Pirate Invasion



"The pirates have arrived!"

The Pirate Invasion is a Hardmode event where Pirate enemies spawn and swarm the world's original spawn point. A Pirate Invasion can occur randomly after certain conditions are met, or alternatively when the player uses a Pirate Map. Pirate Maps can rarely be dropped by enemies in the Ocean biome.

For a single-player invasion, the player must kill 120 Pirates before the event is completed. This number increases with each additional player.

Defeating your first Pirate Invasion unlocks the Pirate NPC.

Criteria
The criteria for a random Pirate Invasion to occur is as follows:
 * No other events are currently in progress.
 * The Wall of Flesh must have been defeated.
 * At least one Altar must be destroyed.
 * The player must have at least 200 max life (if the player doesn't meet this requirement, the Pirate Map will not work).

Chances

 * First, the Goblin Army event must fail to occur (59/60 chance).
 * If a Pirate Invasion has not yet been defeated, there is a 1/30 chance for the first one to occur.
 * After a Pirate Invasion has been defeated, the chance is reduced to 1/50.
 * The final probability is 3.27% each morning for the first invasion, and 1.96% for subsequent invasions.

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 or any area of the world above the surface which has a nearby NPC. When the Pirates' initial wave reaches the spawn, their arrival is announced with "The pirates have arrived!"

If the message says "West", the initial Pirates will come from the left. If the message says "East", they'll arrive from the right. Note that these directions are not related to the apparent motion of the sun and the moon, which, in Terraria, appear to move from left ("west") to right ("east").

Tips

 * The Pirate Invasion is similar to the Goblin Army, but while the pirates are generally tougher, they don't have a caster like the Goblin Sorcerer, much less anything to match the Goblin Summoner. Most of the same tactics and preparations will prove even more effective, given these weaknesses.
 * Since Pirate enemies have no piercing attacks, the player can wall themself off with blocks, then dig a small hole in the wall and attack through it with a yoyo, Magic Dagger, Flying Knife or other projectile weapon without fear of retribution.
 * If fought while using a Flask of Gold, one can average between per event, thus making this one of the easiest ways to make money.
 * Pirate Invasions can be used to farm Biome Keys if you arrange for the Pirates to fight you in the corresponding biome. One way to do so is to set up an artificial biome near the spawn point. The other is to simply go near your spawn point to trigger the invasion, then fly to an existing biome that has been prepared to handle an invasion.
 * An incredibly effective and simple way to farm the pirate invasion is to build a small box around you and use the Daedalus Stormbow with some Holy Arrows, as each arrow from the Daedalus will come with its own stars, rapidly killing the hordes of Pirates coming after you.
 * Pirates themselves can drop Pirate Maps if fought within the Ocean biome. Ditto for all invasion enemies, such as the Goblin Army and Frost Legion, which can make farming easier.
 * Since the Flying Dutchman spawns pirates, you can stop the Dutchman at a wall and kill the pirates spawned from it to easily end the invasion.
 * Although it says this event will swarm the world spawn, it reality, it swarms the area nearest to the player as long as NPC's are nearby. Ex. If a player is in the ocean while an invasion event is happening, the invasion will swarm spawn. While if the player has an NPC with a beach-side house at the ocean, the invasion will swarm that area instead.

Trivia

 * The Pirate invasion enemies are some of the only unquestionably human enemies in Terraria.
 * When Pirate Deckhand and Pirate Corsair is forced through a 2 block high space, it will stand with its arms down for a few seconds and then start moving away from the player.
 * If there is a Pirate Invasion going on, bosses may still spawn, naturally or by item summon. This puts the invasion on hold - the percentage completion bar will disappear and no more pirates will spawn for the duration of the boss fight. When the boss is killed, the invasion will resume as it was before the boss fight.