Salvaging & Shipwreck Guide

Raising Sunken ships and towing them back to port will allow you to loot it.

The sunken vessel may have valuable treasures, discoveries or unspeakable horrors.

Requirements

Shipwreck Map Piece

The "Shipwreck Map Piece" is a small portion of a map which is needed to complete a larger map that may show you where the sunken ship is.

This map shows we have 4 out of the 29 required pieces.  To see this map at any time, from the main
player interface, click Journal/Shipwrecks.

Remember, you have to "Use item" and choose a shipwreck map piece to start to assemble the map.

How to get shipwreck map pieces:

Salvage and Haul skills

There are items in game such as salvage and haul ropes that you may use (Maybe you will only raise the occasional shipwreck):

• Simple salvage rope
• Salvage rope
• Improved salvage rope
• Custom salvage rope

These items are consumables, so you run the risk of running out of these items (Imagine running out them while raising a shipwreck off the coast of Oceania). 

That's why I prefer using Salvage and Haul skills as they only cost vigour.  

You can learn salvage from Martinengo in Athens and haul from Alexandria's Adventure GM.

If you still prefer consumables, go with the custom versions of the salvage rope and haul ropes. They should have the same effect as r10 skills. Thing is, they are not so common to find in company shops or player/aide bazaars, so they are usually pricey.

Unlock skill

Some treasure chests require unlock to open. 

There are no item replacements for unlock, only a few booster items you can use. 

Unlock can be a hard to grind, but most treasure chests in shipwrecks will only require low levels of this skill.

Recognition, appraisal and archaeology skills

Some shipwrecks will require recognition, appraisal and/or archaeology skills for a discovery (Card).

Telescopes replace recognition in most, but not necessarily all cases. However, there are no  replacement items for appraisal and archaeology, just booster items (Luckily there are a lot of them unlike unlock + items).

Repair Skill (Recommended)

Each lifting progress will make the durability of your ship decrease so it's wise to be able to repair. Don't forget to bring timber!

You can also use "Carpentry Tools".

Salvaging Procedure

Collect Map Fragments

The captain's journal shows the amount of pieces needed to complete the map under shipwrecks.

There are various ways to gain map pieces.

• Given by the Market keeper NPC when purchasing items (Random).
• Found by your Pet, your crew, or being blown aboard during a storm.
• Reporting a discovery.
• Winning battles (Sea, Landing point or dungeons).
• Unlocking treasure chests (Dungeons or shipwrecks).
• Fishing and collection.
• Players (bazzars and company stores)

The difficulty of the shipwreck is determined by the number of shipwreck pieces required to complete the map.

Higher star shipwrecks will give better rewards but are harder to find and have stronger resistance.

Find the sea region

Once you have completed a shipwreck map, proceed to the sea indicated on the map. 

Check a world map to sea the most fitting sea region.

It is also beneficial to set your aide captain (or your second aide also) to “Lookout” job. 

You will know you’re in the correct waters when your aide says, “According to the map, the shipwreck appears to have sunk in these waters”.  

If you have the Boston skill "Salvager's Knowledge 1" the waters containing the Shipwreck will be revealed, when opening the Shipwreck Menu. Specially useful for maps like this:

Obtaining Hints on Shipwrecks

If you don't where to go even after completing the complete shipwreck map (Or you got the map above), you can bring it to a "Former Seafarer", a "Fortune Teller" or a "Cartographer", and they will give you a hint on the location of the wreck.

Former Seafarer

Found in Sagres. 

If the total amount of shipwrecks you have salvaged is 30 or fewer, the former seafarer will suggest, free of charge, 3 sea regions.

Fortune Tellers

Found in Ceuta, Dublin, Salonika, Sassari, Ancona and Bremen.

In exchange for a fee of 10,000 Ducats, the fortune teller will suggest 3 sea regions.

Cartographers

Found in Bergen, Naples, Genoa, Athens, Cairo, Casablanca and Manchester.

In exchange for a fee of 50,000 Ducats, the cartographer will indicate the location of the shipwreck on the shipwreck map.

Find the wreck spot

If you are on the exact sea, move your cursor back and forth across the map in your journal. It may reveal a red "X" pointing out the possible place where the ship sank, but this is only a probability and the ship may be on a different location.

