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Proposed thread title: Play Puzzle Pirates with The Salty Mouthfuls You Barnacleheads
Gather ye round, and I'll tell ye a tale of the ocean...
Download the game here! (or, on Steam)
Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is a freemium MMOArrPG by Three Rings Design, whom ye might of heard of from their later projects Spiral Knights or Doctor Who: Worlds in Time. Puzzle Pirates is a highly addictive blend of pirates, various puzzle games, and the best damn curse filter ever put into a video game.
The game has been running for over ten years now, and still has a small but dedicated community playing it. In recent times, the acquisition of Three Rings (or OOO, as many people prefer to call them) by Sega has allowed them the opportunity to put the game on Steam and merge the oceans to increase player population and revitalize the pillaging experience. Also in the works is a version for Android and iOS tablets that should be out by the end of the year.
We are The Salty Mouthfuls of the flag Welcome to My Nightmare, and if you like:
Pirates!
Puzzles!
Politics!
and plenty of fun without having to actually spend a DIME,
then ye should make your way into our crew, ye barrelstopper!
The merge has placed us on the Emerald Ocean, comprised of the former Sage and Hunter oceans. To get into the crew, you'll need to ask one of the officers in the crew in-game to invite you, AFTER YOU POST YOUR PIRATE NAME HERE. Additionally, if your account is from pre-merger days (January 2012 or older), your pirates may have gotten a -West or -East suffix. This is simple enough to fix -- petition an OceanMaster in game and they'll fix it up for you for free ONE TIME ONLY. Renaming yourself normally otherwise costs 10 Rogue Marks (which are prohibitively expensive)!
To find an officer in the game type "/cwho salty mouthfuls", and pick an officer from the resulting list of online crew members.
You can send someone a message by typing "/tell name message".
New pirate goons must have been SA goons for at least one month.
Q and A:
Q. Does this game cost money to play? I be a bit light in the pantaloons.
A. No, my good man, ye may play all parts of the game for free. Without any doubloons, however, ye'll find that certain puzzles are only free to play on specific days.
Q. What are these doubloons?
A. Doubloons (usually referred to as "dubs" in game) are a currency you may buy with real money (
== 42 doubloons) or in-game currency (Pieces of Eight, commonly referred to as "PoE" or just "poe" by most players). If you are at all decent at any of the puzzles (especially the duty puzzles aboard a ship), or particularly decent at poker, you can make enough to keep yourself well-equipped for a solid month in a day or two of decent work. Doubloons are required for just about anything that isn't basic sailing or entry-level clothing: delivery fees for bought goods, and badges that allow you to access certain features. More on those in a minute.
If you do choose to plop down to buy doubloons, you will also receive Rogue Marks, which can be used on a variety of quality-of-life things like renaming pets/ships/familiars, or to get rare charts. In addition, most months you can also receive themed Mystery Boxes that contain items of the current seasonal color.
Q. Let's say I buy of doubloons. How should I use them?
A. First off, don't actually do this unless you're gonna be around awhile and just want to skip the initial grinding process. We recommend that newcomers to the game hang out for awhile first, to see if the game is right for them and, if it is, what things they generally like doing. It also never hurts to scrape together a couple thousand PoE and try your luck at the poker tables on a free day -- the general population is absolutely terrible at poker and with a little luck you can bankroll your pirating activity for months off one decent day of poker.
That all being said, if you did plop down ten dollars of American currency, you'll have received 42 doubloons (and 1 Rogue Mark, and 1 Mystery Box, but those are pretty self-explanatory.). What you'll want to purchase first are your Badges.
Badges provide access to some of the game's more advanced features, and most all of them last 30 login days before "dusting" and needing to be purchased again. A login day is used the first time you log into your pirate on any given calendar day. The only exceptions to this rule are the Labor and Deluxe Labor badges, which last 30 calendar days from the date of purchase whether you log in or not.
- Crew rank badges (Pirate (1 doubloon)/Officer (8)/Senior Officer (10)): These badges allow the badgeholder to obtain the given rank or below in a crew. For just starting out, ONLY BUY THE PIRATE BADGE. We have strict promotion procedures and don't just give Officership to anyone who buys an Officer badge. You can buy the higher badges when you know for certain you'll be getting the rank. You also need Officer rank or higher to be able to sail your own ship, so don't go buying a boat until you need it either.
- Bravery badge (5 doubloons): Possessing a Bravery badge will allow you to participate in Sea Monster Hunts (usually referred to as "SMH"s), one of the primary sources of money on the open seas.
- Parlor badge (4 doubloons): Possessing a Parlor badge allows you full access to the carousing games (see below for more details). It also allows you to play Swordfighting or Rumble when not on a pillage/Sea Monster Hunt. If you have half a brain in your skull, the Parlor badge is your ticket to wealth, because it allows you to play poker, and playing poker in Puzzle Pirates is like shooting fish in a barrel.
- Labor badges (Regular: 5 doubloons, Deluxe: 12): There are two types of labor badge. The regular version gives you 24 labor hours to use on Crafting puzzles a day. The Deluxe version gives you 72. These badges work on a per-pirate basis, so if you plan on becoming a shopkeeper, kitting out your alts in Labor badges (or even Deluxe ones if you like burning PoE/actual money) will be the order of the day.
So that's 15 doubloons at the minimum for a full set of badges, 19 if you feel like diving headfirst into crafting puzzles. That leaves you 27 (or 23) doubloons. Doubloons sell for approximately 2000 PoE a piece at the in-game Doubloon Exchange, so you could liquidate some of them and take a look at the various shops for all your item needs. Swords and bludgeons wouldn't be a bad place to start, but selecting those is a bit more advanced than we need to get in this here OP. Ask around in /crew chat or read up on the various differences on the YPPedia. Maybe you want some fancier clothes. Whatever, we won't judge. Out loud. Just be sure to keep a few doubloons around for the delivery fees, no matter what you do.
If you foresee a future where you won't be able to scrounge up enough doubloons for a badge, you can also buy wrapped versions of any badge at any time, and either keep them for yourself for when your current badge dusts, or trade them to other pirates who have more need of them. Wrapped badges never dust.
Q. What puzzles are in this here Puzzle Pirates?
A. There are three categories of puzzle: Piracy, Carousing, and Crafting.
Piracy
These puzzles are primarily performed on a ship at sea.
- Bilging: A ship at sea constantly takes on water. Bilging is the act of removing said water from the ship. In Puzzle Pirates, this takes the form of a match-3 puzzle in the vein of Bejeweled.
- Carpentry: Wooden ships wear down on the ocean, and that whole "being shot at" thing during battles on the open sea doesn't improve matters. In Carpentry, you are given various shapes to fill various holes in the most efficient manner you can.
- Sail Patching: The unpredictable winds cause the sails on the mainstay to rip constantly. In Sail Patching, you are tasked with patching the rips by getting your thread to run through as many rips as possible and back to the tie-off piece. But be warned -- a gust of wind may undo all yer hard work if yer not careful! This puzzle serves as an alternative to Carpentry, and is started from the same place on a ship.
- Sailing: Help the ship move faster by playing a game a lot like Dr. Mario. There will be targets on the board asking for a specific pattern of colors, and your job is to clear the board of all targets, preferably in a single cascading combo.
- Rigging: There are six pulleys placed in a hexagon on the board. One pulley is active at a time, and your job is to move pieces so that large groups of the same color are pulled from the active pulley at a time. The active pulley rotates after each move, so strategy plays a key part in this puzzle. This puzzle serves as an alternative to Sailing, and is started from the same place as a ship.
- Swordfighting: Once you've engaged an enemy, it comes down to an all-out swordfighting melee. Swordfighting in Puzzle Pirates is represented by a game not unlike Super Puzzle Fighter: you form blocks of various colors, then break then with a special piece of the same color to send them to your opponents. If the screen fills up, you lose!
- Rumble: Some opponents prefer to fight with their hands or other blunt objects, which is where Rumble comes into play. Rumble is basically Bust-a-Move.
- Treasure Haul: Last but most certainly not least, Treasure Haul can occur any time you come across a shipwreck while on an expedition or in one of the various Sea Monster Hunts. In it, you play a puzzle similar to Bilging/Bejeweled, except instead of swapping horizontally, you swap pieces vertically. In addition, in some cases a large chest will come onto the board, and you must get the chest up to the top of the screen by clearing pieces above it to bring the chest aboard and score some additional booty for the ship.
These puzzles are slightly more advanced, and also require you to have the appropriate rank and/or Badge. Note that most new players will not get easy access to these puzzles for a while, since they are vital to the success of a pillage.
- Gunnery (requires Pirate rank or higher): Pirates love shooting things, and to do that you need loaded cannons. To load cannons in Puzzle Pirates, you must load each cannon with powder, then a wad of cloth, then finally the cannonball. However, the movement of the ship will cause the pieces to move around the board erratically, so you'll need to be on your toes. Think ChuChu Rocket! for the Dreamcast.
- Duty Navigation (requires Officer rank or higher): When not in battle, drop various colored stars into set constellations to multiply the efforts of the crew.
- Battle Navigation (requires Officer rank or higher): Outmaneuver and outshoot the enemy to force them into a grapple or sink them completely.
Carousing
It isn't all about the pillaging! Note that all the puzzles in this section require the Parlor Badge to play unless it is that puzzle’s designated free day.
- Drinking (free days: Sunday and Wednesday): What kind of pirate doesn't drink copious amounts of alcohol? To quote the YPPedia: Drinking is a game for two to six players which involves using the mouse to place pieces on a 7 x 7 board. Each player starts his or her turn with three pieces to select from and each piece has an associated point value. When you place a piece, you receive the point value of the piece you selected plus a bonus for placing the piece on the board. Completing a row or column of seven pieces yields a bonus score. The first pirate to reach a set score wins.
- Hearts (free days: Tuesday and Wednesday): The classic 4-player trick-taking game.
- Poker (free days: Sunday and Friday): Texas Hold'em Poker. If you have half a brain in your skull and a little bit of luck on your side, you can go from miser to monarch in VERY little time by playing Poker. Seriously, the vast majority of the population has no idea what they're doing.
- Spades (free days: Monday and Thursday): The classic 2v2 trick-taking and bidding game.
- Treasure Drop (free days: Tuesday and Friday): Drop coins into a board full of switches, aiming to get the coins to the high-value targets at the bottom of the board while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
Crafting
All that rum has to come from somewhere! Note that all these puzzles require the Labor or Deluxe Labor Badge to play unless it is their designated free day.
- Alchemistry (free day: Wednesday): One of the few, if not the only, puzzle where speed isn't a major factor in your ranking, Alchemistry plays out similar to Rocket Mania by PopCap. In it, you rotate various pipes to get various colored potions into flasks. You want to aim to fill as many flasks as possible in each turn. Alchemistry produces dyes, paints, and enamels used in the creation of most other items, as well as potions to change a pirate's appearance or allow quicker island-to-island travel.
- Blacksmithing (free day: Sunday): Given a 6x6 grid of squares with various numbers and chess pieces emblazoned on them, you must attempt to strike every square in the grid three times. A session ends when you have either completed the task successfully, or make a move that results in no legal moves being available. Blacksmithing produces swords and cannonballs.
- Distilling (free day: Friday): Working quickly and within a well-defined series of rules, the successful Distiller creates rum, hemp oil, and mugs for drinking by trying to create as many all-white or "Crystal Clear" columns of pieces as possible.
- Foraging (free day: Tuesday): Of course, raw materials are needed in order to craft all these items and that's where Foraging comes in. In Foraging, players rotate a 2x2 grid of squares to create rows or columns of 3 or more matching squares, which causes chain reactions. Occasionally baskets of fruit or even gold ore will show up, and players must bring those baskets to the bottom of the board by clearing the squares beneath them. Once accomplished, the item is brought aboard the ship and placed in the hold. A version of this puzzle also shows up while in the Cursed Isles, a type of SMH, to bring chests aboard the ship. Foraging in the Cursed Isles does not require a Labor badge, but obviously you need a Bravery badge to participate in the SMH.
- Shipwrightery (Free day: Saturday): In shipwrightery, you arrange steel, wood, cloth, and ropes to build the various components of a ship. The objective is to arrange the board so that you can place as many patterns as possible without moving pieces in-between pattern placements. It sounds confusing, but it really isn't. Shipwrightery produces ships (you don't say) and bludgeons for Rumble.
- Weaving (Free day: Monday): To quote YPPedia again: The objective of weaving is to clear groups of four or more identically coloured pieces. You have a set of two to four threads at the top of the board. Use the arrow buttons to move the threads left or right, then hit the space bar to batten it down, pushing the threads onto the board. The comb will then push the threads as far as it can. As you clear groups, the indicator at the top left, a bolt of cloth, will fill up. Once completed, the puzzle session is completed. Weaving produces the bolts of cloth used to create clothing, as well as ship sails.
Q. Can I play this game on my wi-fi enabled toaster with optional dual LCD attachment?
A. The game is java based so even our one Bhutan and (gasp) Linux friends can come out and play. The most recommended way to play is probably via Steam for PC and Mac users. Linux users, if you're smart enough to use Linux you're smart enough to follow OOO's official installation instructions.
Q. May we see some of yer magnificent portraits?
A. Indeed ye may.
Click here for the full 670x585 image.
Q. May we see some of your in-game activities?
A. Indeed ye may.
A typical goon shack.
Crew Hall
The Sinister Bass
The Flaming Bass
Q. Where can I download this fantabulous game?
A. Download the game here! Alternatively, you can play in your browser, or on Steam.
Q. Where is everyone? I looked you guys up and no one is on!
A. First of all, check that you are on the Emerald Ocean.
This is a picture taken from around the bottom of my login screen on my Steam client. It should look fairly similar no matter what client you are running.
If your screen does not say Emerald where I've helpfully put a green box, click on the "Change" button to the right to be taken to a screen with the ocean options. Click the box that says Emerald. The client should then automatically connect, and also remember your ocean preference for future logins.
Secondly, if no one is on, try again later in the evening, PST.
Q. I have joined and I am wandering around clueless. What do I do now?
A. Read this wiki article titled Starting Out Tutorial
Also, our officers would be pleased as spiked punch to answer some of your burning questions in-game, although the burning might just be your need for some limes. Arr!
Q. How do I take a ship out to battle?
A. Hotbeard posted a primer for battle navigation. Be aware that you need to have officer ranks before you can actually sail yer ship out to sea!
Q. Where the hell did my one/two/eight year old pirate go? It had all sorts of cool stuff, like a hat!
A. It's possible that it was deleted if you haven't logged on your pirate within a few months. Otherwise you might not have the right ocean selected when you logged in. Additionally, if your account is from pre-merger days (January 2012 or older), your pirates may have gotten a -West or -East suffix. This is simple enough to fix -- petition an OceanMaster in game and they'll fix it up for you for free ONE TIME ONLY. Renaming yourself normally otherwise costs 10 Rogue Marks (which are prohibitively expensive)!
See ye on the ocean green, ye lily-livered landlubbers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slWesdezt58
Previous Threads, from which a lot of this OP is stolen repurposed
Play Puzzle Pirates with The Salty Mouthfuls You Barrelstoppers
Play Puzzle Pirates with The Salty Mouthfuls You Bilgedrinkers