Pirate Invasion

The Pirate Invasion is a hardmode event where pirate themed enemies spawn and swarm the map's original spawn point. A Pirate Invasion can occur after certain conditions are met, or alternatively, when the player uses a Pirate Map which has a chance of dropping from enemies killed within an Ocean biome.

Criteria
The criteria for a random Pirate Invasion to occur is as follows:
 * No other invasions are currently in progress.
 * The Wall of Flesh must have been defeated.

Chances

 * First, the Goblin Army event must fail to occur. (14/15 chance)
 * Then, there is a 1/15 chance that the Pirates will invade that day.
 * This comes out as the final probability of a 1.64% each morning.
 * If, however, there is another invasion in progress, then there is no chance until the other invasion ends.

Initial Event
When a Pirate Invasion spawns or is summoned using a Pirate Map, a message will appear saying that "Pirates are approaching from the (East/West)!"

The message will repeat several times until the Pirates reach the initial spawn of the world. When the Pirates' initial wave reaches the spawn, their arrival is announced with "The Pirates have arrived!" The music track "Golem" will then proceed to play as the players fight the pirates.

Pirates several kinds of loot. Of particular note is the Cutlass. The Cutlass is a sword that does 52 base damage, and has a high enough speed to outclass the Excalibur in DPS. It is dropped by any pirate invasion creature but the parrot. Pirates also randomly drop Golden Tables, Golden Chairs and other golden pieces of furniture, as well as a pirate-themed vanity clothing set.

Completing the Event
Defeating your first pirate invasion unlocks the Pirate NPC.

Similar to a Goblin Invasion, you are required to defeat a large number of pirates in order to end the invasion. This may require the player(s) to kill many Pirate Captains. The number of pirates that must be defeated goes up when there are more players in the server in multiplayer. This is currently the Invasion rated for the highest-tier equipment in Terraria. Enemies have higher damage and defense than other invasions, but due to the limited AI, they might actually be easier than the goblin invasion for a weak but prepared player to overcome.

Types of Pirates
The crew will be made up of the following Pirate types:
 * Pirate Deckhand: A basic fighter-type Pirate that functions somewhat like a Goblin Peon.
 * Pirate Deadeye: An enemy who is very basic, and is basically just the Deckhand with a gun.
 * Pirate Corsair: A faster, stronger version of the Deckhand that carries the Cutlass.
 * Pirate Crossbower: A Pirate enemy who carries a crossbow that resembles the repeaters a player can craft in Hardmode.
 * Pirate Captain: The strongest enemy you will fight during the event. He has 2000 HP and walks towards you normally until you enter his range. When you enter his general area, he will start to fire on you with a machine gun. Once attacked, he ceases his fire, so it is recommended to keep your fire trained on him. Keep in mind that he is immune to knockback. He has a chance of shooting cannonballs, so be careful.
 * Parrot: A flying enemy that seems to spawn near the Captain and deals considerable amounts of damage, especially with its ability to fly.

Most Pirates are capable of opening and/or breaking down your Doors. A broken-down door appears as a dropped item which you can pick up and place again.

Strategies
If you want to face the pirates head-on you must be prepared. Defeating these pirates is not an easy feat for a fresh hardmode player. You will want to use weapons that pierces multiple enemies at once, such as the Shadowbeam Staff or the Magical Harp. Alternatively, you can make sure the pirates stay below you, with you on a wooden platform. Then use some kind of high-level Spear to slay the attackers. When a captain attacks, focus all of your attention on him, because he will stop attacking when attacked. If you have the Uzi, Flamethrower, or Minishark/Megashark it is good to continually fly over the pirates and shoot at them as it is hard for them to shoot you down.

Otherwise, you can make an anti-pirate special construction as pictured, which will prevent enemies from shooting at you. It is very effective and easy to build. It may be made of any stable block (so anything besides sand, silt and slush), but with some block types the Captain's cannonball still can hurt you. You will need ricochet ammo, such as Meteor bullets, in order to deal damage.

The simplest and easiest way to face the pirate invasion is not to face them at all. Simply make a shallow lava pit for them to fry themselves upon, and let the lava do the work for you. Shown in this video. Lava in its shallowest state will allow you to loot drops. You can dig a passageway underneath the lava pit to collect the dropped loot. For an endgame player, Spiky Ball Traps hooked up to a 1 Second Timer will kill pirates as fast, if not faster, and can be easily turned off or moved, unlike lava.