The Subtle Art of Blowing Pirates to Smithereens

[QuartzBeam]

Are you tired of living in fear of those mean monkeys that terrorize our once pristine blue seas?

Do you wish you could get your hand on all that pirate loot without having to sell a kidney's worth of armor and healing (or another late game item of your choice)?

Well, turns out you can! And all for the low, low price of 6 Rocks and 1 Gunpowder!

 

The Problem: Fighting the pirates head-on is gonna net you the loot you want (provided you survive), but will rack up an enormous bill that you cannot afford. Shooting at the pirates' boat while they are approaching will make them retreat, so no loot at all. Shooting the pirates' boat twice will sink it, killing the Powder Monkeys, but the Prime Mate will abandon ship and you won't get his loot, which is the whole point of killing the pirates.

 

The Solution: Let the pirates approach. (Use bumpers to avoid getting leaks on your boat, cause that'll probably make the next step harder.) Lure the Powder Monkeys onto your boat with promises of treasure. This will give you a couple of clean shots at the Prime Mate while the Powder Monkeys are busy emptying your chests. Once the Prime Mate is dead, finish off the pirates' boat. Chances are the Powder Monkeys will attempt to board their boat just in time for them to sink to the depths along with it. Retrieve your stolen belongings and collect your precious loot.

 

Here's a little demonstration:

 

NOTES:

• I used a Banana to lure the Powder Monkeys in the video, but I suspect that dropping a bunch of easily replaceable items, such as twigs, in stacks of 1 might delay them more.
• The 4th Cannonball in the video was completely unnecessary, but I didn't realize it until it was too late. Whether you'll need 3 or 4 cannonballs depends on whether the shot that kills the Prime Mate manages to damage the pirate boat as well or not.
• The primary weakness of this method is you need to have somewhat decent reflexes, unlike the person who made the video.
• The other weakness is that you cannot shoot a cannonball over your own boat, at least not without causing property damage, so you need to equip your boat to account for all the angles the pirates might come from. (That could mean using a Rudder or having multiple cannons or whatever. The choice is yours.)
• If you already know where the Pirate Stash is located, you can just kill the Prime Mate and let the Powder Monkeys sail away. The loot dropped by the now dead Prime Mate Rest In Pieces will be added to the stash when the pirate boat despawns. (Sparing the Powder Monkeys also means you only get 1 Accursed Trinket per raid, allowing you to farm multiple raids before you start to feel a little wonkey...)

[Nettalie]

Honestly that's very nice.

Also shoutouts to that one powder monkey who outright refused to drown and just sorta... Floated onto your boat.

[Primalflower]

It was awfully satisfying to see that prime mate fall over dead. Thanks for the tips!

[Mike23Ua]

This looks cool.. but now do it on Xbox or PlayStation without the point & click aiming.

If Klei needs to balance any features about this game- it’s with a Xbox/PlayStation & now Switch controller in mind first.

As they stand right now.. I hate the Pirate Raids (day 215 world) & I’m saying that as a Wendy Main who lets Abigail do most the work

[Nettalie]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

This looks cool.. but now do it on Xbox or PlayStation without the point & click aiming.

If Klei needs to balance any features about this game- it’s with a Xbox/PlayStation & now Switch controller in mind first.

As they stand right now.. I hate the Pirate Raids (day 215 world) & I’m saying that as a Wendy Main who lets Abigail do most the work

While I do agree that they need to adjust a ton of things more around controllers, would the aiming in this case not be the same on a controler as well? I mean yeah it wouldn't be as convenient or quick, but you should be able to aim it fine enough I think.

Otherwise though I do agree, controls on controllers tend to get the short end of the stick a lot.