Chief Ballistician of Dock Seven

Tessa Vane-Kettler — The Foundry-Artillerist

A fearless, soot-streaked Brannik master engineer who lugs a shoulder-fired Amber-glass mortar into battle, bombarding the storm with molten shells and clockwork acoustic turrets.

Playstyle

Combat Role
Ranged Damage Dealer (Heavy Ballistics, Overheated Sun-Pitch Cannons & Deployable Resonators)
Kindred
Brannik
Primary Resource
Boiler Pressure (0–100% Heat Gauge; sweet spot between 60–95% empowers all abilities)
Weapons
Heavy Amber-glass Mortar / Hand-Cannon & Wrench
Armor Type
Medium Riveted Foundry-Leather & Copper Brigandine
Complexity Rating
2 / 3 (Moderate; requires managing the heat sweet-spot and positioning turrets)

The Iron-Chime Syndicate · The Cinder-Reach & Brass-Coast

Full-body concept painting of Tessa Vane-Kettler, a compact muscular Brannik engineer with furnace-orange eyes, multi-lensed brass goggles, a twin-chimney boiler backpack, and fireproof salamander leather, propped on a brass turret box while firing her flared siege mortar The Caul-Cracker.

Tessa Vane-Kettler skill tree

Rules and keyboard controls

Tooltip numbers are level-60 values against a 30,000-health dummy. Active skills share a 1.5-second global cooldown. Cooldown: None means no further cooldown. The player equips one Tier-4 capstone. That capstone amplifies its own Tier-1 skill.

This is an unsaved ability preview. Select prerequisites first; refund dependent abilities before their foundations. Only one Tier-4 capstone may be selected.

Ability details and refund controls are shown in the persistent inspector.

Use arrow keys to move between branches and tiers. Home and End move within a tier; Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End reach the first and last ability. Enter or Space toggles an ability. Delete, Backspace or Shift+Enter refunds it. Escape dismisses the tooltip.

Selected abilities: 0.

Ability reference

Siege-Bell Ballistics — Direct & Area Bombardment

Rain superheated Sun-Pitch shells down upon the enemy, riding the Red-Line of your boiler for maximum devastation.

  1. Sun-Slag Lob

    Active · Tier 1

    Resource Cost: +15% Pressure · Cooldown: None · Range / Area: 35m

    Requires: No prerequisites.

    Fire a pressurized glass shell that arcs to the target location, exploding for 1,180 Fire-Resonant damage in a 6-meter radius and generating 15% Boiler Pressure. While in the Red-Line Zone (60–95% Pressure), the shell leaves a pool of molten amber that burns enemies for an additional 650 damage over 4 seconds. (Cost: +15% Pressure | Cooldown: None | Range: 35m)

  2. Red-Line Rifling

    Passive · Tier 2

    Requires: Sun-Slag Lob.

    While your Boiler Pressure is between 60% and 95%, your critical strike chance is increased by 15% and your mortar projectiles travel 40% faster. (Passive)

  3. Vent-Valve Blast

    Active · Tier 3

    Resource Cost: -35% Pressure · Cooldown: 12s · Range / Area: 12m Cone

    Requires: Red-Line Rifling.

    Pull your boiler’s release chain to vent 35% Boiler Pressure as a roaring 12-meter cone of superheated steam and sonic shrapnel, dealing 1,550 Fire damage, knocking enemies back 8 meters, and propelling yourself 10 meters backward to safety. (Cost: -35% Pressure | Cooldown: 12s | Range: 12m Cone)

  4. Cinder-Crag Buster

    Active · Ultimate capstone · Tier 4

    Resource Cost: None · Cooldown: 90s · Range / Area: 40m

    Requires: Vent-Valve Blast.

    Amplifies: Sun-Slag Lob (Tier 1).

    Load an oversized prototype Over-Pitch Core into your mortar and fire it into the sky; after 1.5 seconds, it crashes down on the target area, dealing 8,400 Fire-Resonant damage in a 12-meter radius, stunning all enemies for 3 seconds, and setting your Boiler Pressure to an exact 75% Red-Line sweet spot. (Cost: None | Cooldown: 90s | Range: 40m)

Clockwork Acoustics — Deployable Turrets & Drone Support

Litter the battlefield with ticking Syndicate resonators and thumper-turrets that crossfire on your targets.

  1. Deploy: Chime-Thumper Mk. IV

    Active · Tier 1

    Resource Cost: +10% Pressure · Cooldown: 15s Recharge · Range / Area: 25m

    Requires: No prerequisites.

    Toss a heavy clockwork turret to the target location that unfolds for 18 seconds, rhythmically slamming the ground every 2 seconds to deal 520 Resonant damage to enemies within 8 meters and slow them by 25%. Maximum 2 Thumpers active. Generates 10% Boiler Pressure. (Cost: +10% Pressure | Cooldown: 15s Recharge | Range: 25m)

  2. Synchronized Gearing

    Passive · Tier 2

    Requires: Deploy: Chime-Thumper Mk. IV.

    Whenever you hit an enemy with a direct mortar shot, all of your active turrets and drones immediately fire a bonus synchronous sonic bolt at that target for 380 Resonant damage. (Passive)

  3. Overclock Wrench-Toss

    Active · Tier 3

    Resource Cost: -20% Pressure · Cooldown: 16s · Range / Area: 30m

    Requires: Synchronized Gearing.

