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The ship rebuilding system (often referred to as ship fusion) was introduced in the 2nd age of UWO, chapter 3 (5/21/2014). It is another system which can be used to improve your ship. The way it works is you take the ship you want to improve (referred to as the "Improved" ship) and one you wish to sacrifice/destroy (referred to as the "Material" or "Mat" ship) and combine them. There is x% chance that this will work (the chance can be affected in a few ways). If successful, the improved ship will go up in grade and receive a bonus to skills or performance. If it is not successful, the material ship is still destroyed, and no change in grade (and thus stats) occurs, but grade exp increases, making your next attempt more likely to work. Here's a diagram I modified from the OGPlanet announcement of the shiprebuilding system:

In this section of the guide, I will detail how ship rebuilding works, and how it can be used to improve your ship.

Ship rebuilding can greatly enhance ship stats (durability, sails, rowing, turn, wave, armour, crew, cargo, or cannons). It also slightly raises the cap (or the maximums) for certain stats, depending on grade (for information about this, see the "Grade Cap Increases" section). It can also add another broadside cannon, assuming the ship does not have the maximum number of broadside slots for a ship of that class (Light-class ships can have a maximum of 3 broadside slots, Standard-class ships can have a maximum of 4 broadside slots, and Heavy-class ships can have a maximum of 5 broadside slots). You can also add a skill to a ship, in one of two ways (inheritance or skill slot addition). You can also increase the acceleration and battle speed of a ship (this skill can be used up to 3 times).

To do ship rebuilding, you will need an improved ship (one you want to improve), a material ship, and of course the required SB level needed to do the ship rebuilding. Just like in special shipbuilding, you can fleet with someone of high enough SB rank and leech their skill to do your rebuild. If you're reading this, then I imagine you already have a ship that you want to improve. However, you may not know how to make a mat ship.You must simply meet the requirement; Unlike special shipbuilding, you do not gain a greater chance of success by being r20. Ship Rebuilding is done at the shipwright in any port, click the ship rebuilding button at the bottom left:

Before we get into fusion, and how it works, we need to cover some of the nomenclature and vocabulary that you will need to understand how ship rebuilding works:

Improved ship - Ship that is the target, to be improved by the ship rebuilding process

Material/Mat ship - ship that will be destroyed or sacrificed to grade the improve ship

Grade - The current level (with regard to ship rebuilding) of the ship, which plays a direct role in the bonuses from ship rebuilding (and also on the market value of the ship)

Grade XP - The bar beneath the grade number. This bar affects how likely a ship is to get to the next grade. The fuller the bar is, the greater the chance of success to get to the next grade.

Grade bonus (also known as Select bonus) - These are boosts you select during the ship rebuilding process that is applied to your ship when you successfully reach g1, g3, and g6. Each bonus may only be accepted one time (the exceptions to this limitation are skill slot additions 1-3, and also ship speed ups 1-3, which would all three technically be different bonuses anyway) on any given ship. A list of the possible grade bonuses are listed in "Possible grade bonuses" section.

Skill Inheritance - Inheritance is a special select/grade bonus that allows you to take (or "inherit") a skill from the material ship and put it on the improved ship, if successful. Some skills are not inheritable. Skill inheritance may only be done one time for any given improved ship. For more information, see the "Skill inheritance" section.

Skill Slot addition - Skill slot addition is a special select/grade bonus that allows you to add one more optional skill via special shipbuilding per time you take this select/grade bonus.  If you choose this bonus, it is highly recommended that do so before you finish modifying the ship, or you will be unable to make use of the extra skill slot without dismantling the ship. This grade bonus can be taken a total of 3 times (Skill slot addition 1-3), and may be used in combination with skill inheritance.

Form - Each ship is a particular "form". There are 7 possible ship forms (Generic, Expedition, High Speed Battle Ship, Battle, Armed Merchant Ship, Cargo, and High Speed Cargo Ship). The ship's form and the grade are considered together to give a "form bonus" to ship stats (see "Possible Form Bonuses" for more information). Ship forms can be changed from one to the other, however it is not recommended to try to change forms past grade 4, as failures beyond grade 3 can lead to retrograding (deduction of ship grade; for more information, see the "Converting ship form" section)

Form bonuses - Form bonuses are determined by both the ships grade and form, and affect the ship stats. For a full list of form bonuses for each grade, see the "Possible form bonuses" section
 
Retrograding - Retrograding is possibly the worst thing that could happen to a ship during fusion. It is known as a "Fiasco" in game, or more commonly by players as a "Great fail". This sometimes happens when ship rebuilding fails beyond grade 3 (grades 4-6 on the improved ship). The total grade of the improved ship gets reduced by one.

There are a handful of items that are related to ship rebuilding. It is possible (even likely) that some new items will be released, as the ship rebuilding system is fairly new. Their names and functions are listed below.

