The Shop
One of the simplest ways to get a new ship is just to buy a Ship Deed in the Shop. In the Shop you can buy Ship Deeds from a couple of NPCs (Non-Player Characters): the Auctioneer and the Civilian Ship Dealer. We will cover buying from these characters in the following sections:
- Finding the Shop
- The Auctioneer
- Searching the Auction House
- Ship Outfitting
- Civilian Ship Dealer
- Durability
Finding the Shop
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| This is a map of Charlesfort. The Shop is circled. |
First you should figure out where the shop is located. There is a Shop in almost every port; although, unlike the Harbor Master, Shops aren't necessarily located at the end of the dock—in fact, they can be located a great distance away from the dock (as is the case with the British starting port, Jenny Bay).
To find the Shop in your port, check your Local Map for this icon: 
. To open your local map, on the Toolbar click on the Local Map button 
.
Once you're inside the shop, you'll find that the shop contains various characters including the Auctioneer and the Civilian Ship Dealer.
Some ports do not have a Shop. The Auctioneer and Civilian Ship Dealer may still be present in these ports, but you will have to search for them.
Auctioneer
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| This is the Auctioneer —notice the coins above his head. |
The Auctioneer controls the Auction House. The Auction House is basically a way for players to buy and sell goods. And since you want to buy a ship, the Auction House might be just the place to start. (To find out more about the Auction House, check out the Auction House section in our Economy Guide.)
To bring up the Auction House window, you will need to talk to the Auctioneer. You should easily recognize the Auctioneer because he will be standing on a crate with coins floating above his head.
Searching the Auction House
Now that you have the Auction House window open, you can begin to search for a new ship. The best way to find a new ship (if you don't have any particular ship in mind) is to just search for all Ship Deeds:
- Make sure that you are on the Listings tab of the Auction House Window, and only the Auctions check box (and not the Buy Orders checkbox) is selected.
- For a larger selection click on Port, and then select All. This allows you to search all ports within your region.
- Click on Item Category, and then select Ship Deeds.
- Make sure Status is set to Active Only.
- Then to bring up a list of all Ship Deeds available, click Search.
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| Notice on this tooltip the requirement "You must be level 35." To captain this ship, you must meet this requirement. |
Now you will need to pick out a ship. Without going into too much detail (as specifics are covered in the What to Look For in a New Ship section), the quickest way to pick out a ship of the appropriate level is to find the highest level ship you can captain.
By the highest level ship you can captain, we're referring to a ship at your level or a few levels below you. For example, if you're level 12, look for a ship that requires a captain at level 12 or a few levels below.
To see the requirements of any ship for sale on the Auction House, hover over the particular ship you are interested in. A tooltip will appear with a significant amount of information.
The requirements are listed in the information. The requirements are displayed in green and red. If you meet a requirement, it is displayed in green, and if you do not meet a requirement, it is displayed in red.
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| This is the Civilian Ship Dealer —notice the Ship Deed above his head. |
Now that you've picked out a ship, you will want to bid on it. If you would like to learn about bidding, check out the Bidding section of our Economy Guide. After you have bought your ship deed, you just need to convert it to a ship, and then you are free to go about your business, plundering the Caribbean.
Of course, if you'd prefer not to buy your ship from the Auction House, you might consider the Civilian Ship Dealer.
Civilian Ship Dealer
Need a ship quickly and cheaply? Then check out the Civilian Ship Dealer. The Civilian Ship Dealer offers a variety of ships. There is a bit of a quality difference between the ships the Civilian Ship Dealer offers (known as Civilian ships) and player made ships, but we'll discuss that a little later on. First, you need to find a Civilian Ship Dealer.
Civilian Ship Dealers are generally located inside of shops, near the Auctioneer. You can distinguish the Civilian Ship Dealers by the Ship Deed floating above their heads and by the model boat in their hands.
The Civilian Ship Dealer will show you a number of Ship Deeds appropriate to your level that you can purchase. These ships aren't quite the same quality as player made ships you can find in the Auction House, but they are cheaper, and purchasing from the Civilian Ship Dealer is a lot more straight-forward than purchasing from the Auction House.
As we mentioned, Civilian Ships are not the same quality as player made ships. Let's compare a player made Ship Deed to a Civilian Ship Deed.
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| This is a player made Dolphyn Ketch. Compare with the Civilian Dolphyn—particularly the Durability, the stats under Health, and the Level. | This is a Civilian Dolphyn Ketch. Compare with the player made Dolphyn—particularly the Durability, the stats under Health, and the Level. |
Durability
Durability is fairly simple concept. Consider that if you sink your ship (e.g., in a mission or Open Sea ship battle) too many times, there will come a time when you won't get your ship back. Essentially, every point of durability counts as one time you can sink your ship and still get it back.
For example, if your ship has five points of durability, on the fifth time you sink your ship, it will be gone forever. If your ship has one point of durability, the first time you sink your ship, it will be gone forever.
Civilian ships only have one point of durability. So by sinking your Civilian ship once, you will lose it. Player made ships have several points of durability, so you have several opportunities to sink your ship before you need to pick up a new one. Not to mention the stats of player made ships are higher than Civilian ships, making player made ships harder to sink.
So why would you ever want a Civilian ship? As we said earlier, Civilian ships are cheap and easy to buy.
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