Leon Dreadpratt's Guide to Looting

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Introduction


Ahoy I am Leon Dreadpratt a level 50 pirate, and a master looter. Though I do not have as many famed as some super looters I think my 90 total famed and legendary weapons qualifies me to share my strategies and experience on how to get famed.

The Two Secrets to Looting
Do you really want to hear the secret to getting good loot? Really? Ok fine. There are two secrets to getting famed... looting a lot and luck. Sound boring? Well it's the truth.

The amount of time you loot has a direct effect on how many famed weapons you will get. If you loot for 10 minutes a day with all the best strategies on the best servers you will not get as many famed as if you spend hours a day hacking away at some random guys. Something important to note is that I say how much you loot not how much you play. There is a difference. If you play for hours but spend 99% of your time fooling around, you will not get famed. Obvious, yes, but a common mistake. For this reason I suggest if you really want to start being a serious looter, you should master everything and get all your missions and other priorities done first, so you can focus all your time on looting.

The other big secret to looting is luck. You could spend hours killing Thralls or Urchinfists and get no famed. But then you could be walking out to leave and get the lost sword of El Patron from a random Spineskull you shot as you walked by. True story, happened to me. There are people who ask "what guy, and what time, and what server, exactly, did you get your legendary weapon?" To be totally honest, no one Seabeard is better than one other Seabeard, looting at 9:37am is no better than looting at 10:24pm, and even though one day one server is a bit better, the next day that might change, and no server is always better. Though there certainly are strategies to improving your odds of getting famed, these are all ways to be able to kill the most, or the highest level guys. You shouldn't assume you will get a legendary cursed balde just by killing the same guy someone else got a legendary at last month. There is no way to guarantee you will ever get anything at all.

Well enough of the obvious it is time for the tips, tricks and strategies. The reason you are reading this.

The Server Trick


There is a little known trick that can really help increase your loot. The trick is that different servers give different amounts of loot each day. Though there is no statistical proof for this, in my experience I have found it to be true. This was first discovered by The3rdJoker, a user with perhaps the most famed weapons I have ever seen. His idea is that different servers give better or worse loot. Now he talks about it somewhere else and goes into much more detail about exactly how and why it might work but all you need to know is this. On any given day not all servers are equal. By "better loot" I mean that you will get more skulls per enemy, the number of famed in those skulls does not change.

Now the common mistake is for people to go off and spent half their time switching servers and not looting. Remember what I said before, the biggest secret is the time spent looting. Here is how you can use this trick most effectively. Choose any server, go to where you want to loot, spend some time looting. If after maybe 15 or 20 minutes if you can tell the loot is really sub par, change servers. Spend another 20 minutes on the new server. If the loot is still not good change again. Try and remember the best server so far if you really can't find a good one after 5 or 6 changes. The differences are normally subtle.

Of course the servers you go to don't have to be completly random. If you have a few server that you like try them out. But don't limit yorself to only one or two servers. Also you could tp to some of your friends of guidemates looking for a good server.

Sometimes there will be big changes in loot quality. Say one server gives you a skull every 20 guys then a new server gives you a skull every 10, of course, stay there. On the other hand it might be hard to tell the difference in loot quality. If you find it is harder for you to detect the differences, spent more time on each server, really try and get a feel for the loot. Still after some practice you might be able to get really good at sensing loot quality. The one thing you shouldn't do however is chage servers after only a few kills. You could get no loot your first 5 kills, but then get a double skull. And on the other side you could get a skull your first kill and get nothing else for the next hour. No matter how good you are at sensing loot, take at least a little time to test it.

One good way to quicken the process is to go to a guy that is easy to get to from a port of call, but also gives good loot, Neban works very well. Kill him a few times to get a feel for the loot. Is he mostly gives pouches or even nothing at all? Change servers. Is he giving a skull every two or three kills? Good server! Once you have a good server you can go to a different place on the same server knowing you will get good loot. With this trick you can find a good server in maybe a half hour, giving you plenty of time for uninterrupted looting.

