Starting out

Creating your Pirate:
After you've installed the Yohoho! client and chosen an ocean to play on, you need to create a pirate before you begin playing. Click on one of the three buttons labeled "Create new Pirate" and start crating your character. You can choose you pirate's gender, hair color, skin tone, and facial hair for the men. Currently, none of these features can be altered after you've started playing.



Rescued by the Pollywog
You will now find yourself aboard a small ship called the Pollywog. Here you will be shown some introductory commands and be given the opportunity to play your first puzzle, bilge. After just a couple of minutes, the Pollywog will reach your new home island, and you will be given a bandana and some PoE for your work. If you remain aboard the ship, the captain (who is an NPP) will challenge you to a swordfight and teach you how to play. Swordfighting is one of the most fundamental puzzles in Y!PP, so pay close attention.

The Notice Board
When you first disembark from the Pollywog, you should find yourself at the docks to an island, with a yellow arrow behind you. Somewhere near the docks you should spot the Notice Board. Clicking on the notice board brings up valuable information about jobbing for a crew, missions, featured shoppe jobs (for subscribers), and even island news and events planned by the governor. Clicking "apply" for a navy mission will instantly whisk your character to a navy ship, where you can practice puzzles and earn money with the navy. As you gain more experience, more missions will be available from which to choose. For more about missions, see below.

How to start earning money
Once on land, there are several options to earn PoE as a new pirate. First off, you can enter the inn and challenge any of the NPPs to a wagered swordfight or drinking match. The NPPs will wager up to 26 PoE at a time. A NPP will refuse to wager if your rating is significantly lower or higher than their rating.

You can choose to take a crafting mission from the mission section of the Notice board. This mission will instantly whisk you to a shoppe or stall requiring labor. By playing the puzzle at the shoppe, you are providing labor for the shoppe to produce its goods. The better your performance on the puzzle, the higher grade of labor you will provide. Higher grades of labor generally pay better than lower grades. Taking a job at a shop that has orders to fill can earn you money in exchange for your labor hours, even when you are logged out of the game.

You can also take a mission with the navy from the Notice board. Navy ships sail from their home islands to neighboring islands and give you the opportunity to practice the duty puzzles without the pressures of pillaging. You will be paid a modest sum per league that the naval ship travels. Better performance earns you better pay.

And finally, you can pillage with a live crew of pirates to earn your money. However, this is significantly different from jobbing with the navy. You only earn money if the ship you are on fights and wins one or more sea battles. However, it is expected that you puzzle before, during and after the battle or else the CO may plank you and dock your pay. Be willing to work hard and stay for an extended time if you are going to pillage. It is best to work with the navy for a while before pillaging to learn the various puzzles.

On land
When wandering about an island, it is generally considered rude to:
 * Walk up to total strangers and ask for money or clothing.
 * Walk up to complete strangers and offer a puzzle challenge or a trade request without first talking to them.
 * Enter the inn and repeatedly shout or spam the inn.

Spamming is repeatedly typing the same line over and over in a brief period of time, such that innocent bystanders' chat windows scroll so much that ordinary conversation is impossible. Repeatedly shouting is just as aggravating, as the larger text causes the chat window to scroll much faster than normal as well.

Repeated shouting or spamming can earn you a blackspot, or a warning from an OceanMaster. Neither is something you wish to experience. Repeated abuse can get you permanently banned from the game.

At sea
When you find yourself aboard a player's ship jobbing for a crew, it is expected that you work at a puzzle to earn your PoE. If there are NPPs aboard the ship, it is rude to challenge them to a drinking or swordfighting contest. Serious infractions of crew rules such as lazing about, fighting or drinking while sailing, refusing to take a station, or leaving the ship during sea-battle can incur the wrath of the CO who may decide to plank you and dock you pay when the booty is finally divvied.

Finding a crew to join
Once you have jobbed with the navy on missions and gained a bit of experience, you may want to try jobbing with a crew. Jobs available can be found under the pillaging tab of the Notice Board. Scan through the list of jobs, looking for one that attracts you. Once you find one, click on "show crew info" to learn a bit more about the crew and its policies. If you are satisfied, click back on the notice board and click "apply". A notice of your application will be sent to the commanding officer of the ship. The officer will then choose to send or not send you a job offer. Usually this process takes about ten seconds. Once you accept the offer, you will be whisked off to the ship. Greet the others with a friendly "Ahoy! Which station?" -- unlike the navy, you are now playing on a ship fully commanded by other real players. Jobbing for players is more lucrative than jobbing for the navy, and more fun, too. Beware though—it is also more dangerous, as your crew will now face sea battles against dastardly NPPs and players in Sea battle

"What do I do with all this money I've earned?"
So you have earned some money sailing the seas, how should you spend it?
 * A quick note on purchasing finished goods in Y!PP. Individual pirates do not posess the ability to craft their own items by obtaining the raw materials. All finished goods must be created at and purchased from a shoppe or stall. Let them worry about obtaining the raw commodities. When you have more experience in the game, and access to the hold of a ship, you may be able to work out better deals with certain merchants by providing the raw goods yourself. However, this is usually only of any use with the most expensive of items.

