Brigs/Barbs Guide

Preparing for battle

1. General Thoughts

Battle navigation against brigands is very much a cat and mouse game, with you being the mouse and them being the cat. Regardless of the level of AI you’re facing, the brigands will almost always be making moves coming towards you. You will very rarely see a brigand run away. One of the main principles of battle navigation is learning how to exploit this. You can think of it as “running away while putting yourself in a position to shoot them”. The first few shots in a battle are always the most important, because after that, the brigand will begin to run out of tokens making it much easier for you to finish them off.

Brigands are psychic. They may not always act upon it, but they know which moves you have placed, and will react accordingly. The tougher the brigands, the more likely they place the perfect counter-move. To beat them you need to play with this in mind 100% of the time; to plan for the worst and hope for the best. I see navigators saying they lost battles because brigands “cheated”. Well, of course they cheated, that is how the AI works.

Don’t get frustrated if you mess up a few times in the beginning, everyone does. Instead, focus on asking yourself why the outcome of the battle navigation puzzle ended up how it did, and try not to make the same mistake twice. At its core, battle navigation is a very simple puzzle; there is only a small finite combination of moves that may happen at any given time. Keeping that in mind, you may find that getting used to the interface and becoming comfortable with the “rules” of the puzzle is all you need to move up to the next level. And, like most other things, that will only come with experience.

2. Route Difficulty

There are 8 different levels of brigand AI, from Sailors to Imperials, as well as different levels of route difficulty. Generally, routes near large colonized islands are easier (green) while interarch routes and routes a bit further away from population are harder (orange-red). Yellow routes are a good balance between the two, if you do not have an ultimate crew but want more of a challenge than the easiest route. Payouts are determined based upon your sea battle ratings, the level of the brigand, the difficulty of the route you are in, as well as your temporary might rating (wins in a row).

The brigand AI changes based upon route difficulty. An “imperial” on a green route is not the same thing as an “imperial” on a red route, for example. Higher level imperial bots seem to puzzle more effectively, as well as be much better swordfighters. They also predict your moves more effectively, and attempt to shoot you from advantageous situations more often. It is very possible to lose a max-0 swordfight on a hard route, while it is much more difficult to do the same a green route.

Green routes are a good place to learn the battle navigation interface, or a place to pillage if you do not have excellent jobbers. A brigand cutter on a green route will start running out of moves after about 6-8 turns regardless whether you shoot them or not. On harder routes, it’s harder, because you will need to shoot them a few times before you start to notice a significant reduction in tokens.

3. Handling a Ship

a) Spawning

There are ways to manipulate which type of brigands you spawn, based on what route you are on. There are different theories on this, and it depends what the naver is most comfortable with, but generally there are certain match-ups you want to avoid and certain match-ups that are advantageous to the player.

On an orange route (ie. Gauntlet -> Spaniel or Kent -> Scurvy -> Ambush on Sage), in a Sloop, most navigators limit the number of people per ship to 6. The reason being is that with any more pirates on board you will begin to spawn Merchant Brigs instead of Cutters, which take more shots to max, as well as do more damage to you per shot. On the same route, War Brigs are usually limited to 15 Ult/Legendaries in order to spawn Merchant Galleons. Any more than that and you risk the chance of spawning a War Frigate, which deals potentially twice the damage per turn as well as taking nearly twice as many shots to max.

That being said, there are some advantages to spawning larger ships. They will usually be undermanned, making them run out of tokens faster, and be more likely to sit dead in the water. If you are comfortable with the battle navigation puzzle, feel free to load up your ships, but keep in mind that any mistakes you make will be more costly when facing a bigger ship.

b) Stations/Ratings

The most important stations on a sloop are gunning and sails. It will make your life much, much easier if you have pirates that are legendary or above on these stations. The other two are less important to you, because they will not come into play unless you make a mistake, although the pirates should be at least “competent” (Master/Renowned+) there. There are over 80 Ultimate gunners, and 200 Ultimate sailors on Sage, as well as many more Legendary (Grand-Master is not too shabby either). If you are looking for good jobbers, and do not want to use the notice board, 90% of the time I have found that players are receptive to a polite random tell asking if they would like to join a pillage. Try to do an /fwho or /cwho on some of the more experienced flags/crews and go from there.