Still the easiest way to find a good server is just to ask someone else. Though this doesn't always work, it can be very fast and easy. Just try asking your guildmates or friends what the best server is. Though it might not lead you to the best server, it is a good place to start. If someone gets a legendary cursed blade and you know what server they got it at and you can get this information that day odds are it is a good server. However, just a few days later, the server likely will no longer be any good. So like I said, don't expect to get a legendary just because someone else got one there a month ago. Similarly say you are looking through some new photos on the wiki, and you happen to see a bunch of photos of a group of your friends all getting double skulls and famd and stuff. Teleport to them! Join the looting fun!

The important thing with this though is to be content. If you find a moderately good server stay there, don't keep searching for the Holy Grail server, you will never find it and only waste precious looting time. Finally you don't need to sacrifice finding servers for other things. If all your friends are looting at one place, even if it is not a the best server, its fine to hang with them even if you know you might get slightly better loot looting alone somewhere else.

Kinds of Looting
Now there are several types of looting you can do depending on what you are searching for. There is looting for numbers, looting for famed, looting at sea, looting for cannon rams, and looting for cursed. There are different strategies for each and I will go into them next.

Looting For Numbers


Now by this I mean looting just to increase your total famed count, the number of famed weapons you have ever gotten. For this there is only one guy, Foulberto Smasho. Now by now I really hope everyone has realized how good he is at giving famed. But the problem is, he only gives knives. Now when he first came out I with the rest of the game was there all the time. But after a few days some thing odd happened. I realized I had gotten every knife in the entire game, both famed and legendary! Geez, well I guess now there is nothing else he can really give me that I want, huh. Well now he is not such a great guy but he is still useful. Because he gives so many famed a few hours there can easily add five or more famed weapons to your list. This can be good either for bragging rights or for those people who simply like the excitement of getting that nice blue weapon in a skull chest!

Looting For Famed


Now this is a huge category of looting. It is for people looking for a better variety of famed than foulberto but also want to get a good number. There are tons of different strategies for this but I will go in to my favorites here.

Big Bad Bosses
There are several big bad bosses in the game that give really great loot. They are very well known and popular. My five favorites are, Darkhart, Neban the Silent, Remington the Vicous, Jaques le Blanc, Tomas Blanco, and Devilroot. One of the good things about bosses is that they respawn faster. Meaning you aren't waiting half and hour to have someone to kill. And obviously the best thing about bosses is that they give very very good loot. The strategy for bosses is simple, 1) get a group of higher levels, 2) kill them a lot. Doing this for a few hours can often lead to a nice shiny new famed.

General Darkhart
Darkhart might be the most popular. He gives very good loot, he is relatively easy, and he is in a very good spot (there are all the different merchants around him). It is not uncommon for him to be surrounded by pirates looting. He can easily be taken on by a single 50 or a group of 30s and 40s.



Neban the Silent And Remington The Vicious

The two assassin bosses are also very popular. Neban the Silent in Padres and Remington the Vicious found on Kingshead. They give very good loot. They have double the lives of another boss their level which makes them very difficult. However it is not known whether the extra lives actually make them give better loot than other bosses. They can be very difficult, but not impossible for a single 50 to kill, but even better is a group of 30s 40s and 50s.

Devil Root
Perhaps the least known great boss is Devil Root. He is the highest level boss in the game (except for Foulberto Smasho) which makes him a very tough adversary against even the strongest pirate. In the past he gave very bad loot. This lead many people not to go to him very often. Then, rather recently, they fixed him to give extremely good loot. Sadly he is still not as popular as othere bosses, even if he is very good. He is again a little tough for a single 50 but no problem for a group.

Jaques le Blanc and Tomas Blanco
With the recent updates there are now two new popular high level bosses. Jaques le Blanc can be found on Isla Cangrejos and Tomas Blanco can be fond on Cuthtroat Isle. They both appear at level 35 and give very good loot. Similar to darkhart a single 50 can take them on quite easily or a small group.

