10 Tips for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Ship Combat

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an AC game that features extensive naval (ship) combat to complement its land-based action. While most of the fighting takes place on land, naval combat is mandatory for completing some of the game’s story-based quests. You’ll also need to partake in some naval battles to complete side quests and assassinate Kosmos cultists. Thus, naval combat is a somewhat more integral part of Odyssey than it was in its AC Origins predecessor. Here are some tips for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ship combat to help you rule the waves.

Sparta Kick Enemies Off Ships

When you’ve defeated an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ship in open naval combat, you can also finish off its crew to grab more loot by boarding the ship. Fighting enemies aboard ships isn’t much different from land-based combat, except that you can knock them into the sea. One of the best ways to knock enemies into the water when fighting on ships is to unlock, upgrade, and utilize the Sparta Kick ability. Draw enemies toward the edge of the ships and then kick them overboard to kill them off.

Find and Recruit Better Lieutenants

Lieutenants are members of your crew who provide numerous ship buffs. Finding and recruiting better lieutenants is a cheap and relatively straightforward way to enhance your Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ship for naval combat. You can recruit new lietenants by knocking out, rather than killing, enemies in land-based combat. The best way to do that is to Spara Kick enemies when they’re low on health. Then, walk up to the body of the knocked-down enemy to select a recruit option.

Note that you can’t necessarily recruit all knocked-out enemies, but that option is usually available for mercenaries, leaders, quest NPCs, and other foes. Higher-tier mercenaries are often the best to recruit. You can also recruit some better lieutenants by completing certain side quests in the game. Making the correct choices during the main family story questline for the happiest ending will enable you to recruit some of the best lieutenants after completion.

Use Javelins When Close to Ships

Javelins inflict high crew damage during AC Odyssey naval engagements. You can sometimes inflict critical hit kills with javelins, which the game shows with slow-motion replays. Utilizing javelins is also the best way to create weak points in an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ship. So, it’s best to use javelins when close to ships for that reason.

Be Careful of Ramming (Use Drifting)

Ramming is an AC Odyssey naval tactic whereby ships inflict damage by sailing directly into their own. That is quite a common tactic (especially for smaller, faster pirate ships) that you should be wary of because effective ramming can inflict substantial damage. If an enemy ship turns and sails toward you, press the slow-down button and then start turning away to execute a drifting maneuver to dodge it. Executing that maneuver will at least minimize the impact of a ram, even if you can’t dodge it entirely.

Scout Ships With Ikaros

Ikaros is an invaluable eagle for scouting both land and sea. You can use Ikaros to first find potential ships to attack. Then, utilize your eagle’s stationary mode to identify ship types and the loot they carry. Pentecoster, bireme, tireme, and heavy tiremes are the main ship categories for the different factions. Tiremes and heavy tiremes are the strongest ship types in the game some players might prefer to avoid fighting when possible.

Find Ancient Tablets for Ship Upgrades

Upgrading your Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ship more is the best way to make naval combat in the game easier. To upgrade your ship, you’ll need to gather resources and pick up Ancient Tablets at ruin sites. Head to the broken castle ruin symbols revealed on the map to collect more Ancient Tablets for ship upgrades.

To help you find all the Ancient Tablet ruin sites, check out this AC Odyssey map page. Enter an Ancient Tablet keyword into that map’s search box. Then, the map will show you all the ruin locations that include Ancient Tablets for ship upgrades.

Prioritize Hull Upgrades

When it comes to upgrading your Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ship, I recommend prioritizing your ship’s hull first. Strengthening your hull will reduce the damage enemies can inflict on your ship. However, hull upgrades also enable you to recruit more lieutenants, which can enhance your ship’s attack or defensive strength. You can recruit up to four lieutenants by investing in hull upgrades.

Initiate Boarding When Fighting Multiple Ships

Always initiate boarding when fighting multiple ships from a fleet in AC Odyssey. It is important to do that because initiating a boarding will fully replenish your ship’s health when you’ve finished off its crew. Initiating boarding will also give your ship temporary invulnerability when you’re fighting enemy crew.

Brace Yourself

Bracing (holding shields up during enemy attacks) is crucial to winning naval battles in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Deflecting most attacks that come your way is ultimately more essential to winning naval battles than landing quicker hits on the enemy. When you’ve landed a few hits on an enemy ship, get ready for it to fire back at you, and brace for impact. So, be patient, focus on bracing, and wait for the best opportunities to arise to launch your arrows or javelins after deflecting attacks.

Knock Enemies Off Ships With Ring of Chaos

Ring of Chaos is another good ability that’s worth unlocking and upgrading for boarding naval combat. The Ring of Chaos ability creates a shockwave that knocks back enemies. You can knock multiple enemies off ships and into the water with that shockwave effect.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ship combat can be a lot of fun, and mastering it will assist your game progression. The most important thing is to set aside time for resource gathering to upgrade your ship and lieutenant recruitment. Then, you can crush most enemy ships with effective utilization of javelins and arrows, combined with ship manoeuvring and bracing. Unlock and utilize Sparta Kick/Ring of Chaos to enhance your naval combat proficiency for finishing off crews with boarding.