On hard routes, swordfighting is also of the utmost importance. I have the luxury of pillaging with mostly Ultimate and Legendary swordfighters, but if you do not, adjust which route you are taking accordingly. There cannot be enough said about strong brawlers on a ship, and I’ll expand on this a bit in the swordfighting section.

It is crucial for you not to get frustrated with your crew during a pillage. More often than not when I see a navigator go on a tirade it is mostly due to their own error and not their crew’s. Most people are trying their best, and comments like “where are my scuppering sails *pirate name here*” usually do not have any effect except for maybe making the pillage less enjoyable for everyone. Remember that it is not always fun to be puzzling for hours on end, and try your best to maintain a relaxed atmosphere so your jobbers are enjoying themselves. They will be more likely to job with you again if you do so. If you feel like someone isn’t performing well enough, for whatever reason, then simply take a mental note and do not invite them to pillage with you again next time.

c) Stock

It is always much better to overstock than understock. I would recommend no less than 50 Fine Rum and 200 cannonballs on a sloop pillage with good jobbers. I usually go 100/400, with leftovers at the end, but I have done a few ridiculous 25 battle pillages where I would have run out of stock had I taken any less.

During Battle

4. Predicting Brigand Behaviour

High level brigands are probably the easiest to predict. The same thing that makes them the easiest to predict, however, may also make them the most dangerous because they will capitalize on a player’s mistakes much more often than other brigands. The brigands will always try to shoot you a few times before grappling. Once they have shot you, or if you sufficiently anger them with an LSM, they will go for the grapple.

a) Standing still

If the brigands are within range, and token permitting, they will always take the shortest route to end up either in front of you or behind you in order to hit shots. They may pass by your side occasionally if it is part of the shortest route, and take a shot there, but rarely will they stop beside you to shoot four times. This is where Last Second Moves come in. It is very rarely a good idea to end a turn standing still unless you are trying to setup a move and are 100% certain that the brigand can’t shoot you that turn.

If they are outside of range, they will move as close as possible, based on the tokens they have. This often involves a lot of lefts and rights, as well as use of whirlpools and wind.

b) Moving

If you move, the brigands will follow. If you do not move far enough away, they will do the same thing as a), which is where faking moves comes in. Ideally, you want to move 4 spaces away and have them “turn into one of your shots”, with no risk of being shot, then recommence. These are what I like to call safe moves. If, at any point in your move (provided it is not an LSM), you end up with the side of your ship facing the side of the brigand’s and shoot them, there is a fairly good chance they will shoot back, but not always. I believe this is based upon some type of probability calculation which varies depending which type of brigands you are facing. I also believe that the brigands are less likely to shoot you if you do not shoot them in the same situation, again provided that you have not angered them with any last second moves (see below). A lot more testing is needed to confirm this theory, though, and I could be full of shit.

The brigands will use whirlpools and winds to shorten their route to you as usual.

5. Whirlpools and Wind

It is important to know how these work. Not only the way they affect your ship, but how brigands interact with them. The movement bar is your best friend here. It will tell you how many times the brigands will “wait” to let a whirlpool or wind action take effect. Remember that moves happen before the whirlpool or wind effect and shots/grapples happen after. Winds are pretty straightforward, but whirlpools take a bit more practice. You can see whirlpool mechanics here: http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Whirlpool

Whirlpools and winds can be extremely dangerous if you’re not paying close attention. Be sure to analyze the board carefully if brigands are around them. Most of the early grapples or unexpected shots that happen to me are caused by not paying attention to the effects of whirlpools or wind, which can make the brigands move a lot further than expected.

a) Early grapple

The turn looks innocent enough, right? 