Ship Blueprints 3*(Large, medium, and small)
Ship blueprints come in three sizes, Large (for heavy-class ships), medium (for standard-class ships), and small (for light-class ships). They are used to increase the grade XP for a ship. The amount of grade XP they add is dependent on the current grade of the ship, with lower grades requiring fewer blueprints to fill the bar than higher ones. These are bought from the Astro shop, or occasionally acquired from the Sailor's bottle. They are several times more effective than 2* blueprint pieces, which are in turn several times more effective than 1* blueprint parts. They are distinguished from blueprint pieces and parts by the number of stars on them (these have 3 stars).

Ship Blueprints pieces 2*(Large, medium, and small)
Ship blueprints pieces come in three sizes, Large (for heavy-class ships), medium (for standard-class ships), and small (for light-class ships). They are used to increase the grade XP for a ship. The amount of grade XP they add is dependent on the current grade of the ship, with lower grades requiring fewer blueprints to fill the bar than higher ones. These are obtained from dismantling g1 or higher ships at the shipwright (note that this is NOT the same as using a special shipbuilding improvement reset, which was formerly known as a special shipbuilding dismantlement techniques). They are several times less effective than 3* blueprints, but are in turn several times more effective than 1* blueprint parts. They are distinguished from blueprints and parts by the number of stars on them (these have 2 stars).

Ship Blueprints: parts 1*(Large, medium, and small)
Ship blueprints parts come in three sizes, Large (for heavy-class ships), medium (for standard-class ships), and small (for light-class ships). They are used to increase the grade XP for a ship. The amount of grade XP they add is dependent on the current grade of the ship, with lower grades requiring fewer blueprints to fill the bar than higher ones. I am uncertain where these come from.. They are the least effective grade XP increasing items. They are distinguished from blueprint pieces and parts by the number of stars on them (these have 1 star).

Ship grade reset (formerly know as Ship redesign techniques)

This item currently costs 299 astros, and is used in the event that you accidentally select the wrong grade, or need to reset the grades on a ship. They cost 15 USD each, so select your grade bonuses carefully! This resets the grade back to 0, and gets rid of any status or skill that comes from ship rebuilding. To actually use one of these, simply click the "use item" button, and select the ship that you would like to grade reset.

Ship Refitting Handbook 

This item was distributed after maintenance on 1/8/2015 to players who purchased the sentinel of the sea pack. It was also available in a few sailor's bottles/Astro events. Players who purchased the pack received three of these, which provide +10% to shipbuilding success rates for 1 hour each and stack with mayorial bonuses.  

Making blueprint pieces (2*)

Ship blueprint pieces (2*) can be made by players. I have heard that 3* blueprints and 1* blueprint parts can be made as well, but I am missing data for how to make those. If anyone can provide that data, I would greatly appreciate it.

To make a 2* blueprint piece, you must make a g1 ship of the class (heavy, standard, or light) you wish to get blueprint pieces for, and then select the dismantle option at the shipwright. *NOTE* this is not the same dismantle as the "reset performance" button in special shipbuilding does, this one actually destroys the ship! Make sure you don't confuse the two, I had an overzealous client nearly destroy a MIS like this! This is the option you select to dismantle your g1 ship into 10x 2* blueprint pieces:



Next, select the ship you wish to dismantle:



A menu will pop up showing what kind of products will be made from dismantling:



Click OK, and there you have it, 10x 2* blueprint pieces!

Mayorial bonus (+10% Ship rebuilding rates for all players in ports with active mayors, +25% for active mayors themselves)

While not technically an item, I thought this would be the best place to list this effect. Released in the Gran Atlas: Chapter 3 (The Wild West) patch, the highest investor in NON-CAPITAL, NON TERRITORY ports (i.e., Allied ports) becomes the honorary mayor. After achieving a certain level of activity within a city (I think it is Mayor contribution level: Energetic/City's activity level: Prosperity - I achieved this by investing an additional 500m while in a trade job to the city after I became the honorary mayor of a city), certain boosts become active. One of those is Ship Rebuilding Preference, which gives 10% to ANYONE shipbuilding in that port and +25% to the honorary mayor of that port (and only to the honorary mayor: Those who are fleeted with the mayor sadly do not receive the bonus). Credit to Huseyin-Gazi for most of this information.

To maintain a mayorship, one must remain active in the game. Activity is measured through daily logins and fame gain (even if fame is maxed, any fame that would be acquired counts). If a mayor becomes inactive, then each month a new mayor is selected from the 2nd-5th highest investors. The chances of being selected are as follows:

2nd highest investor: 40%

3rd highest investor: 30%

4th highest investor: 20%

5th highest investor: 10%

Credit to Roiber for this information.

There are several possible grade bonuses that you can select for your ship. Remember that you only get these at g1, g3, and g6. The magnitude how much each boost increases each ship stat depends on what class (light, standard, or heavy) the ship is, and also how much the maximum SHP for the ship is (which , in turn, governs the maximum improvement values for the ship). One popular strategy when picking your boosts if you really want to max out your ship stats is to pick the boosts that displace a lot of mod slots in special shipbuilding. Here is a screenshot of the entire list of bonuses:



Durability Improvement - Improves ship's durability. One of the more popular fusion bonuses for maritime ships, because it displaces a lot of mod slots if used in place of boosting durability via special shipbuilding.  For a 200 SHP Heavy-class ship, the boost to durability from this grade bonus is +200.

