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Sandstorm: Pirate Wars Tips & Strategy Guide: 9 Hints to Become the Fiercest and Smartest Pirate

Sandstorm: Pirate Wars is a fantastic mobile game by Ubisoft that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Can you prove that you are the most fierce and smartest pirate ever in this adventure ship-battling game where you challenge other human-controlled pirates in real time? We’ll help you out in a bit, but before that, let’s talk more about the game’s basic features. In this game, you can upgrade and customize your ship, a.k.a. your Sandcruiser, and outfit it with weapons from a list of more than 100. The game sports high-end 3D graphics, and also allows you to earn more rewards by taking on dangerous missions, with these rewards serving you well as you battle more human players. As for the game’s backdrop and backstory, there is a “struggle for life” in the post-apocalyptic world you’re in, and the bottom line is this – only the fiercest and smartest pirates survive.

Now, that we’ve educated you on the basic premise of the game, let’s get on with our Sandstorm: Pirate Wars strategy guide, which covers all sorts of general tips, both for beginners and more advanced players alike.

1. Keep On Adding Equipment And Upgrade It

You’ll earn new equipment as you win more battles in the game – you may start with a mere Grape Shot at the beginning of Sandstorm: Pirate Wars, but you’ll gain more powerful weapons and equipment overtime. Just keep on adding new equipment and upgrading those that you already have. You’ll also want to upgrade the rare equipment you’ve got to make the items more powerful – it’s the rare equipment that could turn the tide in battle, after all.

2. Keep Your Tavern Busy

At some point in the game, you will unlock the Tavern, which you need to keep busy at all times. A busy tavern will earn you more nuts, which you can then use to open crates, buy new ships, or upgrade existing ones. Remember that it’s very important to upgrade your ship so that you can outfit it with higher-end weapons that won’t work on lower-end ships. Most of time, it’s a sound decision to keep upgrading your ship rather than buying a new one.

3. Complete The Side Missions, But Not Too Many At The Same Time

Another thing you should do once you unlock the Tavern is to speak to the locals and take on optional side missions. But just because they’re optional doesn’t make them any easier – they will vary in difficulty. You’ll also have to be prepared for much more enemies if you accept several missions in one go. Also expect better ships to come after you if that is the case.

You’ll want to pay attention to the number of skulls in the top right hand side of your screen, as that serves as your wanted level of sorts. The more skulls, the more trouble you’ll have to be on the lookout for. Keeping all that in mind, don’t overwhelm yourself with missions so you don’t end up biting off more than you can chew.

4. It’s More Than Just The Power – Diversify Your Equipment

When looking at the equipment you get or already have, power is just part of the equation. It’s just one facet of these items, and you should also be looking at the main purpose of these items. So with that in mind, one thing you can do is to have different types of weapons, such as a rocket, a laser, and some guns, so as to allow you to be strong against different types of enemies. You can also keep replacing one shield type with another, as shield type is basically there to revive your existing shield.

5. Recycle Your Common Weapons For Upgrades

Upgrading a weapon would require you to have three different materials, and the best way to get these materials is to recycle your weaker and/or common weapons and support modules. You won’t need them anyway, so you shouldn’t feel bad sacrificing them for the greater good; another benefit of doing this is freeing up inventory space.

Then again, you may also want to recycle rarer weapons on occasion, as long as you don’t need them. The advantage of recycling rarer weapons is getting more materials per recycle – much more than you would if you’re recycling something common.

6. Play MOBA Mode To Earn More Nuts And Other Freebies

Ubisoft makes it a point to focus on the social elements of Sandstorm: Pirate Wars, which include a Pirate Arena. Fight in this arena and climb up in the ranks; that way, you can earn more freebies, which may often include nuts. Just keep in mind that battles become harder as you move up in rank, so always upgrade so that you aren’t left behind. Winning in the Pirate Arena also earns you power cells, which are the game’s premium currency.

7. About The Rage Bar

The red bar next to your weapon is the Rage Bar, and it fills up as you keep firing your weapon in battle. Activating Weapon Rage drains the bar, of course, but once you’re raging, your weapons are considerably more powerful and capable of landing a critical hit. Feel free to use Weapon Rage, because the rage bar refills very quickly; using it at the right time could be just what you need to annihilate an enemy ship and, in many cases, get rid of them in one go.

8. Refill Your Support Systems

Your support systems, meaning your shield and your flares, need to be refilled on a constant basis, as they will run out of energy at some point. Activate your shield and flares like you would a weapon, and once you’ve got enough energy, choose the system so that you can refill it. This game isn’t all about offense, after all!

9. Take Down Enemy Support Systems

While you should take good care of your support systems, you should conversely target those of the enemy. Focus on the systems that throw a wrench into your most powerful attacks; these would usually be shields, but there may also be some systems that could neutralize your go-to weapons or repair the damage you’ve caused.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our strategy guide for Sandstorm: Pirate Wars. If you are interested in getting more bolts and power cells in the game, we suggest you to head over to our second guide, which covers this topic.