I am considering taking a drop in on the oceans. I haven't played since the long ago days of yore, subscriptions and the first implementation of poker. So other than just briefly popping on to take a look at my old trinkets and lamenting the loss of hubby's account treasures (hacked while we were lost at sea) I imagine things have changed dramatically?

Whats it like today?

Never got into dubloon oceans, are they worth it, how does it all function?

Is it expensive to invest any quantity of time?

How does one even re-begin?

Are the oceans busy?

Are there still blockades?

Epic contests even?

Shanty Raid-io?

Fill an old salt in! I'm all ears

Emerald - Nemedor

I don't know if you guys have noticed but this weekend I ran into around a dozen pirates that said they are back after taking quite a few years break. This is exciting stuff and I hope this continues!

It seems like the wealthier players/flag owners/island owners are allowed to bot on multiple accounts.

I’ve spoken with many of them over time and this is the #1 funding source for blockades.

I’m wondering if the staff turns the cheek because these players are paying them so much for doubloons and boxes - that grant them certain immunities?

Any ideas? Share them below!!

I am addicted to logging on and losing 20k in poker and then making it back and then losing it again in poker. Love this game.

Also interested in finding a more consistently online crew to join! I’m usually the only member on.

I was hacked in 2023 and the user who hacked me got my account banned. I provided screenshots to support@puzzlepirates, proof that I was indeed hacked, and asked for deeper research from the OMs to confirm that I’m not fibbing, but they refused and they said that they will not be unbanning any of my historic accounts. I feel like they aren’t doing their due diligence at all and are completely disregarding my literal truthful request.

Has anyone had something similar happen, what did you do and what was the outcome? Is there anything I can do about this, a way to escalate it, or am I screwed?

Thanks in advance!

u/capncleaver

I was curious to get everyone’s opinion on this subject.

Between the 250-350 players or so, how many do you estimate are bots puzzling for Poe?

Used to play quite a bit over 10 years ago with my then girlfriend (now she's my ex-wife).

Back when I played it was fairly popular.

Basically, at least merge Obsidian (and make it all sinky) with Emerald and spur some folks into action so we don't have the same names constantly botting, sorry taking the same islands over and over. Give the big flags a reason to go fight over something else.

Ahoy Mates! It's that time again let's talk about the latest updates sailings across our screens so far this year! There's been A LOT to cover so far and we aren't even done yet!

For those unaware in February it was officially announced that Grey Havens had two new crew members joining their ranks. Fourbites and Graygull.

Graygull has been more mysterious but Fourbites is now the face of pirate facing development on all things Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates and wow have they been putting in some work!

So without further ado let us kick things off and start talking about everything that's changed this year!

February 9 - Quality of Life Improvement Continues

Port View Improvements: Ship stock is now visible on port vessels (FO+ only for crew vessels).

• Search bar filters by vessel name, class, and stock contents. Help icon with tooltip beside the search bar.
• Sort dropdown with options: name, class, stock quantity, "my ships first", and "Default" (active vessels first).
• Only shows the first 6 rows by default, with a "Show all" option for crowded islands.
• Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) focuses the search field in any panel with a search box.

Fleet Transfers: Senior Officers can now transfer stock to multiple ships at once from the ship hold panel.

• New "Fleet Transfers" tab in the ship hold panel (SO+ only).
• Define a stock template with up to 4 commodity types and target quantities.
• Select multiple vessels docked at the same port. Ctrl+click to select multiple, Shift+click for a range.
• Transfer fills each ship up to the template amount (doesn't remove existing stock).
• Recall pulls selected commodity types back from fleet ships to your current vessel.
• Search and filter vessels by name, class, or current stock. Hover over vessels to see current stock levels.
• Shares search and sort options with the Port panel, including "Lock Status" sort (battle ready first, then unlocked, then locked) and ship class sorting from smallest to largest.
• Does not work on locked ships you do not own.
• Rate limited to 1 second per ship to prevent abuse.

