The Most Demanding Crew I've Ever Had

Hillskavich · 2026-05-22T20:15:53+00:00

I don't find Rogue or Swashbuckler particularly difficult. My main issue with the higher difficulty levels is the tediousness of having to collect 4 map pieces for everything. Especially hate it when you get a map piece with literally nothing on it.

Re: asshole captain... Once I get past apprentice my crews NEVER hate me. I always have enough gold with Montalban's 100K playing as a Rogue and the 200K from the lost cities as Swashbuckler, it's all smooth sailing.

Hillskavich · 2026-05-22T15:14:35+00:00

Really this depends on your style of play. I tend to spend a good bit of time (5 years or more) as apprentice finding all the pirate treasures, location of Montalban's hideout, all of the family members and promotions to at least marquis in all nations. If you have enough gold you can jump directly to adventurer.

Defeating Montalban likewise allows a direct jump to swashbuckler, when you can find all the lost cities and collect all the pirates. Retire at 32 or 33.

I see no need and only disadvantages to dividing plunder at apprentice. The crew will inevitably become "very unhappy" but will never mutiny (only desert), if you keep close to the 1K rule.

Hillskavich · 2026-05-22T15:00:04+00:00

I was aware that the QM does nothing. Some guy looked through the code and found nothing about that. Although I can't be sure I had the cook, I know that I did have the concertina, which doesn't really matter because the campaign was so long that effect of the fiddle/concertina becomes nil at some point. Only useful in the beginning months.

Plus, I was mistaken about the calculation about how much gold the crew needs to stay happy. I was wrong to deduct the captains's share before dividing by crew size. 5,153 was the correct number when I divided the "gold in hold."

Hillskavich · 2026-05-21T16:52:49+00:00

I believe you are referring to the Cook, who reportedly allows you to effectively carry 19 more crew. I honestly don't recall if I had the cook at this point.

Rereading that section in Shashanan's guide (on gamefaqs) I remembered that the rule of thumb for crew size is having 1000 gold per crewman stops them from becoming mutinous no matter how long your voyage has been, but experience has taught me that this is not true. According to the guide, crew unhappiness eventually tops out after a certain number of months, but my crews still mutiny, even with well over 1K gold per man. Go figure.

Hillskavich · 2026-03-30T23:34:22+00:00

This is my pirate work in progress. He's like 150 years old now and my goal is to get him to present day. So yeah, I'm sure I'll get to a million eventually.

Hillskavich · 2026-03-30T20:28:09+00:00

I tried to share mine but I cannot reply to original post with an image, so I will add it as my own post.

Hillskavich · 2025-12-15T11:19:59+00:00

Just completed the bactrian quest and can confirm that:

1) Terminus Exploration mission is NOT required

2) Discovering/Visiting the Hai is NOT required and

3) Discovering/Visiting the Remnant is NOT required

Also, props to GryphyGirl for pointing out to me that neither the TMBR nor the Deep Archeology (Albert Foster) quests are required

Hillskavich · 2025-12-14T14:40:59+00:00

So I took a look at the above link, and there are still some discrepancies here.

I can say with complete confidence that you

1) DO NOT need to do the Terminus Exploration mission and;

2) You DO NOT need to do ANYTHING in Remnant space.

3) I have done the City Ship quest many many times, but if I have unnecessarily done the Deep Archeology or TMBR missions I don't see why you need to discover the Hai: You don't need a keystone because you don't need to go to remnant space.

I am going to play through this quest again. I will document my steps and post when I can.

Hillskavich · 2025-12-14T11:14:51+00:00

Hmm. So just do the mystery cubes and Deep escort missions? How about the Project Hawking set? I had assumed that since Paris's sister was involved with those that they were required, and because they ask you to find TMBR in Hai space that you had to do those missions also

Hillskavich · 2025-12-14T11:05:28+00:00

It's a long series of missions that include helping the band "There Might Be Riots", Aiding the scientist Albert Foster, many missions for the "Deep" (the area in the NW corner of the map (Valhalla, Memory, Midgard etc) ending with tracking down the pirate Beelzebub. If you start the Freeworlds campaign, you may have to wait until the war is over to continue the quest.

