Full Walk through, Main, and extra missions

[CSA FD]

Full English Guide and Walkthrough for Sea Dogs: To Each His Own
By DarkEternis

This is meant to be a full guide and walkthrough of the game Sea Dogs: To Each His Own. It includes the DLC Flying the Jolly Roger, Caleuche, and The Final Lesson.

This game is very difficult, and at times frustrating due to the fact it was created by a Russian developer and has limited information available in English. It is a very good game, though, and I think the English community deserves to have something to help with the learning curve. Hopefully this will make the game more accessible to a great number of players who are a fan of the genre.

Still slightly a work in progress. Everything is here, just haven't posted all of the screenshots.

If you find it helpful, please upvote!

[CSA FD]

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

AA.1 – Introduction

BA.1 – Prologue
BA.2 – Character Creation
BA.2.i – Improving skills
BA.3 – Important tips for gameplay
BA.3.i – "Required" Mods
BA.3.ii – Personal Combat
BA.3.iii – Ship Combat
BA.3.iv – Things to hold onto from the start
BA.3.v – Finding your targets on the world map
BA.3.vi – Rank and how it keeps you from doing quests.
BA.3.vii – Protecting your interests.
BA.3.viii – Hiring Crew
BA.4 – Making Money
BA.4.i – Piracy
BA.4.ii – Trading
BA.4.iii - Questing
BA.4.iv – Treasure Hunting
BA.4.v – Exploring
BA.4.vi – Gambling
BA.4.vii – Smuggling
BA.4.viii – Investing
BA.5 – Fame and Reputation
BA.5.i – Reputation ranks
BA.5.ii – What effects Reputation and how
BA.5.iii – A note on Fame
BA.6 – The Perils of Freeplay
BA.7 – Important People and Places
BA.7.i – Lighthouses and Graveyards
BA.7.ii – Diplomats (Or how to lower your bounty)
BA.7.iii – Where to upgrade your fleet
BA.7.iv – Special Officers and Ships
BA.7.v – Abraham Norman
BA.8 – Items
BA.8.i – Weapons
BA.8.ii – Alchemy and Crafting
BA.8.iii – Amulets and Wards
BA.9 - Quirks and Bugs
BA.10 - Generator Quests

CA.1 – Landing in Martinique
CA.2 – Brief interlude (Now that the game is unlocked)
CA.2.i – Available side quests

DA.1 – The Caribbean in a Nutshell
DA.2 – Intermission

EA.1 – The Final Lesson DLC
EA.2 – Price of Discretion
EA.3 – Grandee Abalate
EA.4 – Resin Dogs
EA.5 – Just Like Home
EA.6 – Prison Break
EA.7 – The Final Lesson

FA.1 – Preparing for The Dutch Gambit (Freeplay after The Final Lesson)
FA.2 – Available Side Quests (Rank 8 – 14)
FA.2.i – Chief of the Redskins
FA.2.ii – Slave Trader
FA.2.iii – The Price of Consumption
FA.2.iv – The Regatta, an important note.
FA.2.v - Manga Rosa
FA.2.vi - Fadey's Swords
FA.2.vii - Dangerous Cargo

GA.1 – The Dutch Gambit
GA.2 – The Dutch Gambit, Dutch Stylez.
GA.2.i – The Dutch Gambit (For Holland, Part 1)
GA.2.ii – The Dutch Gambit (For Holland, Part 2)
GA.2.iii – The Dutch Gambit (For Holland, Part 3)
GA.2.iv – The Dutch Gambit (For Holland, Part 4)
GA.2.v – The Dutch Gambit (For Holland, Part 5)
GA.2.vi – The Dutch Gambit (For Holland, Part 6)
GA.3 – The Dutch Gambit, For Jolly Old England!
GA.3.i – The Dutch Gambit (For England, Part 1)
GA.3.ii – The Dutch Gambit (For England, Part 2)
GA.3.iii - The Dutch Gambit (For England, Part 3)
GA.3.iv - The Dutch Gambit (For England, Part 4)
GA.4 – The Dutch Gambit, Special Secrets!
GA.4.i – The Dutch Gambit (Secret Organization, Part 1)
GA.4.ii - The Dutch Gambit (Secret Organization, Part 2)
GA.4.iii - The Dutch Gambit (Secret Organization, Part 3)

HA.1 – Life After the Dutch Gambit
HA.2 – Side Quests (Rank 15+)
HA.2.i – Slave Trader
HA.2.ii – False Trace
HA.2.iii – Long road to Gallows
HA.3.iv – Racing the Regatta

