Pirate101 Monthly Newsletter

December 2013 was a very festive month in Pirate101, and if you followed along with all of the 12 Days of the Spiral, you were sure to be rewarded with Gold, festive prizes, and even a few Crowns! We hope all the festivities got you in the right mood for 2014 as this year promises to be great and January will definitely kick it off with a bang!

Read on for more fun and also a quick look at the past month in Pirate101.

Everyone’s favorite HooDoo man of mystery has his own Rogue’s Gallery now! Check it out!

“Welcome to the Pirate101 Rogue’s Gallery. Subject, Old Scratch.

One of the most formidable hoodoo workers in Skull Island, the undead Witchdoctor known only as Old Scratch rose from the grave by making a pact with a powerful spirit of nightmare. Old Scratch’s former life is a mystery – he himself can remember almost nothing of the times before his death, not even his name. The only thing Scratch could recall clearly was his first teacher, Papa Legbones, who taught him to speak with spirits and raise the dead.

Scratch still has one foot in the grave: speaking with the dead and calling up undead servants come as second nature to him. Old Scratch hopes that by aiding his new Captain his black magic can work toward a brighter purpose, but who knows what other secrets from his buried past might yet arise to bedevil the hoodoo man?

These pirates and more await you when you play for free at Pirate101.com.”

Boochbeard: "Ok Gandry, how does this ability work?" Gandry: "Captain, I swear you blow into the fish--I have seen Catbeard do this before!"

- by Rude Katherine Sheffield

Discuss more about Catbeard's hilarious critical attack move on the Pirate101Central Forums.

Who will caption the next Puppet Pirates? Stay tuned to our Facebook page to enter your caption on the next Puppet Pirates.

Aha! Pirate readers, it is I, Librarian Adelmo, and I hear many of you are interested in female pirates! We know it is a very hot topic for those who play Pirate101. Well, I have a wonderful book to share with you this month about this very thing!

“The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates: Magic Marks the Spot” is a brand-new book by Caroline Carlson. It’s about Hilary Westfield, who is perfectly qualified (and desperate!) to be a pirate - except for the fact that she’s a girl. The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates' Piracy Apprenticeship Program denies her admittance and sends her application to Miss Pimm's Finishing School for Delicate Ladies instead.

Is Hilary doomed to a future of waltzing classes, etiquette lessons, and learning the proper way to faint? Absolutely not, because she refuses to give up! The characters in this book are people you’d like to meet yourself, from the pirates to Hilary’s talking gargoyle. Not only does this book combine magic, humor, adventure, and PIRATES, it’s also the start of a series – so if you like it, you’ll have more of Hilary’s adventures to look forward to!

The hustle and bustle of December didn’t stop for our fans! There were plenty of fun contests and amazing prizes given away, plus more fun everywhere you looked! Here are a few spotlights that caught our attention last month:

• One of our players, Valkoor the Victorious, started a thread for sharing helpful game tips over the Holidays. Check it out!
• The wiki at Pirate101 Central got a makeover and has had several improvements! Nicely done! Also, be sure to catch this interview with the wiki master, Willowdreamer, in this fan run newsletter from Flash33.
• Speaking of Pirate101Central, their web address was also simplified from http://pirate101.centralforums.com to http://www.pirate101central.com.
• Dr. Zeppers was at it again, this time with his original song, Buffy, the Big Bad Bumbaloon (to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer).
• Adrian Silver keeps stunning us by recreating Pirate101’s Skull Island Zone in Minecraft!
• Duelist101 shows off Technomage’s top 5 privateer powers for PvP. Also, there is an interesting note here about using Doctor Noh with the Fighting Fervor buff!
• Puppet Pirate artist, Robert Lovelett, put up YouTube videos of all the Puppet Shows and shared them on Pirate101 Central.
• Paige Moonshade shared a very pirate’y Christmas Poem to celebrate the season.
• Pirates of the Spiral broke down all the Holiday happenings, but this picture of his Boochbeard Claus really stole the show!
• Congratulations to Cret92 who completed his challenge of finishing Pirate101 without ever training any of his companions! Read more here about how he did it.

Something I’ve heard many times by players is that they are confused by one particular Power that mentions “enemy tiles,” and that is the Power Card “The Big Guns.”

“The Big Guns” power card contains the words “100% chance for Fire on enemy tiles.” Now, it’s totally understandable why this may be confusing to players as “enemy tiles” are not something players can easily see on the Battleboard, and it definitely doesn’t mean the particular tile your enemy is standing on when you use the Big Guns power on them.

The best way to think of this might be to imagine a regular Chess Board . . . as on a regular Chess Board you will set your chess pieces on your side and your opponent will set their chess pieces on another.

In Pirate101, all battleboards are set up with three distinct areas: your side, a neutral zone, and an enemy side. Using the previous graphic of the chess board, if you were to see the underlying, hidden areas, it might look something like this

Note that there is no set formula to how battleboards are set up . . . sometimes the enemy territory is very large, covering several rows, and sometimes very small, only containing one row. The easiest way to tell that you are on enemy territory, however, is when you or your companion’s “Pirate” epic talent triggers as you move across the board. (Yes! You can use the Pirate talent on land as well as on the skyways!) Also, the easiest place to see this aspect of the battleboard is when you are fighting in ship-to-ship combat as the neutral ground will be the planks between your ship and your enemy’s ship!

As a side note, the all new Battle Standards also use these sides of the board! If you plant your standard in enemy territory, you’ll get a second bonus from your standard.

Knowing how a battleboard is set up can really give you an edge in combat! Make sure you use this knowledge to your advantage, Pirate!

See you in the skyways.

In case you missed it, the Frogfather passed along some wonderful words of encouragement and insight into 2014 in Pirate101. Be sure you read his producer’s letter to get the inside scoop.

“Thank you, all so very much for your continuing support and feedback on the Message Boards, with social media and through Test Server Reports. You continue to amaze us with your passion, insight and unlimited creativity for this Pirate world we share and cherish. Please keep the great feedback and ideas coming – we may not get to all of them right away, but the Spiral is a very big and ever-expanding universe; the Pirate Skyways have no limit . . .”

What could this strange chest be? It looks completely barmy! What treasure could be inside? You'll soon find out!