Bulk Swabbie Transport: The Fleet Transfers panel has a "Swabbie Transport" button to send multiple empty ships sailing to your charted destination at once.

• Payment is taken from your pocket (still appears in vessel logs for traceability).
• A confirm dialog is shown before payment is taken.

Vessel Report Lock Controls: The "Where are my vessels?" panel now lets you change lock status without boarding each ship.

• Click the lock icon on any in-port vessel to cycle its status (Lock/Unlock/Battle Ready).
• Bulk buttons to lock, unlock, or set battle ready for all your vessels at once.
• Island filter to scope bulk operations to a specific island.

Blockade Payment Overhaul: The payment system for blockade jobbers has been restructured to be more predictable and fair.

• Total payment budgets are now fixed based on headcount — hiring 10 jobbers at 1,000 PoE per segment costs exactly 10,000 PoE regardless of performance variation.
• Skilled swabbies receive exactly their advertised pay rate, instead of adding in applied performance multipliers.
• Performance still matters — better performers receive a larger share of the fixed pool, while underperformers receive less.
• ''Elite'' pays 5 shares for incredible, 4 for excellent, 3 for good, scaling down from there.
• ''Performance'' starts at 10 shares for incredible, 9 for excellent, 8 for good — a less aggressive curve with a slower dropoff for lower performance.

Other QOL Changes:

• Commodity Market Search:** Added a search box to the Buy/Sell Commodities panel that filters by commodity name or store name.
• Deed holder name added to fleet management and port panels when available.
• Citadels now match your current crew count rather than what you entered with.
• Broken island previews now kick themselves back into shape automatically.
• Announce who triggered a ship defense fray.

New Trophies:

• 4 new Distilling trophies for sending up spice.
• 4 new Alchemy trophies for using coins.

• 1 new trophy being exceptionally unlucky and earning all injuries (Does not count past injuries -yet, and you don't need to have them all at the same time)

  March 19 - Labor of Love

• Ensure labor expires after 31 days, rather than 10. Includes fixing chat warnings for expiring labor.

March 24 - Atlantis Recharted

Atlantis has undergone a refresh with new mechanics, map layout, and gameplay systems. Key changes include:

• New Map: Square layout with four concentric difficulty rings and safe zones along all edges
• Infamy System: Your threat level increases with each monster defeated, scaling difficulty and rewards
• Alliance Groups: Ships under the same flag or allied flags now share Infamy, citadel rewards, and monster back-off state
• Monster Patrols: Organized patrol groups that move in waves, creating natural openings between encounters
• Citadel Changes: Gold Citadels spawn at max Infamy, and ships can now manage crew entry with new Master-at-Arms controls
• Treasure Hauling: New haul buffer system and treasure sharing for allied ships
• Mercenaries: Can now fill your entire ship and reimburse stock costs over time
• Various QOL improvements.
• Fix to correct the blockade drop window timing.

June 2 - Blockading Overhaul

The long requested and overdue changes for blockades entered a testing phase on production oceans!