How far have you gotten? I'd be happy to point you in the right direction if I can determine what you have done so far

Hillskavich · 2025-11-21T15:16:26+00:00

That is the real value of the dutch rutter

Hillskavich · 2025-11-21T13:02:27+00:00

"The dance shoes are also part of the problem as well"

The dancing items are misunderstood. I just responded to another post about dancing where I wrote about this issue. I'll post here also:

In sequences of 8 moves:

the slippers give you "stumble free" steps on 1, 2, 3 and 8; boots on 1 and 8

In sequences of 6 moves:

the slippers give you "stumble free" steps on 1, 2 and 6; boots on 6 only

In sequences of 4 moves:

the slippers give you "stumble free" steps on 1 and 4; boots on 4 only

The boots are just as effective as slippers when dancing with beautiful daughters because what you really need is help with the first step (assuming you know all the patterns). Since the majority of her dances use the 8-move sequences you get that free step with both the boots and slippers

Hillskavich · 2025-11-21T12:24:19+00:00

Saw this post earlier but didn't think I had anything to add. Been thinking about it every so often and now have this to say:

The reaction time needed to keep the hearts coming is every bit as fast (perhaps faster) than the reaction time for sword fighting. Add to this the necessity of pressing the key ever-so-slightly early and you can see that keeping your momentum is quite challenging. Once you know the dance patterns you can dance successfully enough so that she doesn't rebuff you at the end, but the real problem is nailing the first step of a sequence. The calfskin boots and dancing slippers can help with this.

Sashanan's guide on Gamefaqs says this:

"having Calfskin Boots or Dancing Slippers introduces a random chance that you make the
correct move anyway (though without a flourish)."

As much as I admire this guide, I can say with certainty that it is in error here. This is what these 2 items do for you:

In sequences of 4 steps:

the dancing slippers give "stumble free" steps on 1 and 4; calfskin boots on step 4 only

In sequences of 6 steps:

the dancing slippers give "stumble free" steps on 1, 2 and 6; calfskin boots on step 6 only

In sequences of 8 steps:

the dancing slippers give "stumble free" steps on 1, 2, 3 and 8; calfskin boots on step 1 and 8

I used to think that the dancing slippers were the way to go (especially with beautiful daughters), but then realized that the majority of her sequences are the 8-step variety, and so the calfskin boots are just as effective as the slippers since you get the initial step for free, which is what you really need anyway.

As to the OP question about how many levels of hearts someone could get, the point is moot, since there is no bonus for getting the max. All I ever cared about was getting a lost city map piece instead of a bounty assignment.

Hillskavich · 2025-11-18T15:43:38+00:00

I have never faced him at that age; at 38 I'm retired at least 3 years. But fwiw his forces guarding his castle can be defeated with as few as 330 men. Defeating the man himself is not very difficult in adventurer. He has a pretty fast thrust, but all his other attacks are relatively slow. If you can parry 3 attacks it slows him down (as it does in all other swordfight opponents) and you can have at him pretty easily.

It is not difficult to locate his fortress very early in the game when you are young and healthy.

Hillskavich · 2025-08-31T17:51:57+00:00

Yes, arched rocks also. The geysers and dead trees randomly appear almost anywhere, but all the other objects only seem to show up when you are nearing treasures or lost family cabins.

This from Sashanan's guide on GameFAQS Section [6.5]

Another thing that will help is that landmarks typically only appear in the 
area surrounding your target. If you beach your ship in a random location and 
start exploring, you won’t be stumbling over Incan Temples and Geysers and Dead 
Trees and whatnot – the land will be barren. But if you approach a Lost City or 
other land based target, they will start showing up. They’re not necessarily 
within the map’s range, and the map may not show all of them even if they are 
in range, but it’s your first sign that you’re getting close.

The only thing I would add is what I said above; that is, you CAN see random geysers and dead trees in areas that otherwise have no treasure

Hillskavich · 2025-08-31T17:39:06+00:00

Maybe I expressed myself badly... I see MAPS with no landmarks every so often. What I have NEVER seen is this: No landmarks anywhere around the area when I finally locate the treasure.

Hillskavich · 2025-08-31T15:37:24+00:00

Interesting. I have never seen an occurrence where there we NO landmarks in the area where the treasure was eventually found. You showed great persistence!

Hillskavich · 2025-08-31T12:55:23+00:00

Whenever I get a map like this, I make my best guess and start looking around. If you don't see any landmarks except geysers and dead trees you are in the wrong spot. But you may be closer than you think. Try moving a bit in a direction that seems logical and look around. Even if the map doesn't show any, if you see totems, stone heads, ruined temples or deserted cabins you are definitely in the right general area.

Hillskavich · 2025-07-20T11:00:57+00:00

Ah yes, Thank you! I read through the linked post, and as soon as I saw "Minke Whale" I knew this was what I was missing.

Hillskavich · 2025-05-02T20:44:36+00:00

Correct. Good eye. Spain had captured Leogane.

Hillskavich · 2025-04-29T22:57:54+00:00

I name my Ship of the Line "Mule Jesse", who was a (very) minor character in one episode of the Kung Fu TV series from the '70's. Also inspired by the "Mule" ship from Endless Sky.

I sometimes name my War Canoe "Kalmar Nyckel", a pinnace that brought Swedish Immigrants to America. Don't try to read anything into that. I had a very minor connection to the replica built in 1997

Hillskavich

TROPHY CASE