The brigand places his imaginary move, pretend it is like so



The player, for whatever reason, feeling he has no way to shoot the brigand this turn, places a garbage move. BUT, the brigand reacts. This is why you always double check your movement bar in such a case. 

If you're lucky, the brigand shot you instead of grappling, but have fun with the next turn 

b) Unexpected shots

If you're not paying attention, the situation looks like a perfect spot to attempt shooting the brigand with little risk to yourself 

But, the wind changes everything, and you end up going 2-2 

6. Navigating with caution

It is much better to take an extra 5 turns to end the sea battle max-0 than end it quickly but finish at a score of max-3 or max-4, or worse. The best moves are ones that put you in a position to shoot the brigand, with very little to no risk of being shot back (not to mention grappled). It is also important to end turns in situations where the brigand does not have a guaranteed shot on you depending on what you do.

a) “Safe” moves

As I said before, the best moves give you the highest percentage chance of getting a shot in while keeping the chance that the brigand will get a shot in (now or in the future) minimal. This is usually by attempting to shoot the brigands from behind, either through LSM trickery or waiting until they are dead in the water. But you can also hit them relatively safely when they are coming at you, if you maintain the proper distance, and as long as you do not place yourself in a bad position for next turn (ending turns).

The idea is to stay far enough away so you make them turn into your shot, and then move the next turn, before they get too close. This works well on regular terrain, but it also works pretty well when brigands are going through whirlpools, because they will not avoid a whirlpool if it’s a trade-off between getting shot and moving closer to you.

Screenshots illustrating an example:

This is a safe move. Shoot the brigand on the 3rd turn and you have no risk of being shot yourself. The brigand may or may not turn into you 3 spaces away, which is exactly what you want him to do. Turn away on the 4th turn to avoid being shot next turn. 

This is an unsafe move, if you shoot on the third turn he will shoot you back, because he is too close. Always try to predict where the brigand will end up and try to shoot him from the appropriate distance. 

b) Ending turns

Always try to plan one turn ahead. That is, be sure to pay attention to how you end turns. A move where you get three shots to zero is not good if it means you will get shot a couple of times or possibly grappled next turn. This happens most frequently when brigs move forward into your cannons and end with the front of their ship one space away from your side.

The following example shows this. If you've already wasted your LSM, you better pray that they shoot you instead of grappling. I traced the best moves that it takes to get out of this situation, putting you up 1-0, as long as you have an LSM available, using the faking moves section below.

A really bad way to end a turn. To get out of it, fake left turn 1, then move right right right up shooting right on the last turn. This should make it 1-0 in your favour. If you don't have enough right tokens, then just run away. 

To avoid this, always turn away at least one (preferably two) spaces BEFORE the brigands reach the front of your ship. This will greatly reduce the chance of them turning to shoot you, and nullify any chance they have of getting an early grapple.

7. Using Terrain

Understanding how to use the board to your advantage is very important.

a) Leading around rocks

Moving around rocks reduces the number of possible moves a brigand can make (without turning into a rock), effectively making their movement much more predictable. By leading the brigands around rocks, you can force them to move forward into your cannons with very little to no chance of being hit.

This screenshot is not an ideal example, but it gives you a general idea. The principal here is the rocks will greatly reduce the chance of the brigand shooting you.

Shoot turns 2 and 3, move on turn 4



8. Reading the Movement Bar effectively

The movement bar is your best friend. I usually let the brigands place their moves first, and then place mine. If their movement bar changes based on the moves you’ve placed, you need to reanalyze the situation, and be sure you’re not putting yourself in a situation where you may be shot or grappled. A change in the brigand’s movement bar, if they are close enough, is a sign that you overlooked something and may get shot in the coming turn; this happens most frequently around whirlpools. The bar means less early in the fight, as they will probably be filling it up every turn so you will not see the changes.

