Boarding · Magehold Fairwinds Wiki

Boarders#

Your crew can always get into a room to fight boarders — each side has its own places to stand. A mage in the Casting Room can aim an attack spell at one of your own rooms to blast the boarders standing there; your ship is spared. Defenders fight a little harder aboard their own ship.

Boarders come across by their harpoon line, into the room their harpoon breached, and leave the same way: patch that breach and the line is cut, anyone of theirs still aboard is stranded, and their next harpoon is slow to come (the cut line has to be hauled in). It is often the best thing your crew can do. Or climb it back: their line works both ways, from that breach up into their harpoon room. Flyers and element disks cross without a line.

Board them in turn: a crew with nobody left at home, or whose last crewmate is cornered by two of yours, or whose ship is down to a quarter of its hull while yours outnumber theirs, throws down its arms and you take the ship.

Boarders!

Enemy boarders are crossing over! They fight your crew and sabotage systems, and a destroyed Keel will sink your ship (on a level-1 Keel, emergency keel bracing absorbs the first fatal break each battle as a warning). Select crew and click a room to intercept them; a seated mage can also target your own room with an attack spell. Closed doors slow boarders down (click a door), and with Bulkheads they must hack their way through.

Their harpoon is in you

Their Boarding Harpoon has breached one of your rooms and attached a line to it: their boarders come across it into that room, and go home the same way. Patch the breach and the line is cut: send crew into the room (clear any boarders there first). Anyone of theirs still aboard is stranded. Their line works both ways: your crew can climb it back from that breach into their harpoon room (Board, or right-click one of their rooms), as many at once as its level; while any of yours are up it, your crew leave the breach alone unless you send them in. While a line holds, the ships are grappled: nobody dodges, nobody breaks away.

The Boarding Harpoon#

A ship with a Boarding Harpoon room boards by its line. Click the Harpoon button (or H), then one of their rooms: it winds at Close range or grappled (12 s at level 1, less at higher levels; never from Long range) and fires there. It can miss (their evasion), but passes the wind shield like any iron bolt; stoneskin turns it.

A hit costs them 1 hull, breaches the room and attaches a boarding line from your harpoon room to it, and the ships are grappled while it holds. Your crew cross only by the line, from the harpoon room, as many at once as its level (1, 2 or 3: the Harpoon button shows "2 of 3 across"); the rest wait their turn in the harpoon room. They come down in the breached room, and come home by walking back into it (Recall does that). Right-click one of their rooms with crew selected and they go by the line and on to it.

Their line works both ways: climb it back. When their harpoon is hooked into one of your rooms, your crew in that breach can climb their line up into their harpoon room, as many at once as its level, and come home the same way while it holds (Board, Recall and a right-click all use it; with no harpoon of your own it is how your crew get across). Patching the breach cuts it for either side, so while any of yours are up there (or on their way) your crew leave that breach alone; send someone into the room to patch it anyway. Yours works both ways too: their crew may climb it back from the breach into your harpoon room, so keep a crewmate there.

When they patch the breach, the line is cut: anyone still over there is stranded until another line holds, a Warden's disk fetches them, or the fight ends. A cut line has to be hauled in before the harpoon winds again, so the next shot takes 50% longer. Reel in hauls your own line back (you need it gone to open range or break away).

The harpoon room stows the boarding gear: if their ship goes down with your crew aboard, crew with a glider or wings fly home unhurt, your disk mages fetch others unhurt while their mana lasts, and anyone left is reeled home on the harpoon line, losing 30% of the health they had. Without a harpoon room, our ship fires a line down to the falling wreck instead, and those it catches lose half the health they had.

Boarding with the harpoon

Your Boarding Harpoon lets your crew board the enemy. It needs a bar of Flow, and it fires only at Close range or grappled: steer in with the range buttons at the top. Click Harpoon (bottom right, or H), then one of their rooms. It winds for about 12 s, fires, breaches that room and attaches a boarding line. Then select crew and press Board (B) or right-click one of their rooms: they walk to the harpoon room and cross, as many at once as its level. Over there they fight the crew they meet and wreck the systems they stand in. Beat their crew and you take the ship, for more salvage. Recall brings them home.

Your line is attached

Your harpoon is in them. Select crew and press Board (or right-click one of their rooms): they walk to your Boarding Harpoon room and cross the line, as many at once as its level, and come down in the breached room. Recall brings them back the same way. If they patch that breach, the line is cut and your boarders are stranded, so keep someone standing in it. A line works both ways: their crew may climb yours back into your harpoon room, so keep a crewmate there too. The harpoon room's boarding gear sees them home if their ship goes down.

