Pirate Clan Guide : How to succeed at the popular Facebook game

Experienced players may wish to skip the "Getting Started" section and go to the "Stats Explained Capsule".

The first 200 or so levels are incredibly easy however you should be aware that the choices you make during this time of plenty will have a great impact on how well you survive at the higher levels when things start to get a lot harder.

The first decision is to choose the type of pirate you wish to play - a Raider, Privateer or a Buccaneer. These have bonuses to Energy, Cash and Stamina respectively. As you will have more stamina and cash than you know what to do with for the first hundred levels go with the Raider. If you have already chosen a different type, don't worry too much, you are going to switch types at level 100.

The tutorial will guide you through your first few levels, completing a few adventures along the way. You will notice that as the green bar at the top right fills, you gain levels and that with each level gained you get Skill Points and Davey Jones Points (DJP). Ignore the DJP for now, you will need these later, and concentrate on skill points. Spend these on Energy to complete enough adventures to gain a level and a refill.

Once you reach the point where you can't level simply by adventuring, it's time to look at the battle screen. You will have bought some property and weapons in order to complete quests. All the other pirates on the list will be the same level as you but the main factor which decides who wins at this stage is simply the number of crew you have. You start off with a single hired captain. Each captain allows you to take extra weapons, ships and crew into battle. Don't worry if you still only have one, most of the opponents you face are weak dormant accounts. Avoid attacking anyone who is online as they will probably attack you right back and kill you. Find a weak target and hit them until they are in the infirmary (players enter the infirmary and can't be attacked when their health drops below 20%). As you become more powerful put a few skill points in health and attack. Don't bother with defense yet as you are unlikely to be attacked for a while.

By now you should be well on your way to level 100 at which point you will be able to choose one of the new pirate skins for 100 DJP. Which one you choose depends on how you wish to play the game. Look carefully at how the choice will affect your stats. Each comes with three extremely powerful weapons which will allow you to continue to win battles for many levels to come. Now you are nicely equipped, own a little property, and are making steady progress through adventures and it's time to take a look at some of the other game features.

Health is the most important stat and the most overlooked. Many novice players do not spend sufficient skill points on health assuming it's only value is that they don't have to heal as often. Nothing could be further from the truth. Health governs the damage ceiling for a winning attack on both players and bosses. High health means you enter the infirmary with more reserves and are less likely to be killed by a Pistol Whip attack.

Energy is used mostly to complete adventures which are your best source of cash and give some very useful weapons. Points spent on energy will pay a handsome dividend especially at higher levels. As you get a complete refill every 23 hours it makes sense to have a high maximum.

Defense is more useful than Attack for the vast majority of players. A high defense score combined with robust health will allow you to accumulate thousands of points per day simply by winning against attackers, you can gain a level while you sleep.

Attack is a necessary evil. You won't get far without it but don't get carried away. A well equipped crew will win you far more battles than wasting your skill points on a high attack. Which takes us nicely to the next subject......

An underestimated feature of the game. Crafting allows you to combine junk gifts and drops into much more powerful items. It's not hard to find someone who can tell you what you need for the secret recipes which tend to be the most impressive in the range.

You will find that as you complete adventures there is always a long pause between reaching the reward and the next one becoming available. Many players simply repeat the last adventure as that tends to give the most cash, however your energy would be better spent in acquiring crafting items while you wait for the next adventure to open up. Plan ahead and make sure you have enough of a particular item while it is still cost effective to acquire it. The red pearl compass dropped in the Atlantis adventures is a good example. It appears to have little value however later it can be used to craft Silverspikes which are one of the most powerful blacksmithing items.

As soon as you are able to, craft juggernauts. This is one of the rare recipes where all the materials can be simply bought. Juggernauts should be made in sufficient numbers that you never have to fight with anything less.

The key to a powerful fleet lies with effectively managing bosses. There are three types of drops, the owners loot, random drops gained when attacking and the helpers drops, awarded to any player who inflicts damage beyond a minimum threshold. When combined in large numbers, the loot from Eels upwards will make your fleet virtually unbeatable.

