Dead Men Tell No Tales...
"Now I remember! You're that scrap of flotsam from the jail. Come to square up with me for that free trip to Port Royal, eh?
We're going after the Black Pearl, mate. Savvy?"
Captain Jack Sparrow
Pirates of the Caribbean Online was an MMORPG based on the series of the same name. It was published by Disney and developed by Jesse Schell.note Running from 2007 to 2013, it allowed users to play the role of a pirate in the Caribbean.
Taking place some time after the first movie, the player character is rescued by the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow from a remote prison island. However, he didn't rescue you for nothing - he's in need of a favor, and that favor is helping him rescue his ship, the Black Pearl, from the clutches of the British Royal Navy. In order to do this, you have to gather the Pearl's crew and convince them to join you and Sparrow in retrieving the ship. Along the way, you'll have to battle the British Navy, Cutler Beckett's East India Trading Company Black Guard mercenaries, and the cursed creations of Jolly Roger, an undead pirate who has a bone to pick with Sparrow.
The gameplay is pretty straightforward for an MMORPG - pull out your weapon, engage an enemy, click your mouse to attack, occasionally press number buttons to use special techniques, defeat the enemy, rinse and repeat until your quest is done. The game also has an emphasis on sailing and sea combat, with several boats and boat customizations at your disposal.
Pirates of the Caribbean Online was shut down in September of 2013. However, a group of dedicated fans have completely remade the game. This recreation is titled The Legend of Pirates Online, includes specifically fan-made expansions and patches, and can be played for free here
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Pirates of The Caribbean Online provides examples of...
- Abandoned Mine: El Patron's Mine on Raven's Cove. Complete with high-level Ghost Pirates.
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Undead Poker, played as part of the Raven's Cove story quest. Winning games will gain you a lot of money, as well as bringing you one step closer to the mines. Losing them, however, will reduce your health. HP regeneration is also disabled while in the area, so you can't cheat your way out of it by taking a breather.
- Allegedly Free Game: A free account would lose half of their "notoriety" (experience) per kill, can only do a few quests, have access to only three weapons (Cutlass, Pistol and Voodoo Doll) and two ship types, get no ship upgrades, and have nothing to spend money on. Oh, and a level cap of 10 (with an absolute maximum of 14 by grinding the three weapons you had up to their own cap of level 7). And you could only play it in fullscreen for one week; after that, you were forced to play it windowed. The Legend of Pirates Online has fortunately done away with all of these restrictions.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- When sailing your ship, your broadside cannons will automatically aim at the nearest enemy if there is one nearby, which is very useful considering that your cannons would otherwise just shoot in a random spread.
- Any player below level 10 will not become Groggy when knocked out, meaning they can get right back into the action after escaping from jail.
- Back Stab: An innate ability of the Daggers - hitting an enemy from the back deals bonus damage.
- Balance, Power, Skill, Gimmick:
- The four ship types can be classified as this. There's the Brig taking on the Balance role, the Frigate is the Power, the Sloop is the Skill, and the Galleon is the Gimmick, being a ship focused on carrying a lot of treasure and players rather than firepower or speed.
- The four different types of swords - the basic Cutlass is the Balance (simple combos, moderate damage), the Broadsword is the Power (slower combo attacks, but generally higher damage and can hit multiple targets), and the Sabre is the Skill (low damage for each hit, but their combo tree utilizes fast attacks). Cursed Blades are an interesting variation of the Gimmick, since a Cursed Blade will technically be a subset of one of the three primary Sword types, but they'll have special elemental or spectral attacks and abilities.
- Bat Out of Hell: Bats can be found in some caves and forests. Most of them aren't really a threat, but one variety - the Fire Bat - will explode upon death, causing moderate damage even to a high-level player.
- Bee Afraid: Giant Killer Bees are somewhat uncommon enemies. You'll have to go through a massive nest of them in order to convince "Scary" Mary Lash to join the Black Pearl's crew.
- Betting Mini-Game: Tortuga Hold 'Em and Blackjack can be played at most taverns. The Legend of Pirates Online added Liar's Dice at the taverns in Bilgewater.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Jolly Roger's undead army and Cutler Beckett's East India Trading Company are the two main villainous groups you'll be up against.
- Big Boo's Haunt: Raven's Cove - an island desolate of all life except for some ravens and one crazy person. However, the enemies you fight here aren't necessarily alive...
- Boarding Party: Crippling a flagship allows a crew to grapple it in and board it, engaging in a melee fight against that ship's crew for bonus loot.
