POP - The Shield

[Rinc3Wind]

So I am 8% away from the shield and I have some questions. But here is my crew and all that first.

 

6 M/C/S (4 are from the loop, 2 are from the pincers, all are level 9-10)

3 TC Merchants

3 JOD

1 Wisp

5 Captains (1C,2M,2S)

 

The ships is fully upgraded with terracotta upgrades, I have two cherry trees and two jade statues and I have around 4k surplus terracotta right now.

 

1. What should I prioritize on in the shield? Rudder -> Crew -> Ship?

2. I know I get new captains in the shield, what is the deal with them?

3. 4 cherry trees or is 2 good enough?

4. Is my crew set-up good? How should it change when I get into the shield?

 

Thanks guys!

[Wkw]

If you are going to be able to send out voyages at 8PM eastern time, and also again at 7AM eastern time in the morning, get the rudder first.

 

If you are only able to send ships once a day, save the rudder for last.

[Rinc3Wind]

If you are going to be able to send out voyages at 8PM eastern time, and also again at 7AM eastern time in the morning, get the rudder first.

 

If you are only able to send ships once a day, save the rudder for last.

I live on the west coast so I'll use PT. So if I send them out at 5PM and 4AM I can have two voyages a day? Can I fast forward 2.5 hours so I send them out at 7:30PM and 6:30AM because I can't wake at 4AM.

[Wkw]

Reset for you would be 5pm. The non-trade good voyages can go, at fastest, 11:30 hours, so if you are able to send them out at 5pm, and again at 4amn, go for rudder

 

If you can only send them out once, just forget getting speed anything because it won;t help you =p

[Rinc3Wind]

Reset for you would be 5pm. The non-trade good voyages can go, at fastest, 11:30 hours, so if you are able to send them out at 5pm, and again at 4amn, go for rudder

 

If you can only send them out once, just forget getting speed anything because it won;t help you =p

 

Hmm, but wouldn't I still be sending out two voyages a day, my schedule would just be 2.5 hours ahead. Instead of at 5PM and 4AM, it would 7:30PM and 6:30AM. Or am I missing something critical here? Sorry for the redundant questions XD

[cowmaster187]

Nah the shift of 2.5 hours should be fine and shouldn't affect anything, the assumption he is making is that you send your ships out at reset

 

~~~legoman187~~~

[Rinc3Wind]

Nah the shift of 2.5 hours should be fine and shouldn't affect anything, the assumption he is making is that you send your ships out at reset

 

~~~legoman187~~~

 

K, thanks for the clarification. Want to tackle any of my other questions =P

[cowmaster187]

i can't attest to most of the other questions, 

 

in terms of captains, they are more epxnsive and are better than the previous captains 

 

they are however rather rare, i have had 2 since getting to the shield 

 

~~~legoman187~~~

[Ulysses]

1 - As above, if you can send two ships out every 24 hours, i.e. purely resource voyages in shield (as trade goods ones would take 15 hours min..14:55?), get rudder, then crew, then parts. I'd get the deck parts first.

 

2 - Generally, replace all your 10k captains with 35k captains as soon as possible. Stats even with a couple of irrelevant traits are far superior to 10k captains. On the General Discussion thread, you could find some more useful information - in particular to maximising effectiveness of the 4x exiles set up in combination with the focus on bones and their stats requirements - according to xpx, the ideal captain set up should be 2 morale, 1 combat, 2 seafaring captains (one of which with 4x multi-talented i.e. 4*50 mcs + 4*100 speed).

 

3 - When I was in loop/shield, I had 4 statue from ages ago, so I merely rebuild two trees and that was more than enough. So in your case I think you are fine.

 

4 - Replace all pincer crews first, then work your way through the loop mcs crew; at the same time, get rid of wisp and add another TC merchant. Replace JOD with Exiles when you unlock them. Again, if you intend to go down the bones route later on, the consensus on the General Discussion thread is that you replace a SF crew with another Exile.

 

Shield should feel a bit hard to begin with, but once the crew gets to lvl 6 or so, it should gradually feel easier. I would not recommend doing trade goods voyages early on, as it tends to upset the 11.35~ schedule and voyages get out of sync. It's much easier to log in and take care of it all in one go.

 

ps: It took me 9 tries to get Exile done, at which point I was already well over 3700. So there's no need to be discouraged if you can't get it in the first few tries. 

[Rinc3Wind]

Thanks for the complete answer, less than 1% left till I get into the shield but I feel ready :)