Combat Redesign, Codex & Tutorial
Ahoy, captains! This update brings a top-to-bottom overhaul of how Pirate Twist plays, plus the in-game reference and tutorial you've been asking for.
New Tutorial
First-time captains now get walked through the basics. A welcome modal on your first arrival at Port offers an opt-in guided tour, and every encounter type fires a quick intro banner the first time you see it — Combat, Storm, Salvage, Lucky Treasure, Merchant, X Marks the Spot, and the Captain boss. Already a veteran? Skip the whole thing in one click.
The Combat banner specifically covers the redesigned mechanics over three pages: how to lock a target and present a broadside, the gear system + reload indicator, and a warning about hull-bashing.
New In-Game Codex
Open the Codex from the main menu or pause menu — eight tabs covering every mechanic in the game. The brand-new first tab — [b]COMBAT[/b] — walks through gears, steering, target lock, broadside arc, manual fire, hull-bash, the stunned state, sea resistance, and enemy level scaling. The other tabs cover Encounters, Enemies, Modules, Treasures, Captains, Crew, and Skills.
Combat Mechanics Overhaul
Target lock — Click an enemy to lock them as your target. Cannons aim automatically; a red reticle marks the locked ship.
Broadside arc — Cannons only fire when the enemy sits in your ship's side arc (~120° each side, ~60° dead zones fore and aft). Bow-on charges don't fire.
Manual fire — Press Space to fire your broadside. An animated reload bar with a sweeping highlight shows when your next salvo is ready, and a chime plays the moment "Cannon Ready" returns.
Range cap — Cannonballs splash after ~one screen-tile. Cannons hold fire if the target is beyond range — no more wasted reloads on out-of-range shots.
Hull-bash — Ramming an enemy at close range deals damage to [b]both[/b] ships, stuns both for 1 second, and continuously drifts both apart until you re-shift gear. A splinter crunch punctuates the impact.
Symmetric reload — 2.5-second cooldown at level 1 across the board. Captain Reload Master and future fire-rate skills scale against that anchor.
Enemy levels — Pirates roll a level inside the expedition's range (Exp 1 = lv 1–3, Exp 5 = lv 9–10). Each level adds +10% to HP, cannon damage, and fire-rate, so a level 1 Sloop matches your 2.5s reload and 10 damage, while a level 10 Sloop reloads in ~1.3s and hits for 19.
Smarter Enemies — Sloops no longer orbit around you. They brake to present a broadside at engage range and hold the gun line, actively steering to avoid hull contact — but they'll close to ram if you let them.
Navigation Mechanics Overhaul
Gear system — W upshifts gears (1/2/3 jump straight there), S downshifts. Gear 1 = ~33% speed, Gear 2 = ~67%, Gear 3 = full. Press S from Neutral to engage Reverse.
Water resistance — The engine never actively brakes. Downshifting to Neutral cuts the throttle and lets the sea slow you down — coasting from Gear 3 takes much longer than coasting from Gear 1. Use it for tactical drift.
Steering anywhere — A/D pivot the ship at any gear, including while coasting in Neutral or transitioning into Reverse. Useful after a hull-bash when the throttle drops to N.
Forced Neutral on impact — Hull-bash drops your gear to Neutral so the engine room can recover. You consciously re-shift to charge again.
Smooth recovery — After a bash, both ships drift apart at a constant rate until you take back control. No exponential decay, no jarring stop.
Other Quality-of-Life
Splinter SFX on hull-bash impacts.
Cannonballs splash on the visible hull instead of in the water around it.
Tutorial banner card is taller with controls split into 2 rows so the 5-cluster Combat strip fits cleanly.
Pirates have a 2.5-second spawn grace before they can hull-bash — no insta-ram on arrival.
See you on the seas, captain.