Pirate101 Challenge #3: No Leveling Companions

Ahoy!

This post is to further explain the third challenge in my "10 Ways to Make Pirate101 More Challenging" series.

Just how important are companions to your questing? VERY!  And everyone seems to have their favorite companions that they seem to use for most battle.  Seriously, does anyone NOT use Bonnie Anne in their top 5?  This challenge will force you to mix up your crew and take advantage of other companions you may not think of using that often (or ever).

Rules

1.  One you receive a companion, you may not use any training tomes (either purchased, found, earned from quests, etc.) to level that companion up at all.

2.  You may not set any companions to the "Brawling" task to earn companion experience.

3.  You may recruit any side quest companions at any point during the game.

4.  You may change your first mate and companion order at any point during the game.  You also may set companions to any of the other tasks, other than Brawling.

Tips and Tricks

1.  Do as many side quests as you can before you recruit a new companion so that companion will be a higher level.

2.  Don't recruit side quest companions right away. Wait until you absolutely need a new, higher level companion.

3.  Companions from packs, bundles, Crowns Shop, etc.;  I have made no rules about using them.

4.  Save the gold you would have used on training tomes to buy better gear and weapons.

Variations

1.  Train your companions a little, but only until they need their next epic or talent.  After that, leave them at that level the rest of the game.

2.  Train up your companions with only the tomes you earn from leveling and questing.  Don't spend any gold on tomes.

3.  Level your companions normally, but don't do any of their promotions.

This challenge is one of the ones I am considering trying with a new pirate.  If anyone else decides to give it a try, let me know!  I would love to hear your experiences.  Thanks for reading and see you soon! :)

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Adventures in Moo Manchu Land

Hi Peoples!

A few days ago I decided to finally try out the Tower of Moo Manchu.  I have had the quest for awhile, but never actually got around to doing it.......'cause school stuff. But guess what......School is now DONE! Yay! :)

Anyway, since this was kind of a spur of the moment decision, I decided to try it out solo.  How did it go? Well......Better than I thought to be honest.  Keep reading to find out what happened!

The first floor wasn't too bad.  There was only a 5 different pig enemies so El Toro, Bonnie Anne, and I managed no problem.  I think we were done in 3 rounds; one round to power up and two rounds of attack.  El Toro and Bonnie are awesome!

The second floor was more of the same, except this time it was 3 vs 6.  There was also three rows of spikes across the floor.  I wasn't sure how much damage they would do, so for the most part I stayed back and let the enemies come to us.  This made the fight take a little longer than the first one, but it still wasn't too bad and we made it through okay.  Have I mentioned that El Toro and Bonnie Anne are awesome? :)

The third floor: Ah yes, the floor with the innocent looking statues.   So this battle started out similar to the first couple battles; me and my 2 trusty companions vs 6 pigs......At least that's how it started.  Then me being me, I decided to blow up one of those innocent looking statues I mentioned before.  *Note to self* DO NOT BREAK THE STATUES!  Yeah, they turn into these evil little Foo Dog impostors with glowing red eyes.  Not nice!  Luckily I only broke one statue, but I have a feeling the other statues would turn into evil Foo Dogs too.  I still made it through this floor with Bonnie and El Toro by my side.  Go Me! :)

By the fourth floor, I was feeling like I was on fire!  Just......I didn't know the game would take this so literally.  I am pretty sure this battle starts out as 3 vs 6, just like the others.  Easy, right? Well, no.  See, there's a fire in each corner of the room at the beginning and after each battle, it spreads.  This was where Bonnie and El Toro finally succumbed.....to the flames.  RIP guys.  You will be missed.  But I sweated it out and managed to finish the battle by myself.  It was a really close one though!

After the fourth floor there was a nice surprise waiting for me.  Actually, two nice surprises.  The first was a group plunder chest, which I couldn't open since I'm not a group.  :P  Oh well, next time!  The second was.......The whole fifth floor was empty, except for yum yum fruits! Yay!  This was a nice break!

