Game Update Notes

P.1.030 -- Spiral Date 433633

We’ve implemented a new highly requested feature for Companions: Introducing "Benching" – Drag and drop a benching token on a Companion in the Companion Management interface, and that Companion will never be chosen for combat. You will be granted your first "Benching" marker at 15th level with more Bench Markers added as you gain levels.

Healing is now available to all players through Bonnie Anne! Bonnie Anne has been given a very nice healing power of her own so that all players have access to healing, regardless of class or background. The amount of healing from Bonnie Anne is affected ONLY by how wounded the target is: More wounded = more healing.

Other notable Companion changes are as follows:

• Companion Nametag colors in Practice PvP are now consistent with their team’s colors.
• Crown shop "look-alikes" of regular Companions will now promote at the same level as their counterparts.
• Fin Dorsal is now unlocked in the Crown Shop at the correct point in the quest line.
• The Cat Pirate now has a second promotion available to him.
• Subodai's Critical attack no longer displays 0 damage on the final damage number.
• The Samoorai Champion will no longer perform some hits for 0 damage.
• Wing Chun's first kick of his Critical attack will now show damage.
• Reduced the size of Madclaw the Bloodbat Companion
• Kan Po and Mormo's movements are now a bit smoother.
• El Toro's “blinders” appearance has been removed during his critical attack animation.
• Nikeeta will now appear in taverns.
• Players are now notified when they purchase a Companion that it can't be traded or auctioned.
• Ratbeard's second promotion hat and outfit have been improved!
• Mormo will now always be present during his promotion quest when players battle with Wormwood.

• Two Crown Shop Pets are now available for purchase using either gold or Crowns! Players will now find the Coral Widow can be purchased for 9,375 gold, and the Silver Buffaloon may be purchased for 15,000 gold.
• New characters who defeat El Tiburon will now unlock him in the Crown Shop. (NOTE: Existing characters who have already defeated El Tiburon will be given a way to unlock him after a future update to the game. Stay tuned!)
• When selecting a Crown Shop unit and viewing their Epic abilities and Talents, the display will now also show the number of additional talents or abilities they will train after you purchase them.
• The Aztecosaur Temple Statue can now be purchased for gold in the Crown Shop.
• Players may now Right-click on an active elixir's icon to dismiss it.
• Bonuses from Elixirs will now display when reviewing your character information.
• The Crown Shop Skull Mountaineer's Armor set will now add all armor bonuses together.
• Switching between the Clockwork Wings and Fa-la-la-la-llama Crown Shop mounts will no longer cause players to be stuck in a floating wing pose.
• “Crokagator” is now spelled as it is in Wizard101.
• The Crown Shop button will now remain visible near the top of the screen.

Buccaneers have been improved! The following changes have been made to help align Buccaneers (Players, Companions, and Enemies) in power with the other classes:

• The "Berserk" talent has been renamed "Turn the Tide" to better fit the desired theme. This change will affect player Buccaneers and a very small set of crowns-only Companions that had this Talent.
• In addition, ALL Buccaneers have now been granted Turn the Tide as a Talent:
  • Rank 1: When you are below 50% health, Buccaneers gain a +25% damage bonus.
  • Rank 2: In addition to the above, Buccaneers also gain a +25% accuracy bonus.
  • Rank 3: Wait and see!
• We have increased the debuff duration of all of the Buccaneer "Mighty Charge" attack powers. (Previously the debuff lasted just a single round.)
• The "Repel Boarders" Epic Talent no longer has a chance to fail. It will work as advertised (within the normal limits of uses-per-turn).
• The "Leviathan's Call" Power will now also reduce damage from Ranged attacks.
• Finally, we have created more distance between "Heavy Armor" Companions and "Light Armor" Companions by increasing the total amount of armor enjoyed by Companions that had the Heavy Armor talent. This will affect most Buccaneers, but heavy-armored Companions of other classes (for example, Louis le Bisque) will also benefit. The intent was to make heavily armored Companions feel more noticeably armored by widening the gap between them and the less armored units.

Improved Powers Management puts you in better control of your powers! When players open their Powers menu, they’ll see all their powers arranged just like their companions are. Players can now arrange their powers through dragging and dropping them in the interface -- Powers at the top of your list are more likely to appear when you begin combat!

