A couple weeks back, I picked up a new indie roguelike called Ship of Fools. The main gimmick on offer is that it’s built around co-op play, a bit of a rarity in the genre. This isn’t like the token 2 player mode in Enter the Gungeon – the whole of Ship of Fools is balanced around having a group leading to the same sorts of chaos as Overcooked. Today I’d like to share a handful of tips that helped get me and my co-op partner from being a couple of fools, to terrors of the deep.

1. You Can Shoot Anything That You Can Pick Up

You’re not limited to only using standard ammo: almost anything that you can carry can be shot out of your cannons. This is the single biggest improvement players can make toward increasing their odds of success in Ship of Fools. The reason being that many of the standard resources become powerful spread ammo when loaded into a cannon. This can provide players with a huge edge in combat, while also allowing them an opportunity to recycle unneeded planks, or harpoons.

The most effective use of this trick, however, is with money. Loading money into any of your cannons will turn them into a cash generating shotgun. Any time money ammo hits a target, it will reward the player with additional cash. This means that you can effectively double the value of any money that you find on your run, which gives players a lot more buying power at any shops they visit. If you take away nothing else from this guide please do yourself a solid, and start loading cash into your cannons. It’ll pay for itself in the long run.

2. Prioritize Unlocking Ship Capacity Upgrades

Between runs in Ship of Fools, players can choose from a variety of different permanent upgrades for their ship. The most useful of these, by a very large margin, is the ship capacity increases. This provides additional slots to store items on the ship. It doesn’t sound like much, but going from 3 slots to 5 provides a lot of extra flexibility. Players can equip more artifacts, or carry more ammo types with them to handle a greater variety of situations. You can also store repair boards more easily, so you won’t always need to carry them between encounters.

Demonstrating the power of a ship with full capacity in Ship of Fools.

That’s actually a good segway for my next tip…

3. You Can Carry Items Between Areas & Encounters

You’ll notice fairly early that everything which isn’t nailed to your illustrious floating fortress sinks to a watery grave any time you move to a new encounter. This is a huge waste! Luckily there is a way to prevent it. Players can hold onto items to keep them secure while moving their ship. Thanks to this, you effectively have 2 additional pieces of ship storage – one for each player. You just need to remember to grab everything you’re keen on keeping before you select your next destination!

Both players holding onto a board so that it doesn't fly away when they move to the next zone.

Update: This was removed in version1.0.2 of the game as the developers considered it an unintended exploit. As such, it is no longer possible to carry additional items between encounters meaning that ship capacity upgrades are even more important.

4. Recycle Your Default Ammo After The First Boss

Following the first boss, players are always offered the ability to recycle an item. In exchange, they’ll receive some kind of equivalent replacement item. That makes this a great opportunity to ditch the terrible starting ammo, and get something more powerful. You’ll always receive a new type of ammo for recycling the default ammo, and everything else completely outclasses it. In essence, this is a free upgrade. It should also give players the necessary springboard to assist with their adventures through the tumultuous waters of zones 2 and 3.

5. Resonance is the Most Powerful Status Effect

This is probably the most obvious hint, but it is an important one. There are a variety of different status effects in Ship of Fools, and resonance is easily the best. If you ever have to choose between resonance ammo, and something else then you’re going to want to go with resonance.

But why?

Resonance shots linking the damage that 2 enemies receive.

The unique property of resonance ammo is that it links enemies. If 2 enemies have resonance, and you inflict a burn on the one then the other will become burned as well. This would already be enough to make resonance strong, but what makes it truly busted is that damage is also shared between resonated enemies. Because of this, players can spray resonance shots at a crowd of enemies, and watch them explode as each subsequent shot piles additional damage across the whole group. No other status can deal so much damage so quickly. Resonance is simply too powerful to pass up.

That’s all I’ve got. Hopefully you’re able to put these tips into practice in your next run, and walk away with a win. It really can’t be understated how much of a difference using resonance, or shooting money out of your cannons can make. Best of luck out there!