@daringclarky
Kraken tutorial:
The kraken only attacks when the other two events are not active. The stronghold event, signified by a floating skull-shaped cloud with eyes that occasionally flash green or a yellowish orange, and the skeleton fleet event, signified by a floating cloud bearing the appearance of a galleon cresting a wave, the broadside cannons flickering with the same green or yellow lights. Keep an eye on the sky, and only set sail when one of these is either already up, or has been down for at least a minute, which means the kraken has attacked someone else.When the conditions are right for an attack, stay near an island or rock formation, and if at open sea drop the anchor. They seem to not like attacking stationary ships, and it cannot fit in shallow waters.
For the kraken itself, it is a hard encounter until you learn its attack patterns, after which it becomes remarkably easier. When you see it attack, the water turning black and the roar accompanying your ship stopping, do a 180 if you wish to simply escape its grasp. It will not follow you out of the ink, and seems to have difficulty interacting with ships on the edges of the ink as well, even if they are slowed by it. Regardless, the closest edge to you is directly behind you, so you can simply turn around and face the sails with the wind and you'll be out very quickly.
Should you wish to fight the beast, its patterns are simple:
Each ship caught needs to defeat a certain number of tentacles to drive the creature away. This only changes based on the ship that it originally attacks, rather than any other ship type within the ink at any time. A galleon will have to dispel all eight tentacles, a brigantine will have to defeat six, and a sloop a mere two. Each tentacle, when defeated, will dive under the water, followed by a cry from the kraken itself. It will then resurface elsewhere, and attack once more as it did before. When driven under again, it will writhe in the air before quickly pulling under, accompanied by a rather dramatic musical cue and followed by a piece of treasure and a piece of kraken meat rising to the surface above the tentacle. This also means that while a galleon must essentially drive off 16 tentacles, with no more than eight attacking at a time, a sloop can drive them under anywhere in the range of 4 to 10, defeating six once and two twice, or only defeating two twice. Keep in mind that the tentacles occasionally move on their own, submerging and resurfacing elsewhere without taking damage.
The tentacles have three attacks they will perform, among a variety of animations which are mostly just roars and movements, as well as their occasional resurface elsewhere.
The first attack is a suck or grab of sorts, where the tentacle will open its mouth and begin inhaling while targeting a pirate on deck or in the water. The targeted pirate will hear a loud screech from the tentacle, and see clouds of dust being pulled towards it, allowing them to get to cover (it cannot grab one that is belowdecks, though it will continue to pull at them and the dust will continue to rise) or fire back, cancelling the attack. Should it succeed at grabbing the pirate, they can be retrieved from it by a harpoon shot, or dropped if the tentacle takes enough damage. It will repeatedly plunge its captive into the water, damaging them from impact and drowning damage, which comes on nearly instantly within the ink. Should they survive several plunges, it will spit them out, flinging them far across and occasionally out of the ink.
The second attack is a slap, directed at the ship. The tentacle will rise up near the hull of the ship (sitting lower and closer to the ship than the tentacles normally do), roar, coil up, and unfurl into the hull, damaging and launching the ship, along with anyone too close to the impact. There does not seem to be a way to cancel this attack.
The third and final attack is the wrap, where a tentacle will come up beside the ship and wrap itself across the deck and around the entire ship, then begin to squeeze it, damaging it heavily and turning the entire ship back and forth. The tentacle on deck can cover the staircase on a galleon or brigantine, preventing access in or out and preventing water from being tossed into the sea from below. Anyone trapped belowdecks by this should prioritize repairing every hole which appears from the wrap, and pick up a full bucket of water when required (a single bucket can hold almost a quarter of the water it takes to fill a deck of the ship, don't underfill it). They should not attack the tentacle from below, it will take very little notable damage and will squirt ink from its wounds at those attacking it, blinding and damaging them. The same will happen to anyone on deck attacking the tentacle on deck with them. The priority for those on deck during a wrap should be to locate and defeat the end of the tentacle, where the mouth is. It will be near the ship, in the line of fire of the cannons, and lower down and closer to the ship than the other tentacles. It often has its mouth open in a roar, revealing the critical hit spot: the interior of the mouth. After being hit enough, normally after a single cannon shot, the tentacle will submerge and reappear again, in a similar spot and rarely in the same spot. The process should be repeated until the entire tentacle releases the ship. Notably, the tentacle end will sometimes place itself on deck, requiring it to be attacked with handheld weapons rather than the cannons.
Crew should be distributed about the ship, prioritizing repairing in all cases, and the helm and sails (should you wish to flee) or the cannons (should you wish to fight). On a sloop, one crew member can fill both required roles, especially a crew member who knows the patterns of the kraken. A duo on a sloop can split up, one to maneuvering or firing and the other to repairs, helping each other as needed. A duo or trio on a brigantine or a trio or full crew on a galleon should always have at least one person above and below at all times, to protect against a wrap blocking the staircase. The two cannoneers should not both go belowdecks for reloads at the same time, instead they should alternate going down so that one refills on cannonballs while the other remains firing (and not both go down to escape the grasp of the kraken and the other to reload, or similar). Those belowdecks should not run out onto the top deck to throw out water, but should instead stop on the staircase to do so. Repairing is their priority, as no matter how much water they take out of the ship more can always pour in, however stopping repairing to save the ship from sinking entirely is a good thing, in most cases one or two pirates with buckets can save a ship from any amount of damage. Galleons should be wary of the holes on their central deck, should the water reach that height.