Vertical Sail Improvement - Improves ship's vertical sails. For a 200 SHP Heavy-class ship, the boost to vertical sails from this grade bonus is +75.

Horizontal Sail Improvement - Improves ship's horizontal sails. For a 200 SHP Heavy-class ship, the boost to horizontal sails from this grade bonus is +75.

Improve Sail Speed* - Improves ship's rowing stats. For a 200 SHP Heavy-class ship, the boost to row power from this grade bonus is +10. *NOTE* I believe this ship skill is misnamed in-game. On UWOtool.com it is listed more appropriately as "Row Power Improvement"

Armour Improvement - Improves ship's armour stat. One of the more popular fusion bonuses for maritime ships, because it displaces a lot of mod slots if used in place of boosting armour via special shipbuilding.  For a 200 SHP Heavy-class ship, the boost to armour from this grade bonus is +10.

Cabin Capacity Improvement - Improves ship's maximum crew stat. One of the more popular fusion bonuses for maritime ships, because it displaces a lot of mod slots if used in place of boosting crew capacity via special shipbuilding.  For a 200 SHP Heavy-class ship, the boost to crew from this grade bonus is +30.

Cargo Hold Capacity Improvement - Improves ship's maximum cargo stat. One of the more popular fusion bonuses for cargo ships, because it displaces a lot of mod slots if used in place of boosting cargo via special shipbuilding.  For a 200 SHP Heavy-class ship, the boost to cargo from this grade bonus is +30.

Broadside Addition - This bonus will add another broadside cannon slot, assuming the ship does not have the maximum number of broadside slots for a ship of that class (Light-class ships can have a maximum of 3 broadside slots, Standard-class ships can have a maximum of 4 broadside slots, and Heavy-class ships can have a maximum of 5 broadside slots).

Bow Turret Addition - This bonus will add a bow turret slot to your ship.

Gunboat Refit - This skill (and all other refit bonuses) counts as an optional skill on your ship. Gunboat refit increases cannon shot damage, but decreases defense against cannonshots and melee battles. According to a reliable poster on Ivyro (ReaD) this skill causes a +5% increase in cannon damage, but it makes the ship 5% more vulnerable to cannon damage, and increased damage from melee. For this reason, I would only suggest using this skill on a turtle ship (which cannot be meleed). Requires r5 arms.

Armoured Ship Refit - This skill (and all other refit bonuses) counts as an optional skill on your ship. This refit specialized in armour. Decreases Durability damage, but Sailing performance declines. According to a reliable poster on Ivyro (ReaD) this skill causes a +5% increase in cannon damage, but it reduces max speed and turning speed. Requires r5 arms.

Melee Battle Ship Refit - This skill (and all other refit bonuses) counts as an optional skill on your ship. This refit specialized in melee battle. Decreases melee damage taken, and increases damage given, but damage taken from cannon shots is increased.. According to a reliable poster on Ivyro (ReaD) this skill causes an increase in melee damage and reduces melee damage received, but it increases damage done by cannon shots by 5%. Requires r5 arms.

Expedition Ship Refit - This skill (and all other refit bonuses) counts as an optional skill on your ship. This refit specialized in marine exploration, and it gives benefits in marine discoveries and salvage. According to a reliable poster on Ivyro (ReaD) this skill makes you obtain 10% more adventure XP while making discoveries at sea, it also greatly increases the rate at which shipwrecks rise, and it reduces the durability damage you take while raising a shipwreck. Requires r5 navigation.

Ship Speed Up (1-3) - These skills increase both acceleration and battle. They are typically used in speed modded ships, piracy ships, some +25% trade ships (which are notoriously slow to accelerate) and some battle/adventure ships. There is some uncertainty about how much the boost actually is, and how well it works both in and out of the ring. I can confirm, however, that it does not boost top-end (maximum) speed outside of battle, but does help to get speed up. The ship speed boosts are prerequisite for one another, meaning that you cannot get ship speed up 2 without first having ship speed up 1, etc.

Skill inheritance - Skills on the material ship that can be inherited are indicated with a star. In this case, it is Improved Gun Port. Skill inheritance, if successful, will add the target skill to the improved ship (and of course, the material ship will be destroyed).

Each grade will give some set bonus to stats, and that will depend on what grade and "form" the ship is in. Here are the possible form bonuses at each grade:

Generic
Expedition
High speed Cargo Ship*
Cargo
Armed Merchant ship*
Battle
High speed battle ship *

The ship forms with an * by them are what I consider to be intermediate forms. The Expedition type focuses on speed and mobility, the cargo type is of course focused on cargo capacity, and the battle type is focused on high battle ability. Here are the bonuses for each grade (each listing is TOTAL form bonus, not the values added from the previous grade, credit to UWOtool.com for this information):

Generic
g1: No form bonus
g2: +10 durability, +5 v/h sails, +1 row
g3: +10 durability, +5 v/h sails, +1 row, +1 armour, +2 crew, +2 cannon chambers, +2 cargo
g4: No form bonus*
g5: No form bonus*
g6: No form bonus*

