Sid Meier's Pirates!: Live the Life Quick Reference FAQ Version 1.0 By Jason Venter jasonventer[at]yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version History: (1.1) January 18, 2007 - People kept e-mailing me about this guide, saying that they liked it or asking how to save. Therefore, I've added a section on how to save. As for liking it, that's your problem, not mine! (1.0) July 24, 2005 - After an AIM conversation with an acquaintance of mine, I decided that maybe people would find a mini-FAQ for this game useful. I whipped something up really quickly (who has time for an in-depth tome of knowledge) and posted it the same night! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: 001. Introduction 002. About Difficulty... 003. Choosing Your Country 004. Cargo Options 005. Upgrading Ships 006. Sea Battles 007. Dueling 008. Dancing 009. Treasure Hunts 010. Attacking Ports 011. Forever Young 012. Stealth Visits 013. Saving Your Game 014. In Conclusion... Search Tip: You can hop around this guide easily by copying the line from the contents above that corresponds to the area where you need help, then pressing 'CTRL+F' on your keyboard to bring up the box. Paste the line into that box, then search to skip immediately to the desired portion of the guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================= 001. INTRODUCTION ================= I think maybe I should have been a pirate. I know I was born in the wrong century and all that, but there's something vastly entertaining about the swashbuckling era and the adventures that went on in the Caribbean. That's why there have been so many pirate games. With that said, few have come close to matching Sid Meier's Pirates!: Live the Life in terms of sheer enjoyment. There's so much to do, so much to see, and more than one way to get lost... That's what this FAQ will address. I'm not going to give you long lists of information about each port, nor will I be describing the pros and cons of each available ship. There are others who like to do this sort of thing, and I welcome them to keep right with it. Think of this as a quick reference guide. Is a general concept really hanging you up? You'll (hopefully) find it covered here. That's all you need, anyway. Half the fun is in exploring for yourself! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================== 002. About Difficulty... ======================== The game lets you choose your difficulty right from the start. What some people might not realize (unless they've read the manual, and who has time for that?) is that you can also select it whenever you choose to 'Divide the Plunder.' This is both a blessing and a curse. When you start the game, you'll default to the lowest difficulty level. What this means is that you'll find the game to be a cakewalk. Duels are so simple that unless you really blunder, you'll have no trouble winning against even the 'toughest' opponents the game throws your way. About the only way to lose is if you have a crew of 10 pirates or so and you go toe-to-toe with Blackbeard or something equally ludicrous. As you ratchet up the difficulty (by choosing to continue as a different rank), various factors change in ways you won't immediately notice. One or two levels won't make much difference. In fact, it's not until you hit the fourth or fifth option that you'll start to really sweat it out when you find yourself in a sea battle, or invading a port, or whatever. Difficulty affects how much time you have to respond to a sword thrust during a duel, how quickly you can parry a blow, how easily you can overcome guards when you're sneaking into an enemy town, and even whether or not obvious directions appear as you're dancing. On lower levels, for example, you'll see a button indicator at the bottom of the screen, telling you which button you should press to please your dancing partner. On higher difficulty levels, she'll just ask you to let her gestures do the work. But enough about that. What you will want to know is this: what rewards are there for playing at tougher levels? Well, there's one. You get a larger share of the plunder. For example, suppose you divide 10,000 gold. At the lowest level, you get 5% of the treasure. Each step up the ladder increases that amount by 5%. In the case of our example, that amounts to an additional 500 gold for each juncture. This makes it easier to get back into the swing of things, but it's an advantage you'll need if duels suddenly rock your socks. With all of that said, this FAQ is going to assume that you're playing on one of the lower three difficulty levels. If you're playing on tougher levels and you're still having trouble, reading this FAQ won't hurt. However, it won't be quite as useful. Just lower the freaking difficulty level! Now that we've got that out of the way, let's continue to the strategies... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================== 003. Choosing Your Country ========================== When you first begin the game, you'll be able to choose from four nationalities: English, French, Dutch and Spanish. By the game's reckoning, this is roughly equivalent to choosing your probable difficulty level, in ascending order. The game explains it all rather accurately. If you go English, there will be a fair number of ports in the northern portion of the world, while the southern half is almost exclusively Spain's domain. It's easy to get promotions because there are plenty of enemies to attack, but the sprinkling of English ports throughout the world means you also can rest up following those daring raids. Choosing the French is just a way of making things a bit harder on yourself. There are fewer French ports and they aren't positioned in as many convenient spots. However, you can generally still head into English ports if the need arises. The Spanish remain the constant thorn in your side, if you decide to play the game in a war-like fashion. Then there are the Dutch. If you pick them, you're going to have a time of it. The reason is that they hardly have any ports at all, and they're not