Pirate101 Battle Royale Contest! [CONTEST CLOSED]

March 8, 2014, 4:15 pm

≫ Next: From the Bleachers to the Track: Can't Rush Perfection

Ahoy! To celebrate our first Blogaversary we're holding a very special Pirate101 Battle Royale and we want to CELEBRATE, in style

On March 15th at 4pm EST/ 3pm CST/ 2pm MST/ 1pm PST/ 9pm GMT, we will be editing this post (as well as announcing on Twitter and Facebook) with some interesting challenges for you guys to solve. If you complete them correctly, you’ll have a chance at some great prizes!

What is a Battle Royale?

At the time listed above, we’ll be posting four pictures hinting to a certain location on this post. Your job is to find out what location we are hinting to and travel there to it - you should find an AoS staff member or a contest helper hiding there. Please note that, if the hint location picture is of a boss, you do not need to defeat that boss. The pictures will only be a hint towards a location, not a certain fight.

Once you find one of our pirates, we will give you a hint towards a boss that you need to defeat. Simply sail to that location, defeat that boss, and take a picture of the room where the boss was in after the fight is over. In the picture, please say the menu chat phrase “Let’s go defeat a Boss.” You can find this in Activities→ Let’s Go→ Defeat a Boss. Entries will be invalid if this phrase is not included.

It is up to you how you would like to approach this. You can find each individual pirate first and then go to all of the locations, find a pirate and then the hinted location, etc. Remember that you do not have to take a picture of our pirates, just the room the boss was in after the fight with them.

Rules:

Prizes are first come, first serve. For example, If you submit the first winning email you will get first grabs at the bundles, second correct entry gives you the choice between the two remaining bundles, third correct entry gets you the remaining bundle and so on and so forth.
A level requirement is not necessarily required, but it would be handy to have had finished the game, as we will be using the whole spiral for this contest.
If you are soloing, you must at least be able to use Text Chat.
If you would like to work in teams, that is allowed, but no more than two people per team. This is to ensure that the prizes get distributed equally and fairly. Additionally, each member of the team must enter this contest separately.

How to enter:

To enter this contest correctly, please read the following terms carefully:

1. The Picture submitted must be after the boss fight.

2. The picture must show you using the Menu Chat phrase “Let’s go defeat a Boss.”

3. Your name must be visible in the Picture. (Options→ Adjust Gameplay Options→ Overhead Names)

4. Email all your entry consisting all of the pictures to admin@adventuresofthespiral.com with the subject title reading “Battle Royale Contest”.

Prizes!

First Place (3 Winners, Choose One):

Cutthroat, Empire, or Hoodoo Bundle

Second Place (5 Winners):

One Random Tribal Crew Pack Companion + 1,000 Crowns (3 winners), 5,000 Crowns (3 winners)

Third Place (6 Winners):

1,000 Crowns (6 winners)

10 Runner Ups!
5,000 in Game Gold

For any possible updates before and during this event, you can follow our official Twitter page [here]. Also, be sure to attend the rest of our events throughout the month for a chance at even more prizes!

If you have any questions about the contest, please do not hesitate to send an email, at admin@adventuresofthespiral.com, tweet us at @OfficialAotS, or ask in the comments below!

↧

From the Bleachers to the Track: Can't Rush Perfection

March 22, 2014, 10:16 am

≫ Next: Companion Spotlight: Hoodoo Cornelius!

≪ Previous: Pirate101 Battle Royale Contest! [CONTEST CLOSED]

Hello again!

It’s time for the second installment of this derby series, and maybe the most important…training!

Make sure to check out the first part of this segment: A Racer's Handbook

What You’ll Need to Know

The first thing you’ll need to know is what each attribute translates to on the derby course.

Strength=Cheer cost on Water

Intellect=Cheer cost on Clay

Agility=Cheer cost on Grass

Will=Cheer cost on Dirt

Power=How much total morale you have

The second thing you’ll need to know is the “level spots” or points at which the cost to cheer goes down. Every 45 points a stat goes up, your cost to cheer on that surface goes down by 1.

*PLEASE NOTE: The stat corresponds to your MAX stat, not your trained stat. If for example, you have trained 235/245 on agility, 245 would be your MAX stat.*

Stat: Cost to Cheer:

1-14 10

15-59 9

60-104 8

105-149 7

150-194 6

195-239 5

240-284 4

285-329 3

330-374 2

375 and Higher 1

The next piece of information is optional, as it’s not as important as cheer cost, but, there is a table for power as well. Every 6 points your power stat increases, you gain 1 morale.

*Same deal here, the stat corresponds to your MAX stat.*

Power: Morale:

0 40

6 41

12 42

18 43

24 44

32 45

36 46

42 47

48 48

54 49

60 50

66 51

72 52

78 53

84 54

90 55

96 56

102 57

108 58

114 59

120 60

126 61

132 62

138 63

144 64

150 65

156 66

162 67

168 68

174 69

180 70

186 71

192 72

198 73

204 74

210 75

216 76

222 77

228 78

234 79

240 80

246 81

252 82

258 83

264 84

270 85

276 86

282 87

288 88

294 89

300 90

Selfish Talents

You’ll notice on our nifty table, the max stats extend beyond 250. How is this possible, the max stat on a pet is 250?! Well, you do this with the help of SELFISH TALENTS, aka, stat boosts or attribute boosting talents. Talents like Durable(+50 Agility), Crafty(+50 Will), Relentless(+65 Agility) etc.. are all useful in derby.

Having a pet with high stats already is very beneficial. Take for example a pet that starts with 225 agility vs. a pet starting with 240 agility. With Durable, the pet with 225 agility would be increased to a MAX of 275 agility, this would equal a cheer cost of 4. Now, do the same thing with a pet that starts in the 240 range. With the help of Durable, that pet would have a MAX of 290; this reaches the next “level spot” and gives our pet a cost cheer of 3 on grass.

It’s best to stack selfish talents when you train higher level pets. For example, with a pet that starts with 250 agility, Relentless and Durable together will increase your MAX agility to 365, which brings you to a cheer cost of 2 on grass. Add another talent that increases agility and you’ll have cost cheer 1!

Although it’s good to stack, it’s also good to balance the stats as well; this means you’re good on virtually all surfaces. A max stat pet with Durable, Relentless, and Crafty would be a pretty good pet. That pet would have cost cheer 4 on water, 4 on clay, 3 on dirt and 2 on grass.

So What?

So what? 4 is so close to 3 anyway, right? WRONG! Even a difference of ONE cheer can make the difference between winning and losing! Let’s take a pet with cost cheer 4 and 3 respectively and compare them. For the sake of this example, let’s say both pets have a power of 250 which translates to 81 TOTAL morale.

81/4=20.25, so you would get approximately 20 total cheers.

81/3=27, so you would get 27 total cheers!

That’s SEVEN more cheers than a pet with cost cheer 4! That’s HUGE in a race!

Training

Derby pets are tricky because you train them differently depending on what level you want to race them at. With that in mind, it’s best to know which level you want to race at before you even start training. If you wait, you could make a mistake and that perfect pet will no longer be perfect.

The first thing you want to do is find a pet with high stats and good abilities/talents. The best way to do this is hatch with already existing derby pets. But, if you’re up for the challenge, creating your own pets allows for endless possibilities.

As far as high stats go, you want all your starting stats to be at or above 240. This isn’t necessary, but certainly is preferable and will make your cost to cheer significantly better from the get go.

A general rule of thumb:

You want your lowest cost to cheer on a terrain that appears OFTEN. Take for example Grass vs. Water. While grass makes up a good portion of derby courses, water takes up almost nothing! It’s worthless to have a cost cheer of 1 on water if you’ll only be able to use it for 3-5 seconds a lap! Grass on the other hand is almost always an option and therefore would be more useful than water. Why have good cheer cost on a surface that only appears 10% of the time, when you can get that same cheer on a surface that appears 50% of the time?

As a result of that theory, my suggested “order” to training stats at the lower levels is as follows:

1. Agility (Grass)

2. Will (Dirt)

3. Intellect (Clay)

4. Strength (Water)

Teen

In order to maximize a teen pet, you’ll have to train one stat exclusively and put your “leftover” stats toward power.

Using my suggested order above, when choosing ONE stat to focus on, I would choose grass. But, that is completely your preference.

Once you choose a stat to focus on, find the game that focuses solely on that stat. Since I like grass, the WC Dance Game (+4 Agility) is what I need.

For dirt-Way of the Ninja Pig(+4 Will) and/or Cannon Game (+4 Will)

For clay-Maze Game(+4 Intellect)

For water-Way of the Ninja Pig (+4 Strength) and/or Gobbler Drop (+4 Strength)

Once you find which game suits your needs, play ONLY that game, and do the best you can, it will make training go faster. Because…..for teen pets-NO MEGA SNACKS!

When it comes time to give your pet a snack, you’ll want to use snacks that focus on that same stat. This way you can maximize your cheer cost. Since I like grass, I feed my pets Spicy Popcorn(+4 Agility).

For dirt- Golden Biscuit(+4 Will)

For clay-Swirled Lollipop(+4 Intellect)

For water-Huge Ice Cream(+4 Strength)

There are other options when it comes to snacks, but just make sure it only focuses on that one stat. +3, +2, are all good as well, but these +4 just make the process go quicker.

After you train your pet for a bit, you’ll want to keep track of your trained stat. This is where those “level spots” come in. The “level spots” determine different times that your cost to cheer decreases. You want your cheer to be the lowest as possible, but you also don’t want to waste points. Take for example my teen pet. My teen pet has a max agility of 270 thanks to the help of durable (+50 Agility.) But look at our table, the cost cheer of 4 starts at 240, and then cost cheer of 3 doesn’t start until 285. Since my max stat is only 270, it would be pointless leveling past 240 since my cheer cost won’t change. Therefore, I train the dance game(+4 Agility) until my agility reaches 240, then I stop. This prevents me from wasting points that aren’t benefitting my pet.

After I have maximized my agility at 240, I put my “leftover” stats in power, increasing my morale. I do this by failing the dance game (+0) so that I do not waste any stats, then proceed to feed my pet Fairy Cake(+4 Power).

You ideally will continue this until you reach 249/250 experience, but BEWARE, this is risky! If you accidentally feed a snack your pet likes or loves, or even the wrong snack entirely, it will cause your pet to level up and waste all the training you have done for a teen! So, be cautious when approaching that. It’s best to stop maybe 3-4 points before 250 to stay safe.

In the end, you should end up with a pet like this; maximize one stat entirely, with the rest filled in power:

Using this pet you would ONLY cheer on grass.

