Claiming Ships
In the online game PotBS, at level 5, each character automatically receives a skill that allows them to claim ships no matter what their class is. As a Freetrader, you get the skill "Claim Prize Ship (Freetrader)". Claiming creates tokens which can be traded in for rewards. We will tell you the strategy to get these rewards.

In combat, when an enemy is defeated after boarding or when it abandons the ship, it will create a derelict instead of sinking. You click on the defeated foe, click the skill's icon and an item will appear in your loot box.

Freetrader Pennants
In PotBS, Freetraders obtain a Pennant when they claim. There are 10 types of Pennants, which will be listed below. The one you earn depends on a number of factors, some obvious and some unknown. Some of these factors include your level versus your enemy's and your ship's strength compared to your enemy's. Obviously, fighting higher level foes gives higher level Pennants. Like all MMORPGs, the online game PotBS works following a risk versus reward system. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. However, this is somewhat random because we've killed enemies 25 levels above us which only gave Small Pennants, the lowest ranking Pennant. Use the level and ship difference as an indicator and not as a rule.

New players to the game always wonder where to turn these in. Freetraders can turn in their Pennants at their country's capital, like every class. The capitals are Point-a-Pitre for the French, Port Royal for Britain and San Juan for Spain. Once you've sailed to your capital, go to the Tradehouse. You will see a NPC called Exchequer with an exclamation point. That's the NPC that gives you the quests that require you to turn in pennants for rewards.

Game Strategy to obtain Pennants as a Freetrader
Because you can't use the claim skill on sunk enemies, you have to plan your game strategy accordingly. First step is to determine which type of Pennant you're looking for. If you want small pennants, for example, attack level 1-12 enemies. These will almost always produce minor pennants so if you're looking to grind a bunch of them, attack fleets of low level enemies. If you're looking for higher level pennants, the obvious strategy is to attack higher level enemies.

Once you've selected which type you're actively hunting, head to an area with lots of enemies of that level. For effective grinding, you don't want to chase around, you need to kill quickly. To obtain Pennants, the main strategy is boarding. This is especially the case at lower levels. When boarding successfully, you are 100% guaranteed to receive the full loot as well as a pennant. This is the prime game strategy at low levels because we don't have a lot of cannons to shoot down ennemies swiftly. We recommend using grapeshot, which damages the crew. Attack one enemy to lower it's crew, try to block his path at a 90 degrees angle and then board. Rinse and repeat for every foe.

Compared to other classes, Freetraders have very few skills helping them in successfully grappling. They don't get Decimate (lowering grapple defense). They do get a skill reducing the enemy's speed by 60% but it's difficult to get. On the other hand, Freetraders have a speed advantage over navy officers. Speed helps tremendously in grappling because it makes it much easier to sail ahead of a ship and then turn to block it's path, greatly increasing grapple percentage. You also want to pick a ship with good speed so that you catch up to your opponents easily. As a Freetrader, this is your main advantage.

Once you reach level 20 or so, a new strategy opens up after you upgrade your ship. You get more cannons, so you can do a lot more damage to your enemies. Note that we said that you don't get Pennants if you sink them. This is still true. However, at higher levels, enemies tend to abandon once you've lowered the structure integrity to 20-50%. They seem to do so more often when attacked with many cannons at once, hence why the Otter Scuda Fallback doesn't cut it.

Boarding or attacking? The game strategy depends on which type of opponent you're facing. Against merchants, who typically have less cannons to damage you and less armor, we've found that it's quicker to shoot them down. Often, you will head straight for them, fire at them from close range and in 2 or 3 shots they will abandon. Always try to get close to the enemy ships because you do a lot more damage and it makes them abandon quicker.

On the other hand, against non-merchants, we suggest boarding. These are enemies which have many cannons, more than you do, and also a lot of armor. Because of that they can take a beating and also beat you down so it's wise to stop them from damaging you as quickly as possible, which boarding accomplishes.

Lastly, soloing is better for Pennant grinding. In a group, you destroy many more ships and players aren't interested in waiting for you as you sail 30 seconds down wind to go claim an ennemy. So while grouping is much faster to gain experience, it's not nearly as good to grind pennants.

Rewards
Pennant	Quantity	Choice
Small Pennant	10	10 Crate of Heavy Round Shot
		11 Hemp Canvas
		24 Wheat Flour
		15 Hemp Rope
		12 Oak Blocks
		2 ingot, iron
		1 Tales of Adventure (200xp)
		1 Swashbuckling Skill Respec
		1 Career Skill Respec
	120	1 Dolphyn Ketch
Medium Pennant	10	10 Crate of Bar Shot
		11 Crate of Canister Shot
		7 Livestock
		8 Wood Tar
		1 Adventure on the High Seas (300xp)
		1 Book: Basic Consumables
		10 Small Pennant
Large Pennant	10	26 Hardtack
		9 Rum
		10 Medium Pennant
Blue Seal	10	4 Nails
		1 Book: Advanced Consumables
		1 Daring and Derring-do (400xp)
		10 Large Pennant
	120	1 Atlas Bark
Bronze Seal	10	5 Ingot, Copper
		30 Leather
		1 Book: Advanced Gun Outfitting, small
		1 Book: Advanced Hull Outfitting, small
		1 Book: Advanced Sail Outfitting, small
		10 Blue Seal
Silver Seal	10	2 Ingot, Silver
		3 Lignum Vitae
		1 Danger and Glory (500xp)
		1 Book: Advanced Gun Outfitting, Medium
		1 Book: Advanced Hull Outfitting, Medium
		1 Book: Advanced Sail Outfitting, Medium
		10 Bronze Seal
Gold Seal	10	2 Ingot, Gold
		1 Book: Advanced Gun Outfitting, Large
		1 Book: Advanced Hull Outfitting, Large
		1 Book: Advanced Sail Outfitting, Large
		10 Silver Seal
	150	1 Santiago Trader's Galleon
Encomium of Skill	10	1 Ingot, Brass
		10 Gold Seal
		1 Book: Advanced General Outfitting 1
		1 Book: Advanced General Outfitting 2
		1 Book: Advanced General Outfitting 3
		1 A Captain's Captain (xp book)
Encomium of Valor	10	10 Encomium of Skill
		1 Wine, Fine
		1 Book: Basic Gun Outfitting, Huge
		1 Book: Advanced Gun Outfitting, Huge
		1 Book: Basic Sail Outfitting, Huge
		1 Book: Advanced Sail Outfitting, Huge
		1 Book: Basic Hull Outfitting, Huge
		1 Book: Advanced Hull Outfitting, Huge
Royal Encomium	10	10 Encomium of Valor
		1 Writ: 'San Mateo' Trader's Galleon
		1 Writ: 'Pommern' Sleek Frigate
		1 Expert Captain
		1 Book: Gun Outfitting, Colossal
		1 Book: Sail Outfitting, Colossal
		1 Book: Hull Outfitting, Colossal
	30	1 Writ: 'Couronne' Galleon
		1 Writ: 'Pommern' Heavy Frigate
	60	1 Writ: 'Mignone' Mastercraft Indiaman
		1 Writ: 'Pommern' Mastercraft Frigate