Thursday 18 December 2014

Posted by Sneaky Kevin On Thursday 18 December 2014

Scrip is one of the many new additions with Pirate101’s newest update… and it’s certainly our favorite! What makes this new currency awesome is the fact that it encourages group play and makes nautical ship sinking parties worthwhile for even max level pirate captains!

If you haven’t seen yet, the Black Market can be accessed through the Skull Island Bazaar… but Squid Viscous won’t accept gold. You’ll have to pay him Scrip, a new type of currency. There are a couple of ways to get Scrip, but by far the easiest is to sink ships out in the Skyways – the further you go from Skull Island, the more Scrip you’ll receive. Not every ship will drop Scrip, and if they do, you’ll receive a random amount, generally between 1 and 14. This may not seem like very much, but after a little while of sinking ships, you’ll be earning plenty of Scrip!


Recently, many players have been organizing farming events to collect Scrip – these are a great way to meet others and all work together to earn the maximum amount of rewards for your character. If you prefer to sink ships alone, that’s fine too – it may be more of a challenge, but what makes this feature especially cool is that you’re free to go at your own pace in collecting Scrip.

If you’re looking for a good place to start farming, try Marleybone or Aquila. Not only will these worlds tend to drop higher amounts, but you can easily find bosses in the skyway – in Marleybone, you can even find a Turret, which will always drop Scrip. Turrets are tough to sink, though, so make sure you bring a team if you’re looking to fight them! If you want to take a short break from questing, try heading over to the Achaean Way in Avery realm… you might just find a couple pirates challenging Pluton or Spartacos for their Scrip!



So, what can you buy with Scrip? Well… lots of things! And by lots, I mean LOTS – gear, housing, doubloons, accessories, pets, you name it – even a modified ship cabin that you can’t find anywhere else! This ship cabin comes with a second floor, but be warned: it’s very expensive at a price of 25,000 Scrip, making it the most difficult item to acquire in the Black Market.

Looking for a bit less of a challenge? Try the gear sets, the battle standards, housing dividers, or simply a pet or an accessory – all of these are great and will help customize your character. If you’re daring enough to save up for that ship cabin, it’ll take lots and lots of ships… supposing that you can get Scrip from one in every four ships, it’ll take a little more than thirteen thousand ships to earn enough… but who’s counting, right?


As of right now, I’ve been farming in both Marleybone and Aquila for Scrip, and have received a good amount – I’m aiming to buy the gear set for 5,000 Scrip to let everyone know that I’m an expert ship sinker!

Here is my progress in collecting Scrip over the past few days:



What are you looking to buy with Scrip? Have you started farming for it yet? Let us know in the comments!

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Posted by Sheldon Cooper On Wednesday 3 December 2014
Ahoy! It's that time of year again, and at AoS we sure do know how to celebrate! Throughout the month of December, starting from today (3rd) to the 24th December (excluding weekends) we will be holding raffles for Pirate101 Prizes ranging from 2000 crowns to the latest Hoodoo Bundle. Check back each day to find out what prizes are on offer!




Day 1: Comment Draw; 2.5k Crowns + Tribal Crew Card Pack + Grizzly Beast Card Pack (Winner: Asynnok@twitter)

Day 2: Twitter Hashtag Draw; One Random Tribal Crew Pack Companion + 2.5k Crowns (Winner: @korgre)

Day 3: Comment Draw; 2.5k Crowns + Grizzly Beast Card Pack (Winner: @LoganMistSpear)

Day 4: Twitter Hashtag Draw; One Random Tribal Crew Pack Companion + One Random Grizzly Beast Pack Companion (Winner: @EvanSilver_)

Day 5: Comment Draw; 5k Crowns + One Random Grizzly Beast Companion (Winner: @Dx_Chukang)

Day 6: Twitter Hashtag Draw; 2.5k Crowns + Grizzly Beast Card Pack 
(Winner: @mewthree3)

Day 7: Comment Draw; 2.5k Crowns + Grizzly Beast Card Pack 
(Winner: @AluraSilver)

Day 8: Twitter Hashtag Draw; 5k Crowns + One Random Tribal Crew Pack Companion (Winner: @IBlossom1)

Day 9: Comment Draw; Random Grizzly Beast Pack Companion + 5k Crowns (Winner: @MasonWizard)

Day 10: Twitter Hashtag Draw; 2.5k Crowns + Admiral Bundle 
(Winner: @Swordroll)

Day 11: Comment Draw; 2.5k Crowns + Tribal Crew Pack 
(Winner: @FrostCaller1)

Day 12: Twitter Hashtag Draw; 5k Crowns + Tribal Crew Pack + Grizzly Beast Card Pack (Winner: @TheSpiralWonder)

Day 13: Comment Draw; 5k Crowns + Tribal Crew Pack
(Winner: @swashbuckler777)

Day 14: Twitter Hashtag Draw; 2.5k Crowns + Tribal Crew Pack
(Winner: @AlSilverheart)

Day 15: Twitter Hashtag Draw AND Comment Draw; Hoodoo Bundle/Empire Bundle + 2.5k Crowns each
(Winners: @J_James41 and @MDaisyPants)

On the days with an even number (on the image, not the actual day), the winners will be drawn from a pool of everyone who tweets the hashtag "#15DaysofAoS" and follows our twitter, @OfficialAotS.

