June 9, 2021 June 21, 2021
Pirate101 Sinbad Quest and Drop Guide
This morning, a new patch (surprisingly) dropped for both Wizard101 and Pirate101. This was the first significant patch for Pirate players in well over a year, and hopefully represents the game being taken in a new, better direction. The largest addition to this update was a new set of quests concerning the pirate, Sinbad. Yes, our friend Sinbad is in Pirate101! (There were also some miscellaneous updates) Think of it as a similar to the Wizard101 prequests that have been added before world updates. Interestingly enough, this quest is available for Free to Play pirates, so no need to subscribe to access this quest (although subs are always good 😉 ).
Gandry tells us to look for a group of stranded pirates in Avery’s Court in Skull Island. They request our help, as we are the “second-best” pirate in the Spiral.
Their captain, Sinbad, was kidnapped by Crushers, a gang of shark pirates. Why? Apparently there’s a belt that grants the wearer the title of “best Pirate in the spiral” and the Crushers stealing it should be some sort of outrage to us??? The rats don’t seem particularly intelligent. Being the kind-hearted, non-warmongering pirates we are, we agree to meet them in Devilfish Hollow to help.
Crusher’s Shrine
Fight #1: Poffo
We enter the cave where Sinbad is supposedly hidden and are immediately confronted with a mob fight against a shark and some vultures. The fight is straightforward. The enemies have lots of epics, with the boss possessing first strike 3 and guaranteed crit Assassin’s Strike. However, he’s pretty non-threatening overall. Just treat it like a VA2 mob fight.
Enemies:
- Poffo- Level 72 Swashbuckler; 3129 health; has infinite range, single target curse power (blocks healing for 5 rounds)
- Vulture Minion (Musketeer)- Level 70-72 Musketeer; 3000-3200 health; Hybrid (has functional repel boarders 1 that knocks units back 1 square); Ranged Stun power
- Vulture Minion (Buccaneer)- Level 70-72 Buccaneer; 3000-3200 health
After defeating the shark and his buddies, who are apparently from Aquila (?), we continue further into the cave, with Mr. Shark saying this kind of disturbing message:
Fight #2: Vultures
It seems that another double cross is inevitable. We then go down a waterfall, since Sinbad is a tiger and hates water, so it’s obvious his antagonists would take him into water. Why we trust these random rats is beyond me. At the foot of the waterfall, you’re faced with another (very easy) mob fight against vultures from Aquila that for some reason have take up residence in this cave. The mobs do have one interesting set of powers, the ability to perform a ranged stun that makes ranged units completely useless. But we have Scratch, and flames, and tide and other broken stuff, so who cares.
Enemies:
- Vulture Minion (Musketeer)- Level 70-72 Musketeer; 3000-3200 health; Hybrid (has functional repel boarders 1 that knocks units back 1 square); Ranged Stun power
- Vulture Minion (Buccaneer)- Level 70-72 Buccaneer; 3000-3200 health
Fight #3: Fliehr
Next, we face off with a cat pirate who thinks we’re Sinbad’s first mate that wants to wrestle with him. It’s pretty clear that these rats haven’t been completely honest with us. The fight itself is, again, simple. The boss has VA2-esque epics and some interesting powers (Sky Spirit), but we have even more powerful stuff available. Overall, these fights underscore how essential it is that Scratch and Blood Flames get nerfed heavily: they make otherwise interesting fights boring.
Enemies:
- Fliehr- Level 72 Swashbuckler; 3959 health; has Sky Spirit, guaranteed critical Assassin’s Strike, and Assassin’s Stride
- Vulture Minion (Musketeer)- Level 70-72 Musketeer; 3000-3200 health; Hybrid (has functional repel boarders 1 that knocks units back 1 square); Ranged Stun power
- Vulture Minion (Buccaneer)- Level 70-72 Buccaneer; 3000-3200 health
After taking down Fliehr, we hear another wrestling-themed taunt:
Fight #4: Crush-tacian
It comes from the leader of the Crusher clan, the CRUSH-tacian, who has lots of nasty epics and Whale’s Might trained. However, the fight is still extremely easy. Buff. Attack. Win. The bosses in this dungeon have damage caps, but they’re still 3-hit by flames, Scratch AOEs, and the like.
