can, and often will plumet to the ground after missing their jump. This does require a bit of micro however.
  
• Small arms are very potent counters to boarders, most weapons can directly target troops approaching the ship, as well as any additional small aircraft being deployed. Rifles, gatling guns, flamers, and even grapeshot guns are good counters to boarding.
  
• Excess crew can defend the ship. Sailors aren't very good at defending a ship as they only have pistols instead of rifles, and presumably less training, but they can defend a ship on their own in a pinch if they aren't already busy with another task.
  
• The sickbay works for your etire crew, sailors and guards. If you lose a guard, chances are that you might be able to get them back if they can get to the sickbay.
  
• Buildings are crewed by soilders, not sailors, as a result they are slightly more resistant to being boarded than ships.
  
• Place supply doors in akward positions for your crew and any possible boarders. Ideally, if you have guards, you want to force the enemy to run into them. If not, you want them kept as far as possible away from the bridge to buy as much time as possible for the crew to possibly defend the ship.

• There is a small variety of boarding troops, each of which best on certian ship designs.
  
• Marines need to actually directly jump aboard a targeted ship to get on board it. They are also extremely susceptable to dying due to missing their jump against a moving vessel. You do get 8 per barrack however, and they are decent boarders and ship defenders.
  
• Grenadiers are fewer per barrack, but it appears they are a bit more effective at taking out defenders than marines. They also have the benefit of having grapples, so they usually won't die if they miss their jump. They can, and often will try to swing ship to ship to reach their target.
  
• Air Dragoons are somewhat special, as they can be deployed anywhere and board almost anything since they use jetpacks. They are about as effective as the grenadiers, but they are also extremely squishy outside of an airship as they are extremely slow. They are great counters to bombers not mounting rifles or other forms of small arms.
  
• Mech spiders are mean. Their sole purpose to board the target ship and shred any crew within them. You can't capture with them, but they are extremely tanky boarders, and they have the same, if not more mobility with grapples as dragoons.
  
• Lastly is the waspkiller marine, which are two highly durable marines with gatling guns. They can singlehandedly shred most defenders provided you can get them close enough to board.

This particular weapon requires the Acid Brewing bonus in the Conquest mode, usually gained by killing a severe giant Black Widow nest, and rarely via a green dragon nest.

• This weapon has double the range of a flamethrower.
  
• It is the only weapon with "direct damage" of 30, meaning that at minimum, this weapon will always deal 30 damage to armor which can't be absorbed.
  
• Very high splash radius as well.
  
• Very powerful overall, assuming you can get close enough, and hit reliably.

We strapped a bomb to a balloon!

• Marginally cheaper than a bomb bay.
  
• Smaller than a bomb bay.
  
• Works great on landships.
  
• Can only aim up.
  
• Primarily intended to discourage bomber spam.

Like water torpedoes, but in the air!

• Slow moving and easy to dodge.
  
• If this can't be dodged, for example, a building is the target, this deals massive blast damage capable of removing the armor of the affected area, every single time.
  
• Pretty good splash radius as well, of 7 blocks.

Ancient siege solutions!

• Won't explode when shot at.
  
• Pretty high pierce damage of 30.
  
• Requires no additional techs to use.
  
• Pretty good firing arc, but has a maximum height it can shoot at.
  
• Still requires explosive ammo to shoot, but has 3 rounds in a clip.

The solution for most first world issues.

• Deals significant damage, of 30 to anything this hits.
  
• Fairly cheap to mount.
  
• Useless on craft with low service ceiling.
  
• Prone to exploding if shot while loaded.
  
• Tiny arc of fire, can easily be dodged by a moving craft, if dropping from high to mid altitude.
  
• Very inaccurate without tech upgrades.

Classic, and dangerous.

• Decent against everything, regardless of armor type.
  
• 40 or 50 Pierce damage is actually fairly high for a tech 1 item. (50 after researching Metallurgy)
  
• Decent firing arc, makes it viable against most target types.
  
• Relatively accurate at range.
  
• Can explode, though this depends on tech level.

The raiders best friend.

• Pseudo AA guns.
  
• Each "clip" of ammo actually comes with 2 shots, meaning an effective 56 damage per clip.
  
• Can shoot at boarders and planes in a pinch. If they do hit, they will take out anything.
  
• No crew protection.
  
• Might also explode like a cannon.

So, I heard you like to be able to shoot everything?

• Near 180 degree firing arc.
  
• High pierce damage of 76, capable of stripping most non stone armor in a single shot.
  
• Can't have anything above (below for ventral) or on the same height as itself. Effectively blocks the design area.

The best solution to pesky flies.

• Fairly high rate of fire.
  
• Decent accuracy.
  
• Deals 14 blast damage, devastating anything that isn't steel armor.
  
• Can explode like normal cannons, but usually not dangerously. They might chain react if too close together though.

If your entire enemy ship is on fire, this is fine.

• Very short range
  
• Very high effective damage of 6 blast damage, dealt every quarter second.
  
• Basically ignored by steel wall and up.
  
• Likes to catch fire, on your ship, if shot at.
  
