Carpentry

A typical carpentry board

The carpentry puzzle is a duty puzzle played at a ship's duty station. Performance at carpentry repairs normal wear and tear and damage sustained during sea battles. Carpentry also prevents bilge water from entering the ship more rapidly.

Basic gameplay

The objective is to cover each hole with five-square pentomino pieces. Three pieces are available in the toolbox at a time; placing one replaces it with a newly drawn piece. Depending on puzzle difficulty, up to four holes may be active simultaneously.

Each hole has a nominal size, measured in pieces. A size-6 hole, for example, initially contains 30 squares and can be completed as a Masterpiece using exactly six pieces.

A piece may overlap previously covered squares or extend beyond the edge of a hole, provided it covers at least one new square and touches either the edge of the hole or existing work. Every placement counts as a complete piece used, even if it covers fewer than five new squares. Overlap and overhang therefore normally make a Masterpiece impossible.

Completed holes are replaced only when a completed pair occupies the same row or column of the four-hole board. Diagonally opposite completed holes do not make the board scroll. Completing adjacent holes therefore keeps more playable space available.

Performance is based on both speed and efficiency. A pirate's standing may increase or decrease after a puzzle session depending on the resulting score.

Neglect

Each unfinished hole has a neglect counter. Placing a piece in a hole resets its counter, while every placement made in another hole reduces it by one. A hole may be skipped seven consecutive times safely; the eighth skip causes damage.

The result depends on whether the hole already contains pieces:

If the hole has no pieces, a warning begins when three skips remain. When the counter expires, one square is added to the edge of the hole and two points are deducted. This can happen up to three times, after which an untouched hole stops expanding.
If the hole already contains pieces, the most recently placed piece falls out when the counter expires. The squares exposed by that piece are deducted from the score.

Either kind of damage resets the consecutive-Masterpiece counter and permanently prevents the affected hole from becoming a Masterpiece. An expanded hole no longer contains a multiple of five squares. When a piece falls out, it still counts as a piece used even though its squares have been uncovered.

Putty

A putty bucket fills the entire orthogonally connected empty region that is clicked, but only if that region contains no more than five squares. It cannot be used on only part of a larger connected region.

Putty counts as one piece and always preserves the Grain bonus. To preserve a possible Masterpiece, it must fill exactly five squares. Using it on a region of one to four squares wastes part of the placement.

Putty is unavailable at the lowest puzzle difficulties, and another putty bucket cannot be drawn while one is already in the toolbox.

Controls

With a mouse:

Left-click: Select, move, place, or release a piece.
Mouse wheel: Scroll down to rotate clockwise and up to rotate counter-clockwise.
Middle-click: Rotate the selected piece clockwise.
Right-click: Flip the selected piece horizontally.
With putty selected, click an empty connected region of no more than five squares to fill it.

With the keyboard:

1–3: Select the corresponding toolbox item.
Space: Select or release the current piece.
X and C: Rotate the selected piece counter-clockwise and clockwise respectively.
Z: Flip the selected piece horizontally.
Arrow keys: Move the selected piece.
Q, W, A, and S: Centre the selected piece over the upper-left, upper-right, lower-left, and lower-right holes respectively.

The most recently placed piece may be selected again and moved by one square, rotated, or flipped, provided another piece has not yet been selected. This adjustment is no longer available after passing a league point.

Scoring

Each successful placement counts as one move and scores one point for every previously empty square it covers, normally between one and five. Damage caused to neglected holes on the same move is subtracted from this score.

When a hole is completed, its rating is determined by its nominal size and the number of pieces used. For a hole of size n:

Rating	Pieces used
A Masterpiece!	Exactly n
Craftsmanship!	n + 1
A Fair Job.	n + 2
Sloppy Work.	From n + 3 through 2n − 1
A Pig's Breakfast!	2n or more

A Pig's Breakfast therefore does not always mean four or more extra pieces. Its threshold depends on the size of the hole.

Completing a hole may award the following bonuses:

Bonus	Points awarded
Masterpiece	2n − 4
Grain	floor(n / 2)
Nice Set	1, awarded only on a Masterpiece
Consecutive Masterpiece	k − 1 for the kth consecutive Masterpiece

The Masterpiece bonus is larger than the Grain bonus for every normal hole size. A pirate should therefore never sacrifice a possible Masterpiece merely to preserve Grain. Nice Set is only a one-point addition and should likewise be treated as an incidental bonus.

Sequential masterpieces

A Masterpiece being scored

Consecutive Masterpieces receive an increasing bonus. The first receives no streak bonus, the second receives one point, the third receives two points, and so forth.

The counter resets when:

A completed hole is anything less than a Masterpiece; or
Any hole suffers neglect damage, even if a different hole was played on that move.

The counter also begins again when a new board or round starts. Long uninterrupted sequences of Masterpieces are the largest controllable source of high Carpentry scores.

Grain bonus

A Grain bonus is awarded if every piece remaining in the completed hole preserves horizontal grain. One incorrectly oriented piece is enough to lose the bonus.

Pieces enter play in a grain-preserving orientation. A 90-degree rotation changes the grain direction, while flipping or rotating 180 degrees preserves it.

The I, L, N, and Y pieces have fixed grain running along their long direction. Using one in the opposite direction therefore loses Grain. Putty always preserves Grain.

For V, W, and X pieces, flipping can often produce the same footprint as a 90-degree rotation without changing the grain direction. The following example shows the equivalent grain-preserving transformations:

Starting orientation

Rotate 90 degrees clockwise

Flip

Rotate 180 degrees

Rotate 90 degrees counter-clockwise

Rotate 180 degrees and flip

The Grain bonus is worth floor(n / 2) points for a hole of size n. Since a Masterpiece is worth 2n − 4 points and also maintains the consecutive-Masterpiece counter, preserve exact coverage first and Grain only when doing so does not endanger the Masterpiece.