IA.1 – Caleuche DLC
IA.2 – Caleuche (Part 1)
IA.3 – Caleuche (Part 2)
IA.4 – Caleuche (Part 3)
IA.5 – Caleuche (Part 4)
IA.6 – Caleuche (Part 5)

JA.1 – Flying the Jolly Roger DLC
JA.2 – Preparations for Flying the Jolly Roger, What you need to know
JA.3 - Flying the Jolly Roger, Part 1
JA.4 – The Amber Rush
JA.5 – The Silk Road
JA.6 – Hot Sun of Maracaibo
JA.7 – Pirate Trading for Dummys
JA.8 – Stones of Blood and Forest
JA.9 – Master of Trickery
JA.10 – The Jarl's Treasures
JA.11 – Corrida
JA.11.i – Pirate Trading for Dummys (Part 2)
JA.12 – City of Blood Harvest
JA.13 – Nemesis

KA.1 – The Pirate Saga
KA.2 – Preparing For the Pirate Saga
KA.3 – The Pirate Saga (Part 1)
KA.4 – Shark Hunt
KA.5 – Return of the Baron
KA.6 – Justice Island
KA.6.i – Option 1: Saving Red Mary (The “Secret” path)
KA.6.ii – Siding with the Narwhals
KA.6.iii – Siding with the Rivados
KA.6.iv – After Shark Hunt
KA.6.v – Justice Island, Part 2
KA.6.vi – Treasures of Justice Island
KA.7 – Additional Quests related to Justice Island
KA.7.i – Ole's White Beads
KA.7.ii – Justice for Dios!
KA.7.iii – Excellent Atlas
KA.7.iv – Bullets for the Colt Revolver
KA.8 – Barbazon's Temptation
KA.8.i – Punishing the Bandits, Assaulting the Mines with Jan
KA.9 – Sharp's Testament, Part 1
KA.10 – Shadows of the Past
KA.11 – Sharp's Testament, Part 2

LA.1 – Quests and Extras after the Pirate Saga
LA.1.i – My Boss Wants a Ship

MA.1 – Turtle Soup
MA.2 – Cromwell's Dispatch

NA.1 – The Defense of Saint-Pierre (Burden of the Gaston Final)

OA.1 - Seeking for the Guardian of Truth
OA.2 – Returning the Holy Items
OA.3 – Finding the alchemist
OA.4 – In search of the Santa Quiteria
OA.5 - Isla de Vieques

PA.1 – The Mystic Ksocheatem Island

QA.1 – The Ancient Mayan City

RA.1 - Epilogue

[CSA FD]

AA.1 – Introduction
First of all I will make apologies for the formatting of this guide. I did the entire thing in a word processor, and then copied it over here. That is why it has the elements of an outline. Furthermore... This thing is big... like SUPER FREAKING BIG. These pages often do not allow for but a fraction of the amount of words I put into one section... and therefore I have been forced to split something that already had a ton of pieces... into more pieces. I made a PDF version available on the Pirates Ahoy forums.





So you want to be a pirate? Of course you do, and this little gem of a game will help you do just that. Due to the lack of an English specific guide for the game I have decided to pull together all the knowledge floating about the internet, smash it together with my own information from playing through the game a few times, and present it in a way that will hopefully help out my fellow English corsairs. The game is not easy, and you can outright fail the main quest lines, as well as miss out on a lot of content your first few playthroughs. I know this turns some people off and they like to have all that juicy knowledge at their fingertips, so that is what this is for. So without further adieu.

Oh by the way. Save often...

[CSA FD]

BA.1 Prologue
In Sea Dogs: TEHO, you play as Charles De Maure, a flagrant layabout from high society France that has been summoned by his brother Michel to the Caribbean to save the family name. Arriving to the Fench colony with little more in his pocket than a sword and a prayer, Charles goes to meet his brother in prison and see what he can do.

[CSA FD]

BA.2 Character Creation
As Charles you have 4 different options to flesh out his backstory, such as it is. These options give a little wiggle room as to how you plan on playing your version of Charles, and also change the base stats in the game, represented quaintly by the acronym PIRATES.

P is for POWER – This will govern the strength of your heavy hits, the amount of energy that striking will take depending on the weight of your weapon, and also effects your HP and carry cap. It also effects how fast you gain skill in the heavier weapons (sabers/cutlass, axes/broadswords) and cannons.

I is for IMPRESSION – Effects your accuracy of cannons stat as well as your stealth stat, and how quickly it gains.

R is for REACTION – Effects rapiers, cutlass, boarding, and firearms, and also determines how much energy you have. Energy is used whenever you make an attack.

