I was attacked last night, and this morning when I went and checked out their island it seemed as if something was wrong. They had a level seven pirate hall, but they had only two level 8's and one level 6 gold storage units. This does not give enough to upgrade to level seven. Am I missing something? Are there guild perks that allow you to bypass personal storage and upgrade that way? Apologies if this has been addressed elsewhere. I searched and searched, but I have discovered I am not so good at searching. @Gangrene Beard - can you help with this? You are good at this stuff!
Cash is king. @The Fish Eyed Pirate does this very thing in order to have fewer storages to protect. You can upgrade something that costs more than your storages by spending gems.
I did, but only because I like the increased hit points of the higher storages. That, and I have a compulsion to upgrade everything.