The 9 Dovion Ship Lines: The Complete Tree Guide
In Dovion, your ship is never a finished product. From the modest Chaloupe (your starting boat) to the legendary level-45 hulls, Dovion's ship tree counts 31 hulls spread across 9 lines. If you've played Diep.io, you know the drill: level up, pick a branch, and watch your playstyle sharpen at every tier. Except here it all happens at sea, with torpedoes, lightning bolts, and sirens. This guide walks you through the whole tree.
How the upgrade tree works
Everyone starts in the Chaloupe, the tiny level-1 boat. From there, four milestones pace your progress:
- Level 5: you pick a general orientation among three paths.
- Level 15: you commit to one of the 9 lines — the real career choice.
- Level 30: your line upgrades to its mid-tier hull, noticeably stronger.
- Level 45: you reach your line's final hull, the top of the tree.
Every line has one unique active ability, triggered with the E key, with a cooldown shown on screen. Space, meanwhile, stays dedicated to firing. One line, one verb: ram, plant, reveal, strike... You'll find every active spelled out in our guide to the E-key abilities.
Level 5: the three starting paths
Your first fork in the road, three philosophies:
- Goélette — the Skirmish path: fast, built to strike and run.
- Brigantin — the War path: sturdy, built for head-on combat.
- Chalutier — the Control and Economy path: a huge cargo hold for hoarding gold.
This first choice deserves some thought — we help you decide in a dedicated article (see "Also worth reading" below).
The 9 lines, hull by hull
Narval, the ram
Corsaire → Corsaire noir → Trirème des Sirènes (Siren Trireme). Active: the Charge, a ramming rush whose damage scales with your speed. Careful: charging into empty water stuns you instead. The small hulls on this path can even harness sirens into a sled.
Torpilles, the punisher
Torpilleur → Cotre-lame → Foudre des mers (Sea Lightning). Active: the Éventail de torpilles (Torpedo Fan) — 3 torpedoes at once, 5 at level 45. Brutal against anything that maneuvers poorly.
Spectre, the invisible one
Clipper → Écumeur → Vaisseau Fantôme (Ghost Ship). The stealth path: the Ghost Ship carries the Voiles Mortes (Dead Sails), which make it literally vanish from enemy screens.
Bordées, the flank artillery
Frégate → Navire de ligne → Dreadnought. Active: the Grande Bordée (Great Broadside), a simultaneous volley from both flanks whose recoil can double as a dash (the famous "recoil-surf"). As a passive, the Rideau de charbon (Coal Curtain) leaves a wall of smoke in your wake.
Mortier, indirect fire
Bombarde → Monitor cuirassé → Titan cuirassé (Armored Titan). Active: a lobbed obus en cloche (Arcing Shell) aimed at your cursor, sailing clean over obstacles. No island protects anyone from this line.
Orage, the chain lightning
Galion → Galion royal → Galion d'Orage (Storm Galleon). Active: the Chaîne d'orage (Storm Chain) — you hold to charge, release, and the bolt bounces from hull to hull. The nightmare of tightly packed groups.
Pièges, the architect
Caboteur → Forteresse flottante → Brûle-Flots (Wave Burner). Active: the Estacades, floating log barricades worth roughly 250 HP that block ships and cannonballs alike and damage on contact. The Brûle-Flots can set them ablaze, and the Forteresse flottante (Floating Fortress) carries the Fanal (Beacon), a beam that pierces fog and reveals invisible ships.
Flottille, armed trade
Marchand armé → Croiseur marchand → Armada marchande (Merchant Armada). Active: the Pavillon d'Armada (Armada Banner), which commands an escort. It's also the line with the biggest cargo hold in the game.
Profondeurs, support of the seas
Baleinier → Jonque au trésor → Léviathan des Abysses (Abyssal Leviathan). Active: the Gong des profondeurs (Deep Gong), which heals everything around you and calls in whales. Steam-powered ships, and excellent at fishing.
What about the Golden Dutchman?
There's a 32nd hull, secret and outside the tree: the Hollandais Doré (Golden Dutchman), visible in the game's gallery. How do you get it? A deliberate mystery — you'll have to go find out at sea.
How to pick your line
Three questions are usually enough:
- Do you prefer contact or range? Contact: Narval, Bordées. Range: Mortier, Torpilles, Orage.
- Do you want to dominate through combat or through gold? Combat: most lines. Economy: Flottille, Profondeurs.
- Do you like to outsmart people? Spectre for invisibility, Pièges for turning the sea into a maze.
No line is objectively "the best" — each has its counters, as our article Who Beats Who? shows.
Also worth reading
- Level 5: Goélette, Brigantin, or Chalutier?
- Comparing all 9 lines: strengths, weaknesses, style
The tree is waiting for you — every match is a chance to try a new branch. Play Dovion for free, straight from your browser, no download needed.