An Introduction to Pirate Clan

Good day. If you are here, you are learning to play Pirate Clan. Which is good, because it is a fun game, and easy to learn. It just looks daunting. I hope to break it down into manageable pieces to help you master various aspects of the game.

I have made a large number of screen captures, to help illustrate the various sections, and have endeavored to remove all identifying information contained therein. The purpose of this guide is not to give away other players information.

So I will start with the opening page. Some of the really important stuff is in the top part of the page:

Now, to explain what you see here.

Across the very top are various links to provide additional information about the game.
Settings will allow you to set various options for the game.
Invite friends will allow you to invite current friends to play the game as a Captain for you.
Leaderboard will show you how you rank against all your Captains in many categories.
Forum will take you to the Kano forum, where you can learn a great deal about the game, and ask questions.
News will give you links to recent news items from Kano, and also the Loyalty bonuses that come out weekly.
Help will take you to a screen in-game to get a little information about many topics.

At the left near the top is the link to open the World Chat. In there you can find other players looking for captains, Bosses you can help on, and Armadas seeking new recruits.

Along the bottom of the artwork, there are 2 buttons visible here.

The Active Bounty is where you will find any pirate who has been listed to be killed by another pirate. Bounties are a way to strike at opponents when you cannot attack them directly yourself. A bounty is visible to all players in the game, and many pirates will attack hoping for the kill and a nice bag of coins. This button will only appear when there is an active bounty. Be careful hunting for bounties though. Once you attack a pirate, they can retaliate against you for 24 hours.

The other button is for travel. In yellow, it tells you what world you are currently on. You can travel between all worlds you have unlocked here.

Across the bottom will be your main information in the game.
Gold is the amount of gold coins you currently have on hand.
Health, Energy and Stamina will show you how much of each you have, followed by your maximum in each category, like this 1000/1500.

In the top right, is your profile window, and gives you a series of additional links and more information.

The picture is of your current character type. More on that later.
Underneath that, you will see [Guild]. If you join an Armada, this will be replaced by the Armadas tag, which is up to 4 characters and can be letters or numbers.
Level is your current level, the bar underneath shows your progress to the next level.
The Hoard is where you can put money for safe-keeping. Again, more on that later.
Profit is the amount of money you are making per payment. They refer to it as 'hourly' income, though many character types get a payment more often.
The icons in the bar beneath all of that are as follows, from left to right:
Captain Alerts - clicking in this will open a window that looks like this:

The tabs allow you to sort your Captain Alerts in several ways.

Message Center is the next icon. All messages will be sorted into Clan (your Captains) and Public (non-Captains). Messages to and from Captains are limited to 200 characters. Public messages are limited to a maximum of 3 canned phrases. These phrases are pre-built and cannot be changed.

The third icon is available only if you are part of an Armada. This is the Armada Feed, and is a valuable tool for everybody. In the feed you can find messages from the Armada Leader and its Officers, invitations to Boss battles, requests for assistance, and general banter. Every Armada is different, so you may want to take a couple of days and watch what others have to say here. You do have up to 500 characters for a message in the feed.

Next is the skill center. It will open this window: 

This is where you will assign skill points received from gaining levels and achievements. Gaining a level will always get you 5 skill points, and achievements will get you 1 or more skill points. Generally, the higher the achievement, the more skill points you will get.

Next is the Gamer Points window:

You receive Gamer Points for various actions in the game. Most Armadas will require you to get all Gamer Points (DGPs) every day. As you can see, it is 16,000 per day. A day in the game starts at Midnight, Pacific time. And the window not only shows you your progress in each category, but also what you need to do to get DGPs in each category.

The last icon is the Rivals List. This is where any pirate who has attacked you in the last 24 hours will be listed. It lists them in order of most recent at the top, and shows the name and level of the pirate, what kind of attacks they have made, how long ago, and options you have for both offensive and defensive operations. You can also hide them so that you do not accidentally attack a much larger opponent.

All of the icons will be grey unless there is something new to see in the window. The Captain Alerts and Message Center and Rivals icons will be white, with a number in a red box in the top right corner of the icon. The Clan Feed will turn orange. The exceptions are the Skill Center, which will turn light blue when you have skill points to be assigned. And the Gamer Points icon will be purple until you have completed your DGPs.

Next, you will see a brownish-gold bar, with the main menu areas. 

