Category Archives: Theorycrafting
New and Nefarious
Though players have been itching for a new world, it may be held off even longer due to new structures found in-game. A “nefarious tower” was found by players in the Spring Update Test Realm, and then was pointed out by developers in the most recent newsletters.
Along with teasing with a video (here) KI has also revealed a screenshot. Moo Manchu likely is in charge of this “nefarious” tower, and is seeking revenge on the player. Moo Manchu obviously is more well prepared in the screenshot than before, with heavier armor and an enhanced weapon.
Moo Manchu, in the absence of MooShu’s emperor, sent ninja pig assassins to the meeting of the Celestial Congress, the annual meeting of MooShu’s governors. Moo Manchu is trying to wreak havoc among the government so that he can take cover and perform other evil work. Moo Manchu is trying to fulfill the Prophecy of Tso Wa, where stone soldiers would destroy the world. Moo Manchu is trying to reincarnate them and make them alive. A truly nefarious plot, is it not?
After the Pirate defeats Moo Manchu, he vows for revenge.
Note: If you have not yet encountered Moo Manchu, seek out this quest from Lord Chagatai once you have unlocked Subata Skyway in Mooshu.
Ever since May 2011, wizards in Wizard101 that are level 60 or higher have ventured into the underwater Crab Alley to farm the Waterworks, a quite “nefarious” dungeon where wizards must defeat enemies en route to pull four pressure safety levers which will stop the magic from being taken away from Triton Avenue. Several of these enemies, however, are enhanced and do not act like regular bosses. They force wizards to play certain ways, otherwise the wizards are attacked very forcefully.
So far, Ratbeard has told us that:
- It is not part of the storyline
- Enemies will be more difficult than regular enemies in the storyline
- There is more than one boss
From that, we can infer:
- It is likely a continuation of the Moo Manchu side storyline
- Enemies will cheat
- Several floors of the tower will have bosses
The Nefarious Tower will, almost certainly, be the Waterworks of Pirate101.
What gear will be dropped from the Nefarious Tower? Wizard101 had an interesting setup: Hats were dropped from the first major boss, on the fourth “floor,” then robes and boots were dropped from the final bosses, on the ninth and final “floor.” There was only one gear set. The Nefarious Tower also has nine floors on the outside, so the inside will likely be the same amount.
I am slightly worried that this gear will be overpowered, as the gear in Wizard101 was used for almost 30 levels after, universally. Pirate’s gear has always been different, but some items are still standard for certain classes. Especially with the new Crowns weapons, the best weapons for any class, this gear might have such good stats and powers that you would be at a huge disadvantage without it.
I am hoping that there are at least 3 sets of gear for every class, like in Tartarus in Wizard101, but with diverse powers and stat boosts so that there will still be diversity in Pirates’ gear. Hopefully, there will be a Moo Manchu set (styled like the old Moo Manchu gear, or his new armor) and one or more other sets with completely new designs.
Even if the layout (on the inside) is similar to the Waterworks, with the same amount of floors, and likely bosses/puzzles, I know that Pirate101 will make this a very unique and exciting continuation of the Moo Manchu storyline!
Guest Post by D.S. Devereaux: Why Grizzleheim is P101’s Next Big Priority
“We’ll have more to discuss soon, and I don’t want to Boar anyone with details, so let me just wish you the best of summer fun and offer a few words of guidance for the coming months: temperatures can sometimes be a Bear as summer moves along…”
Jay Gordon
Boar and Bear. These are two of the terms of note in the producer’s letter inconspicuously laden with words like it, perhaps hinting at summer updates. With the Advanced Pets/Companions changes in tow, it would be surprising to see any major changes soon, but players suspect that there is still something to come this summer. Hey, I don’t want to Boar anyone, either – let’s take a look at what these two words could denote.
Pirate101 Card Packs
Pack-a-Palooza launched in Wizard101 less than a week ago, and is due to finish on the 9th. Wizard101 has 12 packs, not counting those that solely give treasure cards (5,) pets/pet items (4,) furniture/other items (2,) officially retired (1,) or seasonal (2.) This is 26 in all, completely ignoring promotional packs given away by fansites or packs bought without premium currency, Crowns. Pirate101 has 1 card pack, excluding those bought with gold. Many have speculated the release of more packs, the Tribal Crew having come out more than a year ago.
Many other players have created new ideas for packs, and one of my favorites is the Heroic Crew pack posted on the Pirate101.com boards.
It’s Aquilan themed, and suggests Centaur, Satyr, Gladiator, Eagle Sailor, and Ophidian Assassin companions. It has so many well thought out Greek treasures, housing items, and weapons. Who wouldn’t want a Hippocampus mount? Go visit the link posted above if you want to read more into the Heroic Crew Pack.
The next pack is one of my own. It’s MooShu themed, and is named the Tranquil Crew Pack. It consists of mainly Privateers and Swashbucklers, with “ninja” style gear.
Companions you can receive are: Shizu Kana- Duck Scribe (Privateer), Hei Wa- Pig Monk (Swashbuckler), Ka Shi Koi- Cow Follower (Privateer). Housing items include candles, shrines, traditional paintings, etc. Mounts are Jade Wings (epic rarity), Koi Fish (ultra-rare rarity, 5 colors).
There are also some more threads on the official boards brainstorming ideas for new packs/bundles. If you want to see more, just search new game packs on the Pirate101.com message boards. Feel free to suggest your own ideas there or in the comments on this post! 😀
El Toro: Masked Savior – Second Promotion
I came up with an idea for El Toro’s second promotion and here it is on Pirate101 central! Please comment here or there with feedback – thank you!
Hope for Halloween + Big World News
Wizard101’s Halloween is here with all new quests, NPCs, dungeons, pets, and an updated pack. Pirate101 is still silent but at least there is hope for it this year. On the message boards, One-Eyed Jack pointed us towards the October Newsletter.
October is sure to be another great month for *at least* two great reasons: 1- It’s our first birthday! 2- Halloween! (Notice that the words *at least* are italicized . . . that’s fancy talk for we may have a surprise or two this month!)
That is getting me excited! 🙂 Lots of spoilers!
I updated my blog with a Halloween theme for this holiday and I’m hoping for another update here with some pictures from Pirate101 Halloween!
I’m thinking that it will be a cool Pirate101 spin on the Wizard101 halloween with a vendor that sells items but it has things like the Pirate Pumpkin Staff or things already in the game like the Bone Daggers. When I mean the Wizard101 halloween I mean Skull Island decorated with pumpkins everywhere and by the shops.
This is Spooky Bob from Wizard101 and I think we can also be expecting similar gear that looks more Piratey. And even if we don’t, we can dress up as pirates for halloween!
There are also several pumpkin hats that we can wear, and we will get the pirate one for sure! 🙂
Comment with your ideas for a Pirate halloween!
EDIT: Here is even MORE Pirate101 news with lots of world hints! (I really need to finish MooShu at least…)
- Will we ever be going to Rajah, Krokotopia, or Darkmoor in the El Dorado storyline? “Yes on two of those. Which two? You can no doubt predict my answer.“
- Last in Aquila, we don’t know who our parents are anymore. Will this ever come back to mind in the game and will we ever remember them? “Yup on one, maybe on two.“
- Can you give us a one-letter hint as to the name of the next skyway like you did with the Book 13 update? “C (in this case, not for cookie, but still good enough for me).“
- Are there going to be any two-world, one book updates in the future, like Book 4? “Most Books will only cover one world, for budgetary reasons. Book 18, though, that’s gonna be a doozy…“
- Are there going to be any more fantasy-heavy worlds like Aquila? I can imagine Darkmoor and El Dorado fitting that category though….”I don’t think we’ll ever have another realm as fantastical as Aquila. Darkmoor will have some elements that are pretty out there, but with a different flavor. It’ll still be fairly grounded. And El Dorado? I’m hoping to go in a very new direction there.”
- …we went through the Stormgate from Monquista to Aquila, not through Valencia, so it hasn’t been used. I was wondering if that might be the way we could sneak in back to Valencia. “The pirate’s path back into Valencia will be very… interesting.”
- Presidio Companion: I have been wondering for a while, why don’t we just have a sit down with our presidio companion and ask them about our parents? It seems like we have a database of our past that we are just prolonging to delve into. This would especially be useful considering the first 5 years memory wipe. “Good point. It’s a perfect thing to do. Seems to me their next promotion quest would be the perfect time to do that.”
- Here is another answer… “…Grizzleheim Vikings (an anachronism, sure, but a huge part of Wizard and simply irresistible)… Admittedly, we haven’t seen much of Griz yet. That’s partly oversight on my part, and partly how the Spiral is laid out – Grizzleheim and Skull Island are pretty much on the opposite edges of the Spiral. But we’ll be getting our first taste of Grizzleheim before too long.”
Test Realm + More on Sept. 19
The test realm is back online with a few miscellaneous updates, plus, Pirate101 is now available on Mac! Yay! If you own a Mac and have a subscription to Pirate101 or have purchased KingsIsle Crowns in the last 30 days make sure to download Pirate101 Test Realm to help test it out!
The second part of this post is about what might happen on September 19th. In my last post, I showed a post on the Message Boards with some input by One-Eyed Jack, and I also asked for user feedback. Cass Lifeblossom reminded me of a few things:
- International Talk Like A Pirate Day is on the 19th
- Disney closes three of their online games on the 19th
- (And of course, One-Eyed Jack stated) the Boochbeard and Gandry bundles started selling on the 19th, last year.
It’s going to be an interesting day for KI! Some people think that they will re-release the bundles, but I think it could be the next big world reveal! With the test realm synced up and ready to go, what better time to load something like Darkmoor or Empyrea up to level 75… or higher?
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On a side note, with Talk Like A Pirate Day coming up, I stumbled onto an old opera that was revived in the ’80s. It’s called the Pirates of Penzance and is written by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Funny that they show up in Port Regal, right? 🙂
Class Housing on its Way!
There are a few signs that class housing is on its way, and there is an update coming to the game today! It includes Ryan’s Yum-A-Nade! Read more about it and Ryan the Relentless’s visit to KingsIsle on KingsIsle’s Blog here. Another sign is that the two current houses (available for purchase in-game) are on sale.
The last sign is that the Pirate101 launchers have very distinguishable new content with class symbols. Some of them even look like houses, or parts of houses. Hmm…
Here is my messy collage of them. 😛
We might see what happens with all of this later today!
References to Pirate101 in Aquila
How can there be references if Aquila is already in Pirate101? Because it just came onto the Test Realm in Wizard101, silly! I’ve found a couple references that I would like to show you in this quick post.
Is it just me, or does that coincidental cloud formation just happen to look like a windlane? Strange.
I notice the most subtle things. But seriously, is it just me or has Wizard101 not mentioned pirates since Crustacean Empire, Celestia? Queen Calypso? Well since I haven’t finished Azteca, I only got to do Mount Olympus and Atlantea, but those were pretty cool, and it was nice to see some Pirate101 references. (Or at least that’s what I think they are.)
Where in Valencia? (100th post!)
Since this is my 100th post, I thought I should share some very intriguing new content for Pirate101 I found!
I was looking back again at the old World pages on the pirate101.com website and I saw something I hadn’t before, or maybe the Valencia Page was updated. In the images section, there are these three images of a place in Valencia we’ve never been before:
I’ve also heard that at the end of Aquila you get a note about going back to Valencia. I think this town may be one of the next places we go! It seems like it’s been taken over by the Armada, with stations on every street. I wonder why we’ll come here! Also, I have several very interesting concept art pieces of things we haven’t seen in Valencia yet.
This is a Valencian shipyard with many different levels and has a very interesting flying mechanism.
These are some Valencian merchants, could likely be in some of the new towns or acquired as companions.
This is a unicorn, of course. But we’ve only seen Swashbuckler unicorns. This introduces a new Valencian that wields a rifle and judging by the three stages, is a promotable companion.
This is also a new version of an existing creature, but this is the Armada! This shows a possible new swashbuckler Armada enemy. It has the Armada Musketeer’s outfit, which represents agility, but the Armada Marine’s halberd which represents melee damage. I would love to have some more variety of Armada!
Used with permission. Visit Swordroll’s Blog and read his Concept101 for more concepts like this at swordroll.com!
This concept is of an Armada Skiff ship, which we might get to commandeer for the next part of Valencia! I wonder if we’ll use this to sneak into the Machine or anything… Or we might see it as a new enemy!
History Applied in Pirate101
I was reading through the Pirate101 forums, and I saw one of the Frogfather’s posts asking what players’ favorite quests were. I was about to reply to this post, thinking about my favorite quests, and I love how Pirate101’s quests are intertwined with real-life history. I saw one other writer had already posted about this:
One of my absolute favorite things about Pirate101 are all of the in-jokes and references like Banditoads = Banditos, Frogerales = Federales, etc. I love how creative the developers have been in mixing fantasy with the real life and almost every one, if not all, of the bounty hunting fights is targeted at a reference to some great western or bandit movie.
I did some research and found a few references.
The Presidio-
A Spanish fort established in areas [that was or thought to be] under their control. These fortresses were used to farm and store goods, served as missions, and housed soldiers for protection against pirates, enemy colonists, and other hostiles.
We see this applied to Pirate101 as a Monquistan fort that is used to store goods. We fight soldiers the soldiers inside while we’re trying to take the spices for the Frogfather.
Port Regal-
Portugal. Portugal has a long-standing alliance with England- dating back to the 1300s! Wow!
It’s only logic that Marleybonian soldiers are housed in Port Regal during this time of war (with Marleybone having a very powerful navy.)
Santa Rana-
[Antonio Lopez de] Santa Anna was on a quest to dominate North America. He set up corrupt governments and tried to rule the Americas.
Santa Rana, in Pirate101, is portrayed similarly to how he actually acted, using forces that were supposed to be “right” to do his evil bidding.
There’s much more so have fun looking for history in Pirate101 on your own! 🙂
Pirates in the Sky 
