Pirate101 Monthly Newsletter

Can you believe it’s 2014? Admit it, how many of you have accidentally written “2013” instead of “2014” when writing a date this month? (GUILTY!! It happens to the best of us. –One-Eyed Jack)

January was a lot of fun with the launch of Dueling Diego pirate rewards, a few awesome sales, a few new free downloads, plus a few new sneak peeks of upcoming content, PLUS some new faces in the community, which all added up to a great month! What could the upcoming months bring us? Hold on tight, we’re working up something fun that you’ll be enjoying for years to come . . . plus Valentine’s Day is just around the corner “Me Hearties!”

Read on for more information and also a quick look at the past month in Pirate101.

Here’s an interesting spotlight on the brains of the operation! Check out this lore behind everyone’s favorite Marleybonian Privateer, Gracie Conrad.

“Welcome to the Pirate101 Rogue’s Gallery. Subject, Gracie Conrad

Grace Conrad (Gracie to her friends) has ships and sailing in her blood: she comes from a long line of famous Merchant Marines. Gracie had hoped to follow in their footsteps but her father, the famed Captain Conrad, insisted his daughter get a proper education instead. The first in her family to go to university, Gracie earned high marks at Strathclydesdale College in Albion, greatest Engineering University in the Spiral.

After graduation, Grace soon grew bored to tears designing factories and bridges. Struck by a desire to see the Spiral like her sailing forebears, Grace joined the Spiral Geographic Society and traveled far abroad, studying archaeological sites in Krokotopia before joining Thurston Plunkett’s Grand Celestian Expedition. Her travels were then cut short by the hostilities with Valencia. Grace did her part by working tireless to repair and refit Royal Navy ships at the Main Docks on the Isle of Dogs.

Who could have guessed that a secret mission would have thrown her in with a famous pirate crew - Gracie is roaming the Spiral once again!

These pirates and more await you when you play for free at Pirate101.com.”

If you like free Pirate101 art and music, January was a great month for you! We added several new Ringtones to our free downloads page. Now you can evoke that perfect Pirate101 mood with tunes from Marleybone, Aquila, and your favorite critical attacks!

We also added a really cool Marleybone Wallpaper that our fans seemed to love! You can freely choose from five different resolutions of the Wallpaper on our Desktop Wallpaper Downloads page.

“Can you see the new updates yet? Hurry, your impatience is heavy.”

- by Fair Christina Nightingale

Who will caption the next Puppet Pirates? Stay tuned to our Facebook page to enter your caption on the next Puppet Pirates.

Looking across The Spiral, beyond the shores and skies of Skull Island, I see many Pirates revisiting a few bosses over and over again. Defeating these misguided souls a single time is simply not enough if you want to plunder all the gold and weapons to outfit yourself.

Friar Sand and his gang in MooShu are by far your favorite targets for repetitive combat. Many pirates will return to this foe 15 or more times. While the gold makes it worth the effort, are you really seeking one of his personal treasures like his favorite Medallion?

Second on your list of preferred targets with an average of at least 8 repeat showdowns is the great Cadmus of Aquila. It would appear that Pirates are hoping to claim the Lost Phalera or is it really the amazing Blades of Shade that motivates you scallywags to relentlessly prove your might against Cadmus?

Shan Hong of MooShu has also gained your attention with his coveted loot, leading many Pirates to challenge him more than 6 times. Not only does he possess the shiny Tiger Claws, Shan has tamed a few pets that can be enticed to become a Pirate’s best friend if you prove yourself champion of the combat arena of Abe Pagoda.

And last, but by no means least, Pirates have sought out Aquila’s Warrior Queen Zeena for an average of 5 rematches. Pirates continuously storm her inner sanctum in pursuit of her extensive weapon collection. What Pirate would turn down the opportunity to acquire a Cestus Brace that transforms their hands into fists of blades, or the nice pairing of the Felix Shield which provides an accurate spark shooter with the protection of a hefty shield?

The crystal ball is becoming cloudy once again. ‘Til next time my lovely castaways, keep adventuring safely thru The Spiral.

Pirate friends! I see you come again to Librarian Adelmo in Valencia seeking more words of wisdom. I also smell . . . um, see, that you have many pets in your collection! That Golden Stingtail scorpion pet is quite impressive (are you sure you’re allowed to bring that in here?) and that Yellow Marshadillow makes me yearn for spring! Well, seeing as how you care for all these pets, I think I may have a book you’ll appreciate.

Your parents or even your grandparents might have read “My Family and Other Animals” by Gerald Durrell, a famous British naturalist. It's over 50 years old! It's the true story of how, when Gerry was 10 years old, his family moved from England to a Greek island. While he was on the island, he adopted all kinds of pets, including a tortoise, an owl, a seagull, a bunch of spiders, and some puppies.

