mayhooligan on Jan 1, 2015 wrote:

I'm one for six on my last tower runs. People leave every time. The one run I finished we completed the final two levels with three. The guy said he was afk then just left, he didn't even get the chest on the steps. A lot of times it will be before the 8th level, and if it's not before then it's right after. Apparently, a few months ago, you could bring 3 companions on a solo run, and there would be a reasonable amount of enemies to defeat. This is before I became a member, but I've seen videos of it. I'm not a cynic, but the plain and simple fact is, people are unreliable. I won't even attempt to go with menu chat guys anymore because you can't communicate with them, and at any point their mommy and daddy might say it's time to get off the computer. I understand it's suppose to be difficult and take a while. I have no objections to that, but please make it so you can have solo runs again. Put it back to the way it was. Make it beneficial to bring friends like every other dungeon. Drop rates increase slightly, and four person chests become available, but you should be able to solo everything in the game. It seems to me like the intention was to make the tower a place that requires help. It's just a bad concept. Help should be for increasing drop rates, but never required. I know I'm going to get a comment that says go with your friends not random people, but it's hard to get 3 other friends to go on 2 or 3 hour farm runs. I love the customization and strategy in the game, but this makes you rely on others strategy. Which at times, I'm sorry to say, is non existent. Another thing that needs to be done is, every realm needs a different find a team page. Even if you do happen to get 3 friends to go, you can't choose find a team. There is always one other random on it trying to find himself a team. This needs to be done, because it's hard to get every one to join at the same time. Other than saying 123 go, and hoping every one gets in, it's impossible. That is a secondary issue though. Please make the tower a regular dungeon again that doesn't require help. It's sad, but people are unreliable. I don't know any other way to put it. I'll be lucky if I complete 3 out of 10 tower runs this week. It needs to go back to the way it was.

This Tower was never meant to be soloed, the videos you saw were of people either 1. doing the Tower in test or 2. doing the tower after they had done many team runs and therefore have the powerful gear that enabled them to do it.
Yes, people are unreliable ( don't I know it! ) but there are occasions when you manage to get a team up that is 'golden'. Then its worth the other terrible ones.
"It needs to go back the way it was", I'm sorry but it was never really solo-able.

As I said before, make it where you can bring 3 companions again, and face a reasonable amount of enemies. No one can solo it now. There is one you tube video of a guy that did a solo run after the change to 2 companions and more enemies. What happens after that? They nerf charming gaze, so once again, it is not soloable. The only way that guy survived was because of charming gaze mask. If you could solo it, there would be at least one video of it happening on you tube post updates. Every change made to the tower was made for it to require help. I'm sure even a king isle employee would confirm this. Help should be an enjoyable experience where everyone benefits, has fun, has slightly increased drop rates (four person chests), and feeds off each others strategies. When it is required, you have people getting mad at each other for being afk, bad strategy, or just plain leaving in the middle of the run. Nothing in this game should require help. It promotes hatred really.

Indigo Ring on Jan 3, 2015 wrote:

Good heavens, zuto4011 - how are you soloing past the Nefarious Five?? Hiring lots of henchmen? I have done the Tower four times, each with the full four pirates, and that fight is always a hard one.

I am OK with the Tower of Moo Manchu being clearly designed as a team dungeon since it is optional (although the rewards are nice), but I really hope the recent introduction of solo-unfriendly dungeons (Moo Manchu and the Smuggler's Arena) doesn't mean that the Pirate101 developers are moving in the same direction as Wizard101, where the game has become increasingly difficult for solo play unless you are continuously willing to pay lots of crowns to hire henchmen for every boss fight. That is one of the reasons I have almost completely given up on Wizard.

I personally would love to see a new dungeon that you could ONLY play solo - challenging but possible w/o an army of henchmen (although I recognize such a dungeon would be challenging to design).

-Indigo

P.S. The reason we always have four pirates, mayhooligan, is because we basically cheat: my wife and I each run two pirates... not an option most people can manage, unfortunately.

Hey Indigo, I just wanted to point at that you can't actually purchase henchmen in the Nefarious Five fight. I do believe that there are players out there that can "solo" it, just because they have amazing gear, doubloons & even better strategies. It may be a select few, but it's doable.

