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===<b>Beginner Guide to Team Building</b>===

[[File:C0002.png|thumb|220x220px|[[Monkey D. Luffy Gum-Gum Pistol|This]] is your starting captain. He will work for a short while for your {{STR}} teams, but even when fully evolved (to [[Monkey D. Luffy Gear 2|this form]]) he will become too weak to help you clear most of mid-to-late game content. [[Monkey D. Luffy Gum-Gum Elephant Gun|His super evolved form]] is very good, but it may be a while for you to get it. What is super-evolution? See [[Gameplay:Crew|here]]]]
[[File:C1605.png|thumb|220x220px|Don't forget to get [[Portgas D. Ace Whitebeard's Son]] from the rookie support extra island section, he can be helpful for early game content too and is an alternative captain for your {{STR}} teams.]]
[[File:C0008.png|thumb|220x220px|The final evolved version (even before super evolution) of the Zoro you get after clearing [[Shells Town]] is stronger than your starting Luffy and will likely be one of your primary captains for much of the mid-game content, through he can only lead {{DEX}} teams.]]
[[File:C1569.png|thumb|220x220px|[[Trafalgar Law Straw Hat-Heart Pirate Alliance|EXPLaw]] is much better then the starting Luffy who only reaches his level or power upon his final super-evolution. He will also work with subs of each type (color) making him much more flexible.]]

''Note: the game has changed significantly since its release, becoming more new-player friendly and increasing choices for early game. Also you can just look at thousands of team featured on [https://www.nakama.network/ Nakama Network], a very useful site!''

''Note 2: with the release of [[Kaido The Strongest Creature Alive]] on Global in March 2020 you can cheese your way through all of early and mid-game content, and decent chunk of late-content, with a friend Kaido and whatever random units you stick together on the team. But you won't learn how to make teams for the hard content and whether such cheesing will be fun... shrug.''

You start the game with stage two Luffy, namely [[Monkey D. Luffy Gum-Gum Pistol]], a random Rare Recruit unit and some common trash units. Since fall 2017 on the second login-day you will also receive the awesome [[Trafalgar Law Straw Hat-Heart Pirate Alliance ]] and since some time later, you'll also start with [[Monkey D. Luffy Straw Hat-Heart Pirate Alliance]] and most recently, with 10 Straw Hats. Even if you kept a SH reroll with only one legend you will be in a much better situation than most players who started the game during the times you could pull crappy story mode characters (ex. [[Don Krieg]] and not a single gold poster, not too  mention red...).

You may be limited from being able to put too many of your RR unit(s) in your team due to being "overcost". Keep playing and this limit will go away (at the speed of roughly 2 cost per every 2 pirate levels (P-LV), with every other level giving you one more unit of [[stamina]]). As of early 2019 if not earlier, new accounts start with cost limit of 152, which should be enough to put at least several RRs and even some legends in your team.

While the first battles are simple enough that your starting units will work with no sweat, as you continue with the game, the difficulty will increase and soon you will realize that you need to adjust your team for speed and survival. You will need to think about which characters to use, and who to chose as your captain.

You can have eight precontructed teams (and save many more in your team log). Early on, you should try to build one teams that will allow you to get your daily two [[Forbidden Tomes]] from [[Chopperman Missions]], so one of each color ({{STR}}/{{DEX}}/{{QCK}}/{{PSY}}/{{INT}}, which you can also use for [[Turtles|turtle]]-farming team, one Fighter/Slasher/Striker/Shooter team, and one Driven/Powerhouse/Free Spirit/Cerebral team (to be clear, those have to be all-one type teams, so your Fighter team should have 5 Fighters (their other class, if any, is irrelevant)). As you clear more and more story and Extra Island content, and figure out who the boss for each stage is (or check the guide like [[:Category:East Blue|East Blue]]), and keeping [[Gameplay:Type Matchups|color strengths and weaknesses]] in mind, you'll see that some teams work better for some stages then others (ex. against a {{STR}} boss you'll want to have a {{QCK}} team if possible).

[[File:C0015.png|thumb|220x220px|Usopp may not be much of a captain, but in [[Usopp Usopp Golden Pound|this form]] is the best sub ever. If you are having trouble clearing early game stuff, it may be because you are not using this guy...]]

With the new 10 Straw Hat pulls and guranteeed legend on Day 3, not to mention anything you may get from Beginner Sugo or spending $$, you should have access to more decent starting captains than we can feasibly cover here. Check our pages for RR units you pulled to see what we think of them and click-through to Nakama Network site to see teams captained by them used to clear various content. Rule of thumb is, you want a captain that provides at least a 2x or higher ATK boost for all unis in your team, and match him with same or better friend captain. Below, we will talk about some teams you can make from your guaranteed or easy-to-obtain free units.

