any tips for surviving mid-level?

[DiscoZombie]

My map has no level 5 zones so I have to skip from level 4 to level 6. I do fine in level 4 but I get my ass beat in level 6. I'm sailing a Royal Brigantine. Most level 6 pirates, I can't take in a 1 on 1 battle, and there's usually several of them on me at a time. I can try to bribe several at a time, but I often wind up dying anyway due to the sheer number of enemies, and then I'm out all that money I just paid. Repair costs jumped from 3 wood per tick to 33 wood per tick, which is crazy. Getting frustrated! Not sure what the best strategy is because I don't want to grind for the next ship in a level 4 zone, it would take forever -_-

[Mongo]

Welcome games a bit rough in the lower levels lead them to your towers. Game is about capturing an area tower by square think of it as a tower game. Repair at towns i made that mistake myself in the beginning and wound up running out of lumber. Repair cost is what your hull is higher the level more it will cost. Go to a multiplayer server in an area that has already been captured do quests learn the game people will help you even give you items :)

Nothing wrong with be a trader will help you learn the game. Did you read Arrows guide? Huge help he did a super good job. Add me as a friend and I will help you.

[Mongo]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=349369177

Read that arrow did a great job and it will help you. You'll love this game i own over 200 games on steam a lot of them very current because i am a spoiled rich brat and my dad buys me any game I want but i enjoy this one more than any!

[ArenMook]

Repair cost is based on the cost of your Hull item. Sounds like you picked up some really expensive hull somewhere. For 33 wood per tick it would need to be worth like 100k+.

Royal brigantine is a decent ship, but it's aimed at support. With a Water Barrel equipped it can keep itself and allies alive fairly well, although at your level you won't have enough talent points to spend in the Support specialization tree.

It's often beneficial to hire 2 allies in your previous region before sailing into the new one. The allies will follow you over to the new region, which will make your job easier.

Also remember that you can start a new world and edit both the min and max challenge levels, as well as draw your own world map and choose which factions will be there. You can basically draw your own map where it begins with challenge level 5 if you like.

[DragonIV]

Most of the fun in new areas is caused by lack of map visibility. Once you can manage to evade the battles with the pirates who respawn far too fast (making it a waste of your time and resources to fight them), you let your allies fight those battles while you go and capture stuff.

Especially fun is capturing guard towers and upgrading them (with that specific build skill in the skill tree). 3x upgrades mean they can chew up ships and repair themselves, making them a royal pain in the butt for the AI to counter, and distracts them while you go capture other things.

Gets to be a cat and mouse game (you cannot stick around if the AI shows up), and it's far tougher early on when you lack the full map. So, first priority should be getting the lay of the land, then start capturing stuff.

Capture cities and other resources in such a way that you box the AI into a corner, then you can start killing off the ships as you close in on the last few cities (they can't build new ones if you're close by). Just wish I could direct my allies to intelligently engage to create a perfect net, but beggars can't be choosers. :)

Which brings me to a bug that killed this strategy last night. Found a tower that did not have a capture radius--making it impossible to capture. This was placed in a very inopportune location in the level 6 region I was working on in Dagon Den, and is going to make taking this sector a wee bit harder. :(

[ArenMook]

A tower that doesn't have a capture radius implies that there is a friendly unit nearby -- such as another tower within its sight range. You need to destroy it before you can capture the first one.

[DragonIV]

Ah, that might be what it was. Will check that out tonight, thanks!

[DiscoZombie]

Thanks guys, great tips! I didn't even realize I could take my character/ship to a different world. The hull I found is level 4 Exceptional (+3), I think it was a quest reward for a really long quest. I assumed repair cost was just related to level of the area you're in, bad assumption :) I'm going to read the beginner's guide more carefully. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, I ought to jump on a server too.