Pirates Outlaws is an indie roguelike card game made by fabled game studio. Select a character to explore and challenge the pirates’ world. Join and start your adventure. Pirates Outlaws is an indie roguelike card game made by fabled game studio. Select a character to explore and challenge the pirates’ world. Join and start your adventure. Pirates Outlaws is from developer Fabled Game Studio, and was first released for mobile devices. The player is tasked with sailing to glory in a pirate-themed world, hopping from encounter to encounter within a series of different themed settings while earning treasures and boosting their reputation. Now, the title has received a PC release.
Fabled Game may have just been around for a little over a couple of months but the Shenzhen-based developer is definitely making waves as their first game, Pirates Outlaws, has made it to top paid games lists in several countries in just a short span of time after its release. With over 10,000 downloads achieved from the Google Play Store alone and largely positive reviews on both Android and iOS platforms, Pirates Outlaws is sure to still go a long way with its ever-expanding world following a series of updates. If you enjoy turn-based card games where strategy and preparation are as important as resource management, then be sure to give this game a try.
Pirates Outlaws sets you off on a series of explosive adventures with each one different from the others as you take on the role of one class of pirate and unlock new ones later on. Each pirate holds his own unique abilities as well as a pre-made deck of cards. As you choose a chapter to embark on, multiple paths lie ahead of you and your ship and each move you make consumes action point but takes you closer to the boss at the end of each level. Each map you enter is randomly generated, making location spots like battle islands, taverns, markets, events, and maelstroms come up on different areas each game.
Each battle as well as events are your sources of additional cards and careful management of your deck is necessary to keep it as balanced and efficient as possible. There are plenty of strong enemies to defeat in the many battles that will come your way and you will have to manage your ammo and health each time to ensure your survival throughout your adventure. Each adventure ends with either you winning or losing but in any case, you will be rewarded with gold and reputation points to unlock more content as well as some items to aid you in succeeding journeys.
The game provides a quick tutorial to give you a basic understanding of controls and some concepts about your adventure. Your first experience on any location types and menus will be provided with a brief description of what you do. The game’s mechanics are simple enough to understand even for first time players and as you continue to play, you will easily understand more about the game’s concepts. Truthfully enough, you can make progress in the game as far as earning gold and reputation is concerned but if you want to progress faster and earn more gold and rep in each run, then follow the tips, cheats and strategies in our Pirates Outlaws beginner’s guide.
Each new adventure in Pirates Outlaws takes you to a new layout of the map where islands, taverns, markets, as well as events are generated in random locations. Before you decide on your route at the start of the journey, you can scroll all the way to the top of the screen and look at where the boss is located. Beyond that, you should take note of how many battles you need to survive and plan on the times you will choose to head to markets and taverns. Likewise, you should know how many events you can engage in to acquire special relics to help you on your journey.
Despite superb strategy and performance, there will never be any sure outcome after each battle considering the random cards you will acquire as well as the relics you earn with each step of the way. You should consider looking ahead of your way from time to time as you may need to more pleasant or more challenging steps towards the boss depending on your current standing. There is also luck involved as far as events go so heading into more to arm yourself with relics basically depend on having enough to sustain your survivability.
Take note as well that event locations on the map can have different effects and outcomes when you head into them. In as much as there can be great benefits in the form of rare relics that can boost your overall strength in your adventure, some can cost you coins, action points, or even health. In the worst of cases, you can get lost in the puzzling mazes that lie within some events, so be sure you are up for a random challenge before deciding to head into one.
Each battle you successfully come out of as well as some events can grant you additional cards to add to your deck. As your collection of cards grow in number, so does the risk of losing its efficiency if proper balance is not maintained. As some cards in your deck rely on ammo, even 2 or three of them, be sure to keep it within what can be sustained by the number of ammo cards you have. Chip in a good mix of melee cards as well as other support cards that do not require ammo. As you will always have to choose one among three card choices after every successful combat, take time and spend some coins to remove cards which you deem unnecessary at the tavern.
It is understandable to take some time before you realize the full potential of some cards and resulting combinations. Be sure to read through the card descriptions of your pirate’s basic deck before heading into battle and read through each new one before you add them into your deck. It is a good way to get to test and be familiar with each card you have in actual battle and once you are certain that one or some cards simply do not make the cut, then don’t hesitate to let them go and discard them at the cost of coins in the tavern.
As your default hero is the gunner, which you will be suing for quite a while, you should get used to utilizing ranged attacks which are delimited by the ammo you have. Having a limited ammo should not impede you from dealing damage to your enemies as you will also secure a good amount of melee cards that require no ammo to use in battle. On the downside, though, melee cards can only be used on the opponent closest to you, so in a way they have limited usefulness. Following these considerations therefore, only secure additional ranged attacks if your stock of ammo cards can sustain their usefulness. Otherwise, you should go for melee cards or support cards that costs zero ammo.
There are no time limits in Pirates Outlaws within which you have to decide on a strategy or sequence of cards to use in each turn of combat. As such, you should always entertain the idea of taking your time and simulating each possible curse of action before actually enacting it. Cards can be used in a certain number of ways and the idea of trying to utilize each card as much as you can each turn also comes into mind.