Other Talent and Power changes are as follows:

• Moving into position will correctly trigger "Crossfire".
• Many Summoned allies (like the Witchdoctor's Skeletal Minion) will scale in power based on the level, class, and talents of the player that used the power.
• "Crow's Song" will add bonus talents as intended.
• Damage bonuses will now take buffs into account instead of just the base statistic.
• Prerequisites no longer will be "cut-off" when reviewing them at the trainer, so players may see all of the prerequisites needed to train a skill.
• The “Relentless” Talent card now correctly shows the dice icon next to the percent chance.
• Casting "Espirit de Corps" and "Battle Zeal" will now show an accuracy icon instead of an agility icon.
• Corrected typo in the Soulreaver power.
• The animation for “Walk In Shadows” will complete before other units take their actions in combat.
• Ranged critical powers now work with "kit" weapons that contain a sword and a pistol.

Rewards from combat have improved! An overall rebalancing of loot has added over 145 new rare items to Pirate101. Loot tables throughout the game have also been rebalanced to provide a more equitable distribution of items for all classes. We’ve even added more secret treasure chests throughout Monquista, Valencia, Cool Ranch, and MooShu!

Other notable combat changes are as follows:

• Damage has a smaller range and should feel more consistent in combat and be more predictable.
• Magical AoE abilities will fizzle, rather than trigger a dodge animation from the target.
• Players will notice the word "ATTACK" now triggers when a regular attack is part of a chain of attacks caused by "Riposte", "Vengeance Strike", etc.
• Upon a Successful Critical Attack, players will see an indication of the power level of the attack, and critical attack numbers will now fan out slightly instead of appear in one spot.
• We’ve added flashing yellow arrows around special victory condition tiles at the beginning of a battle where needed.
• Players are no longer allowed to attempt to summon Old Scratch’s skeleton Companion on a battle board square that another of your Companions has already decided to move to.
• Interacting with a prop during battle board combat will properly show a "pip" symbol to other players so they know that someone is using it.
• The "Elusive" talent won’t appear to trigger when an opponent is defeated during a critical move.
• Enemies will no longer waste their special abilities on destroying random props on the battle board.
• Fire traps will no longer cause players and enemies to rotate toward the fire.
• The old Boffstaff weapon is now called the Tubthumper.
• Friar Sand now will offer players his weapon as a rare loot drop.
• Improved the power description on the Water Guardian's Staff.

• Players can now obtain missing badges! The missing badges for completing all Chapter 8 and 12 sidequests are now available, and Gus McCrane will now more reliably show up in the Tumbleweed Saloon so players may also complete their Chapter 9 sidequest badge.
• The Chumba Wumba badge is again available to be earned by players.
• Clarified nautical level badge descriptions so they will state the nautical level required to obtain them.
• Players can now receive a badge for exploring the Aragon Skyway in Valencia. (Note: You will have to make another trip there if you've already been before.)

Many changes were made to help improve our Pirates’ quality of life. In general, many changes were made to bosses who were not spawning correctly, many collectable quest objects can be used faster than before, quest rewards will no longer be destroyed if a player's bank and inventory are full, and we touched up many smaller grammatical mistakes found throughout quest logs and text. We also removed a few “strange occurrences” like players receiving dungeon exit warnings after they had already completed a dungeon.

Here’s an extensive list of the various quest changes made throughout The Spiral:

Skull Island Quest Changes:

• Boochbeard will now warn players about getting ahead of themselves if they try to visit a trainer before getting Avery's Amulet back.
• Players will no longer appear mounted during the cutscene with Ratbeard in The Volcano instance.
• Ordaz will no longer shapeshift into a Watermole Spearman.
• Buga Buga is now sailing on a new ship.
• The battle against El Tiburon has been polished and now has a sigil to enter.
• Reduced respawn timer of Optimus Caerulus
• Tiki Taa will now give the player 100 gold for completing his quest, "Skull Island Idol."
• The “Message in a Bottle” quest is now worth more than 0 Nautical Exp.
• Removed the invisible wall blocking players on Rapa Nui.
• Squinty now has Improved Mojo Blast x2.
• Added a sigil to Harry Lloyd's house during the quest "The Cunning Minx" and players will no longer be consistently outnumbered during the encounter.
• Made Avery’s office less crowded by reducing the number of players allowed in a single area at a time.

