In Rogue Waters, you play Captain Cutter, who has been returned to the world of the living after 14 years. Cutter plans to take down Blackbone, but he'll need a good crew behind him during raids to be able to achieve this. If you're wondering who to hire from the Tavern in Rogue Waters or need a character build guide, I've got all the information you need right here.
Guide to building the best crew in Rogue Waters
During the early days of playing Rogue Waters, you may find yourself dying a lot during raids. This happens for a couple of reasons - one, the game is designed to let you die without any consequences; two, you'll likely only have the standard crew members helping you out, rather than any specialists.
Specialists can be hired from the Tavern when you're back at your ship after a raid. You cannot hire them at any other time, and they only come with their basic skills. As you continue raiding in Rogue Waters, your specialists will gain experience points and eventually level up. Once they level up, you'll be able to start working on a character build that suits your needs.
However, before you work on character builds, you'll need to pick the best specialists in Rogue Waters to join your crew.
Best specialists to hire in Rogue Waters
When you enter the Tavern from your player base, you'll be greeted by three specialists. These change after every raid, whether you live through the entirety of it or die. Each specialist costs 250 Glass - Glass being the in-game currency that replaces gold or other types of coins.
Underneath the specialist's name, you can see the three class types that they fall into. Crimson Malikah, for example, is a Spearmaiden, and is also in the Heavy Arm and Fencer classes. In-game, specialists are usually referred to by the first class in their list. So Crimson is a Spearmaiden, Handsy is a Grappler, and Two-Barrel Jim is a Cook. There are also Backstabbers, such as Sally Brisk.
Specialists in these classes will also have two other classes attached to them - Heavy Arm and Fencer are examples of these. You can have two Cooks with entirely different second and third classes, so it's important to look at the classes and not the portrait of the specialists (because all main class types look the same; so both of your Cooks will be twins, but may have different second and third classes).
As your crews' names can be changed in Rogue Waters, it's unclear whether specialists' names are randomized or not. As such, the table below will cover all three classes a specialist can have so that you can find the right specialist, even if they have a different name.
These are the best recruits to hire in Rogue Waters during the early game:
| Name | Main Class | Second and Third Classes | Why Hire |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aisha Bloodthorn | Spearmaiden | Combat Medic & Hunter | Spearmaidens have extra reach with their weapon - they can reach across two squares rather than using a sword that only reaches across one. Of her second and third classes, the most important one here is Combat Medic. Combat Medics have skills that can heal allies and add HP to their own count. As all characters start with four hit points, adding HP is crucial. Aisha's Hunter class adds more HP to her stats and more damage to her weapon. |
| Cutbait Kwame | Backstabber | Noble & Fencer | The Backstabber class has the ability to add extra damage to their strikes. If you build your Backstabber with the melee skill (Weakening Strike I), they will attack enemies next to them, but with the downside of a negative damage bonus for one turn. Specialists with the Noble class are extremely useful to have on a raid with you because they have a hidden pistol that they can pull out and use for even more damage. Then, there's the Fencer class, which adds HP, Armor, and melee damage. |
| Handsy | Grapper | Study & Cutthroat | The issue with Grapplers is that their first skill doesn't do any damage. While it's fun to throw your enemies into other enemies or into parts of the ship to cause damage, it can leave them a little defenseless. A Cutthroat has a similar skill to the Noble class - but, instead of a gun, they get a hidden dagger. Combined with the added HP from the Study class, Handsy is a well-rounded character. |
| Pete the Plank | Grappler | Strongman & Sturdy | Pete is an alternative Grabbler to Handsy. They both have a skill that adds damage to their attacks - which is something you should look for when building up a Grabbler. Strongman adds a damage bonus to make Pete's attacks actually hurt his enemies, and Stury adds more HP to his stats, giving you a chance to strategize a good attack formation that can take advantage of his ability to literally push your enemies around. |
| Sally Brisk | Backstabber | Noble & Assassin | We know enough about the Backstabber and Noble classes from other specialists on this table, so let's focus on the Assassin aspect of Sally Brisk here. The Assassin class gives your specialists the ability to kill enemies next to them that have only one or two HP (depending on how far down the skill list you are). They also have a skill that gives them an extra HP - which is, as I'm sure you've understood, very important. |
| Two-Barrel Jim | Cook | Reaver & Bruiser | Cooks don't push enemies back when they hit them, which can help you avoid a few sticky situations. I've definitely stepped too close to the railing before and been thrown over after attacking an enemy. With the Cook class, you can strike at your enemies from above, dealing a blow that cause two damage. To add to this, find yourself a Cook with the Reaver and Bruiser classes. Reavers can heal themselves after biting their enemies, while Bruisers can stun enemies; making them difficult to fight against. |
| Zola Broadsnatch | Spearmaiden | Fencer & Noble | If you want a Spearmaiden who goes down the damage route rather than being a Combat Medic, one with Zola's classes is perfect. The Fencer class adds extra melee skills to her build, while the Noble class enables her to pull out a hidden gun. Essentially, she's a DPS who has three weapons to play with. |
How to create the best raiding party in Rogue Waters - Party composition
No matter what, you're going to want at least one healer in your raiding party. If you don't have a healer yet and can't afford to buy a specialist from the Tavern who has healing skills, you can rely on Captain Cutter for his healing abilities. When you can afford it, be sure to have at least two healers, as I mentioned in Captain Cutter's character build.
