AlgoSeas is a browser based play to earn idle game which revolves around the use of randomly generated “Pirate” NFTs that are sent out to earn the game’s currency, Doubloons (ASA ID: 689171215). The primary goal of the game is to plunder enough $DUB each day to earn the noble title of “Pirate King,” which grants the winner 25% of all revenue generated by AlgoSeas platforms. In order to play, a player must mint a pirate which will have randomly generated physical attributes and stats. These pirates can then be sent out to sea to battle other players, plunder merchant ships, and seek to earn as much $DUB as they can to strengthen their crew.
The game’s basic mechanics are simple enough that anyone can play, but complex enough that it becomes really fun to strategize ways to improve your crew and earn more doubloons and get closer to becoming Pirate King. This article will serve as a comprehensive guide for all things AlgoSeas, so if you’re not brand new feel free to skip around using the table of contents.
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Note: Doubloons are an inflationary in-game currency. They are not suitable for investments.
AlgoSeas Game | AlgoSeas Discord | High Forge
Table of Contents
AlgoSeas Gameplay Basics
AlgoSeas is a tick-based idle game, which means you set your pirate crew to an action every “tick,” which come 7.5 minutes apart. During each tick, your pirate crew can do one of multiple actions: plunder merchants, attack another player, defend against attack, or attempt to return home with your loot.
In order to play, you need a pirate. The most common way to obtain one is to mint a random one for 1,000,000 $DUB, or the equivalent of 10 Algo. Alternatively, you can purchase one on the game’s integrated secondary market, which is launching next week. To play at the most basic level, you only need 1 pirate, but the earn rate of just one pirate is quite slow. Crews of 3 of 4 do much better when it comes to pulling in $DUBs.
NFT Pirates
As mentioned earlier, Pirates are created via the minting process and have randomized physical attributes and skills. There are four skills, and their value can be between 0 and 100. These skills are randomly generated upon mint, and they follow a normal curve distribution. This basically means that values centered around 50 are common, and values near 0 or 100 are extraordinarily rare. A pirate’s rarity is displayed by its grade, as seen below.
Combat: One the most important skill for a pirate to be strong in. Combat strongly influences victory when attacking and defending against other players, as well as in battles with the Royal Navy/Corsairs.
Constitution: Your pirates can die* when they attack, and the only thing that can save them is their constitution and a little bit of luck. Whenever a pirate loses a battle, they roll to see if they survive. If the roll is a 1, the pirate dies unless saved by the luck stat.. Constitution scales exponentially; so a 50 Constitution pirate has a 1/100th chance of dying when they lose, while a 100 Constitution pirate has a 1/1000th chance of death. A high constitution pairs very nicely with high combat.
Plunder: Plunder affects how much loot you can pillage from a ship. When attacking a merchant ship, the amount of loot stolen is determined by your pirate’s base plunder stat plus a roll from 1 to 100. Plunder also affects how much loot you can steal from another player; you roll your pirate’s plunder against their pirate’s luck to determine the percentage stolen.
Luck: Luck is the jack-of-all-trades skill, but is particularly handy for defense. When your crew is attacked and defeated while returning home, your pirates roll luck against plunder to see how much you can save. Additionally, luck is used to increase merchant plunder, evade attackers, find items, and save dying pirates.
Note: When your pirates die, they remain dead unless revived using an algoskull or witchdoctor ritual.
Idle Gameplay Mechanics
In order to play, you need at least one pirate. Crews can be outfitted with as much as four pirates. The amount of pirates you have dictate which sea you participate in. The four pirate sea has the highest earners and strongest crews.
Most actions depend upon rolls. Combat rolls take your pirate’s base combat + a random roll between 1 and 100, and compare that to another pirate’s base combat and a random roll between 1 and 100. In this sense it is possible for a 1 combat pirate to get extremely lucky and defeat a 100 combat pirate, but the odds are stacked against it. Luck and Plunder rolls behave in a similar way.
There are two mechanisms through which you can control what your crew will attempt to do each game tick, and these can be changed any time. They are the infamy threshold, and the doubloon ($DUB) threshold.
Infamy is a measure of how notorious your crew is. When a ship leaves port, it starts with zero infamy and zero $DUB. As they plunder merchants and defeat other players, they accumulate both infamy and $DUB. More infamy means that you plunder more loot from each merchant ship you hit, and increases your chance of attacking other ships.
Infamy Threshold (min 7, max 1000): The infamy threshold dictates the minimum infamy a ship must have for your crew to attempt to attack them. An infamy threshold of 7 is maximally aggressive, while an infamy threshold of 1,000 is as passive as you can play. This is because with an infamy threshold of 7, you will attack all ships going home with 7+ infamy.
The fact that the minimum infamy threshold can be is 7 is important, because it allows for passive play with weaker pirates.
Doubloon Threshold: This is simply the number of doubloons your crew will accumulate before attempting to return home. Note that other players can only attack you when you are going home.
Both Infamy and Doubloon thresholds can be changed at anytime. If you set your doubloon threshold low enough to where you have 6 or less infamy, you will not be attacked on the way home. This is because 7 is the minimum infamy threshold another player can set.
