How to beat the NPC fleets

[Rhys gethin]

Umm, the information on that linked page and here seems to be wrong. NPC strength is based on your fame, and pirate hunters are more than 15% likely, etc....

I started out fighting NPCs for days. It stunk to be so pathetically weak and helpless, but you can beat some of them from start if you pick targets carefully and are persistent. Once my fame jumped 500k from hitting a PC, the NPC fleets became WAY HARDER. So, lose all of your fame is my suggestion, or give up. Also, help the rest of us badger the game admin about it.

[Jim Hawkins]

Ship size.

Before you attempt to battle against NPC fleets you need a minimum of 2 level 10 Brigs of war or 1 Ship of the line level 10, plus supporting ships to make up your fleet. They need to be fully gunned and fully crewed.

With the above you can beat any NPC fleet with the exception of the pirate hunter. If a pirate hunter appears you have to wait 1 hour or change ports. They are unbeatable in basic battles.

If you have a Pacifism voodoo card you can cast this on yourself to beat any NPC fleet including pirate hunters.It makes the NPC fleets 50% weaker.

How to maximise NPC battles.

There are two other useful cards Coastal patrol ( 50% more fame )and coastal piracy ( 50% more gold ). These together with Pacifism will get you the best advantage in NPC battles.

How to maximise fame and fortune.

This is the clever bit. If you have credits get double turns storage and double turns. build up to 400 turns in hand then cast the above voodoo on the port where your battle fleet is based. Start attacking the NPC fleets until you have run out of turns. Buy 200 more turns. Thats 400 in 24 hours making a total of 1088 turns. this can give over a million in gold and shed loads of fame.

If you don,t have credits save up to 200 turns and play as best you can.

Richer

[Captain Jack]

Remember the strength of NPC fleets (as well as amount of fame + gold they carry) is solely based on the ship number you have. As Raster explained in detail, three particular voodoo cards can make it better for you.

[Captain dungeness]

My experience is that Pacifism reduces the strength of NPCs by much more than 50%. It would take only 1 Ship of the Line to defeat a Pirate Hunter whereas it usually takes 4 Ships of the Line.

REMEMBER: It is more important to have your combat ship at level 10 than to have 5 lower level ships in your combat fleet. I believe a level 10 Sloop of War can easily beat a level 1 or level 2 Brig of War (please correct me if I'm wrong).

-Captain D

[Juicypotato]

but can a level 10 sloop of war beat a level 1 ship of the line? That would be a good experiment

[Princess erika]

Wow... that a good info for newplayer