on particularly good terms with anyone. It's quite easy to find someone to attack from an opposing nation, but much harder to find a safe haven if you pick on all your opponents at once. And finally, the Spanish selection can either be simple or brutal. It's simple if you don't care about earning constant promotions. There's a Spanish port at every peninsula, it seems. However, this also means that most ships you encounter are technically your allies, so plundering them for treasure is pretty stupid. And since most ports already belong to your friends back at home, well, you get the idea. Personally, I say just go with whatever country you like and play the game however you want. The country you choose only comes into play if you're honorable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================== 004. Cargo Options ================== Now that you know who you're sailing for, what are you carrying on your ship? The way I play, it's mostly food. There's a reason for this. Let's say you've got a ton of spice on your ship, or maybe a lot of luxury items. That's all well and good, but you're going to run into any number of problems. The first is starving crew members. Constantly as you play through the game, your sailors are thinking about how long they've been at sea, how much money you've made, and how hungry they are. If you run out of food, each minute you sail is going to increase the likelihood of mutiny. You don't want that, so the solution is obvious: carry plenty of food. Unless you want to stop at every port you see on a long voyage, at least half your cargo should be food. There's another thing to keep in mind, though: you should vary your cargo. I know it's tempting to load up on spice and then head for that port where you get a bunch of money for the precious commodity. But what I've found is this: if you have too much of one particular item, the merchant you wish to sell it to runs out of money before you can get rid of it all. Therefore, a better strategy is to buy various types of cargo cheaply, from several ports throughout the world. Then sell them at the ports where they have the most value, buy something else, and repeat. This is of course assuming that you care to trade at all. There's another (equally effective) method called 'piracy.' You see, plundering ships often gets you precious cargo and ships to haul your loot. Not only that, but you can gain sailors. If you have the vicious tendency to dominate those weaker than yourself, you can easily find yourself in a position where you only buy food at ports, then gain your other merchandise through thievery. This is an easy way to build up a small fortune, as you can also sell any ships you happen to steal. If you're like me, then, you'll do the following: start by filling up your ship with food. Leave the port, then zig-zag across the ocean, fighting enemy ships as you go. Keep each ship you find, and its cargo. When you have the maximum number of ships (I think 5), just head back to town. Sell all your cargo, sell off the four extraneous ships, then fill the flagship back up with food. Now repeat the process. Do this before you take any long voyages and you'll never have to worry about running out of money for food or repairs. You'll also keep your crew happy because you're making money, and you'll be able to trade in plenty of ill-gotten goods. Everybody wins, except for those ships you plunder. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== 005. Upgrading Ships ==================== The game makes a big deal out of upgrading ships. There's an option to do so at any regular city, and you'll hear bartenders telling you how you can get one upgrade at one port, another at a different one. Not only that, but you get discounts on ship upgrades as you gain favor with various governors. Ignore all of this. There's little reason to buy more than the most minimal of upgrades. Why's that? Because you can almost immediately steal something better through a simple sea battle, all without spending a dime. Most of the ship upgrades are tailored toward making you better at confrontations with enemy ships... if you happen to like sinking them with cannon fire. However, doing so is a waste of a perfectly good ship. Instead, you should just board the enemy ship and then steal it. The minute you realize this, you have your pick of any ship on the ocean. As the story arc proceeds, you'll find numerous pirates who sail the best ships money can buy. Just board one such ship, best the captain at a duel, and there are your upgrades all wrapped up in a pretty package for you to enjoy. There's no need to sail from port to port seeking out the upgrades, no wringing your hands over how you'll ever earn enough money to buy those cool cannons. They can all be yours for free. End of story. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================ 006. Sea Battles ================ Because this is a game about pirates, and because it's so easy to succeed if you're willing to pick on a few ships, you'll find that sea battles occupy a large portion of your time. At least, you will if you're successful. The game tries to steer you toward thrilling battles that prove who is better at aiming cannons. In fact, battles often revolve around you circling your enemy and firing cannonballs from your ship as the other guy does the exact same thing. Personally, I like to avoid this as much as possible and just move in close, then board my enemy's ship. This way, you don't have to head back to port and repair your flagship, and you gain whatever loot you plunder when the battle ends. The only reason to sink lots of enemy ships is if you want to pass that '100 ships sunk' mark that you see mentioned on the 'Status' screen. Okay, so let's say you do. What's the best way to sink an enemy ship? Well, first of all you should either have purchased (or stolen) a ship with lots of cannons available. This means a larger ship, and it means buying the expensive upgrades. Or, as I mentioned in the section above, stealing them (which is recommended). Once you have a ship