• Can be upgraded to do either a point of direct damage (ignores armor), or extra range.

True Battleship turrets!

• Effectively an armored deck gun, without the clip.
  
• Can't shoot at troops/planes.
  
• 62 damage per shot.
  
• Less gun elevation than a deck gun, with more gun depression.

Who needs big dakka when you have more dakka?

• Limited, but not short range.
  
• High DPS, though lower than a flamers effective damage and ineffective against wood.
  
• 35 round clip of ammunition, ensuring that most things in front of it will be shredded.
  
• More viable against steel wall than a flamer.
  
• Can be upgraded for larger clips, or more damage.

We shoot only the finest and most expensive petrol out of this one!

• Slightly more range.
  
• 2.5x the damage.
  
• Extremely expensive to mount.
  
• Tends to self ignite if shot at.
  
• Can be upgraded to do either a point of direct damage (ignores armor), or extra range.

Classic de-crewing gun, also great at killing ships.

• Fires 16 pellets in a single shot, each dealing 14 piercing damage on hit and 16 with advanced metallurgy.
  
• Quite a bit more arc of fire than a normal cannon.
  
• Very poor effective range.
  
• Can shoot at boarders and planes, though unlikely to kill unless multiple pellets hit.
  
• Same self destruct chance as a normal cannon.

Discovered by accident, turns out throwing grenades out the window is pretty effective at killing ships, as well as innocent bystanders.

• Dirt cheap.
  
• Decent damage of 30 per grenade with a small blast radius.
  
• Rather inaccurate.
  
• 6 grenades can be dropped with a single "clip" of ammo.
  
• This module will explode in a minor explosion if shot at too much, and often will take out adjacent single block modules.

• Super high tech pigeon guided missile technology.
  
• Very potent damage potential of 105 with a huge blast radius.
  
• Actively seeks targets, and will almost always hit unless the target is extremely small/fast.
  
• Very long reload time.
  
• Still somewhat countered by heavy steel.

Works on whales too.

• A utility weapon, only deals the damage of a rifle.
  
• Can hold ships into place, often to keep them away from other, more vulnerable vessels.
  
• Combines well with a ram.
  
• Requires an "attach tether" order in order to be able to fire.

Shooting high explosive payloads since 2022.

• Shoots a highly damaging payload with 31 pierce and 50 blast damage.
  
• Effective on everything but heavy steel armor.
  
• Somewhat risky to use due to it's explosiveness.
  
• Has reduced accuracy against flying targets, but is still effective against ground targets.

Bigger dakka is pretty good too.

• Very high pierce damage of 120.
  
• Very heavy.
  
• Not insanely expensive for the possible damage output.
  
• Takes quite a while to reload at 6 seconds.
  
• Quite explosive if "cannons won't explode" isn't researched.

Bigger dakka, but you can actually aim it at something!

• Same cannon as above, in a turret.
  
• Not much more expensive than the standard heavy guns.
  
• Slightly faster reload, due to coming with the "automated reloading" tech, down to 4 seconds.
  
• Very little firing arc below itself, making it more effective on short ships or buildings.

The final step on Rifle technology.

• Significant amount of firepower but needs to be used at brawling range.
  
• Relatively pricy for what it is.
  
• Does hold 4 rounds in it's clip making it still fairly ammo efficient compared to a rifle.
  
• Quite good as a point defense gun due to the sheer amount of damage this can apply.

The biggest of all dakkas!

• Siege gun, with 120 pierce damage and a 5 block spread of said damage. Will ruin any armor it hits, regardless of what it is.
  
• Somewhat inaccurate compared to most cannons.
  
• Limited to a 45 degree firing arc, usually limiting this to be used against buildings, unless mounted on a particularly heavy airship.

Literally just a rock.

• Single use weapon, which tends to drop immediately once in arc. Best used on a command of hold fire and then release instead.
  
• One of the few weapons to actually change in price as tech is researched. Starts off as a $5 rock, then goes up in price to 15 with metallurgy, but also improves.
  
• Starts with 60 piercing damage, enough to get through most armor types that aren't reinforced/heavy or stone. Quite inaccurate though.
  
• Upgrades to 90 damage with metallurgy, but still remains somewhat inaccurate. Almost strong enough to break through stone and heavy steel.
  
• Final upgrade with the aerodynamics tech improves the bomb again, improving accuracy, as well as the damage the bomb can do, going up to 120, which is enough to completely penetrate every type of armor in the game in one shot.

Light cannons mounted in the sides of the ship.

• Effective damage of the Ballista, but with more range.
  
• Two shots per clip.
  
• Can be placed anywhere, as long as you don't need to access it from the top.

A rocket so big that it explodes your entire ship if it ignites!

• Extremely powerful payload of 65 blast damage, distributed over a 9 meter blast area.
  
• Fairly expensive.
  
• Requires 4 ammo per shot fired, making this quite an ammo hog.
  
• Somewhat inaccurate at range, especially once weather events are factored in.
  
• Explodes violently when shot at.
  
• Can be mounted externally.