These are the various sections of the game where most of the action takes place. Home is the default when you load the game initially. The other sections I will briefly describe, and go into more detail later on.

Adventures - Adventures are missions, each has requirements and offers bonuses.

Bosses - Are monsters to battle. Many will require some help, and offer many bonuses as well. The number of boss battles you are involved in will be displayed in brackets.

Battle - You will find other Pirates to fight here.

Rule - How you will make money. It is property to acquire, each with its own cost and benefit.

Clan - This is where you can buy ships, matey's and weapons to arm your fleet. And the blacksmith to improve items you may have.

Davey Jones - This is where you can buy Davey Jones points (DJ points) and use those points to acquire things like Hired Captains, Stamina/Energy/Gold boosts and various special items. The number of DJ points you currently have is displayed in brackets.

Captains - Where you can invite additional Captains, find and use boosts sent to you, and can also hire additional Captains.

Profile - This is your Pirates main information center. Again, more on that later.

As we proceed down, beneath the menu bar, you will see a banner for new character types, and various special items you can buy with DJ points.

The next important thing you will see is your main news feed. It occupies the right side of the screen.

At the top of the News Feed, you will see two drop-down menus:

These are very powerful tools. The events menu will sort your newsfeed on one of many different categories.

Friend Messages - messages posted by your friends in-game

Adventure Help - you can help on 30 adventures per day

Requests (Gifts) - gifts your captains are asking for

General Updates - your Captains levels/achievments

Battle Updates - kills made by your Captains

Pistol Whip Help - requests for help pistol whipping other Pirates/Vikings

Shares (Boosts) - find battle boosts

Battle Help - bounties placed by your captains and requests to help fight other Pirates/Vikings

Elite Captains - find Elite Captains

Boss - bosses posted by your Captains

World Boss - calls to attack World Bosses

Challenge Help - use this a lot - each is worth 1% of your level XP's up to 50, XP return drops after that

Armada - recruiting notices for Armadas/Guilds

The other menu, Group, will sort the news feed again, by different categories your Captains may fall into. I use All Pirates as my default, but other categories include Captains, Friends, Inner Circle (Yours), Inner Circle (Theirs) and Armada.

To the left of the main news feed, you will see a variety of small banners. These are live links to other areas of the game as well. After 12 o'clock noon PST, there will be a link at the bottom of these for the lottery. You get one free ticket every day, and can win coins, experience points and even DJ points.

Just beneath the banners is a list of you top 500 friends in the game, and where you fit in that list.

That pretty much covers the first page you see when you load the game. Now we will get into the various different sections and help you learn to actually play the game, and even offer tips and strategy.

Adventures, Bosses and Battle

In this section, you'll get an overview of the Adventure, Boss and Battle screens. These are the meat of the game, and you will spend a lot of time on these screens.

First is the adventure screen:

There will be about 10 adventures listed per world. Some may have more, but not many. The first thing you will notice, is the title of the adventure. Beneath it you will see the cash and experience reward for doing the adventure once, and a picture of the random drop item the adventure provides. In the center are the requirements for the adventure. All adventures require a minimum number of Captains, and they all cost energy. They also require a special item, which is often the drop item from the previous adventure, though it can also be an item you need to purchase.

TIP: Do each adventure the minimum number of times to complete it, then do the adventure that gives you the most useful drop item for you until a new adventure becomes available. There is no limit on the number of times you can do an adventure, except your energy.

You will also see 2 links for Challenges. There is one at the top of the section, and one after the adventure you need to complete before the World's Challenge is available. If you click the link at the top of the section, you will see a screen like this:

Every month there is a Calendar Challenge. Upon completion of this calendar, you will get 24 times your income (profit), 100% of the experience to level and a special item. The special items are a weapon, matey or ship, and it will be quite powerful. Each of the 25 doors in the calendar will also provide at least 2 income payments, plus 10% of experience needed to level. There are 4 tiers for prizes on the door though, each with a percentage chance of winning. They rise to the highest prize for a door of 10 income payments, 60% of the experience to level and 5 DJ points. You get 1 Key every day at midnight Pacific Time.

There is also a Special Three Day Calendar (not pictured here).  These calendars provide the same prize structure as the monthly calendars, with 2 exceptions. The top tier prize for a door does not include DJ points, and you may complete each calendar 3 times. You can complete the calendars quickly, since you get 1 Key every 30 minutes.