that's up to the task, the rest is mostly easy. When a round begins, you'll see almost invariably that the wind is blowing from the east. The ship you face is usually located to the west, so all you have to do is turn so that the wind is at your back. Once you've turned, you generally head in circles around the outer edge of the area, while your opponent does the same. The reason for this is that your ships can only fire from the side. They can also reach approximately 3/4 of the way across the screen, if you're using the standard shots. If you allow for the cannonballs to spend time traveling through the air, you should aim for the very front tip of your enemy's ship, anticipating that its center will pass into range just as your shots connect. As you are doing all of this mental math and strategizing, so is your opponent. If you have a small ship, you can render his carefully-aimed shots useless. Just turn your ship sideways at a sharp angle, and most of his shots will splash into the water on either side. Charging him may also cause his shots to splash into the water behind you. Once that's happened, you can always zip back into your regular path, fire a volley of your own shots, then repeat. Honestly, these battles are not that difficult. Later in the game, when you have the best ship, they'll be downright simple. But like I said, duels are where the real money is at. I'll cover those next. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============ 007. Dueling ============ You'll encounter duels at various stages in the game. The only thing that changes significantly from one to the next is the location. However, even that shouldn't alter your strategy. Whether you're battling on the deck of a ship, along the stairs in a tavern, in a garden or on the top of a stone tower, one basic notion will serve you most efficiently: use the rapier. There are three swords available to you at the start of any duel. Apparently, you have them all in your pocket and you pick the one most suited to a particular encounter. Like I said, though, it's always the rapier. The reason for this is the blade's speed. It meshes nicely with the strategy of the day, which is to let your opponent start to swing, then counter before he can finish. You can easily tell when your enemy is about to slash, because he'll often draw his arm to the side before thrusting. As he starts to do so, tap the 'A' button and you'll cut short his evil plans. That's all there is to it. Though the game does allow differing strategies, thanks to other button combinations, all you have to do is watch for the opening and thrust. On the first three difficulty levels, that's all there is to it. Seriously. And if you want to tilt the scales even further in your favor, you can also find various accessories throughout the world. You gain these by purchasing them from the mysterious stranger in taverns, or by dancing particularly well with a given governor's daughter. I'll talk about that next. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============ 008. Dancing ============ This is going to call my manhood into question, I'm sure, but I actually enjoy the dancing mini-game. Or rather, I do now. At first, I thought it sucked. I wasn't sure why I couldn't seem to impress the lady, and I thought for a time that even one mistake meant the dance was not a success. You'll always know when you've danced well, because instead of whispering useless information, the lady will give you a gift or (in some cases) information that's absolutely critical to find the man who knows where your family members are hidden. You'll also know when you've done badly because your dancing partner will look extremely disappointed and you won't get squat. The middle road--general information about things you don't care about--is the most common reward of all. To get the free goodies, including upgrades to your sailing ability, disguises and clothes that make you better at duels, you'll want to master what the game's instruction manual calls the 'flourish.' Basically, a flourish is just an extra fancy movement in the middle of a choreographed dance. You get a flourish each time you press the appropriate button in time with the music. At least, that's what I read somewhere. However, I found that trying to listen to the music and tap the button at the right moment is pointless. Instead, you should watch your dancing partner. The trick to a flourish is to wait for your lady to nod, hesitate for just a moment (I'm sure the exact time varies according to difficulty level), then press the button a short time later. Obviously, you don't want to wait until you're stumbling over your boots, which you may do at first. However, you'll soon get the hang of it. The reason flourishes rock is that even if you mess up early on in the dance, a few flourishes not only erase such bad memories but also help to ensure that you have a little extra padding, so to speak. If you perform a flourish or three in a dance (not difficult to do at all), you can rest assured that only some really boneheaded footwork can get between you and the lady's affections. That would be a good thing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =================== 009. Treasure Hunts =================== As exciting as it can be to win the love of a governor's daughter, there's other treasure in the world. More specifically, each of the nine other famous pirates has buried a stash of gold in some remote location, and you want it! However, finding treasure can be a tedious affair. The first step is generally to talk to the mysterious stranger in the back of your local tavern. Early on, he'll charge 200 gold pieces for a treasure map. You can carry only one treasure map at a time. The minute you find that treasure, you can return to the stranger and buy a new one, until you've found each of the famous treasures. That's the easy part. Now for the hard part, reading the map. The problem is that the maps are only slightly useful. They consist of a few inked in landmarks and some red text referencing the relative location of a