Leveling Up

[Roger Pondmartin]

When you reach Level 40, can you still level up any weapons that are not mastered? In other words, can you gain reputation points for a certain weapon that is used even if you cannot earn reputation points on your overall level?

[Sarah]

Yes you can. You earn rep on the weapons til they hit Lev 25.

[Basil Dreadflint]

Most people refer to their pirate as "Mastered" when they hit Notoriety level 40, But as "Fully Mastered" when Notoriety is 40 and ALL weapons and skills are at 25.

[akamystic]

Work on those grenades if you haven't already mastered them.....trust me do not wait on those.

[Roger Pondmartin]

Thanks for the responses. What makes it harder to level up on weapons as your overall notiriety increases? For example, why is it harder to level up on grenades when you are Level 30 (overall) opposed to Level 20? It seems to me that if you hold your skill points on a certain weapon (thereby increasing reputation points), you should level up on the weapon the same whether you are Level 20 or Level 30 overall.

[Maximvs]

For example, why is it harder to level up on grenades when you are Level 30 (overall) opposed to Level 20?

Ya have to be a bit of a Math Wizz to figure out the true forumla (review this thread for REP and how to calculate it) - but in simple form:

(Your Noriety + Weapon Noriety) / 2 = Average Noriety

So If you are L23 (first get gernades) and your gernades are Noriety 1...

(23 + 1) / 2 = 11.5 (12 - always round up) - this means any enemy over 12 using Gernades will get you great REP... this means the Kingshead Formation (and the L18 Vets that stand there) will be good at RED until your gernades hit Level 14/15 - then they start to return less REP (I'm also assuming that you don't do ANY other questing, levelling of any other weapons and that you only gain one Overall Noriety to L24ish)

If you are L33 with new gerds though - its a different story...

(33+1)/2 = 16.7 (17 Round up) - well now your already at L17 and since the Vets are L18 it will only take a few rounds of Gerd Levelling (L4) before they turn yellow and you get less REP for them...

The game's functionality is totally backwards to what you would think as a player... Instead of increasing weapon strength = bigger hits = more REP... it actually REDUCES your return so its actually increasing weapon strength = bigger (but LESS hitting) = LESS REP...

Silly... I know. It rewards "bad" play style and punishes "good" play style... this is why you read about how to get the Max REP you a) only attack NPC's with your weakest attack skills on a weapon - it takes more hits, but that = more REP b) do as little "Free REP Questing" as possible - because all that "free" REP rewarded for each step of a quest you do will go against your total Noriety - and make your REP return on weapons weaker (see the simple formula above).

The reason it is done this way? Its so kids who may not be good at using weapons and / or skills will still be rewarded enough - and "better" players would be willing to work harder anyway - so Disney designs their game like that. It might work for ToonTown and their other games, but in a game which 'borders' on Teen / Adult based play its not so good...

But we live with it

The other thing to watch for is keeping all your weapons "around the same level" for the same reason... One can easily take their sword to L20 and leave the rest behind... but when you are L25 with a L20 sword and your other weapons are L2... they can't hit the targets which you become accustom to (once again not using the Math Wizz formulas, the rule of thumb is a weapon can't hit anything 8 Levels above its own Level... or almost always misses). So then you'd have to go back to level those on smaller NPCs because if you use them weaker weapons on enemies you currently fight with your L20 sword you almost always miss (your L20 sword may take down a L25 Gypsy... but that L2 knife will just 'miss' a lot and he'll kill you) - so now you have to go attack smaller enemies (L10 for example) but using the math above (25+2)/2=13.5 (14) your already starting at a disadvantage on that weapon for REP return no matter what you do...

Level even, play even, weapons even... don't rush ahead on any (not too much story or just one weapon) or you'll be working much harder later.

And thats the reason