Adult

Training an adult is very similar to training a teen pet. What you’ll want to do is exactly the same, but instead of stopping to train power after your first stat, you’ll want to switch to a second stat. Let’s go back to our teen pet. Let’s say we just finished training agility to maximize our cheer. Now, we would move on to maximizing a second stat. Like it says on my little list up top, I would recommend training dirt next, but again, it’s a personal preference. So, at this point, since I would be training will, I would switch to playing ONLY the Cannon Game and feeding ONLY Golden Biscuit until I maximize my cheer. Once that happens, I can then finally switch to maximizing my power by failing the dance game and feeding Fairy Cake!

In the end, you should have an adult pet with two stats maxed and power maxed. Using a pet like I described, you would cheer ONLY on grass and dirt!

Ancient and Up

These are the easy pets as far as training goes….but beware! Getting races for ancient and above is extremely difficult! Even though racing the higher level pets is fun, you’ll have to be prepared for the wait, and honestly, getting 6+ perfect talents instead of 2 or 4 for teen or adult is much harder.

Anyway, if you are looking to develop a higher level pet, you can use mega snacks because all your stats will end up maxed anyway. So, you can train it just like you would a PvP or questing pet! :)

Using a pet like this (With all stats in the 240 range) would allow you to cheer on ALL surfaces!

Well, there you have it! Everything you need to know about training derby pets! Stay tuned next time for abilities!

~Vanessa Mythdust

↧

Companion Spotlight: Hoodoo Cornelius!

March 23, 2014, 11:25 am

≫ Next: Increase Your Drop Rates!

≪ Previous: From the Bleachers to the Track: Can't Rush Perfection

With the addition of the Hoodoo Bundle, a new companion has made its way to the game: Hoodoo Cornelius. This companion is very different than any others we have seen thus far, due to a certain power that makes him a great asset to any team.

A Melee Witchdoctor?

Although it may not be very common, Hoodoo Cornelius is a melee Witchodoctor. Companions like these have been seen before (such as in the case of Nurse Quinn and Doctor Noh), though other melee Witchdoctors up to this point haven’t been so useful. Hoodoo Cornelius, however, changes that. Although he has several similarities to other melee Witchdoctor companions, most notable of which being his low stats, he has some original additions that make him quite a large threat in combat.

Epics

Hoodoo Cornelius starts with Relentless and can train three more Epics. Relentless 2 is clearly a very good choice on him, and, although he cannot train Relentless 3, he has other useful Epics in his pool. One tier of both Repel Boarders and Second Chance work very well; Repel Boarders will allow him to attack enemies who approach him and possibly follow through with several more Relentless hits, while Second Chance can give him another opportunity to hit an enemy that he misses. With his very low accuracy, Second Chance is a crucial Epic to have on him.

Unlike most companions, Hoodoo Cornelius can only learn four possible Epics, and, due to the other one being Witch Hunter (which is not so useful under normal circumstances), there isn’t a lot of room for variety on him. The Relentless 2, Repel Boarders, and Second Chance build seems to be very popular on him, and it definitely works rather well. An attack on a Musketeer enemy with low dodge can successfully trigger several Relentless Hits, and, if he does end up missing, Second Chance will let him keep attacking.

The Game-Changing Power

Although his power has an original name that hasn’t been seen before, the effect is exactly the same as an existing one: Reckless Frenzy. However, due to Hoodoo Cornelius being a companion as opposed to a pirate, as well as him being a Witchdoctor instead of a Buccaneer, you may find its use to be slightly different.

As Hoodoo Cornelius has very low accuracy, using his Reckless Frenzy power with a Swashbuckler in range is not such a good idea; it is likely that they will dodge early on, ending the series of attacks. Therefore, try to either increase his accuracy or lower the dodge of enemies before using his power. Bonnie Anne’s Scatterblast or El Toro’s buff are great examples of what you can use beforehand. Additionally, if you are a Privateer yourself, you can use even more buffs first so that it is very likely for none of the enemies to dodge a Reckless Frenzy attack.

Health is also something to consider when using this power. Unlike a Buccaneer, Hoodoo Cornelius does not have high health and cannot use Leviathan’s Call to protect himself against the incoming damage from each successive hit. At his highest level, you’ll find him taking roughly 100 damage per hit, which, clearly, adds up after several attacks. Even if he isn’t defeated by the time he finishes using Reckless Frenzy, enemies could finish him off very quickly due to his low dodge.

An effective way to deal with his low health is by using Valor’s Fortress on him before Reckless Frenzy. Doing so will half the amount of damage he takes from each attack - making it around 50 - so that he could theoretically attack twice as much as he normally could. He will also have much more health left afterwards, so that enemies would not be able to defeat him so easily, despite his lack of defenses. Even if you are not a Privateer, Valor’s Fortress can be found on many pieces of unauctionable boss gear. At least one item with that power is definitely worth farming for to maximize the potential of Hoodoo Cornelius.

Usability

In higher level worlds, Hoodoo Cornelius is a viable choice, though sending him out into the fight right away may not be such a good idea. Using some buffs first will help him to not be defeated until he can severely damage opposing enemies with his Reckless Frenzy.

However, his uses are not limited to questing - in fact, he becomes especially useful for farming. With so much unique looking gear dropping from lower level bosses, Hoodoo Cornelius is a great choice for speeding up these fights. Higher level Musketeer or Witchdoctor bosses are also great for him, as you will not even have to buff him much, if at all, in order for his Reckless Frenzy to take them out.

Whether you’re using him for farming, questing, or even for PvP, Hoodoo Cornelius is definitely a highlight of the Hoodoo Bundle. If you’re interested, be sure to check your local Walmart for a game card! More information on the Hoodoo Bundle and all of its contents can be found here.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out Duelist101's coverage on Hoodoo Cornelius - they have some great tips that are sure to help you out!

↧

Increase Your Drop Rates!

April 1, 2014, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Advanced Pets: What you need to know

≪ Previous: Companion Spotlight: Hoodoo Cornelius!

The Question

With so much unique boss gear, as well as simply no auction gear with great benefits in combat, there have been countless Pirates farming various bosses around the Spiral. However, the price Second Chance Chests can quickly add up, and farming is clearly very time consuming. So, the question arises: is there a faster way at getting the boss drops you want?

The Idea

Ratbeard, a developer of Pirate101 on the Official Message Boards, described an interesting theory at how to acquire better drops. He mentioned that it may be possible to affect the loot roll through head-patting and stomach-rubbing before opening the boss’ chest. This seemed like a great idea to test out, so test it out we did!

First, a boss needed to be chosen with unique items in their loot table, along with several other pieces of no auction gear as well as less rare class-specific gear. There are plenty of bosses that fit this requirement - The Gorgon in Aquila was specifically chosen, as well as The Underdog in Marleybone.

The Procedure

In order to get a picture of how head-patting and stomach-rubbing affects drop rates, we’d first need to know the standard rate at which bosses drop their unique items! So, we farmed normally for our “control” data - this would help us later on when we would compare these results to our experimental ones.

We recorded data from roughly 30 runs, making note of how often we received gold, class-specific gear, no auction gear, and unique gear. After doing so, we moved on to the actual experiment, and recorded data from the same number of runs, this time head-patting and stomach-rubbing before opening the boss’ chest. Of course, we tried to keep as many factors constant as we could, with the intentions of only testing this one variable. Our results were quite surprising!

The Results

Below is a graph depicting our results. The blue bar represents the quantity of the specified item we received while farming normally, while the red bar represents experimental farming. We “cleverly limited the domain of the results” so that only 17 runs are displayed here, randomly* chosen.

*The definition of “randomly” may be slightly** stretched.

**The definition of “slightly” may also be stretched.

We also included a table below to compare regular farming to experimental farming. Our results clearly show that this new type of farming that Ratbeard suggested is worth trying out!

	Regular Farming	Experimental Farming
Gold	10	3
Class-Specific Gear	3	6
No Auction Gear	4	6
Unique Gear	0	2

Taking a closer look at this data, we can see that much less gold was received using this new strategy. We received twice as much class-specific gear and two-thirds as much no auction gear, much of which was actually very useful. Finally, while there is no unique gear listed in regular runs, the head-patting and stomach-rubbing strategy got us 2 pieces of unique boss gear in just 17 runs! That’s a 12% drop rate!

Of course, there’s still room for further experimentation on this. As said by Ratbeard,

“Because I don’t want to give away too much when it comes to loot rolls, you will have to experiment with both the rate and direction (clockwise, counterclockwise, and/or contrariwise) of the head patting and tummy rubbing.”

Conclusion

Have you been tirelessly farming for Gortez’ Axe, Buck Bronco’s Hat, or the Ophidian Spine Crest? The endless farming is now over! Just put this strategy in action, and you’ll find yourself getting these extremely rare items in no time!

As our results confirmed, boss loot may not be “purely random”. What farming methods have you tried out that increased your drop rates? We want to hear!

If you haven’t already seen them yet, we’ve teamed up with several other fansites to all create similar posts. Be sure to check them out - they all have great insight that can help you on your farming ventures.

Swordroll’s Blog - Jack Teach

Destiny’s Travels - Destiny Devoreaux

Pirates in the Sky - Evan Silver

Wizards Unite - Ian Sharp

The Simple Swashbuckler - Beatriz Abbott

↧

Advanced Pets: What you need to know

April 12, 2014, 12:17 pm

≫ Next: Spiral Trivia Contest! [Closed]

≪ Previous: Increase Your Drop Rates!

Ahoy! In case you haven't heard, Pirate101 has released the kraken and opened the doors to the long-awaited Test Realm, not to Book 15 (although they assure us that the book will be coming soon!) but to Advanced Pets, Advanced Companion, Gameplay Improvements and much, much more!

I'll be taking you through Advanced Pets and Advanced Companions in upcoming posts, but today, I'm going to focus on Advanced Pets as I have noticed a couple people have had a bit of difficulty fully grasping what the pets actually do, so I'm here to hopefully help y'all out and point you in the right direction. So, without further ado, let's get started!

What do Advanced Pets Do?

If you thought that before this update your pets were not helpful enough, well, this update will remove that feeling and make them the best that they can be!

Firstly, get yourself on over to the Circus Maximus, if you

haven't already, go speak to Mickey Dougan, the Town Crier standing outside of Avery's Office and accept the quest "Silly Pet Games" which sends you on a journey to obtain a new Egg and explore the splendor and beauty that is Bestia and even a cool new Puppet Show!

Now, let's get down to business. Pets can now learn more Epic Talents and Powers through Pet Training. These Powers and Talents can be used to help you and your pet in battle and help your pet in the new Pet PvP arena in the Circus Maximus where your pet can battle it out against other's pets and become the best beast of Bestia!

Training your Pet

So, now you've got your pet, how do you unlock those epics/talents and powers? Pet Training of course! This isn't any old Pet Training where you play mini-games, no sir, you can sit back and quest or farm while your pet is out Hay-Bailing or Crane Meditating. Let me run you through the process.