Expedition
g1: +5 v/h sails
g2: +10 v/h sails, +1 row, +1 turn, +1 WR
g3: +15 v/h sails, +1 row, +2 turn, +2 WR
g4: +10 durability, +25 v/h sails, +2 row, +3 turn, +3 WR, +1 armour
g5: +10 durability, +30 v/h sails, +3 row, +4 turn, +4 WR, +1 armour
g6: +10 durability, +35 v/h sails, +3 row, +5 turn, +5 WR, +1 armour

High Speed Cargo Ship
g1: +5 v/h sails
g2: +5 v/h sails, +1 turn, +1 WR, +2 cargo
g3: +10 durability, +15 v/h sails, +1 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +1 armour, +4 cargo
g4: +20 durability, +20 v/h sails, +2 row, +2 turn, +2 WR, +1 armour, +6 cargo
g5: +20 durability, +25 v/h sails, +4 row, +2 turn, +2 WR, +1 armour, +6 cargo
g6: +30 durability, +30 v/h sails, +3 row, +3 turn, +3 WR, +2 armour, +8 cargo

Cargo
g1: +2 cargo
g2: +10 durability, +5 v/h sails, +1 row, +1 armour, +4 cargo
g3: +20 durability, +10 v/h sails, +1 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +1 armour, +6 cargo
g4: +30 durability, +15 v/h sails, +2 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +2 armour, +10 cargo
g5: +30 durability, +15 v/h sails, +3 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +2 armour, +12 cargo
g6: +40 durability, +20 v/h sails, +3 row, +2 turn, +2 WR, +3 armour, +14 cargo

Armed Merchant Ship
g1: No form bonus
g2: +10 durability, +1 row, +1 armour, +2 cargo
g3: +20 durability, +5 v/h sails, +1 row, +2 armor, +4 cargo
g4: No form bonus*
g5: No form bonus*
g6: No form bonus*

Battle
g1: +10 durability, +1 armour
g2: +30 durability, +1 row, +3 armour, +2 crew
g3: +40 durability, +1 row, +4 armour, +2 crew
g4: +60 durability, +2 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +6 armour, +4 crew, +2 cannon chambers
g5: +80 durability, +3 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +8 armour, +6 crew, +2 cannon chambers
g6: +90 durability, +3 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +9 armour, +4 crew, +2 cannon chambers

High Speed Battle Ship
g1: +5 v/h sails
g2: +10 durability, +10 v/h sails, +1 row, +1 armour
g3: +20 durability, +15 v/h sails, +1 row, +1 turn, +1WR, +2 armour
g4: +30 durability, +20 v/h sails, +2 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +3 armour
g5: +40 durability, +25 v/h sails, +3 row, +1 turn, +1 WR, +4 armour
g6: +50 durability, +35 v/h sails, +3 row, +2 turn, +2 WR, +5 armour

* = this is the value according to UWOtool.com. It seems strange to me that grade bonus would disappear after g3, so it could potentially just be missing data. If anyone has any data on these ships, I would be interested to see those values. Thanks!

Material ships are the ships that will be sacrificed in order to attempt to grade your improved ship. They are often referred to as "Mat ships". You will need some material ships before you can begin actually improving your ship. Below is some information about material ships:

There are a few qualities of material ships that will increase their likelihood of grading your improved ship:

1) Grade - Probably the most important factor in determining if your mat ship will be successful or not. I suggest that your material ship be at least the same grade as the current grade of the improved ship, preferably 1 grade ahead (for non-Astro mat ships especially).

2) Grade Experience - If the grade experience of the material ship is raised, it will be more likely to grade the ship.

3) # of mods - Each mod done to the material ship increases the chance of successful grading by about 1% each.

4) # of skills - Each mod done to the material ship increases the chance of successful grading by about 1% each.

5) Same ship/different ship - If you use the EXACT same base model of ship, you get a flat rate increase to chance of successful grading of around 20%, and it does not seem to vary much from grade to grade (Credit to ZimXero for the percentage, this is an approximate figure)

6) Astro or player-made/shipyard - Astro ships get an increased chance of success vs. non-Astro ships built by players or bought at the shipyard. I'm not sure of the exact bonus, and I think it varies from grade to grade, but I do notice that when trying to get a to g2 > g3 on an Astro ship, a g2 Astro ship straight from ticket (1/x) has about the same chance of success as a g3 large carrack (0/5, double refitted). When Zim and I pin down this percentage of  exactly, or if anyone else can provide this information, I will post it in the next update.

7) Ship Handling Proficiency - Ship Handling Proficency (SHP) of a mat ship directly affects the likelihood of a ship reaching the next grade. If the mat ship is totally maxed in SHP, you will receive a small increase to the likelihood of it grading up the improved ship. This bonus is quite easy to get (and free) if you take a trip out to a company colony that has the NPC who increases SHP (I know paymaster at our colony does it; I have heard that the Arsenal will also do the same). This increase to the odds of grading your ship also varies per grade. At g3, a ship with  175/175 SHP is about 4% more likely to be successful in grading your ship than one that is 0/175.  (Credit to MarcoS who is the player who told me about this for the first time - if I am not mistaken, he was the first player on GAMA to discover this).

