Let's talk about equipment. First of all, we have Piloting Tools, of which you can choose one. Choose the Spyglass. Everything else needs to be at the wheel to use and if you, a gunner, is at the wheel, so many things have gone wrong that having any other Piloting Tool would not make a difference in how screwed you are. Dear god. Never be at the wheel. The actual pilot will have your head.

Next are Repair Tools. Most gunners will opt for the Rubber Mallet, which I recommend for first time players. It repairs a lot of health, available to use every six seconds, so an odd whack once in a while will keep your guns working. It also means if stuff starts going wrong and the engineer requests help you'll be well suited to assist. And by request I mean 'obscenity riddled shrieking.' It's okay; It's not actually swearing if you're an engineer. It's a rule of the universe or something. If you're not going for a Rubber Mallet, choose between a Fire Extinguisher or the Pipe Wrench. The Fire Extinguisher is handy as guns are the only component on the ship that stops working once ablaze, because apparently no one is keen to man a gun whilst on fire, the cowards. However, if no one on the enemy team is using flame throwers you can ignore it. EDIT: Now you can man guns if they're only a... little on fire. So yeah. Don't bother unless your playing flame heavy opponents. The Pipe Wrench is a good all-rounder in repair and rebuilding. By now, it's my prefered option due to it's flexibilty. Sure, it's not very good trying to fix the hull, but considering most items you will be trying to repair have low max health anyway it's a fine choice. Now there are a few other options, but I'll save a more detailed look at them for the Engineer How To, where it'll be more relevant. In my experience, I've wanted a Rubber Mallet far more than I've ever wanted an extinguisher.

EDIT: Recent updates changes priorities a little. At lower health, guns work less effectively, so it's really hard to justify not taking fixing items, especially as you can still sorta shoot guns at lower degrees of, uh, being on fire. In fact, the Chemical Spray might be a better idea, as it'll confer fire resistance and you can apply it to multiple parts to make your engineer have an eaier time.

The meat and bones of a gunner is the ammo loadout. Let's go into more detail:

Burst Rounds: Increase size of explosion and clip size in return for slower rate of fire. Great for flak cannons and missile launchers, this is a good standard choice.
Charged Rounds: Increases damage while reducing rate of fire and clip size. Best used on guns with already high damage and clip sizes to small to effect (Heavy Cannonade, Field Rifle, Heavy Flak Cannon,) but gives a welcome punch to anything, really.
Incendiary Rounds: 10% chance to have what's hit burst into flame in exchange for smaller clip size, rate of fire and shot speed. Best used on close range guns that'll hit a lot and often to make the most of that 10% - the Manticore and Gattling Gun work well. Don't use it with the Dragon's Breath Flamethrower, you idiot, you can't make flame more flamey.
Heatsink Clip: Whilst active, your gun is immune to fire. Less damage, less shot speed, but quicker rotation and more clip size as well. I tend to bring this along just in case, and if the enemy has flame throwers: BRING THIS ALONG. Your captain will thank you for it. Load when you see the enemy close.
Greased Rounds: More rate of fire and clip size for less damage and rotation. Like Incendiary, pairs well with the Gattling and Manticore, but has it's uses on the flame thrower as well. I carry these for when I close the distance, where those extra few shots in the clip make a lot of difference.
Lesmok Round: Increased muzzle speed and lift gives you better range at expense of clip size and rotation speed. This is not a round I'd recommend for beginners due to the fact using it means you'll be most likely trying difficult shot's on the edge of the gun's range, which might be a taxing for a beginner. Use with the Field Rifle, Heavy Flak Cannon and funnily enough, the flame thrower, for a few extra few feet up close.
Heavy Clip: Reduced recoil and muzzle speed, as well as decreased spread, so a definite benefit to the Gattling and Banshee. Personally I'd rather have more shots in the round to make up accuracy deficiencies as it'll dole out more damage when up close, so I'm not very keen on this ammo. EDIT: Time for me to eat some crow here. The Heavy Clip now makes significant accuracy increases. I particularly like it with the Manticore and Banshee, and people have noted it's use with the Gatling gun as well. If you want to be pushing extra range and accuracy for yur guns, go for this.
Lochnager Shot: One super high damage shot with less recoil that'll make any gun a one shot clip... and do self-damage each shot. Also less rotation speed. Let me say it clearly: NOT WORTH IT. I've never hit with, only the Heavy Flak Cannon has the health not to break upon shooting, anything else you'll be robbing the crew of an engineer to babysit you, the damage will likely get repaired in the reloading time, AND you'll probably miss. Seriously. The whole 'you only got one shot at this' only works in the movies. Avoid it for now unless the dev team changes it. EDIT: There's a minelauncher now. As you won't use that it combat probably, I seen it used sorta effectively. Thanks to bills6693 for pointing this out.