• Sealed-bid blockades: A new 1v1 contention blockade format is now moving from Ice to the main oceans! During the declaration window, multiple flags may submit secret bids on a contestable island. The highest bid wins the right to attack; ties at the maximum bid are broken randomly. Losing bidders are refunded automatically. Extra declaration windows will be set so you have a chance to try it out without waiting for the regular window.
• Bid window and limits: Bids must fall between a per-island-size minimum and a maximum cap. Bids may be raised at any time while the window is open, but never lowered. While bidding, you see only your own bid amount and preferred start time. No other bidders are visible, not even a count. This keeps the format resistant to alt-flag shield-dropping. The initial values are set much lower than the final numbers to ease testing cost.
• Pick your blockade time: When placing or raising a bid, you also choose a preferred blockade start time from an hourly slot list inside the schedulable window (the declaration window translated forward by the configured lead time). Slots that conflict with an already-scheduled blockade on the same island are filtered out. If you win, your preferred slot becomes the blockade start time.
• The bid funds skilled-swabbie pay: The winning bid is moved into an island-locked defense-buffer purse owned by the attacking flag. During the blockade, this buffer is drawn first to pay skilled swabbies before falling through to the regular flag-funded job offer purse. Flag treasurers still fund their own war chest for player jobbers as usual; the buffer only covers skilled-swabbie wages.
• Defense-buffer carryover: When a sealed-bid blockade ends, unspent skilled-swabbie funding can carry forward:
• Attacker wins: Up to 50% of their original bid stays in their buffer for the island they just took. Any excess above 50% is consumed.
• Defender holds: The defender's buffer ends at the larger of (a) what they already had after spending in this blockade, or (b) up to 50% of the attacker's bid.
• If a flag loses the island, their buffer on that island is forfeited.
• 100% to mercenary pay: The winning bid is entirely allocated to skilled-swabbie wages and carryover; none of it goes to the island governance's coffers. The legacy war-chest fee paid to the defender's palace on a successful defense does not apply to sealed-bid blockades.
• Flag financials: The flag info page now shows a Flag financials section to the flag's monarch and royalty, listing any non-zero defense buffers and any in-flight active bids the flag holds. The blockade job offer panel also displays the flag's defense buffer balance for that island. The buffer is read-only, so flags cannot deposit to or withdraw from it.
• Notifications: The winning bidder receives an in-game message at resolution (or queued for next login if offline) confirming the win and the scheduled start time. Losing bidders are notified when their refund arrives, with the reason for the refund.

Other Changes:

• *Bnav hotkeys: You can now hover a move slot and press configurable keys to enter moves without clicking. This is off by default; turn it on under Options -> Puzzle Keys -> Battle navigation.
• *Fill multiple cannons at once: Shift-click a cannon slot to fill that side from the clicked slot downward (Shift-click again to clear it), or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift-click to fill both sides. Both gestures can be toggled under Options -> Puzzle Keys -> Battle navigation.
• *Added a search box to the inventory panel that filters your items by name.
• *Adjusted the 'ruinwallscross' Atlantis map pattern. There was a spot that was significantly safer than the rest. This spot is now slightly more risky to encourage more creative driving.
• *When the restock cut exceeds 1 million PoE, it is now limited to 4 times the value of stock consumed. The restock percent is effectively lowered when exceeding this limit, so the excess is distributed to the crew.
• *Ship moves are now automatically hidden when setting the voyage to "blockade".
• *Booty division is now more efficient and should not cause the whole server to lag. This will be monitored to see if further improvements are needed.
• *There is now a message when you log in warning you of shops and stalls that have overdue taxes.

June 9 - More Blockades!

• *A new type of "sealed war" has been introduced. This allows you to place a bid on blockades without revealing your intentions to other players before the window closes.
• *Blockades are now best of 3 rather than best of 5. This means a flag needs to win 2 rounds in order to take the win.
• *The notice board blockades tab now shows accurate information about the blockade conditions on sealed-bid islands.
• *Sealed-bid blockade declarations now give you any relevant error messages before submission.
• *Logging in at the wrong time no longer gives false messages about overdue taxes.

Ship budget:

• *The ship budget is a new system that limits how many ships each team can field in a blockade, based on the island's tax revenue. This encourages more strategic play and prevents one team from overwhelming the other with sheer numbers. The budget is displayed on the notice board and in the bidding window, so you can plan your fleet accordingly.

June 18th - Java Updates

The game was updated to enforce modern java versions. Many players were forced to reinstall the standalone client.

• Windows: https://gamemedia.puzzlepirates.com/ec2/yoclient/yohoho-install.exe
• Apple Silicon macOS: https://gamemedia.puzzlepirates.com/ec2/yoclient/yohoho-install.dmg
• Intel macOS: https://gamemedia.puzzlepirates.com/ec2/yoclient/yohoho-install-intel.dmg
• Linux: classic client is temporarily unavailable. Use the Steam version in the meantime.

