So you can obtain another red gem admiral and aren't sure which you want? If you read this guide, you still won't be sure, but you'll at least be more informed. Introduction This is the sort of guide that I really hate. Far too many people write guides saying, "Look at my haphazard build!" Or worse, "Please watch my YouTube video where I ramble on about my haphazard build!" No one cares about your build, just like no one outside of your league cares who is on your fantasy football team. And yet, a lot of players do get a red gem admiral voucher or enough red gems to buy an admiral and then ask which one to get. The canonical, correct answer to that question is, it depends on what you want from the admiral. But leaving it at that is unsatisfying, so I'd like to at least tell you what the various admirals offer. I make no effort at all in comparing adventuring admirals versus trade admirals versus combat admirals. Rather, I put them in separate sections and leave it at that. You should have some idea which of the three is most interesting to you. Within each section, however, I sort the admirals roughly from best to worst. This is pretty heavily a matter of opinion, and even various top end players will often have differing opinions. Different players have different biases about what matters, and that leads to differing opinions. So I'll tell you my own biases, which inform my own opinions. Some players use very different sets of mates for different activities. I don't do that, but use the same mates for nearly everything, only swapping out a few for salvage. This means I can have more SS-grade mates and higher fleet skill levels in a given loadout, but fewer mates specifically optimized for the activity that I'm doing. It also means that I regard far fewer mates as useful, as I only have room for 70 in my main fleet, rather than using well over 100 situationally as some other players do. I do all three of adventuring, trading, and combat. My fleet is probably most optimized for land exploration, so I favor mates with effects that increase your land exploration combat value, but it's hardly a pure land exploration fleet. I also value fishing. For trading, I highly value getting to a 100% negotiation success rate, and that means highly valuing mates with the "natural-born merchant" effect. I mostly ignore effects that benefit only one type of trade goods. Combat for me is mostly skirmish and running consecutive combat overnight, though I also do guild assault. My fleet is not at all optimized for assaults such as the stingray or the whale whose name gets censored here. For each admiral, I'll list five sections. First is who the admiral was in real life, at least if it was a real person. Second is what the admiral's chronicle is about. I regard plot points from early in a chronicle as not really being spoilers, though I will hide key plot points from later in a chronicle behind spoiler tags. I rate the chronicles on how good the story is, on a scale of one to five stars. Third is the benefit from using your admiral specifically as an admiral, which means the admiral's orders that are unavailable when you have a different admiral active. Fourth is the benefit from using your admiral as a mate, from stats, effects, and skills. Admirals have very high stats, and two primary stats as compared to one for other mates, so they often make good mates. This lists the admiral's primary stats, and the admiral will have a higher value in the first stat than the second. The final section for each admiral is any other mates associated with the admiral who I regard as good enough to use in my primary fleet. Most admirals have several associated mates that you cannot obtain without having the admiral. These mates are often useful because you can acquire contracts for them far more easily than high grade mates not associated with any admiral. I assume that you never buy admirals' memoirs. They are as expensive as buying another admiral, and usually far less valuable than actually getting another admiral. If you're willing to spend enough money for memoirs to be a serious consideration, then you're willing to spend enough to buy all of the admirals, so which ones to prioritize isn't really a consideration. Adventuring admirals As I see it, there are four adventuring admirals who are valuable and three that really aren't. You could put my top four in any order and I wouldn't argue that you're wrong. If you rank any of the other three as better than any of my top four, then I would argue that you're wrong. But I promised to sort them all, so here you go. People really don't buy adventuring admirals for the admiral's orders, so I'll skip that section for each admiral in this section. Zheng He Reality: Zheng He was a Ming admiral in the early 15th century. He sailed to southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and eastern Africa. He was sufficiently accomplished that his chronicle required much less embellishment than most others that are based on real people. Chronicle (****): Zheng He travels to southeast Asia, India, and eastern Africa. He is an adventuring admiral with a combat chronicle, as his chronicle includes many battles, especially against pirates. As a mate (nature, scouting): He gets some useful effects, including enchanted ability, skilled sail handling, and short rations lv 2. He also gets two good skills in area ram: quarreling and wild melee: poison lv 2. He also gets Chinese level 5. On net, he's an excellent mate that you should want in your primary fleet. Associated mates: Mei Ling is good enough to be useful. She's an S-grade biologist, so she gets beast hunting and has nature as her primary stat. Her skills and other effects aren't great, Ellizabeth Shirland Reality: Elizabeth Shirland was a real person, but she was probably never a pirate and the legends about her have little basis in reality. Chronicle (*): Elizabeth Shirland goes on an adventure with Olivia Mandeville seeking treasure left by John Mandeville, who is widely regarded as a fraud. The admiral is cruel, a con artist, and otherwise unlikable. That others are willing to go to great lengths to help her is bizarre and jarring. The chronicle tries to fit as many other red gem admirals into the story as possible, and many of the cameos just don't work for the story. Some parts are hard to follow, and I'm still not sure what happened in the ending. As a mate (aesthetics, nature): She gets a lot of very useful effects, including seize opportunity, pirate hunting, and pirate eradication. She also gets several salvage effects. This makes her a valuable mate to have. Associated mates: Olivia Mandeville is hugely valuable and belongs in your main fleet. She gets natural-born merchant, rare exploration, and deep-sea salvage technician lv 2. She also gets the skill area ram: quarreling lv 2. Nui Hoku Reality: As best as I can tell, Nui Hoku is a completely fictional character that the game developers made up. Chronicle (*****): Nui Hoku goes on an adventure with her friends Nani Mahina and La Ikaika. They discover ancient steles that Nani attempts to translate. Along the way, they meet all of the starter admirals, letting you see what they are doing after their own chronicles finish. Nani Mahina gets help from Ranajame to translate the steles, and discovers all seven to learn about some (fictional) ancient history of humanity. This is arguably the best story of any red gem admiral, and Elizabeth Shirland's chronicle obviously tries and fails to copy the formula. As a mate (scouting, nature): Nui Hoku gets some useful effects, with seize opportunity and skilled sail handling. She also gets two excellent skills in wild melee: poison and area artillery: quarreling. Associated mates: None worth using. Pilly Reis Reality: Pilly Reis was the perfect mate in Uncharted Waters: New Horizons. His name there was likely a mistranslation of Piri Reis, an Ottoman admiral and cartographer from the early 16th century. Chronicle (*****): Pilly Reis is the best admiral that the Ottoman Empire has. The sultan knows it and wants him to fight for the empire. But Pilly's uncle bequeathed him a mysterious map and Pilly wants to investigate. For a while, he tries to investigate on the side while still doing his job. After a while, he goes full YOLO, follows the map, and discovers paradise. But if he stays, he'll never be able to leave, so he returns home, then denies that he ever found it. As a mate (nature, aesthetics): Pilly has some valuable effects, including seize opportunity, enchanted ability, pirate eradication, skilled sail handling, and short rations. His combat skills are less useful, though. Associated mates: None worth using. Pietro Conti Reality: Pietro Conti is a fictional admiral from Uncharted Waters: New Horizons. He is the only admiral from that game not to be a starter admiral here. Chronicle (****): This follows the old console game story. Pietro is left with crushing debt inherited from his father, but wants to be an adventurer. Joao's mother offers to pay off his debt if he'll keep an eye on Joao as he sets off on his own adventure. Pietro agrees to the deal, but mostly ignores the terms and goes on his own adventure. He eventually pays off handsomely for the duchess when he finds Raul Franco, Joao's grandfather, and brings him back to Portugal. As a mate (aesthetics, nature): Pietro gets some useful effects, most notably beast hunting. Combined with his high stats, this at least makes him usable in your main fleet. Associated mates: None worth using. Hong Gildong Reality: Hong Gildong is a fictional character from a Korean novel written