Before we look at Recommended Equipment, let's gets some context for what these tools do.



This component, with a somewhat depleted lower bar, is damaged, and needs to be REPAIRED. The colour of the bar will get darker in colour as more damage is taken.



This item, with an empty red bar and red central icon, is destroyed, and needs to be REBUILT. When being built, the central icon will dim, then fill in gradually indicating how much towards being rebuilt it is.



This is the hull. The pale bar is the hull armour, which can be damaged, requiring REPAIR, or destroyed (replaced with a red bar and icon) requiring to be REBUILT. Note the partially filled central icon, indicating the cooldown on repair. Underneath the pale bar is a darker, orange bar, which is the hull health. It will be depleted only once the hull armour is at zero. Hull health can NEVER BE REPAIRED OR REBUILT. Once both bars are empty, you are DEAD, which many agree, KINDA SUCKS. Note the partially filled central icon, indicating the cooldown on repair.

Repairing works off a cooldown. Click once, hit points will be added dependant on the item you use, and the icon ticks down like a clock until you can use the items on it again.

Rebuilding works by as fast as you click on it, clearing an amount of red of the central icon, the amount of which depending on your item.

Knowing the differences between these two is the difference between a happy, flying ship, and a miserable ship imitating a beached whale. Fortunately, once something takes a hit, it'll pop up in your screen with it's health so a component shouldn't sneakily explode itself without you noticing. It's worth noting however, if you're tracking your leveling progress by hitting 'Q' in match it sort of gets in the way of those component notifications. Only turn it on briefly to check or you may miss things.

Before going any further, as a new engineer, please, please, PLEASE, take these first three items. They are pretty much essential. I know some of the other options may look cool, but until you're down with keeping a ship in the air, take the holy trinity of items: Rubber Mallet to repair items, Spanner to rebuild them, Fire Extinguisher to put them out, and in the darkness bind them.

Wait. Um. Moving on.,,

Rubber Mallet: Fixes a lot of repair damage once every six seconds, but is a slow rebuilder.
Shifting Spanner: Fixes a tiny amount of repair damage every two seconds, but is a very, very quick rebuilder.
Fire Extinguisher: Stops things being on fire instantly, six seconds cooldown.

Once you've got used to keeping a ship in mostly one piece, then it's time to have a good look at these items:

Chemical Spray: Reduced a fire by 3, has a chance or preventing ignition again. While the fire extinguisher puts fires instantly, this reduces it instead, needing repeated uses. I've gone back and forth over it's uses. If you have a fire-heavy enemy, fire's relatively low damage coupled with if reduced chance of re-ignite on guns might give you an edge over them. However, in most crews only the engineer will carry an extinguisher, so not carrying one can be unappreciated.
Dynabuff Industiries Kit: Known as the 'buffhammer,' repeating clicking on a component of the ship will fill up a surrounding bar over the repair health bar. Fill up the left one then the right, which'll tick down over time. Guns will hit harder, engines will go faster, etc. If you are going to take this, let the captain know first. Ideally, if there are two engineers, then one of you can take this between you. Taking this will mean likely sacrificing the spanner or the hammer, leaving you with...
Pipe Wrench: A medium amount of repair damage fixes every five seconds, a medium speed rebuilder. An all-rounder, if you please.

Non repair equipment: For Piloting equipment, like the gunner, go for the Spyglass. If nothing is broke or on fire, and you've finally got a moment's peace, remember you're the engineer and don't have time for lolly-gagging and spot some ships. There's a new item, a set of binoculars, which is an option: sighting an enemy ship provides all gunners with a better HUD to track and place shots. I'm not sold on it's use however, as it seems to necessatate you standing their sighting it, when your time is better spent repairing or shooting in my opinion.

For ammo, I'd suggest Burst Round as a nice all rounder, or Charged Shot / Heatsink Clip if you know you have big guns on the ship / are facing fire. Of course, if your captain says something else, grab it. It's their ship. I'm just a silly guide.

The difference between a good engineer and a bad one is not just an understanding of repair vs rebuilding, but successfully prioritizing repair work. As an engineer, your first priority is the hull. Consider yourself married to the thing. If it goes, you all go, so above everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING ELSE, THE HULL COMES FIRST. Anything else that gets destroyed in an annoyance that can be fixed later, but once a hull is destroyed and the armour points gone you die. If the hull is so much as nicked you should be whimpering with desire to fix it, as it the hull gets destroyed those exposed armour points will never come back. A destroyed hull needs rebuilding NOW. Hull first. Okay? Don't forget, if you are being overwhelmed, SAY SO. Better to lose and active gunner for a minute than die in silence.

