Navy

Some islands have a navy. Pirates can take navy missions on the mission section of the notice board. Once aboard a ship, the pirate can play the duty puzzles for modest amounts of pay. The better the performance at the puzzle, the higher the pay.

Even though the Manage the Navy section of the palace says otherwise, the navy does not cost anything to operate. Island navies are now automated, but this section was used to manage the navy prior to.

Navy ranks
The more time a pirate spends working for the navy, the higher their Navy Rank listed on their info page. Upon attaining some levels, the pirate is rewarded with an item of clothing. The color of the clothing depends on the home island of the pirate. Two-colored items use the same color for both regions. A list of island navy colors is maintained on YPPedia.

Note: The "Learn to..." missions do not count towards Navy Rank.

There are eleven navy ranks:

Pay rates
Pirates are paid for each league that they work aboard the ship. A better performance at puzzles, based on duty report scores, will yield higher pay. If a pirate has done an exceptionally poor job by the time the navy ship reaches port, he or she will receive a tell from the ship's navigator that says, "I'm not paying you to stand around! You've got to work harder than that to get paid in this navy!"

For the "battle brigands with the navy" mission, pirates will receive a small percentage of the PoE pillaged (20%), but none of the commodities. Any treasure chests won from brigands will be divided. Pirates will also be paid for the number of leagues they puzzled.

Requirements for missions

 * A player must complete the "Learn to" mission in the corresponding puzzle (or do it on a voyage) to get a mission to Bilge, Sail, Rig, Carpent, or Patch with the navy.
 * Apprentice experience in Bilging, either Carpentry or Patching, and either Sailing or Rigging are required to get the mission to Gun with the navy.
 * In order to get the "Navigate with the navy" mission, a player must be subscribed or own a pirate or higher rank badge and have experience of Broad or higher in Bilging, either Carpentry or Patching, Gunning, and either Sailing or Rigging.
 * To get the "battle brigands with the navy" mission (to do Battle Navigation with the navy), a player must be subscribed or have a pirate badge or higher and must have Narrow or more experience in Navigation.

Other uses
Players have found the navy useful for a variety of purposes beyond payment, including:
 * Practicing the duty puzzles in a continuous fashion, particularly for "buffing" standings
 * Gunnery, because jobbers are not usually permitted to gun unless they have a high standing
 * Practicing Battle Navigation on the "battle brigands with the navy" mission without having the risks and interpersonal aspects of running a pillage
 * Memorizing some courses without the need of personally owning the necessary charts or someone else charting a course

Early history
The navy was introduced with.

Sales tax (computed as 10% of an order cost at the time) was added to defray the costs of the navy with.

Navy pay was sent to a pirate's home island (prior to the Global Purse) with. Training ships were decommissioned with. Navy ships now had unlimited cannons to be filled.

Navy vessels could no longer be attacked by player ships following.

2005 reintroduction
The introduction of missions and a complete revamp of the navy came with. Prior to missions, each island governor would commission navy ships of their own by placing the deeds on a special screen inside the palace. Governors also had the ability to board any navy ship at any time, whether it was currently at sea or in port, from the docks. With the addition of missions, navy ranks and navy rewards (other than PoE) were also added.

External/other links

 * Commonly discussed ideas from Game Design
 * Navy Rankings and Clothing Forum Thread