The Royal Navy, Merchants, and Corsairs.
The Royal Navy is the biggest deterrent for greedy pirates. They can attack you at any tick, but the odds of being attacked are based off statistics. Each time your crew’s infamy increases by 1, your odds of being attacked by them increase by 0.1%. At 1000 infamy, they will attack you 100% of the time. They are composed of 4 strong 80 combat pirates that cannot die.
If your crew is defeated by the Royal Navy, they will lose most of their infamy and doubloons. This stolen loot will go to the Royal Navy’s coffers. A player can mount an attack on the Royal Navy’s coffers at any time – but bewarned, losing when you attack the Royal Navy results in a pirate death 100% of the time*.
*Unless prevented by a ritual or title.
Merchants
Plundering merchants is the basic way to generate doubloons in AlgoSeas. If you do not attack another player, return home, or get attacked by the navy; you will loot merchants. The amount you take increases with your ship’s crewmembers, infamy, plunder, and luck. Through plundering merchants, it is possible to earn without risking your pirates.
Corsairs
Corsairs are weak NPC privateer ships that attack ships returning home. You will only be attacked by a corsair if you have not been hit by another player or the navy. Unlike the Navy, which always has four pirates, Corsairs will have the same number of pirates as your ship. They will always have all 40-stats.
Pirate Leveling
Pirate leveling is a core mechanic that increases the benefits of aggressive play. There are three stats that can be leveled: Combat, Constitution, and Plunder.
Combat is leveled by making a combat roll (fighting a battle) where you are the aggressor. Each roll, regardless of victory, leads to EXP. You gain 5 EXP per attacking combat roll, and 1 EXP per defending roll.
Constitution is leveled by making a death roll. Every time you survive, you gain EXP. You gain 5 EXP per attacking constitution roll, and 1 EXP per defending roll.
Plunder is leveled by making a plunder roll. Loot a player or merchant, and you gain 1 EXP. Reach 17x your current plunder level, and you level up. This is the only skill that can be trained without attacking a player.
Pursuing the Pirate King
The title of Pirate King is awarded to the player who plunders the most doubloons each day. In addition to the notoriety of the title, the Pirate King is granted 25% of all algo generated by the AlgoSeas platform. This includes not only algo spent for doubloons, but also algo generated by the NFT marketplace and NFT launchpad. Typically, this reward has been between 100 and 300 Algos.
While winning pirate king is the most flashy way to earn Algo, it is not the only way. Payouts for winning weaker seas, random accomplishments, and lucky actions are coming soon. In addition, players can sell the pirates they mint to other players. Strong fighting and plundering pirates fetch a hefty Algo sum.
Strategies for Profitable Gameplay
Having a strong crew is just half the battle, an intelligent strategy will get you even further. I will outline a couple basic strategies newer players should employ.
The No Loss Strategy: Playing AlgoSeas Without Pirate Death
Pros: No risk of pirate death. Optimal for weak pirates. Accumulates dubs at a decent rate in the 4 pirate sea. Gains plunder EXP at a high rate.
Cons: Lowest rate of Doubloon accumulation. Cannot win pirate king with this strategy. No EXP gain. Leads to restlessness debuff. Least fun.
With the passive strategy, you first set your infamy threshold to 1000 and your doubloon threshold at a number around ~3000-7000 in the 4 pirate sea.
You then go to the witchdoctor every 24 hours and activate the Defense Death Protection Ritual. This will prevent your pirates from dying while defending, so your pirates will not die as long as you remember to do this.
Medium Combat 3 Seas/4 Seas Aggression
Pros: Good return on Doubloons. Pirates level up in Combat, Cons and Plundering. More enjoyable. Good for medium strength pirates. No restlessness.
Cons: Pirates can die.
With a medium aggression strategy, you set your infamy threshold anywhere from 13 to 50, and your doubloon threshold at 30,000+. You will not attack super frequently, but the attacks you do will yield a decent amount of doubloons if you win. Your pirates will level up and become stronger if they survive, thus increasing their worth. You will be able to mint more pirates more often, or use the doubloons to level other pirates. You should have 3 or 4 57+ combat pirates with 60+ constitution to consider playing this way.
Max Risk and Revenue 7 Infamy Strategy
Pros: Near highest return on Doubloons. Quickest leveling for Combat and Constitution. Chance at Pirate King. Most enjoyable. No restlessness.
Cons: Pirates die at the quickest rate. More susceptible to Royal Navy attacks due to high infamy. Requires strong pirates.
With a max aggression strategy, you set your infamy threshold to 7 and your doubloon threshold to 50,000+. Your crew will attempt to attack on every tick, and will hit very often at higher infamy levels. This will yield a high return on Doubloons, but depending on your crews combat and constitution levels it may also lead to semi frequent crew deaths.
The AlgoSeas Shop
The Witch Doctor/Shop is an important character in the AlgoSeas world. You can access her services under the “Witch Doctor” tab next to the game log. She’s exactly the kind of shopkeep that thrives in a pirate world: quality products with questionable morals.
