10 Ways to Make Pirate101 More Challenging

Hello everyone!

I have been thinking about making a sixth character in Pirate101 to blog about.  However, I wanted to spice the game up a little to make things even harder.  I came up with a list of ideas and thought I would share them with all of you pirates looking for a new challenge.

Below you will find an overview of each challenge but I'm going to be making this into a series.  Each post will go more in-depth into the rules and different variations for each challenge.  Be sure to visit this page in the future for links to each new post!

Ship/Nautical Challenges

1.  Don't upgrade your ship or ship equipment.  In this challenge you'll be playing the entire game with just the raft that you get at the end of the Skull Island zone.  That means that almost all ship battles after Skull Island will most likely end up being hand to hand combat.  Also remember, no upgrading or adding anything to your raft either! Use it as is, from the moment you receive it.

2.  No extra nautical leveling.  In this challenge you can't fight extra ships at all or do any side quests that either require fighting ships or reward nautical experience.  The only nautical experience you should be getting is from fighting ships for the main quests and only just enough ships to complete whichever quest you are on.  This will allow you to upgrade your ship equipment but not nearly as quickly.

Companion Challenges

3.  No leveling your companions.  That means all of your companions will stay at the level they
were when you recruited them.  You can recruit side quest companions for this challenge, so you may want to choose when you do so wisely!  Another (slightly easier) spin on this would be to level your companions, but don't do any of their promotion quests.  Or else only level them until they get to a point when they need a new epic and then don't level them any further.

4. Only use your first mate.  For this challenge all of your companions should be assigned orders or set free in your house, except your first mate.  You may switch out your first mate for different battles, but you are only allowed to have one companion join you in each battle.  You may also equip a pet if you have any.

5. Your companions stay dead.  Once they die in battle, that's it.  They need to be either assigned orders or placed in your house.  No more using that companion for the rest of the game.  If at any point all of your companions die, you may either (a) consider the challenge over, (b) choose up to 5 companions to add back to your crew, or (c) try to finish the game without companions.

Pirate Challenges

6.  No upgrading your gear and/or weapons.  For this challenge, you quest through the game without equipping gear or a weapon (one or the other).  This would mean that your companions are even more important to you, especially at higher levels.  If at any point it gets too hard, you may equip your gear/weapon but only level 5 gear.  And once that gets impossible, you can upgrade to level 10 gear, and so on.  For an extra challenge, try this with both your gear and weapon at the same time.

7.  Don't train any powers or talents; from either your own class teacher or others.  This also includes the new mysterious trainers.  Try to make it through the whole game using only companions and/or weapon power.  Beware, this will also restrict the gear some pirates can use at higher levels.

8.  Don't spend any gold.  Even though it might not seem like it, this may be one of the hardest challenges on this list.  The only way you will be able to get anything new would be from quest rewards and drops.  That means no buying companion training tomes, only use the ones you are rewarded.  Also, no buying new gear, weapons or ship equipment.  You can only use what you get from drops.  The only exception to this would be purchasing ships.  However, you can only purchase one new ship for each world (except Skull Island, since you are given ships there), and the ship you purchase should be the least expensive one that world offers, so you are spending the minimal amount of gold possible.  Also, you may train up pets, but only with items and snacks you receive as drops.

Quest Challenges

9. Don't move on until you collect every badge for that world.  This quest isn't too hard, but it will slow down your questing a lot.  To successfully complete this challenge, at the end of each world you need to be sure to finish all side quests, as well as any challenge/combat quests.  This means defeating as many rats/ninja pigs/ophidians/etc or running through dungeons 25+ times.  No moving to the next world until you have every badge for the current world you are in.

10. No side quests.  Okay, some people may naturally quest like this, but to me it would be a challenge.  If you don't do any side quests, you miss out on extra NXP, companions, training points, etc.  So this challenge is NO side quests at all, not even companion promotion quests. Don't even pick them up.  Just keep questing through the main story line and see how far you can get.

Those are all the challenges I could come up with.  Some of them can be tweaked with different rules to make them either easier or harder.  Have fun with it.  I'm thinking I may try the no spending gold challenge, or maybe I will make a poll and you guys can choose for me! :D  We'll see.

Anyway, what challenges can you come up with or have you tried any of these?  Comment below and share your thoughts and experiences!  Thanks for reading and see you soon!