You can open up the Pet menu by pressing the "I" key or going to your backpack and selecting the pet tab at the bottom, just underneath companions.

Now, select a pet (you can still train Level 65 Pets) and click on the "Train" button and this menu will pop up, you can choose from a variety of training activities from each of the worlds currently in game:

Each world activity is unlocked at a specific Pet level, and as you level up the time it takes for specific activities to finish increases. Aquilan Training activities currently are the best source of pet experience and Guile, Guts and Grit in game at this time and the longest, so be prepared for a long wait. Here's a couple Aquilan training activities;

As you can see only two of these pet training activities are available for me right now, this can be for two reasons; your pet is not a high enough level yet or you do not have the sufficient pet gear. What's pet gear I hear you asking? Well, it's gear that pets have to have to be able to take place in an activity, it's not gear you can see, but it's absolutely essential to pet training. Luckily, the gear cards tell you where you can get a piece of it from, so you know where to go looking so you can complete the activity. Gear can also be bought from the Crown Shop and Vendors in Circus Maximus.

Now you've got all the necessary gear, let's begin a training activity.

There are two types of training activities;

1) That boosts your pet's Agility, Strength, Will, Health and Experience to help your pet in battle.

2) That boosts your pet's Power, Guts, Guile and Grit, to help your pet in Pet PvP.

When you complete the training activities that boost your pet's Experience and Stats you will be allowed to feed your pet a pet snack, you can obtain snacks from Pet Vendors in Circus Maximus or through the Crown Shop.

When you complete a training activity that boosts your pets Guts, Guile, Grit and Power your pet will not be hungry and you will not be allowed to feed your pet any snacks, therefore choosing these training activities do not contribute to the experience of your pet but they do contribute to what effects Cheering will do to your pet in pet PvP.

When you choose a training activity, you can choose to wait out the timer or skip the time for an amount of crowns, be warned, the amount of crowns required to end a training activity increases as the timer increases.

Your Pet will gain different Epic/Talents and Powers at certain Levels, here's a basic Chart for the current standings:

Level 1 - Hatchling - No Epic or Power

Level 10 - Baby - 1 Talent

Level 20 - Teen - 1 Power

Level 30 - Adult - 1 Talent (Adult unlocks the ability to Pet Morph - New Guide Coming Soon)

Level 40 - Ancient - 1 Power

Level 50 - Epic - 1 Talent

Level 60 - Mega - 1 Power

Also, every time you unlock a world activity, you get a neat little postcard from the world itself;

Pet PvP

Now, once you're happy with your pet's Epics/Talents and Powers, speak to Decius Duelmaster on the main podium in the Circus Maximus to join a Pet PvP game!

When you first start out, you will only be allowed to play 1 pet for a PvP match, once you start playing more, you unlock badges, and allow yourself to put more pets into a Pet PvP battle (max 4 pets).

Once you get into a battle, you'll have about 10 seconds to see who you are up against, the best way to do this is to hover over the opponent's pet in the upper right hand corner

Now, the main thing you want to keep an eye on in battle is your pet's "Cheer-O-Meter", when you are able to cheer, you need to press that button as soon as you can, because if you cheer enough times, you can actually unlock you pet's powers and use those powers on your enemy's pet(s).

This is how cheer works, the amount of times you can press the cheer button at the start of the battle (and during until you run out) is determined by the amount of Power your pet has. The maximum amount of power your pet can have is 180, every 18 "points" of power grants you an automatic cheer in battle, so if you have 180 power, you can automatically press cheer 10 times without waiting for the "Cheer-O-Meter" to fill up again. This is what the "10" means next to the Power sign on the Ostrich's stat board in the picture above.

If you have 1 point of cheer, you will need to wait for the "Cheer-O-Meter" to fill up again, it can be filled up by time and when your pet attacks.

Tip: Press the cheer button when it is "Greener" to get the most of the cheer.

Once you have pressed the cheer button enough times, the Action Meter (the blue "pipe" on the right hand side of the pet's stat board) will fill up and you will be able to choose one of the powers your pet already has trained and use it on the opposing side. Once you choose the power, the power's effects will not take place until the following round, so there is no guarantee the power will work because the opponent may be able to kill your pet before the pet can use the power.

Here are two of my pets, the one on the left has Max Power, which means it can use the Cheer Button automatically 10 times in a fight. The one on the right has 103 Power which means it will be able to us the Cheer Button automatically 5 times in a fight.

Additionally, you'll also want to know what each stat grants your pet, so you know what to improve for battles;

Agility - The higher the Agility, the more damage your pet will do in battle.

Strength - The higher the Strength, the more damage your pet will do in battle.

Will - The higher the Will, the more damage your pet will do in battle.

Health - This stat will show you how much of your pets maximum health you have unlocked, the bigger the health, the longer a pet will be able to spar for.

Power - Power tells you how many times you can automatically cheer in a battle, and can also increase the damage your pet's powers can deal on an enemy pet.

Grit - Pets with more grit will get more benefits from cheering when their health is low (red).

Guts - Pets with more Guts will get more benefits from cheering when their heal is high (green).

Guiles - Pets with more Guiles will get more benefits from cheering when their health is in mid-range (yellow).

Once you win (or lose) a match, you'll be notified of your standing, and receive some goodies as well.

You can also unlock badges, these tell you how many pet fights you have been in!

Hopefully I have answered your questions (and more), if you have any more, do let us know in the comments!

In the next post, I'll be exploring the actual process of Pet Training, and how to get the most of your pet.

↧

Spiral Trivia Contest! [Closed]

April 14, 2014, 3:28 pm

≫ Next: Trivia Questions! [Closed]

≪ Previous: Advanced Pets: What you need to know

After over a year of blogging, we have reached 100 posts on Adventures of the Spiral! To celebrate this achievement, we're hosting a contest with some Hoodoo Bundle items as prizes - one winner will even win the entire Hoodoo Bundle itself!

Tomorrow, on Tuesday,April 15th at 6:00 EST, we'll be posting a series of trivia questions. Simply put, the person who gets ALL of the questions correct first will win! Other prizes will go to whoever gets all questions correct second, third, and so on. If all of the prizes are not given out by Friday, March 18th at 6:00 EST, exactly 3 days after the questions are posted, we will award the remaining ones to those who got the most questions correct first.

Sound easy? It won't be! Some questions will be relatively simple, but others will be much harder! Make sure that you have completed main, side, promotion, and trainer quests to be prepared... there may even be questions beyond what you see in the dialogue in the game! Only the best of the best will prevail and win the prizes we have to offer:

First Place: Hoodoo Bundle (Comes with 5,000 Crowns)

Second and Third Place: Hoodoo Cornelius Companion + 3,000 Crowns

Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Place: Witchdoctor's Lab Housing Add-On + 1,500 Crowns

Email all of your entries to admin@adventuresofthespiral.com. Please note that publicly posting answers to any trivia questions will result in automatic and immediate disqualification.

Thank you for sticking with us for 100 posts - more will be coming soon!

-The AoS Team

Congratulations to the winners:

First Place: Zane DarkHeart (24/25)
Second Place: Logan (23/25)
Third Place: Duncan StormThief (22/25)
Fourth Place: Katherine NightSong (21/25)
Fifth Place: Alex (20/25)
Sixth Place: Tattle Tale (20/25)

*We are very, very, very proud to say that no one got all 25 correct!*

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Trivia Questions! [Closed]

April 15, 2014, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: Party Time!

≪ Previous: Spiral Trivia Contest! [Closed]

Here are the trivia questions for this contest - be the first to answer them correctly to win!

We’d like to thank everyone for entering our trivia contest - some came really close, but unfortunately we were only able to award the top six people a prize.

Here are all of the correct answers:

1. Where was Sarah Steele raised?

Our original intentions was accepting Flotsam for this, as Sarah Steele comments that she was raised there when you dock for the quest “The Stench of Betrayal”. However, in Sarah Steele’s Rogue’s Gallery, it is mentioned that she was raised in Scrimshaw. We accepted both answers for this one - either Flotsam or Scrimshaw would be counted as correct.

2. What two things did Old Scratch give to Sister Snake?

Sister Snake explicitly states in Old Scratch’s first promotion that she requests of him what she requested of his teacher: his hand and his Soul.

3. Where is the “center” of Kane’s power?

In Sivella, we are told that Cadiz is the center of Kane’s power. Although Valencia is the world that he rules from, Cadiz is the true center of his power.

4. With what ancient relic does Ratbeard seek to bait Captain Fowl?

In Ratbeard’s second promotion quest, he seeks out the Golden Gobbler as bait for Captain Fowl.

5. What is the homeland of the fuel vendors?

This was not directly stated in the game, but, by knowing that Guinea Pigs are from Valencia, it can be inferred that all of the fuel vendors are Valencian.

6. What is the secret behind the Gold Monkey?

The Monquistadors in Puerto Mico believed that the Gold Monkey was a priceless relic in the Isle of Doom. However, this was not the case; Gortez himself is the Gold Monkey.

7. What does Bishop refer to Beachhead as?

Bishop described Beachhead many ways. He simply calls it a “Station”, as well as saying that it is “the pinnacle of Armada artistry and engineering”. Further into the dialogue, he makes note that Beachhead is indestructible. Any of these answers were acceptable.

8. What is Rooke doing in MooShu?

Rooke’s original intentions in MooShu were to trade Armada weapons to General Tso in order to gain Egg Foo Yung’s piece of Marco Pollo’s map. He later states that he wishes to translate it. Additionally, he forms a treaty with MooShu to later attack Marleybone. Mentioning any of these things would be correct.

9. Why was Rooke’s plan to flank Marleybone crucial to the war?

This answer could be found in Bishop’s puppet show. The one key word here is “surprise”. Marleybone wouldn’t see it coming, ultimately destroying the Royal Navy.

10. What significance does Krokotopia have in the game, so far? (List at least one aspect)

--World Origin

--Transportalators

--The Rosetta Stone

--Queen Isadore is the Empress Regent of Krokotopia

11. Who do we have to find in order to receive a bow?

This question was directly referring to Ulysses’ bow in Aquila. Any of the following characters would be correct, as they were all involved in this questline: Medusa (or the Gorgon), Nigel Wethersfield, and Medea.

12. What is “Doomspell”?

Doomspell is the Witchdoctor version of Flanking/Crossfire. It is currently not trainable on Live realm, but it’s coming with the next Test Realm update to the game! Ratbeard also mentioned it on the Official Message Boards prior to the Test Realm being released.

13. What world will we have to sneak into after Valencia and why?

At the end of Aquila, we visit Meowiarty in Marleybone, who tells us that we will have to sneak into Valencia next in order to find the Toymaker and learn how to defeat Kane from him.

14. Why do the Waponis double-cross Ratbeard?

They were never truly interested in helping him, but, instead, sought to sacrifice the gold to their Fire God.