If you're torn about what to take with you, check the Match screen.



You see the name of the ship? When clicked, it'll show this:



This is the ship's weapon loadout. If you know exactly what guns you're going to be using, and what gun's you'll be facing it narrows down your options. Not one flame thrower on the enemy team and heavy flak cannons on your ship? Try Burst Rounds, Lesmok Rounds and Charged Rounds. A fire-heavy enemy and your own ship is a Gattling/Flamethrower combo? Heatsink Clip, Incendiary Rounds, Greased or maybe Lesmok Rounds I'd choose.

Or take what the captain tells you. It's the captain. He (allegedly) knows what works on their own ship. Allegedly.

As the round starts, grab a gun, and load it with your preferred ammo. Now when switching to a different ammo type, it'll reload the gun, so plan in advance or when reloading switch over freely. In the reloading animation, guns will finish reloading if you wander off. However, you must finish the reloading animation if you want your special ammo to set it.

Sometimes the captain may tell you to hop off and use a different gun: if you're new, let someone play with the big gun whilst you get your eye in. Remember: these aren't hitbox guns. They have range, recoil and drop off, so a myriad of factors such as your own and the enemies ship movement will affect your shot. Check the silhouette for their headed direction, lead your shot and let rip. Any ships spotted by a spyglass will appear on your map, 'M.' You can look at it whilst shooting as it's a good range finder; rule of thumb; if it's over a square away, you won't hit it without a Field Rifle and some luck.

Let's take a quick look at what the gunner sees when on a gun:



Now it's a bit difficult to see, I'll give you that. I'd love for the dev team to make bigger, brighter indicators and an option to turn the blasted film grain effect off, but that's not what we have right now. EDIT: Turns out you can. Go to video options, and turn 'Post Processing Effects' to 'False' or 'Off' or whatever it is, as that is the film grain. The glorious colours that will re-introduce themselves to you... Also, yes, my handwriting is awful. Deal with it. Here I am, on a Gattling Gun. I've scrawled over with green to exaggerate the important bits; the white highlight box surround to show the enemy ship has been spotted, and the two different crosshairs. An empty one means a team hit, and full on your hit. No matter who you are on a ship, the whole crew will be able to see your hits. The spotted box will go if the enemy ship retreats into a cloud, but you'll always see the hit crosshairs that flash up. So if you see one flash in a cloud, pepper it and you may get lucky.

Recently, they've added a new crosshair: a red one. This, my friends, is the crosshair of glory. It means you've stripped the hull of it's heath and are now hitting it's armour, which means it's approaching death. Red crosshair mean to pile on the pressure to finish it off. Like before, it comes in full / outline types, so you can tell if you or your crew are doing it.

To kill a ship, you'll need to overwhelm the hull health and armour, and the engineer likely repairing the hull. In essence, you're trying to inflict over 225 health of damage every six seconds. So look out for any guns that point in the same direction as other guns. For example, on the Pyramidion, that'll be the two forward guns up top. A Junker has two sets of side facing guns, top and bottom deck, like the Galleon. You want to back up fellow gunners by filling these out.

Pro tip: Sometimes, if I notice a fellow gunner start striking red crosshair hits, you might want to hold off fire for a second just until that fellow runs out of their clip - then you start blasting away, to give the enemy no opportunity to rebuilt the hull. Evil, malicious, and very effective.