A is for AUTHORITY – Not to be confused with the Authority meter under your character in the game, this stat is used primarily to tell you how many officers you will be able to hire under normal circumstances in the game. It will be 2*A, so for example if your A stat is 5, then you can have 10 officers on your staff. This will include quest officers, though they will join you even if you are already at maximum capacity. Other than that Authority will govern how quickly your charisma and trading skills gain.

T is for TALENT – This is the most important stat in regards to leveling in the game. This stat speeds up the gain of all skills, but more importantly determines how quickly you gain ranks and perks. The amount of skills it takes to gain a rank is 35 minus your talent, and perks are 40 minus your talent. This means if you choose a character start that has lower talent, you will end up being lower level and with less skills at the end of the game. While this sounds fairly horrifying, I do not find it to be of much importance really. You will gain all of the personal perks no matter(maybe missing 1 as a gunner, but I still do not think so) as there are only 19, and you will want to have officers manning all the different positions in your crew besides due to the wards(more on this later), so they will have the required ship perks. Beyond that it can actually be to your advantage to level up more slowly, depending on your play style. Many quests in the game have rank limits, and what that means is that once you hit rank 15, they will no longer be available to do, ever. These are MAIN STORY QUESTS. And MAJOR SIDE QUESTS. So if you like to take your time and learn the ropes, you may very well want to level a bit more slowly so you do not miss out on these quests.
Oh yeah... and this skill also effects trading, cannons, and navigation skill gains.

E is for ENDURANCE – This stat is for repairing and defense, both ship skills, but has a major impact on your carry weight (most important in the game imo lol), and your HP.

S is for SUCCESS! - This stat determines your luck. It also says it can effect the outcome of some quests and prizes... but I honestly am not certain what factor that plays in the overall scheme of the game. Probably minor roles such as how much money you have to pay the brothel lady in the beginning to use her ♥♥♥♥♥, but it doesn't effect any major quest rewards. It also effects stealth and firearms gains. OH yeah... it effects crit chance. duh.

So, now that we have that out of the way, pick your starting class. Most people go for the default choice, gymnastics and fencing, as this gives you the fastest leveling, the most perks, and the more balanced stats. That was what I chose for my first play through, but the 2nd option is also a very viable choice if you plan on doing a lot of trading. The fighting and musketeer options are more advanced, but offer you a large personal edge in both melee combat and firearms respectively. On tougher difficulties these bonuses could make a big difference. 40% reduction in reload time is nothing to sneer at, nor is 15% energy regeneration.

One last thing about stats you may want to consider. There are two places in the game where you have the opportunity to raise your PIRATES statistics. One is during the main story questline, where you get +1 to P, R, and E, and the next is during the Caleuche DLC quest, where you get a bonus to R, E, and then a stat of your choice. So just keep that in mind, as if you go for this early on, you might even choose talent to make up the difference in your perks, or if you choose the trader route, this could give you 9,9,9 on P,R, and E. Pretty sweet fighting stats all considered. Also note that if you have low power you will likely want to go for rapiers rather than the heavier sabers or broadswords. Otherwise you will be using up half your energy per hit, which just sucks.

A note on Perks
There are two perks in the game, Growing Life and Growing Energy, that are not retroactive. This means that the earlier you take them, the more you will receive from them. If you are planning on being a fighter (who isn't going to be fighting?), then you may want to consider taking these skills as early as possible. The fencing and acrobatics starting option gives you Growing Life as your starting perk.

Additionally the Shared Experience perk will give part of your exp to your officers. Very useful in developing your crew quickly.

[CSA FD]

BA.2.i – Increasing your skills.
Charisma – Trading, passing charisma checks during quests, some governor and generated quests.

Luck – Gambling (especially with governors), making critical hits

Stealth – Passing stealth checks at forts(failing generates some stealth too), tricking headhunters, passing stealth checks with guards, passenger generated quests, courier quests with harbormaster, tricking ships at sea with false flags, governor quests that send you into enemy towns, smuggling, merchant escort quests. Also getting robbed while drinking with people gives you some stealth for some reason.

