Guns of Icarus: An Engineer How To Guide

Moving on to the second part of my guide, let's talk about the engineer class.

Engineer

This is a step up in responsibility. As a gunner, you'll often be with a second gunner in tandem. Most engineers on the other hand work alone, with the task of keeping the ship aloft resting on them. If you're new, please give a heads up to your captain, so if something does goes wrong they won't start blaming you. Well. They may just do that anyway, but at least they'll blame your lack of experience rather than lack of ability. It's sorta better.

Non repair equipment: For Piloting equipment, like the gunner, go for the spyglass. If nothing is broke or on fire, and you've finally got a moment's peace, remember you're the engineer and don't have time for lolly-gagging and spot some ships. For ammo, I'd suggest Burst Round as a nice all rounder, or Charged Shot / Heatsink Clip if you know you have big guns on the ship / are facing fire. Of course, if your captain says something else, grab it. It's their ship. I'm just a webpage.

And now the big deal, the Repair Equipment. Before I go into detail about each item, let's talk about rebuilding, repairing, and hull damage, as they'll all different things and it'll effect your loadout.

I can just hear  a gunner cackling about 'No balloon for you!' in the distance.

This icon, with a white central icon somewhat depleted lower bar, is damaged, and needs to be REPAIRED. The colour of the bar will get darker as more damage is taken. Note the partially filled central icon, indicating the cooldown on repair.

YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! AH, DAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

This item, with an empty red bar and red central icon, is destroyed, and needs to be REBUILT. When rebuilding, the central icon will darken, and fill up again as you rebuilt it.

There, there hull. Daddy's got you. I'll keep you safe.

This is the hull. The pale bar is the hull health, which can be damaged, requiring REPAIR, or destroyed (replaced with a red bar and icon) requiring to be REBUILT. Underneath the pale bar is a darker, orange bar, which is the hull armour. It will be depleted only once the hull health is at zero. Hull armour can NEVER be REPAIRED or REBUILT. Once both bars are empty, you are DEAD, which many agree, KINDA SUCKS. Note the partially filled central icon, indicating the cooldown on repair.

Repairing works off a cooldown. Click once, health will be added dependant on the item you use, and the icon ticks down like a clock until you can use the items on it again.

Rebuilding works by as fast as you click on it, clearing an amount of red of the central icon, the amount which depending on your item.

So in summary, repairing is leisurely clicks, rebuilding is manic clicks. Knowing the differences between these two is the difference between a happy, flying ship, and a miserable ship imitating a beached whale. Fortunately, once something takes a hit, it'll pop up in your screen with it's health so a component should sneakily explode itself without you noticing.

So, in terms of Repair items:

Rubber Mallet: Fixes a lot of repair damage once every six seconds, but is a slow rebuilder.

Shifting Spanner: Fixes a tiny amount of repair damage every two seconds, but is a very, very quick rebuilder.

Fire Extinguisher: Stops things being on fire instantly, six seconds cooldown.

Before going any further, as a new engineer, please, please, PLEASE, take these three items. They are pretty much essential. A Rubber Mallet to repair items, one click at a time. A Spanner to rebuild them, spamming as fast as you can. An Extinguisher to put out things out, and the darkness bind... no, wait. Wrong thing. Moving on.

Once you've got used to keeping a ship in mostly one piece, then it's time to have a good look at these items:

Chemical Spray: Reduced a fire by 3, has a chance or preventing ignition again. While the fire extinguisher puts fires instantly, this reduces it instead, needing repeated uses. I've gone back and forth over it's uses. If you have a fire-heavy enemy, fire's relatively low damage coupled with if reduced chance of re-ignite on guns might give you an edge over them. However, in most crews only the engineer will carry an extinguisher, so not carrying one can be unappreciated.

Dynabuff Industiries Kit: Known as the 'buffhammer,' repeating clicking on a component of the ship will fill up a surrounding bar over the repair health bar. Fill up the left one then the right, which'll tick down over time. Guns will hit harder, engines will go faster, etc. If you are going to take this, let the captain know first. Ideally, if there are two engineers, then one of you can take this between you. Taking this will mean likely sacrificing the spanner or the hammer, leaving you with...

Pipe Wrench: A medium amount of repair damage fixes every five seconds, a medium speed rebuilder. An all-rounder, if you please.