Looting At Sea
Sadly, sailing is very unrecognized as a way to get famed. However with the right tactics and a good crew you can get some famed you couldn't get anywhere else (such as the highly sought after admirals line of weapons!) One of the best things, that some people still don't realize, is that as you sink more ships better cargo will replace worse cargo. (the order from best to worst is: loot skull chests, loot chests, loot pouches, royal chests, treasure chests, cargo crates) This means that even if you have full cargo if you get a royal chest it will replace a cargo crate, or if there are no crates it will replace a treasure chest. So if you are at it long enough you could end up with a hull full of royal chests, a hull full of loot, or even a hull full of skulls!!! Like with enemies, the only possible way to get good loot is to kill good guys. With ships however that can be difficult as the best ships that give the best loot are extremely hard to sink with normal tactics, and also your ship doesn't get its lives back, unless you repair, but even that takes way to long to have to do after every ship. However, with there right tactics you can easily take down some of the toughest ships in the game without taking any damage.

Come And Get Me!
This method is so good it might even be considered cheating or a glitch. So good you will cry when you try it out and kill a Juggernaut in your light sloop. Itnis my "come and get me" method. The idea of this method is simple, keep the enemy pointing right at you so they can't fire any cannons. It is far easier to do this with a good sized crew but if you are good you can do it solo. Also you need total leadership over your crew and only half as many crewmen as can fit on your ship so everyone can have a cannon on the same side. These two things are absolutely necessary. The easiest way to totally screw this up is by having some stupid guy shooting at every single ship within a hundred yard radius.



Step 1: Find a Target
Start by finding a target. Make sure it is a really high level, war class works best. Also make sure no other ships will come over and attack you while you are focused on the target.



Step 2: Position
Second zoom your compass all the way in (press the + button until you can't anymore) now position the target ship so it is right on the edge of you compass, directly to your east or west and stop. Then maneuver the camera so you are looking at the side of your ship facing the target ship. Now tell all your crew which is the target ship, to go to that side, use lightning, and tell them to only shoot that ship. The edge of your compass is the perfect range so that lightning can reach it but you have enough time to kill it before it gets too close. If you are better or have a bigger crew you can start with the ship closer.



Step 3: Lightning
Once one person has shot it at least once it will turn and start coming towards you. Sometimes it might shoot at you a few times as it is turning but don't panic. As long as it is facing you it can't do anything. Even frigates with front cannons won't shoot you. Now just wait. The ship will come towards you as your crew slowly damages it. If the ship is particularly hard or you are getting nervous you can tell your crew to hit the sails to slow it down or stop it.



Step 4: Broadsides and Fury
Once it is a quarter of the way on your map, you can use your broadsides. At this point the ship is doomed. As it comes closer still you can tell your crew to use fury. No problem.



Step 5: Sink and Plunder!
The hardest ships in the game stand no chance against this strategy. Now of course the reason I call this a cheat is because it only works because enemy ships are computers and have no brains, any smart ship would just turn and shoot back. Anyway enjoy sinking juggernauts with your light sloop!

The Skeleton Trick
One big problem with normal loot sailing is that you can only do it for a short time before hunter start to attack you. This is very risky because they are extreamly dificult and if you sink you lose all you hard earned loot!! You will continuously find that you will be needing to land after every few sinks even if you still have full health to avoid hunters. This can be annoying beacuse it takes time, and because your crew members (especially non friends but rahter crew members you found through public) might not reboard your ship. This made a lot of people think that the addition of Scoundrel of the Seas made it much less effecgive to loot via sailing. This is only true if you are trying to loot the same way you would before Scoundrel of the Seas, with a slight change in tactics this update in fact can make things easier. This is beacause of two changes.