Right, you got that point about the hull being fixed first?

No, seriously, you got that?

Okay. Not playing around. You. Understand. That the hull. Gets fixed. FIRST. Okay? Okay. Fine. Fine.

I'm sorry, but it's... it's... I keep seeing engineers wandering off to play shooting off the guns whilst the hull armour is gone. It's getting to me. Please. Fix the hull before you do anything else. For me?

Next is the balloon. Once the balloon is destroyed, you'll drop like a stone. On rare occasions you may want to have the balloon rebuilt before repairing the hull (noticed the difference in terms there?)... but that sort of depends on height, intensity of taken barrage, and honestly, that's too situational to make a call here, especially as the balloon is often placed far away and above the hull, making getting back and forth tough. However, sometimes the balloon is not your problem. The Pyramidion, for example, has a balloon placed behind the top left gunner. In that case, try to make sure a gunner with a mallet has that gun and tell him to keep an eye on it.

After that it's the lowest priority of engines and guns, and which one you fix first depends on the moment. If the pilot's trying to make a run for it and flee, the engines will get priority, if the captain's doing a Star Trek re-enactment and shrieking 'FIRE EVERYTHING' it's probably an idea to have the guns up. In both instants, maintaining them can be sloppily done, as gunners will often carry their own mallets and both engines and guns will work just as well on a shiver of health as a full bar. However, try to tell the difference between engines. There'll a central engine for forward / reverse thrust, and side one's for turning (Unless you're in a Squid, which had four engines, and I hate that ship, so no help for you.) If you're running, see where you're running to and which engine the pilot will need. When pressed for time to rebuild, a few whacks with the spanner to get it up and running is good enough. Give it a love tap with the mallet to take it to full health later when you're safe. For the most part engines will go down rarely as people aim for the centre mass and the engines are off on the back end of the ship, but like guns, dust clouds will damage them quite nicely. I'd personally push that the engines have slight more priority over the guns, as the gunners themselves will likely do their own repairs, and I find manoeuvrabilityis often more favourable to shooting back in a tight corner.

Engineer tactics don't change that much between ships. The Goldfish, Spire, Pyramidion and the Galleon make good ships to start on. The Goldfish is relatively compact, keeping everything close by. The Spire has most of it's components on one lower deck. The Pyramidion, as mentioned, has a advantageously placed balloon that'll reduce some workload. The Galleon, whilst large, has most things above deck, with guns below, which'll be taking up less of your time. Always take a few moments on an unfamiliar ship to find every component. If you're lucky enough to be one of two engineers, divide tasks between you. Do remember that you have a measure of authority here; if you need help, get it.

A ship can survive a poor gunner. A ship may just... just! Get away with a poor pilot, but not often. A ship will die with a poor engineer, hands down, and I won't lie to you, that's pressure right there. Be open to listening to your captain, and understanding if people are criticizing your work. It's okay. Unlike a pilot or a gunner, who can try practice matches over and over, the best engineer practice comes from PvP experience. Having the whole ship go up all around you will be nerve-wracking, but an important baptism of fire. Learning how to cope with being under fire is where you'll learn how to be a great engineer. So give everyone a heads up that you're learning, and don't be discouraged.

Like the gunner, you'll also be on spotting duty. But you'll also be gunning once in a while. A flanking enemy may think twice with a few shots, and you'll be often placed closer to side / rear guns than the gunners. With the Galleon, the top deck left gun is pretty much exclusively yours. You can use your best judgement when to leap on a gun but a good captain will direct when he wants you merrily blasting away. Try not to get caught up in shooting though – you've got a ship to keep healthy, and let's be perfectly honest here – everyone but you is incompetent. The gunners keep dropping used shells on the deck and leave scuff marks everywhere. If the pilot isn't ramming you into a mountain he's trying to convert the inflation mechanism into a distillery. Nobody but you gets how hard it is to keep this old gal floating... why, back in my day, we didn't have no fancy automatic inflater, we had an old bellows we had to work by hand! Heh, I remember when... hey HEY HEY! NO! WHITTLING! ON! THE! BANNISTER! Gunners. Bunch of morons. Now who's going to clean that up? Muggins, that's who.

Wait, what was I saying?

This guide was originally published on my blog, http://sarcasmisaverb.blogspot.co.uk/