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Introduction[]
Ahoy I am Leon Dreadpratt a level 50
My weapon belt as of 8-10-11. With these strategies this is where you can getpirate
, and a master looter. Using these strategies I have gotten over 150 famed and 8 legendary weapons, so I can guarantee they work.
This guide is mostly written for higher levels who have completed all their quests and leveling and want to try and get more good weapons. I apologize to lower levels as much of this will not apply to you. But some of the more general principils still will.
The Two Secrets to Looting[]
Do you really want to hear the secret to getting good loot? Really? Okay, 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 you will not get as many famed as if you spend hours a day hacking away at 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 suprising number of people miss this. 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. Another thing people don't realize, especially when they first join the wiki, is how long it takes to get famed weapons. You might look on the wiki and see people who get a famed daily, where you only get a famed every few weeks. This isn't because they have some super secret strategies, it is simply because they play a lot. And when I say a lot I don't mean for a half an hour after school, I mean for literally hours every single day. Check the leaderboards. Odds are a few of the big famous wiki looters will be in the top 50. So don't feel bad if you don't get as many famed as other people. You play as much as you want to and this guide will help you get as many famed as you can given your schedule.
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 level 41 Seabeard is better than one other level 41 Seabeard, looting at 9:37am is no better than looting at 10:24pm, and no server is better than any other server. Though there certainly are strategies to increase the number of famed you get (you wouldn't be reading this huge guide if there weren't), 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 blade just by killing the same guy someone else got a legendary at last month. And dispite what your friends might say, there are no weird weapon combinations, or glitches that give special loot, period. I am also a big disbeliever in theories that certain weapons or taking longer to kill an enemy will give you better loot. Just because I don't think this has an effect doesn't mean you have to, whatever floats your boat I guess. But still I have seen no real evidence what-so-ever to make me think that loot isn't completely random. Some people say taking half an hour to kill an enemy with rusty cutlass will give you better loot. I think this is exactly the opposite of what you want to do. Use a good gun or another weapon to kill the enemy faster, this will let you kill more enemies and in the end is guaranteed to give better loot.
Well enough of the obvious it is time for the tips, tricks and strategies. The reason you are reading this!
Kinds of Looting[]
Now this guide is quite long. But you don't read the whole thing. There are several types of looting you can do depending on what you are searching for and I have specific sections wich specific strategies for each. Read the ones that you feel apply to yourself. There is looting for numbers, looting for famed, looting for cursed, looting at sea, looting for cannon rams, and looting for clothing.
Looting For Numbers[]
What you could get pretty easily from foulberto smasho.
{C}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. Hopefully by now
Foulberto Smasho gives the best but most limited loot in the game
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 something odd happened. I realized I had gotten literally 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, in a few hours you 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 loot pouch!
Killing Foulberto With Two People[]
Despite his reputation as being near impossible, foulberto can be easily defeated with as few a two people. Having more people simply makes it faster. Again, back when foulberto first came out there were always tons and tons of people at him, especially on popular servers. With enough people he is easy to kill simply with shear numbers. But now that most people have moved on, there are rarely enough people at him to kill him without some sort of strategy. There is one thing that will make it possible for two people to kill him alone, organization (notice its bold underlined and italicized, that means it's important). With a little bit of organization he becomes easy to kill. In an unorganized group everyone is using any weapon they want, there might be a few healers and a couple of people walking around reviving the knocked out, but they are not nearely enough to support the whole group. The way to turn this jumbled mass of dying noobs into a foulberto killing machine is with this magical "organization."
It is very hard to get a large group organized, so I suggest if you want to kill him you should get a few trustworthy friends and go to a quiet server. It may sound counterintuitive but it will help. Any people that are not organized with you will only end up dying and needing help. Instead you need two specific people. You need one 50 with a good blunderbuss (grand or fullmoon work very well) and five skill points on steel shot. Then you need another 50 with a good healing doll and a few skill points on the healing skills. Both of you should stand a little ways away from foulberto (he can do more damage with melee attacks than with ranged attacks), have the doll person attune to the blunderbuss person, and fire away. To make this process a bit faster and safer all you need are more blunderbuss people, up to five so the healer can heal all of them. It is also a good idea to have more than one healer. They can all attune to each other too make sure nobody dies. I suggest you don't get too carried away and get a lot of people. With more people there is more that can go wrong. For this reason you should try to stick to a maximum of five blunderbuss people and two or three healers.