One thing you may or may not have noticed is that as you go through the scoundrel ranks, not only do hunters and warships come, but regular Navy and EITC ships treat you differently. At scoundrel rank 1 (just the skull) ships treat you normally, they will attack if you get too close to them just as they did before Scoundrel of the Seas. At rank 2 (skull with one bone) and above ships will actually come towards you to attack you. However at rank 0 (no flag at all) Navy and EITC ships will ignore you no matter how close you get!! If you think about it this makes sense, the Navy and EITC can only tell you are a pirate once you start plundering ships, before that you are not a threat and they have no reason to attack you. Now you may have noticed that I specifically said this applies to Navy and EITC ships. This is because skeleton ships will not treat you differently no matter what level you are. They will always act the same as tey used to, attacking you if you get too close. In fact there is something else different and even more helpful about skeleton ships.

There is another change that can let you plunder freely and not even be noticed by Navy or EITC. This is because as long as you do not fire at any Navy and EITC ships, no matter how many skeleton ships you sink you will never go up a single scoundrel level. You will remain flagless and Navy and EITC ships will totally ignore you. But if you fire even a single shot at a Navy or EITC ship you will get a skull flag and from there skeleton ships will count to level you up. This means that if yo want to loot sail but you want to avoid hunters, all you need to go to a place with lots of dificult skeleton ships (the hinderseas work very well) and only sink them. This makes loot sailing even easier than before Scoundrel of the Seas because as long as you stick to skeleton ships you will remain at level 0 and Navy and EITC ships will ignore you. Making it much easier to not accidentally get too close to a ship like a behemoth. However because if even a single shot hits a non skeleton ship you will level up, like with the come and get me method, you need to have total control of your crew. It is highly suggested you do not go public but instead stick to a few of your friends who know what you are doing and who you know you can trust.

The Hinderseas
In between Padres and Kingshead is the hinderseas. Some of the hardest ships in the game lurk here: warlords, dreadnaughts, corsairs, colossuses, black harbingers, man o wars, ogres, monarch's, death omens, even behemoths and a rare juggernaut. If you have a big crew and you use the strategie above you can get some very good loot very fast.

Past Tormenta
The uncharted waters to the west of Tormenta are also full of very difficult ships. There are less skeleton ships however mostly Navy and EITC ships such as monarchs, colossuses, man o wars, dreadnaughts, ogres, behemoths, warlords and quite often times a juggernaut or two. You are much more likely to find a juggernaut here than in the hinderseas and in fact if you are looking for one this might be the best place to find a juggernaut. Again this is an extremely good place to get lots of loot fast.

The Colossal Colossus Flagship
Patrolling the waters around Outcast isle and Tormenta is the second most difficult flagship in the game (First being the Queen Anne's Revenge). This massive ship gives extremely good loot and is sort of the Darkhart of the oceans. As always the easiest way to sink her is with the method above and a medium to large crew. A little known fact about flagships or at least this flagship is that they only give loot once you disable them and only give cargo once you board and sink them. This means that if you have max gold and you are only looking for loot is is a waste of time to board the ship and kill the enemies. The best and fastest way to sink a flagship without boarding it is to grapple it, and wait until you get the "board" button, then retake the wheel and simply drive away. Once you get about a half boats length away from it is will simply sink. It will then, like Darkhart, quickly respawn right where it started so you can sink ti again. This ship gives extremely good loot. You normally have about a 50/50 chance of getting loot and maybe a 1 in 10 chance of getting a skull!

Looting For Cannon Rams
Cannon defense is known for being an extremely good way to get famed cannon rams. You get loot in cannon defense about every 5-7 waves and everyone gets loot on the same wave. I know the order as far as this, you get loot after waves 6, 13, 19, 26, 32, 39, 45, 52 and 58. However each time you are not guaranteed to get a famed cannon ram or even a cannon ram at all. Past wave 20 you can hope to start getting famed but you might have to wait as far as wave 30 if you are unlucky. It is quite common to get wool cannon ram on wave 26. Think of it like this. From wave 1-20 loot is what you might expect in a loot pouch, almost always common or crude, if you are lucky a rare, and if you are insanely lucky a famed (but don't get your hopes up). From wave 20-30 loot is what you might expect in a loot chest, mostly rare with the occasional famed, don't forget that in cannon defense rare can be very very good. Past wave 30 the loot is what you might expect in a skull chest, a pretty good chance of getting famed. However getting past wave 30 is obviously the hard part. I used to have my whole strategy guide here but it ended up getting so long that I made it its own guide. To see my full guide to cannon defense click HERE.