From time to time, you may see players buying/selling max SHP g3 non-Astro mat ships (usually large carracks) with both fusion bonuses being Ship Refit skills. These material ships are nice because you get +2% from the refit bonuses (which are counted as skills, so each gives a +1) and +4% from the SHP increase. If you decide to make (or use) g3 material ships made from shipyard ships, this is the type I recommend you make or buy.

Shipyard material ships

The first few material ships start out with ships from the shipyard. For heavy class ships, most players use Large Carracks. Stash away all your ships, and buy 2 large carracks from the shipyard (1.8m each). Both ships come from the shipyard as g0.

*NOTE* before I begin making material ships, I always put my good ships away for space, either on an alt on in my dock (as a shipbuilder, I bought some dock expansions to make this much easier on me). This not only clears out some of your ship inventory, but also keeps your ships safe from accidentally getting selected for ship rebuilding!

Now, select the shipwright, and select the ship rebuild option.

Select the first Large Carrack. THE SHIP YOU SELECT FIRST IS ALWAYS THE IMPROVED SHIP (the one you want to improve):



Next, select the second Large Carrack. THE SHIP YOU SELECT SECOND IS ALWAYS THE MATERIAL SHIP, WHICH WILL BE DESTROYED REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME:



Next, click OK. You will be brought to the next screen, which shows you several things:



1) This shows you the improved ship, the one that will be improved if the rebuild is successful.

2) This shows you the material ship, which will be destroyed if the rebuild is successful or not.

3) This shows you the % chance of success.

4) This is the grade bonus selection screen. The Durability improvement is currently highlighted, meaning if you hit the "OK" button, it will give the durability bonus if it is successful.

But, which bonus to select? Well, it doesn't matter a whole lot for material ships. However, if you will recall from the previous section, the ship refit grade/select bonuses (Armoured Ship Refit, Exploration Ship Refit, Melee Battle Ship Refit, Gunboat Refit) count as a skill on a ship, and each ship skill gives a +1% chance of fusion. Since all grade bonuses have an equal chance of being successful, I suggest you take one of the refit skills, so that you have a (slightly) better chance of getting to the next grade if you do so.

Now, select your bonus, then click OK. It takes you to the final confirmation screen:



Pull the trigger and finalize it. One of two things will happen. If it fails, you will see this message, meaning your mat ship is destroyed, and your improved ship is the same grade as it was before:



If it succeeds, you will see this message instead, and your improved ship is now one grade higher:



If you fail, it is not the end of the world. Your ship does gain some grade XP, so the next time you try, it is more likely to succeed. You can see the gain in the grade XP bar from the ship status:



Keep going until you get a material ship that is grade 1. This will be your material ship to get an improved ship from g0 > g1. Now, let's talk about making a g2 material ship. To do this, simply repeat the process to make a g1 material ship. Once you have a g1 material ship, it is time to make a second one. when you have 2, fuse them together, and cross your fingers. If it is successful, you will have a g2 mat ship!

Repeat the same processes to get a g3 material ship by fusing a g2 + a g2 ship. You will need to store one of the ships on an alt or in dock, as you simply can't hold enough ships to make one if you have your ship and an aide ship on. The chance of success goes down with each grade, so be prepared for some heartache when you get to the higher grades. A g2 Large Carrack refit + a g2 large carrack refit (1x refit, no SHP) is about 25% chance (with no grade XP) of success. Making a g3 mat ship to me is one of the most frustrating and time consuming things in the game. For that reason (and because as a shipbuilder, I use A LOT of them) I will often buy them. There are some people who have figured out this whole g3 mat ship, and have cornered the market on them. Many of them hang out at Seville shipyard, so if you're bashing your head over the desk, there is always another option. I find that making a g4 material ship is nearly impossible from shipyard ships, due to low success rates. For methods of getting material ships beyond grade 3, please see the "High-end material ships" subsection below.

Astro (formerly NC) material ships

Shipyard ships aren't the only option for material ships. As you will note, beyond g3, fusion using non-Astro ships becomes exceedingly difficult and expensive. Another option is to use Astro material ships so that you receive the Astro boost to fusion success rate. After some research, I find that using Modified Frigates or Custom Siams work well as fusion material ships. This work well for three reasons; they are plentiful and commonplace, the ticket prices are relatively cheap (currently about 400-500m for Modified Frigate, 300m for Custom Siam), and the fusion costs are low (1.25m for each).

To make a non-Astro material ship, it is important to remember what your goal is; that is, not to make a good mod Modified Frigate/Custom Siam, but rather to make one that has a good chance for success. When I do this, I typically shoot for a ship with a ton of skills, max SHP, and full mod, for the maximum chance of success. To do this, select the skill slot addition bonuses, and mod the ship to have 5 skills after fusion is finished.