15. What Stormgates would you be able to access with a Green Windstone?

This one was a trick question - only one person had the correct answer to it! A Green Windstone can access the MooShu Stormgate, but, according to Blind Mew, it can do more than that:

"Oh, and in game each color Windstone also can function for all the colors below it: they follow the visible spectrum, in reverse: Violet is lowest, Red is highest. So a Yellow Windstone could let you travel any violet, indigo, blue, green, or yellow gate, but not an orange one.”

We warned you that you’d have to have knowledge outside of the game!

16. Why did the production of Peacemakers stop?

The creator of the Peacemakers, Sam Colt, swore to never make another set of them after what happened to Wyatt Chirp.

17. What was the Prize for winning the Contest of Champions?

According to Pindar, the prize of the Contest of Champions was to be sacrificed to Typhon the Terror. (That doesn’t seem like much of a prize!)

18. Who was Old Scratch’s old Patron?

In Old Scratch’s second promotion quest, the Dark Crawler reveals himself as Old Scratch’s old patron.

19. Who originally stopped the Minotaur?

Aquilus originally stopped the Minotaur. This could be known from Philemon’s narrative prior to beginning the Minotaur chapter in Aquila or from the new Bestia puppet show in Test Realm.

20.What was the end result of the Monquistan theology debate?

The Order of St. Simian had their evidence confiscated due to them being plantains, not bananas. The tree evidently won out in the argument.

21.Who did Monkey King give his Turtle Ball to? Why did he do this?

Monkey King gave his Turtle Ball to the Brass Monkey, also known as Count Castillo de Brass, with the intentions of the Pirate seeking him out and being defeated by him.

22. How did Jack Washburn acquire his fortune?

This was a tough one! Jack Washburn is also known as “Burly” Jack Washburn; we left the nickname out to make it harder. His gang of irregulars stole a shipment of Union gold.

23. In what region of Achaea do the Amazons reside?

This one was difficult as well. We found this answer in a certain Aquila side quest, though it may also be said in others. The Amazons reside in Themiscyra.

24. What family does the Royal Monocle belong to?

The answer to this question could be found in a Port Regal side quest. The Royal Monocle belonged to the Von Trouser family before it was destroyed by Water Moles.

25. What does Valencia believe the Marleyboneans are famous for?

In the Valencia side quest “The Halls of Learning”, it is said that the Valencians believe that Marleybone is famous for their industry, discipline, and skill at engineering.

Here are the winners:

First Place: Zane DarkHeart (24/25)

Second Place: Logan (23/25)

Third Place: Duncan StormThief (22/25)

Fourth Place: Katherine NightSong (21/25)

Fifth Place: Wordy Morgan Freeman (20/25)

Sixth Place: Tattle Tale (20/25)

*We are very, very, very proud to say that no one got all 25 correct!*

Well done to Sneaky Kevin for coming up with the questions. (I wonder who put this here, erm, hmm)

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Party Time!

April 19, 2014, 2:24 pm

≫ Next: Update to the Companion Database!

≪ Previous: Trivia Questions! [Closed]

Hey guys! It’s spring time and summer is just around the corner, so what better way to celebrate than to have a big Pirate101 party? Adventures of the Spiral and AluraRB from Art in the Spiral have been putting together a huge party! Nearly all of the other official fansiters will be there, too!

Here’s a list of the official fansiters who will be attending:

Sheldon/Jason/Sophia of Adventures of the Spiral

Edward of Around the Spiral with Edward Lifegem

Alura of Art in the Spiral

Ditto Wizard of Ditto Monster’s Bloggy Thingy

The Duelists of Duelist101

The Mercs of Mercenaries for Charter

Paige MoonShade of Paige’s Page

The Pet Masters of Petnome Pirates

The Mods of Pirate101 Central/Wizard101 Central

Kelsey Fireheart of Pirate101 Skyways/Stars of the Spiral

Johnny of Pirates of the Spiral

Dr Zeppers of Skull Island TV

The Staff of Spiral Radio101

Legends of Stormgate Pirates/Legends of the Spiral

Information

The party will take place May 3rd at 3 pm CST. It will last until 6pm CST, or until it dies off! Sheldon and AluraRB will have two characters waiting in Avery’s Court by the life fountain in One-Eyed Jack realm to pick you up and take you to the party. Make sure you add Sneaky Zoe or Eccentric Aedan Roberts so we can teleport you there!

Rules:

No begging. There will be plenty of chances for codes, but begging won’t get you anything.

No spamming.

No foul or inappropriate language.

Show good sportsmanship towards others.

Of course, have fun!

Prizes!

Hoodoo Cornelius Companion

Witch Doctor’s Lab add-on

Random spring pets

1,500 Crowns

Prizes awarded will vary based on the contest and the placement.

Contests:

We will be having two of our own contests going on at the party:

Find the Fansiter

At a certain point during the event, these individuals will go off and hide in the spiral. You will need to find them, take a screenshot, and email it to admin@adventuresofthespiral.com with the subject “Find the Fansiter”. Everyone who has found all of the fansiters will be put into a raffle for the prizes. Don't forget to include your Pirate's name!

Scavenger Hunt:

There will be 15 hidden housing items throughout all three houses. For this contest, your job is to find all of the items, take a screenshot of them, and email them to admin@adventuresofthespiral.com with the subject “Scavenger Hunt”. All correct entries will be put into a raffle and winners will be chosen at random. The exact names of the housing items will be posted on the actual party today.

Don't forget to include your Pirate's name!

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Update to the Companion Database!

May 2, 2014, 6:37 am

≫ Next: Spring Pirate101 Update!

≪ Previous: Party Time!

Hey there guys! We're very excited to announce the following update to the Companion Database:

New Companion Information!

A much wanted update has arrived to the Companion Database: new format to companion pages!

The Epic Talent, Powers and Abilities box on each page has been updated to a new improved version, with thanks to Legends from Legends of the Spiral.

Go take a look for yourself today!

Adding this new format allows us to give you a better idea of what companions can actually train. We will continue to modify this feature, particularly by indicating which companions can train rank 3 Epics, in the future.

A new format to the Basic Information located at the top of a Companion Page will be updated in due course.

As a result of this update, the Promotion Quest Buttons have been removed from the posts for the time being.

The new Abilities that contribute effects to Companion Orders have been added in preparation for the Test Realm going Live.

When you hover over a power, you will get all variants of this power (Rank 1, 2 and 3 or the upgrade of it) this is so the box was not cluttered. Generally, (except from Nausica) the Powers are replaced by their upgraded version.

The Epic, Power and Ability Pages will be updated as well, but this is an update we can bring without taking down the Database.

The Front Page will also be updated in the coming week.

Happy Sailing!

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Spring Pirate101 Update!

May 15, 2014, 7:02 pm

≫ Next: Pets, Pets, and more Pets!

≪ Previous: Update to the Companion Database!

With the new Pirate101 spring update now upon us, we wanted to provide a breakdown of the new features:

Advanced Pets

The long awaited update to pets has finally arrived! Your pets can now train talents and powers themselves to improve their usefulness in combat. By accepting a new quest from the Town Crier, Mickey Dugan, you'll gain access to Bestia - here you can morph new pets, buy pets, snacks, or gear for them, or participate in pet sparring matches, both practice and against other players' pets!

Pet training is far less boring and tedious than you may be used to in Wizard101, so be sure to give it a try! You might be surprised at how easy it is to master and how effective your pets, both new and old, will be in combat.

Advanced/New Companions

Ever wanted your underused companions to be more useful? Now they are! Not only can you set them so that they'll be randomly drawn from your entire list if you choose, but they can now go on special job orders that could reward you with anything from gold to pets! They can even farm for nautical experience or gear for you - make sure you recruit all of your companions so that you can maximize your crew's potential!

You'll also find companions like Shiruku Neko to have been improved, and you'll be provided with a free reset for all of your companions as well as your Pirate's own practice points. When you first log in, too, you'll receive free companion training tomes equal to your number of companions!

New Free to Play Zones

There's a new area for all free to play players out there - Xol Akmul! Not only does it expand upon Pirate101 lore, but it also draws intriguing connections to Wizard101's Azteca. Speak to Lasko in Traitor's Cave (who will send you to Manny... who will then send you to a certain "barmy" character) in order to obtain these new quests.

Paying members will also be able to access two additional chapters that have been added to the Skull Island questline. If you're already past that point, you'll be able to access these areas for free!

Much, Much More!

Doubloons. Mark and Recall. New class badges. Skyway chat. Combat graphical effects. A new accessory slot. New interfaces. Expanded dungeons. New (awesome!) Crown Shop weapons for each level and class. There's so much to list that it wouldn't be possible for us to say it all - check out the entire update notes to read more!

https://www.pirate101.com/free_game/update_notes/

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Pets, Pets, and more Pets!

May 28, 2014, 1:28 pm

≫ Next: Something Nefarious This Way Comes...

≪ Previous: Spring Pirate101 Update!

A couple weeks ago, the newest update to Pirate101 brought us Advanced Pets, along with that, I took you through the art of Training and Sparring pet. This post, however, is about the newest pets, First Generation and Hybrid Pets that have made their way into the game.

We’ve had a few hints from Decius, the newest developer to make it on to the Message Boards and the guy who knows anything and everything about pets about how many pets there are, but nothing, absolutely nothing (ok, maybe a little hint) about what pets make what hybrids.

Speaking of new pets! There are three new pets to the Crown Shop;

the Clown Fish: 4500 Crowns;

the Thresher Shark: 4000 Crowns;

(and) the Hammerhead Shark: 4500 Crowns.

Who knows what hybrids and talents can come from these pets?

Pets that were you pets before the update were given a special additional talent that is exclusive to them, this talent is called "Loyal" and all previous pets have Rank 3 of this talent which means that they have a 30% more chance of showing up in combat (at any round, not just the start!).

It's important to note that these pets are unique, or "Legacy Pets"; they cannot be reproduced through morphing or any other means. Pets that you also obtained before the update are automatically leveled to 65, along with the 3 Powers and the 3 Talents, a special added bonus!

There are three pets (so far) that you cannot get back through morphing, Loyal Pets (obtained before the Update ), the Ostrich and the Skarakeet.

Much like the Sheep pet in Wizard 101, the Ostrich (from the Bestia Pre-Req Quest) and the Skarakeet (Retired Boochbeard Bundle) cannot be hatched back, however, when you hatch them with any other type of pet, you get the "Blue Ostrich" (Ostrich + Any Pet) and the Skull Island Macaw (Skarakeet + Any Pet).

On the left, the Original (Red Ostrich) and on the Right, the hatched (Blue) Ostrich

On the Left the Original Skarakeet from the Boochbeard Bundle and the left, the Skull Island Macaw.

Now, along with many new First Generation Pets, some of which are still to be discovered (Bunnicorn and Mechanical Owl, to name a few), there are new, exciting looking hybrid pets!

