The First of Many: A Pirate101 Preview!

I have just started the third of at least five Pirate101 worlds, and I've already got over 1300 pictures to share with you - from combat to housing to skyways, and more! It's official, the NDA has been lifted! That means photos, videos, and more, all right here on a fantastic source for inside tips that everyone needs - beta or not. Keep your good eye out for tricks, guides, and more! But first, here's a preview!

Click on any screenshot to enlarge it! Just remember to ask permission if you want to use them!

Skull Island is much more than sandy beaches and jungles. In fact, it's much more than Pirate101 even placed on their website! It's a variety of skyways, islands, vortexes, stormgates, caves, graveyards, and more! Not only that, but each island can have a variety of sub-locations, so there might be well over 30 maps for Skull Island alone. Here's a photo of your very first map - the Skull Island Skyway. Also notice the health and ship health interfaces. These are outdated, they've now been changed.

When you play out a hand-to-hand battle, the board actually matches perfectly with the landscape. Here's one of your first Boss-type creatures - Ratbeard! He's fought in the Kraken Skulls Tavern basement!

This is actually a photo of Skull Mountain, with a view of Skull Cave up ahead. Here, Cutthroats and Troggies roam the area.

This is the town of Gullet, where all of the shady pirates tend to hang out, including the Frogfather! It's inside a whale, under Jonah Town! You're lowered down in a bucket.

This is your first dungeon, the Presidio! Hope you have some friends to help out, because this dungeon can be a pain.

Pirate101, as you'll see, has a variety of amazing environments and locations. Here's one of them - a fight inside a ship with some Dog Pirates!

One of the coolest parts of the storyline for me was investigating a variety of tombs with interesting sayings. It's followed by a fight with the undead - they keep popping out of those tombs, ready to fight. The battle after this grants you own of my favorite companions.

This is the volcano! Here, you'll find unfriendly water moles, who've run away with Captain Gunn's treasure. You'll actually get a very useful companion after the final battle here.

While leveling may be slow, Pirate101 is not. It's fast-paced, and you're constantly exploring a location that you didn't know existed, or seeing a brand-new area. However, there's nothing quite like a Stormgate. Inside a Stormgate, world threads connect you to various parts of the Spiral, and this is the most beautiful part of the game. The bidirectional paths do contain monsters, but you should stay fairly safe. At the end, you'll reach a portal to the next world!

This is the prison of Zenda in Monquista. After a large battle here, it becomes the opposition stronghold against the Crown.

In Monquista, until you get a disguise, you'll find yourself in a variety of drains - all to carefully travel into various locations without notice.

This is the story and path to the Monkey's Paw - quite an interesting dungeon, based on Indiana Jones. Here's the chasm in the first test. There's also a "leap of faith" style walkway, as well as a selection - which is the real Monkey's Paw?

It's raining bananas - what else do I need to say?

There are plenty of Wizard101 hints in Pirate101, and here's one of them! This is the Stormgate between Monquista and Dragonspyre!

You don't do a lot in Dragonspyre - mainly avoid those treacherous Bone Dragons! You take another Stormgate here to Valencia!

With Celestian music playing, you can follow the path to Valencia in this Stormgate. I think I see Marleybone, there!

In Valencia's Argon Skyway, here's a picture of broadside combat with an Armada Ship!

Valencia is a variety of mini-cities with complex architecture and pathways. There are elegant staircases, long hallways, and beautiful statues.

There's also Pirate101 housing! While I'll give more previews of this later, here's the Buccaneer's Den! It's quite spacious!

More individualized posts will be coming soon, plus there's a big surprise on the way! Stay tuned for more! Thanks for reading, and see you in the Spiral!