Pirate101 Monthly Newsletter

Just in Time for June!

June is here and it’s time party it up for the Summer! Let’s get out of school and into Skull Island . . . or maybe even Valencia if we’re lucky! That’s right, June looks to be the month where we will jump ahead into a new update for Pirate101. To those ends, we hope you were able to take advantage of our never before seen promotion with the Valencian Steed Mount. The promotion is now over, and the mounts will be delivered into players’ gift boxes sometime during the first week of June.

Read on for more fun and insights from the past month.

Rogue's Gallery: Dead Mike

We’re getting closer to finishing off the back stories for our Presidio Five. You might say we’ve fleshed them out a bit . . . or in the case of Dead Mike, lost a bit of flesh in the process? Either way, this month’s spotlight is shining on Dead Mike, a “former pirate” with a tragic past.

“Subject: Dead Mike
Home: Port Regal
Weapon of Choice: Sabre
Occupation: former pirate

There was a time when Dead Mike was simply known as Mike, for he still walked among the living. Mike's parents were farmers from Marleybone, who left their homestead in Albion to try and build a new life for themselves in Skull Island as part of the Port Regal Colony. Mike's dad, also named Mike, became a fisherman, and roamed the skyway chasing elusive schools of gar.

Mike tried his best to help his father in his trade, but was only a fair sailor - he had no head for navigation. One trip out he got so lost he ended up beached on the massive jungle island behind Puerto Mico. Weeks later Mike returned to Port Royal, dazed and weak with hunger. Nobody knows what happened to him on that island (indeed, he had only a vague idea himself), but he returned with a sedate, morose attitude and a strange skull-shaped tattoo over his heart.

When the Napoleguinic Wars came, Mike was (like so many others) drafted into naval service. It turned out his poor skills at navigation were balanced by a true knack for gunnery, a talent his fishing career had never called for. A nasty battle saw Mike cast overboard, clinging for dear life to a piece of floating debris. That was when Avery found him. He had need of a good gunner, and Mike was a pirate ever since.

He served on many crews, and finally found himself sailing with Pirate Jenny and her dashing husband. That voyage ended in tragedy as mutineers turned on the crew. Mike threw himself in front of a musket volley aimed at Jenny, and died instantly.

The next thing he knew, Mike awoke on a distant shore. His tattoo had vanished, and somehow he had risen as one of the undead. Unlike most walking corpses, Mike still remembered his name, and most of his old life. He also had no desire to eat anyone's brains. He made a vow to avenge Pirate jenny (and himself), and retuned to piracy. His fearsome appearance and unpleasant smell made it difficult for him to find captains that would tolerate him, and as the years went on Mike found himself growing more and more morose. When his shipmates betrayed him and turned him over to the Monquistadors, Mike figured his quest for revenge was doomed. He settled down to rot in his cell at the Presidio.

Little did he know that a chance encounter would change his life (or whatever) forever... These pirates and more await you when you play for free at Pirate101.com.”

News from the Fans!

May was indeed an exciting month for Pirate101 and our amazing fans and fan sites. It was great to see all the talk happening in our Test Realm forums as players discovered the new upcoming content. Here are a few threads and posts that caught our eye last month:

It was great to see all the excitement over the new Valencian Steed promotion. Thanks to our fans and fan sites for helping generate some buzz!
Wizard101 Central
Stars of the Spiral
Around the Spiral with Edward LifeGem
Paige’s Page
FrostCaller’s Blog

The big news last month was, of course, the plethora of teasers leading up to the launch of the Test Realm for Book 15. In cased you missed them all and want to take a look back, here’s a list for you to check out:
MMORPG.com
Pirate101 Central
Stars of the Spiral
Adventures of the Spiral
Paige’s Page
Pirates of the Spiral
Secrets of the Spiral
FrostCaller’s Blog
Blaze LifeHammer and ZenMaster Blue
Duelist101
StormGate Pirates
SpiralRadio101
Petnome Pirates
Mercenaries for Charter

Looking for a recap of the Pirate101 story? Mercenaries for Charter has a chapter by chapter look at what’s happened up to this point.

What kind of motto would you give your favorite companions?

What if Avery wasn’t completely on our side? Here’s a thread full of conspiracy!

Looking for ways to convince your friends to play Pirate101? FrostCaller has seven great reasons.

Looking for even more ways to convince your friends to play Pirate101? Duelist101 has a great list of reasons PvP’ers should give Pirate101 a try.

Did you see the new Yeti pet that will be available in Valencia 2? It’s a cool discovery!

Looking for information on the types of ships that will be available in Valencia 2? Pirate101 Central has you covered!

We were so happy to see you enjoying the new Valencia 2 wallpaper!

Want to make a guess at how Book 15’s final battle will end? Check out Kelsey’s thoughts on Stars of the Spiral.

Blaze and Blue are now in Cool Ranch in their walkthrough of Pirate101.

Speaking of Cool Ranch, the western stylized music of Cool Ranch was mentioned on MassivelyOP’s list of Wild West MMO Tunes.

Ever heard the song, Life is a Highway? How about the parody, Life is a Skyway? Nice one!

Gandry: "Captain, I've got this end.... how are you doing with the front?"

Boocheard: "GOOD MANTICORE! NICE MANTICORE!"
by Harry Halyard

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

Vadima’s Visions: Who has the most bang for their buck?!

Aha! My pirate friends, welcome to Vadima’s small corner of Skull Island. I see you have come to me again with burning questions seeking the wonderful wisdom I can bestow . . . or maybe you just wanted to train some new Witchdoctor talents and powers? Patience, patience . . . all in due time, friends.

MrAnthony99 from the Message Boards has a question for Vadima that I think we might be able to scry into, yes? He asks, “Since there has not been an expansion to the story line in a while I am guessing that a lot of other pirates are having there companion training points stack up. I Have collected quite a bit but who has the most and how many do they have?”

Hmmmm, I see! Well, this is a difficult question to ask as the crystal ball can’t exactly see into the exact number of training tomes one has stocked up . . . there are so many ways you can earn these powerful tomes of knowledge: through leveling, through side quests, from companion jobs, through finding them on the ground, from fan site promotions, through Dueling Diego on FreeKIGames.com, in CCG Packs, and on and on. The Crystal ball can become so confused! I think we shall focus our search today and limit it to only pirates who have purchased training points for Gold. Let us stare deeply into the Crystal Ball!

I see a name . . . Daring . . . Scarlet . . . Innsbrook. Yes! This Buccaneer has purchased over 6,000 training points. An inspiring feat I must say! Look! Do you see the number 22 floating in the Crystal Ball as well? It keeps interchanging with the number 2,000. Interesting . . . I know what this means, Pirate. There are also 22 wealthy pirates who have purchased more than 2,000 training points for Gold. Is MrAnthony99 is one of these pirates, perhaps?

The visions fade, but you can always come ask your questions to Vadima on the official Message Boards.

Until next time, pirates . . .