town. Ignore any references to landmarks. They may or may not have any impact on your search at all. Instead, look at the red text that says something like "Northeast of Gibralter" or whatever. That text is your compass. Based on what it says, imagine a straight line that extends between one and three 'screens' of ocean. The treasure is somewhere within that line. Ignore landmarks as you sail along the coast in that approximate line of sight, checking each shallow bay or line of pale-colored sand. You'll find the treasure in no time. Of course, there's the other option: study the map carefully, trying to make out landmarks and then search to their side. This may or may not work. Sometimes you'll find treasure right on top of a landmark. Sometimes it won't even be close. That's why I say you should just follow my trick. Trust me on this. I spent hours trying to find a treasure by consulting landmarks. This happened several times. As soon as I used my 'straight line' trick, it never took me more than 2 or 3 minutes to find a treasure again. The same is true of missing relatives and hidden cities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== 010. Attacking Ports ==================== On a completely unrelated note, sometimes it can be fun to sack a port and claim it for your beloved country. There are actually a number of ways to accomplish this, but always your strategy should start with some not-so-friendly shots from your ship's cannon. While sailing about on the world map, get within range and press the 'A' button to send shots at the city. It only works on real cities, not settlements or sanctuaries. You'll know your attack was a success when the port decides to return fire. Now, just keep sailing nearby, firing cannon shots. Over time, successful hits will reduce the number of soldiers defending the area. You can sail within landing range from time to time, and you'll get a window that tells you how many active guards are on duty. Now, the number of soldiers determines the next step. If it won't take forever, whittle down your enemy's troops to 80. As you do so, you'll need to prevent reinforcements from arriving in other enemy ships. If you can quickly fire a few shots and drop the number of defenders to 80, though, that's the way to do it. Why? Because then all it will take is a quick duel and the city is yours. However, many tempting cities are guarded by 100 or more soldiers, and often by three or four hundred. You don't have time to whittle down their numbers in this fashion. In such an event, attacking the fortress will bring about a dangerous land battle. Therefore, be sure of the enemy's numbers before you attack. You want (at worst) an equal number of pirates to soldiers. If you can manage superior numbers, do so! Why is that? Because land battles are actually a reasonable challenge. In fact, I'm not particularly good at them. Therefore, I won't pretend otherwise. What it comes down to is this, though: you have about five soldier types at your disposal, broken into units. Some are good at close combat while some can fire shots from a distance. Some are just morale boosters (don't put them in the front lines). The enemy has the same. Numbers matter, too. You and your foe might each have 6 units, just as an example, but one of you will likely have more men in each of your units. This is why I said that attacking with superior numbers is a swell idea. The game just divides however many men you have into appropriately-sized groups. So basically, put your distance attackers in the back and move forward with those who are best at hand-to-hand combat. Use the trees for shelter and to improve your defense against gunfire and the like. Try to gain elevation advantages. That's about all there is to it. I'm sure someone else has better strategies, but it's not me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================== 011. Forever Young ================== Unfortunately, this game is realistic enough that you will age as you progress through the game. You start at about 20, and you have that many years again before your body is so beat up that you have little choice but to retire. Basically, it's a timer for the whole game. It equates roughly to around 10 or 12 hours of play. However, there are ways to cheat fate. One way is to choose the 'Medicine' skill at the game's opening. However, I never care to do that. The default skill, which improves your skill at fencing, is much more practical. Not only that, but it plays heavily in my strategy to stay fit for longer. Basically, what you want to do is stay wealthy. As you sail around the world, the men grow impatient of life at sea unless you're steadily building a larger stack of gold. This means that the healthy pirate is constantly raiding enemy ships. It also means that he's finding hidden treasures and family members and missing cities. The game rewards you handsomely for such actions. For example, having your revenge (which takes quite awhile) gets you a ship full of skilled workers and a bag of 100,000 gold. However, there's the time in between that you have to worry about. If you spend much time just wandering around, you'll not make the money you need to keep your men happy. Thus, one of the most important strategies is to loot most of the ships you encounter along a given voyage. This ensures that your time is spent most efficiently. For example, if you are asked to find someone that lies across the map, you'll probably want to hit up around six ships along the way. Sure, it takes longer. However, it can also delay the moment you fear, when the men ask for you to divide the plunder. Dividing the plunder is bad because it robs you of a few months of your life, immediately. Every time you do, that's like giving up fifteen minutes of game time, maybe more. You can see why it's in your best interest to delay the process for as long as possible. Something else you should do is dance with the governors' daughters. They sometimes will give you items that slow down the aging process. Likewise, such boons can often be obtained from the mysterious strangers that reside in taverns you may visit. A final strategy is to never hold onto a large crew unless you absolutely must. The more men you have, the less treasure there is to go around and the more impatient they'll become. This means that although you may often have brief moments where five ships are at your command (as described a few pages up), you should never do so for a prolonged period. Only keep around a hundred men, unless you're on your way to raid an enemy village and you have a lot of money hiding in your vault. Keep these strategies in mind and the requests to divide the plunder will occur much less frequently. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =================== 012. Stealth Visits =================== Before I forget, I should also tackle the matter of those stealth missions you sometimes encounter as you progress through the game. These take place when you are wanted by another country's governors. For example, let's say you've sunken a few Spanish treasure ships and you took over a port or three. You're not going to rank high on their list of allies. In fact, ports may fire on you as you draw near. In such cases, you can choose to sneak into the port. Most of the time, this won't be necessary. However, there are times when you need to talk to the barmaid in Santiago and for some reason, everyone there hates you. This happens frequently when you're trying to find missing family members. What do you do? Why, you sneak in at night! This mode of the game isn't particularly fun, truth be told. Fortunately, it also happens to be quite simple until you try on higher levels. You start at one side of the town, with your men watching. Ahead, you'll see the city at dusk. Glowing patches of light move to show you where guards are patrolling. You never want to stumble across two of these in close proximity to one another. Instead, you want to stop near walls, wait until a guard turns his back, then run up behind him and hit him over the head so that he is knocked unconscious. If you are seen, you'll have to mash the 'A' button until you fill up the meter and overpower the scoundrel. That's just how it works. If you're in the middle of such a struggle and another guard finds you, well, you've failed. So don't do that. The game and instruction manual mention that you can hide in hay, and that you can climb over walls. This is true. However, it's mostly just not necessary until you choose to progress in rank. Since only skilled players will encounter these situations, and because those folks would never, ever consult a guide like this one, I won't even waste your time. Go forth and sneak! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================== 013. Saving Your Game ===================== This may seem like a stupid section to include, but when I first played the game I had trouble figuring out how to save my progress. I eventually figured it out and thought nothing more of it until I posted this guide. Then people started writing me, asking how to save. Enough people wrote that I'm giving it a special section now. Basically, there are two places where you can save. One place is the world map. You can pause the game, which brings up a series of icons along a bar near the bottom of the screen. Just around halfway to the right is an icon you can select when you want to save. You'll save your progress right where you are at that particularly point in time. You can also save when you're visiting a port town. It's there right on that first menu, as I recall. Saving there is easy. Those are the only two options I know of. Hopefully, something I just said helps you and people will only e- mail me when they're wanting to tell me how good this mini-guide is... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================== 014. In Conclusion... ===================== Well, you're ready to spread your wings and fly. While I've certainly not gone into as depth as some of the more experienced players among you might like, I've covered the game's main sticking points quite nicely. If you've read through this FAQ, you're now ready to tackle most anything the game will ever throw at you, confident in your fencing and sneaking and romancing capabilities. There are plenty of ways to play. I could probably go on for another ten pages about differing strategies, but I won't. Half the fun of Pirates! is finding your own techniques and then applying them to see how well they work. Romance a few daughters, plunder a few ships, and think of me the next time you dig up a treasure chest full of gold. I take tips! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Closing Notes: If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ (including corrections, information about glaring omissions or just a few words of praise), please don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail (jasonventer[at]yahoo.com). Include the relevant game's title in your 'subject' line to ensure that your e-mail is not erroneously deleted. On a more tedious note, remember that this FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. At the time this FAQ was last updated, the following sites are permitted to post it: HonestGamers (http://www.honestgamers.com) GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com) NeoSeeker (http://www.neoseeker.com) GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com) AOL (http://www.aol.com) IGN (http://faqs.ign.com) This list may change to reference new friends or to revoke permission if I decide that I am at war with a particular site, so you may be viewing an older version of this FAQ. If you wonder whether or not your favorite site has permission to post it, you can always find the list of authorized sites by viewing the master copy, available at HonestGamers.com. Finally, if you frequently consult this FAQ as you write strategy content of your own, I would appreciate a tip of the hat in your closing comments, or wherever it seems appropriate. I work hard to make my FAQs useful, and I'm pleased when you find them to be helpful. Let others know about them, too!