Hi! i am interested in running this game, what are some tips and tricks that will help me?

Hey there!

I've also been checking out the runs for the game, since I was playing with the idea of running this myself as well. While watching the WR run, I stumbled upon a youtube comment made by @YhabbyYhabby himself where he explains the basic strategy for the route. I'll now paste this here for future reference for new runners:

"- Choose adventurer difficulty, skill at navigation, 1640 start, then choose the Spanish captain.
- Adventurer is the lowest accepted difficulty, and will save you time with easier swordfights.
- Skill at navigation makes sailing faster and easier, which is what most of your time in any% will be spent doing.
- 1640 with the Spanish start gives you the mail runner as a starting ship. This is one of the fastest ships in the game, and has more crew capacity than the pinnace.
- Sail into the Spanish city and recruit crew from the tavern, then leave
- Sail to the nearest Jesuit mission. These will spawn randomly around the Caribbean but they are fairly common. Quicksave (shift + S) right before sailing into it.
- Talk to the abbot. He will tell you the starting location of Baron Raymondo. If it is not very close by, leave and quickload (shift + L)
- Sail to and battle Raymondo, saving right before you attack him. Don't bother using cannons on his ship, just sail into it as fast as possible.
- Beat Raymondo in a swordfight, he will give you a map piece. If you cannot figure out where the location of your sister is from this single map piece, load and re-do the fight. If you can, keep his ship and its cargo and go to your sister.
- Rescue your sister, saving right before you reach the cabin. She will tell you the starting location of Marquis Montalban. If he is not very close by, load and re-do the encounter.
- Repeat the same process that you used for encountering and battling Montalban. If you cannot find his hideout with the given map piece, re-do the fight.
- Now, you want to get between 150-250 crew before going to Montalban's hideout. The issue is that Spain will hate you now and won't let you enter. French, English, and Dutch cities are typically too far away to visit, so your best bet is pirate havens. You can also try to get some crew between the Raymondo and Montalban fights.
- Go to Montalban's hideout and defeat his Indian army. usually it is faster to kill off all the units, but it may be faster to rush the gate, depending on the map layout.
- Finally, battle Montalban for the last time.
- Defeat him, watch the cutscene, and you're done!"

Again, full credits to @YhabbyYhabby for compiling all this information. Hope this helps and good luck!

PS: If you need any pointers for land battles as well, you can check out @YhabbyYhabby 's guide on the subject here

That is very helpful and informative, thanks for relaying these notes

this is very helpful! thank you very much!