What's made the book stay popular for so long is how funny it is. Chances are you'll think so too, even if some of the words in the book aren't familiar to you. Try getting one of your parents to read it out loud - if they can stop laughing long enough!

If Pirate life seemed a bit silent in January, then you certainly missed a lot of fun posts and comments! Our fans are awesome at keeping us entertained and intrigued every day of the month. Here are a few notable posts you may remember:

• At the end of the month, our fan sites started giving out a TON of free Dueling Diego codes . . . and not just the easy rank codes . . . we’re talking top tier codes worth 5000 gold and a shot and a rare prize from the Dueling Diego treasure chest. Just to name a few:
  • Duelist101
  • Pirate101 Skyways
  • Art in the Spiral
  • Paige's Page
  • Pirates of the Spiral
• We also added a brand new official fan site this month, Adventures of the Spiral! Be sure to catch the three part theory-crafting series from last month and also the up and coming Companion Database they are working on. Great stuff!
• Dr. Zeppers from Skull Island TV broke out in song over Ninja Pigs and even dedicated an entire contest to giving out one of the rare and coveted Ninja Pig Companions. What a cool contest!
• One-Eyed Jack was feeling the love this month from our fan sites, as January 26th was Community Manager Appreciation Day. Thank you fan sites!
  • Pirate101 Central
  • Pirates of the Spiral
  • Around the Spiral with Edward Lifegem
  • Twitter -- Thanks for the treats!
• Ratbeard stepped in to answer a question about the curious Blades of Shade weapon on the official Pirate101 message boards.
• D.S. Devereaux, of Pirate101 fan fiction fame wrote an awesome post that’s a hitchhiker’s guide to the Spiral. Check it out!
• Pirate101 Central initiated a brand new Wiki Master this past month. Congrats to Darkheart!
• Spiral Radio 101 threw their two cents in on the Doge Meme. Such clokwerk!
• If you’re looking for the latest information on PvP strategies, Duelist101 is always bringing us interesting information. This post does a great job of tracking the “PvP Trends” that have happened in Pirate101 to date.
• Highest Free-to-Play pirate, you say? Vadima can back up AzreeJul’s claims . . . it’s in the 50’s.
• Who said Buccaneers don’t have brains as well as brawn? Milt is spouting wonderful philosophy such as “In order to use Vengeance Strike properly, you must use it economically.” Intriguing indeed!
• Mercenaries for Charter celebrated their anniversary in style and even published a great guide to defeating Bishop.
• Pirate101 Skyways inspired players to take on a 30 Days of Kindness challenge. What a great way to feel the community love!
• And finally, speaking of Community love, it was difficult for us to say goodbye to Talkin’ the Plank, which brought us 50 podcasts since the launch of Pirate101. You’ll be missed and thank you for all the fun.

The fun news of January 2014 was definitely the launch of Pirate101 rewards for Dueling Diego! It has been highly requested in our community that we provide a minigame on www.freekigames.com that provides rewards in game, and we were happy to bring you this feature.

If you haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, why not give it a spin?

You’ll be surprised how pirate’y this old Wizard101 game is! Diego is from the land of Valencia after all . . .

Can you avoid all the obstacles, defeat Roberto, and save Francesca? Prizes start at 2000 points. You’ll mostly win gold and a random housing item, but if you’re lucky you could even win ship equipment, treasures from the Tribal Crew Pack, Rental Mounts, or even companion training tomes. Best of luck!

For a lot of old Wizard101 players, the idea of “Changing Realms” is a perfectly normal and 5-year-old feature, but to many who may come to Pirate101 from another MMO besides Wizard101 where you claim a server at the beginning of the game and do not vary from that location without paying a hefty fee, the idea of changing realms on the fly may be quite foreign!

It’s quite easy to do . . . just go into your Options menu and select the tab that looks like a World with a yellow bi-directional arrow above it. (Or even easier, just press Control+M)

From here you just click on one of the Available Realms you’d like to visit and click the green “Go To Realm” button that appears. That’s it! You’ve now switched servers in the blink of an eye. You’ll have to wait a minute to use this feature again, but it is one of the most useful features of KingsIsle games.

Changing Realms in Pirate101 can help you find a realm with a lot of players or one without many players at all. Some players even hop realms like this to help them scoop up ground spawns like hidden treasure chests and quest items, and that’s probably my favorite use of this feature. If I’m out questing somewhere with a collection quest, changing realms will help me scoop up another one of the items I just collected in the same location on a different server—take that yellow puffs of sun pollen in Cool Ranch!

Changing Realms is also great for meeting up with friends on a certain server, and you’ll often hear players say something like, “Meet me at the Spar Chamber on the One-Eyed Jack Realm.” Without knowing how to change realms, you’d be one lost Pirate!

Hopefully this little tip has convinced you to use it often! It’s a great feature.

Strange . . . I don’t remember there being a stairway here before? That’s completely barmy!