Blog Archives
Darkmoor, Here I Come!
Yes, onto the next world of Pirate101! I guess I’m finished with Cool Ranch…
EL TORO! Sorry. Anyway, what do I mean by Darkmoor? I mean… this!
Yes, there’s Darkmoor ships. Sorry I’m behind in the storyline, I need to start up in Pirate101 again. Well this again leads us back to the question; is KingsIsle going to add Darkmoor? I just moored it over when I was fighting these ships. (See what I did there?) So just to clarify, I’m not really in Darkmoor, but I fought some ships. I’ve finished Santo Pollo, and don’t really know where I am in Cool Ranch right now. Sorry for the short post, it was just a storyline refresh from me! 🙂
Pirate101 Ships- Advanced Tips
Now that you’ve got the basics down, I’m going to have a little guide here with everything else you need to know about ships! First off, you’ll need to know how to fight other ships. This was also explained in the tutorial, but this will help you get better. 😉
Ok. To start you off, to attack a ship sail up to it. If you don’t engage automatically, click on the ship and your cannons will begin to fire. If you’ve equipped ship equipment on your ship…
(Click My Ship Equipment) …then your ship will have Broadside Abilities to use in Broadside Combat. (This is, of course, when you’re firing cannons at another ship.)
If you’re not engaged in combat, the first two abilities will be greyed out. This is because they are Combat Abilities, and attack another ship. So common sense is, you can’t use it unless you’re in combat. Here are examples of Combat Abilities.
Now, these may be really confusing at first. The text at the bottom is what the ability does. The 2x and 1x don’t matter much, just remember that the 2x does more than 1x. The number next to the hourglass is how long you have to wait until you can use this ability again, or the Cooldown Time. Look at the second ability. The number in the top left corner is it’s accuracy. That’s how often it will hit the enemy ship. The first ability has two accuracies, one for long range and one for short range. If will have 75% accuracy when you’re far away from the ship, and will do 100% damage (top right corner). If you are close to the enemy ship it will have 90% accuracy and do 120% damage. Combat Abilities are determined by which Horn and Figurehead your ship has equipped.
These look similar, right? These are Neutral Abilities, and can be used at any time. These are determined by the Wheel and Sails of your ship. The healing abilities (Wheel) usually have a longer cooldown time and heal your ship a certain percentage. If my ship had 1,000 Hull Integrity, (if you don’t know what that is, read this), and I used the above ability, Healing Bolt, my ship would repair 200 health. What’s the second ability though? Sails’ abilities are usually speed boosting abilities, or dodge abilities. This is a dodge ability. When your ship “dodges” an attack misses. So this boosts your dodge by 12%, but only lasts nine seconds, which is half of the cooldown time.
Take into consideration the level of the ship you’re attacking. Sail with friends if you’re planning to attack ships that are higher than your level. It works best if they’re on their own ship. If the level of a ship you’re attacking is too high, and it’s getting out of hand, you can use Boost Fuel to flee from the combat.
Fuel is burned at about 10/second, so be sure to fill up at docks! It boosts your ship’s speed if you’re in a hurry to get somewhere, or need to get out of combat quickly. Press [Z] or click on the Boost Fuel icon to go extra fast.
If your Hull Integrity turns yellow (at 50% health), or your enemy’s does, two crossed swords will appear above the ship. You can fly up and press [X] on their ship to board them, or they will attempt to board you. This will initiate Deckside Combat. This is where you fight a normal battle, but the setting is on a ship.
How To: Fly a Pirate Ship!
Fly a Pirate Ship!
…Or any ship at all, for that matter. This is explained briefly in the Tutorial, but read this if you still don’t understand. First, you need to quest and quest and quest until you’ve gotten your first ship, a Skull Island Raft (Extra Light).
…Which has a really pitiful name, I’m sorry to say. Mine is the Lanky Scow, since you can’t see it. If you know where to look, you can look at all of your ship stats. If you don’t know where to look, it’s in the bottom right corner… right over here.