around the end of the 16th century. Chronicle (**): Hong Gildong's chronicle isn't really a bad story in itself. But it's really lore-breaking, far more so than even Iyolin's chronicle, which is explicitly a crossover with a different universe. Suddenly magic is real, and you need to find some magical gems to ward off ghost ships from a mythical paradise that is actually cursed. You'll need the help of a dragon who lives at the bottom of the ocean, but can bring you to meet him without drowning you. The story would fit much better in a high fantasy world like Azeroth or Tyria than here. As a mate (scouting aesthetics): Hong Gildong has bad stats, bad effects, and bad skills, making him basically useless. Associated mates: None worth using. Owning Hong Gildgong gets you access to Yuldo, a fictional island in the open Pacific. That's the main thing you get from buying him, other than some mates to ship off to your dispatch fleets. Much of his chronicle requires 100 momentum and 150 seaworthiness, so lower level players may be unable to complete it. Miranda Verte Reality: Miranda Verte is a fictional character from an Uncharted Waters game that never had an official English translation. Chronicle (***): Miranda happens to meet legendary adventurer Pietro Conti, and she mistakenly thinks that he asked her to marry him someday. So she sets out on an adventure to find him. At first, she is completely incompetent, but she learns fast. When she finally finds Pietro, she is devastated to learn that he doesn't remember her. But she helps some Incas who were invaded by Spanish conquistadors and eventually Pietro asks her to marry him for real. As a mate (scouting, aesthetics): Miranda does get somewhat useful effects, including rare exploration and skilled sail handling. But they're not useful enough to make up for bad stats and make her worthwhile in a main fleet. Associated mates: None worth using. If you buy Miranda's memoir, she gets an item to equip that gives you +3 to all land exploration stats. That is valuable, and if you buy memoirs, she belongs significantly higher on this list. But without that, all you get is some mates to ship off to dispatch, and my rankings assume no memoirs. Trade admirals All red gem trade admirals except William Adams get an admiral's order that gives +8.5% overcharge to each of three types of goods. This is a larger overcharge than Ali's 7.5%, but it only affects three types of goods, while Ali's skill affects all trade goods. No admiral currently in the game gives overcharge specifically to ores or metals. All of the trade admirals bring significant value for buying them. In most cases, the admiral himself is useful. Kim Mandeok is the glaring exception, but she has some associated mates who are valuable. Imai Saki Reality: As best as I can tell, Imai Saki is a completely fictional character that the game developers made up. Chronicle (****): Saki's father wants her to get married. She wants to sailing around as a merchant. They cut a deal in which her father agrees to allow her to try her hand as a merchant, but if she fails, she has to give up on her dream and get married. Her friend Fuukichi believes in her, so Saki sets out to try her luck as a merchant. Her father eventually comes around when Saki is successful enough to attract the attention of Oda Nobunaga. It takes her brother much longer to accept that she is a skilled merchant, but he eventually does. As an admiral: Saki has an admiral's order that gives +8.5% overcharge to crafts, livestock, and fabrics. She also gets one with +15% overcharge to any type of goods, but only if negotiation is successful. The latter is the primary reason why she is regarded as the game's best trade admiral. As a mate (negotiation, trade): Saki has substantial value due to wondrous ability and area ram: quarreling. Her stats are also excellent. Associated mates: Shiomi Fuukichi is very valuable, with effects of natural-born merchant, short rations, and seasoned sail handling. William Adams Reality: William Adams was an Englishman who sailed to Japan in 1600. He was an advisor to the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early 17th century. Chronicle (*****): William Adams starts out shipwrecked in Japan. He gets some help from Yasuemon, then eventually makes himself valuable to Tokugawa Ieyasu. William wants to return to England to see his wife Mary, but Ieyasu regards him as too valuable and won't let him leave. Eventually Ieyasu relents, allowing William to return to England and be reunited with his wife. In real-life, when Ieyasu finally allowed William to leave, he chose not to. As an admiral: None of the admiral's orders that William gets are all that useful. In particular, he does not get an overcharge order like most admirals. As a mate (sales, negotiation): William