See the link to whirlpool example for ways the brigand may change their movement bar in order to screw you over.

a) Move cycling

You can place moves to see how the brigand reacts on their movement bar, and then adjust accordingly. This is not the same thing as LSM; it is more of a “guess to see what you’re up against” type deal. For how movement cycling relates to LSM, see the faking moves section. Most often I use this tactic when the brigand is not filling up its movement bar. By cycling a move, I can guess where he is going; based on whether he adds more moves (usually shots).

If that wasn’t clear, see this example:

NOTE: Now that I rethink this, this is a very bad example of move cycling, but I hope you get the jist of it. The idea is you can see how the brigand reacts to the way you place your tokens to figure out which moves he is going to make. Ideally you do not want to start in a spot facing the brigand. There are ways to use move cycling which make it nearly 100% certain which tokens they have, and this is not one of them. In this situation if I were navving cautiously I would probably go Right-Up, wait for the brigand to make his move and go from there. But, for the sake of example...

You're standing still. The brigand is most likely going to shoot you 4 times. 

You decide to move right and see how he reacts. If the brigand only places one token, he is either going left or right. If he places three tokens in response to your right, he is going up and shooting you twice (no screenshot, sorry). 

If you do this, and the brigand places two tokens, he is going left and shooting you twice. If he doesn't then you know he doesn't have a left.



If you place two up and one left token, the brigand is probably turning right. But this is the most questionable out of the three, because he may be doing something else, just on a different turn.



See LSM Grappling for another example of move cycling.

b) Brigand token generation

Brigands are very predictable when they begin running out of tokens. They always generate tokens based on the auto sails. This is why you sometimes see a brig run into a wind over and over again, pushing it back the opposite direction, because the only token they are generating is an up. You can use this to your advantage big time and try to “guess” which tokens a brigand will have at his disposal, keeping in mind auto sail generation goes Up > Left > Right. This, combined with move cycling, allows you to nearly psychically predict brigand behaviour late in the battle. Note: moves decay in 4 turns, hover your mouse over each movement token to see which are going to decay soon. This is also useful for re-engaging.

9. Last Second Moves (Important note: I knew much less than I thought about this when writing this section. It appears to me that revenge mode only lasts one turn. If this is true, then it is powerful to the point that any "mediocre" BNavver will be able to max-0 with the best of them after about 30 battles of practice or so. I am 100 (and one)% sure that this is true on Sage and Viridian. Take everything in this section with a grain of salt, except for the moves themselves! All of the 'myths' I posted about concerning LSM turned out to be myths in the end, which is sorta ironic. I will leave it up for historical reference.)

This is probably one of the most misunderstood parts of navigation. DO NOT PLACE EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE AT THE LAST SECOND. Many green captains advise their crew to do this, because the brigands “can’t read them”, but that is completely false, and dates back to a game update made two years ago. Still, you may even get away with LSM’ing frequently against weak Imperials, but beware, as soon as you move onto a harder route you will need to change your nav habits drastically.

Last second moves only work reliably 2-3 times per battle. Immediately after the player places a last second move, the brigands go into “revenge” mode. This nullifies your ability to read their movement bar, because they will begin to LSM you and cheat to find the best possible move to do based on your set I find that this lasts approximately 5-6 turns before you can safely place another last second move, but I am not certain. Personally, I will not do a risky last second move in a battle where I have already used the tactic once.

To place an LSM effectively you must know exactly what the brigand is going to do with their current moveset. If you’re not at least 99% certain, then do not use a last second move. If the former condition is met, then there are three two situations in which you should be placing last second moves:

i. You are *guaranteed* to get 2 or more shots into the brigand AND you will end up in a situation where they have no chance of shooting you the turn after, such as more than two spaces behind them. I have found that brigands become completely psychic the turn immediately following an LSM. If they have a chance to shoot you, they most likely will.

ii. They are already maxed and you are going for the grapple.

iii. You messed up the previous turn, and there is no other way to get out of the move without being shot and/or grappled unless you LSM.