    Hurl an electrified brass wrench at one of your active turrets (or an enemy): if it hits a turret, it repairs it to full health and supercharges it for 8 seconds, doubling its fire rate and radius; if it hits an enemy, it deals 1,200 Physical damage and stuns them for 2 seconds. (Cost: -20% Pressure | Cooldown: 16s | Range: 30m)

  4. Dock-Seven Broadside

    Active · Ultimate capstone · Tier 4

    Resource Cost: 50% Pressure · Cooldown: 120s · Range / Area: 35m

    Requires: Overclock Wrench-Toss.

    Amplifies: Deploy: Chime-Thumper Mk. IV (Tier 1).

    Drop a master Sky-Ship Anchor Beacon that calls in three hovering clockwork gun-drones for 12 seconds; the drones orbit the target area, raining continuous brass gunfire and sonic bombs for 720 damage per second while projecting a 15% damage-reduction acoustic field for allies below. (Cost: 50% Pressure | Cooldown: 120s | Range: 35m)

Demolitionist’s Grit — Traps, Armor-Cracking & Mobility

Fight dirty with naval mines, rocket-jumps, and shatter-charges designed to crack open Vitrified giants.

  1. Shatter-Pitch Satchel

    Active · Tier 1

    Resource Cost: +15% Pressure · Cooldown: 10s · Range / Area: 25m

    Requires: No prerequisites.

    Throw a sticky magnetic satchel charge onto an enemy or the ground; after 3 seconds (or when struck by one of your mortar shells), it detonates for 1,420 Resonant damage and reduces enemy armor by 20% for 10 seconds. Generates 15% Boiler Pressure. (Cost: +15% Pressure | Cooldown: 10s | Range: 25m)

  2. Smeltery Lungs

    Passive · Tier 2

    Requires: Shatter-Pitch Satchel.

    Growing up in the fumes of Caul makes you resilient: you take 20% reduced damage from all area-of-effect attacks, and venting Boiler Pressure grants you a 1,800-health soot-and-brass shield for 6 seconds. (Passive)

  3. Boiler-Jump

    Active · Tier 3

    Resource Cost: -25% Pressure · Cooldown: 18s · Range / Area: 22m Leap

    Requires: Smeltery Lungs.

    Aim your mortar at the ground and fire a blank concussive blast, launching yourself 22 meters through the air to a target location while leaving a scorched crater behind that deals 950 Fire damage and snares enemies for 4 seconds. Vent 25% Boiler Pressure. (Cost: -25% Pressure | Cooldown: 18s | Range: 22m Leap)

  4. The Caul-Cracker Special

    Active · Ultimate capstone · Tier 4

    Resource Cost: Requires 60%+ Pressure · Cooldown: 60s · Range / Area: 35m Line

    Requires: Boiler-Jump.

    Amplifies: Shatter-Pitch Satchel (Tier 1).

    Lock your boots down and convert your mortar into a rapid-fire rotary siege gun for 5 seconds, firing a continuous stream of 20 piercing Amber-glass rounds in a 35-meter line. Drains all current Boiler Pressure. Deals 5,600 Fire-Resonant damage at 100% Pressure, scaling down to 3,360 at the 60% minimum. Can be aimed while channeling. (Cost: Requires 60%+ Pressure | Cooldown: 60s | Range: 35m Line)

Forged in the Flues of Caul

In the roaring geothermal canyons of Brass-Harbor, the name Kettler is stamped onto half the sky-ship boilers and harbor cranes on the eastern coast. Born into the Brannik kindred—a stocky, broad-chested people famed for their heat-resistant lungs, ember-bright eyes, and obsessive mechanical genius—Tessa grew up dangling from scaffolding inside the Great Smeltery of Caul. While her cousins designed cargo winches, Tessa was fascinated by the problem of the Concordance War: how to harness the explosive power of over-tuned Amber-glass without blowing up the peninsula you were standing on.

Her distant, estranged uncle—the notorious pirate kingpin Admiral Brant Vane—tried to recruit Tessa into the Red-Sail Corsairs when she was nineteen, hoping to use her brilliance to build weapons of terror. Tessa responded by firing an experimental sonic flare through the mainsail of his flagship and reporting his smuggling cove to the Syndicate patrol fleets. Appointed Chief Ballistician of Brass-Harbor’s Dock Seven at twenty-eight, she invented the Bell-Muzzle Mortar: a portable, recoil-dampened heavy cannon that fires pressurized capsules of liquid Sun-Pitch and drops autonomous brass Chime-Thumper turrets to keep the surrounding air vibrating at safe frequencies.

When Vitrified spire-ships appeared above the eastern sea-lanes, conventional iron cannonballs bounced off their porcelain hulls. Tessa’s resonant mortars, tuned to the shatter-frequency of the Choir’s crystal armor, blew a Vitrified scout-vessel clean out of the clouds over Brass-Harbor. Armed with her masterpiece mortar, The Caul-Cracker, she has marched to the front lines to prove that no ancient god-machine can survive proper mortal engineering.

Combat Rhythm — Riding the Red-Line

Tessa Vane-Kettler is an explosive medium-to-long-range artillery specialist. Her gameplay centers around managing her cannon’s Boiler Pressure (0 to 100%). Firing mortar shells and deploying clockwork gadgets raises her Pressure; between 60% and 95% Pressure (the Red-Line Zone), her projectiles ignite with superheated Sun-Pitch, dealing bonus area damage and leaving burning slag pools. Venting heat at the right moment powers her flamethrower blast, rocket-jumps, and rotary siege ultimate.

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