Treasure Haul

Treasure Haul is a piracy puzzle. It has been likened to the duty puzzle bilging, with the main difference being that the puzzle pieces can only be switched vertically as opposed to bilging which flips horizontally. This also means that pieces can be switched along the same axis as they fall, which makes the puzzle in some ways quite different to bilging.

Specifics

Treasure Haul can be found in Atlantis, Haunted Seas, flotillas, sinking blockades, shipwreck expeditions and Vampirate lairs. The puzzle varies depending on the environment in which it is encountered.

In Atlantis, Haunted Seas, flotillas and sinking blockades, Treasure Haul becomes available when a vessel has been adjacent to or on top of sunken treasure for all four moves of a turn, including just before the first move. Hauling while the vessel is directly on top of the wreck is more efficient than hauling from an adjacent position. When available, the puzzle can be played by clicking the pop-up in the Ahoy! panel, or by selecting the option from the radial menu on the ships hold (this second option is available one turn before the popup appears in the Ahoy panel). Players with officer privileges on the ship can also use the booty chest to play the puzzle.

When treasure hauling on a ship, Treasure Haulers contribute a small amount to each duty while hauling.

Upon reaching a shipwreck expedition league point, a "Haul Treasure!" button becomes available in the Ahoy! tab when the officer elects to haul the sunken treasure. If clicked, a Treasure Haul game begins. There is also a sunken ship's mast added to scene (off the port bow) with a Treasure Haul station.

In Vampirate lairs, the Treasure Haul puzzle becomes available after each swordfight is won. The puzzle can be started by clicking on one of the treasure chest furniture items in the lair. The artwork for the Treasure Haul puzzle in Vampirate lairs is Vampire-themed.

How to play

Treasure Haul is a simple and fun puzzle played to add treasure to a ship's booty. During the puzzle, the player swaps coins vertically to make patterns of three or more of the same coin type. Combinations of patterns generate a higher score, adding more booty to the ship's hold. Combos in Treasure Haul work exactly the same as bilging, where clearing coins forms new lines of three and four etc. which then clear themselves, repeating until there are no more lines.

Gems

Sometimes gems will appear in the puzzle. These consist of a red ruby gem that clears all the puzzle pieces in the same row and column (cross pattern), and a green emerald gem (or white diamond gem in Vampirate lairs) that clears all the puzzle pieces diagonally to the gem (X pattern). The gem effects can be chained by placing another gem into a gem's clearing path.

Environment	+	x
Vampire lair Treasure Haul
All other Treasure Haul

Chests

When in Atlantis, the Haunted Seas and Vampire lairs, treasure chests will also sporadically appear in the Treasure Haul puzzle. If they reach the top line of the screen (accomplished by clearing coins above them) they will be added to the booty chest.

Coins that are cleared in one of the two columns above the chest will not reappear, meaning that sometimes it may be necessary to have a gem positioned correctly to clear the remaining coins to allow the chest to reach the top. For example, saving a red ruby gem on the very top row is a good way to clear the last coin blocking the chest from being recovered. One way to help keep chests from getting stuck is to focus on making clears towards the middle of the board if there is not a chest on it already, as chests will have a higher likelihood of spawning wherever coins are cleared.

Environment	Chests
Atlantis
Haunted Seas
Vampire lairs

Scoring

In Vampirate lairs, Treasure Haul is scored on the number of chests a player is able to clear during the allocated time.

For Treasure Haul in other environments, scoring is based on the rate and the value of treasure being hauled up. There are three performance indicators in the game. A pirate is performing well when the pile of gold behind the pirate figure is growing, the pirate figure is merrily pulling on the ropes, and coins are flying up the screen. Combos are far less important than they are with bilging; trying to clear as many coins (and/or chests) as rapidly as possible is likely to yield a better score than spending fifteen seconds building a large combo.

Booty

The better pirates are at hauling, the faster the treasure will be brought aboard. In environments where the treasure haul puzzle does not contain chests, the treasure hauled consists of PoE, which is added to the ship's booty chest for division if the ship manages to port. In environments where the puzzle includes chests, the treasure hauled aboard consists of PoE and sometimes items (such as familiars, pets, clothing, furniture and trinkets). In Atlantis, it is strongly encouraged to focus on hauling up the treasure chests because they can potentially contain more PoE than all of the regular pieces of eight hauled from a shipwreck.