The regular Challenge will be listed last in this section. There are 2 kinds of challenges, the Captains Gambit and the Treasure Hunt (shown in the image above). In the Captains Gambit, you have to choose if the card you draw will be higher or lower than your 'opponents' card. In the Treasure Hunt, you get a dig every 3 hours, 55 minutes, with the goal of clearing the board. Each type of Challenge is time-limited, with only 3 days to complete. You can ask for help, which will require 15 Captains to give you 3 free digs or chips.

Next will will move on to the Boss Screen:

On this screen, you will see your boss listed first. If you do not have a Boss battle underway, it will show all Bosses available to you. Beneath your boss, are the World Bosses. These are an excellent place to get additional experience, and some good reward items when the boss is defeated. The reward items for World Bosses are tied to your level. Under the World Boss section, are the Bosses you are helping your Captains on. Helping on Bosses is a great way to arm your Captains. Each has a minimum amount of damage required to receive the Helper Rewards, and all but the World Bosses also provide drop items when attacking. Some Bosses also provide Random Rewards, which can be Matey's, Ships or Weapons, and even DJ points.

TIP: Help on as many of your Captains Bosses as your stamina will allow. Do the minimum damage needed to get the reward upon the defeat of the Boss.

Lastly, we'll look at the Battle screen:

At the top of the Battle screen, you will see a number of different sections. Battle is the default. You will see a list of Pirates you can attack. Their name will be in blue, with their level under the name. The next column shows how many Captains they have, followed by their health. Last is the attack button.

TIP: Attack pirates with fewer captains than you have until you are sure of your strength versus other pirates. Every Pirate is different in how they have set their fleet up. 

You can also see there is an attack boost. Let's look at that. There are 10 different positions for the slider, each represents the amount of stamina that will be used in an attack, and using more stamina will increase the boost available. This image shows all 10 of them:

These boosts are also available in the Cagematch. The cagematch is mano-i-mano, and uses only your personal attack skill, plus the attack value of your personal loadout versus your opponents defense skill plus the defense value of their personal loadout.

TIP: It is an option for attacking Pirates who have a fleet larger or more powerful than your own.

After the Cagematch section, is the Bounty screen. The Bounty screen is blank unless there is an active bounty. A bounty does not usually last long, as it is available to everybody playing the game at the time. Be careful attacking pirates on the bounty list, high level Pirates will be allowed to attack you if you have attacked them, for 24 hours or until they have killed you. And many high level Pirates will attack a low level bounty hunter.

The fourth section is the Rivals screen. This shows you all the Pirates who have attacked you, pistol whipped you or placed a bounty on you in the past 24 hours. On this screen, you will also find tabs to examine the counter-attacks and bounty traps you have placed on past opponents as well. And the last tab you will see is for just pistol whips.

The final 2 sections will be covered in the next entry.

The Battle Arena and the Armada Wars

In this section, you will get an overview of the Battle Arena (BA) and the Armada Wars (AW).

The Battle Arena is available to all players over level 750. It is an anonymous combat to the death. Only one will remain in the end. This is the screen you will see when you click on the Battle Arena tab:

You are encouraged to read the Battle Arena Help section, in the main part of the window. The Battle Arena Details section will show when the next Arena starts, and how many Pirates are currently signed up. If you have not signed up, you will see an orange button that says "Join Now", rather than the green button shown above. Underneath that is Your Details, this will bring up a smaller window with detailed information on your available perks, starting health, attack/defense strength and total modified attack/defense strength.

The Arena utilizes an algorithm to modify your regular game strength for use in the Arena. When the Arena begins, your skills, strength and personal loadout are locked for the duration.

Beneath Your Details is the details from your last Arena performance. You will see your rank, and the total experience you gained during the Arena.

To the left of these 2 sections is the leaderboard from the last Arena. Many of those at the top of this leaderboard are among the most powerful players in the game.

TIP: Join the Arena, even if you can't fight in it. You get bonus experience for joining. You are encouraged to fight though. In doing so, you will gain vast amounts of experience which will allow you level many times.

The Battle Arena uses your stamina, so the higher your stamina is, the more you can attack. Each kill gets you a health bonus, allowing you to remain in the Arena longer.

TIP: Set your Daily Reward to 'Only Stamina' and save the Daily Reward for 7 days prior to the Arena start. This will give you a free boost of 170% of your stamina. But remember, the maximum you can save is 7 days, so don't start saving too early!