High-end Astro material ships

To make a Astro material ship that is beyond g4 or beyond, I typically use several of the same Astro material ships; i.e. 2 g3 Modified Frigates. This is because you not only get the grade bonus, but also the same ship bonus of about 20%. When I make a g4 Modified frigate, I have 2 ships: the improved ship is a 7/7 5skill Modified Frigate, and the material ship is a Modified Frigate g3 also, but maybe not a full mod (for this material ship, standard refits will work). MAKE SURE BOTH SHIPS ARE THE TYPE YOU WANT THEM TO BE BEFORE GOING PAST G3!!! There is information later in the guide about how to convert between ship types. The chance of success will be around 60% (if you did a full 5skill mod on the material ship, with max SHP, it would be about 67%). Hold your breath and pull the trigger; if successful it will give a g4 material Modified Frigate! For g5, use two g4 Modified Frigates, and so on. Remember that if you fail beyond g3 (g4-g6) a retrograde is a possibility.

One of the most popular grade bonuses for ship rebuilding is skill inheritance. This bonus allows you to take or "inherit" a ship skill onto an improved ship from a material ship. The only skills available for skill inheritance are those optional ships on the material ship. In addition, at least 2 skills (the only 2 to my knowledge) are uninheritable via fusion: Evade Melee Battle (Only available on a few ships as an optional skill, it would be overpowered on some ships with very high armor/dura and low crew, for example, FIS) and Direct Hit Prevention (for which a similar argument could be made). It is very highly recommeded that if you intend to inherit a skill, you do so at g1, as doing so at g3 or g6 is extremely expensive/problematic.

Below are some of the popular skills used for skill inheritance, from my experience:

Adventure ships:
Hauling Assistance
Emergency Acceleration
Reference room
Military Camouflage
Library

Trade ships:
Emergency Acceleration
Nanban Preference
Everyday Item Storage
Manufactured Item Storage
General Luxury Goods Storage
Quality Luxury Goods Storage

Battle Ships:
Emergency Acceleration
Roaring Sea Mines
Attack Prevention Net
Welcome Melee Battle
Moored Mines
Heavy Bombing
Special Smoke Bomb
Pre-Emptive Attack
Set Fire
Watertight Bulkhead

(This list of popular inherited ship skills for battle ships is longer, as I have more experience modifying battle ships than I do trade/adventure ships)

An example of skill inheritance is given in the "Grading your improved ship" section, as a g1 grade bonus.

A common misconception for players new to the ship rebuilding system is to confuse the skill slot addition and the skill inheritance grade bonus. They are not the same; Skill inherit takes a skill from the material ship and adds it to the improved ship, while skill slot addition raises the number of optional skills (from special shipbuilding) that can be added to a ship by 1. The inherited skill is not counted against the number of optional or original ship skills a ship may have.

The Skill Slot Addition bonus is different from skill inheritance in a couple of ways. For one, this grade bonus in itself does not actually add a skill. Instead, it increases the number of optional skills (through regular mods, AKA Special Shipbuilding) by 1. For that reason, it is recommended you do your grading prior to fully modding a ship for this reason; if the ship is fully modded, then how are you going to add more optional skills to it! The other way in which it differs from skill inheritance is that ship skill addition can be used a total of 3 times (ship skill addition 1, 2, and 3).

Ok, it is finally time to let ship rebuilding work it's magic on your ship! Let's get started. In this example, we will be taking a modified frigate to g3 from ticket. First thing's first, I grab a lot of money from the bank, and stash my ships on an alt or in my dock:



Now, I am going to open my Modified Frigate ticket.



Grade 1 - Skill inheritance (Emergency Acceleration)
After opening the ticket, it's time for me to get it to grade 1. I want this to be a material ship, so I am going to pack as many skills onto it as I can, so that when it is finally used up, I get a higher chance of it succeeding on the ship I want. For that reason, I am going to choose skill slot addition for both grades. However, I could also do this by doing a skill inheritance and also one skill slot addition. I just so happen to have a spare material ship for Emergency Acceleration, so I will use that to see if I can get EA inherited to it. First, I click the shipwright, and select ship rebuilding:



Next, I select my Modified Frigate first, as this is the ship I want to improve:



After I've selected the Modified Frigate as my improved ship, I now select the heavy explorer carrack as my mat ship. Note the arrow showing that the ship does in fact have emergency acceleration on it, and that it is g1 and 1/5 mods (which increases the chance of success):



Now, in the select bonus screen, I scroll all the way to to the bottom, and see the skill inheritance star beside any optional skills on the ship. I select the bonus for Emergency Acceleration, which has a 29% chance of success:



Now I click ok and confirm my choices, then cross my fingers....and it fails :( Note the box indicating that the ship failed, but also note the arrow. This message indicates that the ship changed form, from high speed battle to expedition type.



Well, there's only one more thing to do, and that's to try it again. To do so, I need a g1 material ship with emergency acceleration on it. There are two options, FS build one or buy one from the shipyard. I will buy a couple of Heavy Explorer's Carracks from the ship yard, rebuild them together until I get a g1 Heavy Explorer's Carrack, and mod emergency acceleration on it. After I mod the ship up, and wait 20 minutes for the ship to finish, it's time to try again :)

The next time, the chance of success was 31%, failed again. Why did the chance increase? Well, if you'll recall, the grade xp bar goes up each time you fail, which increases the chance that the next time will work. So, I build another, back out onto the water for 20 days.

