Pirates Vikings & Knights II 1.0 Release!

PVKII 1.0 is Here!

Pirates Vikings & Knights II is officially out of beta with the 1.0 release!

With this release comes the 4th pirate class, and 12th class overall — the Pirate Buccaneer. The release also features several new combat mechanics, multiple new maps and game modes, and more balance changes than you can throw a keg at.

Continue reading for more information on the Buccaneer and release notes. But first, a thank you to our community!

To The Finest Crew!

It's been over 6,500 days since PVKII was unleashed. Since then, we’ve sailed a long and thrilling course — shaped by countless hours of passion and the unwavering support of our community. Every clan formed, battle fought, and inside joke has driven us forward, inspiring new features, improvements, and stories that we never could have imagined alone.

As we launch our 1.0 Release, we honor the tireless work of absolutely every single individual who has lent their talent over the years. Thank you to the developers, creators, testers, translators, and everyone else whose contributions built this world. Thank you to the fans for believing in us, for your feedback and camaraderie, and for making PVKII more than a game — it’s a legacy we share together!

For ZeroTron

PVKII 1.0 is dedicated to the memory of ZeroTron, who passed away in May of this year. He was ambitious, barrels of fun, and had a heart of gold. Raise your tankards to ZeroTron! 

With all that passion and creativity fueling us, let’s look to the future and what the 1.0 era brings to PVKII.

Pirate Buccaneer

Voiced by: Ki "Trenchdog" McKenzie, the Buccaneer is the latest class to join the scurvy Pirate crew, and the 12th and final playable character in PVKII. Wielding a sledgehammer, hatchet, boarding hook, and fiery special, you do not want to get in the way of this big man nor his pet cat, Luna.

Trailer and Release Notes

Watch the trailer and read the release notes on our official website! See below for the detailed 1.0 changelog!

1.0 Screenshots

Recommended Servers

The following servers are a blast to play on! We recommend these:

• House of Rum

• Hammerclan

• \[LINUX] Spirrwell's 64 Bit Server

Get The Booty!

As we step into this 1.0 era, we invite both new adventurers and veteran swashbucklers to dive in, chart new battles, and help write the next chapter of a game that truly belongs to all of us. 

This is Pirates Vikings & Knights II.

Detailed Changelog

Added Buccaneer:

The Buccaneer serves as the Pirate Team’s tank. His large health pool and powerful weapons provide an edge in brawls that his team has sorely needed. Once the guns are fired and explosions go off, the Buccaneer is there to keep the fight going. He can stand toe to toe with the other Tanks, allowing for his teammates to wreak havoc from safety. Hooking vulnerable targets and igniting the masses, this Jamaican Giant is sure to bring much needed edge to the fray.

Major Changes:

• Kick and Roll now share the same cooldown of 0.5 seconds

• Frequent Kicking/Rolling increases the cooldown (up to 6 seconds)

• Added a short delay before you can roll after swinging a melee weapon

• Added “Wall-Jumping”, kick a wall while airborne to propel yourself backwards

• Fixed the Falling Damage Mod for melee weapons

• Damage Display now shows Armor+Health damage instead of only Health damage

• Added “Goomba” Stomping

• Added team-colored outlines to retrievable projectiles

• Increased retrievable projectile pickup radius (8 HU→12 HU)

• Increased retrievable projectile lifetime (30s→60s)

• Added flyby sounds to enemy projectiles

• Halved the duration of stuns from blocking melee attacks improperly

• Halved the duration of shield bash stun

• Added new impact sounds for various projectiles

• Added new impact sounds for shielding heavy ranged attacks

• Added humiliation killfeed lines

• Voice lines consistent for all clients

• Added lip syncing and facial expressions to voice lines

• Fixed a bug that caused explosions to deal more damage than intended

• Reverted headshot hitbox changes

• Added command, cl_fullcharge_ding, which plays a sound effect when fully charging a melee weapon

Combo Balance:

• Removed “Parry Canceling” (waiting out or canceling a Counter-Attack to gain Combo)

• Added “Combo Swapping”, spends Combo to swap weapons faster, up to 200% with 4 Combo

• Delay before Combo starts decaying increased by 1 second

• Combo now gained when hitting blocking / shielding enemies

• Performing a Special now temporarily freezes Combo decay

• Added Combo particle effects to weapons in both first and third person

• Finisher Miss sounds now play globally

Shield Changes:

• Shielding non-special explosions now protects players behind you

• Shields now gain Shield-Bash charge when blocking melee damage, ~85 damage = 100% charge

• Shield HP increased by 25% across the board

• Removed the 25% ranged damage reduction passive from shields

• Melee attacks deal reduced damage to shields when only later traces connect

• Updated “After-Bash” charge so it decays instead of vanishing upon expiring

• Changed Shield-Bash bar color to blue

Captain Role Shift:

Now that the Buccaneer is here to soak up damage, the Captain and his feathery friend have been adjusted to fill a more generalist role.