Crossing by disk#

A Warden (or a Striker at Casting 2) can raise a flying disk of their element (flame, water, ice, a whirl of wind, a slab of stone) at Close range or grappled: the Disk button on their row. Click it, then the enemy ship to fly across (selected crewmates ride along), or one of your crew to send them over without the caster, or to bring them home. The tier sets the seats: Tier I carries the caster, each tier above one more. It costs mana, 2x as much while their wind shield is up, and 20 s between disks. The Board button uses disks too. A disk needs no boarding line and goes where it likes; the Boarding Harpoon's line is free, but runs only from the harpoon room, so many at once.

Boarding by disk

One of your mages can raise a flying disk (Wardens can, and Strikers from Casting 2) and board the enemy on it, with no line. At Close range or grappled, click Disk on the mage's spell row, then the enemy ship: the mage flies across and lands above that room, and selected crewmates ride along (Tier I carries only the mage, each tier above one more). Or click one of your crew to send them over without the mage. A disk costs mana (twice as much while their wind shield is up), and 20 s must pass between disks. Board (B) uses disks too. Over there they fight the crew they meet and wreck the systems they stand in. Disk home or Recall brings them back.

Boarding without a line

Someone aboard can board the enemy without a line: a Glider Harness or a Silent Grappling hook (once a battle each), or wings (avians). At Close range or grappled, select them and press Board (B). Over there they fight the crew they meet and wreck the systems they stand in. Recall brings them home by wing, by the hook, or by a line or a disk; a glider does not fly back. A Boarding Golem crosses only by a boarding line: your harpoon's, or theirs once it is in you.

Doors#

Click a door (or a hatch over a ladder) on your ship to close or open it; Close doors (L) does them all. Without Bulkheads a closed door is only shut: fire spreads through at half the rate, and boarders shoulder it open in a moment. With powered, working Bulkheads closed doors are locked (an iron bar across them): fire stops there, and boarders must hack through, 12 s a door at level 1, 22 s at 2, 35 s at 3, a red ring filling as it gives. A broken door hangs splintered open for 10s. Your own crew pass closed doors with a moment's pause; a gnome squeezes through any.

Their doors work the same way against your boarders: a captain with Bulkheads locks them all when you come aboard.

Slowing boarders: frost slows everyone in the room; a Tar Pot (a gnomish hand tool) smashed in a room leaves pitch that boarders wade through at under half speed for 20s, fighting clumsily; and Bulkheads 3's drop-bars slow whoever breaks a door. A slowed crewmate wears a small snail.

Doors

Closed doors slow fire and boarders. Without Bulkheads they are only shut: boarders shoulder them open in a moment. With powered Bulkheads they are locked: fire stops, and boarders hack through (12 s a door at level 1, more at higher levels) while a red ring fills. Your own crew pass with a moment's pause. Click a door to close or open it; L does them all.

Boarding tactics and stealth#

Boarding perks and orders#

Perk	Kind	Cooldown	Effect
Barricade	Order	60 s	A button in a fight (every 60 s). Bars every doorway of the room they stand in, on either ship, ladders too, for up to 30 s. Your own people pass. An enemy must hack through one doorway: 12 s, and 5 s more for each Melee level of the one who built it. It falls if they leave the room or go down. A gnome crawls past in 5 s.
Shield Wall	Order	30 s	Active ability (30s cooldown): For 6 s all allies in the room take 50% less melee and close-range spell damage. Press again to drop it.
Pin	Order	25 s	Active ability (25s cooldown): Pins 1 enemy in the room for 4s: they cannot move, work or strike. The same enemy cannot be pinned again for 8s. Golems are too heavy to hold.
Rally	Order	40 s	Active ability (40s cooldown): All allies in the room heal 12 HP and deal +20% melee damage for 8s.
Fall Back	Order	—	Active ability (once per battle): Aboard the other ship: all allies in the room are pulled back aboard at once on the safety lines, each arriving 10 health down. Needs an attached boarding line, or a Boarding Harpoon room at home.
Breacher	Passive	—	Breaks locked doors and barricades 3x faster. For 5 s after breaking one through, their melee attacks deal +50% damage.
Wrecker	Passive	—	Breaks an enemy system 75% faster while no defender stands in the room.
First Over	Passive	—	For 8 s after landing on the other ship they take 25% less damage and deal 20% more in melee.
Cut Loose	Passive	—	Patches the breach that holds an enemy boarding line 2.5 times as fast, so the line is cut sooner.
Line Guard	Passive	—	In their own Boarding Harpoon room, or in the room their line is attached to, they deal 30% more in melee and take 25% less damage.
Quiet Feet	Passive	—	Crosses unseen, and stays unseen for 20s after landing. Enemies cannot target, chase, or attack stealth units. Attacking, breaking a door, or being detected breaks stealth.
Backstab	Passive	—	Their first blow struck while unseen does 3 times the damage.
Watchful	Passive	—	Immediately reveals stealth units in the same room, and in adjacent rooms after 3s.