The rewards for the Arena are available when the Arena finishes. This is to allow for inactive players to be removed from the upper rankings. The rewards are given based on the total number of entries, and to get these you need to attack at least 100 times and finish in the top 20% or higher.

Next, we will look at the Armada Wars screen:

You can see that the Armada Wars (AW) screen is set up very similarly to the Arena screen. You can see when the next War begins, and how many Armadas are entered to fight. Only the Armada Leader or an Armada Officer can enter the Armada in the AW. Once the Armada is entered, players of ANY LEVEL can join. For lower level players, the AW is an outstanding opportunity to gain a huge amount of experience.

Under the Your Details section, you will notice 2 links. The first is for the Armada Profile, and the second is for the Members list.

The Profile will show you the total health and strength for the top 15 members of the Armada who have signed up for the War. The Members list will show the top 15 in descending order by skill points contributed. This allows a certain degree of balance between Armadas. But all 25 members of an Armada can join and fight. The lowest 10 by skills just won't appear on the Members list.

When the AW begins, the Armada you are in will be placed in one of 5 categories, from A (the highest) to E (the lowest). These rankings reflect the relative strength of the Armada as compared to the other Armadas entered in the War.

The AW uses tokens, when it begins, you start with 200 tokens and will gain 1 token every 2 minutes 40 seconds. You must have tokens to perform any action in the war, either attacking or healing. You can store a maximum of 300 tokens, and can refill 4 times every 24 hours using DJ points. It is not required to spend your DJ points in this way, but it is an option. Each token used will also consume 1 point of your stamina.

The goal in the AW is to get War Points (WP). You receive WP for every action in the War. When attacking, you will get more WP for attacking higher ranked Armadas. There is also a bonus if you kill the Armada you are attacking. This bonus starts at 1000 WP, and goes up based on what category the target Armada is in. If your Armada is damaged however, your WP will be reduced. For this reason, it is important to watch your Armadas health, and try to avoid attacks that will result in a loss of WP gained from battle or killing another Armada.

TIP: you will often get more WP for a loss against a higher ranked armada than for a win against a lower ranked Armada.

All Armadas are ranked by the number of WP earned by their members. Your actual level is unimportant here, what is important is that you take part in the War. Every WP gained is important, and a level 1500 player can easily contribute as much as a level 5000 player. What matters most is just participation.

Remember to communicate with your Armada during the War. A member may have found a good target for a kill and needs help to take the enemy Armada down. Or you may have found a target that another in your Armada can finish. Teamwork is a crucial factor in the success of an Armada to gain entry into the top 20% and get a reward at the conclusion. If your Armada has a war chat outside the game, make sure you join it.

Rule - The path to Power

The link in the center of the menu bar will take you to the Rule screen:

This is an example of the Rule screen, showing the rule for Davey Jones Locker. This is the most important of the worlds for income, and you should focus on it as much as possible.

Each world has its own unique properties. Each property has a basic cost per unit, and a fixed income per unit.

The cost of each property rises with each purchase you make. The income generated by each property does not change though.




Because property cost rises with each purchase, you should only buy in groups of 10.

I recommend that you use Sal the Foot's calculator. You can find it here. Make sure cookies are enabled and save your data. Also make a donation to Sal, he did this out of the goodness of his heart, and also maintains it.

The calculator will tell what property you should buy next. The recommendations it makes are based on the Return on Investment.

In Pirate Clan, your Rule is a very important thing. Your total Rule will determine your profit, that is the amount of coins you are bringing in with each payment. This may be modified by upkeep, which is money paid out on many of the items you can buy in the Clan section (more on this in the next section).

Your profit determines many other things in the game, including your bounty cost, Lottery winnings and calendar prizes. And winnings from the Battle Arena and the Armada Wars will also be determined by your profit.

Your bounty cost is roughly 6.8 times your profit. It is actually a much longer number, but 6.8 is close enough. You can also calculate an opponents profit by reversing this calculation. Roughly. The best way to do this, is to look at the cost to bounty trap your opponent. The cost of a bounty trap is 1/2 that of the base cost of a bounty. So take the bounty trap cost, double it, and divide by 6.8 and you will know roughly how much an opponent makes per payment.