- Bonus Dungeon: The Cave of Lost Souls on Raven's Cove. It's totally optional, there's no quests that require visiting it,note but it contains the toughest Ghost enemies in the game, including Foulberto Smasho.
- The remake, The Legend of Pirates Online, introduces Forsaken Shallows. It's below Isla Tormenta's Cursed Caverns, has five new bosses lying in wait, and holds the highest-level enemies in the game. It's also the only place where you can get certain Legendary Cursed Blades. The only reason a player will ever be required to step in here is to complete a very late-game story quest - after that, you will never need to step foot in here at all unless you want to loot the strongest swords in the game.
- Capture the Flag: A "Capture The Chest" PvP gamemode was released in the remake in Summer of 2021, having crews work against each other to protect their treasure.
- Card Sharp: The player can use Cheat Cards, silently swapping them out for their own in games of Blackjack and Tortuga Hold 'Em to create a much more favorable hand. The Legend of Pirates Online turned this into its own experience category, where leveling up in Gambling would increase your odds at getting away with cheating.
- Cast from Hit Points: The Desolation attack for the Voodoo Staff. It causes a massive amount of damage... although it injures the user to the point where a couple of attacks can easily pick them off.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander:
- Crazy Ned. He was the only survivor of the attack on Raven's Cove by Jolly Roger, and has gone insane as a result.
- Daniel Selkirk, located in the Everlasting Falls on the island of Bilgewater. After he was marooned by the Royal Navy with only a few books, he ended up losing many of his social skills. By the time he was rescued by Alaina Seastone, he ended up taking refuge in Bilgewater's jungle away from any society and speaking almost exclusively in literary quotes.
- Combat Resuscitation: Upon running out of HP in land combat, a player will enter "Knock Out", where they are unable to move or take action, but are still able to talk. If there's another player nearby and they have an extra Tonic, they can be revived and be immediately brought back into the action. Otherwise, the player will be sent to jail and be temporarily given the Groggy status effect.
- The highest-level Spirit Doll skill, Resolve, instantly revives a downed ally. This skill is only present in the remake, The Legend of Pirates Online.
- Cool Boat:
- The player's own ship can become this, with enough materials and upgrades. Sufficient investment can result in your ship being able to tank broadside after broadside while being able to retaliate with cannonballs made of explosive material or even just flat-out shooting lightning at the enemy.
- The Goliath is the Final Boss of the main story quest. It's a Ship-of-the-Line with eighteen broadside cannons, with the ability to fire Firebrand cannonballs, and after the grueling gauntlet against the bridges, it will be ready to stop the player from escaping with the Black Pearl.
- Cooldown Manipulation: The "Leadership" skill is a temporary buff that reduces the cooldown on yours and your shipmate's other skills, including cannon reload times. Those under the effects of it receive a glowing effect on their skill bar, alerting them that they can open fire to their hearts content for the next few seconds.
- Convection, Schmonvection: The player can stand right next to flowing lava on the island of Padres Del Fuego and they won't express any discomfort at all.
- Cosmetic Award: Defeating a Rage Ghost rewards you with a Blue Red Party Hat as proof of your accomplishment.
- Crate Expectations: Crates and barrels are located all around the main islands, and several quests require you to look inside of them to find quest objects.
- Critical Hit: Any weapon with the "Critical Strike" passive skill will deal more damage on occasion.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Daniel Selkirk wants nothing more than to read his collection of books, to the point of almost only speaking in quotes from his books. He is also one of the Keepers of the Code, is a staunch advocate of living off the land, and has taken residence in one of the deadliest Hornet Holes in the Caribbean, to the point of crafting a Legendary Weapon out of the stingers of the hive's residents.
- Damager, Healer, Tank: The Voodoo Doll can fall into these categories as of Version 1.3.0 of The Legend of Pirates Online. Bane Dolls have a high DPS, Mojo Dolls are used to draw aggro and limit the damage your allies take by focusing strikes against you, and Spirit Dolls are specced into healing skills, including instantly reviving fallen allies without a potion. As for the regular Voodoo Doll, it ends up becoming a Jack of All Trades in most situations, having average DPS, healing, and support skills.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: A majority of land bosses (as in, all but about nine) are merely tougher reskins of pre-existing enemies. They have exponentially higher health and tend to deal more damage than the enemies they're based on, and the only change to any strategy you would normally have is "attack them even more".