This time the chance of success is 33%:



Success!



You can see the Emergency Acceleration skill in the areas where the optional skills go. Remember, inheritance does not take up an optional skill slot. Here's the view if you click the "Improved performance" button:



You can see grade/select bonuses where the red arrow is shown. Also note the bars on vertical sails, this ship is unmodded so you can see the +5 to v/h sails comes as part of a form bonus, since it is g1 expedition type. Ok, now that grade 1 is done, let's move forward to grade 2.

Grade 2
Remember that there is no grade bonus at g2, so the only thing you get for g2 is a boost to stats, and a step closer to the next grade bonus (at g3). To go from g1 > g2 on the improved ship (the modified frigate), we will use a g2 large carrack. The directions to make a g2 large carrack are in the material ship section, so we will skip them for now (but check them if you need a refresher, just remember g1 + g1 = g2, if successful).

Ok, so I've got a g2 Large Carrack ready to go, so I select the g1 modified frigate as the improved ship, and the g2 large carrack as the material ship. Here's what its looking like:



So I pulled the trigger....got lucky, success first time!



Here's what the ship looks like:



And here's the improved performance menu:



Note now that the sails are +10 v/h, and turn/wave are also both +1. Again this is the form bonus, as predicted for a g2 expedition ship. Note that the ship did not get +1 rowing, which should not be surprising, as Modified Frigate is not a row ship. Now, for grade 3!

Grade 3 - Skill slot addition

Before you begin to try for g3, remember that it can be quite expensive. G3 mat ships are quite expensive, and difficult to make. a g2 large carrack + an identical ship give only about a 25% chance of success (assuming the material ship has a ship refit skill on it, with 0 SHP). If you fail, it can be quite disheartening. This is the ship I recommend using, you will find players selling these for about 500-650m:



Note the 2 ship refit skills, which each add 1% to chance of success. It is also max SHP, which adds another few percentages (I think for this particular example, it is about 4%).

Ok, now I will cross my fingers, do a dance for good luck, and see what it looks like:



43% chance so I pull the trigger....and...



Success! I got lucky, and this one graded on the first attempt. Many are not this lucky, I have had some that have failed several times before grading successfully. In fact, I had one modified frigate that I had to try 8 times to get it to grade successfully, I almost sold it to the shipyard out of spite!

This is what the ship looks like now:



Note the changes to the sails. The sails should be +15; yet they are +10. This is because the ship has no SHP, and the improvements to the sails are capped at 10. When the ship is max SHP, it should have +15 v/h sails, +2 turn, +2 WR; currently, it has +10 v/h sails, +2 turn, +1 WR.

g4 and beyond

Going beyond g4 is not something I recommend for most ships, mainly because of the expense involved. Also remember that g4 and g5 only give an increase to the form bonus, the last grade bonus is at g6 (as of the date this is written, 1/6/15, only one ship has reached g6 on GAMA to the best of my knowledge). Remember the danger of retrograding beyond g3 (g4-g6). For these reasons, I recommend you use an Astro material ship, full mod/skills/SHP, and 1 grade or more beyond the improved ship.

Ships are assigned a particular form. Non-Astro ship forms are assigned, and are always the same. I have heard (but cannot confirm) that the forms of Astro ships vary from ship to ship, when tickets are opened (This is the information I have from friends in game; if anyone has any data on this, or how forms are assigned, please let me know). However, it is possible to convert ship types. I have prepared a diagram:



Generic type can be converted into any other type, provided you spam enough of a particular form of mat ship onto it. The way I view it, there are 3 primary forms. Expedition, Battle, and cargo. There are also 3 intermediate forms: High Speed Cargo Ship (Expedition/Cargo), Armed Merchant Ship (Cargo/Battle), and High Speed Battle Ship (Battle/Expedition).

Converting to a primary form
Here's an example of how to convert a battle type ship to a cargo type ship. You have a g3 battle ship, but you want it to be cargo type. All you need to do is try to fuse g0 cargo type ships to it. It has virtually no chance of getting to g4 (0%) but it does have a chance to convert it. According to the diagram above, it will to go "Armed Merchant Ship" first, and then finally to cargo type.

Converting to an intermediate form
Here's an example of how to convert an Expedition type ship to an armed merchant ship type. There are actually two ways to do this.
1) You have a g3 expedition ship, but you want it to be cargo type. First, fuse g0 cargo type ships to it. It has virtually no chance of getting to g4 (0%) but it does have a chance to convert ship type. Do this until it becomes high speed cargo ship and finally a cargo ship. Next, fuse battle ships to it until it finally converts to armed merchant ship.

2) You have a g3 expedition ship, but you want it to be cargo type. First, fuse g0 battle type ships to it. It has virtually no chance of getting to g4 (0%) but it does have a chance to convert ship type. Do this until it becomes high speed battle ship and finally a battle ship. Next, fuse cargo ships to it until it finally conerts to armed merchant ship.

I am not certain how to make a generic mat ship from another form of ship. I have had this happen only once, after extensive failures, and it was early on in my rebuilding experimentation. If anyone has this information, it would be much appreciated.