Lottery winnings are calculated using the profit as well. A single number hit in the lottery is worth 6 income payments. A 2 number hit is worth 12 income payments plus 2% of the income required to level. All other lottery prizes, for 3 numbers and better, are DJ points, free tickets in the lottery and additional experience.

The Monthly Special Calendars and Three Day Calendars are derive their value from your profit. Each of these calendars is worth a minimum of 74 income payments. This is only the minimum you can expect from the Calendars.
The Calendar clearance for all games is 24 income payments. Each door is worth:
2 payments (50%) + 10% XP to level
3 payments (30%) + 15% XP to level
5 payments (15%) + 30% XP to level
10 payments (5%) + 60% XP to level + 5 DJ points (only on monthly calendars)
So the calendar has a minimum total value of 74 income payments, and a theoretical maximum of 274 payments. Don't count on 274 payments though... that would require luck beyond my ability to calculate. If you do get that, proceed immediately to the nearest store and buy many lottery tickets. Then send me 10% of whatever you win for advising you. Thank you in advance.

The smallest prize you can receive in the Battle Arena is 10 income payments, and for the Armada Wars it is 25 income payments.

Different character classes can also affect the actual number of coins you can receive per day. The various classes are as follows:
The Buccaneer, Raider, and Outcast Pirates and the Grand Admiral each get one payment per hour, or 24 payments per day.
The Privateer Pirate gets one payment every 48 minutes, or 30 payments per day.
The Rogue and Raj Pirates get one payment every 42 minutes, or 34 payments per day.
The Shipmaster and Dreadlord get one payment every 40 minutes, or 36 payments per day.

As you can see, some of these characters can radically increase the amount of money you get per day.

As much as the hoard looks like a nice way to keep your money safe, it will actually cost you more to use it than you are likely to lose in battle.
As an example, let us say that you have 1,000,000,000 coins on hand right now. If you put this money into the hoard, you will pay 100,000,000 coins unless you have a Swashbuckler (an Elite Captain - more on them later). If you have a Swashbuckler, you will pay 50,000,000 coins for the same deposit. This means you will deposit 900-950 million coins.
Now, if you consider that you will lose only 500,000 coins in a battle loss, you would need to lose 100 to 200 battles per billion coins deposited. That is a lot of battles to lose. And that is only for a billion coins.

TIP: DO NOT USE THE HOARD AT ALL. Build your income first. Once you have a powerful income stream, start putting money in the hoard only to get the Hoard Achievements.

Now that you can see the importance of your income in the game, get out there and buy... buy... BUY!

Clan - Arm Yourself!

The Clan screen is very important. It is here that you will find weapons, matey's and ships that you can buy to arm your Captains. Each Captain brings 10 weapons, 10 matey's and 1 ship into battle for you. So the more Captains you have, the more of everything else you need to fully utilize them. With 500 Captains, you need 5000 weapons, 5000 matey's and 500 ships.

When you click on the Clan link, you will land on a page like this:

Across the top, you will see links within the Clan section, 'Inventory', 'Blacksmith', 'Drop Items' and 'Original System'.

The default section is 'Inventory', and will provide you with access to items you can purchase using coins. Most of these items will also have an upkeep cost, which is maintenance of the items that takes coins from each payment you receive in income.

At the top, you will see "WEAPONS", this is a pull-down menu. That is the default, but if you click the menu, you will see options for Matey's and Ships as well. Plus a link to buy Hired Captains. At the right, are 2 additional menus, which allow you to sort the currently selected menu using a variety of filters. You can sort by Attack or Defense, and from highest to lowest, or lowest to highest. The filters menu at the far right will allow you to filter by All Items, I Own and I Don't Own (as relating to *your* inventory). This menu has a second section as well, allowing you to further break down the list by All Items, Regular, Limited and Loyalty Items, Gifts and Drop Items. In both menus, you select one option from the top section, and one from the bottom section. This allows you great flexibility and allows you to get to very specific items quickly.

The link for the Blacksmith is also on the Clan screen. This is one of the most important screens, and most powerful tools, available to you. At the Blacksmith, you can upgrade and improve items from Adventures and received from Bosses after they have been defeated. They are well worth the investment as they have no upkeep. That allows you to minimize expenses and maximize profit, as well as increasing your overall firepower. You can find many recipes on the Kano forums, or you can ask higher level members of your Armada/Guild... set up your wish list according to what you want to upgrade. Keep your strategy in mind, and maybe have the calculator open to determine if the upgrade is beneficial before building more than one.

