Guide part 7
Training
Plop! You're dropped into the game in your cabin, where your boatswain Malcolm will run you through your paces. First, you've got to grab your spyglass, pistol other assorted goodies out of the cabinet behind the bed, and your sword from the chest to your right. Malcolm will give you instructions on how to use the inventory system to grab stuff.
Once you do this, speak to Malcolm and he'll instruct you on how to equip weapons. Equip your sword, pistol and spyglass on the inventory screen and speak to him again..
Next, Malcolm offers to teach you how to use the sword. If this is your first time playing, accept his offer. While he's giving you instructions, you'll notice that you need to scroll down to the bottom of long text messages before you can respond. Follow his instructions and practice drawing your sword, blocking, dodging, swinging and shooting.
Before you leave the ship, Malcolm will tell you about skill and ability points. Equip your points and ability (I'd personally recommend Leadership and Melee for your skills, and Shared Experience for your Ability, but it's up to you), but don't worry about listening to him talk about the different skills. It'd be faster just to read about them in the Leveling up section of this guide. Now he'll remind you of your first set of quests and you'll enter Oxbay.
Oxbay
The easiest way to get through these first missions is to accept Malcolm's offers to take you to different places. If you get separated from him, just use the quick travel menu (See the In Town section of this guide if you need to know how it works) to go from place to place.
Buy a New Spyglass
Follow Malcolm up the stairs by the port until you reach the guys selling stuff out of little tents. Ask the owner to show you his goods and you'll see a list of his and your items mixed together. Toggle over to common spyglass and buy it for just over 1100 gold.
Hint: As you're walking up the pier, stay along the left edge and you may see the take item icon come up. Hit the grab button and take the item to get a small goodie.
While there is some other interesting stuff at this shop, we can't afford to buy anything else right now. Leave the shopping screen, then go in and equip your new spyglass. Now speak to the shopkeeper again and sell your old spyglass to him. To do this, just highlight the object, press the confirm button then press right to select "sell" and hit the confirm button again.
Sell the Chocolate and Leather
Speak to Malcolm again and he'll tell you to go to the store inside the town walls to sell the goods in your ship's cargo hold. Follow him inside the town walls, then have him lead you to the store. Speak to the shopkeeper and ask to sell your goods. From here, select the Victory form the ship screen, then sell the chocolate and leather the same way that you sold that old spyglass. You'll earn about 1700 gold, money needed to hire crew and make ship repairs.
Recruit Crew (and explore the tavern)
Follow Malcolm to the tavern to pick up some new hands for your ship. As you walk past a large tree right in front of the tavern doors you might come across a small hidden treasure.
The Tavern is the social hub of any town, and there's always a ton of stuff to do. First, we'll complete our mission. Speak to the innkeeper, who's behind the bar, and ask to hire some crew. This will bring you to the Hire screen. Just select your ship, select the hire option and hold right to fill the ship with another 20-odd crew, until you reach the full complement of your tiny little ship, 57 men.
Before we go and repair our ship, let's explore the tavern a bit more. The exact identity of each character and their location is randomly generated, so you may not encounter the exact same people in your game as I do in this one. Nevertheless, most of the same types of people will be in the tavern.
The man sitting at a table in a red jacket is a gambler. Feel free to play a little bit of craps with him if you want, but don't go overboard: your luck isn't high enough yet to make this profitable. The guy sitting at the table on the same side of the tavern as the bar is an officer looking for a job. We could hire him for 2100 gold, but then we wouldn't have enough money to repair our ship later, so we'd better not.
The fellow sitting at the table next to the gambler is a drunkard. Dealing with these guys is never profitable, but it can be entertaining. If you offer to drink with them, and keep ordering more cups, one of several things will happen. He'll either get paranoid and think you're trying to rob him, at which point the barkeep will break you up, or you'll pass out and the cur will rob you of some money. Once in a while, he'll ask you to kill a soldier who's insulted him. Don't do it! Those guys are fairly tough, at least this early in the game, and they have a nasty habit of calling in unlimited reinforcements.
Sitting on the second floor of the tavern is a smuggler. We don't have any goods to sell him yet, so there's no point in chatting.
Repair Your Ship
Exit the tavern, then follow Malcolm to the shipyard. Here, you've got to speak to the shipyard owner, and ask to repair your ship. Now simply select your ship, select "repair all" and that's that. It'll cost most of your money, but it's necessary to have a fully functional ship.
Freedom!
