Many ships in the War Sails DLC have a figurehead slot, and for a lot of players it stays empty for a very long time. The game does not tell you much about where figureheads come from, which is why so many players beat lord after lord at sea and still have nothing to show for it.

This guide will tell you how unlocking figureheads works in version 1.4.8 (based on the game code), why you might not be getting any, how to farm them, and which ones are worth putting on your ships.

You get a figurehead by winning a naval battle against enemy parties led by a lord. Each win has a 40% to 60% chance to give you one of the figureheads mounted on the defeated ships that you do not own yet. After every unlock, there is an 8-day cooldown before the next one can drop.

How to get figureheads

The only way to get a figurehead in a normal campaign is to win a naval battle that you take part in yourself. Land battles never give one, no matter who you defeat, and there are no special feats or quests tied to specific figureheads either.

When you win a sea battle, the game rolls a chance based on the highest-ranked hero you defeated among the enemy parties:

That last row matters more than it looks. Pirates, bandits and most caravans or patrols that travel without a lord give you nothing at all, however many of them you sink.

What you actually get

If the roll succeeds, the game picks randomly from the figureheads that are mounted on the defeated ships and that you do not own yet.

Ships that belong to the defeated army leader’s party count double in that pick, with a weight of 0.2 per ship compared to 0.1 for the others. So when you beat a whole army, the leader’s figurehead is the most likely result, but the other lords’ figureheads can still come up.

Mind that this has a nasty side effect. If none of the defeated ships carries a figurehead you are missing, you will get nothing, even when the roll itself succeeded. You can see the enemy figureheads on their ships during the battle, so make sure to pay attention to them.

When it works, a green message saying “New figurehead “X” unlocked!” appears after the battle. The figurehead does not show up as loot, so there is no point looking for it in the loot screen. The unlock is permanent for that campaign.

Does culture matter?

A common belief is that you need to fight lords of a certain culture to get that culture’s figurehead. That is only partly true. What really matters is what their ships carry.

AI lords pick one figurehead when they get their ships, and they keep that same one on all of them. Figureheads of their own culture are twice as likely in that pick, but any figurehead is possible. This explains why players sometimes report odd results, such as an Imperial figurehead from Vlandian lords. The game is working as intended there, and that lord simply had Imperial figureheads on his ships.

What about capturing ships?

You might think that capturing an enemy ship with a nice figurehead lets you keep it. Unfortunately not. About half the time the figurehead is stripped when the ship is captured, and a ship that changes owner to your clan loses its figurehead in general. As such, the unlock after a won battle is the only way to get them (the console aside, more on that at the end).

Why you are not getting any figureheads

If you have beaten dozens of lords at sea and every figurehead still says “not unlocked”, the game is probably not bugged. A handful of reasons stack up quickly, and most players run into more than one of them:

• You are still on the cooldown. After an unlock, nothing new can drop for 8 in-game days, no matter how many kings you defeat in that time.
• The enemy had no lord. Pirates, bandits and lordless caravans or patrols have a 0% chance.
• The defeated ships carried nothing you are missing. If every enemy ship had a figurehead you own or none at all, even a successful roll will give you nothing.
• You won on land. Only naval battles count, so sieges and field battles against the same lords do nothing for your collection.
• You were not in the battle yourself. The win has to be one you take part in.
• Plain bad luck. Even against a kingdom ruler, 40% of the rolls fail.

The third point gets worse the more figureheads you own. Early on, almost every lord carries something new. Later, most lords you meet will carry figureheads you already have, and the last few become a little bit tricky to find.

There is also a myth worth clearing up. Some players believe specific figureheads come from specific feats, for example that you get the Ram by ramming ships or the Deer for an excellent ram. No feat-based unlocks exist in the game. Every figurehead is decided by the same roll after a won sea battle, and the only thing that decides which one you get is what the defeated ships were carrying.

Farming figureheads

Once you know the rules, farming is fairly simple. The method players use is to camp your fleet right outside the port of a town you are at war with. Lords who leave the town will step into the water right next to you, and you can engage them immediately instead of chasing them across the sea.

A few things make this a lot more efficient:

• Go for kingdom rulers and clan leaders first, since they give 60% and 50% instead of 40%.
• Look at what their ships carry before engaging, and skip lords whose figurehead you already own (unless you want the fight for loot and prisoners anyway).
• Beating an army is attractive because all of its ships go into the pick, and the leader’s ships count double.
• After an unlock, stop. With the 8-day cooldown, there is no point fighting nonstop. Use the time to repair your ships, sell captured ones and so on, then go back to the port.

Rinse and repeat. It is not the fastest grind in the game, but with the cooldown in mind you at least do not waste fights that could never give you anything.

All 16 figureheads

For reference, here is the full list in version 1.4.8, with the culture each figurehead belongs to and its effect. The culture only affects which lords are a bit more likely to carry it.

As the name suggests, Wings of Victory is meant to give your party more experience from battles. Players unlock it normally, but the experience bonus could not be found being applied anywhere in the game code checked for this guide, and no player has posted a measurement so far. Treat the +15% as unconfirmed for now.

Which ships can use a figurehead

Not every hull has a figurehead slot. Here is the split for the regular (non-quest) ships.