This is the Blacksmith screen:

To explain what you see in the Blacksmith screen, in the top left corner is the items you have available. The pull-down menu will sort these items by All, Weapons, Ships, Mateys and Gifts. On the right side, is the workbench. And on the bottom left are the available recipes. The pull-down menus will sort the recipes by type (Weapons, Ships, Weapons and Reverse) and by Location (All the various worlds you have unlocked).

There are 2 ways to use the Blacksmith, one is to manually select the items from the left side of the screen and drag them over to an open slot in the workbench on the right. This will be necessary for Hidden Recipes. But when the recipe for an item is known, you can click on the button to the right of the Item. You can also click on the Recipe Details link under the Item name, and it will open a window showing the materials needed, level requirements and how many coins the item will cost. It will also show the Attack and Defense values for the item that will be created. Many recipes can be found at the Recipes Blog. 

You will want to be careful when crafting Elite and Legendary items. As they use many items to create one, more powerful item, you can actually suffer a net loss in total firepower. Make sure the items you are upgrading are not currently in use, or will not negatively affect your strength.

TIP: Look at your Battle Strength tab in your profile before creating a new item. Note your total attack and defense strength. Then return to the Blacksmith and create ONE item. Go back to your profile and look at your strength after crafting a new item.

You will want to keep a close eye on your Attack and Defense strength. Use Adventures, Bosses and the Gift Wish List to get the best available weapons, mateys and ships to arm your fleet.

The Battle Drop screen will show you the items you can receive by fighting other pirates in the game. The Battle Drops are broken down in various level ranges, and the drops you can get is dependent on your current level.

The Original System link is a link you won't need. It does give you a series of links to look at each category of your inventory, but these are the same information provided in the Inventory link.

Davey Jones - Lord of the Pirates

The Davey Jones screen is where you will use Favour Points. These are also called DJ points. The number you possess will be shown in brackets to the right of the link in the menu bar. The number will also be shown on the left side of the DJ screen, under the menu bar. Here is an example of the screen you will see when you follow the Davey Jones link:

Each of the menu options you see on the left side of the screen will open on the right side. I will provide a brief explanation of each menu option:
Limited Items - Will give you the option of buying different items in sets. One set has a limited number of items available (1000) and one set is available for only one week. Each set is comprised of a weapon, matey and ship, and they are themed sets.
Item Crates - Will allow you to buy Crates with a focus on Attack, Defense or Balanced. Each Crate has a chance of providing a weapon, ship or matey in several categories, each with a percentage chance, like this:

Legendary:

5%

Rare:

10%

Uncommon:

30%

Common:

55%

Legendary items are the most powerful, Common the least powerful. But all will be much stronger than single items you will see from any other source.
Sale Items - are random items that Davey Jones wants to clear out of his locker, and he's willing to give you a good deal on them. They won't cost as much, but also won't be as powerful as items you can acquire in teh first 2 sections.
Hired Captains - Hired Captains are critical to your success in the game. They are the single greatest way to increase your overall firepower, and are a much better investment than any of the special items above, and more cost effective as well. Allow me to provide an example:
Ex: Let's say you are thinking of spending some DJ points, and let's say you are level 400 and have 40 DJ points saved up. Looking at the items in the screen cap above, you can buy an Olympia Galleon, with an attack of 356 and a defense of 283. Sounds pretty good, right? But you can buy 8 hired captains too. So let's look at what they can do for your total firepower, using items available at the Blacksmith at level 400:
Gold Encrusted Cutlass, Level 400, (16/15) x 10 items = attack 160 & defense 150
Smuggler Ship, Level 390, (84/84) x 1 item = attack 84 & defense 84
Mistrel Maiden, Level 300, (15/17) x 10 = attack 150 & defense 170