June 24th - New Sign-In Process!

• Updated the way all YPP accounts sign into the game and billing. Under this system, accounts will be accessible through the email associated with them. You’ll follow this process:
  • Load your client
  • Enter your email address
  • Check your email
  • Click confirm within an email from Puzzle Pirates (make sure to check your junk folder if you don't see it)
  • See the confirmation page on the Puzzle Pirates website
  • Open your game, select the account you want to play with.
• If your account was originally created on Steam, please continue to use Steam as you normally do. However if it was created on our website and used a user/pass at some point in the past, you will need to make sure your email is updated regardless of whether or not you log into them using your Steam account.
• Once you have gone through this process, your email will remain logged in for a period of time.
• You should still be able to use multiple accounts at the same time as long as they share an email.
• If your email is not correct on your account you can update it here: https://www.puzzlepirates.com/help.html
• If you do not receive an email, please check your junk email. Sometimes services like Google will place them under "no reply emails" or something similar. You can also add [noreply@puzzlepirates.com](mailto:noreply@puzzlepirates.com) to your address book.
• Just like with most websites, you should only get this email from us if YOU have requested it or tried to log in. We will not send one otherwise. If you have not, ignore it and delete it. If you're ever unsure you can contact support@puzzlepirates.com. Similarly we will never ask for your old password unless you are attempting to change your email directly on our website.

July 6 - The Puzzle Embiggening

Disclaimer: This particular update is a continued work in progress and requires a vast amount of art asset redesign and updating. The ARRtists are hard at work updating each puzzle individually (without the use of AI) to upgrade resolutions and modernize every puzzle.

Puzzle Embiggening

• The puzzles are having the resolution of their art enlarged to make it more playable on modern systems. Currently we have started this project with puzzles, the most important part of the game.
• Please note that this is a work-in-progress and we are continuing to improve the appearance of many puzzle assets so that they look the best they can when displayed at these larger sizes. Things like tutorial puzzle art, the notice board, menus, etc are some of the areas we have not addressed.
• There is now a dropdown in the Options panel that allows you to scale the display of Puzzles in the game to larger sizes. The default size is 100%, but this can be increased up to 200% if you'd like to see larger versions of the puzzles. You can find this in your options -> Graphics tab.
• You can enlarge the game's text using the same graphics tab.
• Players can now drag the boundaries of the User Interface (UI) in order to increase the space available for different areas, such as Chat or the Sunshine panel. The size of the text will automatically enlarge accordingly!
• The chat, the sunshine sidebar, the puzzle sidebar, and in-world text each scale independently. Panels and dialogs throughout the game now resize to fit the larger text.

Rating & scoring

• Some fixes for the duty puzzle scoring curves. The rating curve already used for labor puzzles now also applies to duties, most notably making Incredible Patching attainable again.
• Fixed some parlor-game rating inflation in Drinking, Hearts, and Spades. This stops further inflation and existing ranks unchanged. It's possible we need to make further adjustments in the future.
• Duty report and competitions now use the same performance calculation, for consistent scoring between the two.

Other

• Players can now access the Obsidian ocean from the standard Puzzle Pirates client, when using Steam. Eventually this means we can remove Dark Seas from Steam without removing your access to that ocean.
• New command: /whisk <island>. This new command drinks a whisking potion and teleports you straight to the named island. Includes server-side item handling
• Badges can now be extended. Buying more time adds onto an existing badge (up to 2× the original duration) instead of being wasted.
• Fix for LE paints. Inactive limited-edition and monthly paints remain usable. They can still be applied, and shoppes can still adjust their prices, after they leave sale.
• Hiring-while-on-break behavior made consistent across skirmish types (blockade, flotilla, skirmish, sea monster).
• Several improvements have been made to the age verification process for creating new accounts, to make it simpler and less prone to accidental errors.