Most of the time, you'll want to be aiming at whatever you can hit. If you have options, go for the hull. While different guns do different things to different parts of the ship, it's a safe bet to aim at the hull unless a.) the captain says otherwise, or b.) you're on a Cannonade, medium or heavy, in which case, the BALLOON. AIM FOR IT. NO ONE BUT YOU IS ALLOWED A BALLOON. POP THEM LIKE YOU WOULD TO BULLY A SMALL CHILD.

Once you've got you're eye in or have shorter ranged guns, you can target guns that face you to cripple oppisition, and then engines to cripple fleeing. Hey, being cruel works!

Quick run down of guns I regularly use:

Mercury Field Gun: Think of it like a sniper rifle. Will shoot through a hull, leading to multiple hits.
Flak Cannons (Medium and Heavy): Exploding flak shots. Aim for the hull and let the area of effect hit multiple targets. Be careful with the medium version; it has tricky alternating shots that can throw your accuracy.
Dragons Breath Flamethrower: So much fun. Weave back and forth over the hull to re-ignite anything they're put out. Unless the map shows the enemy ship practically touching your it's likely out of range.
Whirlwind Light Gattling Gun: A beast of a hull shredder.
Cannonades (Medium and Heavy): NO BALLOONS FOR YOU. In seriousness, it's basically a shotgun, so use very close.
EDIT: Baneshee Light Rocket Carousel: One update later and my hate turns to love. It's very similar to a medium Flak Cannon, but shorter ranged and a greater clip size. Put Burst Rounds in it,or Heavy Clip get close, and you'll be having a good time. If you shoot carefully, you might be able to hit regular at more medium ranges.
EDIT: Manticore: This one's a little strange. Sorta like a shotgun, but with slower explosive rockets, so it gives you a nice area of denial effect as well. Use up close, and I like Heavy Clip for it as it tightens it's spread nicely. However, it does have an insanely long reload time, and thus is one of the few guns I'd be wary of taking Burst Rounds for. Incendiary works as well, for the lulz.
EDIT: Lumberjack Heavy Mortar: Oh god, this gun. It gives me feels, of the naughty kind. It fires, big, slow mortar rounds that explode in stupendous fashion. Most people skip it in favour of the easier to use Heavy Flak Cannon, as the Mortar's drop takes some practice before you can reilably hit things. Perservere, as this is the big daddy of all guns. Use at medium range once your eye is in for some terrific damage.

These guns are quite popular, with clearly defined role or good all rounder appeal, but this may change as the devs tinker behind the scenes. They're also some of the easiest to pick up and use effectively. If you are a new player, steer away from the Javelin Harpoon Gun. The harpoon is a menance to aim and is very situational. There's nothing worse than successfully harpooning a ship before realising, oh god, it's got flame throwers, I just brought flame throwers closer to us and we can't run away, oh god, everything's on fire. Then the captain will turn to you with a sad face and say, why'd you kill us? Why you do that? So we can all agree it's very needlessly traumatic.

But the gunner's role is not just gunning. Admittedly, it's your obvious primary role, but there's a few more things to grasp. Namely, that spyglass. Once your gun's loaded with your chosen ammo, leap off, and start spotting ships. And telling your team where as well. If you have a mic, speak up. If not, or don't want to talk out loud, the 'L' key is crew chat. The pilot will love you for that. Once you start to recognize ship types, calling the type – and directional facing – will help further. There's nothing like seeing the left broadside of a Galleon to let a pilot know to get the hell outta dodge. Spotted ships are highlighted wherever you look, and take extra damage. So if you see a gunner standing next to a gun looking wistful: don't steal the gun. It's rude. They're looking for ships. Don't nick it.



Also, if you see this person called Karkon standing next to gun. Really don't nick it. Please.

Of course if they've missed the guy under their nose, go for it. Also, if the engineer yells for help, he means you. Like, right now. The pilot ain't moving. You are repair help. For the most part, you'll shoot at the captain's direction, report in enemy positions, and be a spare mallet when needed.

This guide was originally published on my blog, http://sarcasmisaverb.blogspot.co.uk/