[CSA FD]

BA.3 Important Tips for Gameplay
This section is to try and help people understand some important facts about the game before they get going on their adventure. As I have stated before, this game is difficult. Without a guide, it is meant to be enjoyed through several playthroughs, each time learning more and more about the game, and possibly even restarting many times when you realize you have just utterly failed and there is no way to possibly go back and fix things. Sometimes the story will take your ship, or your officers, or your crew. They will be dead. They will KILL your girlfriend. You will end up beating the game just to realize you actually FAILED, and the world is doomed because you were too much of a dingus to see through some charade. They will STEAL YOUR PUPPY.... ok maybe not that last part, but the other stuff is true. So, for those of you who do not necessarily want to devote the next year of your life to trial and error... this is for you.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.i "Required Mods"
First off, I STRONGLY recommend that you add some mods to this game. The developers were going for a hardcore game, and while I appreciate this, there is only so much I can take from the game in terms of "Waste time for the sake of wasting time". Other members of the community agree, and so some of them have put together mods that tweak the game a bit to take away some of the more grinding aspects. You can get the following mods from PiratesAhoy! Forums. www.piratesahoy.net/forums/sea-dogs-to-each-his-own.199/

TEHO Mod – This mod is required in order for other mods to work. You unzip the contents (like all mods) straight into your X:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sea Dogs To Each His Own\ folder, where X of course is the drive it is on for your computer.

Hook's Mod – Hook is an active community member, and has been playing this game like its an MMO for the last ... who even knows how long. He created a mod for the game that makes the wind generally blow harder, makes a more "realistic" sailing change to non-square sail ships, and most importantly... slows down time passage on the global map. This may at first seem like a cheat, but it is not. I am really not sure what the developers were thinking with the global map, but time moves at an insane rate by default. So fast that most timed quests cannot be completed if you sail on the global map. This forces you to sail in the battle map across the ocean in real time (or at 8x real time... but STILL). So if you do not have this mod you will be finding yourself spending hours sailing across the world, admiring the endless expanse of blue while you listen to an audiobook or something. Just get the mod. Another neat thing it does is allow you to change wind direction a few times when you come out of dock. This will help so you are not stuck unable to move in a certain direction in an upcoming battle, or trip. You cannot change wind if you are in combat.

ActiveMap Mod- This is actually included in Hook's mod, but is its own mod. This adds a map (press N) to the game, where you can see information about the colonies including where you have ships moored, and trading help. It also, and more importantly, adds region lines to the map. This is important when it comes to battle map sailing, because the regions represent loading areas for the game. If you pass into another region on the battle map the game will not load the new landmasses and/or forts and towns in that region. You can sail all the way from St. Martin to Antigua, only to realize when you get there that St. Paul is not where it is supposed to be. When you go back to the global map you will be transported back to the region line, forcing you to sail the rest of the distance again. Also the map is handy so you don't have to alt-tab out for a map.

Save/Load Mod – I find this one required as well. By default the game only has 1 quicksave slot.(Actually I think it now has 3, after I wrote this they had a patch that made this change.) Meaning if you use the quicksave function it will overwrite the old one. Not only are there a few glitches involving quick save, enough that the developers reccomend you do not use it at all, but due to the nature of the game if you overwrite saves you may... or will... find yourself suddenly screwed when you mess up on a quest and realize you need to go back an hour. This mod makes saves all go to a new file. Some people still swear off quick saving, but I have been using it with this mod for hundreds of hours of game time and have not had any problems with it other than the normal issues with quick saving (it can break scripts if done at the wrong time, leaving you stranded in a quest with no moving forward.) If you save every 5 seconds like I do, then doing the menu save is just too tedious to even contemplate. You can find your saves in the game folder under SAVE. Here you can copy saves somewhere in order to preserve them in case you need them later, and then clear out the whole save folder easily, instead of going through and doing it one by one in the game. This works even with the game open.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.ii Personal Combat (Part 1)
Ok, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here. I'm going to copy paste something I found invaluable. This was posted originally by Merkit Apr 23, 2016 @ 2:58pm in the steam discussions. All credit goes to him for this information. I just want to have everything in one place for people.

Things that affect damage done in combat:
1. Weapon pure dmg - the more the merrier, really. Each weapon "type" has a different max. value.

2. Char weapon skill (ws).
This works for attacker and defender both - i.e guy with sabers 80 will take less dmg and do more dmg to the guy with sabers 30 if they both use sabers. But if the second guy has higher skill with say, axes, (and is using one) he'll be more successful.
Some items affect ws.
Penalties to ws may come from
health worse then excellent,
carrying more weight then allowed,
navigation skill not adequate for a ships class,
curses.

3. Type of the attack that is used. This is further affected by factors as:

3.1 Weapon type.
Rapiers get bonus to "lunge" and "feint", saber - to "strike" and "group attack", swords - to "strike" and axes - to "heavy strike". Note that sabers consume more energy per any strike then rapiers, but less then axes & swords.

3.2 Length of a blade.
Long one gets a bonus to "lunge", "strike" and "group attack", short one - to "feint" & "heavy strike".

