• You can't fit child soldiers through one block gaps (unfortunately), I've tried it myself multiple times and despite their clear size advantage, the kids just won't fit.
  
  
• Adoption centres aren't nearly as common as groceries and armouries. However but they are just as common as any other non-guaranteed store that can be generated in towns (e.g; Witch huts, Churches, Sailing stores, Libraries of wisdom, etc).
  
  
• This guide is solely based off of my own personal experience with playing this game, and might be different to yours.
  
  
• And lastly, this guide is legendary mode certified.
  
  

Unfortunately, you'll have to rely on your regular pirates for a long while before getting your first child soldier, however in the meantime, even our child soldiers will follow the same stat distribution as our regular pirates.

On that though, I suggest the starting option that gives you two pirates instead of the gold or falcon blade, as it's not like you'll be relying on those two particular pirates forever...


The following stats are ordered from most-to-least important:

• 30 Agility
  
  
• 100 Luck
  
  
• 5 Dexterity
  
  
• And the rest can be dumped into Vitality.

Dodge chance reaches 100% at 30 agility, so putting in any more points than 30 would be a waste, as in testing, putting in more points than 30 does not lesson the chance of getting hit than if it were at 30 (although curiously, I've also found that you can still get damaged at 100% dodge, although it is undeniably less often than if it were a lesser value).

Critical hits will always deal much-much more damage than regular hits, and unlike Strength, affect ranged weapons as well. So maxing your crit-chance is pretty much a no-brainier if you want your child soldiers to become true tanks, speaking of which.

Vitality determines both how much health you regenerate after battle, and your armour rating, so maxing it out literally, cannot hurt. In fact, it may very well out-heal starvation damage if it's high enough, although I haven't tested that theory yet.

Ranged hit-chance is by default at 90% at 1 point, so putting in a few more points to max it out doesn't hurt (you, it hurts the baddies).

Strength might be a good idea early game, but as mentioned prior, crit damage will not only always deal more damage than regular hits, but the weapons you'll gain will deal more damage as they naturally level up anyway. So, in the long run, it's a much better investment to invest in maximising crit than straight damage.

Intelligence seems like a good deal like a good deal at first, as it could snowball into you levelling all the time. But that just isn't the case. As the xp needed to become effective could (and should) be spent elsewhere, I should know, as I learned that fact the hard way.

So, you've managed to stay alive with a decent crew, now it's time to get your first batch of child soldiers! Well before you do, make sure you've got a place to train them, a nice and safe place where no cannon fire can touch. Three blocks thick is good enough to fully sustain a direct cannon shot without anyone getting hurt on the other side.


This picture here is a good example of another way you can keep your trainees safe, and that's by simply keeping them far enough (and high enough) away from cannon fire that they'll never be targeted to begin with.

Now time to buy your first batch, early game it can be a tad challenging to afford a kid (a flat 20 or 40 gold). But once you buy one, they're yours! No mutinies, no unwanted perks, nor useless stat placements (like say, someone having all of their points dumped into intelligence).


All you'd have to worry about with first purchasing a child soldier is their hunger, and their equipment. As they all come equipped with a pacifier and toy sword which, unsurprisingly, is the worst weapon in the game.


For the first batch, I suggest getting 5 children, any more than 5 can prove to be a bit too much to manage (although can be done if pre-planned), and any less would just be too slow to snowball.

If you paid attention to the stat allocation section in the first uh, first section. Then you would already know what the next step is, but if not, I'll put the stat allocation list here as well for simplicity sake.

The following stats are ordered from most-to-least important:

• 30 Agility
  
  
• 100 Luck
  
  
• 5 Dexterity
  
  
• And the rest can be dumped into Vitality.

However, when training for child soldiers, you need only train them up until either their agility reaches 30, they reach equal/or higher health to your captain, or the child soldier them self reaches 150 health or greater. Once they reach any one of those criteria, only then is the child soldier ready for combat.

Now, repeat this process until your crew looks something like this:

Congratulations! You can stop right here if you want, as the steps mentioned prior are the goals to aim for when attaining a satisfactory child militia, however...

If you want to attain an entire crew's worth of child soldiers, then go visit your local witch hut, and buy some arsenic for your non-child soldier pirates.


It says what you need to next on the tin...

👹😈😈😈Cull them, cull them all 😈😈😈👹

If you followed this guide to the T, then should now be in possession of the #1 most overpowered strategy as of the writing of this guide, now have fun, kill 'em all, kill all them filthy sea dogs and landlubbers with your little demonic yappers!