As an engineer, your first priority is the hull. Consider yourself married to the bloody thing. If it goes, you all go, so above everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING ELSE, THE HULL COMES FIRST. If it is some much as nicked you should be whimpering with desire to fix it, as it the hull gets destroyed those exposed armour points will never come back. A destroyed hull needs rebuilding NOW. When the armour is gone as well as the hull you all die. Hull first. Okay? Don't forget, if you are being overwhelmed, SAY SO. Better to lose an active gunner for a minute than die in silence.

Next on your priority list is the balloon. Once the balloon is destroyed, you'll drop like a stone. On rare occasions you may want to have the balloon rebuilt before repairing the hull (noticed the difference in terms there?)... but that sort of depends on height, intensity of taken barrage, and honestly, that's too situational to make a call here, especially as the balloon is often placed far away and above the hull, making getting back and forth tough. However, sometimes the balloon is not your problem. The Pyramidion, for example, has a balloon placed behind the top left gunner. In that case, try to make sure a gunner with a mallet has that gun and tell him to keep an eye on it.

After that it's the engines and guns, which one depends on the moment. If the pilot's trying to run for it and flee, the engines will get priority, if the captain's doing a Star Trek re-enactment and shrieking 'FIRE EVERYTHING' it's probably an idea to have the guns up. In both instants, maintaining them can be sloppily done, as gunners will often carry their own mallets and both engines and guns will work just as well on a shiver of health as a full bar. However, try to tell the difference between engines. There'll a central engine for forward / reverse thrust, and side one's for turning (Unless you're in a Squid, and I hate that ship, so no help for you.) If you're running, see where you're running to and which engine the pilot will need. When pressed for time to rebuild, a few whacks with the spanner to get it up and running is good enough. Give it a love tap with the mallet to take it to full health later when you're safe. For the most part engines will go down rarely as people aim for the centre mass and the engines are off on the back end of the ship, but like guns, dust clouds will damage them quite nicely.

Engineer tactics don't change that much between ships. The Goldfish, Spire, Pyramidion and the Galleon make good ships to start on. The Goldfish is relatively compact, keeping everything close by. The Spire has most of it's components on one lower deck. The Pyramidion, as mentioned, has a advantageously placed balloon that'll reduce some workload. The Galleon, whilst large, has most things above deck, with guns below, which'll be taking up less of your time. Always take a few moments on an unfamiliar ship to find every component. If you're lucky enough to be one of two engineers, divide tasks between you. Do remember that you have a measure of authority here; if you need help, get it.

Like the gunner, you'll also be on spotting duty. But you'll also be gunning once in a while. A flanking enemy may think twice with a few shots, and you'll be often placed closer to side / rear guns than the gunners. With the Galleon, the top deck left gun is pretty much exclusively yours. You can use your best judgement when to leap on a gun but a good captain will direct when he wants you merrily blasting away. Try not to get caught up in shooting though – you've got a ship to keep healthy, and let's be perfectly honest here – everyone but you is incompetent. The gunners keep dropping used shells on the deck and leave scuff marks everywhere. If the pilot isn't ramming you into a mountain he's trying to convert the inflation mechanism into a distillery. Nobody but you gets how hard it is to keep this old gal floating... why, back in my day, we didn't have no fancy automatic inflater, we had an old bellows we had to work by hand! Heh, I remember when... hey HEY HEY! NO! WHITTLING! ON! THE! BANNISTER! Gunners. Bunch of morons. Now who's going to clean that up? Muggins, that's who.

Wait, what was I saying?

The engineer, while more internally focused, is fun to play if you enjoy support roles or being the lynchpin of the team. Or if you like putting on a terrible Scottish accent and turning the air blue. On Monday we'll be looking at the Pilot, being a captain and what things I'd like to see changed or introduced in Guns Of Icarus Online.

Do any of you have any tips, or like to point out I've clearly made a stupid mistake and can think of much better, saner, sober advice? Well, we have a comment box for a reason. Go. Point out what an idiot I am. But please. Politely.

These guides will soon be edited for Steam Workshop, suggested by the Guns of Icarus Online Facebook group.

Thanks go to my friends and Dom Le Awesome for assisting with taking screenshots. Find his videos at www.youtube.com/domleawesome

Guns of Icarus website: http://gunsoficarus.com/

You can find the beta for sale on Steam here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/49800/