Looting For Cursed


This is the final kind of looting. It is for those who want the best weapons in the game and don't mind working a lot harder for them. Of course there are only two places to go for these weapons: Isla Tormenta and Raven's Cove. The major reason why it is harder to get famed while looting for cursed than it is looting for famed is because there is no boss that can give cursed blades. This means that the very effective 'big bad bosses' strategy doesn't work; decreasing your likelihood of getting famed. If there was a good boss that gave cursed, everybody would always loot at him. The reason why is that you could get as many famed as normal looting, and the possibility of getting cursed. However, since there is no cursed-giving boss, you need to make new strategies for looting cursed.

Tormenta: Round and Round
Now in case you haven't noticed the cursed caves are a big circle. This allows for what might be my favorite looting strategy. For this you only need one thing, a good gun. It is possible to do this without one but it makes it a million times better. I also suggest having steel shot at 5 for this so you can make the most of the gun. For most people I would suggest a good blunderbuss. One that can consistently do more than 2,500-3,000 damage is good as it gives a guaranteed one hit kill. If you have one, a good pistol can be even better. For this you can get away with slightly less damage because it is quick to reload and take a second shot whereas with a blunderbuss you can get into trouble if you have to reload. Any pistol that does more than 2,000 damage should be good. Once you have your gun go to a quiet server. This is important because this is a very unsocial way of looting because you are essentially going around killing everything in one shot. Once at the server with the gun (with Colonel Mustard, lol), the strategy is simple; follow the circle of the caves killing every guy you pass in one shot. The reason this is such a good strategy is not because you are killing very good guys but because you are simply killing so many guys so fast you get very good loot. Also if you are alone you know you are killing every guy in the entire cave which eliminates the annoying times where someone else gets a skull chest for killing something without you. And you always end up thinking "what if that was the skull chest with my legendary cursed blade!" and driving yourself crazy. But with this strategy you know that if any guy in the entire place is going to give a skull chest you will find him.



Tormenta: Gold Room
The gold room might be the most popular place on tormenta. It has several high level guys in very close quarters making it very effective and it is hard to miss any loot, often a major problem in a larger area. Since the guys are so close it is near impossible for a 50 alone. However it is very good for a small or medium sized group of 40s and 50s to go to hang out and loot.



Tormenta: Thrall Hall
This is the other candidate for most popular room in tormenta. It has slightly better guys meaning better loot. However since the guys are more spread out it is easy to miss a skull while you are in one part killing someone and another pirate is in another part killing someone else. This can be extremely annoying. However, a good organized group of 40s and 50s who can agree to kill every guy together can get very good loot here. Or a 50 can do it solo.



Ravens Cove: Idol Four
This is certainly the most popular part of Raven's Cove. It is very similar to the gold room in that is has several high level guys is a small area. The guys are slightly easier however making it possible for a single 50 or a group of 30s and 40s to loot here.



Ravens Cove: Traitor!
To the south west of the mines there are a few traitor ghosts. These are the most powerful ghosts. These are often popular for a single 40 or 50 to loot hoping the better guys will give better loot.

Good Luck!
Well that is all I have to say on my favorite subject. This is by no means a complete guide to everything there is to know about looting. Not all of my methods and strategies may be as effective to everyone and there are plenty of other methods out there. I made this guide to hopefully help other pirates use their time most effectively and to increase the amount of good loot you get. I really hope this helps you reach all your legendary dreams.