Adams is an excellent mate, with seize opportunity, enchanted ability, and gifted merchant. Associated mates: Umino Stella is very valuable, as an S-grade negotiator with a high negotiation stat. She also gets techniques of bargaining and expert overcharger lv 2. Kim Mandeok Reality: Kim Mandeok was born poor, but became a wealthy business woman on Jeju Island in the late 18th century. She was known for philanthropy, importing rice to feed the poor during a famine. Chronicle (*): The developers tried way too hard to make this chronicle awesome, and instead made it completely incoherent. There are gaping plot holes in which various characters behave bizarrely. This is also the chronicle that gave shopping list chronicle steps a bad name, as several steps are rather painful to do unless you're willing to burn a lot of blue gems to refresh the market. As an admiral: Mandeok has an admiral's order that gives +8.5% overcharge to dyes, sundries, and liquor. As a mate (sales, purchasing): Once you finish Mandeok's chronicle, ship her off to dispatch and don't look back. She has bad stats, bad effects, and bad skills. You buy Mandeok for her associated mates, not for the admiral herself. Associated mates: Kim Hongdo is an excellent mate, wtih natural-born merchant, dedicated explorer, and angler, as well as a high nature value. Louis Antoine de Bougainville is also a useful mate, with natural-born merchant, seasoned sail handling, and short rations. Leon Franco Reality: Leon Franco is a fictional character from the old console games. He is the father of Joao Franco, one of the starting admirals. Chronicle (****): Leon's father took out enormous loans to fund an expedition that would make him rich. The expedition never returned, leaving Leon with mountains of debt and no father. He tries his best to pay off the loans while also going out searching for his father. He sees Princess Kristina and is smitten with her, even though she is way out of his league. Then the princess gets kidnapped. Leon eventually rescues her, then they are married. As an admiral: Leon has an admiral's order that gives +8.5% overcharge to weapons, seasoning, and luxuries. As a mate (sales, purchasing): Leon does not get good effects or skills. He does get Portuguese level 5, however. Associated mates: Aljeuna is an excellent mate, in spite of being C-grade. In addition to having nature as his primary stat, he gets beast hunting, beast extermination, and deep sea salvage expert. Chand Bibi Reality: Chand Bibi was the regent of Bijapur and later Ahmednagar in the late 16th century while the designated sultans were too young to govern properly. Both sultanates are in western India. She doesn't seem to have ever gone to sea or left India at all. Chronicle (***): Chand Bibi wants to be a general like her brothers. Her father wishes to marry her off in a royal marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring nation. So she runs away with a Portuguese sailor. They meet Aai Mata, who has a terrifying vision of a fiery future. Chand Bibi ends up being the trade admiral with a combat chronicle. There is a scramble to get control of Roman fire, which is some super weapon that causes an unquenchable fire. Eventually, she saves the world with the help of a lot of pepper spray. As an admiral: Chand Bibi has an admiral's order that gives +8.5% overcharge to food, artwork, and spices. As a mate (negotiation, sales): Chand Bibi has excellent stats, but nothing else particularly notable. Associated mates: None worth using. Date Masamune Reality: Date Masamune was a daimyo from eastern Japan in the early 17th century, where he was an ally of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He funded a voyage to Europe, but doesn't seem to have ever personally left Japan. Chronicle (**): Masamune is a daimyo from Sendai in eastern Japan. He is nominally allied with the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. He sets out to become a wealthy trader and make Japan into a wealthy trading nation. He is also completely insane and reckless, with his subordinates often having to rein him in. Ieyasu eventually decrees that agriculture, not trade, is the basis of a stable nation. He orders Masamune to return to Sendai, and all his trade contacts are for naught. As an admiral: Masamune has an admiral's order that gives +8.5% overcharge to firearms, wares, and medicine. As a mate (purchasing, negotiation): Masamune's main value comes from having Japanese language level 5. Associated mates: None worth using. Combat admirals (part 1) Combat admirals are, as you might guess, the best at combat. I have ignored the admiral's orders of non-combat admirals because if what you care about is combat, then combat admirals get better ones. Anne Bonny Reality: Anne Bonny was a real woman who became a