Pirate101 Monthly Newsletter

May 2013 was a monumental month for not only Pirate101, but for KingsIsle in general as we released an enormous expansion—the size of which has never been seen before in either Wizard101 or Pirate101! You can read all about it in our Press Release. Read on for more fun and news from around The Spiral.

Here’s the fifth video in our Rogue’s Gallery video series with a closer look at Vadima, the witchdoctor trainer!

“Welcome to the Pirate101 Rogue's Gallery. Subject, Madame Vadima. Madame Vadima came to Skull Island from far off Darkmoor--though she won't talk about what made her leave her homeland, some say she's hiding on Skull Island under Avery's protection--from who or from what remains a mystery. Some say she was once a student at Pigswick Academy but was expelled for research into black magic. Vadima is an amazing fortune teller. The prophecies she sees card readin' and crystal gazin' have earned her a high place in Avery's organization. Though often confusin', her pronouncements are rarely wrong. She spends most of her time consulting with new Witchdoctors as they train their powers of Hoodoo. Make sure you drop by and pay her a visit when you're returning to Avery's Court--just look for the Ghostly green vapors escaping from her Witchdoctor's Sanctum. You'll meet many pirates like these when you play for free at Pirate101.com.”

Along with the release of Marleybone and Aquila also came the release of some fun new mounts, pets, and other Crown Shop items. One of the more loved mounts from the release is the Pennyfarthing Mount strait out of Marleybone. Combine this mount with the new Black Rain Shades from Sato in MooShu, and you have the newest Pirate101 meme sensation!

Feel free to send us any pictures of you showing off your new Pennyfarthing and the Black Rain Shades to community@pirate101.com. We’d love to add them to our screenshot collection!

We have more coming to the Crown Shop over the following weeks, so be sure to keep your one good-eye peeled for more, Pirates!

During this month we will be releasing several new class-themed wallpapers to our Free Desktop Wallpaper Downloads Page.

Be sure to save your favorite background to your desktop today!

Boochbeard: "Gandry, This is definitely NOT how to make ratatouille!" -Bloody Ethan Dodger

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

All of our wonderful fan sites provide quality information every day. Here are a few highlights from last month . . . just in case you missed them:

• Ditto the Fabricated American Pirate recently held a short essay contest for players where they wrote in about how they would celebrate Pirates De Mayo, our seasonal event in May. One player wrote, “My Pirate does what I do. In my family Cinco De Mayo is celebrated cause of Mexico’s unlikely win over the French Army under Napoleon during the Battle of Puebla. Of course over time it really just has turned into a time to hang out with family members and eat. So my Pirate will be sitting in Tavern in Cool Ranch munching on local fare and swapping stories with his crew….and maybe do a Hat dance, if I can remember how to do it.”
• Players on Pirate101 Central listed out all the worlds they could think of from both Pirate101 and Wizard101. You may want to throw in your two cents on whether Dragonspyre is its own world or part of Avernus here. After that, you may even feel adventurous enough to talk about the mysteries of Rajah.
• Our Friends at Talkin’ the Plank sent in some questions for Ratbeard, you can find his answers out near the 17 minute mark of the 29th episode.
• Our Mercenaries for Charter and Duelist101 fan sites teamed up to host an amazing Nautical XP and Friar Sand farming party called “Batten down the Hatches.” Congrats to all the Nautical Levels earned by those who participated
• On the official Pirate101 forums there’s a fun thread asking about Pirate101 Trivia! There’s some great questions being asked recently. Do you think you have the answers? Ask some hard questions of your own!
• The Beta episode of Pirate Weekly launched on YouTube this past month! Here’s to wishing them luck with their new webisode.
• This funny comment was made from the Twitter user @IriGianthunter to our official @Pirate101 Twitter Feed: “I want to play @Wizard101 test realm all day. But I also want to play new @Pirate101 content all day. I'm having a KIdentity crisis!” (Now that’s a crisis we like to hear about! – One-Eyed Jack)
• Paige’s Page held some fun contests in May where players could decorate their bunkhouses according to a theme. As to be expected, there were some amazing entries! We liked this one in particular from Tiring Horace Zabra

Pirates! Avast! It is time for another edition of “Books for the Cultured Pirate.” I, Librarian Adelmo, have a wonderful book to share with you this month that is sure to have you questing to solve a pirate mystery. I know how much you pirates like solving the mysteries of the The Spiral!

This month’s book is titled, “Saxby Smart, Private Detective in The Pirate's Blood and Other Cases” and is written by Simon Cheshire. Saxby may still be in elementary school, but he's an excellent detective who notices things other people don't, which is important when his friend James brings him a case involving a museum exhibit about the famous pirate Captain Blade. Why is there what looks like a handprint on the *inside* of the display case? Could it be from the pirate's ghost?

This book is written so you can follow along and see if you can solve the case, and if you like this book, try the other ones in the Saxby Smart series.

Many pirates may not know about the power (or even the existence) of the Notifications window! This handy tool gives players access to a wonderful diary of information about what’s happening to their character.

To open the notification window simply press Control+N. Not only does your Notifications Window give you handy information about what quests you have recently completed, badges you have earned, levels you’ve mastered, or loot you’ve won, the Notifications Window is also clickable, so you can equip new gear, replay tutorial tips, open the crown shop, and even redeem gifts from your gift window.

Since we’ve added the names of completed quests to this handy list, you can also use your notification window to see what the last few quests you completed were as well!