As well as a healer, you're going to want a specialist that has a melee skill. Assassins are great for this; they can kill adjacent enemies that only have one or two HP left. I would also advise having at least one Noble who can use a gun, though two is better than one once you have more specialist slots unlocked in your raiding party.
Next, you'll want a Spearmaiden. Not only can they reach across two spaces to stab an enemy, but they can also cut through a space one of your own crew members is in without hurting them. If you have a crew member in the space between your Spearmaiden and an enemy, your Spearmaiden can still harm the enemy.
Now, we look at Grapplers and Cooks. You'll need to work on Grapplers a bit before they're more useful. Honestly, just pushing your enemies around doesn't do much good. When you think about it, it's better to have another crew member hit an enemy with a sword and knock them into a solid part of the ship than it is to just have your Grappler throw them at the same spot.
With that in mind, consider a Cook over a Grappler until you have enough experience points on a Grappler to give them a skill that can cause damage. A Cook can immediately cause damage by attacking overhead, and any squares of fire won't trap them because they don't have to move forward into the spot the enemy occupied.
Best party compositions in Rogue Waters
Here are some party compositions you can work with that account for getting further upgrades - you can add up to five specialists to your raiding party, but each one requires a Specialists' Cabin upgrade in the Workshop. You'll start with a total of two specialists in your party.
Two specialist slots:
- Captain Cutter (have Heirloom Pistol I unlocked).
- Sally Brisk or another specialist with the Assassin class (have Assassination I unlocked).
- Aisha Bloodthorn or another specialist with the Combat Medic class (have Cure I unlocked).
Or
- Captain Cutter (have Get Yourself Together I unlocked).
- Sally Brisk or another specialist with the Assassin class (have Assassination I unlocked).
- Zola Broadsnatch or another specialists with the Noble class (have Distracting Shot I unlocked).
Three specialist slots:
- Captain Cutter (have Heirloom Pistol I unlocked).
- Sally Brisk or another specialist with the Assassin class (have Assassination I unlocked).
- Aisha Bloodthorn or another specialist with the Combat Medic class (have Cure I unlocked).
- Two-Barrel Jim or another Cook (unlock the Cook skills asap).
Four specialist slots:
- Captain Cutter (have Heirloom Pistol I and Get Yourself Together I unlocked).
- Sally Brisk or another specialist with the Assassin class (have Assassination I unlocked).
- Aisha Bloodthorn or another specialist with the Combat Medic class (have Cure I unlocked).
- Two-Barrel Jim or another Cook (unlock the Cook skills asap, start unlocking Reaver skills next if you have Jim).
- Pete the Plank or another Grappler with the Strongman class (unlock the Strongman skills asap to make Pete actually do damage).
Five specialist slots:
- Captain Cutter (have Heirloom Pistol I and Get Yourself Together I unlocked).
- Sally Brisk or another specialist with the Assassin class (have Assassination I unlocked).
- Aisha Bloodthorn or another specialist with the Combat Medic class (have Cure I unlocked).
- Two-Barrel Jim or another Cook (unlock the Cook skills and Reaver skills if you have Jim).
- Pete the Plank or another Grappler with the Strongman class (unlock the Strongman skills).
- Zola Broadsnatch or another specialist with the Noble class (have Distracting Shot I unlocked, this is where that second gun I recommended comes in).
Once you've reached the end of this list, you'll have two crew members with healing skills, two with guns, an Assassin, a Grappler who can do damage, and a Cook who can heal themselves while they damage others.
A pretty well-rounded team, if I do say so, myself.
Rogue Waters character builds
These character builds follow the recommended crew list from the last section.
Captain Cutter character build (Swashbuckler/Commander/Shepherd)
Captain Cutter has the classes Swashbuckler, Commander, and Shepherd. For his build, you have six skill paths that you can take between his three classes. You can also mix and match, but I'd recommend maxing out the class skill paths that you want so you can get to the more advanced skills faster.
For Swashbuckler, take the pistol, and then immediately switch paths to the Retaliate skills on the left side. Though pistols are an excellent weapon for any of your crew to have, the Retaliate skills are going to help you hit back at your enemies when you're getting bombarded. You can make do with just the first pistol skill for a while and come back for the rest later.
