Saltblood

The sea remembers.

A naval MMO that runs in a browser tab. Click the water to sail. Click a ship and your broadsides fire on their own whenever she’s in their arc. The captains out there have tempers, and the named ones grow bolder with every captain they sink.

No download, no email. Guests sail straight away.

Gullhaven ShallowsSanctuary · levels 1–15Early build. Progress may be reset.

Chart of Gullhaven Shallows

Four kilometres of reef and rock around the harbor where every captain starts.

Chart of Gullhaven ShallowsGullhaven harbor sits at the center of a four-kilometre square of sea with nineteen islands and five reefs. Practice hulks lie anchored just north of the harbor ring. Red Tide raiders work the waters to the north, east, south and far southeast; long-gunners lurk to the west. Free Folk trade lanes run out from the harbor, and an Admiralty patrol circles it.2014191920171311991313171616151717161197311111511111215161613141076111110679131310201010891210581012816669988101311659759151010412121414116810746813181391513116911121414137489131413131011141515151311799101391014141114141181097591288548913975513128661274812119431012111073668121175811129599109959649106589131412108108785610910141318151312771081113151515141396108712141310101075891211985611946981112755877109789151617956118910881116751013139101412871015119561113121187811151410814161514101111131615111291011131518141516GullhavenLantern RockGull RockSaltmarsh IsleHookback KeyHookback FlatsPalmer’s CayPalmer ShoalDriftwood AtollWidow’s SpitBrineholdruined fortOld BeaconCrab IsleSunken CrownKittiwake IsletsThe TeethMossbackTern IsletGullhaven ReefPractice hulksAnchored and unarmed. They won’t shoot back.Harbor ringNo fighting inside itRed Tide raidersLv 1–4. They come in close.Raiders in pairsLv 4–9. One in eight is named.Long-gunnersLv 6–11. Chain shot, from range.Red Tide raidersLv 5–10Raiders in pairsLv 9–14. One in three is named.Admiralty patrolLv 10–14. Hunts the Red Tide.Free Folk trade laneTraders run it to the edge of the chartPrevailing windfrom the ENE. It shifts.05001000 mSoundings in fathomsGullhaven Shallows · 4,096 m square · sanctuary waters

The chart is wider than your screen. Drag it sideways.

Gullhaven is sanctuary. Nobody fights inside the harbor ring, and if you sink you’re towed back to the dock with thirty percent of your hull. The practice hulks anchored to the north won’t shoot back, so put your first broadsides into them.

Past them the water gets less polite: raiders in ones and twos, long-gunners off the western rocks, and an Admiralty patrol that hunts the Red Tide and leaves you alone.

Harbor
Gullhaven. Shipwright, gunsmith, chandler, tavern and harbormaster.
Waters
4,096 metres square. Nineteen islands and five reefs.
Reefs
A Skiff rides over them untouched. Anything with more keel loses forty hull a second dragging across.
Lanes
Free Folk traders run three lanes out of the harbor. Raiding them makes the navy angry.

The sea remembers

Some captains have names. Those ones keep score.

Most hulls off Gullhaven are crews without names: a Red Tide raider, a Free Folk trader running salt. One raider in eight sails under a named captain, with a rank, an epithet, two extra levels and a steadier hand on the guns.

Examine a ship before you engage and her temper is written plainly. Looks reckless. A wary captain. Too proud to strike colors. Believe it.

Ranks
Red Tide: Reaver, Dread Captain, Tide Lord. The Admiralty: Mate up to Admiral.
When they win
They gain a level, and you hear about it: “…grows bolder. The sea remembers.”
When you win
Three times the gold of a nameless crew. Break their morale and they strike; plunder them or let them go.

Plainly: in this build a named captain remembers only the level they took from you, and only until someone sinks them or the world restarts. Grudges that follow you between sessions, revenge fleets and logbook pages are next on the slip.

How a fight goes

You handle the ship. The gun crews fire when she’s in their arc.

Firing arcs and the rake bonusYour ship, bow up. The starboard battery covers 40 to 140 degrees off the bow and the port battery 220 to 320. Bow chasers cover 25 degrees either side of the bow and stern chasers 25 degrees either side of the stern. A second ship sails away with her stern toward your starboard guns: shot that lands within 35 degrees of a stern does 35 percent more damage.Bow chasers · 335°–25°Stern chasers · 155°–205°Starboard40°–140°Port220°–320°Her stern +35%bow +15%

Bring the guns to bear

Each broadside covers a hundred degrees, from 40° to 140° off the bow. Nothing fires dead ahead but the chasers, and a Skiff has none. Fights are won at the helm.

Rake her stern

Shot that lands within 35° of her stern does +35%. Through the bow, +15%. Good captains fight for the stern, and so do the better ones in the Red Tide.

Choose the shot

Round shot smashes hulls. Chain shreds sails and slows a runner. Grape clears a deck before a boarding. A new Skiff carries 600 round, 80 chain and 80 grape.

Take the surrender

Break a crew’s nerve and they strike their colors. Then it’s your call: plunder the hold, or let them sail.

The Saltreach

Seven waters. One is charted so far.

Two hundred years ago the Sundering drowned a continent. Its mountaintops are the islands you sail between, and its old kingdoms are wrecks on the seabed. Gullhaven Shallows is open now. The rest of the Saltreach is still on the chart table.

  1. Gullhaven Shallows

    Levels 1–15 · Sanctuary

    Bright reefs, the starter harbor, Free Folk traders, and Red Tide raiders who mostly lose.

    Charted
  2. Brinemarch Coast

    Levels 10–30 · Sanctuary

    Merchant lanes, Gilded Company convoys and the first navy patrols. Saltmere and its Exchange.

    Uncharted
  3. Cinderreef Isles

    Levels 25–45 · Contested

    Volcanic islands under ash fog. Smugglers out of Emberwick, Red Tide strongholds, the first fort.

    Uncharted
  4. The Mistveil

    Levels 40–60 · Contested

    Fog that never lifts. On bad nights the Drowned crew ships that sank long ago.

    Uncharted
  5. Ironcrown Waters

    Levels 50–75 · Contested

    Varnhold, the Admiralty’s fortress port. Heavy navy and whole armadas.

    Uncharted
  6. The Lawless Reaches

    Levels 30 and up · Lawless

    No guards at Gallows Rock. Open fighting and the best plunder, with the risk to match.

    Uncharted
  7. The Maw

    Levels 75–99 · Contested

    An abyssal trench. Leviathans, and the ambergris they leave on the water.

    Uncharted

Standing orders

What the harbormaster tells every new captain.

You start in Gullhaven with a Skiff, a thousand gold and six hundred round shot. Sail north out of the harbor ring, find the practice hulks, and learn your arcs on something that can’t shoot back.

  • ClickClick the water to set a course. Shift-click adds a waypoint.
  • ClickClick a ship to take aim. Loaded guns fire on their own when she’s in their arc.
  • WSTrim the sails: anchored, battle sail, full sail.
  • ADSteer by hand for as long as you hold the key.
  • 123Choose the shot: round for hulls, chain for sails, grape for crews.
  • SpaceFire now, whatever’s loaded and bearing.
  • QEmergency repairs: twelve percent of your hull back over six seconds.
  • TabNext hostile in sight. Esc lowers your aim.

Press H at sea for the full card.

Muster roll

The five captains with the most experience at sea. Guests aren’t entered.

RankCaptainTotal XP
1cainssh1,822
2Sno1,439

The full roll, skill by skill

Gullhaven harbor is open.

Your Skiff is tied up at the dock with six hundred round shot aboard.