The sixth floor was really hard.  I actually almost died and bought a henchman to help me out at the end.  This one starts off as 3 vs 9!  Crazy!  There also wasn't any more pigs.  Instead there was those evil Foo Dog things as well as dragons and Ki-Rens.  And like I said, it was HARD!  I was using Nausica and Kan Po for this level, since my other two companions died.  Maybe that wasn't a good choice, but hey, live and learn, right?  Anyway, I did make it through, but just barely.  Like I said, I had to hire a henchman and everything.  But if I knew how the next fight would go.......I would have saved my crowns. :P

The seventh floor.  What can I say about it?  Well......not much.  This is where I died.  There were a lot of guys to fight on this level as well, 9 again I think.  This time they were Ronins.  And they did not like me.  Not even a little.  It was like a slaughter.  I bet this is where having a group would be useful.  I can only imagine what the floors above are like.

Don't get me wrong, this tower was A LOT of fun.  I love challenges like this.  And like I said at the beginning, I made it much further than I thought I would soloing for my first time.  When I go in again (hopefully with a group)  I will make another post.  Anyway, thanks for reading! See you soon! :)

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Pirate101 2015 Halloween Contest

Ahoy!

Guess what!!!!! To celebrate Halloween and Pirate101's 3rd birthday, the awesome community managers gave me a bunch of codes to give you guys!  Thank you Tom and Leala!

If most of your pets are anything like mine, they get kind of bored just hanging out in my house waiting for me to bring them into battle.  So I thought why not throw them a Halloween party?  What type of decorations do you think would be good for this?  It's up to you to decide!  Give it a try and you could win some great prizes!

Contest Rules

If you want to enter, here's what you have to do:

1.  Decorate your bunkhouse as a Halloween hideout for your pet.  Would your pet hang out in a haunted house? A haunted forest?  A pumpkin patch? A haunted maze?  Be as creative as possible. 

2.  Your design must include at least 3 Halloween items from the Crown Shop (these can be purchased with gold) and one pet.  The Halloween items can be 3 of the same thing or all different. It's up to you!

3.  Once you complete your bunkhouse design, take up to 3 screenshots.  The Halloween items and your pet must be visible.

4.   Email your pictures with your pirate's name and a short paragraph describing your design to secretsofthespiral@hotmail.com.  Please put "Halloween Contest" in the subject line.

5.  This contest will end in 2 weeks, on October 22, 2015 at 12pm EST (noon).

Prizes

1st Prize

Smuggler's Cove House & House Space Elixer

Octoberpus Pet

5,000 Crowns

2nd Prize

Smuggler's Cover House & House Space Elixer

5,000 Crowns

3rd Prize

Octoberpus Pet

5,000 Crowns

2 randomly chosen runners up

5,000 Crowns

If you enter, please be sure to read all the rules and requirements carefully.  People who do not follow the rules will be disqualified.  Also, please use your own original ideas.  And most of all, HAVE FUN!

One last note:  Keep an eye on my Twitter feed throughout the month for more random code giveaways! I will be posting 2 random codes per week until Halloween.  Good luck everyone!

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Pirate101 Challenge #2: No Extra NXP

Ahoy Pirates!

It's time for another post about the next item on my "10 Ways to Make Pirate101 More Challenging" list.

The object of this challenge is to make it through the entire game without doing anything to get extra nautical experience.  This will greatly reduce your ability to get better ship equipment, making those ship battles more challenging.  But that's the whole point of these posts, right?  So let's get to it!

Rules

1.  You may only fight ships that are required for the main quest line. As soon as you have completed the portion of a main quest that requires ship battles, you may not fight anymore ships.

2.  Do not complete any side quests that require you to fight ships or that award nautical experience (see image below).

The icon circled in red indicates that a quest will award nautical experience
upon its completion.

3.  Do not give any of your companions orders to gain NXP for you.

Tips and Tricks

1.  Since you won't be able to upgrade your ship equipment as much, buy the best ship you can.  Also, save up your gold so you can buy the best ship equipment as possible for your nautical level.

2.  If you're having trouble defeating ships, remember that you can always enter into broadside combat.

3.  Try farming for better nautical gear for your pirate's nautical level.

Exception

The only exception to this is with companion promotions.  You may battle ships if a companion's promotion requires it.  However, treat the promotion quest the same as a main quest and stop defeating ships as soon as you have defeated the amount the quest requires.

I couldn't really think of any variations to this challenge.  However, if you can think of any, feel free to comment below and let everyone know!  I would also love to hear any experiences you may have had with any other self imposed self imposed challenges.

Thanks for reading. See you next time.

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