The [[Trafalgar Law Straw Hat-Heart Pirate Alliance|EXPLaw]] you got on 2nd day allows you to make an early rainbow (=any colors) team which will clear everything in its path and give you a big EXP boost, stick to that as much as you can. 

[[Monkey D. Luffy Straw Hat-Heart Pirate Alliance]] allows you to make decent {{INT}} or {{PSY}} teams; he provides a bit more punch than Law but no EXP boost.

Your {{STR}} team will be captained by your starting Luffy until you get a better captain (your starting Luffy, even if evolved to the max, is at best an average unit, he has decent stats, but mediocre captain's ability and weak special, compared to farmable [[Arlong Sun Pirates]], [[Blackbeard]], or a Rare Recruit unit like [[Bartholomew Kuma Warlord of the Sea]]). Not to mention he is pretty much inferior to the EXPLaw. With the addition of the [[Ace's Training Grounds]] you should also get [[Portgas D. Ace Whitebeard's Son]] ASAP for the {{STR}} healing captain option. Not that Ace is a great unit, but it is also a relatively easy gem to get early on.

Unless you pulled an even better RR captain, your {{DEX}} team will be led for a while by Zoro (in his final form of [[Roronoa Zoro Ashura Ichibugin]] whose good stats and captain's ability make him a viable top-tier unit) if you feel like running a HP-heavy team. You get Zoro from clearing one of the first story islands. Keep in mind he is rather weak until you finish his evolve chain (well, that's true for pretty much any unit).

For {{QCK}} team, after you clear a few more story islands, the game will give you [[Sanji Diable Jambe Flambe]], sadly he is a niche support character (sub) and you'll need a better QCK captain quickly. 

Same with {{INT}}, Nami's final form [[Nami Thunderbolt Tempo]], which is pretty much useless, so you should keep your Nami in her niche but usable mid-form of [[Nami Mirage Tempo]]. She will quickly lose her place on your INT team as you get better units.

Neither is your game-given Usopp very useful as [[Sogeking]], but his mid-form [[Usopp Usopp Golden Pound]] is an amazing sub (due to his powerful special), who should never be evolved into his [[Sogeking]] form (nor is [[5+ Usopp]] worth aiming at, forget about evolving GPU, m'key?). Overall, you can however expect to keep your {{PSY}} story Usopp(s) on your rainbow/PSY teams for quite a while, he is quite useful.

Anyway, this means that you cannot rely on the original Straw Hats that the game will give you to do much (to recapitulate: EXPLaw is best, evolved Zoro still makes a decent {{DEX}} captain, Luffy is usable but underpowered these days, Training Grounds Ace can be fun to play with but also underpowered in the long run, Usopp is a great support unit as GPU, while Sanji and Nami have very niche support usability). Oh yes, you'll eventually get a [[Tony Tony Chopper|Chopper]], [[Franky Straw Hat Pirates|Franky]], [[Nico Robin Straw Hat Pirate|Robin]], and [[Brook Gentlemanly Skeleton|Brook]] but by that point they'll be pretty useless too. However, when you get around to actually [[Gameplay:Crew|Super Evolving]] them, you'll find a revitalized, reliable characters (usable as captains and subs) in 5+ Luffy, 5+ Zoro, 5+ Sanji, 5+ Brook, 5+ Robin and 5+ Chopper. 5+ Usopp is good too - once you Limit Break him to reduce his CD. 5+ Franky and particularly 5+ Nami are still rather underpowered, even after their LB, and don't see much, if any, use. When you do get the [[skull|skulls]] needed for Super Evolve though, you're likely to have better RR captains, but this is a good note that you should never throw away characters that appear weak now as they may be powered up later on. (Through it does seem that the game occasionally gives Luffy's 5+ skulls during some events etc. so you may be able to do it even before being able to farm [[32DY]] isle...).

