Water Bucket
This article is timeless and should be accurate for any version of the game.
| “ | A bucket that holds water. You can toss water onto fires to extinguish them. | „ |
| — In-game description |
The Water Bucket is a utility item used to move water from one location to another: to put out fires and remove water from flooded Large Ships or Puddles.
Uses
Usage
Filling the bucket:
- Put the Water Bucket in the primary slot
- Equip it with
1 - Get close to a body of water, flooded Large Ship compartment, puddle, Water Well, or put water cans in your inventory
- Fill it with
R(2s animation). If using water cans, each filling action consumes one can and fills only half the bucket. - Once full, its weight changes from 1.8% to 60%, and it now has two charges.
Throwing the water:
- Aim with
RMB - Throw the water with
LMB
The Water Bucket has a very short range and only has two "shots" before needing to be refilled.
Extinguishing Fires
Throwing water on a structure on fire with a filled bucket will slightly decrease the fire and help extinguish it. Steam will come out of the structure if the water correctly hit the fire. How much water is necessary to put out a fire depends on the fire's intensity. Using a Fire Engine rather than Water Buckets is much more efficient.
Water can also be thrown on soldiers that are on fire to extinguish them.
Bailing out Flooded Large Ships
Hits on Large Ships have a chance to punch a hole in their hull. This can cause the ship to flood if the hole is below the water level, which will cause the ship to start taking in water.
In order to remove this water, Water Buckets must be filled up and the collected water thrown overboard. Simply filling the bucket is not enough.
Removing Puddles
During Rain Storms, Water Buckets can be used to collect the water in puddles on the ground or in a Trench to remove them.
Production
| Structure | Input(s) | Output | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factory (Utility) | 80 x Basic Materials  |
Crate of 50 x Water Bucket  |
00:00:40 |
Storage
It does not stack in structure or vehicle inventories (1 per slot). It can only be stored in the stockpile of Bases (32k max). It cannot be submitted into a stockpile if it is not empty.
Crates of Water Bucket can be directly submitted to any item stockpile that accepts that item to transfer their content. The crates can also be stored in the crate stockpiles of Storage Depots (1000 public, 100 per Reserve Stockpile), Seaports (1000 public, 100 per Reserve Stockpile), Shipping Containers (60), or Storage Ships (1000).
It can be transported by almost any vehicle with inventory slots. However it is much more efficient to transport it in bulk amounts as crates, either delivering them to a Base's stockpile with a Truck or to a crate stockpile with shipping vehicles carrying Shipping Containers.
It cannot be submitted into a stockpile if it is not empty.
Tips
- While Water Buckets are essential, due to their crate size, player do not have to produce a lot.
- Water Buckets and Water should always be stocked in a base, just in case a fire breaks out, which will allow defenders to quickly respond and extinguish it.
- Water sources instantly fill up the Water Bucket, while refilling it from water cans only refills one charge. This can be useful depending on the location of the fire
Tactics
If the town you are in has a Water Well nearby, have a bunch of filled Water Buckets stored nearby there so you can quickly grab them and use it when a structure is on fire. Additionally, players should be aware of nearby water sources, as certain areas are more susceptible to fire due to lack of water (such as certain inland regions).
Due to the water splash having a 3.5m effect radius, it is able to hit a somewhat wide area. This allows players to only need to hit the fire in its general direction, and not worry about accuracy.
Large Ship Crews Due to Large Ship crews being the largest vehicles in the game, and having the larger crews overall, it is important that most, if not all personnel be equipped for multiple roles. This can mean being equipped for infantry combat (in case of boarding actions), ship repair (when flooding happens), and Ammo loading (carrying ammunition to the main guns).
Trivia
- When the fire mechanic was introduced in Update 1.50 ('Inferno'), Water Buckets were the only way to extinguish fires.
- Over the course of the game, firefighting mechanics would be buffed in certain ways, such as Water Bucket's overall effectiveness against fires, adding an additional charge (allowing to throw water twice), and the introduction of Fire Engines.
- When Large Ships were introduced in Update 1.54 ('Naval Warfare'), Water Buckets were changed so that they could not be stored in a stockpile when they are filled.
- This was added during the devbranch, as players found that they could bypass the bailing water overboard mechanic and simply scoop up the water and storing it (which meant players could stay below decks if leaks happened). With this change, players must scoop up the water, and toss it overboard if they do not want their Large Ship to sink.
Gallery
A Warden soldier holding a filled Water Bucket
A Colonial soldier filling up a Water Bucket from a water source
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