Ships that can carry a figurehead:

• Lodya, Drakkar, Battle Knarr, Longship, Light Longship
• Barlinnger, Cog, Roundship
• Qalguk, Sambuk, Ghurab
• Dromakion, Liburna, Dromon

Ships that cannot:

• Knarr, Trade Cog, Birlinn
• Dhow, Western Galley, Eastern Galley, Corbita
• Fishing Ship, Southern Fishing Ship

You fit a figurehead at a port, in the ship upgrade screen, where every ship that supports one has a figurehead slot. Figureheads you do not have yet are listed there as “not unlocked”, which is a handy way to check what is still missing from your collection.

Players also report a trick to put the same figurehead on several ships: gift a ship to the party of a clan member in your army, fit the figurehead on another ship at port, repeat, and then take the ships back. This has not been verified for this guide, so treat it as a player report rather than a confirmed method.

Best figureheads

There is no single best figurehead. Depending on how your fleet actually fights, a different one comes out on top, so here are my picks by situation.

Boarding fleets

Most naval fights end up as melee on deck, so this is probably the category that matters most. Oxen is probably the strongest pick here. A flat +10 hitpoints on every crew member does not care how good your troops are, which makes it especially strong for crews of cheap troops in poor armor.

Boar is the main alternative. Since it adds 10% to the armor your crew already wears, it scales the other way. It is fairly solid for well-equipped elite crews and quite weak for cheap troops in light gear. If your boarding crews are mostly top-tier infantry, Boar can beat Oxen. If they are a mix of recruits and mid-tier troops, Oxen is the safer choice.

Siren cuts the melee damage of the boarded enemy crew by 10%, so it also helps the melee side of things, just from the other direction. Turtle is the niche pick for shield-heavy infantry that has to cross under arrow fire, since +40% shield hitpoints means their shields hold out a lot longer before breaking.

Archer and crossbow ships

For ships that rely on bows and crossbows, the choice is between Saber Tooth Tiger and Hawk. Saber Tooth Tiger adds 10% armor penetration, which pays off against well-armored crews (think the elite troops in a lord’s fleet). Hawk adds 15% accuracy, which matters more when your shooters miss a lot, for example at longer range.

In general, I would lean toward Saber Tooth Tiger if you mostly fight lords and Hawk if you are not sure, since a missed shot does no damage at all, however much penetration it has. Raven is only worth it for throwing-heavy crews, as it does nothing for bows or crossbows.

Ramming, ballistas and fire

Ram is the obvious pick for ram-focused heavy ships such as the Dromon, the Liburna or a Lodya with a ram. The +20% applies both to the ship damage and to the morale damage of a ram, so it is not to scoff at if ramming is your main plan. On a ship that rarely rams, though, it does nothing.

Viper is the same story for ballista ships. A 25% faster reload is a strong bonus on a ship built around its ballistas and useless on one without them.

Sea Serpent gives 40% fire damage resistance. That makes it a counter pick for fights against fire-heavy enemies, so you are probably going to swap it out once those fights are over.

Travel and movement

Horse is the campaign map pick. +10% travel speed at sea helps traders, and it also makes it easier to catch lords or escape from fleets you do not want to fight.

Swan and Deer work differently. They affect how the ship moves under sail and under oars. Swan adds sail force, so it suits ships that rely on their sails, while Deer adds oar force, which helps galleys and makes ramming runs easier. That makes Deer a reasonable partner for a ramming fleet, while Swan is more of a general comfort pick.

The weaker ones

Lion gives +10 battle morale to your crew. That is useful if your crews tend to break in long fights, but most of the time one of the combat figureheads above will do more. Dragon is the weakest of the bunch in my opinion, since -5 morale on enemies you board is a very small effect. Wings of Victory would be interesting, but with its bonus unconfirmed it is hard to recommend it as a top pick.

Commodore

Commodore is a Shipmaster perk at skill 275, and it changes how you should think about figureheads. When you lead an army, the crew bonus of your flagship’s figurehead applies to the troops on every ship in the army. For more on the skill trees, see my Bannerlord perks guide.

Bear in mind that this only works for the figureheads that buff your crew directly (Hawk, Saber Tooth Tiger, Boar, Oxen, Raven and Lion’s morale bonus). Ship bonuses like Ram, Viper, Horse, Swan or Deer stay on the flagship itself. So with Commodore, the flagship’s figurehead becomes the most important one you own: Oxen or Boar for boarding-heavy armies, and Hawk or Saber Tooth Tiger if your army leans on archers and crossbowmen.

Unlocking them all with the console

If you just want the figureheads for looks and do not care about the grind, there is a shortcut. With cheats enabled, the console command naval.unlock_figurehead followed by a figurehead id (or “all”) unlocks them. There is also an “Unlock All Figureheads” mod on Nexus that does the same thing.

Conclusion

Figureheads only come from won sea battles against lord-led parties, and only if the defeated ships carry one you are missing, with an 8-day cooldown after each unlock. Camp outside an enemy port, target kings and clan leaders, and wait out the cooldown instead of fighting nonstop. Once you have a few, Oxen is usually the safest all-round pick for boarding crews, and with Commodore it is worth putting your best one on the flagship.