Link to Game	Trophies	Avatar
Play now!		How to obtain
Difficulty Meter		Neopoint Ratio
We rate this game somewhat hard. (this is our rating, not Neopets')		NP Ratio: 1.97 508 pts :: 1000 NP

Introduction

The basic pretense of this game is that of a sea raid on the harbor at Krawk Island, and an intercept by the greatest pirate ship of all time - the Black Pawkeet. This legendary ship has decimated the original small one, and it is quickly losing its precious cargo of stolen Dubloons. You play as a young pirate Krawk called Dorak who is paddling in a rowboat, collecting all this lost treasure. Be careful however, the crew of the Black Pawkeet are determined to get those Dubloons for themselves!

Controls and Instructions

In the game there are really only three main things you have to worry about - you, the Black Pawkeet's mines, and the Dubloons.

You control yourself with the arrow keys - it can take a little while to get used to the way the controls work (or at least it took me a little while to get used to them) but with some practice you should be fine. Here's a basic run-down of the controls:

Use the Up arrow key to accelerate. To slow down, use the Down arrow. Turn left with the Left arrow key. The Right arrow turns you to the right.

Sounds simple enough right? Well, it is, in theory - isn't it always - but things are somewhat complicated by the Black Pawkeet's mines. These are "attracted" to you and will follow you wherever you go. You have to keep moving most of the time; if you hit one they'll blow your boat up and all your carefully collected Dubloons will be taken by the crew of the Black Pawkeet! A new mine appears whenever you pick up another Dubloon.

Now, of course, the point of the game - avoiding mines aside - is to collect the Dubloons dropped after the Black Pawkeet's attack. You're given one Dubloon at a time to collect; once you do another will appear along with another mine for you to avoid. To collect them, simply run them over with your boat. Dubloons are worth varying amounts of points, depending on the color and symbol of the Dubloon you collect.

The only other thing you'll want to watch out for is the whirlpool. This is a remnant of the old Dubloon Disaster but thankfully occurs less commonly than before. Basically, if you see one it'll try to suck you in and sink your boat. The best way to avoid it is to just point yourself away from it (preferably into a wall or corner) and hold down the Up arrow key until it goes away. Whirlpools also suck in and destroy any mines that might be on the screen at the time. You can create your own whirlpool once during the game by typing in the code scallywags.

Tips and Strategies

Generally speaking, avoiding the mines is the hardest part of the game. There can only ever be a maximum of nine mines on the screen at any one time but still - thats a lot of mines in a relatively small area! Most players subscribe to one of two strategies for avoiding the mines - blowing them up in sets of two or herding them together in the center so they're easier to avoid.

Blowing them up in sets of two is the easier method, although it does require a lot of patience. With this method you collect the Dubloon two at a time, so that there is now two mines on the screen. You can then lure them into each other by positioning yourself between them, like this:

The only real downside to this method is that, because you're destroying them, mines are constantly appearing whenever you collect a Dubloon - and they're not fussy about appearing well away from you either! You do run the risk of being blown up, because a mine can appear directly under your boat, but I still find this method much easier. Sometimes its possible to "skim" over a mine, especially when its just appearing so always try to be moving fast when you pick up a Dubloon - this way, if a mine was to appear under you, there's a chance you could fly over it instead of being destroyed.

The second method, of herding the mines into the center of the screen, is much harder and requires a great deal of skill to pull off successfully. More advanced players often prefer it because the idea is to keep the maximum total mines on-screen at all times to negate the risk of one appearing beneath your boat. With this method you move in circles around the mines, picking up the Dubloons as you pass them and keeping the group of mines more-or-less in the center of the screen, like this:

The biggest problem I've found with this method is that the mines don't particularly like to be kept in the center of the screen and if one appears a long way from the others it can be rather difficult to get them to all be nice and in the center. Also, if your mines are fairly spread out and you get a Dubloon that appears right in the middle of your mines - like I did in the screenshot above - it can be nearly impossible to pick it up without hitting a mine. With practice, I suppose, you could get quite good at it but I've always found its just easier to use the destroy in twos method.

If you are going for the Dubloon Disaster avatar, and you're not particularly good at the game, you can also restart the game until you get a high-scoring Dubloon for your first one. Higher scoring Dubloons are much more likely to appear in this new version of the game than they were in the last, and in fact, while making the screenies for this guide, I had two games start with 500 point ones and quite a few more with 250 and 100 point Dubloons.

Finally, as the tip when you start the game up says - if you are running an older computer (or even a newer one with lots of of other programs at once) then turn off the water effects. You can do this by entering the "Game Options" menu and unchecking the Water Effects box.

These effects don't really do anything specifically in the game, and I find I play with them off anyway - with them on the ripples are just another distracting movement on the screen and they can disguise the appearance of a mine behind you for the few crucial seconds when you should be getting out of the way!

Conclusion

This game is a fairly easy 3k a day - especially if you can get a few high scoring Dubloons early on. It might take some time for you to get good enough to get the avatar, but practice does make perfect and hopefully this guide has introduced you to some helpful strategies for bettering your high score!

This Neopets help article was written for The Daily Neopets by staff member Isabel.
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