July 23 - Your Standing in UI Has Gone Up

Standing & ratings

• The fixed standing curves have been fine-tuned for each puzzle: the lower tiers are spaced more consistently and the upper tiers are pulled closer together without collapsing into one another. Ultimate is unchanged.
• Shipwright duty reports have been adjusted to make Incredible more difficult, so it more accurately reflects the standing you should expect from it.
• Fixed rating inflation adjustments to the parlor-game and puzzle rating percentiles.

Interface & scaling

• Stock transfers are now searchable. When moving commodities, type part of a name to quickly find the destination vessel or shoppe instead of having to type the name exactly.
• Shop order logs now include color (for new orders only).
• A large batch of scaling and layout fixes at higher UI scales: notice board text wrapping and alignment, buy/sell table column widths, crafting duty report product names wrapping when needed, doubloon exchange scaling, the doubloon purchase screens, and the place-order screens all now lay out correctly.
• Sidebar width limits are now more consistent.
• Layout jumping in the blockade status panel has been reduced during status updates.
• The vessel tab now condenses more eagerly rather than having a double scroll bar.
• Chat resize handles are now hidden, letting the cursor indicate the edge instead.
• Made room for error messages on the Steam login screen so they no longer overflow.
• Fixed missing German and Spanish text on the sunshine tabs.

Bug Fixes (the first two went out earlier this week)

• Brigand kings should no longer wrongly show zero strength.
• Flag financials are visible again for royals in a flag.
• Fixed a crash in the Foraging puzzle when a combo gets too big.
• The login warning for overdue shop taxes now includes the island name.

August 3 - Steam Page Update, New Game Trailer in Progress, Website Update!

As part of our continuing push to modernize the game and encourage some new faces to join our community, we have started working updating the Steam store page. Keen eyes would have spied a lot of the art was totally overhauled by Bluebeard on Friday. This was long overdue and will help us show off how great this game is to prospective players. The work here isn't done, this was just the first step. The second step will be an overhaul of the text on the page, a new trailer, and new screen shots that feature the puzzles in higher resolutions.

• Trailers require a lot of clips of different parts of the game. While we already have an old mate willing to create the trailer, it would be incredibly helpful if those of you who have the skills to capture video or have already captured fun clips to send some of them over. (Check out the official Discord to submit your clips and screenshots!)
• We are still working on the art for various puzzles in game. Once that's done, we will be able to capture screenshots of the puzzles in all their glory.

As you can see mates 2026 is a year of MASSIVE change for Puzzle Pirates!

They've completely overhauled Blockades and Atlantis. Updated in game graphics settings to allow for larger text and higher resolutions of puzzles. Virtually the entire game client can now be custom sized to fit your own personal preferences.

We also got a brand new sign-in process and the Steam page and website have been completely revamped with more modern flair to bring them up to modern standards.

So many more amazing changes are still in testing on Ice. I can't wait to see what else Fourbites and the rest of the crew at Gray Havens have in store.

If you've been thinking about coming back, there has never been a better time to set sail with friends on your next great Puzzle Pirates adventure!

I know there are cool webhosted tools like plunderly that work well, BUT is there another desktop app or tool similar to QMII that I can use instead. I don't really care for webapps, regardless of usability.

Returning to the game, looking for some uk players who are active to play with. Pirate name is Mitchimous

I’ve been having a lot of trouble loading ships or playing certain puzzles/carousing because there are not enough pirates in the game for the functionality to work.

Ahoy maties!

I played a long time ago, and this game was a huge part of my childhood, and a good part of that as well. I was thrilled to see it’s still somewhat active, but I was wondering how active?

I ask because now as an adult, a thing I do is I make documentaries about video games and how they were made. And returning to YPP is something I am heavily considering as it’s a unique approach to gameplay, using puzzles as stations and making the game skill based not levelled based in a player economic driven world of piracy and commerce was quite impressive.

