ZPL-1700

The **ZPL-1700** is a ship in Windward.
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## Summary

It is a flying support ship. Flying combined with the Diplomatic Immunity talent makes the blimp perfectly fit hit and run tactics. With this it is safe to go in, throw a water barrel on friendly ships or fire on enemies, then leave the area without giving a chance to counter it. The only downside is its low other stats. It can't really take damage, but the ability to fly compensates for this weakness.

A Sealed Letter type quest, this ship's quest begins with players finding a Strange Diagram in Challenge Level 12 or higher regions. Once opened, it will require the player to locate a size 10 town in a region with Challenge Level 36 or higher. Once located, this town becomes important for the rest of the quest, returning the player to it frequently. This lengthy quest has many steps and will most likely take a while to complete. Fortunately, unlike other quest items, this item is not lost when the player dies.

It's generally not advisable to start this quest until the player obtains the required components to actually finish it. The first step is to obtain the required amounts, which is as follows (note that you cannot collect all of the required trade commodities in advance):

* 500,000 Gold
* 10,000 Lumber
* 5,000 Stone
* 3,000 Gunpowder
* 1 Lumber
* 2 Silk
* 3 Coffee
* 4 Fur

Upon delivering the final item on the list to the given town, one of the other towns in the region and its surrounding towers will become pirate-controlled. A hostile vessel will spawn. Picking it out from the new crowd of pirates is easy; it'll be one that wanders around much farther than the new pirate bastion.

This new ship is difficult to pin down and has high-tier weaponry. Luring it close to a bunch of friendly towers is advised. Sinking it unlocks the secret vessel.

Update 9/13/2018: The engineer completes the ship and asks you to come back in a few days...and makes off with your ship! You hunt him down, battle the flying ship and get it at the end of the battle. Also you can obtain the blueprints by killing it in a 70+ (ish) region. It would cost about 980,000 coins.

HINTS:

1. You can use the Battle Ground instances to 'find' a level 10 town in which you can start the quest. Use your white flag to prevent being attacked.
2. You will be told that you need to go to certain town name to progress through the quest. You can rename the towns - for a fee! Then you can progress the quest as needed.
3. You can save money by using high level Diplomacy items while trading, this will save/make money on everything (items being sold, ships you will need, etc) - if it doesn't change the cost, drop out of the mini screen and reopen it. You can 'package' all of your equipped items into a single cargo box so that you can equip all your items with a single click. Do this by right clicking one of the items in the inventory. You can do the same sort of thing for speed so your crew is dedicated to going fast through treacherous areas.
4. You will need the ship with 5 cargo slots (Galleon) to get the 4 furs as you will have the quest in one slot.
5. Note to self - don't die while holding cargo quest cargo items (the slots at the bottom) as you will drop them and may have trouble finding them again...avoid dying with your precious cargo!
6. To get to specific regions that have the items being asked for, check the commodities link. eg. Furs can only be found in Boreal and Arctic regions.
7. If you happen to have the pirate flag, you can equip it so that you can breeze through all the intermediary locations to get to your commodity destinations. It should be noted that you should do this outside a town and away from anyone that may attack pirates. The flags can be switched back but there is a timer you need to wait about 5 minutes before switching.
8. Money is easy to come by if you crank up the difficulty setting when you start your game and head to the battle ground instances...lots of XP and items. Use your Diplomatic crew skill to get the best value when selling.
9. If you don't have the flags to allow you change factions (and fast travel), grab a "New Town" quest before you head off across all the maps. When you arrive at your location, have the settlers do their thing. Now you can fast travel between the two extreme locations. You could do the same in the middle maps as you are making your way to the farther regions if you bring multiple settlers.
10. When you get the ZPL ship, there is a 'fly' button you will need to hit to get your ship in the air. It will need to be back in the water to do repairs to objects or to build things. It's a great ship for trading due to it's ability to fly in a direct route to your destinations...enjoy! :)
11. Wind does not affect the ZPL-1700 when flying, oddly enough. (It does affect you when hovering if you are not anchored - either use the Heavy Anchor item or hold the anchor button. Wind may also not affect it while on the water, testing needs to be done.)