For Commander, I went down the left side of the available skills first. This route makes Captain Cutter a healer rather than giving him the ability to make other crew members move further during their turn. Now, if you already have a dedicated healer, then going with the other set of skills might be a better choice for your crew. Try to have at least two dedicated healers in your Quarters at all times so you can switch them out between raids.
For Shepherd, you can either push your enemies around (skills on the right) or add various bonuses to Captain Cutter with the skills on the left. Again, I went down the left side of the available skills first. These give Captain Cutter more health, armor, movement, and an extra damage bonus.
Here is my full Captain Cutter build for Rogue Waters:
- Swashbuckler - Cutlass Swing I (skill unlocked immediately).
- Commander - Get Yourself Together I.
- Shepherd - Shiv's Presence I.
- Swashbuckler - Heirloom Pistol I.
- Swashbuckler - Retaliate I.
- Swashbuckler - Cutlass Swing II.
- Swashbuckler - Retaliate II.
- Shepherd - Shiv's Presence II.
- Commander - Get Yourself Together II.
- Commander - Get Yourself Together III.
- Shepherd - Shiv's Presence III.
- Shepherd - Shiv's Presence IV.
- Swashbuckler - Heirloom Pistol II.
- Swashbuckler - Strong I.
- Commander - Hurry Up, Scallywag! I.
- Commander - Hurry Up, Scallywag! II.
- Commander - Hurry Up, Scallywag! III.
- Shepherd - Mermaid Call I.
- Commander - Take That Rat Down I.
- Shepherd - Mermaid Call II.
- Shepherd - Mermaid Call III.
For the other character builds in this section, I'll be showcasing the specialists from the crew formations in the last section. By doing this, you should get a good idea of how to build various specialists, and you'll be able to make your own choices as you unlock more specialists and get further in the plot of Rogue Waters.
Aisha Bloodthorn character build (Spearmaiden/Combat Medic/Hunter)
If you're using Aisha Bloodthorn as a healer, max out her Combat Medic skills as soon as possible. Three of them allow her to heal herself or an ally (Cure I, Cure II, Cure III), while Tough II adds to her overall Max HP. The later Cure skills also remove Blight and Bleeding, which can stop your allies from dying faster.
If you're not using her as a healer, I would strongly recommend picking a different Spearmaiden. Aisha works best as a Combat Medic, especially when you throw in her Spearmaiden skills. The Hunter aspect of her build doesn't need to be fully unlocked until after you've finished unlocking her Combat Medic and Spearmaiden skills.
The great thing about specialists is that there are so many of them that you should always be able to find one that has the classes you're looking for. Aisha is a strong Spearmaiden/Combat Medic duo because she can heal quite a lot of damage (Cure I is three points!), while targeting enemies that are up to two squares away.
Once you've unlocked all of her Combat Medic and Spearmaiden skills, you can then start unlocking her later Hunter skills. The Blighted Javelin skills allow Aisha to throw a javelin during her turn that can inflict Blight onto the targeted enemy. She'll be able to both throw a Blighted Javelin and use a Spearmaiden skill in the same turn, which is great when she isn't healing. I say later skills because I build Aisha like this:
- Spearmaiden - Thrust I (skill unlocked at purchase).
- Combat Medic - Cure I.
- Combat Medic - Tough II.
- Hunter - Blighted Javelin I.
- Combat Medic - Cure II.
- Combat Medic - Cute III.
- Spearmaiden - Quick and Sturdy.
- Spearmaiden - Thrust II.
- Spearmaiden - Focus.
- Hunter - Quick and Sturdy.
- Hunter - Blighted Javelin II.
- Hunter - Blighted Javelin III.
Building Aisha this way ensures that you can employ her as a Combat Medic who can defend herself and attack her enemies instead of just being reduced to a healer.
Pete the Plank character build (Grappler/Strongman/Sturdy)
Pete the Plank is my preferred Grappler because you can build him so that he does more damage than he would by just pushing enemies into different parts of the ship - which is all you can do when you only have Wrestle I unlocked (the first Grappler skill).
Unlocking the Grappler and Strongman skills should be your priority with Pete, though it wouldn't hurt to unlock the first Sturdy skill for an extra two Max HP.
While Grappler skills will let Pete push enemies into nearby spaces on a ship's deck and cause up to two points of damage from later skills, Strongman adds a damage bonus. However, the final Strongman skill negates one of those bonuses - Sturdy and Weak is +4 Max HP, -1 damage bonus.
Instead of taking that final Strongman skill, you should hop over to the Sturdy class skills to bulk up Pete's HP. Of course, you can weigh up the extra HP versus losing one damage bonus point, but it seems pointless to me to take a skill that erases the effect of the one before it (Flex II - applies +1 damage bonus).