After you reach g3 on a ship, if you want to change forms, you had best do it now. After g3 (g4-g6) converting types can cause a retrograde.

Each grade for a ship will also raise the cap for the maximum stats of a ship. Those raises to stat caps are pre-defined. Remember this is how high the max RAISES, not actual boosts you get to the ship stats. THESE ARE CUMULATIVE VALUES, meaning that the value the cap is raised in each of these adds to the previous cap. For example, at grade 2, the value to maximum dura is actually +10 (+5 from g0 > g1, +5 from g1 > g2). They go like this:

g0 -> g1 = +5 to dura maximum, +2 to maximum sails (v/h), +1 to armor/WR/crew/cannons/cargo maxes
g1 -> g2 = +5 to dura maximum, +3 to maximum sails (v/h), +1 to row/turn/crew/cannons/cargo maxes
g2 -> g3 = +5 to dura maximum, +2 to maximum sails (v/h), +1 to armor/WR/crew/cannons/cargo maxes
g3 -> g4 = +5 to dura maximum, +3 to maximum sails (v/h), +1 to row/turn/crew/cannons/cargo maxes
g4 -> g5 = +5 to dura maximum, +2 to maximum sails (v/h), +1 to armor/WR/crew/cannons/cargo maxes
g5 -> g6 = +5 to dura maximum, +3 to maximum sails (v/h), +1 to row/turn/crew/cannons/cargo maxes

*Credit to the Full Fusion Guide by Kubrius and to UWOtool.com for this information, in addition credit to ZimXero for providing data on a g6 ship as well.

- Store your primary ships on an alt or shared storage or dock before you begin rebuilding. This will not only free up necessary ship space, but it will also prevent any accidental fusions from occurring. To make a g3 or higher mat ship, this is required unless you do not have an aide ship equipped.

- Select your grade bonuses carefully, double checking each time. Selecting the wrong bonus is bad, because grade dismantles are expensive. Selecting the wrong ship as a material ship is worse, because material ships get destroyed. When you are making material ships, it will get tedious. Don't let your guard down and select the wrong thing when doing your primary rebuilds!

- Know when to quit. Not every ship has to be g6 god modded (in fact, most of the ships I own are g1-g3). Possibly the biggest (and most expensive) mistake I've ever seen anyone make in this game is grading a crappy ship to very high grade (g5+), thinking that they can get sell it instantly and get rich. If it's not a top ship, people aren't gonna pay top dollar for it (except possibly in the case of a high-end material ship). Only the top ships in the game (SPC, COG, HSFCV, AFCV, RBTC, IATS, etc.) should be considered for high grades (for now, at least). Think about it; Why would you spend more than 15b in grading costs to upgrade a ship that costs less than 25% of that in ticket cost? Believe it or not, I have seen this on several occasions.

- Experiment with barcas before you move on to actually rebuilding your ships. They are extremely cheap (2000 ducats to buy, 1000 to rebuild), and it will help you get the hang of it before you get ready to try it on your good ships.

- Ship rebuilding is all about efficiency. There are several routes to accomplish the same goal; the best one is the one that you find to be the most efficient for your time and money. Experiment around a bit, and don't be afraid to think outside the box!

- Speaking of efficiency, sometimes I find it more efficient to use a couple of large ship blueprints to raise the grade xp of a ship (and thus, the likelihood of a successful rebuild) before I mod and grade a material ship for inheritance. This is particularly true if the improved ship is expensive to rebuild, or if the mat ship is expensive (i.e. nanban preference).

- If you're doing a skill inherit do it at g1. It is much cheaper and easier to do it at g1 than g3, and I can't even imagine trying to do it at g6. For skill slot addition, make sure you do this before the ship is full mod. You have to have mod slots available before you can add a skill on via mods!

- If a ship requires r13 for ship rebuilding, then a r20 shipbuilder has just as much of a chance for success as a r13 shipbuilder does. Remember this, because if you can't find a r20 available, a shipbuilder who meets the requirements will do just fine (the same as with adding an original skill).

- Every shipbuilder has their own weirdo superstitions with fusion, myself included. However, remember, each grade bonus has the same chance of working. I know a guy who swears that refits don't get work as well as other bonuses. This is not the case; for your mat ships, always chose refit grade bonuses for the extra 1% chance.'

- You might consider making an alt to get SHP up, and leaving him at your colony. I did this, and took both toons on the account out there, so I can show up, and between me and the 2 toons on the same account, I can almost always max SHP on any new ship.

- As for special shipbuilding, when in doubt, call in the professionals. It is a good idea to meet a shipbuilder you can trust, and consult him for his advice. Make sure you thank him every time, or he can easily ignore you when you call on him. Also, make sure you tip him well for his time, if he does a good job.

- Ship rebuilding may be a bit overwhelming, but once you try it a bit, you'll get the hang of it. You can do this. If you have questions, consult with your company, your SB guy/gal, or your friendly neighborhood shrimp, we'll get you through this!

Back to part 1 - Shipbuilding

On to References/Acknowledgements