Now what do all these numbers mean?! It’s pretty simple. The big blue globe is your Hull Integrity, or ship health. When you’re attacked, this will go down. But hey, I’m getting ahead of myself. Above your health is your speed bar. It will tell you how fast your ship is moving. Press the Up-Arrow to go faster. Press the Down-Arrow to go slower. Press the Left- and Right-Arrows to steer. Be warned, you can’t go backwards! Also, you can’t stop completely without dropping anchor or docking. To let down the anchors, press your [Spacebar]. To dock, go to a floating island that has some sign of civilization. When you get there, this will show at the bottom of your screen.
That is, of course, with the location you’re docking at. When you press [X], your screen will load and you’ll be on your ship at the docks. Now what? How do I get onto the docks? When you see this icon on your ship, walk over and press [X].
Congratulations! Now that you’ve done whatever you need to do, how do you get back on the ship?
You’ll see the same symbol to get back on, right next to your ship’s flag. When you press [X] next to it, you’ll teleport right up to your ship, by the sailing station.
Press [X] by it to start sailing! These are the basics of sailing, keep on the lookout for an advanced sailing guide!
NDA
Most of you probably already know about the NDA associated with Pirate101 Beta. If you get an email with a beta key, you have to agree to an NDA with KingsIsle before you can play in Pirate101’s Beta.
An NDA is a Non-Disclosure Agreement. It means that you agree with someone that you will not disclose given information to the public. Pirate101’s NDA requires you don’t give any pictures, videos, or details about what happens when you play in Beta. This basically means that you can’t tell anyone anything, especially online.
KingsIsle requires this because they made it a Closed Beta, which means it is only exclusively avaliable to some players. They don’t want everyone hearing about any of the game, so they added an NDA to this. Don’t worry, NDAs are common among closed Betas. KingsIsle is doing very good at keeping most of the information confidential, and will keep it that way until full launch. The only pictures, videos, and details that are allowed are the ones on official Pirate101 fan pages. (Ex: P101 Facebook, J Todd Coleman Facebook, etc.)
Not much else to cover here, make sure you follow the rules! 😀
What happens in Beta stays in Beta.
On a different note, tons of new pictures have been released all over the place! Hopefully that means we’re one step closer to the full game. Also, some MooShu concept art is here! Check out the full gallery on the Pirate101 website.
That was a few combat and ship pictures from J Todd Coleman. I personally like the ship combat, and how you fire the cannons. Next up is some pictures from the pirate city of Gullet!
Thanks for reading and… Yarr!
Pirates in the Sky
There are many worlds in the Spiral, but in Pirate101 there are a few new additions. I will list a couple of the known, and try to identify some unknown. The known additions are: Skull Island, Monquista, Valencia, and Cool Ranch.
Skull Island is the hub of all pirates and pirate trading. It is the first new Pirate101 world you will visit, and is the main island of all pirates. Skull Island’s forests have similar textures to Wizard101’s Celestia- Floating Land. Just with a lot more skulls. And a lot more pirates. Ok, maybe not so much like The Floating Land.
It’s lush forests and enormous volcano would be the first spot you want to pick, right? I didn’t think so. But, the pirates wanted to settle here. As I said in Captain Avery’s bio in this post, he has recently taken control of the island and turned it into a pirate paradise. But it’s not all fun and happiness. As you would expect with pirates, well, there’s lots of piracy, and they like to mark territory. So some of the northern areas of Skull Island are inhabited by only Marleybonians on Monquistans. There will be much more to know about Skull Island when beta is released.
Monquista is ruled by a king and queen. Monkey. I know I have quoted this blog before, but I find this post very informative. The Monquistans are very well mannered and polite, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pirates. They are sinister and inhabit part of Skull Island. There are many “clans” within Monquista, and very distantly everyone is related to some past king. Everyone is always squabbling over everything. I don’t want to take all of the facts away from the Buccaneer Bloggers, so click the link I posted.
