Combat Strategies in Pirate 101
Pirate 101 is a pirate-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG, for short) that was made by KingsIsle Entertainment in 2012. To me, Pirate 101 has and always will be the better, pirate-themed version of its more famous counterpart, Wizard 101, but it meant so much more to me. Beyond the gear-collecting and boss slaying, Pirate 101 offered a more interactive, multilayered combat experience. With so many more stats and factors to consider, it provided different strategies to attack. Something else that Pirate 101 has incorporated is the introduction of companions. Companions are non-player characters that join you as you progress through the storyline and can help serve you in battle. Battles often include your player and anywhere up to three companions to help you take down opponents or complete objectives.
Now, onto the basics of battling. Your player and companions can be one of five classes (swashbuckler, buccaneer, privateer, musketeer, witchdoctor) which have their own respective pros and cons. Melee characters (primarily buccaneers, swashbucklers, and privateers) have considerably less range, but make up for it by being able to do more damage, have more health, and have more armor. On the other hand, ranged characters (mostly musketeers, witchdoctors, and some privateers) have the advantage of having a larger range so they can get an extra attack as melee characters advance towards them, but lack the health and armor for close-combat. There are many stats to consider when making an attack, such as weapon power, accuracy, health, dodge, etc. The amount of damage a character does to another is calculated based on weapon power minus the armor of the latter. The percent of the attack going through is calculated by the accuracy of the attacker plus 75 minus the dodge of the opponent. Once a character has taken more damage than their health, they are knocked out of the battle. Other stats like strength and spell power add extra damage to a character’s abilities and spells and magic resist is the armor for spells. Higher will gives a higher chance for a character to land a critical strike that does extra damage and can not be blocked or dodged and having higher agility allows characters to move a further distance across the battlefield.
Below, I set up a table where two players and their teams of two companions are fighting against each other. For simplicity’s sake, all attacks are guaranteed to hit and factors like will, dodge, and accuracy are neglected. Adding on, this will be a one turn interaction wherein a player is allowed to use one companion for the round. All the damage has been calculated with armor factored in; the stats will be provided in a separate table. The characters’ payoffs are the damage they can do to the opposing character. Player 1’s team consists of Bonnie Anne, a musketeer, and Hawkules, a buccaneer, and Player 2’s team consists of Rooster Cogburn, a musketeer, and Catbeard, a melee privateer (yes, Pirate 101 is notorious for its many easter eggs). Player 1’s payoffs are the second entries of the parentheses and Player 2’s payoffs are the first. Additionally, I doubled a musketeer’s damage if they are attacking a melee character since they would have an extra attack given their long range.
| Player 2’s Rooster Cogburn | Player 2’s Catbeard | |
| Player 1’s Bonnie Anne | (317, 305) | (295, 538) |
| Player 1’s Hawkules | (566, 319) | (261, 303) |
| Character Stats | Bonnie Anne | Hawkules | Rooster Cogburn | Catbeard |
| Weapon Power | 307 | 321 | 321 | 299 |
| Health | 2621 | 3122 | 2730 | 3023 |
| Accuracy/ Dodge | 149/102 | 128/112 | 156/95 | 128/127 |
| Armor | 4 | 38 | 2 | 18 |
From this simplified battle, we can see that Player 2 has a dominant strategy in using Rooster Cogburn simply because he does more damage than Catbeard. To counter this, Player 1 would attack with Hawkules because he would do more damage than Bonnie Anne. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making a move in-game. Musketeers often do not make attacks where they take more damage since their lower health can not take it and they would resort to playing more conservatively. On the other hand, melee characters have the increased health and armor to soak up damage and instead of caring more about taking damage, their objective is to inflict as much damage as possible to the opponent’s squishier companions who do more of the damage. Other things that change up attacking strategies are epics which are unique abilities that grant extra attacks (i.e Overwatch gives ranged characters a bonus ranged attack if an enemy moves into range and Relentless allows melee characters to get a bonus attack if they land their initial one.
Simply put, strategies are a prevalent part of combat in Pirate 101 that allows the more clever player to prevail. Whether I am looking to defeat a group of Banditoads for a side quest or looking for Hawkules’ belt, I’ll keep in mind to play to my strengths and consider my enemies’ weaknesses.