Certain different minifigures in the game have different Abilities. These are necessary to progress in Story Mode with the characters available in each level. With more characters with different abilities unlocked, you can find more hidden secrets and items in Free Play mode, than with the minifigs of the Story Mode.
Some of the abilities are:
- Dig (Guard Dog, Derrick, or with a found shovel) find buried items.
- Double jump (all female characters) jump higher and reach otherwise unreachable places. Jump on the areas with the flowers.
- Dual Wield (Park) Some of the Characters have a skill which will allow them to wield two swords at a time (Not needed for obtaining anything). This will allow the characters to use the swords to climb the walls (Only handheld, and the characters are different).
- Grenade launcher and Bombs (Marty, Jacoby, The Spaniard) destroy shiny metallic objects.
- Hammer (Joshamee Gibbs, Mallot, Mr.Brown, Salaman) fix red-hot elements and machines.
- Improvisation (all variants of Capt. Jack Sparrow) In addition to his special compass there are some objects (winches) that can only be interacted with by any version of Captain Jack Sparrow in his special improvising way.
- Jack's compass (all variants of Capt. Jack Sparrow (except those with other items in Davy Jones' Locker)) find hidden Special Objects.
- Leg Stomp (Admiral Hector Barbossa, Davy Jones) Much like a jump and attack with a sword these characters use their peg-like legs to cause a shockwave which seems to spread slightly further than one with the sword (Not needed).
- Midget (Marty, Guard Dog, Penrod, Lord Cutler Beckett) crawl through little dog flap doors and reach otherwise unreachable places.
- Music (Scrum, special code Jack Sparrow, Voice characters) Play music to make enemies dance or fall in love and keep them from attacking you.
- Part of the crew, part of the ship (Crew of the Flying Dutchman) Pass through corale-encrusted walls and floors to otherwise unreachable places.
- Pistols and Muskets (Murtogg, Mullroy, Koehler, Pintel, Tai Huang) or with a found firearm) These weapons allow the characters to have a great range attack. Characters that are holding these weapons will be able to shoot targets. If you hold your attack button, this will activate a targeting reticule. You will be able to move it across three targets at a time (The three-targets are Handheld only, but the reticle is kept in the other version). Let go of the button and take down the enemies. Angry Cannibal has a blow pipe, but it has the same effect as pistols and muskets.
- Strength (Davy Jones,Quartermaster Zombie,Blackbeard, Bo'sun, Tattoo Pirate, Garheng, Gunner Zombie, Crash) Pull orange levers and lift up other minifigs and smash them to pieces.
- Sword (a lot, and with a found sword) Having your sword is a great weapon, characters who have swords will only be able to activate switches or initiate duels. In fighting enemies swords seem no more powerful than any other weapons, except Blackbeard's sword. Levers can only be activated by character with a sword, they will automatically use the sword to make a makeshift lever. Governor Weatherby Swann and King George have candelabras, Crash has a fish spine, Penrod has a mace and Capitaine Chevalle has a cane, but these act the same as swords. The Ancient Sailor has a fish and Cook a frying pan, these handle differently but fight the same against swords, but cannot be used as levers.
- Throwing Weapons (Will Turner, Maccus, Jacoby, Hungry Cannibal, Ragetti, Admiral Hector Barbossa ) Throwing Weapons are a basic attack weapons. Some of the characters will be able to use spears, grenades or axes. You will need to aim for the target (though if you're facing exactly the right way, targeting is done automatically) and use your weapons to hit it. Admiral Barbossa's poison frogs stun enemies a moment as if influenced by music (This ability is similar to the "Pistols and Muskets" ability.
- Underwater walk (Cursed Crew of the Black Pearl, Zombies, Crew of the Flying Dutchman, or with a cursed gold of Cortéz coin) Walk under water as if on land, instead of swimming & having to watch not to run out of breath. Syrena can also remain underwater indefinitely, but swims more than walk.
- Voice (Syrena, Phillip Swift) Shatter glass and ice and stun enemies with your voice.
- Whip (Lian, Syrena, Mermaid, Jimmy Legs, Gunner Zombie) Hit enemies from a further distance than melee weapons, but less far than thrown weapons or firearms (Not needed).
- Magic (Hanheld only Tia Dalma , Angry Cannibal, Blackbeard and Quartermaster and Gunner) Make items appear or move heavy parts away. Also kind of replaces Sword of triton magic.
- Navy Member (Hanheld only, Norrington, Murtogg, Mullroy, King George, probably Governor Swann.) Activates special red sword levers.
- Pirate captain (Handheld only , All versions of Jack and Barbossa, Mistress Ching, Capitane Chevalle and the other pirate lords from 4th meeting take elisabeth give Sao feng) Activate special black switches.
- Cursed (Handheld only, cursed crewmembers) Becomes super strong to break barriers, kinda replaces Strenght.
Black and red bricks can only be manipulated with Blackbeard's sword
Will Turner has displayed the ability to put one heart in the chest then the rest turn into iron hearts.
Handheld dueling
When you come across another character that has a sword it will appear above the enemy. You will need to accept the challenge. If you accept your dueling challenge with your enemy, you will need to follow your on screen instruction to attack your enemy. Every time you attack your enemy, your enemy will lose one of their hearts. If you take all your enemies' hearts you will win this duel!