I myself have "dual-boxed" & defeated the Nefarious Five with just my Buccaneer & my son's Buccaneer, 2 out of the 2 times I tried (although we were defeated 1 time against the Five, but jumped back in & won on the second attempt). I usually can't finish the tower because of time constraints & don't want to leave other players hanging, so I just grab my son's pirate. Now his main companions have not even completed most promotion quests, & he still is missing a decent amount of great gear for his pirate. Also, since neither of our pirates have completed many runs of the tower, neither one has had any of the tower gear equipped during our runs. So, having tower gear isn't a necessity, but it does help. The only gear we had that was as close to a must-equip (for non-tower gear), was Blood's Jacket with Blood Flames. Although, in our first defeat of the Nef. 5, he had not yet acquired the jacket so it was up to his standard powers, doubloons & my pirate's Blood Flames. On the second run the only henchman used in our entire tower run was the max privateer on the Fire Room, but turns out we didn't even need it because both our Blood Flames showed up in the first round and I believe 3 or 4 enemies walked right into them & met their demise-- even better, 2 of them were the WDs that decided to move closer instead of attacking.

With just the two of us, defeating the Nefarious 5 is not super hard at all if you plan properly &...if a lot of luck comes into play &...IF you have great Doubloons-- they are simply a must for sure. Also, just as important as having the Doubloons is, proper Doubloon management is even more crucial. Knowing how to order them & when to ditch pretty good Doubloons in hopes of better ones popping up next round is important. And also knowing when to just use whatever Doubloon shows up, helps at times too-- even a level 15 summon can take one of the Five's attack away from you & your crew.

Having the right mix of great gear, great powers, an amazing pet, Doubloons & Doubloon usage strategies, along with that ever vital "Major Luck Factor" is key in that fight. We also have beat the smuggler's arena as a duo, the only 2 times that we have attempted it-- again gear, strategy, doubloons, pets & luck playing major factors in our victory.

So, I fully believe that those players out there with a mastered understanding of the combat/power/talent system & with a decisive tilt in the luck aspect, can & will "solo" the Nefarious Five & the Tower. Probably not many have done it, but it can be done.

Also to point out, some that say they have soloed the tower, may have had to try the Nefarious Five battle several times in that run, or even some of the other battles.

Indigo Ring on Jan 4, 2015 wrote:

Thanks for the information, Valkoor. I can see how having two sets of the Flames of Dooooom would help. I only have one character with them, although another is still leisurely punching up Capt Blood a few times a week looking for another set. Chase, the musketeer with Blood's Jacket (and sharp-looking set of threads, incidentally, that looks much better on him than its previous owner) just recently picked up Moo Manchu's boots with the freezing effect.

I'd love to meet up with you and your son sometime to run the tower!

-Indigo

Sure thing, Indigo. Yeah, I've been very fortunate with prying the jacket from Captain "B-negative". I was able to persuade him to hand over the goods on only 3 attempts with Valkoor-- but I did used his second chance chest up to the 200 Crown mark (as to not go over the 500 Crowns per farming attempt). I got it from the chest on the 3rd run through.

After running the tower the 1st time, with the Flames equipped, I realized that my son's pirate needed to get up to speed and join in on all the pork and beef roasting. We defeated the Five with both our heads kept motionless and with a near full compliment of health (Thank you minions and Full Retreat & Tower Shield).

So, I decided to dual box and farm Mr. Blood some more. I was prepared for the long haul and even transferred 20,000 Crowns to his account, so that I could hit that chest each run through. Well, low and behold, on the very first attempt what did the Flaming Captain decide to "naturally drop"-- yep, you guessed it, his temperature...I mean his Jacket. Then to add to my already good fortune, just this past Saturday (or was it Sunday morning?), I decided to join in on the final Blood battle with our dear friend Misty (MistyDragon13 here on the boards) and guess what we got....yeppers again, Blood's upper garments

SWEET!!! Now I just had to give the tower another run with both of our pirates sporting our new coats (and now Valkoor had 3-- you're welcome little pirates). So, we did but for some nefarious reason the flames showed up in the first round or 2 in every round except for the battle with the Nefarious Five..."Oh Mr. Moo-- you are gooooooood!" In fact they didn't show up at all before his pirate was bobblin' for apples, and Valkoor's waited until round 5 or 6. By then I was the one that was toasted and we had to give it one more successful attempt.

Unfortunately due to the length of time it took, and me having to try to keep 3 kids (including 1 year old twins) from causing too much chaos, I had to bow out before attempting the final 2 rounds. To cut down on childcare costs, I work during the day and their momma works at night a few times a week, so I am usually on Daddy Daycare Duty most evenings/nights and pretty spent by the time I get that big chunk of time. It's very hard to "find" those really long blocks of time to commit to farming or completing the tower and arena-- hence the only attempting each of them 2 times, so far.