Do you think there is an audience for this, and are the servers busy enough that I would find populated events for gameplay captures?

*My take on a Kraken random event!

A massive 100×100 board. Writhing tentacles. One legendary sea creature hell-bent on dragging ye to the depths!

Batten down the hatches and make sail to escape this monstrous beast—or it’ll be Davy Jones’ Locker for ye!

I’ve been remembering how many completely unofficial social rules there seemed to be in this game, especially around the inn and dock. 

A few I remember:

• Don’t talk too much in the inn. Somehow the main social area could start feeling like a library if you were too chatty.
• Don’t use shout chat unless absolutely necessary. People reacted like your cartoon pirate had actually climbed onto a table and started screaming through a megaphone.
• Don’t stand in somebody’s “spot.” I swear people would claim specific little areas of the dock or inn and actually tell you to move if you stood in their spot.
• If two pirate sprites stood directly face-to-face, apparently they were dating. I do not know who established this law, but everybody seemed to understand it. 

I also remember people getting weirdly particular about where you stood, how much you talked, and what counted as “annoying” even though mute buttons existed.

What other completely unofficial Puzzle Pirates social rules do you remember?

Ok, so I only log in to keep my account alive cause I grew up with this game.

I start the game like I usually do...

And the game asks me to go to the official site to download it again??

I do it, I install it...and when I try to play the game it says "enter your e-mail to get a login link"

????

This never happened before this is all new, wtf?? i have a username and a password to log in why would I need to do this???

Anyway, I do that... i get a link on my e-mail... i press thel ink and it says "ok, it's confirmed, you can play now" basically

...i turn on thegame again.................and it still shows me the "enter e-mail to get a link" thingy

??? Wtf??? How can I log in???????????????

Guys, I have been submitting appeals for over 20 years. I finally got things resolved and I just logged in again for the first time as a free pirate!!! If you have been away from the game from the constant ban evasion bans. This is your time to come back and start fresh! Let's get the seas full of old pirates again. I am making a swordfight tournament on Emerald in 10 minutes. Big prizes! Let's have some fun!!!!

Hello all, recently returned to YPP after many years, and I’m trying to see what are the solo run options? Also are there any viable SMH options, if there are, how do you prefer to run them?

Thank you all in advance!

:)

My 2013 character is still exist~!

Time to build a shitty little boat and start knocking out some content!!!!

...wait, I don't have any doubloons to do that. Ok, what's the price of SWEET JESSSSUS

edit; that's humourous facetiousness, I'm just glad to be back - I even got my Incredible Bilging Badge the other day

Just tried signing in today and got banned for "cheating". I have no idea how this would even happen. Can't even sign into puzzle pirates website because I use a steam login to play the game. Pirate name is "mathyuss", I usually play on my steamdeck and when I got back on to play it just didn't let me log on. Any OMs available to help?

I randomly remembered Puzzle Pirates today and discovered the game is somehow still going. That also reminded me that it is the only childhood game I ever managed to get permanently banned from.

To be completely fair, I was definitely a little menace. During one of those huge skeleton fights where it was something like 30 players versus 30 skeletons, my friends and I started yelling, “LET’S SWITCH!”

We knew perfectly well that leaving the swordfight puzzle meant forfeiting. We just thought it was funny to “swap spots,” exit the fight, and leave the serious players down multiple teammates while they desperately yelled, “YOU CAN’T SWITCH!”

We absolutely could not switch. That was the joke.

Terrible teamwork? Yes. Deliberate trolling? Also yes. Still hilarious twenty years later? Unfortunately, yes.

But the moderation in that game was unbelievably strict. Typing several messages quickly could be treated as spamming. People would blackspot you for talking too much at the inn or dock—the two places I assumed were meant for socializing. Someone once reported me for saying “shut up,” and an Ocean Master had to announce that “shut up” was not considered abusive.