General Stats

• Move Speed increased (210→220)

• Armor reduced (160→130)

Captain’s Cutlass

• Can now recall Parrot by pressing R

Blunderbuss

• Spread reduced (25→17.5)

• Can now swap to and load Special while empty

• Can now recall Parrot by pressing R (if loaded)

Parrot

• No longer dies automatically when the Captain does

• Can target enemies directly by looking at them when sending the Parrot out

• Added a direct target indicator above enemy heads

• Parrot excretions now deals 2 damage

• Updated feather particle effects to match Parrot Dye

Bondi Rework:

Flatbow

• Now has a 4-arrow “magazine” that requires reloading

• Fire rate greatly increased

• Reload manually with R at any time, or with M1 when empty

• Reloads one arrow at a time; cancel with M1 or M2

• Retrieved arrows are automatically reloaded if there is space

• Damage increased (53→57)

• Charge rate increased (1.2→1.5)

• Move speed while charging reduced (195→180)

• Starting ammo reduced (20→18)

• Max ammo reduced (40→28)

• Ammo from pickups reduced (20→14)

• Special cost increased from 210 to 220

• Updated animations

Special

• Activating the Special instantly loads 4 explosive arrows

• Explosion and direct hits deal more damage (45->50)

• Added knockback

• Removed move speed slow down

• New models for special arrows

• Updated particles and sounds

Misc

• Updated character model textures for improved visibility

Assassin Rework:

Stilettos

• Base damage reduced (46→42)

• Backstab damage consistency improved

• Backstabs now scale with other damage modifiers (crits, combo finisher, falling)

• Minimum backstab damage reduced (60→50)

• Maximum backstab damage reduced (90→85)

• Added new sounds for backstabs

• Changed swipe animations to utilize the parrying dagger

• Updated textures

Crossbow Pistol

• Renamed to “Latchet Crossbow”

• Damage increased (40->55)

• Velocity increased (2100→3000)

• Starting ammo reduced (5→3)

• Max ammo reduced (8→3)

• Ammo from pickups reduced (5→3)

• Reload time increased (1.75s→2.33s)

• New model, sound effects, and animations

Caltrops

• Added a 0.55s arming time

• Satchel direct hits now deal 5 damage

• Slow potency reduced (60%→25%)

• Triggering now marks targets for 2s, +0.5s per extra caltrop

• Marked targets are visible through walls and take critical damage from the Assassin

• Caltrop count increased (10→12)

• Patch spread increased

• Central caltrop replaced with a ring of 5 caltrops

• Exterior ring increased to 10 caltrops

• Lifetime reduced (60s→45s)

• Deploy time reduced (0.5s→0.25s)

• Velocity reduced (1500→1000)

• Added new sounds for caltrop triggering and satchel impact

• Added new footstep sounds during caltrop status effect

• Added blood trail particles during caltrop status effect

Smoke Pot

• Now the alt fire of Caltrops with a 50s cooldown

• Shares charge rate, velocity, and arc with Caltrop satchel

• No longer does damage in an AOE, only on direct

• No longer stuns

• Creates a smoke screen for 10s that obscures vision, name tags, and proximity alerts

• Stepping into the smoke activates Cloak, once per Smoke Pot

Cloak

• Now grants full invisibility, but visibility increases near enemies

• While invisible, melee weapons stay at full charge

• Move speed bonus now starts at 320 HU and decays over the duration of the cloak

• Silences footsteps and automatic voice lines

• Ambient sound is now audible to all players

• Taking damage briefly increases visibility

• All weapons are now usable but cancel cloak if used

• Added a new sound for cloak canceling

• Fixed projectiles and decals remaining visible while cloaked

Special

• Replaced Smokebomb Special with “Sixth Sense”, a 17.5s stance

• Increases Move Speed to 265

• Gives the ability to see players through walls, represented by team-colored heart icons

• Heart icon beats faster and grows larger the less health a player has

• Damage an enemy below 40% Health to instantly kill them

• Enemies below 66% Health can be instantly killed with a backstab

• Instantly killable enemies have a barbed red ring around their heart icon

Misc

• Updated character model and textures

Other Class Balance:

Skirmisher

Cutlass

• Now paired with a Flintlock Pistol in the offhand

• Press attack while blocking to fire the offhand Flintlock

• Has a Fire Rate of 2.3 seconds between shots

• Updated models and animations

Flintlock Pistols

• Fire Rate increased (2.0s→1.8s)

• Updated models and animations

Powderkeg

• Updated animations

Misc

• Added Flintlock Pistols to character model

• He’s finally got his earring!