On the days with an odd number (on the image, not the actual day), the winners will be drawn from a pool of everyone who comments on this post about their favorite thing about the holidays, please remember to tell us your Community Name and Twitter Name so that we can contact you with your prize OR make sure you are logged into your Google+ account when commenting and that your Google+ account is public so we can message you via Hangouts.

You can win a maximum of two times. 

Lastly, on Day 15 the winners of the Grand Prize will be drawn from all the people who tweet the hashtag AND those who comment on this blog post. 

Winners will be drawn everyday at 5pm EST.

Happy Holidays and here's to a fantastic ending to 2014!

Make sure to follow the Contest Policy!

Friday 28 November 2014

Posted by Sneaky Kevin On Friday 28 November 2014

There are new updates coming to Pirate101 soon that are currently available on the Test Realm. Have you checked them out yet? If not, we'll break down what you need to know about the coming update, and also point something out that you may not have noticed...

Captain’s Quarters
Let's face it. We've ALL wanted to see what's below the decks of our ships, and now we can! Each ship has its very own area where you can place furniture, pets, and now even companions! Personalizing your ship is sure to give you that feeling of home even while you're out in the Skyways. Even better, you can purchase larger Captain's Quarters which you can add on to any of your ships to customize them even more. You can buy one in the Crown Shop, and another in the Black Market - if you choose to pay with Scrip, however, your Captain's Quarters will have TWO stories!



The Black Market
Sure, gold and Crowns are nice, but it's time a new form of currency arrives in the Spiral... and that's Scrip! Scrip can only be obtained through ship fights, so it brings a whole new use to nautical experience parties, as now even level 65 ship captains can benefit by acquiring Scrip! Once you have enough, head on down to the Black Market in Skull Island to buy all sorts of cool things - gear, housing items, class-based battle standards... even a summon squid doubloon! The Deluxe Ship Cabin is available there too, so if you're interested in buying that, you'll have to save up plenty of Scrip...



Smuggler’s Arena
We've seen plenty of housing gauntlets in Wizard101: the MooShu Pagoda, Grizzleheim Winterbane, and the Wysteria Spiral Cup. Now Pirate101 has its first housing gauntlet, but what makes it different than those in Wizard101 is that anyone can obtain it through the Crown Shop instead of through bundle cards! Although you can start out simple with Practice Mode, you'll also be given the option to try Challenge Mode - it may be a bit difficult, but you can earn Scrip depending on how far you go. Remember to bring friends so you can conquer everyone who dares challenge you in the Smuggler's Arena!



A New Hint!
The Update Notes included a picture of companions in houses, but you may notice something very interesting here... can you spot it?



In this picture, Old Scratch has a new title that we haven't yet seen: Skeletal Shaman! From this, we can he's going to be promoting soon, and promotions only happen through expansions to the main storyline! Even better, promotions are usually worked on last, after the main content is finished and all of the areas are created for the promotion to take place in - maybe we'll be getting Book XV sooner than we thought?

What's your favorite part of the new update? Expect it to hit the Live Realm in the next couple of weeks so everyone can try out this awesome new content.

Tuesday 18 November 2014

Posted by Sneaky Kevin On Tuesday 18 November 2014


Wizard101 has plenty of fun activities when you’re not questing – gardening, crafting, decorating, and the recently introduced fishing. Pirate101, on the other hand, currently isn’t full of side activities, but it’s very likely for us to be seeing more soon. Since Test for Wizard101 came out not too long after vines of the new content were released on Twitter, it’s also safe to say that Pirate’s is right around the corner with more hints becoming available to us… maybe we’ll see some new side activities there!

Crafting

Crafting is one of the oldest of Wizard101’s side activities. There’s a chain of quests to get you through the ranks and cool recipes that you can buy from each NPC. These recipes can be created to yield powerful gear, housing items, pet snacks, and more… even new spells! But what does this mean for Pirate101?

How cool would it be if this was an actual crafting desk?
Introducing crafting has plenty of potential. Since rare boss loot is currently the best gear out there, this could provide an alternative to players who are willing to put in the effort but not wanting to farm long dungeons. An idea that some players have suggested is being able to customize your own gear from individual parts and use a crafting station plus some extra reagents to form one powerful item. What do you think?

Gardening

Tending to a garden daily may not seem very exciting, but it has proven to be extremely useful in Wizard101! Right now, pretty much the only way to obtain mega snacks in Pirate is through the mega snack packs, which can quickly consume your Crowns if you’re interested in buying a lot. Gardening would be a beneficial option if you’re interested in acquiring mega snacks over the long term and have a bit of patience.

