Notoriety

Legends are built on reputation and fame or infamy. A pirate's deeds make him more and more notorious. This notoriety is what makes you feared, respected, and WANTED.

Notoriety is the basis of the advancement system. Pirates earn reputation points to increase their notoriety level. Notoriety is not only awarded for completing quest tasks, winning battles, and sinking ships, but also for experience gained in using weapons and skills.

Notoriety Level
A pirate is rated by their Notoriety. At the beginning of the game, the pirate is Level 1 and 0 Notoriety Points. After all, you're just some riff-raff who washed up on the shore of Port Royal.

Performing quests, using skills, and killing enemies earn you points toward the next level. Each level is harder to gain than the last, as your abilities and challenges increase.

Upon accumulating enough Notoriety the character gains a level, which bestows an increase in maximum health points and Voodoo power. Lesser increases are obtained when a character gets enough points in a skill to gain another skill point.

''Note: Skills, such as Sailing, Cannon, or weapons are separate from a character's Notoriety and other skills. For example, a character that only uses a Cutlass will not advance in other weapons regardless of Notoriety or level.''

As Notoriety is gained, new quests will become available. Many of these new quests are for special weapons, teleportation totems, and special treasures.

Currently, the maximum notoriety a pirate can currently reach is Level 50. Once they are level 50, they are classified as a Master.

When a pirate levels up, there is a yellow glow around their pirate.

Quests
The most points gained toward Notoriety is by completing fame quests and Fortune Quests.

As a pirate completes fame quests, others open. Portions of fame quests may only reward +100 notoriety points, but completion of a larger quest may be worth 1,000 - 2,000 points+.

Most fortune quests do give limited Notoriety points, but any experience points gained using skills and killing enemies will add to the pirate's total.

Combat
Fighting enemies or sinking ships are the fastest ways to get reputation.

The reputation points earned for defeating a foe are scaled to the relative level of the foe to the current character skill, which is indicated by color of level values of NPC foes.


 * Gray - Easy to defeat (Little or no Notoriety Plunder earned)
 * Green - Fairly easy to defeat (Some Notoriety Plunder earned)
 * Yellow - Average to slightly challenging (Average Notoriety Plunder)
 * Red - Difficult to very difficult to defeat (Average Notoriety Plunder)

Game Note

 * Basic players suffer a penalty to earned "Reputation" or "Rep" compared to Unlimited players.
 * They lose 15% of all rep gained from battles..

Crew Bonus
Another quick way to boost your Notoriety points is by being part of a crew. Even on land, pirates who work together are rewarded with more plunder and experience points. So, it's in the player's best interest to hook up with other pirates nearby, even if they've never met or worked together before, as it can be quite rewarding.


 * Two Pirates - +20%
 * Three Pirates - +25%
 * Four Pirates - +30%
 * Five Pirates - +35%
 * Six Pirates - +40%
 * Seven Pirates - +45%
 * Eight or More - +50%

Double Reputation Events
Often, Pirates of the Caribbean Online will hold special weekend events where pirates earn DOUBLE points for all Notoriety events and Combat. When these special events occur, all pirates should make a point of getting involved - get their skills leveled and move up faster. Another way is through earning the reward of double reputation through a quest.
 * Father's Day Quest.
 * Double Reputation Weekends ( For Basic and Unlimited; and a day ONLY for Unlimited.)

Unlimited vs. Free Accounts
Pirates who use basic accounts will suffer a penalty on all reputation earned. They also will be capped to how many skill points they can spend or new skills they can buy.

As of mid-December 2009, the basic membership caps are: Prior to December 2009, basic members would receive +25 notoriety each time they recieve a "treasure" (same as unlimited do) regardless of the notoriety level. Now, if you are level 14 or above, no additional points are awarded. Prior to December 2009, there was no cap for notoriety on basic members; only weapons were locked. So doing side quests (e.g. Port Royal clothing quest) would award notoriety properly.
 * Cannon: level 7
 * Sailing: level 7
 * Sword: level 7
 * Shooting: level 7
 * Doll: level 7
 * Fishing: level 7
 * Potion Brewing: level 7
 * Notoriety: level 14

Only 6 points can be allocated to any weapon, when in basic member access. So, if you were formerly unlimited and retrain a weapon, you cannot reallocate all of your earned points. No more that 2 points can be allocated to any skill while basic.