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Being knocked out and sent to jail in combat results in the player gaining the "Groggy" status, which reduces your maximum health and voodoo to about 80% for about 10 minutes, and... that's it. No gold penalty, no loss of weapons. Subverted, however, if your ship sinks in the middle of the ocean - in that case, in addition to being Groggy, you'll lose all your loot from that run and you'll have to pay a fee to restore your ship.
- Deserted Island: Several wild islands are scattered across the Caribbean. These islands have few, if any, human inhabitants on them, and are mostly used as either weapon training grounds for new pirates or as a hotspot for certain quests.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: The "Evil Curse of Doom" emote attained after completing the Raven's Cove Story Quest.
- Evil Wears Black: The EITC, the strongest category of human enemies.
- Fan Remake: The Legend of Pirates Online to the original Disney game. It removes the Freemium business model, removes several frustrating aspects, and added original content and expansions.
- Fishing Minigame: Fishing can get you some good amounts of money in a short period of time. You can also pay for a fishing boat and seek out Legendary Fish in deeper water.
- Fish People: Davy Jones' crew appear as the strongest enemies in the game on Isla Tormenta.
- Flaming Skulls: A Voodoo Staff attack called "Flaming Skull" shoots a flaming skull in a straight line, igniting any enemies it hits.
- Fragile Speedster: All Sloop-class ships. They're faster than anything else, but also have the lowest health and hull defense of all player-controlled ships.
- Ghost Pirate:
- The ghosts on Raven's Cove are all either the souls of pirates who once crewed with the infamous El Patron or the former citizens of the island who were caught in their rampage.
- The "Dark Curse" Break Attack and "Ghost Form" Weapon Skill allow the player to temporarily transform themselves into a ghost, halving melee and ranged damage for a period of time.
- Ghost Town: Raven's Cove. Only one person lives there, and he's... not quite right in the head.
- Halloween Episode: Another unique addition to the remake; every year around Halloween, the Hollowed Woods opens up, with unique enemies, quests, bosses, and loot that can only be encountered and obtained at this time of year.
- Hornet Hole: The Queen's Nest on Isla Perdida.
- Impossible Item Drop: Anything you defeat has a chance of dropping a Loot Pouch or Chest, which can contain gold, swords, guns, playing cards, and even cannonballs. Anything you defeat. Even bats, which are smaller than the pouches they drop.
- In-Universe Game Clock: The game cycles through day and night, with each day cycle lasting about an hour in real time. This is purely aesthetic for most of the game, although the day/night cycle does affect whether or not Rage Ghosts spawn on Ravens Cove.
- Joke Weapon: The Tree Branch, an April Fools event Broadsword with an attack value of 0note and no extra abilities. It was passed off as a free distribution of the Lost Sword of El Patron, which is... considerably better.
- Legendary Weapon: A class of weapons in the game, the strongest and the rarest. All of them have some sort of lore around them, usually regarding whatever enemy can drop them.
- Lethal Lava Land: The island of Padres Del Fuego is a giant volcano, which will occasionally shake and erupt. There's even a cave inside the volcano itself, the Lava Gorge.
- Limit Break: Certain weapons have powerful Break Attacks, which charge upon taking damage or successfully performing Combos.
- Magic Staff: The Voodoo Staff is the final weapon a player will unlock in a playthrough. Unlike its other magic counterpart, the Voodoo Doll, it cannot heal allies, and instead focuses purely on offensive play with powerful voodoo hexes.
- New Skill as Reward: Completing the Black Pearl Story Quest will give you the Leadership skill, which will increase the recharge rate of your other skills and your crew's cannon fire for a short time when activated.
- Nice Day, Deadly Night: At day, Raven's Cove has nothing more than a few ravens, a couple of Fire Bats, and Crazy Ned. At night, the Rage Ghosts appear.
- No Experience Points for Medic: Averted - attuning allies with your Voodoo Doll and healing them with your abilities will give you just as much experience, if not more, than the actual combatant. Even reviving a downed ally will grant you some experience points for your trouble.
- No Indoor Voice: Gunner. He's gone nearly deaf from his antics with explosives, so he can't tell what's wrong with his volume.
- One Bullet Clips: All guns, with the exception of Repeater Pistols, can only fire one shot before reloading.
- One-Hit Kill: Rage Ghosts on Raven's Cove attack using Somber Demise, which deals a minimum of 8,000 damage. Considering that a player's maximum health only goes up to about 2,500...
- Port Town: Port Royal.