You will receive exactly the same reward if you attack just enough to reach the minimum as you will get from dropping all your stamina on one boss. Being greedy with other player's bosses will not win you any friends and while you might pick up a few extra random drops, these are not as high quality as the drops awarded after the boss is dead.

The level of the boss is very important. A level one will drop the same loot, and the minimum can usually be reached with a single hit, as a level 100 which may take hundreds of stamina points. For this reason, the lower level bosses are highly prized by players. Due to the "Hogs" these are seldom posted on the public boards but are shared amongst groups of players who exchange links. There are even Facebook groups set up for this purpose.

How do you get invited? Be patient and be polite. A good reputation can't be built overnight. Share your own bosses, you might think it's clever to solo them but other players will soon notice. Be respectful of the limits even on publicly posted bosses. If you are the type who rushes in and kills it as soon as it is posted, leaving nothing for other players then you can't expect to be invited to the more lucrative summonings. Take a couple of seconds to thank the owner, for either inviting you or for sharing. Good manners cost nothing but bring their own rewards.

These work like guilds or clans in other games. Top Armadas can be very selective in who they accept so be prepared to put in a lot of effort to meet their expectations. Competition at the top is very intense and a single weak link can ruin the efforts of the entire group. If you don't wish to take on that kind of a commitment there are plenty of Armadas to choose from, ranging from the second tier trying hard to rise to the top, to informal groups of friends, chatting and having a good, relaxed time. Choose one which suits your gameplay. Whichever you opt for try to be loyal and supportive. Players who hop from one Armada to another will never be accepted by the top flight.

As a large part of the game revolves around fighting it is inevitable that you will be frequently attacked. Don't take it personally, most players are just trying to level or get their gamer points done. It used to be the case that anything above two or three attacks per day was chain-attacking and would be subject to retaliation. Now, with most players living almost permanently in the infirmary, the developers unable to address the issue and the battle lists being empty as a result it's not unusual.

If you are being bullied by a more powerful player try attacking when he is "undead". Look closely at the results and find where he is weakest. Adjust your stats accordingly, get some more captains and spend some time blacksmithing, once you are stronger.... payback.

Cagefighters are a pain. Several players have exploited a loophole in the game design by keeping extremely low health and very high attack. This allows them to make massive numbers of attacks as they don't do much damage, which they win always because of their high attack score. You cant attack them back because a single hit will put them into the infirmary. Their low health makes them vulnerable to Pistol Whips, one or two usually does the trick. Keep lots of counter attacks on them. Counters are very cheap because of their chain attacks. They will soon tire of being killed a couple of times per day and not being able to get any experience because of your counters. They will find a less prepared target and move on.

There are players in any game who take pleasure from bullying others. Pirate Clan is no exception. They tend to gravitate towards each other and combine their attacks on weaker players, in Pirate Clan they have been concentrated into a few Armadas. To bring them down isn't difficult, as with most bullies they don't quite know what to do in a fight which is fair. It does however take a while and during that time you can be sure that you are going to be attacked every time you are off line.

You can minimize the amount of losses quite easily. Don't let a high level bully you into making a retaliatory attack. You can't win but you will give them freedom to attack you for 24 hours which is just what they are looking for. Let the higher level players in your Armada deal with these cowardly types while you get busy slaughtering the ones in your "price range". If you have built up a good defense and high health as discussed above, you can simply log off with full health. They can Pistol Whip you all day long but you will be fine. They may get one of their players near your level to beat you down first but your health/defense will mean that you win each attack and will gain far more experience than you will lose even if they manage to drive your health down to the point where you may be killed. Most of the time they give up in frustration and try to bounty you. The smart player has seen this coming and maintains traps on every one of them. If they want to kill you, they will have to spend a lot of money and die first.

Alternatively, log off just after you have been killed or when your health is just below the 20% threshold. You can work this out by attacking very weak undead and taking note of how much damage you suffer. 100 points under the 20% is perfect, you may still die but you will make it as hard as possible.