How to customize and upgrade a ship in Ys X: Nordics

Ys X: Nordics lets you sail the high seas on your ship as you fight your way through naval battles, defeat the undead and explore the islands of Obelia Bay. However, you are given Sandras ship, which barely sails and serves as a souvenir better than a naval vessel.

But luckily, the game allows you to upgrade and modify the ship to improve its abilities as you progress through the story, allowing you to make it a worthy companion on your journey through Obelia Bay. While the upgrades may seem minimal at first, you'll quickly notice that even the smallest update can drastically improve your ship.

How to upgrade and customize your ship

If you want to make any changes to your ship, you must do so head to the boatman. The first boatman you come across is Ulvar on Balta Island. During your first meeting Ulvar will make some necessary adjustments to Sandras so that you can safely complete the Shield Brotherhood Rite.

However, once you're done with all of that, you can return to Ulvar. Now you will be able to upgrade and improve your ship for a priceand you can also dress up your ship in ornaments if you have Sandras Pack DLC. For now, Ulvar will be the only shipwright you have access to until you progress further into the story.

After you rescue Cruz on Termina Island, he will join your crew. Once you progress to Chapter 4, Cruz will be available on the Sandras as a boatman. You will then be able to access your ship's upgrades and modifications from anywhere on the high seas heading to the table in the common room below deck.

How to unlock more upgrades

As you progress through the story, you will automatically unlock several upgrades for your ship. The best way to unlock more upgrades is to find the villagers of Carnac.

Every time save a villager from Carnacyou get the corresponding upgrade in the Upgrade/Refit menu in the Shipwright Shop. The upgrades you get for rescuing these villagers also reflect their role in the crew. Note that upgrading your ship requires gold along with other materials.

The most common material to upgrade your ship is Basic crafting suppliesso make sure you stock up on that whenever you want to upgrade your ship. In addition to Basic Craft Stock, some upgrades will require additional materials such as Celadon Clay or Aged Wood.

One of the best ways to collect these items is to participate in naval battles and collect scattered items on the open sea.

Some blueprints and upgrades can only be unlocked after completing a certain part of the story or can be purchased on merchant ships. These blueprints can unlock a new type of ammo upgrade that can be repeatedly purchased to increase capacity.

However, only you have to make sure purchase a capacity increase according to your needs. If you buy too many capacity upgrades, you won't have any resources at the start for more useful upgrades.

There is a small priority icon next to the upgrade request. Upgrades with higher priority gives more bonuses compared to the lower priority ones, but they also require more materials to unlock.

How to manage ship load

There are a total of six options in the ship's cargo. First place is for normal artillery. By purchasing upgrades, you can get several types of ammo for this slot, but you can only choose one at a time.

The default ammo for normal artillery allows you to deal medium damage and damage to the ship, while the Smasher Shot ammo allows you to deal high damage but medium damage to the ship.

The second slot in the loadout allows you to choose heavy assault ammo where it is default ammo is best in most cases, and the rest of the four slots in the loadout are for special ammo. Note that special ammo is limited, but capacity can be increased by purchasing u upgrades Shipwright Upgrade/Refit Offer.

If you scroll down to the Loadout tab, you'll notice ornaments sectionwhere you can dress up your ship with all the cosmetic upgrades you received from the Sandras DLC Pack. Once you have your cargo ready, you can hit the open seas and capture any stray undead ships or reclaim any island under Griegr's influence.