Dark Seas
- For the former Hunter crew, see Dark Seas (crew).
Puzzle Pirates: Dark Seas is the title of a Steam-only release of Puzzle Pirates, first announced on December 15, 2016 by developer Grey Havens.
It consists of a new ocean named Obsidian, accessible only through the Steam client. While much of the content will carry over from the standard oceans, there will be several differences, such as the existence of factions and an emphasis on PvP battles. Also, while Obsidian will be a doubloon ocean, it will not be possible to transfer doubloons between Obsidian and the other doubloon oceans. Grey Havens has begun to describe the other pre-existing oceans as "Classic oceans".
On June 30, 2017, the Obsidian ocean was launched for beta testing. On September 14, 2017, the integration with Steam was completed and the Early Access phase began. Downloadable content was also made available for purchase with this launch.
Contents
Differences from classic oceans
Oceans that are available on Dark Seas have a different setup compared to standard oceans. Some of these changes surround keeping PvP a core part of the game, while others help to balance the ocean economy. As player vessels are more likely to be sunk on these oceans, some costs have been lowered to help reduce the financial burden on players.
Carousing
Factions and war
- At the time a crew is created, it must choose one of two factions to support: Shadow Fleet or Defiant Armada.
- Pirates will receive a faction icon
next to their name once they join a crew. - Pirates are free to change crews at any time. Pirates without a crew are considered "neutral".
- Crews that support different factions are automatically and permanently at war. There will be no truce.
- Ships that are defeated by an opposing faction will be completely sunk, except for in the Greywaters Archipelago. Bottled ships can still be salvaged as usual.
- Flags can declare war (and make peace) with other flags in the same faction. This works the same as in classic Puzzle Pirates.
- Flags cannot invite crews aligned with the opposing faction.
- Both factions have a single "Stronghold" island that is used as their base of operations. These two islands cannot be blockaded.
- Pirates who are associated with a faction can whisk directly to their Stronghold for free using the "Crew" sunshine widget.
- There is a new "/faction" chat channel that can only be used and seen by pirates associated with that faction. This channel can be toggled with "/fmute".
- All blockades in Dark Seas (other than event blockades) are sinking.
- The color of the ocean will change when one of the two factions controls at least 60% of the blockadeable islands. The water around the two Stronghold islands will continue to match the faction, however.
- A "War" tab is available on the notice board where players can see an overview of the ongoing battle and which side is winning.
Islands and shoppes
- Governors now have the power to close down shoppes on their islands. If they do so, the shop will immediately go dark. A notice will be displayed in the "Building" tab clarifying that the shop was shut down by the governor.
- If the shop remains closed down for 14 days, it will be destroyed. Governors can open the shop back up at any time before it's destroyed, if they so choose.
- The ownership of the Inn will automatically transfer to whoever conquers an island.
- There is now a limit of 10 shoppes that can be placed on large islands.
- Doubloon delivery fees are reduced on ships compared to standard oceans. Limited edition or design-based variations are sometimes reduced.
Sea Monster Hunts
- Sea Monster Hunts and expeditions will only spawn in the Wild Eastern Seas, Wild Western Seas, and Ye Bloody Bounding Main archipelagos.
- Sea monster zones will now be "rotated" in order to focus activity into one particular zone each week. Only one type of Sea Monster map will drop from pillaging battles during that week. The enabled map type will change each Sunday.
- The order is currently Atlantis -> Cursed Isles -> Haunted Seas -> Kraken but this may change without warning.
- Bravery badges are not required or available on this ocean.
Other differences
- The installer images, login panels, client icons, and intro music have all been reworked for the Dark Seas theme.
- A warning will now be shown if a player moves off a ship they own that was left unlocked. This is because of the increased likelihood of the ship being sunk in Dark Seas.
- Dark Seas uses a separate doubloon database than classic Puzzle Pirates, so doubloons cannot be transferred from Obsidian to other oceans (or vice versa).
- Greedy brigands will only appear in sea battles that take place outside of the Greywaters archipelago.
Links
- Dark Seas announcement (December 15, 2016)
- Early Access announcement (June 30, 2017)
- Full Release announcement (July 6, 2018)
