Create-a-Doubloon Contest Winners!

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!

Companion Spotlight: Chantal Livingstone

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 round even 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! [CLOSED]

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!

From the Bleachers to the Track: Knowledge is Power

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. 

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.

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

Something Nefarious This Way Comes...

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!