Mates list!

I extracted info from MS-Dos.

Starting levels, stats, and locations if known. Numbers are - Battle/sailing and Auth/Judg/Int/Cour/Str.

First 3 are your sailing stats, as the sailing speed of your fleet is determined by some formula that Values Sailing LEVEL and Sailing STATS. Exact number unknown, but you can see the effect very clearly on MS-Dos UI when changing your captains. Last 2 stats are battle stats, so far, the only direct correlation to in game calculations is Gun damage is higher if your battle stats are higher even at low levels. The benefit is never more than 100% above the worst damage tho, so its on some form of scale at least.

2 Categories, Static - Never changes ports, Roamers - Travels monthly, with small % to stay put.

Effectively, this list is best to worst.

STATIC In order of lowest ship speed stat.

Roberto 1/1 76/88/100/48/55 Marseille

Aljeuna 5/1 81/83/75/79/72 Calcutta

Miguel 1/1 86/64/66/86/91 Algiers

Francisco 1/1 62/74/86/49/32 Alexandria (lowest str in game)

Ammul 2/1 61/65/72/55/73 Hormuz

Marco 1/1 55/72/64/79/53 Lisbon

Oswaldo 1/1 65/52/62/59/58 Venice

Conrad 2/3 61/52/55/89/94 Genoa

Nicolas 1/1 49/80/98/38/47 Antwerp

Rinaldo 1/2 25/23/17/44/60 Mumbasa (LOLBAD)

ROAMERS

Fernando 6/5 92/80/75/80/75 Roams Europe

Christopher 8/6 88/79/73/82/74 Roams Caribbean/Europe

Alfonso 10/10 85/72/75/80/68 Roams Europe

Americus 7/7 74/75/69/63/66 Roams Europe

Regis 4/7 72/75/67/81/62 Roams Europe

Benedetto 5/4 79/83/65/74/69 Roams Europe

Cyran 3/2 65/59/68/75/80 Roams Indian Ocean?

Vicente 5/6 62/70/58/62/73 Roams Europe

Jose 1/1 51/83/95/44/41 Roams.

USELESS

Diaz 26/26 BAD. Dont recall stats exactly, but they are BAD. Nothing over 70 if I recall... and takes way longer than normal game play to grind the levels needed to get him on your crew. Dont bother.

NOTE - If you can kill them all off, and you recieve a mission that requires a mate that isnt on your crew, it will CREATE a new mate, place them at the Bar, and once you get them drunk and complete the quest step, they are available in the FIND MATES page. This is the only known way to get new mates to spawn in the game. But I have never managed this without literally putting every mate I have no intention of using on a caravel with no crew and going to sea one at a time killing them off.

Im going to request we create 3... maybe 4 categories for mid game achievements.

1. Battle level 50
2. Sail Level 50
3. Every Guild item obtained.
4. Defeat every original fleet that isnt allied?

There is a method to boost your sailing skill, and it involves 5 heavy galleons, 5 crew per, and 1400 days at sea.

I have actually reached sailing level 50 with this.

Edit - This was the testing that proved the top 3 stats are equally needed for sailing (hence why nicholas/francisco/oswaldo/jose/rinaldo should be ignored. They slow your fleet down with sub top3 stats. Roberto/Miugel are the best in the early game. Aljeuna in Calcutta is the best in the game, and has the capacity to navigate a heavy galleon with nearly no penalty at sailing level 11, as he should be 100/100/100 by then... as you should be also. Generally I dont even use Marco, I get Ammul from Hormuz, and do a quick loop around the planet a couple times to get to sailing 14. If not, then marco is going to be the lowest top3 stat of any of your mates, and that should be above 80 at this point. Still entirely functional.

By this point, Heavy Galleon Warfare is an option. Im still trying to find a way to close out the game.

2nd edit

Are the names the same for mates cross platforms? I said names that only are mates that dont leave the ports they start in (except Jose).

That seems funny to me now, but not impossible. I mean... are you aware of the Insert crash glitch on the MS DOS version? If you hit the number pad "0/INS" key during ocean combat while at the screen awaiting action (fight/flee/fire/wait... that screen), it will straight up crash your client. That is unheard of on your console runs. I have lost COUNTLESS speed runs due to battle crashing and giving up because I forgot to save. Even while growing up that ruined countless savestates.

But it goes to show that even in this era, they got it close. Koei was one of the first cross platform companies to pull it off outside of the US. So props to them.

And here I thought I was onto something with my dry 3:48:xx run 2 days ago. (dry meaning no video)

Actually, you can get Jose in February, But you have to leave Lisbon without wasting a single day (dont get marco yet), and stay at sea till feb 27th, and then dock at seville, this dings you sailing level 2 (docking before the 27th doesnt leveling your sailing), and you get Jose on February 28th.

all ships function at 5 crew.

also Jose is spanish in this game. Marco is portugeese. Its a passive J. Jose starts in Seville, you can make it down there and recruit him in february.

For some reason, everytime I bought the Amulet in London, Jose vanished from Seville in April. I might have had bad rng, but I made it work.

Others didnt and benefitted.

Good. 1 WR done now. Thx :D

Im ok either way, but I dont understand how speedruns are documented yet. Any links? Im interested to take a WR on my childhood game and I want to record it in an acceptable format.

BTW - LIfe pro tip - When you start the game, buy ONE SAKER. It sells the other 10 culverin at 50%, and you gain overall.

My issue now is this. I dont think the current structure works for this game. on msdos. See, I can skip a month in a matter of seconds. Time delay isnt part of the console design? if it is... why isnt it used? Ive watched everything I can find, and now that you replied to that, I might just put one on twitch with emulation acceleration to just have SOMETHING. I just cant do the same gameplay with similar results.

Im actually curious, is there even one playthrough of the msdos version on the internet? I cant find a single one... but I dont know where to look other than google.

Ok, upon further research, this game is not the same as the console. The king require NINE steps to save princess on MSDOS version.

He requires 4 on console according to the current WR.

I sense a game split is needed.

Im new to speedrunning, but not new to this game I have done these things for kicks thru the years.

1. Obtain All Icons/Amulets/Weapons - Race.

2. Kill every unused Mate. (this one is hard because Diaz is level 28)

3. Invest and control every port in the game... and the hard part, simultaneously.

4. Fastest to 5 Heavy Galleons.

5. Fastest to Battle level 50.

6. Discover every restock port without docking.

I am going to attempt this, but my mastery is MS-Dos. I hope to follow thru with this.