Flagships

To maintain control and impose influence in the Caribbean, the Royal Navy and East India Trading Company have vessels that command groups of ships or have special duties to protect particular areas.

Flagships are special ships in Pirates of the Carribbean Online in that they must be disabled and then boarded in order to be defeated. They will appear with a flag above their ship class and level. They may be EITC, Royal Navy or French and Spanish skeleton ships.

Flagship Types
Here are some flagships that have been found
 * Game Note - All French Undead or Spanish Undead ships are flagships

EITC

 * EITC Sentinel - Found near Cutthroat Isle and Cuba Crew made up of Thugs
 * EITC Corvette - Found near Port Royal crew made up of Thugs and Grunts
 * EITC Barracuda - Found near Isla Perdida crew made up of Hired-Guns

Royal Navy

 * Navy Kingfisher Found near Isla Perdida crew made up of Veterans
 * Navy Man O' War Found near Kingshead and Ile D'Etable De Porc crew made up of Veterans and Officers
 * Navy Colossus Found around Outcast Isle, Isla Tormenta, or Cuba crew made up of Officers

French
All French ships can be about at Isla Cangrejos
 * French Shadow Crow
 * French Cerberus
 * French Blood Scourge

Spanish
All Spanish ships can be about at Cutthroat Isle
 * Spanish Shadow Crow
 * Spanish Cerberus
 * Spanish Blood Scourge

Capturing a Flagship
A flagship must first be crippled in normal ship-to-ship combat. Reduce the ship's hull value to 0.

Once crippled, use the ship's cannons to launch a grappling hook (Option 8) at green circles on the disabled flagship. After a hook is attached, the flagship will automatically be pulled into boarding position. Then, the captain can order the crew to swing over to attack the ship's crew.

Hint - It is best to pick off any visible crew members, using round, chain or grapeshot rounds from the deck cannons.

When you swing over, the surviving crew members will engage the boarders in hand-to-hand combat. The enemies on a ship are semi-random, but normally the lower the ship class, the lower the crew levels will be. (Example; a Navy Bulwark would contain Cadets and possibly one Guard, whereas a Colossus could be manned by Officers and Veterans. The same applies to EITC ships. High-ranking ships like a Navy Colossus often have large, high-level crews that will be difficult to defeat.

After dispatching the crew, the pirates swing back to their own vessel - along with any plunder they find.

&nbsp If a pirate is knocked out while boarding, they can be Revived. Should all of the pirates be knocked out, they will all wake up in jail and their ship will be sunk. If the captain dies while boarding, his crew can continue to sail his ship. While a ship is being sailed, the captain cannot relaunch it elsewhere.

''Tip - Gather a crew before taking these ships on. It'll do you good.''

Flagship Timer
When you are successfully on the enemy ship, a timer will begin. You will then have nine minutes to kill the crew and escape. If the timer expires, the crew will repair their ship and sail away, leaving you to disable the ship again.

Flagship Tips

 * Rumors have it that completely destroying a vessel's masts and crew before boarding rewards more treasure.
 * On Your Marks! The captain should tell the crew to be ready before giving the Board command, so no one is caught off-guard.
 * Big risk equals big gains. While fighting a shipload of officers may not sound like your cup of tea, hauling a boatful of royal chests back might.
 * Bring a Healer! Have at least one Voodoo Doll user attune the weaker party members as soon as they arrive. They can heal during the fight. But, don't forget to keep them safe!
 * Hide-n-Seek. Sometimes an enemy ends up inside parts of the boarded ship but still attack from a distance. Be ready to use ranged weapons and voodoo to ferret them out.
 * If someone is knocked out, defeat the rest of the enemy crew quickly. Once they are defeated, everyone including the people knocked out, will swing back over and they will be perfectly fine.