pirate in the early 18th century. She wasn't very good at it and died quickly. Then some English man wrote a book about her and Mary Read that was basically fan fiction, which made them famous. Chronicle (***): Anne Bonny is a pirate who is reckless to the extent of having a deathwish. She goes on an adventure with John Rackham, who is a coward and wants to back out of everything, and Mary Read, who is more balanced. Anne finds a treasure map that she is convinced is real and wants to find the treasure. They go all over the world chasing clues before finally finding the treasure at the Galapagos Islands. Anne is excited, but the treasure is worth a lot less than you could get from a mundane trade run. As an admiral: Anne gets some melee orders, but nothing that important. As a mate (melee, artillery): Anne gets a bunch of melee skills and effects. Wild melee: poison is nice, but apart from that, nothing special. Associated mates: Jeanne Baret is one of the best mates in the game and the primary reason why I put Anne as #1 here. In addition to having nature as her primary stat, she gets natural-born merchant, beast hunting, additional durability increase, combative explorer, and celestial sea treasure hunter. Sayyida al Hurra Reality: Sayyida al-Hurra was a pirate and governor of Tetouan (in modern Morocco) in the early 16th century. She sought revenge for having been expelled from Granada by Spain. Chronicle (***): Sayyida initially has to deal with some pirates in her territory. Then she hears that Espana is planning a major invasion and takes many measures to try to head it off or weaken the invaders before they come. As an admiral: Sayyida gets unity for revenge, which is the best admiral's order in the game for healing and damage reduction. She also gets fatal, which is very good for increasing damage dealt. Many top players would make Sayyida the top combat admiral. I don't because battles where healing or damage reduction matter are pretty rare. As a mate (support, melee): Sayyida gets a bunch of support effects, most importantly create opportunity. She also gets cleanse: battle formation, which is usually useless, but very important in certain situations. Associated mates: None worth using Qi Jiguang Reality: Qi Jiguang was a Ming admiral in the mid-16th century. He fought pirates and wrote two books on military strategy. Chronicle (****): The Ming Empire has an enormous problem with corruption. Jiguang tries to fight off pirates with force while simultaneously fending off corrupt bureaucrats who care nothing about the harm that the pirates do. Eventually, he discovers that Dara Sheen is hiring the pirates to go attack so that he can swoop in with relief supplies shortly thereafter and take credit for helping the people, thus convincing authorities to open up trade with him. As an admiral: I haven't used his admiral's orders, but neither have I heard other players saying that they're anything special. So he probably isn't worth much here. As a mate (artillery, melee): Jiguang has some nice stats and area artillery: quarreling. Associated mates: Qin Liangyu is valuable, with melee as her primary stat, as well as great confusion melee and additional melee on melee effects. Her skills of enhanced melee: damage rudder and wild melee: poison are also excellent. Grace O'Malley Reality: Grace O'Malley was the head of a dynasty in western Ireland in the late 16th century. She fought with England, and while she was a seafarer, it isn't clear whether she was ever really a pirate. Chronicle (*****): Grace's country needs her to go to sea and fight. Her children need her to stay with them in Dublin. But she has to go fight, and so she does. Then her children get kidnapped and she has to travel all over the world to find and rescue them. As an admiral: Fleet Charge makes Grace the best admiral in the game for battles that focus on ramming attacks. It's not just that obvious, powerful effects of the order. Using only 50 morale means that she can use it at the very start rather than waiting for it to charge, and then critical hits recharging morale allow her to keep it up all battle long. This is tremendously useful for assaults where ramming is the preferred attack type, such as the ghost ship guild assault. As a mate (ramming, artillery): Grace has seize opportunity and area ram: quarreling, both of which are valuable. Associated mates: None worth using. Zheng Chenggong Reality: Zheng Chenggong was a Ming general who tried to preserve the Ming dynasty as they were conquered by the Qing in the mid-17th century. He ultimately failed and fled to Taiwan. Chronicle (*****): Chenggong doesn't realize that his father, Zheng Zhilong, is corrupt and will do whatever it takes to get ahead, including bribery and piracy. Rather, Chenggong believes in doing what is