Purchase Doubloons: Converts Algo to $DUB at a rate of 1:100K.
Purchase Rum: You can purchase a bottle of rum for 5K $DUB, which automatically activates upon your crew’s next battle. It increases your crew’s combat by 5 for one battle.
Extract Skull: Sacrifices a dead pirate and 100K $DUB to receive a basic skull, which currently can be used for pirate revival attempts.
Walk The Plank: A sadistic process which kills your pirate and rewards you with between 50K and 150K $DUB. You can still extract the dead pirate’s skull.
She offers multiple services, but is only kind enough to perform one per night at no cost. Any additional ones will cost 5M doubloons or 5 Algo. Here, you can do four major rituals as seen below:
Attack Navy Protection: Guarantees your pirate’s survival on your next navy attack.
Defense Death Protection: Ensures that pirates will not die while defending. They can also not gain XP while this is active.
Pirate Revival Ritual: Here you can attempt to revive a pirate once a day. The ritual costs 1 basic skull, can be done once a day, and has a 5% chance of succeeding. You can increase this by spending more skulls to increase revive odds or spending more dub to revive more often, but both are not cost-effective to do.
AlgoSkull Pirate Revival Ritual: You may sacrifice an AlgoSkull to revive your pirate. Revived pirates will be reborn with a 5% debuff to all stats, and your AlgoSkull will be sacrificed to the witchdoctor. It can be repurchased for Algo.
Idle Missions Refresh: Reset all inactive Idle Missions. Extremely useful for Guilds.
The Witch Doctor will also sometimes decide to raffle rarer items and NFTs for “bones.”
AlgoSeas Guilds
AlgoSeas guilds are one of the most rewarding and enjoyable parts of the game. You can join up to four other players in a guild and participate in idle missions that reward guild XP, accessories, stat boosts, rum, and more. Top guilds receive algo rewards, and completing missions is one of the best ways to create a strong crew of pirates.
You can read my complete guide to guilds here.
High Forge, AlgoSeas Marketplace and AlgoSkulls
High Forge
High Forge is a top-quality Algorand NFT launchpad built by the AlgoSeas team and part of the AlgoSeas Ecosystem. 25% of the profits earned by High Forge will be funneled into AlgoSeas, making it so the game and sustain off an external source of revenue, which is an incredible feat for a play to earn game to achieve.
On top of that, the High Forge product is just great and fills a long needed ecosystem hole. You can check it out to launch your own NFT project or participate in someone else’s!
AlgoSeas Marketplace
The marketplace is currently live, and hosts all different types of NFTs with advanced sorting features built into it. 25% of the proceeds go to the pirate king rewards.
Supporting the AlgoSeas Marketplace by listing and buying NFTs is an important part of the game’s success, as it essentially funds a portion of the game’s rewards. The marketplace is the only place where AlgoSeas pirates can be officially swapped, but there is a large collection of other Algorand NFTs that can be listed and sold.
AlgoSkulls
AlgoSkulls went live on July 29th. They are a collection of 10,000 NFTs that provide ingame benefits and can soon be staked on pirate ships. One major benefit is that you can sacrifice an AlgoSkull to the witchdoctor for a guaranteed revive.
They also provide a discount at High Forge!
Latest AlgoSeas Updates
Titles
Titles are special benefits that can be earned through completing the corresponding requirement. Once obtained, they can be activated and will contribute to your crew’s actions.
I wrote a Mini-Guide about what each Title does and how to achieve it here.
AlgoSeas Safety Check
Not all projects in the blockchain spaces are trustworthy, and unfortunately some turn out to be complete cashgrabs. While it is difficult to ascertain whether or not a project is safe, there are a couple key indicators worth looking at.
Dox Check: Undoxxed projects are far more likely to rug than doxxed ones. AlgoSeas is doxxed, and they were even willing to provide extra information to support their intent. All of their information is easy findable online. They have put in consistent, thorough effort into the project even in a bear market.
Aust’s Linkedin | Aust’s Github | Mitch’s LinkedIn | Mckay’s LinkedIn
Beyond the Doxxing, there are not any red flags I can find. The team is very active and transparent on discord, and I’ve had nothing but great interactions with them. Even more, the team recently received a grant from the Algorand Foundation, which makes it about as reputable as a game on Algorand can get. That said, this is the most important aspect of a project to do your own research for.
Important AlgoSeas Links & Supporting the Blog
Connecting to AlgoSeas: Pera Wallet works, but MyAlgo Wallet is seamless.
Play AlgoSeas
AlgoSeas Discord
AlgoSeas Rules & Mechanics
That’s all for now! If you enjoyed this piece and want to read more, consider following me on Twitter @algonautblog to stay updated on new posts.
If you like Algorand Gaming, I recommend reading about Alchemon and Cosmic Champs.You can also check out the AlgoGamingGuild.
If you’re interesting in Passive Income, read the Best Sources of Passive Income on the Algorand Blockchain.
Thanks for reading, and stay safe!