Monquista Quest Changes:

• Librarian Jerome no longer appears doubled in the Monquista library.
• Added some rare Monquistan ship equipment to the loot tables in the Tierra Primata Skyway
• The Jellyfish from Tradewinds Skyway will no longer count for the quest “In Sickness and In Health” (only the ones in the Tierra Primata Skyway will count toward this goal).
• Removed a few De Monte ships that were too close to the windlane for the quest "One Good Favor . . ."
• Beware the Venomous Jellyfish near the far end of the Monquistan skyway! They are a higher level than most Jellyfish in the zone because they’re used for a higher level promotion quest.
• Player eye patches will no longer obscure one eye of their Monquistan disguise.

Cool Ranch Quest Changes:

• Chests that spawn after defeating Slow Jake on his ship in Hidden Valley Ranch will be easier to collect—and with much less accidental disembarking.
• Tonka now wields Bowie Knives, both on Boot Hill and as a Companion.
• Increased the frequency that the Fangs drop for the quest "Missing Fangs".
• The barrels in the Duck of Death instance will now explode properly.
• Wood and hides will drop more frequently for the quest "If I Were a Rich Rooster."
• Nasty Nate Birdette will no longer reappear after defeating him in Cricket Cave.
• "Duck With No Name" will no longer appear as the "Bird With No Name" in the sheriff’s jail cell.
• Froggo Villa's henchmen will now patrol the area instead of standing without moving.
• Frogo Villa's Cave is now known as Lagartija Cave.
• Enemies will be more plentiful in Arroyo Grande.
• Added space between some of the Sun Pollen near Black Storm Raiders by Santa Pollo.
• Removed Sun Pollen icons from the map of Big Sky since they only appear in Santo Pollo skyway.
• Adjusted the Duck with No Name to be slightly more difficult.
• Added Wisps in the Ogalalla Rock zone.
• Vespa will now give players a little bit more time to clear the area before respawning.
• Players can no longer sneak around the enemies found in the Bandit Cave for the quest "That Was Yesterday."
• Modified some pathing of the Frogerales ships.
• Added wisps in the Mausoleum/Crypts for the quest "Showdown at Boothill."
• Removed inaccessible battle board tiles during the Scorpion Queen fight.
• Prospector Zeke's Dixie Chicks quest dialogue will give a slightly better clue as to where they are hidden.
• Increased the timer warning on the Castillo Sapo dungeon to 1 hour from 45 minutes.
• In the event one or more players defeat four or more Wild Bunch enemies before the seventh round, Ike Bronco will arrive earlier in combat than previously.
• Players will no longer be able to enter the Motherlode Mine before the quest objective is given.
• Made the Bloodbats in the encounter "Miner Threat" a bit higher leveled.
• Bloodbats in the Infested Silver Tunnel will no longer have a strange flight path.
• All Bloodbats (not just the "Angry Bloodbats" now count toward fulfilling the quest "Basic Training."
• Book pages in Miranda will now respawn every couple of minutes.

MooShu Quest Changes:

• Made several changes to the “Death and Taxes” encounter in MooShu to improve its balance and to support multiple players.
• All players will be changed into the Kowbooki Costume when playing through the encounter "Only A Momoori" with 2 or more players.
• Leaving the Gun Powder stores without lighting the fuse in the encounter "Tso Not Ready" will no longer make it so players can't interact with the fuse upon reentry.
• Players will no longer be able to skip the armory fight of the "Tso Not Ready" quest with the help of an additional player.
• Players will find there is more time to loot chests after defeating General Tso, and he will no longer respawn and pull players back into battle.
• Swapped items for sale in Sujimura and Subata Temple so they make more sense as to when they are encountered.
• Gave the vendors in Subata a bit more breathing room, which will make it easier to interact with them.
• Added more health and mojo yum fruit to the Khotan Skyway.
• The Hidden Temple for Wing Chun's second promotion quest is now a solo encounter.
• Updated Stupendor-X's power descriptions to be slightly less confusing.
• Stormzilla eggs will only block, not dodge.
• Significantly improved the Cave of Whispers encounter.
• Ninja pigs in The Cave of Whispers are higher level now.
• When fighting Monkey King's Doppelgangers, only one monkey king will drop "Boss" loot and the others will drop standard loot.
• Enemies in the Gambling Den instance in MooShu will not respawn immediately after their defeat.
• Increased the number of enemies that spawn during the combat in "To Curse the Darkness" side quest in MooShu.
• Players will find Moosashi Mooyamoto is no longer by himself.
• Lo Pan will now return to battle players after you defeat his minions.
• Inoshishi Bandits have now learned to use Parting Shot.
• Koi Guardians in the Dragon King's Hall will no longer respawn after they have been defeated.
• Players will be correctly asked to "fix" Broken Moodha Statues instead of "collect" them in the quest "The Time in Wen."
• It will now be harder to avoid fighting the Inoshishi Clanlord during the encounter "Boar to the Core" in MooShu, and the sigil to repeat the fight afterwards will now be working.
• Removed the Amber Horde ship that was spawning in Jade Fleet territory.
• Storm Scales in the Valley of the Titans will have proper nametags.

• Rare bosses have been added to the higher-level skyways! Be on the lookout for Admiral Barnsley, Black Jack Ketchum, The Salt Witch, Bai Lang, Admiral Chen Ling, Timur Khan, and Sanada Juyushi. Rumor has it that sinking their ships can result in some nice salvaged equipment!
• All zones with smaller docks have been reviewed to ensure more players are allowed to dock in a zone.
• Added a fuel vendor to St. Bonobo's docks.
• Purchasing from Fuel vendors will now darken behind the interface similar to other vendors.
• The levels of all player-owned Monquistan ships (quest, vendor, and crown shop) have been slightly raised to be more durable.
• Heavy and Medium ship armor may now add additional bonuses beyond health.
• Clearing a ship's token will no longer make the ship combat interface disappear when returning to the ship’s wheel sigil.
• The damage modifiers on Cannons appear simply as a straight damage bonus instead of as "Cannon Damage" since they affect the damage from ship powers as well.
• Any references to “Rate of Fire” on Ships have been removed as that statistic is not used.
• Horn of the Efreet will now be visible to others when it is used.
• Ship equipment that adjusts the rate you burn fuel now advertise they "Boost Fuel Efficiency" instead of "Boost Fuel Burn Rate."
• Players will no longer be stuck inside the edges of the Skull Island Skiff and Galleon after Broadside Combat.
• Looting wreckage after sinking a ship in Broadside Combat now will play a sound.

• Added two new Housing Vendors to Cool Ranch. Be on the lookout for Miss Mallory and Cloud Rider!
• The Ranch Gate may be successfully placed in houses now.
• Fixed several Cool Ranch housing items (such as the Cactus, Hay Bale, Perfume Pots, etc.) so they would pivot correctly during placement.
• Players will now be able to place the Ceremonial Arch housing item from the Tribal Crew Pack.
• The Crow's Nest housing item will now consistently display the player's flag and will not duplicate when moved or picked up.
• The Housing Placement interface will now disappear after using the “Pick up All Items in This House” button.

Quest Helper

• Clicking on Quest Helper arrow will now bring up the Quest Journal.
• Word wrapping under the Quest Helper will appear more polished.
• Several changes were made to help the quest arrow point toward quest goals.

Hotkeys

• "Control+End" will now take you to the latest life fountain instead of simply pressing "End".
• Pressing Enter will now consistently bring up the chat window.

Chat

• Menu Chat players can now tell others where they got their game card items from.
• Menu Chat players can now ask others to meet them in Cool Ranch.
• Text Chat players are now able to use Alt Codes in chat to generate characters such as ñ and È.