From shortest to longest:
Rapiers: Dagger>Harpoon>Capodimonte, Naab'Te>Cazoleta, Small Sword>Cup-hilt Rapier, Prophet's Wrath> Flamberge, Stocco, Swept-hilt Rapier, Pappenheimer>Bilbo>Asoleda.

Sabers: Machete> Hanger>Hanged man, Short Sabre, Madonna>Naval Klewang>Messer, Katana, Cutlass, Naval Saber>War Club, Scimitar, Storta.

Axes & swords: Tomahawk>Macuahuitl, Goedendag>Patissa Khanda, Horseman's Axe>War Axe, Highland Backsword, Broadsword>Ritterschwert, Schiavona,Thanatos>Walloon Sword, Narwhal.

3.3 Curveness of a blade.
Curved one gets a bonus to "strike", "heavy strike" & "group attack", straight one - to "lunge" & "feint".

From straightest to most curved:
Rapiers: Asoleda, Cup-hilt Rapier, Dagger, Harpoon, Cazoleta, Swept-hilt Rapier,Small Sword Stocco>Naab'Te, Capodimonte, Pappenheimer>Bilbo, Prophet's Wrath, Flamberge.

Sabers: War Club>Hanger, Messer>Cutlass, Hanged man,Naval Saber>Katana, Short Sabre, Scimitar, Storta>Madonna, Naval Klewang>Machete.

Axes & swords:Walloon Sword, Highland Backsword, Schiavona, Ritterschwert>Narwhal, Broadsword>Macuahuitl, Thanatos, Tomahawk>War Axe, Goedendag, Patissa Khanda, Horseman's Axe.

3.4 Balance.
Closer to 0.0 gives bonus to "feint" and "lunge" and penalty to "strike", "heavy strike".
Closer to 2.0 gives bonus to "strike", "heavy strike" and penalty to "feint" and "lunge".
2.0 for rapiers is "weaker" then 2.0 for swords and axes, reverse is true for a 0.0.

Balance is both most and least important part. It doesn't affect dmg more then other factors from this group. Hovewer, you can't enlarge your machete in any legal way in this game I'm afraid. With balance, you can kinda choose the needed value since there is usually a 10-15 blades of each type with random balance, weight & dmg.

4. Abilites.
Some reduce dmg taken, some increase dmg for some attack type. Critical strike doubles dmg.

5. Items.
Armor has a dmg reduction. Heavy cuirass help vs grapeshots, "lunge" & "feint", light leather vest help vs "strike", "heavy strike" & "group attack". Enemies may carry armor too.
Dagger give +5 to rapier skill.
Magarosa potions give bonuses to different ws for a day or two.
Amulet "poleaxe" increases dmg for "heavy strike".
Bottle of rum gives bonus to axes and luck skills and penatly to rapier and firearm skills.
Wine gives bonus to rapier and luck and penalty to axes and firearms.

Ometochli Tincture is a potion that gives a huge dmg bonus for a short time at the price of worsened health.
Recipe (need the Alchemy ability):
Components for 1 item: 1 Bottle of rum, 1 Jamaican Pepper, 2 Angel's trumpets or Datura, 1 Emerald, 1 Empty Vial, 1 Candle.
Tools (need only 1 ever): Mortar and Pestle - need to buy or find, Alchemist's chest - given after a fully completed Dutch Gambit questline.


Overview of combat movements:

1. Block. (spacebar)

Doesn't require energy.
Animation look like char is twirling the sword around.
Prevents dmg from attacks other than heavy one. There is an ability that gives a chance to bypass the block with any attack, almost every competent fighter will have it.
Can be used to cancel animation for other attacks - you see the dmg done, you press spacebar and attack again. AI almost never do the animcancel.

2. Feint (Shift + mouse wheel).
Char deflects any single attack and does a riposte strike.

It drains energy but can be used even at 0 energy.
It has a 50% bonus to exp given for attack or kill.
It is a best but slow way to take out any singled out enemy on low and medium lvls once you learn how to time it rightly (or just slow down the game with numpad -).
Enemy rarely feints and it is possible to block the riposte. Enemy blocking riposte is a rare sight indeed.
The move takes a while to execute and hard to cancel, other foes may kill you or your men in meantime.
Animation is longer then the move itself, once the animation is almost done it is possible to get a strike that can't be avoided, cancel it by blocking or abuse enemy feints if you can.
A slow way to kill generally.

Best weapons for this move (balance close to 0.0): Dagger, Cazoleta, Small Sword. Machete, Hanger, Tomahawk & Highland Backsword are worse, but can be used to lvl ws.