Now that you've completed your basic "getting to know the town" missions, Malcolm will leave you alone. He suggests that you borrow money from a loanshark, buy silk and sandal at the store, then sail to Redmond and sell the stuff for a nice profit. This isn't a bad idea, but we've got some more stuff to do on this island, like finding one of the best swords in the game.
First, let's pick up a better sword than the lousy one we've got. Go to any of the merchants and pick up a Yatagahan, then equip it and sell your old blade. Now we're ready to explore the jungle.
Outside Oxbay
Exit the town via the opposite door that you entered from (it'll say Exit From Oxbay instead of Oxbay Port when you approach). We're about to get into our first fights, so be sure to save your game.
While outside the town, battles are randomly generated, and in this area usually consist of four brigands. They'll approach you and demand money. If you give them half your wealth they'll leave you alone, or you can fight. (See the hand-to-hand section of this guide for fighting tips) Alternately, you could just go backwards until a new area loads, then return and the enemies might be gone.
Follow the left path leading away from the town. After the next screen loads, hug the right wall and you'll find a path leading to the Cave Entrance. Get ready for a fight, and enter the cave.
In The Cave
This dungeon is a winding, mind-boggling maze full of fairly nasty skeleton pirates. Luckily, we're only going to be in here for a second. First, run forward until you reach an intersection, and turn right. Now head straight forward and you'll eventually reach the Falchion, stuck in a beam in a dead end. On the way, be sure to check every intersection for skeletons. These guys aren't too bad if you fight them head on, since they can't surround you in the narrow caves. If you miss one, though, and he gets behind you you're completely screwed.
Now that you've got the Falchion, we don't need to be in the cave anymore. Stick around and fight the skeletons to gain some experience if you want, otherwise return to Oxbay.
Back in Oxbay
Now that we're well equipped, and have hopefully gone up a level or two, it's time to hit the seas. Let's follow Malcolm's advice and visit the loanshark, whose house will be to your right as you enter the town from the jungle entrance. Borrow as much money as you can from him, then go to the shop and buy as much Silk and Sandal as you can afford.
Now let's get out of here. Return to the port and walk out to pier that you first came down. When the unlock icon appears, hit the confirm button and you'll be treated to one of the game's exceedingly rare cutscenes, then it's off to sea.
The World Map
(For detailed instructions on how you sail your ship, see the At Sea section of this guide.) At this point, the world is our oyster. We can go wherever we please, take whatever missions we want, and so on. However, the cutscene hinted that we needed to go speak to the Redmond governor to tell him of Oxbay's invasion, and since we've got goods to take there as well, that's where we'll head first. Head due east of Oxbay and you should find the island with no problem. For the moment, you're best off avoiding any pirates that you see.
Redmond
When you reach Redmond, head to the store to sell your silk and sandal. You'll find it by heading straight from the entrance, in the main square. Now, head across the street and into the town hall to speak with the governor. (Note that if it's nighttime, you'll have to wait in the tavern until day.) You may have to engage in some conversation with the guards before they let you in.
After some conversation with the governor, you'll be ordered to make a reconnaissance of Oxbay. Return to your ship and sail back to Oxbay Island. Along the way, you might want to intrude on any naval battles already underway and try to capture an injured pirate ship to replace your Lugger. Just be sure to save beforehand.
Reconnaissance in Oxbay
Upon your return to Oxbay Island, dock at Grey Rock Bay. At the first split in the path go left, then head straight until you reach Oxbay. You'll be accosted by a couple guards at the gate. To avoid a fight, say "What, why?" and then tell them that you have an important communiqu¿ for their boss.
Enter the town, and go to the tavern. Speak with the barkeeper, and you'll come up with a plan to get a French soldier drunk and pry information loose from him. When the barkeeper asks about compensation for the beer, tell him that the Governor of Redmond will repay him later, or else you'll have to fork up 90 gold.
Now speak to the French soldier seated at the table behind you. After some conversation you'll lure him outside the city walls to "visit his lady friend." He'll eventually stop, and you'll extract information about an ammunition ship waiting in harbor for an escort. Once you're done with him, you'll have to choose to kill him or let him go. Either way, the guards at the Oxbay gates will attack you, so this is purely a matter of reputation. If you want to be a good guy, let him go. If you want to be a naughty pirate, kill him. Either way, hightail it back to the beach, return to your ship, and go back to Redmond. Speak to the Governor to complete the mission and receive a reward.
From this point the game begins to branch out significantly. You can take more mission from the Governor, or you could try your luck working for other nations. You could take cargo quests, or ferry passengers, or just massacre villages. Go forth, kill a lot of stuff, and make me proud!