That being said, LSM is one of the most powerful tools in player vs. brigand navigation. Hitting a successful LSM shifts the battle in your favour drastically, because the brigand’s bilge will begin to fill up and token generation will grind to a halt. In general, you want to end an LSM either behind or to the side of the brigand, never in front, because that will allow them to shoot you next turn.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE ON THE SCREENSHOTS IN THIS SECTION: Do not do LSM (or fake moves) like I did unless the brigand *has their movement bar full*. I forgot to do this when I was taking screenshots, because we did it in a PvP just to show different situations. If they do not have any moves in their movement bar, like the screenshots show, see the link to Dead in the Water section below.

A classic 3 shot LSM, go Left shoot turn 2 left up shoot turn 3 and 4, and it will be a quick 3-0.



Voila



NOTE: In this first situation, the brigand may go Left-Right shooting you on all 4 turns if for some reason he does not have sufficient up tokens. Either way, it is a good move, because you get one shot guaranteed and a 90% chance of 3 shots, with no risk to yourself, and a good end to the turn.

A 4 shot LSM. Go left right shooting right on every turn and you will be up 4-0. 

Presto



a) Faking Moves

This is an extension of LSM. There are certain situations that you can fake a move, to force a brigand to do a certain move, and then change your move at the last second based on the move that you think you forced the brigand to do. This has its uses in sea battle, and the same things hold true for faking moves as LSM. I find it to be a bit less reliable, though, but that could be random speculation.

This is an easy 4 shot fake move, provided the brigand has two up tokens. Fake an up then immediately change it to right right shooting right on all 4 turns. 

Outcome



b) Setting up an LSM

Often you can setup a 3 or 4 shot LSM successfully early in the battle, as long as the brigands have sufficient tokens. This requires you to think two moves ahead. First, you need to trace the brigand’s moves and try to predict where they will end up, then position yourself accordingly. This isn’t as hard to do as it sounds once you get the practice.

c) Dead in the water

There are times when, for whatever reason, the brigands will not place any moves on their movement bar. This may happen even when you know they have enough tokens to make a move. I have seen much talk on the forums of placing a certain moveset that the brigands do not understand how to react to, and forcing them to become dead in the water, but I have never been able to reproduce this myself against high end brigands (and I’ve tried a LOT). If anyone wants to enlighten me, please do so, but until then I will assume that this was updated and the information is dated.

DITW usually occurs in the middle of the battle. Once you have enough battles under your belt, you will get a feel for it, and be able to predict fairly well at the start of which turn the brigand will not place any moves. Feel free to LSM them at this point as long as your last LSM was more than a few turns ago.

d) Grappling This section is especially misguided. I will leave it up anyway, because it did work for me at the time. But please note that with the update, this stuff will not work, because the brigands have more tokens to work with. These are what you call "Fake LSMs" -- I guess I must have been triggering the revenge timer the turn before without knowing it. The brigand was DITW anyway and I would have been just as well off to place a normal move in order to grapple.

Place the moves that you want to grapple them with at the beginning of the turn, as early as possible. If the brigand doesn’t react, provided you didn’t LSM within ~4-5 turns, leave it as is and go ahead and grapple them. I’d say they do not react about 10% of the time. If they do react, which is most likely, take off your moves right away. The brigand will change his moves too, putting either no moves or one or two moves in the bar. If there are more than that, double check to make sure you cannot be shot that turn standing still because it is unlikely they will have more than two tokens at this point.

If they put no moves up, then do the exact same thing you did to grapple them at the beginning of the turn, except place it at the last second. This usually works, but also use your instinct, if they’ve been sitting still for 5 turns, then they’re bound to have generated a token. Be more careful in this situation.

If they do put moves up, then wait. If they are maxed you will be able to grapple them within a turn or two. Repeat this every turn until they put no moves up. If, for whatever reason, they continue generating tokens while maxed, then use move cycling principles discussed above to figure out which moves they are and LSM grapple them.

