Ys X: Nordicsallows you to sail the high seas on your ship as you strive through naval battles, defeat the undead, and explore the islands in the Obelia Gulf. However, you are given the Sandras, a ship that can barely set sail and serves better as a monument than a sea vessel.

But, fortunately, the game allows you to upgrade and refit the ship to enhance its abilities as you progress through the story, allowing you to make it a worthy companion on your journey through the Obelia Gulf. While the upgrades may seem minimal initially, you’ll quickly notice that even the smallest update can drastically improve your ship.

The image shows the Shipwright Ulvar’s shop menu in Ys X: Nordics.

How To Upgrade And Refit Your Ship

To make any changes to your ship, you’ll have tohead over to a shipwright. The first shipwright you encounter is Ulvar on Balta Island. During your first meeting, Ulvar will make some necessary adjustments to Sandras, so that you can safelycomplete the rite of shield brotherhood.

However, once you’re done with all that, you may return to Ulvar. Now, you’ll be able toupgrade and enhance your ship for a price, and you can also dress your ship in adornments ifyou have the Sandras Pack DLC. For now, Ulvar will be the only shipwright you’ll have access to until you progress further into the story.

The image shows the Proposal Lists, as well as the required materials for the Major Refit I: Bilge Reinforcement upgrade in Ys X: Nordics.

After you’ve saved Cruz onTermina Island, he’ll join your crew. Once you’ve progressed to Chapter 4,Cruz will be available on Sandras as a shipwright. After that, you can access the ship upgrades and refits from anywhere in the open sea byheading over to the common room table below the deck.

How To Unlock More Upgrades

As you progress through the story, you’ll automatically unlock several upgrades for your ship. However, the best way to unlock more upgrades is byfinding Carnac villagers.

Every time yourescue a Carnac villager, you will get a corresponding upgrade on the Shipwright Shop’s Upgrade/Refit menu. The upgrades that you receive for rescuing these villagers also reflect their role in the crew. Note that upgrading your shiprequires gold, alongside other materials.

The image shows the Mini Bolide Ammo +10 upgrade requiring a huge amount of materials in Ys X: Nordics.

The most common material for upgrading your ship is theBasic Craft Stock, so make sure you’re stocked up on that whenever you want to upgrade your ship. Alongside the Basic Craft Stock item, some upgrades will require additional materials such as Celadon Clay, or Aged Wood.

One of the best ways to gather these items is by taking part in naval battles, and by collecting the scattered items in the open sea.

The image shows the upgraded Ship Loadout in Ys X: Nordics.

Some blueprints and upgrades can only be unlocked after you’ve done a certain part of the story orcan be purchased from merchant ships. These blueprints may unlock a new type of ammunition upgrade, which can be bought repeatedly to increase the capacity.

However, you have to ensure you onlypurchase the capacity upgrades according to your needs. If you buy too many capacity upgrades, you won’t have any resources left for other more useful upgrades early on.

The image shows the ship customizations in Ys X: Nordics.

There’s a little priority icon next to the upgrade request. The upgrades withhigher priority provide more bonusescompared to the ones with lower priority, but they also require more materials to be unlocked.

How To Manage Ship Loadout

There are a total of six options in the ship’s loadout. The first spot is for thenormal artillery. You can get several types of ammo for this slot by purchasing upgrades, but you’re only allowed to choose one at a time.

The default ammo for the normal artillery allows you to inflict a moderate amount of ship damage and break damage, while the Smasher Shot ammo allows you to inflict high break damage, but moderate ship damage.

The second slot in the loadout allows you to choose your heavy attack ammo, where thedefault ammo is the bestin most cases, and the rest of the four slots in the loadout are for special ammunition. Note that special ammunition is limited, but the capacity can be increased by purchasing upgrades from theShipwright’s Upgrade/Refit menu.

If you scroll down in the Loadout tab, you will notice theadornments section, which is where you can dress your ship using all the cosmetic upgrades that you have received from the Sandras DLC Pack. Once you have your loadout ready, you can head out into the open sea to conquer any stray undead ships or to recapture any island under the Griegr’s influence.