Assorted Questions

[Jackkel Dragon]

I've been trying to get the last few discoveries and side quests still available in my current playthrough before doing the other main stories, but I've run into a few oddities and issues in the process. I was hoping someone might have the answer to some of these questions:

1) I'm missing some companion-related side quests that unlock their specialties, despite having invested in every port and explored just about everywhere and finishing every quest I've discovered except for "Bernard's Gifts". In particular, does anyone know how to start the companion missions for Loris and Andrea?

2) Does anyone know why Tulips are part of Yun Mu's ability calculation and the Info Bank (despite being limited to a few specific sources), but exploration-only trade goods are not part of the Info Bank? (Artemisia, Peony, and Rose) They still appear in the in-game knowledge tab, so it was a bit confusing when cross-referencing them. (Also, the in-game knowledge tab lists ports with Posts as sources of certain materials from exploration, but the Info Bank only shows where the goods are actually sold. Is there a reason for this discrepancy?)

3) Some of the English translations of clues and such are less than ideal, and so I'm stuck on certain things like the "Bernard's Gifts" quest, the ghost ship event, and a number of shipwrecks that only give hints. Is there a guide that has more accurate hints or specific coordinates for these spots? (Also, Blackbeard's last specialty unlock is meant to be referring to mines, correct? I've not seen torpedoes as an option for weaponry.)

4) Is there any good in-game way to check if there are new events or such available at a port? So far, the only way I've managed to figure out if a port still has library books to read, exploration objectives to finish, or new events is to actually go there. While checking a guide about exploration clue locations, I noticed that some of the unlock requirements for certain clues are VERY specific, so I'd prefer to not have to get every port to 1000 contribution and check each one manually to make sure everything is finished...

[CluelessWonder8]

1) Loris needs a Music Room.

It's been a little while since I played, at this point, but there should be a scene with him after the first storm? (I think this starts his quest) After which he'll ask you to go to London to read a book, then off to Azores to salvage a shipwreck.

That "ends" his quest, but after this, as long as you continue to have him in a music room, there'll be a quick thing with him for each type of extreme weather. At some point he'll say "It's done" or "It's finished". If you go to the London bar after that, you'll get a event cg. Should be the last thing related to him.

Andrea needs a kitchen (and, I think, Lv 30).

With both of those, go visit... I think it's Maracaibo and visit the Governor for a little scene that starts her quest.


3) Bernard's Gifts are at the N zero, all 4 of them. East/West Africa, and East/West S. America.

I've read somewhere that Mines become torpedoes, presumably in battle only, if you have Firearm 10+ (I'm not sure if that's accurate. Even on ships I've owned with mines, I'm usually too busy aiming and firing to keep track of what the mines are doing.)


The ghost ship bounty gets offered (can you see it?) by experiencing fog near Capetown. I've had games where the bounty is never offered because it never got foggy while I was near Capetown.

That said, you can still get the companion quest for the helper item just by visiting Capetown.

Then, the in-game clues were pretty vague, but the next step is to read a(n easy) book in Hamburg, and then talk to everyone, and read the book given to you by the Hamburg governor. After that, the companion item should be in a treasure SW of Narvik. If you don't read the governor's book, you can't find it, which has caught me up a couple of times when I forget.


I used the Yoshitaka's treasure/shipwreck map to generally find a lot of shipwrecks. For my own purposes, I've since written down coordinates by shipwreck clue name.

If you give me shipwreck clue names you're looking for, I can give you coordinates.


4) I don't have a good answer for this either, other than to take notes for future reference when it happens.

[Jackkel Dragon]

Thank you for the information!

1) I see now why I missed these quests for so long... I had already invested so many skill points into my existing Musician and Cook that I wasn't going to swap them out for newcomers. I suppose I'll temporarily take the hit to my fleet bonuses in order to trigger the quests.

As for Blackbeard, I guess I may just leave him be. If there's no quest or Info Bank reward, I'm already too far into the game for getting much benefit from completely changing my combat strategies. As near as I can tell, the only fight that is a heavy challenge to my fleet of Ironclads is the Greek Fire questline's final battle, which I've already done on this run. (Plus, I have yet to figure out how to lay mines normally, much less hit with them...)