Nice Set

A Nice Set is awarded when a Masterpiece is completed using only one type of piece. It is worth exactly one additional point.

Because it is awarded only with a Masterpiece and is much smaller than either the Masterpiece or Grain bonus, pirates should not sacrifice placement efficiency or leave a difficult remnant merely to pursue it. It is most practical in small rectangular holes that happen to suit a common piece such as P or L.

Token carpentry

Token carpentry is a variation of carpentry played during a blockade, flotilla, or sea monster hunt. Some pieces carry one to three quarters of a bonus symbol. These quarters move, rotate, and flip with the piece.

A later piece whose footprint covers a bonus quarter overwrites it, even if the later piece carries no bonus quarter. A completed symbol must therefore still exist in the final arrangement of the hole.

When the hole is completed, four matching quarters must occupy a 2×2 square and form a circle, diamond, plus, or X. If several complete symbols exist, only one is awarded. A symbol matching the currently desired maneuver is preferred; otherwise one of the completed symbols is selected at random.

A token is awarded only for a Fair Job or better:

A symbol completed in a Masterpiece counts double.
A symbol completed in a Craftsmanship or Fair Job counts normally.
A symbol completed in Sloppy Work or a Pig's Breakfast awards nothing.

When token carpentry is played on a sloop, two awarded token units are required to fill a maneuver meter.

Bonus shapes

Tips and tricks

	Not everyone puzzles the same way.
	Developing a unique approach to a puzzle or challenge that works for the individual is the most important aspect of mastering the craft. These pictures and/or suggestions derive from personal opinions and are meant as guidelines only. They are in no way hard and fast rules as to the "correct" way to do this puzzle or game action.

**Carpentry Shapes and Frequencies**
P - 22	F - 14	Y - 14 asym

T - 7	W - 4 sym	N - 8 asym

U - 4	V - 4 sym	L - 8 asym

Z - 4	X - 3 sym	I - 2 asym

Asymmetric pieces only come with one grain direction. Symmetric pieces have both grains in one. Others have 2 kinds of grain direction.
Bucket - 1
A selected putty bucket will be outlined in blue if a space is fillable and red if a space cannot be filled by the bucket.

The most important priorities are:

Prevent neglect damage.
Preserve every possible Masterpiece and the consecutive-Masterpiece sequence.
Leave remnants that several common pieces can finish.
Preserve Grain when doing so does not threaten a Masterpiece.
Pursue Nice Sets only when they occur naturally.

Fill holes from the outside inward. This keeps the remaining space connected and flexible and helps each new piece touch the boundary or existing work.

Touch every unfinished hole before it has been skipped eight times. Round-robin play among four holes normally provides ample safety, but waiting on several specific finishing pieces can cause a counter to expire unexpectedly.

Avoid splitting the remaining space into isolated components unless each component can still be tiled. In particular, any component intended for putty must contain five or fewer squares. It should contain exactly five if the Masterpiece remains possible.

Use awkward pieces such as I, X, and Z while holes are still large, but do not force them into placements that leave an impossible remnant. P, F, and Y are substantially more common and make safer finishing targets.

Work several holes at once. When possible, plan to complete two holes in the same row or column. A single completed hole is unavailable for future placements but does not bring in a replacement until an adjacent partner is also completed.

When a hole has ten squares remaining, wait for both finishing pieces before committing the first one if the other holes provide enough safe moves to cycle the toolbox. With putty available, a connected five-square remnant can be finished immediately. Do not rely on waiting when only one playable hole remains, because every subsequent piece must be placed into that hole.

Fresh holes can be completed as Masterpieces. Once a neglect expansion occurs, the added square makes a Masterpiece impossible for that hole. The warning begins after five consecutive skips, and damage occurs on the eighth.

If a hole has already lost its Masterpiece, use overlaps and overhanging pieces as efficiently as possible to finish it. Completing the damaged hole restores usable board space, although the imperfect completion will reset any Masterpiece sequence that has since been rebuilt.

Try to leave remnants with several possible finishing pieces, especially ones involving P, F, or Y. A theoretically exact remnant that requires only I or X is considerably more dangerous because those pieces are rare.

You can adjust the last piece after placing it, provided you have not selected another piece. Use this to correct an accidental rotation, flip, or one-square positioning error before continuing.

Example: Two-piece holes

When a hole has ten squares remaining, it can be useful to leave a shape that admits several different pairs. Wait until both required pieces are available before placing either one, provided the other holes give enough time to cycle the toolbox.

This space can be filled by PL, PY, PT, PV, PZ, YU, or FU. It is an especially flexible finishing shape. If P is already in the toolbox, the possible partner pieces L, Y, T, V, and Z have a combined draw weight of 37. If one of those pieces is already available, P itself has a draw weight of 22.

This space can be filled by PP, PU, PL, LN, or VZ. It is a useful shape, although PU and VZ rely on relatively uncommon pieces. Relying on two P pieces can also be dangerous if other holes need them.

This space can be filled by PP, PL, or PW. With one P available, the possible next pieces P, L, and W have a combined draw weight of 34.

This space can be filled by PF, PN, PV, or UX. PF uses the two most common piece types, while the other combinations provide useful alternatives.

This space can be filled by PP, NN, WW, or UU. Most of its alternatives require two copies of the same piece, but PP is reasonably attainable.

This space can be filled by PP, FV, or LU. PP will usually be the most likely finish, but FV and LU provide alternatives when U or V is already available.