Pirate101 Monthly Newsletter

We hope you had a fun June in Pirate101! School let out for many of our players and the awesomeness of summer began. It’s been good to see everyone enjoying the Spring 2014 Update . . . and naturally all Pirate101 players have been wondering, what’s next for Pirate101? Hmm!

Well we’ll definitely have some kind of surprise or two over the next couple of months, but the future is hard to see, Pirates! Where's Vadima when you need her? Is there something just over the horizon? Cross your fingers for something fun in Pirate101! As for hints, everyone can see something is brewing up a storm in Mooshu’s Paths of Penance, and The FrogFather teased us all with a very cryptic Producer’s Letter!

Whew! Only time will tell what fun is in store for our band of pirates. In the meantime, let’s take look back and June and enjoy a few of our favorite regular newsletter articles. Read on!

As players journey through Skull Island and Cool Ranch, they learn quite a bit about Mustang Sally, but let’s see if there’s something here that you might not have known before about El Toro’s Carolina.

Welcome to the Pirate101 Rogue’s Gallery. Subject, Mustang Sally

Hailing from the dusty skies of Santo Pollo, adventuring runs in Mustang Sally’s blood. Born the daughter of the famous and mysterious champion, El Toro, Young Sally, known then as Carolina, longed to follow in her father’s famous footsteps. Carolina was crushed when her father refused to help her realize her dreams. Heartbroken, she left her home behind vowing never to return until she had become a hero in her own right.

Carolina found her way to the skyways of Skull Island. Within a short time she acquired both a deadly reputation as a fencer and a new name: Mustang Sally. Renowned for her skills with the blade, she parlayed her skills into an apprenticeship under the famed pirate menace, Deadeye Deirdre. She rose quickly to become Deirdre’s first mate and was soon just as capable at the helm as she was with her blade. Leaving Deirdre to captain a ship of her own, Sally again fell upon hard times. Losing all her money and her ship, The Trick Pony, in a crooked card game with the Rat Pack, Sally was reduced to living in a squalid flop house on Flotsam. Desperate to get back her ship and reclaim her fortune she became involved in a foolhardy scheme to free the most feared bird in the Spiral: Napoleguin. It was a scheme that landed her in Fort Elena prison with little hope of ever regaining her freedom. Thankfully for her, a jail break wasn’t long in coming, and now Sally finds herself living out her long lost dream of becoming a true champion of the skyways at last!

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

It was great to see our community come out in strength in only a half hour’s notice this month! We journeyed to the newly discovered land of Xol Akmul and partied around our friends Lamac Chol and Itzam Halach in the Aztecosaur Town.

Yup! Pirates don’t say cheese . . . they say yum!

Thanks for the fun, pirates! Stay subscribed to our Twitter account and perhaps we’ll catch you at the next Avery’s Courtcam!

Boochbeard: “Gandry! When I said I wanted to play a game of twister, this was not what I meant!”

- By Fiery Griffin Windlass

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

After learning about the various powers that attract our upcoming Pirates a couple of months ago, I decided to delve deeper into these visions provided by my crystal ball—now we will determine the most sought after talents.

Weapon skills are important to every Pirate who fights the good fight, so it’s not surprising to find Slashy, Smashy and Stabby weapon talents are highly coveted for the Pirate that doesn’t come by it naturally. Musketeers spread themselves equally amongst all additional weapon skills. 70% of Witchdoctors and 86% of both Buccaneers and Swashbucklers favor Slashy, while 78% of Privateers seek knowledge in the ways of Smashing.

The sneaky art of being Elusive is studied by over 65% of Buccaneers, Swashbucklers and Witchdoctors.

With no natural ability to wear armor, 97% of Musketeers and Witchdoctors expand their wardrobe selection by mastering the ability to wear Light Armor.

And finally, 77% of Swashbucklers and 64% of Witchdoctors understand the value of increasing their health and become versed in the ability to be Tough.

The haze distorts my view into the ball of knowledge, until next time my dear hooligans…

Ahh Pirates, the Sharks that swim the skyways of Skull Island can certainly be a dangerous sort, but I’ve noticed lately a bunch you taming them and using them as mounts and pets! What a wonderful pastime! I, Adelmo from Valencia, have a great book this month to for all those pirates who want to know more about these amazing creatures: Shark Life, by Peter Benchley.

If you haven’t heard of Peter Benchley, he was the author who wrote the fiction book Jaws, which was later made into the movie Jaws, about a killer shark. But you’ll be glad to know that in this nonfiction book he tells the truth about sharks: they aren’t mean, and they don’t go out of their way to attack humans. Mr. Benchley writes about his own real-life adventures diving in the ocean and filming sharks, whales, and other creatures for movies and TV shows. He also includes advice about how to stay safe from currents and wildlife encounters when you’re swimming in the ocean.