If your aide (On the lookout job) says “nearby waters”, you’re within one or two sea zones of the wreck.

If you are on a fleet it is much easier to find the shipwreck. Each salvage use will tell you which fleet member is closer to the wreck. This information will tell you in which direction you should go to get closer to the wreck (This is another advantage to fleeting. Also, more mates means you may get bonus treasure).

Once your aide says, “Captain, that cargo?!  Is there a wreck nearby?” or something similar, then you are VERY close to the wreck and should use salvage skill (or the Salvage Rope) until you get stuck on the wreck.

Raise the wreck (Salvaging)

You should have used salvage, found the wreck and started raising it.

Remember your ship may take damage and your crew be thrown overboard.

The speed you raise the wreck as well as the damage you take is dependant on the total number of crew on your ship (and fleetmates). If you have more crew and/or more fleetmates you will raise the wreck faster (Combo!) and receive less damage.

Occasionally, you may raise a “Ghost Shipwreck”.

These are very similar to normal shipwrecks. You fight NPC bandits that sneak in. However, there are two important differences:

1) You will find “Lost Sailor” NPCs.  If you click on them, you may receive large amounts of gold.
2) The shipwreck has a chance of  breaking up on you if you don’t exit quickly enough.  Once you get the adventure experience points for clearing the wreck, you can exit or you can stay and see if other “Lost Sailor” NPC’s appear.
I recommend that you exit once you get the experience points to minimize the risk of the shipwreck
breaking up.

Tow the wreck to port

After raising the wreck, you must tow it to a nearby town to be able to explore it.

The skill "Haul" is recommended, or the "Haul Rope" (That has a similar effect).

So when you are done with salvaging progress activate Haul skill and look for the closest port.

How long you can haul the shipwreck depends on your Haul skill rank.

If your aide tells you ".....the hauling rope is about to break" you should stop your ship and release anchor, wait for a day (1 Minute) to fix it.

Your aide will say "The haul rope is about to break but you save it" (This is temporaly fix the rope for short period). If you wait another day (1 Minute), it will be completely fixed and your aide will say "The Preparation to haul the ship is done" and you are ready to sail again.

Note: If the lines snaps during hauling, use the salvage skill exactly where you dropped the ship to recover it.

Once you haul the wreck to port, you can either explore it there or it will "follow" you around until you decide to explore it.

If you need to exit and re-enter the shipwreck, you are able to do so freely and not lose any loot.

Investigating the wreck

When successfully towed back to town, players will have a new option at the port menu to explore the wreck.

Note: Before you explore the shipwreck, consider emptying your cargo so you can obtain as much loot as possible.

Inside the ship, treasures may be found and sometimes a historical ship discovery.

And also, be cautious of ghosts which may surround the ship.

Once you have towed the ship into port, you may sail away and investigate it on another port without having to haul it.

Invading bandits may attack you and take your haul.

Salvage Skill Grinding

If you want to learn how to grind your salvage skill check my guide.

List of Shipwrecks (By Alianore)

Alianore is doing a great job compiling all the shipwreck she has found.

Check it at het blog: https://alisplunder.blogspot.com/p/shipwrecks.html

Shipwreck Hunter Title

Once you raise 100 shipwrecks, you get a title, “Shipwreck Hunter”.  

Shipwreck Hunter effect

When equip your title to “Shipwreck Hunter”, the red "X" stays in place and does not move around. 

Jobs that favor Salvage and Haul

• Salvager (Expert) from quest "Daily-advancing technologies" (Requirements R5 salvage), Sea Floor Exploration Permit card.
• Cartographer (Salvage only) from quest "Investigation of Mercator " (Requirements Rec r4 Geo R11).

Oxford Skills

• Raising Hints 1 from "Shipwreck History" thesis (Required r2 haul or salvage)
• Raising Hints 2 from "Shipwreck History" thesis (Required r2 haul or salvage and oxford building 2 unlocked)

Boston Skills

Salvager's Intuition 1 

Obtained from research "Salvager's Research 1"

Salvager's Knowledge 1

Obtained from research "Salvager's Research 2".

Ship skills

Hauling Assistance (Sailing Speed increases and no rope breaks).

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