Changelog

1.0.0 - First public release

Pirate ships now roam Valheim's seas. Highlights:

Encounters

• Pirates appear while you sail, once Eikthyr is defeated, every 1-4 minutes of sailing early on and 4.5-8 minutes late game (scaled by world tier, weather and night).
• Seven tiers that follow your boss progression, from skeleton rafts to Ashlands Drakkars. The pirate hull matches the boat you sail.
• Single ships, fleets of 2-4 ships, and Pirate Battles between rival fleets.
• New pirates sail into your path: hold your course and you'll meet them; change course to avoid them.
• Breathing room: an extra minute after you sink a pirate ship, longer waits after hard late-game fights, and the timer pauses near Sea Serpents and while you recover your gear after a death.

Stealth and chasing

• Pirates spot you from 70-100 m depending on your boat, and hear a ship under full sail from further away. Half sail and rowing are quieter, and Rafts and Karves are the stealthiest.
• Vanilla-style alert icons over pirate ships: yellow = searching, red = spotted.
• A good sailor can escape: pirates tack against the wind, their opening burst of speed fades, damaged ships sail slower, and a pirate that can't close in or land a hit for 60 s gives up.

Combat

• Pirates ram, fight broadside with archers and fire, or board your deck with melee and ranged boarders.
• Pirate crews walk their decks, defend their ship when you board it, and a new captain takes the helm if the old one falls.
• Morale: battered pirates break off and flee.
• Jump ship mid-fight and the pirates attack your abandoned boat. If it breaks, they come for you in the water.
• Hull damage is scaled so late-game crews don't shred small boats in seconds.

Rewards

• Defeated ships leave floating Pirate Spoils crates, with loot gated by tier and sized by hull. Crew drops float too.

Other

• Pirate battle music when a pirate ship spots you, playing while pirates are around.
• DifficultyPreset config: Easy / Normal / Hard.
• CustomHullSizes config to make pirates recognise ships from other ship mods.
• Multiplayer: works in single player, self-hosted and dedicated servers, and players without the mod can still join and fight.
• Console commands (pirates_...) for testing and cleanup.

Upgrading from a pre-release test build? The config file's sections were renamed and reordered ([1 - General], [2 - Encounter Timer], ...). Your existing values are carried over automatically the first time you start the game.