Buy a New Sword
The first sword you are given (a foil) does its job, but perhaps you've got an inkling to become a famous swordsman. A good first step is to buy a new sword. You can buy swords from iron monger shoppes or stalls. Full details about individual swords are covered in the swords section. Note that trial players have only a few swords to choose from: foil, short sword, long sword, and rapier. The subscribers can choose from any of the finer blades.

Buy some New Clothing
Feeling a bit chilly in those rags you have had since leaving the Pollywog? Perhaps it's time to visit your local tailor and buy some new clothing. There are many to choose from; you can either order clothes from the tailor or purchase them premade 'off the rack'.

Item Aging
When you deliver a sword or some clothes to your inventory, you will notice the item in your 'booty' tab. Hovering over the item for a few seconds will give you some more detailed information about it: its name, color(s), condition, and who can use it. As you play, items in your inventory will decay. When the last of your clothes crumble, you will be given new rags. If your last sword crumbles, you are given a stick—not a very good sword at all!
 * New items are fresh from the shop and have full lives ahead of them.
 * Good items are older but still in fine condition.
 * Old items are near their end; now is the time to buy another outfit or sword.

Buy your own Pollywog
Now you have been pillaging for many weeks and have saved up quite a bit. Perhaps you've had your eye on your own ship or starting your own crew. Purchase one from a shipyard. Though there are many to choose from, your first ship should probably be a sloop, as they are generally easier to sail. Bear in mind when buying that you will also need charts, rum, and cannon balls before you can set sail.

Become a Trader
After you have bought your own ship and become at least an officer you may decide that you want to earn money by moving goods around. If you are good at sailing and have a keen sense for a good deal, this may be the life for you. You'll want to memorize the various routes, swoop in a good deal when you find it, and be able to avoid the brigands and PvPers who haunt the seas or else they may steal your goods.

It is harder to get people to join you since you won't be pillaging to make them money, so you'll want to recruit those who you know well and advise them that this won't be a pillage run. You'll probably need to promise to pay them some of the profits. Or else, you can learn to solo sail a sloop or cutter with only swabbies for help.

Become a Merchant
Some pirates enjoy the calm life of a merchant. It is advisable to talk with your crew captain and see what types of stalls might be advantageous. You can buy a stall for an initial fee and weekly rent while you learn all about shopkeeping! If you are really adventurous, speak with the island governor about purchasing a shoppe. Be aware, though, that shoppes often run in the hundreds of thousands to purchase.

Get on the ultimate list for one or more puzzles
Each duty puzzle, crafting puzzle, and parlor game tracks your experience seperately from your puzzle standing, and ranks your score against all the other pirates on your ocean. As your ranking increases or you gain experience in a puzzle, it is possible that you might be listed amongst the ultimate-ranked pirates for that puzzle. Each ocean keeps seperate lists for the ocean as a whole and for the individual archipelagoes. These lists are viewable by clicking on the name of any puzzle on any pirate's info page. Many players work hard in order to appear on several ultimate lists concurrently.

If you do not log onto Puzzle Pirates for ten consecutive days, your puzzle ranks and experience are considered dormant and you will no longer appear on the ultimate list. All you need to do to re-activate your score is to log into the game and play that particular puzzle again.

Get involved in politics
As you gain notoriety amongst your crew, flag, hearties, and the ocean, it is possible to find yourself involved in the world of ocean politics. Most commonly referred to as "the social puzzle", this involves working out deals between fellow pirates in order to accomplish goals no individual could accomplish alone. The largest examples of these machinations include wars, blockades, and alliances. You may collude with an allied flag to take over an island for yourself or to work with an ally to deny an island to an enemy. You may go to war with a rival flag for many reasons, and the politics involved will determine how much support you receive from friends or neutral parties. The political game is for pirates with a deep social bent and the ability to follow through on promises given.

Become a blockade navigator
Many players regard PvP as the ultimate puzzle because of its inherent risks, rewards, and the associated need for understanding human psychology. Given that most fighting in a blockade is done between brig-class vessels or larger and involve multiple ships, and blockades become the ultimate adrenaline rush. Many blockade navvers are asked time and again to navigate for a variety of flags during blockades. Being a great blockade navver can bring you a level of notoriety greater than the top ten lists, greater than being the king of a flag, greater even than owning a familiar.

Parrots, Monkeys, and Octopi
Sometimes you will be wandering around a popular island and notice a pirate with an octopus, parrot, or monkey on his/her shoulder. These are called familiars. They are special prizes given away during game events or creative contests. You can read all about upcoming game contests with a familiar as a prize on the official events forum, and you can read about upcoming art or writing contests with familiar prizes on the "Mariner's Muse" forum. One can also obtain a familiar by being hired by Three Rings as a developer or OceanMaster.

Familiars are rare items. While anyone could theoretically win an event/contest and get a familiar, most players will never own one.