General

Many general changes were made to improve game performance and reduce incidents of crashing. Other general changes include the following:

• Players can no longer add themselves as a friend and group, ignore, or block themselves accidentally.
• The introductory cinematic has been shortened to ease the size of initial download.
• Fixed incorrectly displaying icons on the friend statistics.
• Many enemies that were showing a purple name above their head have been fixed to show their proper strength level.
• Players might notice performance improvements when using the interface with most vendors
• Abigail Chapman in Scrimshaw has now earned the title "Free Trader."
• The second "closely named" Warchief's Wraps item from the Tribal Crew Pack is now called the "Warbeast Wrap."
• Players can no longer skip defeating the clockwork Marines before talking with Mycroft Bones for Bonnie Anne's second promotion quest.
• Lorch will no longer appear twice after completing Ratbeard's second promotion quest.
• Changing the name of your pet will no longer result in players having both a Companion and a pet alongside them.
• The Quest log displays the correct page number now.
• The patching icon will now show up on the top of any loading screens.
• Made minor adjustments to the tutorial.

A significant amount of effort was made to polish and balance the sound throughout the game. Polish work included reviewing and adding sound effects, many voice overs, and small tweaks to over 130 powers. Here’s a short list to name just a few of the notable sound changes:

• Added new Tutorial Tips for the new Benching and Powers Management systems.
• Captain Avery now offers a bit of new dialog at the beginning of the quest, “Zhu Ro’s Teahouse.”
• New in-combat shouts from some Companions that were missing them.
• Crossbows now sound more like crossbows.
• Improved music for the "Shadowdance" spells.
• New drum and orchestra sound for Buccaneers using "Mighty Charge" with a Duelist weapon.
• Storm Shark chomps now sound 100% more chomp-y!

Many art details were cleaned up and polished throughout the game including giving special attention to some missing maps in smaller zones, map icons, dialog portraits, and camera angles seen during combat and while traveling throughout The Spiral. Here’s a short list to name just a few of the notable art changes:

• Skeletal Monquistadors will no longer appear to have flickering hands and mouths.
• Removed the "double sun" effect in the Waterin’ Hole Zone.
• The collectable wooden boards for quests are now easier to see.
• Overhead map icons now correctly reflect the location of Troggy Warriors in the Mysterious Tunnels.
• Brought many "floating" characters back down to earth.
• Mayor Grimm in Miranda now has his proper attack animations.
• Fire appears correctly in the Duck of Death fight.
• Nikeeta will now appear in the 3D window in the Companion Management interface.
• The Buccaneer attack "Brutal Charge" now animates correctly when using Tiger Claws.
• Bone Drake names will no longer appear excessively large.

• The Tutorial Tip concerning Power Management will now be given when a player gains eight powers, including the powers given by equipment.
• Loot was added to the following bosses: Metal Guardian, Bobby Bones, Lo Pan, and Takeda Moomori.
• Battleboard units controlled by the game (including pets and summoned minions) will no longer sometimes attack twice.
• Fixed the flickering textures on Louis Le Bisque.
• Companions with less than a 1 percent chance of appearing are no longer automatically benched.
• Avery and the Class Trainers will appear a bit faster when players enter their rooms.
• Mojo Echo will now target enemies correctly when using Improved Mojo Blast.
• Moresco de Valvida will now promote correctly.
• The Crown Shop button will not display during Combat Execution.

Quest Fixes:

• Fixed the Quest Helper and map information for "The Perfect Egg" quest from Sister Snake.
• Players will again be able to enter the Cave of Thorns for Kobe Yojimbo's promotion quest “Steel the One,” and its quest arrow has been fixed.
• Brody’s survival chance has been increased in “A Most Dangerous Catch.”
• El Guapo will now join combat with his minions more reliably during the quest “Tax Relief.”
• Tyson will now show up in the ring more reliably upon player re-entry for the quest “Pugilistic Integrity.”

Miscellaneous:

• Fixed a bug causing players to lose mojo after advancing a level.
• Fixed a bug causing players to be unable to train a power while wearing an item with that same power.
• The Tumbleweed Life fountain will now bind players properly.
• Fixed a bug causing only Privateers and Musketeers to receive Level 10-15 Rare Jewelry In Skull Island and Monquista.
• The Crow's Nest housing item will no longer have a section of the floor that could drop players below to the ground.
• Players using an older or integrated video card will no longer crash when entering a vortex.
• Charmed units that use a summon or charm power will no longer cause combat to suspend indefinitely.
• Players will now be able to select powers in a spot that was already selected on a different page of the My Powers screen.