Pyrates – player's guide

How to launch the game

Pyrates are written in Python 3 and require the support for this programming language on your device (at least Python 3.8). On Windows, install IDLE (https://www.python.org/downloads/). The game should start after double-clicking the file 'pyrates.py'.

On Linux, check whether you have Python 3 installed on your device (e.g. type in python3 --version in the terminal). Open the terminal in the folder 'pyrates' and type in python3 pyrates.py. This is also how you can open the game in Windows Powershell.

Alternatively, you can open the files in IDLE code editor and hit the F5 key. Bear in that this method does not support color interface, so it is highly recommended to disable this option in 'options.ini' in order to avoid misalignments.

On Android, you can run the programs in Termux after installing Python3.

How to play

The wiki describes the gameplay in the version 0.7.0; some of the information is not relevant for earlier versions of the game.

The gameplay of Pyrates revolves around logical puzzles and resource management. You need to find chapters of Captain Cofresi’s memoir hidden on treasure islands and other places. In order to achieve this, you need to visit islands, find treasure chests, and gather resources of four kinds:

• Food is necessary for traveling. Each day of the journey (including a day spent on an island) uses up 1 item of food.
• Gold can be used to buy food, rum, and keys.
• Rum can be exchanged for information about nearby islands.
• Keys are necessary for opening treasure chests and operating various devices.

During each day of journey you use up 1 food item and your ship degrades slightly. The mileage of your ship is usually shown in the upper right corner. When the negative number in brackets appears next to the mileage, it will take more days for you to reach islands. The ship can be renovated in the shipyard on a town island (see below).

The choices you make during the journey will affect your reputation. Cooperating with pirates and refusing help will lower the reputation and dispose others negatively towards you. Note, however, the stealing from pirates does not decrease your reputation. You can improve your reputation by helping others in the game, e.g. rescuing shipwreck survivors or working on a distillery island.

The treasure island

There are three kinds of treasure islands. On islands of the first type, the chests with loot have 1 distinctive characteristic: color, padlock, or another attribute. For instance, if all chests with treasure are green, non-green chest do not contain treasure. Opening a chest uses up 1 key. To find a chest, insert the coordinates of the spot of the island which you want to check. The number that appears in the spot will indicate how many chests are placed in the adjacent field (horizontally, vertically, and diagonally; Minesweeper-style!). There is only one chest per row and column.

Some chests with treasure store mechanical devices called arithmometers. They can be fixed by setting its switches to either '+' or '-'. There are 9 switches altogether and the settings of 3 of them are revealed. The numbers next to rows and columns of switches indicate how many '+' switches there are in the row and the column. You need to use up 1 key to attempt to fix an arithmometer and if you fail, the device is permanently broken. A functioning arithmometer facilitates navigation and it decreases by 1 the days it takes to reach islands. Arithmometers can also be sold in locksmith՚s shop on a town island (see below).

On islands of the second type, you meet a fellow adventurer on a treasure island. In such cases you need to decide whether you prefer to scavenge alone and keep everything you find or scavenge together and negotiate how to split the loot afterwards. Chests do not have distinctive properties, but you still need 1 key to open one.

On the island of the third type, a pirate is trying to hide his treasure in one of his hideouts (marked with '?') in 4 quarters of the island: north-western, north-eastern, south western, and south-eastern. When you visit each hideout, the pirate tries to move the treasure to a cardinally adjacent quarter and leaves a note with the codename of the quarter to which the treasure has been moved. Follow the pirate from one hideout to another and you will find the treasure eventually.

The abandoned distillery

On an island with an abandoned distillery, you may need to run the facility to make fruit rum and canned food. First of all, you will need to collect the ingredients for a fruit rum: fruit, fresh water, and sugarcane. To find an ingredient, insert the coordinates of the spot of the island which you want to check. If you do not find anything, a letter indication the direction of the ingredient in the current quarter of the island will appear. There is only one ingredient in each of the quarters (north-eastern, south-western, and south-eastern), and no ingredient is located in the same quarter as the distillery. Unless you have already found fruit, spending a full day on the island uses up 1 food item.