• Added keg lighting voice lines

Sharpshooter

Long Rifle

• Rifle spread reduced (15→5)

• Rifle now knocks enemies upwards instead of away

• Reverted “slow aim”

Misc

• Updated character model textures for improved visibility

Berserker

Big Axe

• Base damage reduced (60→57)

• Swing speed increased by 10%

• Charge time increased (1.5s→1.7s)

• Charge damage bonus increased (35%→42%)

• Updated model and animations

Axe & Sword

• Added a “Dual Strike” attack that passively charges over 5 rapid swings

• Dual Strike charge rate scales with attack speed

• Release M1 to perform a Dual Strike in the current attack direction

• Quickly switch attack directions to carry over a Dual Strike

• Range increased (45→53)

• Adjusted Counter-Attack tracers

Special

• Now increases kick damage to 12

• Halves kick/roll cooldown

Misc

• Updated character model and textures

Huscarl

Two-Handed Axe

• Renamed to “Huscarl’s Axe”

• Updated animations

Sword & Shield

• Shield HP increased (270→310)

• Shield-Bash range increased (45→50)

Throwing Axes

• Updated animations

Special

• Maximum damage reduced (135->70)

• Now briefly drags enemies along before launching them

• Launches enemies with significant force after dealing full damage

• Enemies launched into walls take up to 80 extra damage

• Killing an enemy with the shield itself will fully refresh the duration of the Special

• Now only stuns on impact with a wall

Gestir

Langseax & Shield

• Shield HP increased (210→260)

• Shield-Bash range increased (45→50)

Javelins

• Roll no longer interrupts charge

Special

• Reduced base move speed

• Adjusted damage to be higher up front, but damage scales down continuously per enemy

• Now can hold attack to increase speed but decrease turning strength

• Colliding with a wall only ends special when holding attack

Misc

• Adjusted character model textures for improved visibility

Heavy Knight

Greatsword

• Updated animations

Arming Sword & Shield

• Shield HP increased (300→350)

• Shield-Bash range increased (45→50)

Archer

Longbow

• Reduced starting ammo (20→15)

• Updated model and animations

Crossbow

• Reverted “slow aim”

• Knockback increased (250→300)

Special

• Arrow count increased to 4

• Damage per arrow increased (40→45)

• Damage capped to 120

• Now increases heat by 25% per arrow

• Updated model and animations

Man-At-Arms

Mace & Buckler

• Shield HP increased (180→225)

• Shield-Bash range increased (45→50)

Other Changes:

Gamemodes

Two new gamemodes have been added, Duel and Competitive.

In Duel, fight your opponent to the death in a skillful 1v1. The victor moves on to the next round while a spectator takes the loser’s place!

In Competitive, teamwork is king. Two teams with up to 4 players each fight each other in a best of 5 tournament. Teams are swapped after a half is finished, and friendly fire is enabled.

By default, Specials are disabled in both gamemodes.

Miscellaneous:

Gameplay:

• Damage modifier for improperly blocked attacks rewritten

• Props submerged in lava now experience new physics

• Kegs exploding in lava now have unique effects, and will apply a lot more heat.

• Kegs no longer stun teammates if friendly fire is enabled

• Reduced screenshake when stunned

• Added new sound effects for arrow impacting walls

• Disabled low health grayscale effect by default, use cl_player_lowhealth_fx to re-enable

Temperature

With the introduction of fire damage, various sources can now increase your “heat”.

• Fire damage increases heat

• Reaching 100% heat will ignite for 5 seconds

• Dodge-rolling or submerging in water reduces heat

• Archer Special now increases heat by 25% per arrow

• Explosions now increase heat based on damage dealt

Cold sources also reduce your heat, but if you are too cold then you will freeze. Cold sources include freezing water and Cathedral’s sudden death.

Menu Changes:

• Renamed ‘Advanced Options’ to ‘Multiplayer Advanced’

• Added “Beep” hitsound

Map Changes:

• Updated Arena’s lava

ConVars:

• mp_dodge_midair, 0 by default

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed fast swinging weapons not dealing full damage through shield

• Fixed huscarl shield special getting canceled by assassin’s smokebomb

• Fixed submersion in lava resulting in a green screen filter