The Buccaneer Bloggers has another post on this. I’ll just briefly go over it so you can know a little. Valencia is home to the Unicorns, and it’s where Diego the Duelmaster came from is you know Wizard101. It is known as “the heart of the Spiral” and is usually in the center of Spiral maps. This world has thrived over the years, but something has gone terribly wrong. The invention of clockwork ended the terrible Polarian Wars, but their leader, Kane, has been acting awfully mysterious and some are wondering if the clockwork will turn on their creators.
Cool Ranch is one of the unidentified worlds. It was mentioned in the first press release, and is a different post by The Buccaneer Bloggers. You’ll have to read the post, since there is nothing on the official website I can tell you about, and otherwise I would be almost quoting directly from him since I don’t know anything about it.
Skyways are they way you fly from place to place on your pirate ship in Pirate101. After you’ve finished customizing your first ship, you’ll take it for a test run on the Skyways. Not ocean. Since Worlds in the Spiral are floating, there isn’t any water connecting them. Your pirate ship floats along and can sometimes battle enemies.
When you see purple, pink, or brightly colored streaks along the sky when you’re sailing, they’re called Windlanes. These make you travel faster, and you can’t run into enemies here. Although, when you leave the Windlanes, you can run into vicious enemies and wildlife. If you want to battle them, get into close combat and you will start dueling. I’m not sure if this will be any different from the foot dueling.
What are Stormgates? Stormgates are whirlpools in the sky that take you places. Ok, maybe that wasn’t the best description. Pirate101.com can explain it better.
Stormgates allow you to travel between different worlds. This ethereal experience is completely unique in your Pirate’s travels. Want to experience the Stormgate yourself? Finish the Main Quests in Skull Island and then sail through its splendor to a brand new world…
Valencia is known for the most stormgates, another reason for the name “heart of the Spiral.” Other than these few facts, there’s not much to know about Stormgates, other than they are whirlpools in the sky that take you places. 🙂
All of these data will come into play much better when you begin Pirate101, especially when you start flying your Pirate Ship. Oh yes, didn’t I say I would explain more about Pirate Ships? As I came to find out, there’s not much more to find out than there’s a lot of pretty pictures of epic pirate ships. As some say, a picture is worth a thousand words. INCOMING!
Just FYI, this is a Stormgate in Cool Ranch. I think.
Ok, maybe I’m not going to post all of them. But there’s a ton on the Pirate101 website, all over! Also, check out the trailer for some awesome pirate sailing! Wait a minute, is it still sailing if it’s in the sky? Hmm. Post comments on that idea! Also, comment what you want my next post to be! Make sure there’s sufficient info about that topic though, as it takes quite a bit to make quality blog posts.
Yer Companions!
Companions are special helpers you pick up along the way in your Pirate adventures. They range in appearance and have different fighting styles and special abilities. Your Companions help you in battle as well as travel along beside you as you quest through Skull Island!
Everyone’s first companions is special to their story. Like a member of the Marleybonian Navy won’t have the same first companion as a Monquistan. In Wizard101, there were pets. These are like companions, just a little different. Not all companions are puny. They use abilities/powers/attacks during battles, but not just spritely (heal). You can get more companions through quests. Although you may acquire multiple companions, only one may be your pirate’s sidekick (at a time). As I said earlier, pirates AND companions can attack and use powers during duels. Additionally, when you complete special Companion Promotion Quests (CPQs)
As in Wizard101 with pets, you and your companion can get Attributes. They and what they do are listed below.
Also, I will tell you about Pirate Ships. These are almost fully customizable. I think it’s a way to let your creativity shine, but still sail through the Skyways in an incomparable adventure. In this post, I will just mention Pirate Ships, and tell you about them. In my next post, I will go over where you fly them and the details. This is just an introduction.
Some facts you’ll need to know before my next post are on the Pirate101 website, but I’ll restate them. Pirate ships in Pirate101 don’t sail through seas, but fly through Skyways! Skyways are the areas in P101 where the ships fly. More on that in my next post. You get to display your personal flag on your pirate ship. Also, your ships get better the farther you are in the game. Thanks for reading! I promise the next post will be longer 😛
Pirates in the Sky 