JJP's Pirates of the Caribbean seems complex, but it's actually pretty easy to understand if you break it down into individual objectives. I thought I would post some explanations of the basic goals of the game. Obviously this game has many layers, so feel free to add comments about more complex scoring rules and strategies but I'll keep my posts simple so people who are new to the game can learn how to progress through it. Check out the Key Post Index at the top of the thread to jump to a particular objective. Some of this content comes from CaptainBZarre's rulesheet on Tilt Forums and the pictures are from TWIP and the Helicon Brewing thread or screenshots from the JJPlive streams. So here goes:

Objective 1: Sink the HMS Dauntless and start Curse of the Black Pearl Multiball

How to do it:

1. Climb the ladder (right ramp) to access the Black Pearl (upper playfield).

Shoot the right ramp (resized).jpg

2. Raise the sails by shooting the two spinners.

Raise the sails (resized).jpg

The lighting on the ship will slowly become a dark shade of green as the spinners spin and, after enough spins, the “Load Cannon” targets will be lit.

3. Load the cannon by shooting either “Load Cannon” target. This will light the “Light the Fuse” insert.

Load cannon 1 (resized).jpg Load cannon 2 (resized).jpg

4. Light the fuse by shooting the ball into the cannon shot.

Light the fuse (resized).jpg

5. Fire the cannon at the HMS Dauntless using the button on the lockdown bar. A successful shot will cause the HMS Dauntless to be destroyed and qualify Curse of the Black Pearl Multiball at the Port Royal Shot.

Sink the ship (resized).jpg

6. Shoot the Port Royal shot to start Curse of the Black Pearl Multiball.

Port Royal (resized).jpg

Objective completed. Next, you can:

Collect super jackpots during Curse of the Black Pearl Multiball:

At the start of the multiball, a ball will be popped up into the ship. Super jackpots can be collected during the multiball by repeatedly loading the cannon and firing at and sinking the HMS Dauntless.

OK, so you played Curse the Black Pearl Multiball, that's the multiball for the first movie. So maybe you would then like to start a movie 1 chapter.

You may have noticed when you played the movie 1 multiball that there was a skull and crossbones over a yellow background on the far left side of the LCD.

Movie 1 multiball (resized).jpg

Well, that's because movie 1 is represented in the game by the color yellow. So, if you look around the playfield you will see there are 5 skull inserts, these correspond to each movie. The yellow one is the movie 1 skull insert. It is in front of the PORT ROYAL shot.

Yellow skull (resized).jpg

There are also 5 skulls at the top of the LCD, the one on the far left corresponds to the first movie.

Chapters (resized).jpg

1. Shoot the Yellow Skull shot to qualify the movie 1 chapter. You will see it now says chapter qualified on the LCD in the first skull position.

Chapter qualified (resized).jpg

2. Shoot the Chapter Start (STAR MAP) shot to start the chapter.

Chapter start shot (resized).jpg

Here's the thing - if you have any chapters from the other movies qualified, the game will pick the chapter at random and you might not get to play the one you want (in this case a movie 1 chapter).

There are 2 ways to avoid this:
A. Make sure you only hit the Yellow Skull shot, don't hit any of the other 4 colored skull shots, i.e. the CHEST (Green Skull), the MAELSTROM (Red Skull), the FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (Blue Skull), and the DEVIL's TRIANGLE (Purple Skull).
B. Select the character Tia Dalma at the start of the game.

Tia Dalma (resized).jpg

Each character has a special ability and Tia Dalma allows you to choose which chapter you want to play with the flippers and lock-down bar button when you have multiple chapters qualified and you shoot the Chapter Start shot.

Select chapter (resized).jpg

When the chapter starts you will see the title screen (in this case " A Change in the Wind"):

Chapter start (resized).jpg

Then, the characters which appeared in that scene in the movie will appear at the top of the LCD (in this case Will, Jack and Gibbs):

Chapter characters (resized).jpg

3. Collect the characters to complete the chapter. You will find the character's faces dotted around the playfield in front of various shots and an insert nearby with their name written on it (each character's shot is also written on the LCD under their picture). Shoot these shots to collect the characters. So in this case we want to shoot the Will, Jack and Gibbs shots.

Will (resized).jpg

Jack (resized).jpg

Briggs (resized).jpg

The fob watch in the upper-right hand corner of the LCD tells you how much time you have to complete this task. You can shoot the Star Map shot again for more time if you need it.

Fob watch (resized).jpg

When you have collected all the characters in a chapter, that chapter is completed. If you fail to do so in time, you have played the chapter but not completed it.

You can now try:

To play another 4 chapters from the first movie to qualify the movie 1 wizard mode.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement everyone.

Probably the simplest multiball to start is the Dead Man's Chest (movie 2 multiball). It's the "bash the thing in the middle" objective for casual players. If you look closely at the chest, you will notice that there is a target on either side of the main shot. The left one is marked "LOAD" and the right says "CHEST".