If the brigand puts no moves up after you cycle, then he probably isn't moving. You better be sure you have an LSM to use though. 

If the brigand ends up like this, then you can nearly be sure he is going to go left. Setup a grapple for the next turn



If he ends up like this after you cycle moves, then you know he has one move. The question is, which?



If the brigand does this (or change his tokens in any way) in response to the move cycle up up right, then you can probably bet safely he is going up. Move accordingly. If he keeps his 1 move up, then you can bet he's going right. 

Grapple! 

10. Swordfights

a) Teaming

Along with LSM, teaming is another thing that most people do not understand properly. I even see supposedly good navvers, self-made “ultimates” on Sage, blame their losses on failure to team when the score of the battle is max-5 and half of their swordfighters are able. These are the same type of people that actually look up the colour of people’s swords, in the middle of battle, and scream at them to team. They do not realize that performing proficiently in the swordfighting puzzle is much more important than trying to control everyone’s location in the brawl against bots, especially on easy routes.

I was jobbing off of the notice board on an alt earlier, and I landed a job with a well-known crew, on a sloop led by a politically active player, whose stats read “Illustrious”. It was a green route, and I was incredible on sails, so we had plenty of tokens, but for whatever reason we got grappled early 2-0 or so. In the SF, I got lucky with no bots attacking me, as well as getting a nice set of early blocks, so I quickly built and insta’d one bot solo. The captain yelled at me to team, effectively becoming useless in the swordfight for the time it took him to look through 7 people’s sword colours and then type. But I had no bots attacking me, and the rest of the ship was still struggling to knock out their first victims, so I decided to choose a new target instead of wasting a large strike on one of the nearly dead ones. I managed to take out the other bot as well, before the rest of the crew knocked out their first.

I was expecting to receive a medal or something, but what happened? After battle, he planked me. I sent him a polite tell inquiring why I was planked, and he replied “you not teaming almost made us lose”.

Yes, there is a place for teams, but they do not have nearly as much effect on the outcome of battles as people think, in my opinion. In fact, there are just as many situations where it is advantageous to not be teamed, as the other way around. Generally, on hard routes, you want to make sure that you “finish off” all bots that are badly hurt. The worst thing that can happen is a bot "turning the world upside down" by breaking their entire screen, and not only sending someone a large attack, but preventing you from knocking him out and moving on to the next bot, which in turn gives his fellow bot more time to send someone else a large attack.

The better SF’ers you have, the smaller you want teams to be. Allow your good SF’ers free reign; they usually know what they are doing. Never stress out over teams instead of concentrating on the swordfight, it could be the difference between winning and losing. If I had to say one thing about teaming, it would be “do not overteam”, because apparently having teams of 4 causes bots to stall (I question the validity of this statement, though. Is 4 really the magic number? Are you sure it's not 3?).

b) Chainsaws

Some brigands, even of the same colour on the same route, appear to send more strikes and combos than others. I am not sure of the explanation for this, but I strongly believe that every fight is winnable. Most max-0 fights are lost because either you do not have strong enough SF’ers, your strong SF’ers aren’t paying attention, you got a very unlucky combination of blocks and breakers, or the bots targeting at the beginning of the fight is optimal.

I have yet to lose a max-0 re-engage to a “chainsaw” when I make sure my entire ship is paying attention to the sword fight.

11. Re-engages

If you get a battle worse than max-3, swallow your pride, make sure they’re dead in the water and re-engage. Re-engages are always fast battles because the brigand will (hopefully) start with very high damage and bilge. Just wait for their initial moves to decay and then go from there. It is much better to give yourself the best chance of winning, and take an extra 5 minutes doing it, than go into a swordfight with very little chance.

For this reason you should always try letting the brigands engage you, and not the other way around, so the re-engage option is open. You never know when you might get unlucky and lose a swordfight.