Looting For Famed[]
What you could get if you are lucky from normal looting. Thanks to John Foulroberts for the pic.
General Darkhart
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 favorite 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, Devilroot, Jaques le Blanc, and Tomas Blanco. 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 various levels as long as there are a few 40s or 50s.
Neban the Silent
Neban the Silent And Remington The Vicious
The two assassin bosses are also very popular. Neban the Silent on Padres and Remington the Vicious on Kingshead. They give very good loot. They
Devil Root
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 they fixed him so he now gives very good loot. Sadly he is still not as popular as other bosses, even if he is very good. He is again a little tough for a single 50 but no problem for a group.
Jacques le Blanc
Jaques le Blanc and Tomas Blanco[]
The two rather new bosses Jaques le Blanc and Tomas Blanco can be found on Isla Cangrejos and Cutthroat Isle respectively. 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 For Cursed[]
What you could get if you are very very lucky from looting for cursed
This is a more dificult 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; making it harder to get famed. If there was a good boss that gave cursed, everybody would always loot at him. You could get as many famed as normal looting, with the possibility of getting cursed. However, since there is no cursed-giving boss, you need to make new strategies for looting cursed.
Tormenta: Circling[]
Now in case you haven't noticed the cursed caves are
Tormenta is a big loop
a big circle. This allows for one of my favorite looting strategies. 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 aw
A gun that can kill any non boss in one shot makes this method much easier and more effective
ay 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, 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.
The gold room is located in the west of the cursed caverns
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, as he will end up being swarmed. However it is very good for a small or medium sized group of 40s and 50s to go to hang out and loot.
The thrall hall is located in the east of the cursed caverns
Tormenta: Thrall Hall[]
This is the other candidate for most popular room in tormenta. It has slightly better guys meaning slightly 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.
The four guys located in the south east of el patron's mines
Ravens Cove: South Idol[]
This is my other favorite way of looting. 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. The best part is that they spawn in a line so a single 50 with a blunderbuss can kill them all in one shot. To insure you hit all of them with a blunderbuss you need to have a few skill points on eagle eye. Then when they respawn stand looking down the line but aim at the furthest one away from you. It is sort of a bug with blunderbuss but if you aim right down the line you will not hit the last guy, however if you aim at the last guy and stand next to the one closest to you you will hit all of them. It takes a little practire to get good at it. Also if using blunderbuss, try and hit them as soon as you can, if they start to move they will leave the line and be much harder to hit. A good strategy for a small group is to have one person blunder like I said above and have the others use another spread attack, vipers nest is popular. Not everyone knows it but if you attack guys while they are in the invincible respawn bubble you still get loot. So the people using vipers nest should hit the enemies in the bubble so the blunderbuss person can kill them as soon as he can before they start to move. If doing this though note that it is the vipers nest peoples' resposibility to to isnure they get the loot not the blunderbuss person's. Especially if there is more than one person he cannon wait if someone uses vipers nest late.
One thing you can do if you find looting for hours and hours boring (which you should) is loot here solo and use blunder. Since this is a very repetitive simple way to loot and you spend most of your time wating for guys to respawn. You can do other things at the same time. Especially if you have two or more monitors and very good multitasking, you can do things like watch youtube videos, hulu, netflix, read articals, surf the wiki, skype with friends, play other games, or if you don't have two monitors, even just read a book. You would be amazed how easy it is to loot for hours when you have other things to enjoy the whole time.
The traitor ghosts are located in the south west of el patrons mines
Ravens Cove: Traitors[]
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.
Looting At Sea[]
What you could get from looting at sea! Thanks again to John Foulroberts for the pic.
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
What'd I tell ya, a hull full of royal chests!!
cargo will replace worse cargo. (the order from best to worst is: rare ship materials, ship materials, 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, or even a hull full of loot!!! It is also important to note that loot chests and up will not drop. 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. The idea 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 nice hard target
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. Be very careful about ships respawning. They do so instantly and if you are too close they can spell disaster.
