How to Write a Guide#

Table of Contents#

Before You Start
Write It However You Like First
Converting to Markdown with AI
Writing Markdown Yourself
Useful Resources
Filling Out the Submission Form
Adding Images to Your Guide
Collaborating on a Guide
Getting Your Guide Published

Before You Start#

Guides on this site are displayed using Markdown — a simple way of formatting text using symbols like # * and - You don't need to be a developer or know anything about it going in, there are easy ways to get it done without learning much at all.

Want to skip all of this? You can message pixel_pirate_ on Discord with your guide as a text, Word doc, or any other format — along with any images you want included — and they can handle the formatting and publishing for you.

Write It However You Like First#

Honestly, the easiest way to approach this is to just write your guide however feels natural first. Google Doc, Notepad, Word, a Discord message — whatever you are comfortable with. Just get the content down. Don't worry about formatting at all at this stage, just write like you would explain it to a friend. Once you have your content, you have two options: use an AI tool to convert it (easy, recommended) or write the markdown yourself (also pretty simple once you see how it works).

Converting to Markdown with AI#

If you don't want to deal with markdown at all, you can use an AI tool like Claude (claude.ai) to do it for you. It's free to use and takes about 30 seconds. Here's all you do:

Go to claude.ai
Paste your guide into the chat
Send this message along with it:

"Can you convert this into markdown format? Add headers, bullet points, and tables where it makes sense. Do not reword or change any of the content, just format it."

Copy the result and paste it into the guide submission form. That's it. The AI will handle all the formatting without changing what you actually wrote. If anything looks off you can just ask it to fix that specific part.

Writing Markdown Yourself#

If you'd rather do it yourself, markdown is actually really straightforward. Here's a quick breakdown of everything you'll likely need:

Headings#

Use # symbols to create headings. More # symbols = smaller heading.

# Big heading (page title)
## Section heading
### Sub-section heading

Bold and Italic#

**this text will be bold**
*this text will be italic*

Use bold for important terms, key actions, or anything you really want people to notice.

Lists#

Bullet list — use - or * at the start of each line:

- First item
- Second item
- Third item

Numbered list — just use numbers:

1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step

Tables#

Tables look more complicated than they are. Here's the pattern:

| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Row 1    | Data     | Data     |
| Row 2    | Data     | Data     |

The --- line in the middle just separates the header row from the rest. The spacing doesn't need to be perfect.

Useful Resources#

If you want to dig deeper into markdown or need a reference to check while writing, these are the best ones:

Markdown Guide — Basic Syntax — the clearest beginner reference out there, covers everything with examples
Dillinger.io — a free in-browser markdown editor, you can write on the left and see exactly how it will look on the right in real time
claude.ai — as mentioned above, useful for converting plain text to markdown or fixing formatting issues

Filling Out the Submission Form#

Once your markdown is ready, head to the main guides page and open the guide submission form. Here's what each field means:

Slug (required) — This is the URL identifier for your guide. It should be short, lowercase, and descriptive (e.g. melee-combat-tips or crafting-guide). Spaces are automatically converted to hyphens, so you can type it naturally.
Title (required) — The display name of your guide as it will appear on the site. This can have normal capitalisation and spaces (e.g. Melee Combat Tips for Beginners).
Author (optional) — Your name or in-game name as you'd like it to appear on the guide. If left blank it will default to your account name.
Description (required) — A short summary of what your guide covers. A sentence or two is plenty. This usually appears as a preview or subtitle beneath the guide title.
Contents (required) — This is where you paste your full guide in Markdown (or HTML). Everything you wrote and formatted goes here.
Tags (optional) — Keywords that help people find your guide. Separate tags with commas (e.g. combat, beginner, weapons). Think about what someone might search for when looking for your guide.
Published / Featured checkboxes — Leave both of these unchecked when submitting. Guides are reviewed before being made public. See the Getting Your Guide Published section below for how to request publication once your guide is ready.

Once everything is filled in, hit CREATE GUIDE to submit it.

Adding Images to Your Guide#

Images can make a big difference for guides that involve maps, UI screenshots, item comparisons, or anything visual. Since you won't be able to upload images directly through the form, here's the process:

When writing your guide, add a placeholder wherever you want an image to appear, like this:

[IMAGE: Screenshot of the crafting menu with the iron sword recipe selected]
[IMAGE: Map showing the location of the hidden chest in the Northern Forest]

Be as descriptive as you like with the placeholder — the clearer it is, the easier it will be to match the right image to the right spot.

Once your guide is submitted, reach out via Discord to share your images. The images will be uploaded and the placeholder links in your guide will be updated once they're in place.

Discord contacts for image uploads: reach out to pixel_pirate_ or Chimpanze (Chimpanze is an in-game name on Puzzle Pirates) and they'll get your images added.

Collaborating on a Guide#

If you're writing a guide with others, you can enable collaborative editing on any unpublished draft. This lets anyone with the link edit the guide's content without needing an account or special permissions.

To enable it:

Open your draft guide's page after creating it.
Toggle on the "Allow editing via draft link" option (visible only to you as the guide owner).
Share the link with whoever you want to contribute.

A few things to note:

Collaborators can only edit the content of the guide — they can't change the title, slug, tags, or other settings. Only the guide owner can do that.
This only works while the guide is unpublished. Once a guide goes live, the collaborative editing link is disabled.
If you want to turn off open editing at any point, just toggle the option off and the shared link will stop working.

This is handy for co-written guides, getting proofreading help from friends, or having someone fill in sections they know better than you.

Getting Your Guide Published#

Submitted guides are not published automatically — they go through a quick review first. Once your guide is ready to go public, you have two options to request publication:

In-game: Open the settings bar and use the Send Feedback option. Include your guide title and a note that you're requesting it to be published.
Via Discord: Message pixel_pirate_ or Chimpanze directly and let them know your guide is ready for review.

Once approved, your guide will be made live on the site. If there's any feedback or fixes needed before it goes up, they'll let you know.

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