While it is almost always a good idea to do so, some cards will be best left for the discard pile on some turns in cases where you may need to stock more ammo for the succeeding turn. For one, aiming to have a full ammo after each turn, counting the additional one you get at the end of your turn as a gunner, is a considerable option and although it won’t always be possible, at least work towards being able to use your top-tier cards whenever you draw them is an important consideration.
If you have yet to notice, shields stack up each turn so you should not hesitate to use them as they come. The critical choices you regularly need to make involves going defensive in preparation for an upcoming attack that would deal a lot of damage to you or getting those damages in to slowly deplete an enemy’s HP. Preferably, you can stack up on shields whenever any opponent will launch an attack on his turn but if you have enough damage-dealing cards to eliminate an enemy within the same turn, then that should be the priority.
Always keep in mind that accidental card usage are not always borne of lack of experience in the game. Sometimes, being overly confident to rush into dealing damage and emptying your hand can lead to erroneous decisions and lack or absence of a strategy at all. To avoid mishaps which should otherwise have been prevented, make it a habit to take as much time as you need on each turn. Looking at each of the cards you have may not always be enough and in critical moments you may have to look into the discard pile to more accurately predict the next hand you will get. Additionally, always look at the icons above each opponent to know what their next move will be.
Adventures in Pirates Outlaws isn’t all about battles and looting cards and coins as even the toughest pirates need time to rest and prepare for the adventures ahead. These special spots can either be a market or a tavern scattered across each map and will certainly be available before each boss battle.
You may not learn to appreciate the existence of these structures at your first dive into adventure but as you proceed further into the game through a series of adventure runs, you will come to want to make the most out of each visit to the markets and taverns ahead. There are plenty of goods and trades to spend your coins on and as your currency is very limited on each run, you should prioritize on what you mostly need before considering to spend any of them. What you may naturally go for is to stock up on coins as you proceed further in your adventure and as far as that may be ideal, keep in mind that these coins are only good for the current adventure. This means that there is no point in hoarding a lot of it at the cost of taking unnecessary risks like ending your run abruptly due to lack of action points or health. As such, be sure to think hard and don’t hesitate to spend some coins on what you really need with each tavern and market visit.
Unless you tend to always have full HP when you reach a tavern, you may want to grab an opportunity to heal yourself at the cost of a few coins. Keep in mind that succeeding health restores on the same tavern will cost you more coins. If you happen to obtain more relics than what you currently need or have relics that has a one-time activated ability, feel free to sell some to obtain additional coins you can spend on more important matters. This is also the place to clean up your deck as you can spend some coins to remove cards you don’t need, especially cursed ones that are potentially useless and can cause you harm in each battle. In the event that you lack action points for travelling further in the map, you can also fully restore it at the tavern. Keep in mind that sailing further ahead with zero action points has an increasing probability that your ship will sink and that will instantly end your journey.
Markets, on the other hand, are places where you can grab additional cards or relics at the cost of coins. As relics are more difficult to acquire and have permanent effects, you may want to prioritize investing in them over new cards provided that you still have empty slots to fill in. As far as cards go, you may want to look for game-changing ones like cards that can restore your health or in any way boost your survivability for the upcoming adventure and battles ahead. You can also upgrade cards in your deck at the market. Keep in mind that succeeding upgrades on the same market will cost more so choose only to upgrade one at a time and think long and hard on selecting the card you wish to upgrade, making sure that doing so will really be advantageous for you.
While you may encounter a single opponent in your first battle in Pirates Outlaws, succeeding battles will most likely involve 2 to 3 enemies. Each one has his own traits and skills and some abilities are not readily recognizable until you are hit with it. While you would want to take out the one that can hurt you more throughout the battle, you should consider taking out any enemy you can in as few turns as possible. This doesn’t necessarily mean letting go of shield cards altogether, as focusing on the weakest enemy may mean having to take on more damages from his companions.
You may have cards that deal damage to multiple enemies and these will be mostly beneficial against a full roster of 3 enemies. Keep in mind, though, that your imminent goal is to reduce the enemy’s numbers and you should always prioritize on finishing one opponent over damaging all of them at once.
There will always be exceptions to prioritization which you can determine based on the subsequent actions each enemy will take. Some enemies don’t attack each turn while others become stronger the longer the battle goes. There are no solid enough tactics to choose between which one you should always target first but consider taking out one at a time as a general rule.
It is true that you will earn gold and reputation regardless of how long you went on your adventure and how far you have gone. The gold and reputation you earn, though, will be based on your overall performance which means that the more you accomplish, the more you will receive. There are plenty of options available for you to spend your gold on provided that you have earned enough reputation to unlock new characters, upgrades and additional content.
While it is a lot of fun to try out other heroes with their own special ability and deck of cards, you should consider on investing gold in packages and boosters that will enable you, in one way or another, to secure more gold for future purchases. Considering all options, the health booster which can give you an additional 10% HP permanently at the cost of 1,000 gold is very much worth it. Next to that, you should consider the 10% market discount or AP booster which costs 4,000 gold each.
And that’s all we have for our Pirates Outlaws beginner’s guide. With countless potential updates still looming on the horizon, there will definitely be more content and features to explore in this game. Always remember that you can play it as much as you want so your overall progress can only be hindered by the amount of time you can dedicate on playing. We hope you learned much from each tip and strategy we shared and that you enjoyed reading our article as well. Don’t hesitate to leave us a message on the comments area below to share some tips or strategies you know as well as you opinions about this game!