At this point we should also talk about [[ships]], if briefly, because there's not much to say. Ships cost [[cola]] to upgrade - don't waste it on your starting [[Dinghy]]. Half of the ships suck (like the Dinghy...), the other half are useful, but most useful ones come from [[Forest of Training|Forests of Training]] meaning you won't have access to them for a long while because Forests are very tough. But fear not, the guaranteed ships are good enough for early to mid game. You'll get [[Merry Go]] after clearing [[Syrup Village]] so, uh, on your first day of playing? It provides a 1.5x ATK boost which is awesome. Long story short, most other early game ships don't provide 1.5x boost and this is why they suck. You'll upgrade Merry Go to [[Thousand Sunny]] after clearing [[Tower of Law ~ Gates of Justice]] in a little while; it's a good power up for all teams so clearing this story island should be one of your priority goals. The [[Thousand Sunny Coated Vessel]] you can get from [[Sabaody Archipelago Redux]] is not an upgrade but an err, side-grade, and rarely needed, so don't worry about it. Four other non-Forest ships deserve a mention. First, [[Dreadnaught Sabre]] from [[Missions: Baratie]] is useful for speed farming evolvers. Second and third, [[Rocketman]] and [[Flying Dutchman]] are useful ships you can get from the [[Bazaar]]. Rocketman in addition to powering Powerhouse teams enables "[[zombie]]" teams, and FD boosts earned EXP meaning you level up your cost/stamina faster, but they cost Training Points, so unless you whale $$$ for dupe units to sell to Bazaar it may be months before you can get them. Whether you should chose Rocketman or FD first depends on your units, but unless you have great PH characters, go for FD first. And finally there is [[Zunesha]] which is great for Powerhouse and Cerebrals, and is occasionally available for some gems. Through you may want to grab [[Hoe]] first, since it is the best EXP-boosting ship in the game as of September '19.

Anyway, for your team building, including vast majority of useful captains, you'll have to rely on two pools of characters: the lottery of Rare Recruit, and farming of story missions and recurring [[Extra Isle]] events. Since Rare Recruit is pretty much a gamble (so good luck and remember to pull only during Sugos UNLESS you are really sure you know what you are doing), this guide can only offer some advise with regard to farming, i.e. will tell you which story mode characters are worth trying to get a poster drop.

Oh, and for easy battles like Evolver or Tome battles, you may want to run a team that benefits from a friend [[Legend Buggy]] to get an extra drop (once you get your own Buggy, it will be your double Buggy default team for most easy farming).

Last. [[Support]] your units with stat boosters whenever you can, but the Support Effect is only available to players P-Level 100 or higher.

{{Recommended Team Builder
| Title                  = Classic early-to-mid F2P tank Zoro DEX team
| CapImage               = F0008.png
| CapLink                = Roronoa Zoro Ashura Ichibugin

| Sub1Image              = F0268.png
| Sub1Link               = White Chase Smoker
| Sub2Image              = F0227.png
| Sub2Link               = Hawk Eyes Mihawk
| Sub3Image              = F0015.png
| Sub3Link               = Usopp Usopp Golden Pound
| Sub5Image              = F0400.png
| Sub5Link               = Miss Doublefinger Human Spike

| FriendImage            = F0008.png
| FriendLink             = Roronoa Zoro Ashura Ichibugin
| ShipImage              = Merry.png
| ShipLink               = Merry Go

| Tips                   = *Merry Go MAX
*Other good subs: [[Bellamy the Hyena]], [[Ghost Princess Perona]], etc.<br/>Chose subs either for high stats or for useful special.
*Yes, GPU fits on any and all early-to-mid teams!
*This team was designed pre-EXPLaw era. These days,<br/>you may find the following team better for fast leveling.
}}

{{Recommended Team Builder
| Title                  = ExPLaw fast level up team
| CapImage               = F1569.png
| CapLink                = Trafalgar Law Straw Hat-Heart Pirate Alliance

| Sub1Image              = F0268.png
| Sub1Link               = White Chase Smoker
| Sub2Image              = m0004.png
| Sub2Link               = Monkey D. Luffy Gear 2
| Sub3Image              = F0015.png
| Sub3Link               = Usopp Usopp Golden Pound
| Sub5Image              = F0008.png
| Sub5Link               = Roronoa Zoro Ashura Ichibugin

| FriendImage            = F1569.png
| FriendLink             = Trafalgar Law Straw Hat-Heart Pirate Alliance
| ShipImage              = Merry.png
| ShipLink               = Merry Go

| Tips                   = *Merry Go MAX
*You'll level up fast with this team!
*And it can use any and all units you can fit in it!
*Luffy and Zoro's specials are weak so you'll want to replace them eventually<br/>(but their stats are good)
*Recommended F2P better subs: [[Kaku Dock One Carpentry Specialist]],<br/>[[Breed Pet-Pet Fruit User]], [[Monkey D. Luffy Gum-Gum Elephant Gun]], most clash/raid bosses, etc.
}}