- Pillar of Light: Whenever you're doing a quest, you can create a ray of light that will guide you either to your destination or to the closest object that would help you complete your quest.
- Pirate Booty: Would it really be a game about pirates without it?
- Protection Mission: Cannon Defense requires you to take control of a Navy cannon and defend the island's treasure from raiders.
- Reduce Aggro: The "Not in the Face!" skill on some weapons will give the user a chance to break combat with an enemy in case they need to make a quick escape.
- Sequel Hook: After defeating the ghost of El Patron and taking hold of one of his Cursed Blades, you look at your hand and notice an Evil Curse of Doom...
- Shock and Awe:
- Thunderbolt cannonballs are high-range, high-power shots that are limited by the inability to volley multiple at a time.
- The Cursed Thunder weapon skill, most notably on the Nautilus Blade, as well as its more-powerful counterpart Shock Sweep, found only on two Legendary Weapons.
- If facing Jolly Roger during an Undead Invasion, his Dark Thunderbolt can easily One-Hit Kill a high-level pirate, and is only held back by being able to only attack one target at a time.
- Silver Bullet: Silver Shot is an ammo type, and does increased damage against undead enemies. Unfortunately, it's not very strong against living creatures...
- Skill Point Reset: Talking to a trainer at any blacksmith shop will allow you, for a fee, to refund all of your earned skill points so that you can re-optimize them to whatever you like.
- Spin Attack: The "Sweep" skill found on all sword weapons. Also, the "Roundhouse", "Spin Cut", and "Reverse Spin Cut" moves on the Broadsword's Combo tree.
- Status Infliction Attack: Many cases - some examples from non-signature abilities alone include:
- Poison, inflicted by the Pistol's Venom Shot and the Dagger's Adder.
- Acid, exclusive to the Voodoo Staff's Pestilence.
- On Fire, from the Voodoo Doll's Scorch, the Grenade's Firebomb, or the Voodoo Staff's Flaming Skull.
- Wounded, inflicted by the Dagger's Sidewinder and the Grenade's Shrapnel ability.
- Storming the Beaches: A villainous example - when an invasion is going on, Jolly Roger's ship will appear near the coast of the assaulted island, and the undead army will begin walking out of the water onto the shore.
- Straight for the Commander: A few enemy types will group up under one single, commander-type enemy. Attacking any individual other than the commander will cause the commander to notice and will draw aggro from the entire group to you. Defeating the commander first, however, will prevent this, allowing you to battle each enemy one-on-one.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Grenades are one of the six different primary weapons. Ship cannons can also fire powerful Explosive cannonballs.
- Training Dummy: Jack the Monkey on Devil's Anvil is used for target practice upon getting your first pistol. You can head back there at any time to attack him whenever you want, too, although there's really no point.
- Voodoo Doll: These can be unlocked and used once your pirate reaches level 5. By attuning it to an enemy, you can cast strong voodoo hexes, ranging from simple pokes to stealing the foe's life energy. You can also attune allies with it, allowing you to heal them in the middle of combat.
- In The Legend of Pirates Online, the Doll has been totally revamped - in addition to the original, Jack-Of-All-Trades-style skills, certain dolls are specced into the Damage-Heal-Tank MMO archetypes, allowing them to supplement certain playstyles and crew compositions outside of "widespread healing" and "widespread damage".
- Warp Whistle: By completing special "Teleport Totem" quests, players can teleport to the six main islands (Port Royal, Tortuga, Cuba, Padres Del Fuego, Ravens Cove, and Bilgewater) at will.
- We Buy Anything: Any shopkeeper NPC can purchase any sellable equipment - blacksmiths can purchase clothing, gypsies will buy guns, jewelers will take voodoo fetishes off of your hands, etc.
- Welcome to Corneria: NPCs that don't need to be talked to at the moment, such as those who aren't part of a quest, will respond with generic dialogue about rumors of Cursed Blades, Raven's Cove, and Bounty Hunters.
- When Trees Attack: Cursed Stumps are rare but powerful enemies that can only be found in the deepest forests or the most deserted islands of the Caribbean.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the last act of the Raven's Cove Story Quest, the ghost of Dr. Bellrog tasks you with gathering four idols to open the gate to El Patron's Ship. After finding the last idol, however, he decides to eliminate the player so he may take El Patron's cursed blades for himself, sending his bodyguard Kudgel to kill the player.
"Leave a nice tip, mate! Jeremy here pours a spirited spirit."