So far, there has been only one hybrid pet that has been discovered (that comes from two specific parents, and not one parent and any pet) and that pet is the Grimtooth Shark, a combination of the Ebon Spectre and the Not so Great White Shark. It's pretty awesome looking don't you think?!

There was a "Golden Sky Rattler" Hybrid, Deathstalker Scorpion + Golden Skyrattler that produced a Golden Dragon of some sorts;

But, unfortunatley, we were informed by Decius that this was in fact a bug, but it has given them ideas for a Golden Dragon Pet! Please note that if you have this "hybrid" it will return to a Golden SkyRattler when they address this glitch.

Check out the Pirate101 Central Wiki and Petnome for a whole host of information on pets!

Thank you to Chrissy the Blesser for Ostrich, Golden Dragon* and the Skull Island Macaw, also thanks to Kelsey Fireheart for discovering the two hybrids along with Chrissy.

Thanks to Alura Silver for the Not so Great White Shark.

What other pets have you discovered, First Generation or Hybrids? Let us know in the Comments!

*Soon to be fixed pet

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Something Nefarious This Way Comes...

June 3, 2014, 4:37 pm

≫ Next: From the Bleachers to the Track: Knowledge is Power

≪ Previous: Pets, Pets, and more Pets!

With the addition of the new Spring update to the game, there’s a mysterious new tower located in MooShu. After receiving a variety of hints, we are able to speculate on what this tower could bring to the game.

Something Nefarious This Way Comes

The word “nefarious” has been used over and over to describe this new tower. While it may just be a creative way of saying “evil”, it certainly could mean much more. Perhaps, it could be alluding to a new villain’s name or plot who is planning something inside of the tower, or maybe just the quest name. However, it seems very likely that this will be side content rather than main – the whole idea of a MooShu tower just doesn’t make sense with our return to Valencia. This isn’t to say that Book XV isn’t coming soon, though – perhaps both the tower and a new world could be released at the same time!

Describing it as nefarious over and over has striking similarities with the barmy update. While it didn’t completely shape the questline, it pointed out a certain line that gave insight as to some of what it would be about. That could very well be what will happen here, with various MooShu NPCs simply describing the plot as nefarious. There are unlimited possibilities at what we’ll find, so only time will tell.

A High Level Gauntlet?

Wizard has the Waterworks. The Tower of the Helephant. Briskbreeze. The Warehouse. Tartarus. So many optional high level gauntlets – as for Pirate, however, there really isn’t anything like that at this point. It would add a lot more to the game, for sure, as optional high level content doesn’t necessarily have to be fit for the “average” gamer. It can be extremely hard for those looking for a challenge and great rewards to go with it.

What would these great rewards be? High level gear, most likely. The issue with this, however, is that it would slowly eliminate the diversity between players’ equipment. Where Pirate differs from Wizard is that there is no “best” gear – this results in plenty of unique and diverse strategies. Having one best item may not be such a change from what we have now, however; the Dragoon Autocannon (or perhaps the Armada Pistols) was the choice of most Musketeers prior to it being nerfed, and most of the new class weapons from the Crown Shop are better than any regular gear out there.

Having one set of gear that is strictly the best, though, may very well be a great addition to the game – it brings a great amount of potential for even new types of strategies to emerge. Players who are more content with their current playstyles can continue to fight as they normally would, while others may be more willing to adapt to new changes in the meta game.

Additionally, we need something new to farm for! Sure, there’s plenty of unique looking boss gear, but many players would simply want something to stitch to and would have no real use of any of the remaining gear, especially with no way to truly show the rest of it off. Gear with great stats, on the other hand, can be used and even stitched with that unique looking gear. Overall, there would be a much greater incentive to farm for new items, giving players something to do while waiting for a level cap increase and a new world.

Why MooShu?

This is a good question that many might not have even considered: Why was MooShu chosen to be the location of this new gauntlet? Surely there was some reason; game designers don’t just put large instances in random places!

The answer might actually be right in front of us. If we look all the way up to the top of the tower, we can see something that resembles a vortex near the top. While we’ve seen Aquila heavily focused on Greek beliefs (as with the gods), this hasn’t necessarily been true with MooShu (or most other worlds, though Monquista, for example, has many mentions of the Church).

What separates MooShu from these other worlds, however, is its potential is much greater. The Celestial Heavens of MooShu haven’t really been touched upon at all, and stealing power from it would make for a great questline and a nefarious villain.

This also raises even more essential questions: What is the vortex truly for? Where did it come from? How will the villain inside of the tower harness its energy and what will he/she use it for? And, most importantly, can they be stopped?

It would be pretty boring to just walk inside, defeat a few enemies, reach the final boss and then defeat them. What would be extremely cool would be to actually find a way of cutting off the source of power from the vortex, close it, and then defeat the final boss (who is now enraged that their plot has been thwarted though believes that they can find another way to succeed – so long as we are eliminated). Good thing we have a history with insane bosses in the Spiral!

Why?

Why would the villain inside this tower carry out this scheme? Surely there’s some reason – every enemy has one! Whether it’s Ratbeard’s to steal Gunn’s gold for himself, the Wild Bunch’s to take over Tumbleweed Skyway, or Bishop’s to eliminate the Marleybonean Royal Navy, there’s always something.

It could be very similar to General Tso’s drive – with the Emperor out of the picture, it would be a great time to wreak havoc in MooShu so that it can be taken over. However, it could be something even greater. Does the nefarious villain inside of the tower have a history with the Emperor, or perhaps another character we’ve met or heard about in MooShu? Do they just want power? Or maybe having immense power would lead them to pose a threat to the entire Spiral, much like the Armada.

Conclusion

Regardless of what it is, we’ll have to come in and stop them. In whatever manner that may be, it’s sure to be epic. With the tower being mentioned in the Newsletter this month and it being the focus of a recent Pirate101 Vine, it can’t be too far away. Open the doors and let’s find out what’s behind this nefarious scheme!

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From the Bleachers to the Track: Knowledge is Power

June 6, 2014, 1:30 pm

≫ Next: Create-a-Doubloon Contest! [CLOSED]

≪ Previous: Something Nefarious This Way Comes...

Welcome back to the last installment of “From the Bleachers to the Track!”

Before you begin reading this installment, make sure to check out the first two posts in this series:

Part 1: The Racer's Handbook

Part 2: Can't Rush Perfection

This time we take a look at derby abilities!

Any pet has the potential to be a great racer, but knowing what each ability does and how to use it, allows you to have many options when it comes to creating your perfect pet!

Removes Jump/Duck

Abilities: Baffle, Befuddle, Disconcert, Distract, Dumbfound, Flummox, Perplex, Stumble, Stumble On, Stupefy, Super-Dizzy, Think Fast!

What they do: Removes jump or duck from your opponent for a certain amount of time.

How to use it: Timing needs to be perfect to use these well. Try using these abilities when your opponent is near many hurdles or attempting to jump many in a row. Not only will doing this possibly cause your opponent to run into hurdles and slow down…but it also prevents them from gaining precious morale!

Lane Drops

Abilities: Banana Peel, Bananas!, Bombardier, Bomber, Dead End, Oil Slick, Slick-N-Slide, Stonewall

What they do: These abilities drop items into one or all the lanes.

How to use it: No matter what the item is, running into any obstacle on the track causes your opponent to slow down or maybe even change lanes. For these abilities, try to drop items when your opponent is directly behind you. If you have a decent lead, try “hiding” the items by placing them behind walls or hurdles. Another good strategy for these abilities is to place them in front of hurdles, causing your opponent to either bypass the hurdle or suffer a slow when attempting to jump it.

Speed Boosts

Abilities: Big Boost, Big Hurry, Boost, Hurry, Mega Hurry, Mega-Boost, Super Hurry

What they do: These abilities give you a speed boost for a limited amount of time!

How to use it: These abilities are good to use any time in the race! Although, if you find yourself way ahead of the other racers, it may be a good idea to conserve your speed boosts in case an opponent has spiffy pop. (See below for details on that)

Removes Positives

Abilities: Big Downer, Downer, Killjoy

What they do: These abilities remove “positives,” or “speed boosts” from your opponents.

How to use it: The best way to pull these abilities off is to keep a lookout on the bottom of your screen. If you see your opponent use a boost or hurry….quickly use your ability to take that boost away!

Removes Morale

Abilities: Big Drain, Big Exhaust, Deplete, Drain, Exhaust, Exhausted, Mega-Deplete, Siphon, Siphonizer

What they do: These abilities remove morale from your opponent.

How to use it: These abilities are good to use almost anytime. The only thing I would be aware of is where the stars are on every course. If you see an opponent near a spot with a star on the corner map, wait a bit….they might have a star and have immunity.

Lessens Cheer Cost

Abilities: Big Rally, Clay Post, Dirt Post, Grass Post, Huge Rally, Rally

What they do: These abilities lessen your cheer cost on certain terrain (or all terrain) for a certain amount of time.

How to use it: These abilities can be used any time. Although, these abilities are best used when you are on or near the surface(s) that you will be decreasing the cheer cost on.

Morale Chance Increase

Abilities: Big Recovery, Recovery, Restorative, Restore

What they do: These abilities give you a morale chance increase when jumping or ducking hurdles.

How to use it: Morale is the key to winning races, if you have these abilities and have the opportunity to get even more…do so when there are tons of hurdles up for grasp!

Slows Speed

Abilities: Big-Check, Check, Dawdle, Delay, Freeze Frame, Halt Leader, Overtake, Slow Leader, Slow Motion, Slowpoke, Stall, Stop Leader, Super Delay, Super-Pass, Super-Stall

What they do: These abilities slow down your opponents for a limited time.

Steals

Abilities: Bummer, Leech, Mega-Leech, Sap, Super-Sap

What they do: These abilities steal morale from your opponent(s).

How to use it: These abilities are good to use almost anytime. One thing I would be aware of is where the stars are on every course. If you see an opponent near a spot with a star on the corner map, wait a bit….they might have a star and have immunity. The other thing to be aware of is how much morale your opponent actually has. If your opponent is already out of morale, don’t use your ability, it will be useless and take away nothing! Wait until your opponent jumps a hurdle or uses an ability like “Charge” or “Supercharge” (Which replenishes their morale) to do more damage.

Lock Lane/Lane Changes

Abilities: Catch, Catch Leader, Clear Path, Eat My Dirt, Eat My Dust, Lock, Move-It!, Musical Lane , No

Passing, Scoot, Super-Lock

What they do: These abilities lock the lane of your opponent or force them to change lanes.

How to use it: Timing, timing, timing is what these abilities are all about! If you have any of these abilities you want to wait until the precise moment in which you can do the most damage. Try locking or switching your opponent into a lane with lots of obstacles such as walls, or the best of all….mud! Locking your opponent into a mud lane is HUGE! They can’t cheer AND it slows them down! It takes practice, but it’s a great tool if you have one of these abilities.