3) Oh, so Bernard's gifts are at the Equator? That will save a lot of time, and I can sort of understand the American part of the clue now. I guess I never thought of using a pendulum to measure longitude...

I think I saw the opening event for the ghost ship (since I only remember it from the logbook item, since it's not listed as a clue for me), but I'll check Capetown for the bounty. If it's not there, maybe I need to wait around that area for fog. That said, is the ghost ship storyline really the same quest as the wedding murderer from Hamburg? If so, maybe I finished the quest without realizing the connection, and that's why the clue isn't in the mission log any more.

As for my current set of missing shipwrecks, these are the names listed in my clues list (plus a few notes for the generic-sounding ones):
- Prince
- Initiative
- Remote Waterway (west of African Cape)
- Pioneer
- Atlantic Ocean (east from Bahia)
- Iliad
- Bermuda

4) I suppose I'll be making heavy use of the exploration site guide that is currently on Steam, then. Hopefully I've already finished most of the stuff that isn't directly involved with discoveries by this point.

One additional multi-part question I have after checking the achievement list:
- Is the "discover all waters" achievement bugged because of the phantom port in the Arctic? (as of 1.2.4, at least)
- Is there a reliable method to getting the "destroy a ship in one hit" achievements?
- Are there any other achievements that might be bugged or more complicated than they sound?

[CluelessWonder8]

I think the in-game text talking about Bernard's Gifts when you initially get the clue says something about how, at the equator, the pendulum swings less? There's also a scholar who drinks himself under the table who's upset about how much renown Bernard has won himself with his experiments and his supposed "equator", which the scholar totally does not believe in.

(The above being said, I used a guide on GameFAQs for a lot of things, and where Bernard's Gifts were was one of the things I picked up along the way. Incidentally, you must have the Bernard's Gifts clue to be able to find any of them.)


"Pioneer" - E 58, S 3
"Initiative" - E 4, S 23
"Prince" - W 6, S 1
Remote Waterway - W 13, S 13
"Illiad" - W 55, N 16
Bermuda - W 66, N 32
Atlantic Ocean - W 30, S 27

Those are the coords, but, well, as you probably already know, that can be a large patch of water, with a small shipwreck in there somewhere.


Yes, the wedding murderer in Hamburg is the companion quest for the Ghost Ship, it's started by some poor sailor who got shanghaied onto the Ghost Ship and palms you a note in Capetown hoping to get rescued. (I doubt you can actually rescue them, mind you. But, I've not done the bounty...)


I can't tell you on the discover all waters: I got it before the bugged port got added. For now, try sailing down to S 70-73... or so, and see if it doesn't trigger. Starting in Ushaia or Capetown is usually recommended.

For the destroy a ship via ram/mine achieves, I don't have them either, but was thinking of using just an endgame flagship vs some 50k bounty saps, and see how that goes. If you leave the rest of the fleet in port, it should make it easier to get the battle to go the way you want, and not have to worry about your fleet prematurely ending it for you.

The "destroy a ship with a single round of firing" achieve is something I obtained without aiming for it. It just happened during a battle at some point, when doing combined fire with 2-3 sub-captains, and we just obliterated an enemy... I think my fleet at the time had 3-4 Ships of the Line... and long barreled cannons.

[Sly]

I believe mines function the same as the front-mounted cannons, ie. they will drop when a ship is within X distance of the rear of your ship while it is within the back firing-arc. In which case you'd want an enemy ship with a tendency to chase you to try and board in order to get a kill, rather than a ship which will try and stay at a distance and trade fire with you

Bernard's Gifts is a reference to Foucalt's Pendulum [www.smithsonianmag.com].
When a pendulum swings, it experiences a deviation based on the rotation of the thing it is attached to, ie. the Earth. When it is at the equator, it experiences no deviation.
The different sailors you meet will reference the special behaviour of the pendulum. "Bernard" is giving a proof that the Earth turns and has placed treasures at a special region related to the proof. Though it is a bit annoying that the specific dialogue that references the region is not in the clue, so you may miss or forget it and have trouble later when trying to figure it out.

[Sly]

There is actually a keybind for mines, by default B on controller or T on keyboard