Boarding in Corsairs Legacy

Over the past few months, the boarding system in Corsairs Legacy has been completely reworked.
It’s no longer a simple crew brawl, but a complex tactical event where timing, morale, player preparation, ship condition, officer roles, and direct consequences for the vessel and crew all matter.

Boarding requires preparation not only of the ship, but of the captain as well. The player needs to stock up in advance on potions, supplies, ammunition, maintain their weapons, and keep the crew combat-ready.

Below is the full documentation of the boarding mechanics in the current version of the game.

Conditions for starting boarding

You can board any enemy ship if:

you have at least 5 crew members on your ship;
the ship is considered hostile (a red arrow is displayed above it). To turn a friendly ship hostile, you must manually fire at it with your ship’s cannon.

Once you close to the allowed distance, you can press the F key to start boarding.

Boarding start distance

The radius at which the F action becomes available depends on:

the ship’s class;
the character’s personal ship-skill progression.

An enemy ship can also initiate boarding on its own if it sees a numerical or qualitative advantage and considers the fight favorable.

If you don’t want to engage in an unfavorable fight, stay outside the boarding start radius.

Boarding difficulty indicator

Boarding difficulty is shown by the crossed-swords indicator above the ship:

1 out of 5: very easy boarding, the player has a significant advantage;
3 out of 5: roughly equal forces;
5 out of 5: extremely difficult boarding that requires serious preparation and experience.

What affects difficulty

the crew size ratio;
the ship class ratio;
crew losses before boarding begins.

The indicator is dynamic and recalculates after any crew losses on either side.

Preparing for boarding

Pre-thinning the crew

The most reliable way to simplify boarding is to thin out the enemy crew in advance with grapeshot, without losing your own crew.

If you create a significant advantage before boarding starts:

difficulty can drop to the minimum;
even larger ships become a realistic target.

Determining enemy numbers

You can see the exact size of the enemy crew through a spyglass if your character has one of the following equipped:

French Spyglass
Italian Spyglass
Engraved Spyglass
Officer Spyglass
Exquisite Spyglass
Composite Spyglass

Without these spyglasses, only the red crew bar above the ship is shown.

Event sequence when pressing F

After you attempt to start boarding, a strict sequence of checks is triggered. Events are checked in exactly the order listed below:

If there are fewer than 5 crew members on the ship, boarding is impossible.
If an abandoned ship is found, it is captured automatically after pressing F, without boarding.
The grappling hooks failed to catch - a 10-second cooldown is applied.
Chance: 7 − (Luck / 2)%
The crew refuses to board due to low morale (below 20) - a 10-second cooldown.
Chance: 35 − current morale %
The enemy crew surrenders without a fight.
Condition: your crew is at least 3 times larger, and the enemy ship’s class is not higher.
Chance: 80%
The crew mutinies and kills the captain - the last save is loaded.
Morale below 20, chance: 20 − Luck %
The crew doubts the captain’s confidence - you can raise morale for a reduced cost.
Morale 20–40, chance: 70 − morale %
The crew asks for supplies (weapons, ammo, or medicine). If you agree: +10 morale. This is the cheapest way to raise morale in the game.
Conditions for the event to appear:
- morale 20–40,
- at least 10 weapons, 10 healing potions, and 20 bullets in the inventory.
Chance: 70 − morale %
The captain is killed by a musket shot - the last save is loaded.
Chance: 4 − (Luck / 3)
The captain is killed by a cannonball - the last save is loaded.
Chance: 4 − (Luck / 3).
A passenger dies at the start of boarding (if you have a passenger).
Chance: 10 − (Luck / 2)%.
A player officer dies.
Chance: (number of officers × 4) − (Luck / 3).
Fire on your ship (if there was a fire animation on the deck at the moment boarding started).
Chance: 25%
Flooding on your ship (if hull integrity is below 50%).
Chance: 10 + (50 − % integrity)
Fire on the enemy ship (if there was a fire animation on the deck at the moment boarding started).
Chance: 25%
Flooding on the enemy ship - same rules apply.
The enemy captain personally leads the boarding.

If none of the events trigger, standard boarding loading begins.

Boarding scenes

Boarding loads into one of four scenes:

cutter - schooner;
schooner - sloop;
schooner - snow;
brig - brigantine.

The hold is the same for all ships.
The captain’s cabin is unique to each ship model.

Lighting and weather

Lighting is locked in at the moment boarding begins:

morning: 6:00-10:00, evening: 19:00-22:00;
daytime: 10:00-12:00 and 16:00-19:00;
bright sun: 12:00-16:00;
night: 22:00-6:00.

Lighting does not change during boarding.

Weather conditions (rain, fog, heavy fog) remain exactly as they were at sea.

Combat participants

The following can take part in the fight:

the player;
the player’s regular sailors;
the player’s officers;
the enemy captain;
enemy sailors;
enemy officers;
enemy soldiers (military ships only).

Enemy fighters can be identified by the health bar above their heads.

Side ratio on deck

Possible ratios:

5 to 10
6 to 9
8 to 8
9 to 6
10 to 5

The ratio depends on crew size and the difference in ship classes and subclasses. The indicator above the ship shows the ratio between your ship and the enemy ship based on these two parameters.

The ship class ratio affects the ratio and level of enemy sailors, which greatly increases the damage dealt by a single attack.

For example, if you try to capture a military sloop while sailing a merchant schooner, the difference is 5 ship subtypes (merchant schooner -> schooner -> military schooner -> merchant sloop -> sloop -> military sloop).

On larger ships, each side gets two additional sailors.

Officers and ship classes

The number of enemy officers depends on the ship class:

classes 6–7: 0–1 officer;
classes 4–5: 0–2 officers;
classes 2–3: 1–2 officers;
class 1: 1–3 officers.

Enemy morale increases when officers and the captain are present on deck, and decreases if they die.

Boarding modes

Possible modes:

encirclement;
standard fight;
musket firefight;
captains’ duel.

If fire or flooding is active:

captains’ duel and musket firefight are disabled;
only standard boarding with a timer or encirclement mode is available.

Fire and flooding

During fire or flooding:

a time bar is displayed;
if the bar fills up - defeat;
if fewer than two sailors remain on deck - defeat.

The player can send part of the crew to put out the fire or patch the breach, sacrificing numerical advantage on deck for extra time.

Rain accelerates flooding by 20% and slows fire by 20%.

Healing sailors

During boarding, the player can use healing potions from the inventory to heal sailors directly on deck and reduce overall crew losses.

The hold and the captain’s cabin

After winning, you can go to the hold or head straight to the captain’s cabin.

The hold can contain up to three enemies and two loot chests. After the hold, only the transition to the captain’s cabin is possible.

The captain’s cabin is unique to each ship model. It may contain no enemies, or it may contain the captain, the captain with a sailor, or up to three sailors on large ships. Each captain’s cabin contains two loot chests.

Losses after boarding

Final losses are calculated using several independent rules.

random losses from 0 to 2 sailors are possible;
if there are fewer weapons in the hold than sailors, 50% of unarmed sailors will be lost;
when boarding a higher-class ship, up to 3 additional sailors are lost;
losses on deck proportionally affect the final losses.

If all sailors die during boarding but the battle is won, a minimum of 5 sailors remain on the ship after the fight.

An officer who dies during boarding is lost permanently.

Summary

Boarding in Corsairs Legacy is a system of controlled decisions where preparation, logistics, morale, and tactical actions are decisive. Each boarding is a separate operation with tangible consequences for the ship and crew.

All described mechanics are already available in the current version of the game.

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Captain's Cabin

Captain's Cabin

Boarding in Corsairs Legacy