Increases Morale

Abilities: Charge, Charge Up, Supercharge

What they do: These abilities replenish your morale!

How to use it: Another ability that’s good to use anytime, but I recommend using it as soon as you think you need it. An important note: Never, I repeat, NEVER use these abilities at the start of the race! I can’t tell you how many times I see these abilities wasted at the start when you already have full morale! Wait until your bar is half empty to use these abilities. That way, you’re not wasting the ability and you can get the most out of the ability. The more you use it, the more morale you can gain back.

Removes Negatives

Abilities: Clear

What they do: These abilities remove negative effects on you, such as slows.

How to use it: If you have clear, feel free to use it whenever you have any type of slows bringing you down. If you don’t have any slows initially, wait until you do! Don’t waste it!

Decreases Attributes

Abilities: Enfeeble, Enfeeblement, Mega-Upset, Sideswipe, Weaken, Weakenizer, Wipeout

What they do: These abilities decrease your opponent(s) stats on terrain, often resulting in an increase of cheer cost.

How to use it: Try to use these abilities when you know that your opponent is on or near the surfaces you will be affecting. Also try to make sure your opponent is not near any stars. BE WARNED: Both Enfeeble and Enfeeblement are glitched! Even when time expires, your opponent’s cheer bar will remain locked in at cheer cost 10 (as if you were still using your ability.) This is a graphic glitch, it doesn't actually take away 10 cheer, even though it says it is. Newbies are often shocked and terrified when they first encounter this.

Immunity

Abilities: Immunity, Unbreakable

What they do: These abilities grant you immunity for a certain amount of time. This means that your opponent’s abilities can’t affect you, and walls, obstacles and missing hurdles won’t slow you down.

How to use it: Anytime is good to use immunity! It might be best to keep track of your opponent’s cool down time to use it just before they zap you though! :)

Removes Cheer

Abilities: Mute, Pipe-Down!, Shh!, Shush!, Silence, Ultra-Mute

What they do: These abilities restrict your opponent(s) from cheering.

How to use it: Use these abilities wisely as they can be very effective! Almost any time is good to use these abilities. The only thing I would worry about is using them when your opponent has immunity either by using an ability or by catching a star. (Don’t waste it!)

Teleport

Abilities: Spiffy-Pop

What they do: Allows you to teleport to a racer further ahead.

How to use it: Ah, Spiffy-Pop, the game maker and game breaker.

Using Spiffy-Pop: The number one mistake is letting people know you have Spiffy-Pop! Don’t alert people that you have it by using it near the beginning of the race, hold off as long as you can. You ideally want to stay in second as long as you can without using the ability at all. If you must use it to get into second, then use it, but try your best not to. Whether you have used it to get into second, or have held on to second the entire race, start saving your morale and any hurries near the final stretch of the race. It’s at this point when you want to unleash anything you can on the leader. Mutes, saps, anything that can make them suffer…do it! Then, at the same time you’re teleporting, use any and all your hurries and cheer like mad! This method isn't fool proof, but will give you the best shot at winning with Spiffy-Pop. Basically the key to using it is saving all your morale and helpful abilities and unleashing them all on the final stretch!

Defending against Spiffy-Pop: People who know how to use Spiffy-Pop correctly will lag behind you on purpose to save morale and abilities. If you notice a significant lead or have seen your opponent use Spiffy-Pop earlier in the race, start saving YOUR morale and abilities too! On the final stretch, if you have immunity-use it! When your Spiffy-Pop opponent teleports, use all of your hurries and morale to try to outsprint them to the finish line! The biggest mistake to make against a Spiffy-Pop pet is using up all your morale and hurries before the end of the race. If you do that, you won’t have anything left to use when your opponent teleports! It seems that is the end of this derby series! I hope you all enjoyed it and I wish you all the best of luck in your future derby endeavors!

~Vanessa Mythdust

I would like to personally thank Vanessa for her awesome work with this series! I wish you all the best with derby and hope you've learned a lot from this series! If you are 13 years or older, make sure to tweet @VanessaMythdust thanking her for the series (you can comment below or send Vanessa a visitor or private message over on Wizard101 Central as well)! If you didn't know, Vanessa is a Derby Tournament Master over at Wizard101 Central. Whenever you are ready for some Central Derby Tournaments, make sure to go try it out!

~Sophia

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Create-a-Doubloon Contest! [CLOSED]

June 7, 2014, 1:26 pm

≫ Next: Companion Spotlight: Chantal Livingstone

≪ Previous: From the Bleachers to the Track: Knowledge is Power

Ahoy Pirates! If you don't already know, the latest update to Pirate101 brought a much talked about feature: Doubloons! Doubloons are special magic coins that you can use in combat that grant powers (on top of your usual combat moves), such as an Agility Boost, summoning creatures from the vibrant lands of the Spiral or conjuring up a wild bolt to annihilate enemies.

To celebrate this wonderful feature to Pirate101, we're going to let you guys create your own!

The Rules

- Go Crazy, be as OP or Imaginative as you want, the skies the limit! (metaphorically)

- No Profanity

- Family Friendly Pictures

-You must be 13 years or older to enter, or have your parent/guardian's permission to email your entry in.

-Use the Empty Doubloon Template to create your doubloon

- This contest will run from Saturday 7th June 2014 to Saturday 21st June 2014, winners will be announced on Sunday.

Be sure to include your community name in your entry!

What you need to do

Create your own doubloon - simple as that!

Here's an example that we made:

One-Eyed Jack has kindly given us some resources for you guys to use if you wish to; visit this page and download the Empty Doubloon Template (you can also download the icons to use on the template). You can either print this out and draw/write on it or you can use an image manipulating software such as Paint or Gimp to edit on images and text onto the card.

Please be creative with your entry!

How to Enter

Email admin@adventuresofthespiral.com with your entry. Please include the subject title "Create-a-Doubloon Contest" and submit your entry by Saturday 21nd June 2014 @ 11:59pm EST.

Please remember that you must be at least 13 years old to email us or have your parent/guardian's permission.

Prizes!

First Place (3 Winners): Clown Fish Pet and 10,000 Crowns + 1000 Crowns

Second Place (3 Winners): Hammerhead Shark Pet and 5000 Crowns + 1000 Crowns

Third Place (5 Winners): Thresher Shark Pet and 1,500 Crowns
Random Draws (6 Winners): Random Springtime Pet

We can't wait to see your entries!

↧

Companion Spotlight: Chantal Livingstone

June 15, 2014, 6:49 pm

≫ Next: Create-a-Doubloon Contest Winners!

≪ Previous: Create-a-Doubloon Contest! [CLOSED]

The Spring update is still new to Pirate101, and it’s brought plenty of great things – new companions included! All of the class companions are great assets to any Pirate’s crew, so we’ll be dedicating some companion spotlights for them, starting with Chantal Livingstone. As the new Musketeer class-specific companion, Chantal brings a great deal of potential to both traditional combat and player verses player matches.

Powers - Sniper Shot!

Musketeers have seen this power before; it originated from the Ol’Quigley weapon after completing Cool Ranch and now it’s available through other means. It can be obtained from the new Skull Island bosses, but it’s also one of the key aspects of Chantal!

What’s interesting about these powers is that they’ll always land a super critical. Combined with her receiving two of them, that’s approximately 1,400 damage. Keep in mind that these powers also have infinite range, so, as long as the enemy is within Chantal’s line of sight, you can use them from the complete other end of the battleboard.

This alone makes Chantal Livingstone a unique companion, set apart from other Musketeers. Zeena is still a great companion, for instance, but she only has one set of fires now and they will only damage an enemy if they walk over them. Additionally, she can’t Burst Fire anymore after the initial hit of the fires, so you might find her falling slightly on your companion roster. In the case of Chantal, however, she’s a great alternative to using Bonnie and Zeena consistently, so it’s quite possible for her to be one of your top three companions, mainly because of those Sniper Shots making her unique.

Epics

Unique powers aside, Chantal’s epics are also great. She can train Burst Fire 2, Overwatch, and Quick Draw, making her very similar to Bonnie Anne. Having high Agility allows her to Burst Fire more often, boosting the base 35% chance. There are multiple ways to raise her Agility in order to increase the effectiveness of Burst Fire; one of the easiest would be to use her own Agility power. It lasts longer than Sky Spirit would, so you can go ahead and use it at the start of the battle before the enemies approach. When they do, your entire lineup of Musketeer and Swashbuckler units will be ready.

Furthermore, keep in mind that Chantal is Musketeer-exclusive, so you can use your own Sky Spirit and other Agility buffs to increase her rate of activating Burst Fire. Remember that Sky Spirit now only lasts for three rounds, though, so you’ll want to use it when your companions are into the action. And, of course, remember to give her multiple ranks of the Agile talent! It’s essentially the easiest way to increase her Agility and it will last for the entirety of every fight.

Overwatch and Quick Draw are fairly straightforward. If you’d like, you can even use your Pirate’s power that gives all units an extra rank of Overwatch – that will increase Chantal’s to rank two, letting it activate up to three times per turn. Or, if you’d like, you can even train Overwatch 2 for her, so that power will give her Overwatch 3, decreasing the Accuracy of approaching enemies. That’s certainly an interesting strategy if you’re willing to try it out.

As for Quick Draw, it’s a great counter against other ranged units. Considering that it could Burst Fire, it’ll put Chantal at an advantage against Musketeers who would generally be some of the greatest threats in the fight.

Strategy

As a Musketeer, Chantal can effectively hit Swashbucklers with naturally high dodge due to her naturally high accuracy. Taking advantage of this, be sure to aim for tough melee units who would be able to severely weaken your own Musketeers with their own Relentless.

Be sure to avoid anti-Musketeer units like Nausica – if Chantal has Quick Draw trained, True Grit would activate in response, followed by consecutive Burst Fire attacks. Also, if Quick Draw causes Chantal’s own Burst Fire to activate, that would result in even more activations of True Grit. Be sure to keep fragile Musketeers like Chantal out of anti-Musketeers’ range or use a protection power on her first; for instance, Valor’s Fortress is a great resource for all Musketeers to have and would work very well on a powerful Musketeer like Chantal Livingstone.

Make use of her Guaranteed Critical Strike power, too – that combined with her Sniper Shot powers will put any enemy at a huge disadvantage. Essentially, you can deal 1,400 damage at the very beginning of the fight and 700 more when the enemy approaches, combined with her Overwatch and Burst Fire attacks. Few enemies will be able to withstand that!

Farming

Chantal Livingstone is great for farming – on larger battleboards, it’ll take a long time to reach the enemy. The main goal of farming is to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible, so Chantal’s Sniper Shots are very useful here. As long as the enemy is within her line of sight, she can hit them immediately. For lower level bosses especially, fights can be over within one turn, and, for higher level ones, she’ll be able to weaken them so that your other units can move in and finish up.