As such, I recommend building Pete the Plank like this:
- Grappler - Wrestle I (skill unlocked at purchase).
- Grappler - Tough II.
- Strongman - Flex I.
- Grappler - Wrestle II.
- Grappler - Wrestle III.
- Strongman - Resilient I.
- Strongman - Flex II.
- Sturdy - Tough II.
- Sturdy - Resilient II.
- Sturdy - Bulky and Slow.
- Sturdy - Reinforced I.
- Strongman - Bulky and Weak.
Bulky and Slow & Bulky and Weak are both skills with negative effects, so you could choose to not upgrade Pete with the final three skills on this list if you wanted to avoid those.
Sally Brisk character build (Backstabber/Noble/Assassin)
Sally Brisk has a really fun set of skills that you can choose from. She's a sneaky powerhouse and one of my favorite specialists in Rogue Waters. She comes with two skills unlocked at purchase - Backstab I and Weakening Strike I.
There are, of course, other Backstabber specialists, but Sally is also a Noble and an Assassin. Noble gives her a gun, and Assassin gives her melee skills that let her straight-up murder a nearby enemy that only has one or two HP left (depending on how far down her Assassin skill list you are).
Having a gun puts you on a more even keel with your enemies. You will often come across enemy ships where at least one crew member is wielding a gun, and those cross-ship shots are always unwelcome. I typically try to target gun users during sea battles so that I don't have to deal with them when my crew boards the ship.
With so many great skills, building Sally can be a bit overwhelming. Try this:
- Backstabber - Backstab I and Weakening Strike I (skills unlocked at purchase).
- Noble - Distracting Shot I.
- Assassin - Assassination I.
- Assassin - Quick and Study.
- Assassin - Assassination II.
- Noble - Extra Mobility I.
- Noble - Distracting Shot II.
- Noble - Distracting Shot III.
- Backstabber - Weakening Strike II.
- Backstabber - Backstab II.
- Assassin - Assassination III.
- Backstabber - Disengage.
Two-Barrel Jim character build (Cook/Reaver/Bruiser)
Two-Barrel Jim is an excellent Cook to have on your crew. With the addition of the Reaver and Bruiser classes, he's a hard-hitting, almost tank-like specialist. As you probably know by now, the Cook class has skills that allow him to attack an enemy without moving forward. This is an extremely useful skill to have, especially on a ship that has several fire squares.
Bruiser is a class with stunning skills. You can keep an enemy in play, and then wail on them with Jim's Cook skills. It's a good idea to move between the three classes as you build Two-Barrel Jim, rather than focusing on one set of class skills.
The Reaver class is the perfect addition to a specialist with Cook and Bruiser. Reavers can literally bite their enemies to heal themselves. It's a bit vampiric, but it's a great skill to have.
Try unlocking Jim's skills in this order:
- Cook - Chop I (skill unlocked at purchase).
- Bruiser - Bash I.
- Reaver - Bite I.
- Cook - Chop II.
- Bruiser - Tough II.
- Cook - Chop III.
- Bruiser - Bash II.
- Bruiser - Strong I.
- Reaver - Tough I.
- Reaver - Bite II.
- Cook - Reinforced I.
- Reaver - Flesh Eater.
Zola Broadsnatch character build (Spearmaiden/Fencer/Noble)
I enjoy having two Spearmaidens with different abilities on my team, so Zola Broadsnatch is my final pick. She also has the Noble class, which lets her attack enemies in her line of sight with a gun. Zola gets three different weapons across her three classes, making her a great DPS-style character to have on your crew.
While your other Spearmaiden (Aisha) focuses on healing between attacks, have Zola only focus on attacking. I've already discussed the Spearmaiden and Noble classes in this section, so let's move on to the Fencer class.
Fencer specialists can retaliate when hit by an enemy. This is an incredible skill to have because it's not a skill that requires manual activation. Zola will just strike back at whoever hit her during a fight - provided they are next to her on the ship deck.
With that in mind, here is my skill unlock sequence for Zola:
- Spearmaiden - Thrust I (skill unlocked at purchase).
- Spearmaiden - Quick and Sturdy.
- Noble - Distracting Shot I.
- Fencer - Retaliate I.
- Fencer - Tough II.
- Fencer - Retaliate II.
- Spearmaiden - Thrust II.
- Noble - Extra Mobility I.
- Noble - Distracting Shot II.
- Noble - Distracting Shot III.
- Fencer - Reinforced I.
- Spearmaiden - Focus.
Looking for more Rogue Waters content at Pro Game Guides? Check out our Rogue Waters review and our guide to the Best modules and cannons for your ship in Rogue Waters.
Published: Sep 30, 2024 06:00 am