3. Parry (Shift + right click)

May deflect multiple simultaneous attacks but has a short duration.
Doesn't require energy.
Can't dmg enemy health but will drain their energy. Enemy with low energy may be unpredictable - he is standing chill for few moments then he does a quick surprise attack that will be the last for you if he is a "boss".

4. Lunge (right click)

Single target attack with somewhat short range.
There are 2 subtypes- slow slash and very quick stab. Which one will be used is random.
Good for chars with low energy as it doesn't consume much of it. Generally is a quite slow way to kill unless block cancelling is used.
Char running around or past the attacker may dodge this move.
Female chars like Helen or Mary like to spam this attack.
Some good blades for this move are Asoleda, most other rapiers but a Messer, Wallon Sword or Schiavona all with balance of 0.0 to 0.5 will do as well.
Musket note - char stabs with the gun. Dmg is delayed and done only when animation for pulling back the gun is played. Naval carbine does the most dmg with this move.

5. Strike (left click)

Quick slash at a single target.
Consumes a decent amount of energy.
Nearly useless on low skill lvl with it's somewhat low dmg at that point. Gets better at >40 ws where it will become a fast way to kill weaker foes.
Use after you parry enemy strike.
Most swords and sabers work good with this move, the best are Scimitar or Katana, some like Prophet's Wrath, Flambege or even Bilbo.
Musket note - char strikes with a gun butt for little to no dmg. Avoid using this move with muskets.

6. Heavy attack (mouse wheel)

Single target attack with a quite long range.
Consumes a lot of energy. Bypasses the block.
Best used with axes at ws >50. Capable of most devastating attacks - 300 dmg is quite normal. 1200-1500 dmg is possible but rare.
Slow to execute thus vulnerable to parry or feint. Use after you parry enemy strike.
Can be used as a preemptive strike - as the foe is running to you start the move to hit him when he gets close.
Hercule like to spam this move. Other officers with axes or swords also like to spam it but less frequently.
Musket note - char does the same animation as the with the strike move but does way more dmg and spents way more energy. Matchlock musket is a beast with this move.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.ii Personal Combat (Part 2)
7. Group attack (Shift + right click)

2 AoE slashes that stagger and push back the targets, allies in range will get staggered too.
Neutrals like town guards will become hostile if hit. Targets may be pushed out of range with first slash.
Energy consumption is in between strike and heavy strike.
AI rarely uses this move to full effect.

8. Zig-zag movement (W/S+A/D)
Char moves faster this way but wasted energy in combat mode.

9. Leaving the combat mode (E)

Sheath the blade. Char is defenless but can easier move past allies, even more easier with sped-up game (R).
If the auto-reload is disabled, char will reload equipped pistol.
AI rarely leaves combat mode.
Musket note - leaving and entering combat mode is much faster with muskets and musketter who is out of combat mode will move faster.


10. Strafe ( double-click A,S or D while in combat mode)

Char jumps to the side or back at low enery cost.
Zigzag strafing and leaving combat at the same time will result in char sliding a bit to the side making it harder for AI to hit him.
Musket note - strafing become almost akin to short range teleport. Zigzag strafing, leaving/entering combat mode and shooting all done in quick succession is a very powerful combo.

11. Shooting (Q)
Fire from a pistol or musket. You can start shooting before the enemy gets in range but you will hit him if he get in range before the shot is done. Most foes won't fireat short distances or ever but bosses and elites can and will.
Ammo types:
Lead Ball - single target, needs gunpowder.
Grapeshot - needs gunpowder, AoE, goes through allies without damaging them (not the case with Shotgun Revolver), the one who was targeted may be staggered. Bad vs metal armor.
Paper Cartridge - faster to reload then lead balls, don't need gunpowder (has it already). Officers may switch from cartridges to lead balls on their own.
Petard - don't need gunpowder (has it already), good AoE, drains almost all energy, doesn't affect allies (not tested on Impossible).
Grenade - don't need gunpowder (has it already), short AoE, doesn't affect allies (not tested on Impossible).
Arrow Bolt - single target, needs gunpowder, very high dmg.
Nail-like Shrapnel - AoE, don't need gunpowder (has it already), goes through allies without damaging them, the one who was targeted may be staggered, very high dmg.
Percussion Cap - limited number available, 66 max.
Revolver Cartridge -limited number available, 66 max.