This is definitely a must read for anyone who thinks they might ever have to walk the plank!

With our Spring 2014 Update behind us, fans were spending a ton of time thinking about pets in June! Hybrid discoveries were big news and pet-themed contests were in full swing. Let’s take a closer look at some of this community fun:

• Our friend Chrissy found the elusive “bunnycorn” hybrid and shared it on Central (just kidding of course, it’s actually a figurine titled the “Home Grown Corn Cob Bunny”)
• Speaking of Hybrid pets, players discovered three new combinations:
  • Tiger Shark
  • Frostbiter Shark
  • Emusaur
• Interested in finding more hybrid combinations? Check out this spreadsheet for tracking hybrid morphing attempts.
• Kelsey Fireheart kicked off a “Pet Hybrid Project” trying to find confirmed morphing combinations in Pirate101
• Everyone seems to agree, the best thing about Pets in Pirate101 is how it brings players together
• Nice guide to doubloons from Duelist101.
• What’s your favorite major accomplishment?
• Everyone’s favorite “Fabricated American” has been playing a lot of Pirate101 Pet Sparring lately.
• When it comes to recurring Villains in Pirate101, these surly sorts topped our players’ lists
• Contests, contests, and more contests! Almost all of our Official Fan Sites were holding contests in June, and hopefully you were able to win a new Crown Shop pet from one of them. As always, contests usually result in creative fun from fans. Don’t miss these contest winning highlights:
  • Winners of Pirates of the Spiral’s design a pet contest
  • Winners of the Art in the Spiral Pirate101 comic contest
  • Winners of Adventures of the Spiral’s “Create a doubloon” contest
• Adventures of the Spiral had some fun theory crafting about the new tower that’s appeared in MooShu
• Behold the adventures of The Gold Ninja Pig (Has a Piglet plushy ever seemed so sneaky?)
• Finally, a few creative players on the Pirate101 Message Boards started a thread for you to imagine all the “beard” pirates that could be out there in the Spiral – Cactusbeard, Mossbeard, Weirdbeard . . . awesome fun!

Our friends at AMD have recently been showing off Pirate101. You may remember the cool AMD ships that are out there. Rumor has it there are still a couple of these exclusive ships that haven’t yet been seen!

Also check out their Pirate101 Spring Update announcements on GamingTribe, Twitter and Raptr.

First things first, if you don’t know what a “Pre-Paid Game Card Pet” is, be sure you head over to this page about Pirate101 Prepaid Game Cards and take a look! We’re now serving up game cards in USA, Canada, and Australia and have several “base” models of pets:

• Seaweed Spirit (Retired from Best Buy and not currently available in the USA)
• Rouged Puffer
• Crimson Crawlie
• Blue Ringed Walktopus
• Durango Buffaloon (Retired from Speedway and not currently available)
• Emerald Budgie
• North Wind Lion
• Golden Sky Rattler
• Dreamy Blue Turtle
• Vermillion Dragon

Just look at all of these cute pets roaming the beach of my Swashbucker’s house:

I even have another picture of them all lined up when they were just eggs!

They hatch so fast!

Pre-paid Game Card Pets are a special bunch of pets because there are several “sets” of these pets that we cycle through and offer each month. That’s right! They may look the same, but their talents and names change from month to month!

To clarify, the pet you receive from a pre-paid game card depends on when you redeem your card, not when you purchase it. For example, in May 2014 if you redeemed a Gamestop $10 card, you would have received a "Questing Crawlie" Pet with Cheap Shot guaranteed to be its first talent manifested. Redeeming the same card in June resulted in a "Tidepool Crawlie" with the Relentless talent.

This July players will be treated to a brand new never before seen set of pets we’re calling the “Festive” set (it is the month of 4th of July after all!) Check out what you’ll find on these pets this month:

• (Not currently available in the USA) Party Spirit—Repel Boarders talent
• Balloon Puffer—Cheap Shot talent
• Birthday Cake Crawlie—Bladestorm talent
• Pinwheel Walktopus—Cheap Shot talent
• (Not currently available) Bouquet Buffaloon—Feeding Frenzy talent
• Music Box Budgie—Turn the Tide talent
• Festive Lion—Cheap Shot talent
• Maraca Rattler—Poisonous talent
• Celebration Turtle—Flanking talent
• Confetti Dragon—Repel Boarders 2 talent

You won’t be seeing the Festive Set of pets in the rotation of pets again for quite a while, so it’s a great month if you’re looking for a uniquely named and powerful pet! Don’t worry about those pets that aren’t available at the moment, pirates. We’re looking for new prepaid card opportunities all the time!

“No one who insults Moo Manchu goes unpunished. I have brought you here, Pirate, to suffer! Let the suffering begin!” – Moo Manchu