Goronado and Nausica are also very useful here, as they can generally attack within the first round, too. They both have powers that let them move twice as far as they normally could, creating the possibility of finishing a fight within a single roundeven for upper level bosses. In case they don’t end up finishing the fight, however, Chantal Livingstone can stay back and shoot away at the enemy’s health.

There are countless ways to use Chantal, and it’s up to you to create your own unique and diverse strategy with her. Just remember to keep her leveled and promoted throughout your journeys across the Spiral… she’s certainly worth it!

↧

Create-a-Doubloon Contest Winners!

June 22, 2014, 1:03 pm

≫ Next: Hoard Packs - What's Their Potential?

≪ Previous: Companion Spotlight: Chantal Livingstone

Ahoy there! So we've gone through all the entries of the contest and have decided on the winners, well done to everyone, they were all amazing!

First Place (Clown Fish Pet and 10,000 Crowns + 1000 Crowns):

Frost Caller, Stephen Hawkins and Swordroll (respectively)

Second Place (Hammerhead Shark Pet and 5000 Crowns + 1000 Crowns):

Merciless Samual Dennis, Sneaky Scarlet and Dark Amara (respectively)

Third Place (Thresher Shark Pet and 1,500 Crowns ):

Stubborn Duncan Freeman , William, Crazy Ryan Upham, Merciless Felicity Nightingale, Dark Colin Holystone and Dark Zane (respectively)

Random Draws (Random Springtime Pet):

Game Gee, Clumsy Calamity and William Blake (respectively)

Congratulations to all the winners, your codes will be arriving via email shortly!

↧

Hoard Packs - What's Their Potential?

July 4, 2014, 10:14 am

≫ Next: The Possibilities of Ranged Pets

≪ Previous: Create-a-Doubloon Contest Winners!

So far, Pirate101 only has one hoard pack: the Tribal Crew Pack. It’s filled with great loot that’s perfect for any pirate, including gear, weapons, housing items, training tomes, and even a rare shot at a companion. However, all we pirates currently have is this Azteca-themed pack – will there be more coming in the future? And, if so, what will they hold?

Hoard Packs in Wizard101

We’ve seen plenty of Hoard Packs in Wizard101. Many of them, in fact, have different “jackpot items” than the others. For example, the Dragon’s Hoard Pack was the first one that was introduced, the most sought item in there being the Bone Dragon mount. Additionally, it came with other cool items that had a lower rarity, the Dragon Wings mount, a variety of new wands, and exclusive gear among them. Compare this to Purreau’s Plentiful Pet Provisions which is entirely focused on pets. In fact, it was with this hoard pack that we saw many Star spells become may-cast talents on pets. Finally, the Shaman’s Lore Pack gives you a small chance to actually learn a new spell just by opening a pack – these spells are great whether you’re a lower level or a max level wizard.

Of course, these are only the main focuses of each pack. There’s plenty of other items within each one – many of them are good, but some of them aren’t as useful, such as common reagents or treasure cards that you could normally find at the Bazaar. In order to get something really worth it, then, you’ll probably have to buy a few packs to hit a jackpot item… or you could just buy one and try your luck.

Where Does Pirate101 Stand?

This is where Pirate101 begins to differ. With the Tribal Crew Pack, it’s pretty likely that you’ll get something worthwhile every time you open a pack. Of course, it isn’t guaranteed – a max level Buccaneer might not have use for training tomes or a Witchdoctor Staff. However, there’s plenty of great gear, eyepatches, and furniture that can be obtained through just a single pack. Check out this Azteca-themed room that was made entirely with items from the Tribal Crew Pack!

Not only that, but these furniture drops can’t be auctioned, so a friend who visits your house will know that you put the Crowns into it when decorating. Be sure to also include your Serpent pets and Dinosaur mounts that can now be placed in your house!

Keep in mind that the companions are very rare drops from the Tribal Crew Pack, so, when buying it, it may be a good idea to only purchase a pack for the other items you could get – receiving a companion would just be an awesome bonus to the rest of the pack’s loot. Not sure what companions you could get from the pack, their promotion levels, or what epics they can train? Check out their pages on our companion database here.

Future Packs

The Tribal Crew Pack is likely just the beginning of hoard packs in Pirate101. Despite not receiving a new one in a very long time, packs just probably haven’t been the top priority, especially with the previous Spring update and a new one that’s already being hinted at. Perhaps between them we’ll get another pack?

Even if not, it can’t be long before a new one is introduced, and there’s plenty of potential within that single pack. There’s several different ways that it can differ from the Tribal Crew Pack. Keeping the same idea – having companions as the jackpot items – has proven to and will continue to work rather well, but the packs can even be changed up a bit more to make them different but still just as rewarding to the players.

By making companions the epic item in the pack in terms of rarity, it gives much more incentive to buy that pack. They can be priced at 5,000 Crowns in the Crown Shop, so why not have the opportunity to get them for only 399 Crowns? Even if you don’t get one, you’ll still get new items from the pack just like with the Tribal Crew Pack. Additionally, some players may have all of the companions they want from the Tribal Crew Pack, so there could be another in case they want to try their luck at some more. Or perhaps you don’t want Azteca companions, but you would be interested in different ones.

There’s countless possibilities for a theme of new pack companions. Like the Azteca ones, they’d likely come in a set, all five of them being of the same origin but a different species. Grizzleheim companions have been suggested numerous times; maybe we could see a Buccaneer Red Claw Bear, a Swashbuckler Wolf, a Witchdoctor Raven, a Privateer Grendel, and a Musketeer Boar! Indeed, practically any world could be the theme of new pack companions… it would be interesting to see ones that we haven’t yet visited to get a preview of what we might see if we ever go there. Grizzleheim would definitely be cool to see, then, as there were a couple references to it in the Producer’s Letter…

New Ideas

What if companions weren’t the main aspect of a new hoard pack? Wizard101 has spells, but it doesn’t seem quite right for pirates to learn new powers from opening a pack. How exactly would that work? We aren’t able to decide which powers to use or not, so would the power always appear for us so long as we have a weapon equipped that allows for it to be used? That doesn’t necessarily seem plausible… but there are other options.

It would be interesting having a ship as a rare drop from a pack. It would have tiers just like all of the other gear and weapon drops, the level of it depending on the level of the pirate who opened the pack. What’s interesting about this is that there could be Skiffs, Frigates, and Galleons of worlds we haven’t yet visited and, therefore, there wouldn’t be a normal vendor to sell them to us. Not only that, but the ships could come with default equipment that could be changed so long as the new equipment has a proper world origin.

Maybe once you hit the jackpot from the pack and get the ship, new items could be available from the pack with the same world origin but better stats than what comes on the ship. This way, players wouldn’t be able to obtain ship equipment that they couldn’t use right away, only being able to once you have the actual ship. How cool would it be to finally get a Darkmoor ship just like the English Bill’s? An Avalon ship? What about a Polarian navy vessel? The possibilities are endless!

Perhaps a pack could even be dedicated to pets, just like with Purreau’s Plentiful Pet Provisions. With the new advanced pet system that was just released, having a pack that gives pets and pet related items would be just what every pirate could use.

And don’t forget about gear! For the pirates that don’t have the time to farm bosses, there could be pack gear that have item cards, though it could be a little weaker than what you’d get for farming the actual bosses to ensure that the players who worked hard to get their gear still remain on top. This would be especially useful since the gear that’s currently in the Crown Shop is more focused on stats rather than giving powers.

Conclusion

There’s plenty of possibilities for Pirate101 hoard pack… what would you like to see? Do you like the current loot in the Tribal Crew Pack or would you like to see changes in future packs? Be sure to let us know!

↧

The Possibilities of Ranged Pets

July 10, 2014, 12:23 pm

≫ Next: A Glimpse Into Grizzleheim

≪ Previous: Hoard Packs - What's Their Potential?

Currently there are only melee pets in the game, but what if ranged pets were introduced? How would that affect the current pet system and allow it to continue to grow? Some issues may come up with implementing ranged pets, but their potential would likely exceed beyond anything we’ve yet seen in terms of Pirate101 pets.

Melee Pets

Ever since the game was released, all pets have been melee. At the time, this may have seemed a bit strange – pets would only come with one epic talent, so why couldn’t ranged ones be added? If the system was left how it was at the time, then perhaps ranged pets could be introduced much more easily. It used to be as simple as a pet having Cheap Shot and that aspect alone separating it from other pets that don’t have that epic talent. Therefore, it’d be quite possible to have a pet that’d function similarly to a Musketeer and have an epic talent like Parting Shot instead.

However, we never saw any pets like that. Why? The simplest answer is that the Pirate101 team was planning ahead to this advanced pet update where ranged pets wouldn’t really be possible. We’ll discuss more on that later.

It is important to note that, with melee pets, you must walk up to the enemy in order to hit. This would certainly put your pet in danger, even if it has talents like Turn the Tide, First Strike, Vengeance Strike, etc. Higher level enemies will rarely miss your pet, and, with their relatively low health, it won’t take long for them to be defeated. You’ll want to hope that they can make use of their melee powers as fast as possible when they engage in close combat!

This is likely the greatest weakness of melee pets – their vulnerability. In various cases you’ll likely find that they won’t even be able to use all of their powers in time before they’re defeated. Especially if you’re using ranged companions yourself, your pet will be one of the few units out in the fight, making them the primary focus of the enemy. Perhaps this isn’t so bad; it’s taking the heat off you, allowing your pirate and your companions, who are the main heavy hitters in the fight, to attack away at the enemy unscathed.

Ranged Pets

Ranged pets would have completely different purposes than melee pets, mainly because they won’t be up close in the fight. This allows them to survive longer, so they’d likely deal more damage to the enemy than a melee pet could. Keep in mind that the existing pets in the game, who are all melee, already don’t have such high dodge, and that’s generally an advantage of melee classes over ranged ones. So, is there any case that ranged pets would actually be weaker than melee ones? Stats-wise, probably not. To truly retain the central aspects of the Musketeer class, they’d have to have high enough accuracy that they’d barely be missing the enemy – this is a huge advantage that melee pets won’t have.

What’s so different about ranged pets? If they won’t be in the center of the fight, a ranged pet wouldn’t be able to draw the attention of the enemy as well as a melee pet could. This shifts the focus over to your melee companions, who are generally pretty fragile – something you wouldn’t want. Therefore, there definitely are downsides to having a ranged pet. If you like using a pet to keep the threat off of you and your companions, perhaps you’d want to stick with a melee pet if ranged pets are ever introduced to the game.

You also have to take into account that your pets are auto-controlled, unlike your other units in the fight. What’s to say a ranged pet won’t charge into the middle of the fight, attacking from only two square away from the enemy instead of four? It’s a bit more unpredictable than melee pets are, considering that they have to be adjacent to the enemy in order to attack.