Back to Darketernis... I hope you found that informative, because I certainly did. I don't have much more to add to this in-depth look at weapons and fighting other than the weight of the weapon will effect how much energy it takes when you swing. This is mitigating by your power stat. That is why a high power stat is vital to someone spamming heavy strikes with a heavy weapon.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.iii Ship Combat
Just a few tips here, nothing major. Ship combat is fairly well explained in the game, and beyond that you will get the hang of it by playing. A few things to note about it. Boarding is the most lucrative way to take a ship. All its cargo will be intact, and you can also take the ship yourself to sell it in port. A lot of times you can use faster ships to harry an opponent with grape shot, while timing it so that you are far enough away that their return shots will mostly miss. If you stay close to a ship for long enough, it will change to grape shot itself, and deal a nasty blow to your crew. If you find that your opponent is not firing at you for a little while even when they've had the opportunity, chances are they are swapping ammo types. The more crew you have in relation to the enemy ship will make the individual sailors weaker and have less HP, and visa-versa.

The most important tip I have when it comes to naval combat is that cannons do have a durability. You cannot see this, but after a few fights they will begin to explode at an alarming rate. Later in the game you will get a talisman that will stop this from happening, but until then you can reset a cannon's durability by unequipping them in port, closing out the cannon menu, and then opening it back up reequipping. Make a habit of doing this often to save your cannons.

One other thing about cannons. Sometimes you will capture a ship that will have bigger guns than the ship says it can handle. This is fine, in fact it is usually pretty nice. Make certain you keep them from blowing up by removing and equipping them from time to time. You won't be able to see them when you remove them, but when you hit equip again they will still equip. If you ever equip a different kind of gun, however, you will never be able to equip the bigger guns again.

If a gun busts, don't worry. You can still just put another gun on the ship and equip it, even though it will still be 'invisible'.
BA.3.iv Things to hold on to from the start
There are hundreds of items in the game, and many do not have any apparent use, at first. This portion of the guide is meant to help you identify what you need to keep, and what can be thrown away or sold.

One thing you should get into a habit of doing at the beginning of the game is to check the vendors in town. This will not only help you get items you may need later, but also items that you can sell under special circumstances for a great profit. Some things you need to look out for at vendors:

Weapon vendors sell gunpowder and ammunition, but only in small quantities. At the beginning of the game you can find yourself quickly running out of ammo, especially if you've chosen the musketeer route. Check these vendors at every stop and buy out their stock of gunpowder and ammo, at least until you have a great store of it. There are certain points in the game where you may find yourself REQUIRED to use guns, and in a few cases you will need dozens, if not hundreds, of ammo for them to win a fight. You may also want to buy out soldier pistols from these vendors. There is a quest in the Raising the Jolly Roger quest line that will ask for 30 of these. They are not necessarily required for the quest, but it can help make it easier.

There are "produce vendors" that are always women, and they will sometimes have plants to sell or rum. You always want to buy plants when you see them. You will need them to produce elixirs, which in the beginning are very hard to come by and take quite a few plants to make. You also will need a mortar and pestle from one of these vendors, which they will have randomly. You will want all the rum you can buy, as you can sell bottles for 1000+ pesos at lighthouses, a decent boost of income early on.

The monk vendors in robes will have holy amulets. They also sell their holy amulets for cheap, and you will want to hold on to at least 1 of every amulet you find. This is because a main story quest will require you to have some amulets later on.

Voodoo ladies will also sell amulets, but the tribal variety. Again... buy out all you can of these amulets. Keep 1 of each type in your chest, ready to be used in the future quest.

Household Vendors are a man and a woman who often have stuff like nails, ewers, or other junk that can be used in recipes. They can also have household amulets, notably the Gypsy Fan, which gives you an increased chance to stealth trick people on land.

There are "Warrior Indian Traders" in the jungle that will only trade with you if you have good relations with the indians. This is achieved by giving indian women gifts in the village. You can sell firearms to them for a good price, and buy gems and gold/silver nuggets.

Lighthouse keepers may also have amulets, though they will not part with them for very cheap, you may still want to buy them if you have the cash.

Wandering Tribals will often have things to sell. They will part with amulets and such for cheap prices, and they will sometimes offer you amazing deals on silver, gold, or pearls. Keep an eye on how many they tell you that they have, as they only give you one shot at buying them, and if you ask for too many they will just tell you that they do not have that many.

Graveyard vendors will also sell you plants, and sometimes other things like guns and ammo. They also will buy everything that the specific street vendors buy for good prices.


Other things, aside from plants, that you need to keep a stock of:
amulets – This is important. You need to keep hold of one of each type of amulet from the start. The Pirate Saga quest line will require 3 random amulets from you, and the quest has a strict time table. You will want to have most, if not all of these at the time you go to do this quest, so it is best to hunt down as many different amulets as possible as early as possible.

chronometers – you will need to have these things for quests. It is super annoying to suddenly need one and not have it. Weapon merchants in town will occasionally have them in stock, and the dutch headquarters in curacao will have them sometimes as well. Make sure you always ahve a couple on hand just in case.