One Hired Captain = attack 394 & defense 404
Since you get 2 Hired Captains for 10 DJ points... attack 788 & defense 808.
And with 8 Hired Captains, you would see an increase of 3152 points to attack and 3232 points to defense.
So just buying 2 Hired Captains would boost your total strength by twice as much as the shiny ship we looked at, for a quarter of the cost. And by spending all the DJ points on Hired Captains, you would increase attack strength by over 700% and defense strength by over 1100% over the ship you can buy for the same cost.
Energy/Health/Stamina/Cash - This option will allow you to exchange DJ points for a 100% boost of energy, stamina or health, or 7 income payments in cash.
New Characters - These are a very good investment. Obtaining a new character can increase the rate at which you generate health, energy, stamina or income payments, as well as providing a themed set of items (1 weapon, 1 matey and 1 ship). They are available in level-restricted tiers, with level 100 being the first, and level 2400 being the second. They are costly, but justifiably so. many also provide additional bonuses in combat and/or bonuses in financial areas. Carefully examine the options and decide what suits your strategy the best.
Loyalty Items - During game play, you earn Loyalty Points. You can also receive additional Loyalty Points by purchasing DJ points using RealWorld currency. Loyalty Items can be a very powerful addition to your arsenal, particularly when you get into the higher levels of Loyalty, such as Gold and above. Check here regularly to see if you have enough Loyalty points to buy a new toy. These points do not affect any other aspect of game play.
Lottery - Every day at 12:00 noon, Pacific Time, there is a lottery draw. The lottery provides a variety of prizes, and everybody gets one free ticket per day! For a chance at free money, experience points or even up to 1000 DJ points, it is worth it to check here every day. There is also a link on the Home page, at the bottom of the banner list on the left side of the screen. This banner will appear only after the lottery drawing has been done. After you have checked your lottery ticket, and before the lottery draw has been done, this banner will not appear on the main page.
Speakers - These are used in the World Chat. I mentioned that in the introductory post for this guide. You will also receive some Speakers every seven days in the Daily Rewards.

The important thing to remember about DJ points, is that they are yours to spend as you see fit. They are used in many aspects of the game, and should be regarded as actual money. Spend them as you wish, but keep in mind that there are many things you should consider spending them on before others. Think of it like a household budget.

Captains - Your Personal Fleet

The number of Captains you have in the game is the single most important factor in determining your total strength in battle. The more Captains you have, the more weapons, mateys and ships will be brought into any fight, such as battles and bosses. The only time your number of Captains will not matter is in a Cagematch.
This is the first screen you will see when you click on the Captains link.

At the top, you will see 'Invite' (the default), 'Gifts', 'Boosts', 'Inner Circle (number)' and 'Hired Captains (number)'. The number in the brackets following these last 2 sections is the total number of Captains you have, with Inner Circle being human players, and Hired Captains being NPC Captains.

On the invite screen, there are 2 buttons, one for all of your friends, and one for only those who are playing Pirate Clan. The second button is the one you will use the most often.

The Gifts section will show you who has sent gifts to you, and who you have sent gifts to. There is also a tab to allow you to ask you Captains for a specific gift. This is a good way to get a lot of one item, especially if you have a lot of human captains. You can send 100 gifts per day, but there is no limit to how many you can send.

Boosts. These are very useful, every 22 hours you can use a boost. There are 2 types, the Energy Boost will provide you with 100% of your maximum energy, and the Stamina Boost will provide 75% of your maximum stamina. You can hold a maximum of 5 of each boost, and you can send a maximum of 10 of each boost per day.

Your Inner Circle. These are players who will receive coins each day from your activity in the game. Being in another players Inner Circle will get you some money each day as well. The more Inner Circles you are in, the more you will make. You have to collect your Inner Circle earnings at least every 3 days, or the bonus is lost.

The Hired Captains link will take you to the page to buy 2 Captains for 10 DJ points. Once again, if you have not gotten 1000 Hired Captains, this is the most recommended use of your DJ points.

The total maximum number of Captains in the game is 2000. Once you have achieved this, you will have a fearsome fleet. More so if you have been using the Blacksmith to improve the various weapons, mateys and ships in your inventory.

TIP: At the bottom of the Captains screen you will see an invite code. This code is a combination of numbers and letters, both upper and lower case, which is unique to you. Copy this code and paste it into the message feeds of Monthly Calendars, Special 3-Day Calendars, World Bosses and even in the World Chat. This will help you to reach 1000 human Captains quickly, and without getting yourself in trouble with Facebook.

Profile - Your very own Pirate

Now on to the last screen, the profile screen. This is all about the mighty Pirate you are building.

There are several additional menus in the profile section, with 'Profile' being the default. You can also go an look at Achievements, Arming and Armada.

Achievements are rewards given for significant events, like completing an adventure a minimum number of times, fighting, reaching certain levels and many other things.

Arming is your personal load out. More on that below.