Step 2: Get the ship in position
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: Have crew shoot it and draw it close
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 first.
Step 4: As it gets closer you can hit it with broadsides and more powerful ammo
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 the ship and plunder it for all it's worth!
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 hunters start to attack you. This is very risky because hunters are extremely difficult and if they sink you you lose all you hard earned loot!! Your scoundrel level is actually based on your cargo not the number of ships you sink. This means that hunters will always start coming right as you start getting good 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 because it takes time, and because your crew members (especially non friends but rather crew members you found through public) might not re board your ship. This made a lot of people think that the addition of Scoundrel of the Seas made it much less effective 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 because of two changes.
As long as you have no flag, Navy and EITC whips will totally ignore you.
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 even if you are not very close. 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 they used to, attacking you if you get too close. In fact there is something else different and even more helpful about skeleton ships.
As long as you do not shoot any other ships, skeleton ships will not make you a scoundrel.
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 and from there skeleton ships will count to level you up. This means that if you want to loot sail but you want to avoid hunters, all you need to go to a place with lots of difficult 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. It is also important to note, as I said before, that your scoundrel rank is based on cargo not ships sunk. This means if you sink skeletons long enough and get really good cargo, then hit just one navy of EITC ship, you could go from no flat to level 5 (full skull crossbones and hat) in just one hit! So be careful!
Ships To Sink[]
The Hinderseas[]
The hindrseas are full of large numbers of very difficult ships.
In between Padres and Kingshead is the hinderseas. It is considered the best place to loot sail. 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.
The Colossal Colossus Flagship[]
The colossus flagship patrols the waters near outcast isle and isla tormenta.
{C}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 is that they only give loot or materials 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 a waste of time to board the ship and kill the enemies. 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[]
What you could get if you are good enough at cannon defense.
Cannon defense is known for being an extremely good way to get famed cannon rams. You get loot in cannon defense about every 6 or 7 waves and everyone gets loot on the same wave. You get loot after waves 6, 13, 19, 26, 32, 39, 45, 52, 58 65, 71, 78, 84, 91, 97, 104 and so on. You also get loot after you lose. However each time you are not guaranteed to get a famed cannon ram or even a cannon ram at all. Past wave 26 you can hope to start getting famed but you might have to wait as far as wave 32 or 39 if you are unlucky. It is quite common to get wool cannon ram on wave 26 but not guaranteed. But to get revenant cannon ram you have to get to at least wave 52. Think of it like this. From wave 1-13 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. From wave 19-26 loot is what you might expect in a loot chest, mostly rare with the occasional famed. Past wave 26 the loot is what you might expect in a skull chest, a pretty good chance of getting famed. 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 Clothing[]
Certain colors of clothing can only be found in loot making them very rare and very sought after. These are refereed to as "bright" clothing items, even though not all the colors are bright. Bright clothing items only include, magenta, lavender, navy blue, forest green, bright green, bright yellow, bright orange, bright red, and dark black. Colors such as light red, yellow, etc. can be bought from tailors and are not interesting. In general bright clothing is something you just happen come across when doing normal looting. However if you really want to get bright clothing there are a few things you can do to improve your chances.
The big difference between bright clothing and famed weapons is that bright clothing isn't considered good by the game. By this I mean that you have an equal chance to get bright clothing in any loot container.
The chance of getting a famed weapon in a loot pouch in minute, maybe 1/10,000, whereas the chances of getting a famed weapon in a skull chest might be more like 1/20. This means even if you get loot pouches ten times more than you get skull chests, you still are five hundred times more likely to get a famed weapon in a skull chest.
On the other hand with bright clothing you have an equal chance to get it in any loot container. So if the chance of getting bright clothing in a loot container is 1/30, and you get pouches ten times more than you get skulls, you are 10 times more likely to get a bright clothing item from a pouch. You can see this by looking at screenshots of people getting bright clothing, normally it is in a pouch.
This fact means that if you want to increase your chances of getting bright clothing you should try and get more loot rather than more skulls. So if you want bright clothing try somewhere where you can kill a lot of moderately good guys fast such as circling in tormenta. Bosses however are very bad at giving bright clothing because they give less loot but more skulls.
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.
Good luck looting!