Hourglasses – Needed to make the chronometer work. This is less vital because the dutch headquarters always has one of these in stock, still you might want to have one on hand so you don't have to make a special trip when you need it.

Harpoons – You may want to stockpile these, as they will be needed to make ammo for the blunderbuss quest pistol that you get later in the game. There are only a few places to find a giant quantity of harpoons. Otherwise you just get them here or there as loot or from weapon vendors.

Whetstones- Needed with the harpoons to make the arrow ammo.

Nails – Used to make nail-like shrapnel. Used for some different guns, and an option for ammo for the blunderbuss.

Copper Ewers – Used to make ammo for the mortar hand-cannon.

Candles – Used for anything that requires a heat source to make. Mortar ammo for one, exlixirs for another. It is used for quite a few recipes in the game, so if you are making things a lot you will need quite a few.

Cords – Also used with things that take fuses. Like Mortar ammo.

Most gems – A variety of gems are used in different recipes. It is a good idea to keep a personal stock of gems for usage in these recipes. Amber is a popular one, and blue amber as well. You won't be using huge quantities of these, but still.

Vials – Might be obvious, but vials are used to make potions.

Jewelry – There is a quest in Raising the Jolly Roger that requires you to have a few specific pieces of jewelry. Jade rings/beads, emerald beads, ruby ring. Also some mirrors in that quest. There is also a quest in the slave trader line that requires a gemmed pendant. They are common but I figured I would mention it. Other than that there might be a cross used somewhere I cannot remember, but most of the jewelry can be sold to a banker.

Potions – There is a quest that requires 90 health potions in the Jolly Roger line. So don't sell them all off. Antidotes may seem a little useless at first, but late in the game your officers will be drinking them down like water in certain quests. So keep plenty on hand. Also there are quests that require 12 or so just for the quest, and then more for your officers.
All other nonsense – If it looks like junk, it is likely used in some talisman or other. It is just a good habit to hold on to a little of everything. Belts and shoes and batwings and bones... these are a few of my fav-o-rite thingssss! No but you do use them in some alchemy. Oh and whetstones. Oh and pearls. Oh and... you get the picture.

A note on Alchemy – Anything that is a component is used up. Anything that is an instrument is not.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.v – Finding your targets on the global map
At different points of the game you will be asked to find people or ships. You can identify them as following.

Orange/red sails – Hunting quests such as the harbor master gives to find stolen ships, or assassination missions by nobles who want you to kill a certain captain. Some quest related interceptors have red sails as well.

Green Sails – Delivery quests, such as delivering word about someone to a captain, or taking a ship log back to them. Also for ransom quests, as sometimes you can talk the captains into giving you the quarry without a fight.

Purple Sails – These are ships involved in a major quest.

Gold Sails – This is the spanish golden fleet. Beware, you are in for quite a fight.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.vi – Rank and how it keeps you from doing quests.
This is an important tip. There are some main quests in the game that cannot be completed once you reach rank 15 (12 for The Final Lesson sub quests). Two of these are parts of the Dutch Gambit, and the Final Lesson DLC. This will be covered more in the walkthrough, but I just wanted to put it out there in case you decide to freeplay before going through the quests. The store quest must also be done before rank 5, so don't spend too much time out gaining levels before you do that quest. Once you finish the Final Lesson and the Dutch Gambit, you should be able to level without fear of missing out on quests.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.vii – Protecting your interests
If you leave ships moored in cities, or invest in their banks, or store goods in their storehouses, there is something you should know. These are not 100% safe. Every now and then the nations will fight against each other, one besieging another's town. If that town just happens to be one that you have ships and/or money in, well you'd better get over there. If the time runs out (about 10 days or so), then you will lose whatever you had stored there. Therefore it is a good idea to listen to gossip around town whenever you land in a port. They will tell you if a siege is going on, and how long you have to help. If you are not strong enough to help, then you might just land in town, take your stuff... and leave. Either way... protect what is yours .



It should be noted that things kept in a warehouse are safe from a seige, you will never lose warehoused goods.

[CSA FD]

BA.3.viii – Hiring Crew
Sometimes you need to hire crew and do it fast. The things you need to know about getting crew are the following.

The higher your fame, the more crew available in ports.
Find a wandering monk in town to sanctify your ships. The next time you visit a port the amount of crew available will be much higher.
Talk to all the sailors wandering around town. Sometimes they will offer to join your crew.

If you are desperate you can sometimes get slaves to join your crew. They will not do so if you have too many crew (thousands), but generally they will. Warning though, these crew are all really low experience.