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(Kindly borrowed from ypp forum help):
You will notice that as a new player you have a 'Foil'. Other Sword types can be
acquired in the game, by order from the Ironmonger or from other pirates.
Different Swords have different strike patterns, which can be seen by
mousing-over the sword in your Booty panel. As you can see, these different
kinds of Sword have different strike patterns. The colour of the guard and
pommel determine where the four block colours fit within the sword's pattern.
Choosing a Blade
Some swords are clearly better than others for certain play-styles, although
there is dispute about the most deadly of blades, and different swordmasters
have their own preferences.
No blade will guarantee a win and even the lowly foil can be devastating in the
hands of a Master Swordfighter. You should, then, choose any new blade based on
your own play-style and the theme of your pirate.
Many have studied the intricacies of sword construction and use. The nuances of
each pattern could be (and have been) debated at length by some of the best
Swordfighters in the seas. Here are some simple guidelines:
If you shatter frequently in small, sprinkle attacks, try a stiletto, dirk,
short sword or poniard.
If you are a builder and like to make large, solid sword attacks go with a long
sword, saber or scimitar.
Finally, these swords are relatively balanced between the two and thus
differentiate themselves in subtler ways: foil, skull dagger, cutlass, falchion,
rapier and cleaver.
Strike Patterns
Strike patterns work from the top-down, so for example, were one to destroy a
2x2 block using the Foil in our example then a 1x4 sword would fall onto your
opponent. Were it to fall on the left side side of his board it would turn into,
from the top down, blue blue red red. Were it to fall on the right, yellow
yellow green green.
Analysing and reacting to the strike pattern of your opponent's blade is central
to the Mastery of Swordfighting. Knowledge of a blade means you can use its
strengths against it.
Right/Left-Handed (taken from
the page linked below)
The colors of the sword guard and hilt only affect the colors sent to the
opponent, but the make of the sword determines the drop pattern's structure.
However, the drop pattern can be reflected to the left or right. If the guard
color is blue, green, or purple, the drop pattern is the horizontal
mirror image of what it would be for any other guard color. This is sometimes
called "Mirroring" or "Reversed", but I prefer the terms
"Right-handed" for normal orientation (red/yellow/orange/white/black
guard) and "Left-handed" for abnormal orientation (blue/green/purple).
Even though the drop structure is the same, some swords are better when
right-handed and others are better left-handed. This is because sprinkles and
sword strikes are more likely to fall on the left half than the right half
(because the drop zone is on the right half of the board). In particular, the
game avoids sending strikes down column 4 (the drop start) unless necessary.
So 1-2, 2-3, and 5-6 strikes have equal probability, but two thirds of them land
on the left side and one third on the right side. So its always better to have a
sword's stronger half on the left and weaker half on the right. Changing the
handedness of the sword changes where the weaknesses and strengths are in the
drop pattern.
http://forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=5091&highlight=sword*
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