Armada will take you a list of every active armada in the game. If you haven't already joined an armada, you can find one here. If you have joined an armada, it will be the first one listed here.

The profile section will provide a wealth of information. Lets start there...

The user tab will give a central place to see information about you that is not available to anybody else. This gives you a sort of snapshot of your character. The Bounty that is listed is the initial price another Pirate will have to pay to put you on the Bounty list for attack by any players in the game. If somebody wants to bounty you a second time, they will have to pay 75% more for the second, and all subsequent bounties.
At the bottom, is the total number of mateys, weapons and ships you have in inventory.

The Clan Feed tab will show you what your Captains see when they visit your profile page.

The Stats tab will give you this screen:

This screen keeps track of almost every stat you might want to know about your Pirate and performance in many areas. It is also the only screen a non-Captain will see when they visit your profile.

The Battle Strength tab is a very important one. And again, it is only visible to you. It will look like this:

The Personal Attack and Defense are your skills in these areas.

The Armed Attack and Defense come from your personal load out, covered below.

The next three categories are the total strength provided by arming your Captains. Each of the sections in blue can be clicked on, expanding them down. This allows you to see what items you will bring into battle on the attack, or when you are attacked.

The Total Attack and Defense are the sum totals of the previous 5 numbers.

As we move down through the profile screen, we arrive at the Personal Loadout:

This is your Pirates personal weapons. There are 2 slots for Weapons, one for a Matey, and one for a Ship.

When you click on the Arming link at the top of the Profile page, or on the 'Customize Your Loadout' button, you will be taken to a screen like this one:

This offers you a number of options. At the top left, there is a pull-down menu - the default is 'Loadout A'. you can save up to 3 different loadouts for your character. 

TIP: Set up 3 different loadouts, 1 balanced, 1 attack and 1 defense.

As we continue down the Profile Page, we get to something often overlooked. The Wish List.

The Wish List is really important, for new players, it can provide ships, matey's and weapons that have no upkeep cost and provide good attack/defense strength. For experienced players, it provides the items they need to upgrade weapons, ships and mateys at the Blacksmith.

You should set your Wish List up to request items you need from your Captains.

The very last thing you will see on the Profile is the inventory tabs. This will show you every item you currently own, in various tabs. There is also a pull-down menu to sort the inventory. The Achievements tab will show you all of your achievements with the date you earned them.

Joining an Armada - What does it mean?

So, you want to join an Armada. Before you do, you should know a few things.

First and foremost, joining an Armada means joining a team. As a team-member, you have certain obligations to your team. You are expected to follow the Armadas rules, if they have any. Make sure you read the sticky posts on the Armada feed, and any documents on the Armada page (if they have one).

Some common rules include doing Daily Gamer Points (DGPs), levels of acceptable behaviour, helping on and posting bosses and aiding the Armada in the Armada Wars. Generally, breaches of the Armada rules will result in expulsion from the Armada.

For low-level players, an Armada is a way to gain some protection from other Pirates. Many Armadas will have high-level players who will attack Pirates on your behalf. They will also provide powerful Bosses that you may not be able to unlock for a long time. Always attack these bosses, the drops and rewards are worth the effort.

In the Armada, you will have the Armada Leader, and up to 3 Officers. Each of these players has taken on additional responsibilities.

The Armada Leader: The Leader is responsible for a lot of 'behind the scenes' negotiations with other Pirates and Armadas. If you are having a serious dispute with another player, you can take your concerns directly yo the Armada Leader. Often, they can either negotiate directly with the player you are having trouble with, or with a senior member of the Armada your opponent is in. The Armada Leader also establishes most of the Armada Alliances and Enemies, and has the final say on membership and who the Officers will be.

The Armada Officers: The Officers are the backbone of the Armada. They are the ones who keep order in the Armada, enforcing the Armada rules and accepting new members and removing those who have violated the rules. They will also negotiate on your behalf, and are the only other players visible to non-members when the Armada has enabled the privacy option for the Armada.

Both the Leader and the Officers can be invaluable sources of information to aid you in advancing in the game. They are the only Armada members who can make 'sticky' posts in the feed, and can also delete any posts in the feed.

Every Armada is a unique community. They are all composed of real people, just like you. They have their own personality and identity. The Armada you join should share the same general values that you have.

Try talking to some of the people you know in an Armada before joining it. They can tell you what is expected of you if you are given membership.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION….