Puzzle Pirates turns every job aboard a ship into a puzzle, so your first week is mostly about finding a ship that will have you and learning the duty puzzles. This guide sets out what holds for every new pirate, with the YPPedia article behind each part.
Pick an ocean
Each ocean is a separate server with its own islands, crews, flags and economy, and a pirate lives on one ocean only; nothing can be moved between oceans. Emerald and Meridian are doubloon oceans: free to play, with some advanced functions paid in doubloons. Cerulean is the one subscription ocean open to players. Obsidian, the Dark Seas ocean, has its own doubloons and is played through the Steam client. Opal is the German-language ocean and Jade the Spanish one (YPPedia, Ocean).
Your first hours: a greenie with help on the docks
For your first 15 hours of play across all oceans your name shows green: you are a greenie. You start on a well-developed island with an inn, a shack, an ironmonger and a tailor and at least 250 residents; on Obsidian every new pirate starts on Port Venture. Greenies cannot use the trade or global chat channels, but they can see greeters, volunteer players whose names show pink to them, and a button puts them straight in touch with one (YPPedia, Greenie and Greeter). Greeters also run greenie tournaments and pillages.
Earn your first pieces of eight
- Navy missions: islands with a navy post missions on the notice board. Aboard, you play duty puzzles for modest pay that rises with your duty report, from nothing for a booched job to the most for an incredible one, and your navy rank grows with time served (YPPedia, Navy).
- Jobbing: apply on the notice board for a place on a crew’s ship for a pillage, a blockade or a trade run. Jobbers play bilging, carpentry, patching, rigging and sailing unless an officer orders them to gun or navigate. Crews recruit almost only from their jobbers, so a good pillage often ends with an invitation to join (YPPedia, Jobbing).
- Pillages: the commanding officer charts a course, sets sail and attacks brigands, barbarians or other players; the booty is shared at the end. YPPedia calls it arguably the most common way to earn pieces of eight (Pillage).
Pieces of eight (PoE) are the game’s money. On doubloon oceans most goods also charge a delivery fee in doubloons, which can be bought from Grey Havens or for PoE at the doubloon exchange (YPPedia, Pieces of eight and Doubloon).
Read your pirate page
Your page lists two words per puzzle. Experience is time put in, from Novice through Neophyte, Apprentice, Narrow, Broad, Solid, Weighty, Expert and Paragon up to Transcendent; each level takes longer than the one before (YPPedia, Experience). Standing is how well you play compared with everyone on the ocean: Able, Proficient, Distinguished, Respected, Master, Renowned, Grand-Master, Legendary and Ultimate, the top one per cent (YPPedia, Standing). Standing averages your recent games, so a bad session moves it less as experience grows. The pirate lookup shows both for any pirate.
Crews, flags, fame and blockades
Once you join a crew, every puzzle you play earns fame for it and for its flag. A crew must be Rumored to join a flag and Established to found one, and a flag needs Noted, Established or Renowned fame to blockade an outpost, a medium or a large island (YPPedia, Fame). Blockades are where flags win islands; jobbers are welcome there too. The blockade boards show what is coming on every ocean.