Load chest (resized).jpg

At the start of the game these are lit green.

Chest targets lit (resized).jpg

1. Hit both of of these LOAD CHEST targets to light lock.

This will light the CHEST shot in red.

Chest shot lit (resized).png

2. Shoot the CHEST shot to lock a ball.

Shoot the chest (resized).jpg

3. Hit both targets again to light lock a second time and lock ball 2.

4. Hit the targets a third time to light lock a third time and lock ball 3.

5. Multiball will now start.

Objective completed.

Pro tip: Choosing Bootstrap Bill at the start of the game makes it easier to get this multiball. With this character, you only need to hit one of the LOAD CHEST targets to lite the CHEST shot for lock.

You can now try:

To collect Jackpots and the Super Jackpot.

At the start of the Multiball, the inserts in front of all the bonus multiplier targets (2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, 6X) will be flashing green.

Bonus multiplier targets (resized).jpg

Hitting any one of these targets will light a number of the main (large arrow) shots for Jackpots determined by the number shown on the target. For example, if you hit the 5X target, 5 of these large arrow shots will be lit for Jackpots.

Large arrow shots (resized).jpg

Collecting all of the Jackpots lights the Super Jackpot at the CHEST shot. The value of the Super Jackpots can be increased by hitting the LOAD CHEST targets (on either side of the CHEST shot).

If you have played this multiball you might want to think about going for the movie 2 Dead Man's Chest wizard mode. To get there, you will need to play 5 movie 2 chapters. The process is the same for the movie 1 chapters above but you qualify the chapter by shooting for the green skull shot. It is, naturally, in front of the CHEST shot.

Green skull (resized).jpg

Collect 50 gold to start Tortuga multiball:

What's the deal with Gold? The 4 GOLD standup targets are located on the left side of the right ramp.

Gold targets location (resized).jpg

Whenever these are hit, some gold coins will appear on the LCD which you can collect using the action button (on the lock-down bar). When the gold first appears, you will hear a callout and the flashers on the playfield will flash yellow. When the gold coins are about to vanish, they will turn red. In the picture below you can see a gold coin on the LCD waiting to be collected:

Gold coin (resized).jpg

You can increase the amount of gold which appears by shooting the FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH loop with the upper left flipper before hitting the GOLD targets.

Fountain of Youth (resized).jpg

The more times you shoot the loop in succession immediately before hitting the GOLD targets, the more gold will appear. After making several loops, larger denominations of gold will appear in the form of gold bars and nuggets.

You can see how much gold you have collected in the bottom right hand corner of the LCD. There is a number inside the small picture of a treasure chest (in this case it is showing the number '8').

Gold indicator (resized).jpg

Gold will also appear when you collect characters while playing a chapter.

You can also get gold in mystery awards and by plundering (more on that later).

Pro Tip: Playing as Cutler Beckett makes collecting gold easier. If you select this character at the start of the game, you will be able to collect all the gold with one press of the action button.

You can now try:

To start Tortuga Multiball, this is not one of the 5 movie multiballs, it's its own thing.

Collecting 50 gold during the game will light the right scoop for Tortuga Multiball. Shoot the scoop to start it.

Right scoop (resized).jpg

During the Multiball, all of the major shots will light for Jackpots. Collecting the Jackpots will increase the value of the Super Jackpot which can be collected at the right scoop.

The movie 3 (At World’s End) multiball is often qualified unintentionally by players as they are working on other objectives. This is because all that is required is to hit the 9 major shots in the game. These shots are all on the main playfield and are indicated by the large arrow inserts:

Major shots (resized).png

Progress for this multiball is shown on the centre of the LCD display. You can see there are nine objects arranged around a whirlpool, these are the nine “pieces of eight”.

Pieces of eight (resized).png

When one of the nine major shots are made, you will collect one of these. It will be magnified on the display for a moment and there will be a callout (“the eyeglasses”, “the tobacco pouch”, etc.).

Display with piece of eight magnified (resized).png

After collecting all 9 Pieces of Eight, multiball 3 can be started with a shot to the Maelstrom, which will go into the whirlpool.

Maelstrom shot (resized).png

During this multiball, the jackpot can be collected by shooting the Maelstrom again, after which a super jackpot will be available at the Bayou. Players can continue to collect subsequent jackpots and super jackpots by shooting the Maelstrom and Bayou alternately.

Multiball 3 jackpot and super jackpot (resized).png

Pro tip: Selecting Barbossa at the game start makes collecting jackpots and super jackpots much easier during this multiball. When playing as Barbossa, you are awarded a major shot even if you only manage to hit the targets adjacent to that shot. So, in this multiball you can simply hit the 2X target between the Maelstrom and Bayou to collect both the jackpot and super jackpot.

2X target (resized).png

Next you can try: playing five movie 3 chapters (see the section on chapters above) to qualify the movie 3 wizard mode.