Viking raid
Viking raids are a type of expedition that are accessed using maps purchased at an explorers' hall or won from a chart box. The map leads to a tiny island denoted with a Viking helmet icon in the ocean view. Pirates first man the guns of the shore's fortifications. Then, regardless of performance in the gunnery phase, the vikings will descend upon the island, starting either a swordfight or rumble that takes place on the island. If the pirates win the brawl, PoE are placed in the ship's booty and hold. This type of expedition was released to production oceans during release 2011-01-19.
Defending the village against the Vikings
When buying a map from an explorers' hall, be sure to have ample charts around the island of purchase. The viking raid chart, by itself, cannot be used to chart to the outpost. A Viking raid takes place on an outpost on a league point that lies on a route from the purchase island to an adjacent island. (Charts won from a chart box can be found on any normal route in the ocean)(verify). The outposts do not stray from normal chart league points. When the Viking raid chart is placed on the chart table, the Viking raid will appear as an expedition in the Ahoy! tab of the sunshine widget, allowing officers with the correct permissions to order the defense when the league point is reached. After an unsuccessful defense, the expedition map remains on the ship, but will disappear when the outpost is successfully defended.
All pirates on board are automatically transferred to the island. They can walk to the fortifications and select the “Man the guns” icon to begin the gunnery puzzle. Those who do not do so will be automatically entered into the puzzle after a short delay. An advantage of actually walking to the fortifications is that the pirate can hop off a bad board and immediately re-select the icon to try for a better board.
Pirates can load any number of cannons on a given board, and the guns will be fired immediately as soon as four have been loaded. Abandoning the board with some guns filled will cause those guns to fire.
The cannon balls used during the Viking raid are "magicked up" from the island; the cannon balls in the hold or the booty are not consumed.
Each cannon fired adds damage blocks to the vikings' puzzles, much in the same way that firing on an enemy ship does. It is known that the amount of damage the vikings suffer for each shot is smaller than a small cannonball's damage, but the exact amount is not known.
The length of time pirates have before the viking ships reach the outpost is constant, regardless of the size or difficulty of the outpost.
Types
Viking expeditions come in 4 different sizes (small, medium, large and huge), 3 different fortification levels (fledgling, established and fortified) and either swordfight or rumble. Vikings may have a unique weapon in the fray: in a swordfight, vikings may use a battle axe, and in rumble vikings may use a warhammer. The Viking raid chart indicates what combination of features it has. Like other expedition maps, all Viking maps degrade in 3 days, age and reduce in price slowly as they are left in the store, and are lost after a successful expedition.
If multiple attempts at defending the island are made using the same chart, the number of attacking vikings may change, along with their names, weapons, and appearances.
The number of longships and Vikings for each expedition size is as follows:
| Outpost size | Number of attacking longships | Minimum number of Vikings | Maximum number of Vikings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 1 | 5 | 11 |
| Medium | 2 | 20 | 64 |
| Large | 4-5 | 50 | 145 |
| Huge | 8-9 | 114 | 260 |
Payouts
When the enemy vessel has arrived at the island and the crew on board the ship have defeated the Vikings, the ship will be rewarded with PoE. These are immediately placed in the ship's booty, and a small portion (corresponding to the crew's ship restocking cut), will be put in the hold for the officer in charge.
The following numbers are the highest payouts currently recorded. These numbers are only from times when the payout is not artificially increased (such as during a weekend event).
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| Rumble | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Trinkets
Viking trinkets are awarded to some experienced pirates*, randomly chosen from those aboard the ship, when they defeat the vikings in the fray. One trinket is distributed for each viking, so if there are more experienced pirates aboard the ship than there are vikings, not all of the pirates will obtain a trinket. Trinkets can be saved and exchanged for various items via a trading post. The types of trinkets available are listed below.
 Animal carving |
 Box brooch |
 Chess piece |
 Dragon pendant |
 Gold belt buckle |
 Scabbard boss |
 Two-pronged fork |
 Viking key |
 Warrior carving |
*On subscription oceans, they must be subscribed.
Trophies
The following trophies are available only from Viking expeditions:
Splintered Axes
Shattered Swords
Crumpled Helm
Bashed Shield
Longship Vanquisher
