Skull and Bones: The Garuda Long Gun Fives Build That Turns the Ocean Into a Firing Range
This is the Garuda when it stops playing pirate and starts playing executioner.
Garuda at Range: A Ship Built to Hurt From Afar
Where most Garuda setups lean toward close-quarters blasting or explosive burn cycling, this one is engineered entirely around two concepts:
Long-range strike advantage
Status stacking for lethal follow-up
This isn't a brawler. It's a sniper galleon. The ship's core perk package makes distance not just safe-but devastating.
Dead Eye
Weapon damage scales based on distance.
Caps at +60% damage when hull falls below 40%.
Gives +500 armor on proc.
Trimming costs no crew stamina for 10 seconds (40-second cooldown).
Dead Eye functions as a built-in "last stand." When your health dips low enough, the Garuda becomes stronger, tankier, and entirely stamina-free on trimming. Unlike other perk spikes, this one rewards staying engaged instead of retreating.
Revolver
Flat +20% piercing weapon damage.
Up to +30% when hitting a target with Punctured.
This is where synergy begins. Piercing damage stacking isn't passive-it is multiplicative with your secondary status output.
Puncture the target, and your long guns begin behaving like heavy-caliber rail shots.
Bow-Mounted Long Gun Conversion
Long guns placed at the bow are no longer top-deck only.
They suffer -40% damage and +60% reload time at the bow.
This sounds like a drawback on paper, but the build compensates aggressively through furniture enhancements and status scaling.
Long Gun Fives: The Gray Sleeper That Outdamages Color Rarities
Yes, they're gray rarity. Yes, they outperform. Why? Because their perk assembly is perfectly tuned for kill-zone range combat.
Long Gun V Base Damage: 3,192
Perks Included:
Combustion
Firepower
Amplified Explosive
Overflow
That combination gives you:
Better burning uptime
Stronger explosion radius
Overflow stacking for constant hit confirmation
In practice, Long Gun V is a "soft lock," continuously punishing movement, trimming, and armor damage routing.
Armor & Survival Layering
Nocturn Heart Armor
Paired with:
Stout Maintenance
Maintenance
Resulting in:
Double sustain increase without compromising resistance slots.
Long-range trades can be made with confidence-you heal faster than attritional chip damage can break you.
You aren't face-tanking. You are enduring while shooting from well outside enemy cannon arcs.
Furniture: Where the Build Actually Becomes Broken
This is the difference between a long-range ship and a long-range killer.
Aalia De Curvage
20–24% reduced incoming secondary damage above 50% hull.
+15% threat generation during plunder.
+10% weapon damage globally.
+100 armor to equipped plating.
This is more than stat padding-it is consistency insurance. You remain hard to punish even before Dead Eye activates.
Caustic Spall Station
+13% flooding damage for 10s when hitting from 200m+
Each +1% projectile speed = +1% flooding damage bonus
+10% damage to ships already flooded
This is the center of the build.
Every single projectile speed buff becomes damage, not QoL.
Long Gun Works I
+19% secondary damage for long guns
A simple multiplier with enormous downstream impact.
Ammo Priming Bench
+20% damage to structures for siege weapons
+18% repair output from 160m+
+10% projectile speed
This matters because that 10% projectile speed is captured by Caustic Spall Station-turning it into 10% more flooding damage system-wide.
Expanding Corks Crew Station
+12% flooding secondary damage
+8% flooding range
Flooding now hits harder and reaches farther than standard long guns should allow.
High Velocity Kicks
+12% piercing secondary damage
+8% piercing max range
Flooding + piercing damage + projectile speed = identity.
If you don't own this extremely rare piece, substitutes include:
1.Ramrod Workshop
2.Long Gun Grinder (+19% flooding secondary damage)
Either keeps the formula intact-long-range deletion through status stacking.
How It Plays: The Sniper Meta in Motion
This Garuda does not chase. It does not swing broadside-to-broadside. It does not panic trim.
It sits.
It lines up.
And then it deletes targets through layered secondary procs.The rhythm is as follows:
1.Open with long-range tagging.
2.Trigger puncture for Revolver buff.
3.Overflow + Swift apply rapid follow-up.
4.Flooding status begins stacking faster than repair teams can respond.
5.Siege perks shred weakened hulls as they flee.
Unlike ram ships, mortar arcs, or fire-DOT man-o-wars, the Garuda is a sustained executioner. Every cannon hit feels like a death sentence delivered in slow motion-one that becomes terrifyingly fast once projectile speed hits its final stack.
Why It Works in the Current Live Meta
Skull and Bones' PvE and PvP encounter design still heavily rewards crowd-control ships and hyper-burst builds. But what most captains overlook is map scale.
The Indian Ocean isn't tight like Skull Keep or Coveside arenas. It's open, exposed, wind-dependent space.
Long guns punish open water.
Flooding punishes over-confident armor stacks.
Projectile velocity punishes kiting fleets.
Where close-range brutes dominate in forts, this build rules open sea warzones, faction patrol paths, and legendary bounty engagements.
This is artillery doctrine applied to piracy.
The Music of War: Long Gun Fives, Garuda on the Horizon & Memphis Jones Tribute
The captain ends the showcase with three original sea-shanty-styled tracks:
Long Gun Fives on the Bow
Garuda on the Horizon
Memphis Jones on a Garuda
These aren't mere flavor-they reflect the identity of the build:
fatal precision
control of sightlines
the looming threat of range superiority
When a pirate sings about a cannon, it usually means it's earned a place in legend.
Final Thoughts
Among the current fleet compositions in Skull and Bones, most captains trend toward mortar monoliths or explosive glass-cannons. But the Long Gun Garuda is something rarer-a ship that wins without chaos and skull and bones boosting, without ramming, without immersion-breaking DPS spikes.
It wins because:
it never has to reposition under pressure,
it punishes distance rather than closes it,
and it converts status math into maritime execution.
Memphis Jones may have inspired it, but the long-range Garuda belongs to every captain who prefers precision over panic.
To the sea-snipers, the horizon-hunters, and the quiet killers who let their cannons speak:
Long gun fire is king.
And this build is the throne.