The Edgemenace Ranking Method
 

How do you get on the leaderboards? Grinding worse that mastering weapons. Here is the method I sometimes use. This method in only suitable for very bored level 40 pirates. (Note that I don't do PvP at all, but mention it where applicable.) Many thanks to numerous pirates that have kindly shared their hints, tips, help and camaraderie along the way, to make this possible.

First hour: Blackjack. Example:

Because the goal is "wins" and not actually winning gold, I try to grind through as many hands as possible. I'll find an empty table (Tortuga/Port Royal/French/Spanish) in a quiet server. In this hour, I'll lose 100-400 gold, but win 50-100 times. By not ever using cheat cards, I don't have to stand up...so for this exercise I never cheat. (To actually win money at blackjack, using cheat cards is essential, but goes quite a bit slower.)

2-8: hit, 9-11: double down, 12-20: stay. The goal is to move very very quickly, to the next hand. The card showing for the dealer is mostly irrelevant - I just want to get on to the next hand fast.

Second hour: Poker. Example:

Again, at a quiet table, on a quiet server. I usually break about even. Raise (only.) The more NPCs that fold, the higher the chances of my hand winning. Standing up once every 5 minutes helps reset the table. (But I don't usually need to.) Folding never helps, but calling on a horrible hand is fine...but bluffing/raising works better.

Third hour: Enemies defeated. Example:

Switch to an ideal server (but not abassa/andaba) and start a lookout for PvP (mayhem or team.) On Port Royal, go to Governor's Garden and turn left. Stand about in the middle and blast everything you see for an hour...approximately 1,500 enemies defeated. Accept those PvPs (that you can't do while playing cards) if you want PvP leaderboard stuff too. Remember to reset your lookout each time you return. (This portion is particularly mind-numbing: LOOKOUT distractions are quite a relief.)

Fourth hour: Ships sunk. Example:

Launch from Cuba, sailing either clockwise or counter-clockwise around Cuba. Sink every level 1-18 ship you encounter, for 4 laps around Cuba before landing...approximately 100 ships. Keep resetting your lookouts as needed. Remember: neither gold nor rep is the goal here...just ships sunk. If your guild is going to help you rank, bring them all aboard. If you are PvP ranking, use an ideal server (not Abassa/Andaba) but otherwise use a quiet server.

Check DxD one day later, to see yesterday's rankings.

Let's hear it for bored pirates - someone pass the rum!

Note on enemies defeated: the swamp outside at Cuba garners 18 kills/minute for me, so that is significantly slower than Gov's Garden. Also, I'd rather just stand in one spot and turn, rather than chasing gators all over the place. But it does have a decent rhythm - works fine when I need a change of pace.

Nice Edward.

Great post Edward. The problem we have encountered is with the DX site. It is not always updated and a pirate's work goes for naught. My question is...If a pirate's accomplishments do not show up on the daily boards because of this absence of up-dating, do the statistics still get added to his/her overall total?

Fantastic question. I don't know for certain, but it seems to. I haven't been consistent enough, myself, yet, to say for sure. But my personal goal is 100/100/1500/100 per day. So far, I've been an order of magnitude off on each statistic, every day I've aimed for that. It is very difficult to keep track of wins & kills without taking notes (e.g. making hash marks on paper.) Friend requests for help (etc.) make additional ships sunk even more precarious to track. Disconnects mean that I don't get the ship summaries with the more precise counts.

On a completely different note:

For SHIPS SUNK, sail counter-clockwise around Cuba. If you go clockwise, you miss the sweep of ships near Driftwood. (You can get as few as 25 ships each time around Cuba clockwise. Counter-clockwise gives me about 40 on each lap.)

Also, for ships sunk: remember to close boarding & turn off crew matching. Don't take prisoners; don't take hostages. You'll be at sea for an hour before landing, so unless someone specifically wants to join you to help guild ranking, leave it closed. (And remember to close it again and again each time you launch.)

I wonder why the Test pirates don't show up

Since the leaderboards are for the open servers, I wouldn't expect any test server activities to affect them. Makes sense, when you consider how wonky* things can get during software testing...

*Wonky: technical term describing a state of utter flamboozled kasnazzie shronquieness. E.g. NPC ships lacking AI module...so they just sit there and take hits until they sink.

Checking again today, my OVERALL ships sunk has not gone up at all this week (but others, such as enemies defeated, have.) My ranking for times in jail seems to have gone down though. (Whew?) Perhaps they update different sets of statistics at different times?

lol... and I thought spanish was hard

I remember doing some very similar things like this. When we found our guild was never being updated in pvp many gave up paying attention to the dxd boards. If I recall, if the daily stats were down, so were those stats for over all ranking.

It was mentioned for very bored pirates, terrible to think that was like 6-8 months ago we were doing this. Not sure it has improved any on the rankings and such on this dx site more recently.

With ships sunk, does having a crew affect the individuals ranking? In other words, if a guild member is going for individual ranking on the leaderboards do all the ships we sink count towards his ranking (assuming he is at the helm the whole time)?

Also if a guild member is steering and I help with a pirate of mine not in the guild does it count toward the guilds ranking?

Nice Guide!