But it would be absolutely fantastic to meet up and give the tower a go sometime with you and your 2 pirates or with you and Fiorenza. We'll have to make it happen and I'll see what may work for me in the very near future, and post it here on the boards. Unless you have a Central account, I can message you there. If so, I'm ValkoortheVictorious over there as well.

Either way, good luck with getting the other Jacket and with your own Tower runs-- to both of you....or should I say all 4 of you!

Indigo Ring on Jan 6, 2015 wrote:

You jacket-thievin' scoundrel, you! My piravateer who is farming for the jacket has done Miranda at a guess 10 - 12 times at this point, and is allowed to spend crowns up the the 250 purchase in the 2nd chance chest. He has Blood's hat and one of the two weapons drops (neither of which he is using), but no jacket so far.

He is the guy I only allow to use primate crewmen (err, crewmembers) but which is not working so well in Mooshoo, where the fights become much harder and a lack of good reserve crew becomes an issue, fast. So he sees Blood's jacket as an alternative to compromising his primates-only pledge.

We will try contacting you through Pirate Central about a run. We can bring books to the table and read while our pirates spin if you are called away for Daddy Duty.

-Indigo

The solution to this predicament is apparent.......more primates are desperately needed in the Spiral. Or at least some more apes thrown in to the mix as well. I mean we have an entire world of monkeys-- they must have distant cousins! Calling all orangutans, lemurs, tamarins, howlers and friends there of. And yes of course...the little capuchin pet that I requested too.

That's quite a fantastic concept and battle strategy there, kind of like a Pirate of the Apes (& primates)-- I like it. I might try that with a llama only crew...???-- they are fascinating looking animals.

I'll look for your message on Central and hopefully we can set something up really soon, maybe even hit Miranda a few times and go ape or monkey around a wee bit. If running the tower later at night, spinning shouldn't be too much of an issue (especially on weekend), since my critters sleep rather well.

Sorry for hoggin' all the jackets, but we are pirates after all!

Indigo Ring on Jan 3, 2015 wrote:

Good heavens, zuto4011 - how are you soloing past the Nefarious Five?? Hiring lots of henchmen? I have done the Tower four times, each with the full four pirates, and that fight is always a hard one.

I am OK with the Tower of Moo Manchu being clearly designed as a team dungeon since it is optional (although the rewards are nice), but I really hope the recent introduction of solo-unfriendly dungeons (Moo Manchu and the Smuggler's Arena) doesn't mean that the Pirate101 developers are moving in the same direction as Wizard101, where the game has become increasingly difficult for solo play unless you are continuously willing to pay lots of crowns to hire henchmen for every boss fight. That is one of the reasons I have almost completely given up on Wizard.

I personally would love to see a new dungeon that you could ONLY play solo - challenging but possible w/o an army of henchmen (although I recognize such a dungeon would be challenging to design).

-Indigo

P.S. The reason we always have four pirates, mayhooligan, is because we basically cheat: my wife and I each run two pirates... not an option most people can manage, unfortunately.

I know how zuto is doing it, in Speculations on the Armada zuto said that the Armada are his saviors, he's calling on his Valencian allies for his help.

Quentin Davenport, lvl 65

Marcus Davenport, lvl 22

I tired to play solo on that tower 16 times already, lose every time. But someday i will beat that tower, it takes a lot of courage and patience to beat this long dungeon. It's not impossible to play solo, it's just very difficult. Finding a reliable group is hard, sadly more players are like this. They often attempt to finish this tower solo but like most they failed time and time again, my self included.

If feeling lucky or find some reliable group, go for it finish this tower and beat that Moo Manchu once and for all.Until then good luck on attempting to finish this difficult quest.

It is solo-able, at least 8 of the 9 fights. The only one I consider "unsolo-able" is the Nefarious Five fight,
as it is extremely difficult to do,and drinking the elixir turns your pirate over to the enemies' team.
Getting the badge is impossible to do solo NO MATTER WHAT (I've tried and failed 5 TIMES).
The badge.... oh my goodness.... almost impossible, you need a team of 4 (including yourself),
(most likely players who already claimed the badge, so they won't drink the elixir, excluding you from
getting the badge). I haven't gotten the badge,nor completed the tower, and it still haunts me to this day.
I have looked up every guide, and they don't work. I hope you have a battle strategy, or come meet
me and we can team up and completed this tower with 2 others along. -Stormy Seth Chamberlain
Lvl 65 Privateer

The nefarious can be soloed I did it the other day but in order for it to happen the battle must go absolutely perfect. Powers and doubloons must show up at the exactly the right time. It's a long battle of luck and strategy.

Virtuous Dante Ramsey