Associated Problems

Simply put, a ranged pet can’t just be added to the game without taking any further measures. The pet on its own would be pretty cool, being completely different than everything else we’ve seen so far – so why can’t one just be added?

Just like in Wizard101, to get really good pets, you’re going to need to hatch – or, in the case of Pirate101, morph. First generation pets probably won’t have everything you’re looking for in their talent and power pools, so you’ll have to move on to second generation ones, third generation, fourth generation, etc.

Consider this. A ranged pet is introduced and it has a great talent that you want to have on your main pet, so you decide to morph it with one of your other pets. What would happen if you morph a melee pet with a ranged pet?

The answer is that the hatch wouldn’t be able to be completed without almost entirely duplicating one pet’s trait pool. If the result is a ranged pet, no melee talents or powers could be on the offspring. If it’s a melee pet, it couldn’t have any ranged talents. So are you really morphing anything together, or will you just be getting the same melee/ranged pet back? Perhaps some talents can be mixed – extra dodgy would work fine on a melee or a ranged pet. But Repel Boarders or Riposte doesn’t work as nicely.

This is the main problem that will arise; of course there are others, but they aren’t as severe. An entirely new set of ranged talents and powers would have to be created, consuming much more time for the Pirate101 team that could be devoted to producing more playable content. More animations would have to be created for melee-ranged hybrids, too – if the hybrid resembles a melee pet, it couldn’t just take on its animations; instead, an entirely new set would have to be created since it could be attacking from a distance instead of right next to the enemy.

Possible Solutions

That shouldn’t rule out having ranged pets in the future, though! There’s an easy, though restricting, solution – melee and ranged pets can’t be hatched together. Only melee-melee and ranged-ranged morphs would be allowed. At first, that might be a bit more frustrating considering that there would be a very few number of ranged pets and not much to hatch them with. However, as the game progresses and more ranged pets are introduced, there’d soon be many more ranged combinations that could be made with.

Another solution that might be more difficult would be to change epic talents to correspond with the pet being melee or ranged. For example, suppose a melee pet that has Riposte is hatched with a ranged pet and the offspring is ranged. The Riposte could simply be changed to Parting Shot, though this could conflict with the ranged pets own epics – perhaps it already has Parting Shot in its own talent pool. Instead, the Riposte could become Stock Assault, which is essentially the same thing as Riposte, except for it only being able to be used on a ranged unit. Not only does this allow for the transfer of melee and ranged epics, it creates the opportunity for melee-ranged morphing in general.

Stock Assault may currently be the only epic talent like this that a companion can currently obtain, but more are coming, as confirmed by Ratbeard. It would be very interesting to see these types of epic talents available on pets, too.

Perhaps there simply wouldn’t be any ranged-only powers, just ones with infinite range. That way melee and ranged pets could both use them and these powers could be transferred on normally. Attacking from, say, four squares away might be something that ranged pets would only do with their normal attacks – powers could be set for infinite range, thus creating the possibility for them to be used by both melee and ranged pets after these powers are morphed out.

Conclusion

What’s your opinion on this? Could ranged pets work with the current pet system that Pirate101 has? What solutions would you propose to eliminate the above issues from occurring? We want to hear what you think!

↧

A Glimpse Into Grizzleheim

July 20, 2014, 7:12 pm

≫ Next: Announcing the Fishing Database!

≪ Previous: The Possibilities of Ranged Pets

We know a lot about Grizzleheim from Wizard101, but what would happen if we see this Norse-based world appear in Pirate? And, more importantly, why would we have to visit it? It’s commonly thought that Valencia will be the next world due to the information we received at the end of Book XIV, but we may just see Grizzleheim before that.

Valencia Put On Hold

We hear that we need to go back to Valencia for special information as to how to defeat Kane. And, as of now, that’s our only lead – the two remaining map pieces, belong to Erika the Red and our mother, could literally be anywhere in the Spiral. So, logically, one of the only things that we could do is head to Valencia, find out Kane’s weakness, and escape. However, there could be a number of problems with getting access to Valencia… for instance, how are we supposed to get a Windstone?

In the case of Marleybone, we had to storm a highly secured fort in order to get a Yellow Windstone. With Valencia, however, the Armada is likely to keep their Windstones (likely Red ones) even more protected. So, perhaps the whole point of going to Grizzleheim would be to get a Red Windstone. The Bears are merchants, after all, so they’d have to have transportation to Valencia.

Since Grizzleheim remained neutral in the Polarian Wars, transportation there may have come to a halt long ago. Retrieving the only known Windstone and helping local residents along the way in return for information would make for a perfect storyline.

Erika the Red

Another theory is that we may need to search for Erika the Red. The problem with this, however, is that she’s probably more likely to notbe in Grizzleheim. As a Viking, she’s likely to travel all around the Spiral… besides, if she has a piece of the map, why would she want to be easily found in her homeland? Thinking that it may be a trap, however, Avery may not be willing to send us off to Valencia just yet… instead, we could investigate other matters, such as collecting the rest of the map pieces. Our mother’s piece? Any attempt to find it would simply be a blind guess. As for Erika the Red’s, however, starting in Grizzleheim may not be such a bad idea.

Perhaps Erika IS in Grizzleheim… or at least her map piece is. But, then, we’d only have one piece left to find and then we can sneak back into Valencia and the main story will be over – spread across five remaining books. Two more non-back-to-back visits to Valencia are planned, too, and it wouldn’t seem like such a good idea to go there with only one piece remaining, get the information we need, find our mother’s piece, then travel back right away. Meeting with failure in terms of map pieces in Grizzleheim seems like the more likely route.

That being said, it’s hard to say what we would actually do there with Erika the Red missing. Just going around and helping all of the civilians there doesn’t really seem very piratey, and it wouldn’t make for such an interesting story. Perhaps the first chapter could be finding an old crewmate of Erika’s, under the assumption that she is still in Grizzleheim. For the second chapter, after we find out that she departed recently, we’d attempt to find out where she went and why. Maybe she got shipwrecked somewhere… Krokotopia certainly seems possible. It’s rather likely for us to go there in the El Dorado arc, and there wouldn’t really be any reason to do so otherwise… unless that’s where our parents ended up.

Additional chapters could really be anything. We already have all of the information that we need, so what’s the point of staying there any longer? There could be a “side story” in the middle of these two chapters – discovering that Erika the Red is gone and finding out where she is – to give the world a bit more length and to resonate more with the Norse mythology theme. Think Kurghas in Marleybone. Getting them worse food was inconsequential to our overarching goal, but we needed to do so in order to give the Marleybonean Navy a fighting chance against the Armada. Similarly, Grizzleheim could be having its own issues. What they could be is anyone’s guess, but it’s sure to make an interesting storyline!

Some Deeper Theorycrafting

We can’t forget about the Armada! Even with Deacon gone, they’re watching our every move… and it’s very likely that they know that they’re losing in the race for the map. They wouldn’t want to let any more pieces slip out of their grasp, and knowing the location of Erika the Red would be crucial to their game plan. So, could we see the Armada in Grizzleheim? It’s certainly possible. Kane himself is very busy, but we haven’t encountered that “Queen” yet – could she have been sent off to Grizzleheim, possibly as the Armada’s head of foreign affairs? We may be finally fighting that Armada elite, but possibly not completely defeating her yet. If there’s one thing to know about chess, it’s that the queen is the most powerful piece in the game.

Suppose that both we and the Armada find out about Erika the Red’s location… that would be the perfect opening to sneak into Valencia the following book. However, if we don’t get any map pieces then and the Armada already beats us to Erika the Red in Book XVII, then it’d be a tie at three. Or, to go even further, what if the Armada ambushes us – Phule, most likely – when we go to Valencia, stealing our three map pieces? That means we’d have none to the Armada’s six – if they beat us to the last piece, our mother’s, they’d be all ready to sail to El Dorado. That would practically force us to sneak back into Valencia for one final time before the Armada can make their move and get all seven map pieces back from them.

When you think about it, something like that would make sense. If the Armada has a couple pieces of the map and we have the rest, what could either of us do? Not very much. But, if the Armada has them all after Phule steals the ones that we’ve collected, that would make for a pretty epic conclusion of the El Dorado arc. It would also give us a pretty good reason to fight Phule… perhaps, after defeating him, Kane would appear for the first time, take the map pieces, and end our second trip to Valencia with failure. If only Avery didn’t have that idea to keep the pieces with us!

The Orange Windstone

As a final note, keep in mind that Windstones work in the order of ROY G BIV, but backwards – if we get a Red Windstone and go to Valencia next, what about the Orange one? Therefore, we may be seeing a world before Valencia based on that Windstone logic… Grizzleheim would be the perfect candidate.

We haven’t yet seen a “Stormgate to Grizzleheim (Requires Orange Windstone)” in the game, but that could be just to keep the surprise – Avernus does still have an empty Stormgate, as well as Marleybone and Aquila…

What do you think about Grizzleheim? Will it be the next world, or will we just be seeing a preview of it soon? Regardless, be sure to familiarize yourself with June’s Producer’s Letter… it has several hints towards Grizzleheim in it, as well as some other neat surprises that are in store for us soon…

Happy hunting!

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Announcing the Fishing Database!

July 25, 2014, 2:48 pm

≫ Next: Devil Ray, Gobblerfish, and Frankenfish...oh my!

≪ Previous: A Glimpse Into Grizzleheim

The AoS team is overjoyed to announce our newest product that we have been working on for the past month: the Fishing Database!

Just like our Companion Database, which you can view here, we wanted to provide an interactive way to view information on a very broad topic. With so many fish, fishing spells, and crafting recipes out there, creating this database will make finding answers to fishing-related questions much easier!

You can sort fish by the world that they are found in, further broken down by sublocations. So, if you’re in the Vigrid Roughland pond and want to see every type of fish that you can find there, just sort by Grizzleheim fish and then Vigrid Roughland ones, and you’ll have the information that you need in seconds! Or, if you prefer, you can sort the fish by class to easily identify which school a certain fish is.

Aquariums are covered too – need to know if a fish will fit in a regular, large, or tall aquarium? Take a look on our aquarium pages to find out! We also have the recipes to craft them included there, too… and, after some browsing, you can even find the recipes to the craftable tapestries and pet snacks!

Finally, you can take a look at spells, categorized by rank, and see what each one does. And, of course, don’t forget the actual FISH! Each one has their own page composed of important information – their school, aquarium size, locations they’re found in, rarity and rank, experience, and more!

We hope you find the Fishing Database rewarding and easy to use! Of course, if you have any questions, you can contact us about it through our Twitter account (@Official AotS) or via our email (admin@adventuresofthespiral.com)

Now get fishing, young Anglers!!

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