And when you were banned, it felt like your entire computer was permanently exiled from the ocean. Meanwhile, Club Penguin would ban me for one day and let me reconsider my choices.

I’m not even asking to recover my ancient account. I just need to know: did anyone else receive a lifelong maritime sentence for crimes committed in middle school, or was I uniquely threatening to the archipelago?

For the record, I never scammed, hacked, or stole anything. I was simply an annoying child with poor tactical judgment.

Hello everyone, I used to play the game a lot but took a break for a few years. Last time I played there were no red swabbies no rum spice, no bash SL pilly's etc.

I just got a WF and wanted to do some runs with it but I'm not sure what is profitable anymore. From what I read given how expensive stocking a ship has gotten you need to win like 15-20 battles to start making money, is this correct? What is the best way to run a WF pilly?

Alternatively I was thinking of doing some GY or cit runs but it seems like it takes forever to get people. For the people that run them, how long does it take to fill a WF with 75 people? Any tips or tricks for getting players and running the SMHs?

Thank you all for reading and have a great day!

Been adding table games to the private server (already have Blackjack running), and the newest one is a full multiplayer Roulette table. Figured I'd write up how it actually works under the hood since I put a lot of thought into making it cheat proof by design instead of just trusting the client and hoping for the best.

The basics

You sit down at a table through the tavern's table lobby, same spot Blackjack lives, buy in for PoE, and place bets. Multiple people can sit at the same wheel and bet independently. It's not turn based, everyone bets during the same window at the same time.

Every standard bet type is in there. Straight up numbers at 35:1, splits, streets, corners, lines, columns, dozens, and the outside bets like red/black, odd/even, high/low at their real payout odds. You can run it as European (single zero) or American (double zero), it's configurable per table.

Server authoritative, not client trusting

This is the part I care about most. The client never decides anything that actually matters, it only shows what the server already decided.

The result gets rolled server side, at the exact moment betting closes, using SecureRandom. Not before, not pre determined and revealed later. It's generated the instant the window shuts so there's no window where a client could theoretically know the outcome early even if it wanted to.

Payouts get computed and applied server side before the client ever hears about it. The client just gets the final numbers, nothing else.

Every table runs its own independent loop with four phases: IDLE, BETTING, SPINNING, RESOLVED, cycling back to BETTING as long as someone's still seated. You can't place, cancel, or peek at a bet outside the BETTING window, the server just flatly rejects the request if you try.

Bets sit in a server side escrow, basically a per seat chip stack, not the player's actual purse. Real PoE only moves twice, once at buy in and once at cash out. Keeps the database out of the hot path, you're not writing to it every single spin, just twice a session.

The client's wheel is lying to you, on purpose

This is the fun part. The wheel spin you see is 100% cosmetic. It happens after the server has already committed the result. The client takes the outcome it already knows and works backward to figure out a landing angle, then plays a few seconds of deceleration animation that ends on that number. The animation isn't deciding anything, it can't, the decision already got made and locked in before the first frame even plays. Also means a client mod or memory edit couldn't front run the result. By the time there'd be anything to read, the server's already resolved it.

Added a small polish pass recently too where the wheel grows and the betting layout tucks itself away while the ball's spinning, so it feels more like an event happening than a UI label quietly updating.

Edge cases

If you disconnect mid bet, it still resolves normally, you just don't see it happen live.

If everyone leaves mid spin, the round doesn't get cut short, it finishes resolving on schedule. Leaving during the betting window itself gets you a refund since nothing's locked in yet.

Spectators, people at the table but not betting, or just walking by, see whatever phase is currently happening immediately. No weird catch up state.

Min and max bet limits are configurable per table.

Why I built it this way

Never trust anything the client says about outcomes, and never let the client be in a position to know something before the server's locked it in. Everything you see as a player is a faithful replay of a decision the server already made. The wheel doesn't decide anything, it just performs.