Wouldn't this make the perfect garden?
Of course, the system could be changed slightly, just how Pirate learned from Wizard101 in terms of pets. Maybe instead of having to check it every day, you would only have to check up on it at certain stages. Also, instead of wilting when needs aren’t cared for, these could only stop the growth of plants until they’re cared for instead of reverting the process back to the Young stage again and having to start all over. Also, instead of only seeing mega snacks dropping from your plants, maybe we could see unique gear and housing items, too!

Fishing

A lot of people have been expecting fishing to show up for a while – in fact, many players predicted that it would appear in Pirate before Wizard! Now that we’ve seen how awesome it can be to try to collect all those elusive fish, it’s time Pirate got to try it out – how cool would it be to fish on our ships in the Skyways?

Imagine if the water here was filled with FISH!
With Pirates visiting different worlds, we can definitely expect to see plenty of new kinds of fish and another way to use our energy. Collecting these fish could also have cool benefits aside from just badges. We’ve seen that they can be used for teleport tapestry recipes, but maybe Pirate101 can even take that a step further and use them for creating Doubloons, furniture items, and maybe even gear.

New Activities

The only thing that’s even better than introducing some of Wizard101’s activities is creating new ones! The possibilities here are endless – ship PvP, for example, would be a great activity and a fun way to expand player versus player combat. Daily tasks is also an interesting idea, where we could be given optional missions to carry out for rewards, like treasure hunting or plundering hidden areas for loot!

What other piratey ideas can you think of that you would like to see in the game? Be sure to let us know in the comments!



Tuesday 11 November 2014

Posted by Unknown On Tuesday 11 November 2014

Test Realm has been released! With the Test Realm release, not only are we seeing some fishing tweaks but also new fish and new fishing locations!  

Tweaks
On the bottom right of your Angler’s Tome, you will see an icon that will bring up a pop up.  This pop up consists of the following: total amount of fish caught, total amount of different fish species caught, total number of small fry caught, and total number of whoppers caught.



You will be able to see when someone gains a fishing level around you.

There is a new badge when you catch a total of 2,500 fish!

New Fishing Locations
With this update, we are introduced to four new locations with dungeons…. and FISH!

To point out some of the most significant fish that will be useful to catch in these new locations: Ninja Fish, Samurai Fish, Jolted Dekoi, Jackson Pollock, and more!  

Check out our “Sort by World” page on the Fishing Database to see what is in each location.  More information will be added to the pages so keep an eye out!

New Fish
In these new locations, there is a total of seven new fish!  Click the name of the fish to send you to the page with the information about the new fish.

With this update there is a total of 75 fish species that have been added to the game!


Yakoi
Pharaohmari








Royal Gurnard


























and… More!
Mega Snacks can now be crafted… with fish!  Here are the mega snacks that can be crafted:

There are craftable Tapestries to the new areas!  Here are two out of four of the tapestry recipes:

There are new multi-aquariums!  These new aquariums hold NINE fish!  Here are the six new multi-aquariums:



You can now craft new decks!  Here are the school specific decks:
Myth - Deck of the Bound Spirit



That's a wrap!  Let us know what you think about these new additions to the game in the comments.  What are you hoping to see in the future?  Look out for these updates coming to live in the coming weeks!





Monday 10 November 2014

Posted by Sheldon Cooper On Monday 10 November 2014


Ahoy! With the Wizard101 Test Realm online, there has been much talk in the spiral about when the Pirate101 Test Realm will come online for.....???? However, I'm sure we can speculate, so we thought that it would be great for us to sum up the Top Five Anticipated Pirate101 Updates for a post!


5. Ship PvP


Blowing ships out of the sky when they're enemies is fun, now imagine that, but when they're your FRIENDS! How fun could that be... no, no, how fun WILL that be?

4. Crafting


Now, now, I know what you're thinking, but hear me out. Imagine crafting a ship... physically crafting a Pirate ship... A SHIP or crafting the best looking gear you have ever seen better than some boss gear... don't you want that? (if not, then you're beyond cray cray)

3. Companions


Probably the best thing in Pirate101 besides combat and storyline are the Companions, the constant marriage-like bickering, brilliant one liners and amazing attack visuals are what make the game amazing... and imagine new ones, a Valencian Horse or a Corgi or a Werewolf or a Lagoon or all those other amazing companion possibilities that are out there... just imagine. 

2. Captain's Quarters

(Thanks to Tom over at Friendly Necromencer for the Picture of the W101 Dungeon)

If our First Mate can walk around our house and judge our decorating (good or bad) I think we should be able to judge our crew's sleeping quarters and be mean about it. Imagine the possibilities you could have, storing "cargo", keeping prisoners or maybe even smuggling in unwanted visitors. How piratey of us. 

1. Book XV


THE most anticipated update for Pirate101 is Book XV, it has been 18 months and counting since the last Book addition and I think I speak for all pirates when I say that the wait will be worth it...hopefully. Whether we go to explore more of Valencia, the new eery lands of Darkmoor or the mystical deserts of Krokotopia, Book XV will be welcomed by every pirate. 

Well, that's our Top 5, let us know what you want to see in Pirate 101 in the comments below and be sure to check out our other ranking post "Top 10 Favourite things about Pirate101".