Enemies:
- Crush-tacean- Level 73 Buccaneer; 3691 health; has Whales might and guaranteed critical Vicious Charge
- Vulture Minion (Musketeer)- Level 70-72 Musketeer; 3000-3200 health; Hybrid (has functional repel boarders 1 that knocks units back 1 square); Ranged Stun power
- Vulture Minion (Buccaneer)- Level 70-72 Buccaneer; 3000-3200 health
After surrendering, we hear Sinbad’s yells, after the Crush-tacian claims Sinbad is nowhere in the shrine. Our rat amigos tell us to wait and guard the door while they investigate. This absolutely isn’t a setup for a double cross. Nope. Not at all.
Fight #5: Pirate Rumble
Apparently, Sinbad stole the belt from the Crush-tacian with our unwitting assistance. So, all the previous bosses we fought, as well as some of Sinbad’s pirate friends decide to try and kill us. This is a 9 enemy fight if you’re solo, so it’s not a complete joke. The bosses have all of their old powers, such as single target Curses that disable healing, buffs like Whale’s Might, and crit Assassin’s strikes.
However, if you use the ever-balanced strategy of Scratch, two sets of flames (Summer and Blood), Frozen Tide, and Black Fog, you can make this fight look like a level 1 mob fight (you’ll get similar results with other Scratch-centric strategies). You can also make it trivial with friends. There are no cheats to be reported here, just the standard Valencia 2 recipe of high-stat mobs that hit hard and have a couple of random powers they rarely use.
Enemies:
- Albano- Level 75 Swashbuckler; 3858 health; has Sky Spirit and guaranteed crit assassin
- Crush-tacian- Level 75 Buccaneer; 3912 health; has Whale’s might and guaranteed critical Vicious Charge
- Carmine- Level 72 Buccaneer; 3287 health;
- Fliehr- Level 73 Swashbuckler; 3912 health; has Sky Spirit, guaranteed critical Assassin’s Strike, and Assassin’s Stride
- Poffo- Level 73 Swashbuckler; 3230 health; has infinite range, single target curse power (blocks healing for 5 rounds)
- Toombs- Level 72 Buccaneer; 4029 health
- Rowdy Ratty Piper- Level 72 Buccaneer; 4029 health
- Wharf Rat Mouse and Rat- Level 70-74 Swashbuckler; 3000-3200 health
After Sinbad’s first mate realizes Sinbad has abandoned him, he offers to team up with us to get revenge on Sinbad. The magical belt Sinbad stole allows one to access a great treasure, The Eye of the Liger, and we will (eventually) pursue Sinbad and that treasure.
Drops
With the exception of the final fight, the dungeon’s drops are largely uninteresting. You’ll get gold and auctionable Aquila and VA2 gear from the enemies, large amounts of gold, doubloons, and Aquila no auction gear from double and quad lock chests. The final fight drops a set of boarding hook weapons. These weapons have slightly higher than normal weapon power and come with a copy of Espirit de Corps. They can change the stat they boost off of based on your pirate’s primary stat, similar to past pack weapons.
Conclusion
The Pirate101 Sinbad quest was a nice addition to the game. Once we see their bugs fixed, the Sinbad weapons seem like they might have legs in PvP. Espirit de Corps is a very good power. However, the dungeon itself was a bit too easy for my taste. The enemies have no cheats, rarely use their special powers (I only observed buffs being used when my entire team was hidden or the enemy team was frozen) and we can out-buff their initial stat advantage over us.
I would have liked to see some legitimate cheats to make the fights non-trivial. For instance, Obsidian Bonnie Anne did a good job at making flames a much worse power than they usually are. Other ways of making the fights more challenging could include ways of punishing high mojo levels (cheat cast mojo burns) or high stats (more debuffs). Wizard101 has a plethora of cheating bosses, many of which make their fights feel very unique. I haven’t seen that often in Pirate101, and would like to.
Even the final fight, a 9 enemy smackdown with 5 “bosses” is made simple for a SOLO PLAYER by Old Scratch and Blood Flames. I’m not sure if this content was intended to be difficult, but if it was, it missed the bar dramatically. If this was intended to be a required segue to more storyline content in the future, the difficulty was fine.
Overall, decent content, decent weapons. I’m glad it’s available to free to play characters, but think it is far too easy, especially for our first content in almost 2 years. Hopefully this is a sign of more good things to come!