If you manage to collect of the ingredients, you will need to run the distillery. The distillery has 3 vats; each vat works properly when 0, 1, or 2 valves are set to '+'. At first, the setting of all vats are incorrect, so that the pressure vats increases, which may lead to explosion. Fragments of documentation may help you guess the correct setting of the vats.

Pirates՚ island

The first thing you will see on a pirate island is a flag announcing the pirates՚ love for a special kind of fruit rum. The word for the fruit is jumbled and the pirates will ask whether you know what kind of rum they like.

A pirate will let you go if you help him steal rum and food from the pantries used by other pirates. The pantries can be successfully burgled only if you work together and the pirate will visit pantries several times. You need to choose where to go to meet the pirate. If you and the pirate go to different pantries, you do not manage to steal any resources. If you go to the same pantry, you manage to get the resources and you also manage to steal one key from the pirate. Alternatively, the pirate may ask you to get the keys to the pantries hidden under a palm tree; he will give you cues about the correct palm tree’s location. In both case you have a good chance to successfully steal a treasure chest if the chest is far away from pirate ships and there are objects between the two locations. Note, however, that after an attempt at stealing the chest you immediately leave the island.

The town island

There are town on some islands. In a town you can:

• purchase food and rum in the tavern (1 item for 1 piece of gold),
• purchase keys and sell arithmometers in locksmith՚s shop (1 keys for 1 piece of gold),
• repair your ship in the shipyard,
• visit the town hall to learn more about other things to do in the town.

Devil՚s triangle

A devil՚s triangle is an archipelago of three island locked in a time loop; this means that you will re-live each day in the triangle until you manage to break away from it. To break away, you need to find the map of the archipelago. The map is hidden in the north, the south, the east, or the west on one of the islands. On another island there is also a stash of food, rum, gold, and keys. Upon entering the triangle you find fragments of a diary with clues about the location of the resources.

Trading outpost

In a trading outpost you have the opportunity to buy and sell food and rum. You also meet a fellow adventurer who has interesting information about nearby islands and may want to share them when you offer them rum. You have a good chance to successfully steal food and rum if the stocks are far from merchant’s hut (^ in default settings). After an attempt you immediately leave the island and you reputation will suffer.

Encounters with ships

You may encounter pirates when you sail into a coral reef. When the pirate ship in a coral reef is not moving, it is a wreck; you may want to explore it… Remember that bumping into a reef increases the mileage of your ship, so navigate carefully. Tip: you may move around faster by using uppercase letters; this will move you 2 tiles in the chosen direction. Hitting ENTER (with no letters) will take you 1 tile in the direction you are already heading.

If you get captured, the pirates may interrogate you and another adventurer you met along the way. Depending on whether you give true or false answers, you may pay smaller ransom for your freedom. The rules of the interrogation are the same as the rules of the prisoner’s dilemma. Alternatively, you may play pirate shuffle with your guardian to achieve the most favorable conditions of your release.

Pirate shuffle

Pirate shuffle is the favorite pastime of pirates in the game. The game involves 6 phrases with animals and locations or other attributes rhyming with the animal (e.g. “a cat in a vat”). The animals and the locations/attributes are shuffled within the 6 phrases and your task is to match them by swapping the animals in adjacent phrases. You get 1 point for each phrase that you match. For example, if you want to swap the animals in the phrases 1 and 2, type in 1.

Captain Cofresí՚s messages in bottles

Sometimes you find a message in a bottle during the “En route” stage. The message was written by the pirate Captain Cofresí, who could have hidden his treasure chests on a nearby island. Since Cofresí do not want you to find the treasure, the message is meant to misdirect you – all of the sentences about the islands are false – but you can use the sentences to infer some information about the islands.

Alternatively, the bottle may contain an “encrypted” message with four initial letters of each island name replaced with other characters and true information about the island type.

Game hacks

• Whenever resources like food, rum, and keys are bought, they can also be sold by typing in a negative number; e.g. by typing in -2 during a transaction in locksmith's shop, you sell 2 keys for 2 pieces of gold.
• When typing in map coordinates, you can write the digit first and the letter second, e.g. 2a instead of a2.

See also

• The Tavern – player՚s guide
• Adrift – player՚s guide
• Tortuga Tycoon – player՚s guide
• Decked! – player՚s guide
• Translator՚s guide
• Teacher՚s guide