Guns of Icarus Online New Player’s Guide

Guns of Icarus Online New Player’s Guide by Zenith

With the recent massive influx of new players, Guns of Icarus has become something of a flying comedy. So without further adieu, welcome to Zenith’s Guide for New Players (with my opinion on ship balance at the end). I’ll try not to go too in-depth, since I’m sure new players want to dive into Guns of Icarus.

The Core Basics

First things first, click “Look” in the top right, and change your name.

Secondly, when you join your first game, make sure you’re not a captain (in the first slot in your group of 4), and not a pilot (pilots have a steering wheel by their name). To be a captain, you should know how to build a ship to be useful, and to be a pilot you should at least know where the ship’s strong sides and such are, and what each gun does. Since you don’t know any of that yet, pick gunner or engineer and take a crew slot.

Thirdly, make sure your ship has a good team composition. A safe composition on any ship is Pilot, Gunner, Engi, Engi. Some ship/gun loadouts work perfectly with 2 gunners or with 3 engineers, but 1 pilot and 3 gunners will put you at a large disadvantage. More than 1 pilot will also put you at a disadvantage.

Fourthly, listen to your captain! If he tells you to man a gun, don’t wait until you’re finished repairing the balloon to 100% health to do it. Do it instantly.

Being a Gunner

As a gunner, what you hit matters. Some guns are ineffective against certain parts of the ship.

Carronades do more to balloons, but don’t be afraid to hit the hull with it, especially if your captain tells you to.

Explosive guns and the machine gun do more to the hull than the balloon. Never hit the balloon with an explosive weapon.

With the flamethrower you should try to hit their entire ship, spreading fire to all of their ship’s components.

When choosing gunner items, remember that increased velocity also means increased range.

If you want to get technical and really know your guns, refer to this matrix: http://gunsoficarus.com/gameplay/weapons/

As always, listen to your captain! If he gives you an order, you might completely sabotage his tactics by not complying.

Being an Engineer

Although this class appears to be fairly simple, it’s exactly as important as the gunner. First thing to remember is don’t get stuck. When you hit something with the pipe wrench or rubber mallet, don’t stick around for the cooldown to end. Go repair something else.

There are two types of Engineer, E-Engie (Emergency Engineer) and Buffer Engie.

E-Engie should have a spyglass, shifting spanner, rubber mallet, and fire extinguisher. This engineer needs to rebuild broken components with the shifting spanner, heal items with the rubber mallet, and the extinguisher can be used to simultaneously extinguish things while you repair them. When there’s nothing else to do, you should be searching for enemies with the spyglass.

Buffer Engie should have a spyglass, pipe wrench, dynabuff industries kit, and fire extinguisher or fire tarp. This engineer can buff components on the ship, including the hull itself. This engineer is also often used as a secondary gunner, and often has to extinguish fires for the primary gunner.

Few things can be said absolutely about how you should prioritize repairs, but here’s some important information:

The hull has two health bars, the top is called “armor” the bottom is called “hull”. Armor can be repaired, but hull cannot. Currently, all guns have to get past your armor before damaging your hull. Running out of hull is the only direct cause of death for your ship.

If the Engines are down, the captain can’t steer or move. Depending on where the enemy is, your ship may be just taking hits and unable to shoot back until you repair them.

If the gun(s) facing the enemy are on fire, your ship may be taking hits and unable to shoot back until you extinguish them.

If the balloon is down, your captain might be unable to get to a height where your ship can shoot back at the enemy. If you’re nearing the ground, your ship may also take heavy damage from hitting the ground.

Remember that the engines and balloon lose power as they lose health. This is especially important for the engines, as an enemy may fly circles around your ship if you leave them at 50%.

As always, listen to your captain! If he gives you an order, you might completely sabotage his tactics by not complying.

Current Ship Balance Ranks

A – With a great crew, is top of the game.

Galleon – 6/10 pilot skill ceiling, 8/10 gunning skill ceiling, 5/10 repairing skill ceiling

B – With a great crew can be extremely useful in any battle.

Goldfish – 6/10 pilot skill ceiling, 9/10 gunning skill ceiling, 3/10 repairing skill ceiling
Spire – 3/10 pilot skill ceiling, 9/10 gunning skill ceiling, 7/10 repairing skill ceiling

C – With a great crew, can sometimes fill a niche role.

Squid – 8/10 pilot skill ceiling, 4/10 gunning skill ceiling, 7/10 repairing skill ceiling
Pyramidion – 5/10 pilot skill ceiling, 6/10 gunning skill ceiling, 5/10 repairing skill ceiling

D – With a great crew, still comes short of any attempted role.

Junker – 5/10 pilot skill ceiling, NA/10 gunning skill ceiling, NA/10 repairing skill ceiling <-requires a strange team composition, which I won’t get into here.

F – Completely useless, will do nothing but feed the enemy points.

Skill ceilings are decided by the ship’s likely gun loadout and strategy, and by how difficult it is to approach maximum efficiency as feasible within the game’s rules (as far as I know). They’re all subject to change as the game changes, and as I get better (although I do have a few hundred hours logged already).

Balance can change a lot by map, for example the squid is at least a B on Duel at Dawn.