right. The Ming Empire is facing a Qing invasion. Things look bleak for Ming, so all of the corrupt officials who are in it only for themselves defect to Qing, including Zhilong. Chenggong fights onward in a doomed effort to save the Ming Empire. As an admiral: Chenggong's admiral's orders aren't particularly interesting. As a mate (melee, ramming): Confusion melee and nullify melee damage are nice effects. Meanwhile, enhanced melee: damage rudder and wild melee: poison are excellent skills to have. Associated mates: None worth using. Rozalia Polhem Reality: Rozalia is a possibly fictional character who was supposedly the aunt of Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem. Chronicle (**): Rozalia's father manages a shipyard, but goes on a voyage to North America and never returns. That leaves Rozalia to run the shipyard together with the genius engineer Pia Frode and the tough guy Sven Gustafson, which will cost you quite a lot of ducats. Gustav II Adolf, the king of Sweden, commissions a magnificent new ship that capsizes shortly after its launch, which creates an opening for Rozalia's shipyard to build a replacement, the "Prototype Ship of the Line". As an admiral: Rozalia gets some useful heals among her admiral's orders. As a mate (support, artillery): Rozalia has create opportunity, which is pretty valuable on its own, but nothing else important. Associated mates: None worth using. Combat admirals (part 2) (The combat admirals section had to be split because Steam caps the maximum length of guide sections.) Maribel Reality: Maribel is a completely fictional character invented by the game's developers. Chronicle (***): Maribel is a pirate who is more interested in having fun than in getting rich. She quits working for Edward Teach to set out on her own, then goes hunting for treasure. She eventually learns to think of her loyal subordinates as family. As an admiral: Nothing important As a mate (artillery, ramming): Maribel has nice stats and a bunch of artillery effects. Area artillery: quarreling is nice, but she's perhaps useful in a primary fleet, but hardly special. Associated mates: None worth using. Yi Sun-sin Reality: Yi Sun-sin was a Joseon admiral who fought off the Japanese invasion of Korea in the late 16th century. Chronicle: Yi Sun-sin does not have a chronicle. As an admiral: Nothing special, and I've never heard of anyone using him as an admiral. As a mate (artillery, melee): The key benefit of Yi Sun-Sin is Korean language level 5. Apart from that, he has nice stats, but nothing else of value. Associated mates: There are no mates associated with Yi Sun-sin. Salvador Leis Reality: Salvador Leis is a fictional character from an Uncharted Waters game that never had an official English translation. Chronicle (****): Salvador is the son of the leader of the Algiers pirates, but his mother is dead. He has to work his way up within the organization rather than just having everything handed to him via nepotism. The Algiers pirates fight a long war against Mahomet Sirocco, who betrayed them. Then Salvador has to fight against his fellow pirates after they get control of a "guardian stone", which is way too powerful. As an admiral: Nothing particularly important. As a mate (melee, ramming): Salvador has nice stats, as well as Great Confusion Melee. That's enough to justify using him in your primary fleet, but it's not great. Associated mates: None worth using. Iyolin Pandragon Reality: Iyolin Pandragon is a fictional character from the Korean game The War of Genesis. Chronicle (***): Iyolin somehow ended up on Earth instead of the world that she is from, along with some of her friends. She has to work to figure out how to get home. Her chronicle starts shortly before the starter admirals' chronicles start and is basically an alternate history version of how her sudden appearance would have changed things for the other admirals. It's not as lore-breaking as I expected from an explicit crossover with another universe, but there are some things that notably contradict canon, such as Paula suddenly having a surname. As an admiral: Iyolin has some powerful offensive admiral's orders. They're situational, however, and the inability to get her contracts in an inn makes her very expensive to make usable. As a mate (melee, ramming): Iyolin has good base stats, as well as enhanced melee: damage rudder and wild melee: poison lv 2. The problem is that you can't get contracts for her in inns, which will necessarily leave her weak unless you use a bunch of common contracts on her. She's not the sort of top tier mate who justifies using S-grade common contracts, which means she's pretty useless. Associated mates: There are no mates associated with Iyolin. There kind of were when her event ran, but they were gacha-only and completely unobtainable now.