Opinion: Sailing combat
This article is compiled from the videos of GnomonkeyRS. It records what Gnomonkey said, with sources, not verified game fact. See About.
| Type | Opinion |
| Videos | 1 (first 2025-11-26, latest 2025-11-26) |
| Main source | Sailing's Future in OSRS |
Opinion: Sailing combat is an opinion topic that Gnomonkey covers in 1 video on 2025-11-26. This article is a stub: his statements are grouped by type, repeated ones merged.
Stats and numbers
- In Sailing combat, damage taken depends on your ship upgrades and Sailing level, you heal your ship by spamming repair packs made from planks, and normal weapons do tremendously less damage (Gnomonkey thinks about one-sixth), so you are effectively forced to use a cannon.1
- Because the boat's hitbox is in the back, you can safe-spot some NPCs so they cannot reach you while you attack them.2
- Each cannonball costs one quarter of a bar (four per bar), better molds or furnaces only speed up making them, and there is no Ava's-style item to return them; killing an armoured kraken takes about 30 to 40 rune cannonballs, roughly 120k to 150k gp.3
- Adamant cannonballs cost around 800 each, so using about 50 is roughly 40k per kill, which he says is more expensive than using a scythe and blood fury on most targets.4
Gnomonkey's opinion
- Gnomonkey calls Sailing combat unfinished and nothing frankly: you attack a target, it attacks you, you take damage.5
- Gnomonkey says there is no way in Sailing combat to mitigate damage besides better upgrades and a tankier boat, with no boat prayers or dodging.6
- Gnomonkey says the Sailing combat appears unchanged from the combat beta, only with more monsters, and he did not like it then either.7
- Gnomonkey finds it illogical that a cannon is the only thing that can hit an albatross flying overhead for more than 10, more than his Tumeken's shadow or twisted bow.8
- Gnomonkey says Jagex should have released Sailing in two batches like Forestry, focusing the first batch on the skill itself with repair packs and dangerous enemies to avoid, and adding combat, cannons, drop tables, a boss or two, the bounty task system and leviathan hunting in a second batch.9
- Gnomonkey thinks Jagex cast the net too wide, with most dev time going into Barracuda Trials and boat engine work, leaving a half-baked combat system that should not have been a quick afterthought.10
- Gnomonkey's ideas for improving Sailing combat include making the ship do set damage from cannons, locked island doors blasted open from the water, ordering your crew to bombard Slayer monsters while you fight on an island, and Wind Waker-style set-piece boss fights.11
Revision history
| Date | Video | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-11-26 | Sailing's Future in OSRS | Page created: 11 statements (opinion, stat) |
| ## References |
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 55:56 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 56:28 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 57:53 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 58:27 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 55:23 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 56:58 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 57:24 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 58:56 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 59:29 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 1:01:00 ↩
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Sailing's Future in OSRS, 2025-11-26. ▶ 1:02:06 ↩
Category: Opinions