My Theory on Maria Celestia

Pirate101 recently released another panorama, which you can see HERE. It's one of Maria Celestia, a haunted-looking ship available in the next update. But there's something special about it, and I've got a good guess on what that is.

A Rat's Word

Pirate101 developer "Ratbeard" recently said that he'd be making some major changes to future gear drops. Those changes are quoted and analyzed HERE. One of the biggest ones was that unique gear variants that were auctionable would be available. That means a couple of things:

• If these new items have only the look and not the stats, we may stop farming the original bosses and try for these unique variants
• There'll now be a variety of gear collections - "true" unique gear, and variants
• Bazaar "stalking" will become an even bigger hobby
• Spending gold there for an outfit may substitute farming long instances
• For extreme collectors, this means the amount of gear they need may be doubled

Now we also noted that Captain Swing is not repeatable except during Bonnie's quest. Fortunately, I snagged the gear before the window closed to stitch it and transfer it over. Now, Swing may again be available in a new form.

Captain Blood, or some variation of him, has returned in the Maria Celestia.

Return of Captain Blood... and Death

The obvious center of attention here is Captain Blood, except he doesn't look quite right. He's got a weird symbol on his hat and he's surrounded by mist or smoke of some sort.

Things get even stranger - Death is seated in the background among chests and piles of gold. The Maria Celestia must be his ship. The Mary Celeste was a real ship which was found at sea with the valuables, crew's belongings, and six months worth of supplies still intact. And yet, the entire crew was missing, and it was deemed the greatest maritime mystery. It seems Death has claimed the ship.

The Connection

My theory is that the Maria Celestia is a dungeon of some sort where Death resides. Here, he brings back old foes from the dead, which would be why Captain Blood's hat has a skull with a set of angel wings on it, and his eyes glow red. This is one version of variant gear that's available. That's right, my theory is that Death will bring back to life our enemies to fight for their gear. And if my theory is correct, I'll have a whole lot more gear to be adding to my unique gear guide.

Here are some major questions, though. This may or may not be part of the Skull Island expansion, but where else would it be? Does that mean that these new free-to-play areas will allow low levels to enter and farm for this gear? How different will the gear really be? Will we actually prefer some pieces to the originals? I'd think so.

Unique boss gear was a huge hit for Pirate101, so this is going to be great as well. Several other parts of the new update are quite controversial (HERE). 

Although right in the seam of the panorama image, Death appears to be
sitting at this desk.

The Verdict

New instance, revived bosses with Death, and new unique gear - this is quite the update. I'm hoping all unique-gear-dropping bosses are available to farm, and even if I already have some gear, I may try for it again. One of my final questions would be "Why Captain Blood?" - he appears to be in the final room with Death but isn't the last boss. Hmm.

What do you think? How will your farming and gear-collecting tendencies change?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Note: The Captain Blood in the first image is an illustration based on the real photo below.