Snub nosed cannons.

• Short range and low elevation
  
• Can't really be used effectively on or against airships due to built in accuracy nerf.
  
• Very powerful if the shell hits, capable of breaking the armor of most targets, especially after researching advanced metallurgy.

Squid faced ships!

• A substantially dangerous weapons for ships operating at or below reccomend crew requirement.
  
• Will punch into the target hull with 30 pierce, then remove and kill a crewman from the module if present.
  
• Needs to be used at closer ranges, but usually outside the range of flamers and saws.

Gunpowder a piece of lead and a metal stick.

• A tier 0 weapon.
  
• Extremely poor effective range.
  
• Extremely cheap.
  
• Somewhat high piercing damage of 8, for it's fire rate.
  
• One clip is 16 shots from this gun.
  
• Fairly reliable at killing boarders.

Gunpowder, a piece of lead and a FANCY metal stick.

• Similar to the above, but trades off damage for significantly more accuracy.
  
• Carries 16 rounds in a clip.
  
• A bit pricier than a musket.
  
• Over 180 degree firing arc, meaning this gun can actually shoot behind where it's mounted.
  
• Can be upgraded for larger clips and accuracy, or more damage.

Like fireworks, but gives everyone on all sides a bad time!

• Somewhat cheap.
  
• Quite powerful splash damage of 40, over a 5 block radius.
  
• Notably inaccurate without boosters, like aimed fire and a spotter.
  
• Can explode, but not particurlarly violently.
  
• Can be upgraded to be much more accurate, or fire off a volley of four rockets to deal double the effective damage.
  
• Optionally available as a strap on single use module, with more accuracy at the cost of not being able to have armor covering it.

Good for cutting down trees, ships and people alike!

• Effectively a flamethrower, powered by coal.
  
• Can actually saw boarders who approach this thing.
  
• 25 blast damage every third of a second with a 3 meter splash radius at base, improving as you unlock metallurgy techs, going up to 36 damage before charge bonuses.

The original cannon stats (pre-buff) in a "place me anywhere" package.

• The old cannon stats, of 40 damage.
  
• Less accurate than the light sponson for sniping with.
  
• Cant quite 1 shot wooden armor, but combined with rifles will take out whatever it hits.
  
• Can be placed literally anywhere.

Overcomplicated piece of machinery.

• Sniper weapon, which also doesn't need ammo.
  
• Fairly restrictive firing arc of only 20 degrees.
  
• Damage comparable to a dorsal or ventral turret.
  
• Pretty much will hit it's target every time this fires.

Even more complicated!

• Sniper weapon, which also doesn't need ammo.
  
• Extremely generous firing arc.
  
• Shoots 12, 10 damage shots rapidly with a fairly large cooldown
  
• Pretty much will hit it's target every time this fires.
  
• Quite expensive, and coal hungry.

Hyperspecialized complications!

• Obscenely expensive to build.
  
• Designed to neuter enemy airships by blowing up their suspendium chambers.
  
• Will destroy anything but the largest suspendium chamber in one hit.
  
• Bypasses all armor on the target ship.
  
• Typically can't kill a large suspendium chamber in one shot. If the target has tools, they can nullify the effect of this weapon.
  
  
  Trebuchet
  Capable of launching 250 kilogram boulders at over 300 meters.
  
  • Early game solution to buildings and early landships.
    
  • Substantially inaccurate when mounted on an airship.
    
  • Significant damage applied to an area around the point of impact.
    
  • Extremely large and unwieldy to use, while also being unable to be armored.

Size matters, as do specialized components which help your ship to not explode violently.
As mentioned earlier, all ships have a variety of components, all with their own HP values.

This for example is an extremely small, and simple grenade and Hussar carrier. Looking at the HP overview, you can quite plainly see that the whole ship is pretty much ready to fall apart if shot with anything remotely large.


One solution you can try adding to make the ship tougher is by adding any of the specialized whole ship boosting components, such as a keel. Notice the difference in coloration of the modules, as well as the actual center piece of the balloon, as well as the coal. The balloon now had almost double the HP it did previously. This actually enables it to survive the blast that can occour if the end caps explode. Keels are one of the primary components you'd use to boost HP, since they offer a large bonus, but you can also get bonuses by using figureheads, and the ship bow components under decorative pieces.


Lastly "outside" components are much easier to break off than internal structural components. In the image above, you should be able to see that adding ladders to both sides of the ship boosts the HP of the engine, and the grenade point. In this case, the ladders are also there to pet crew shift from the top to the bottom quickly if necessary. As a rule, don't let important pieces get "stuck outside" if possible. It's also worth noting that, if an internal component completely "breaks", it can't be taken off of the ship, unless it has an outside layer exposed, so you can have a major internal ammo explosion, but assuming the pieces around it don't break off, you can still use the ladders and deck provided by the ammo store.

Ships and buildings which go beyond a certain point in their size will start to actually lose HP due to their large size. You can of course offset this with more keels and decorators however. The "titan" stock landship is actually a good example of a very large ship which does suffer a bit due to it's size.