Table of Contents

1. Getting Started
2. User Interface
3. Combat
4. Game Modes
5. Classes
6. Scoring
7. Pickups

Installation

To install PVKII you will need 3 things.

First: A copy of Steam
Second: You need to have at least one legitimate Source game installed. Click Here for a full list.
Third: You need to download a copy of the Source SDK Base which can be found in the 'Tools' tab of steam and requires a Source game to download

Once you have taken these three steps, visit our Steam Store page to install the game.

Finding a server

You will now need to find a server to play on. Run Pirates, Vikings and Knights II by opening the game through your 'Games' tab in Steam. Click on "Find Server" from the main menu. A menu listing all PVKII servers that have bypassed your filters will pop up. Find a server with the lowest ping that has people playing and click "Join Game".

MOTD

Upon joining a server, you will see the Message Of The Day screen. Read this carefully, many server operators use the MOTD to explain their rules.

Teams

After the MOTD screen, you will have the opportunity to select a team. Choose to be a Pirate, Viking, or Knight. You can look at the scoreboard ('Tab' by Default) to see which team has the least number of players. You may also choose Auto-Assign if you can't decide which team to join.

Classes

After selecting a team, you will have your choice of which class to play. As you hover over each class, a list of that class's weapons and general descriptions of each will show on the right. If you still can't decide which class to play, select random.

Kill stuff

That's its! If all has gone well, you have now spawned and are ready to do some serious fragging. Go look for some enemies and stick a sword in 'em. For more in-depth information on objectives, see Section 4. Game Modes. For more information about sticking swords in people, see Section 3. Combat.

2 - User Interface

a) Health bar

The current amount of health you have.

b) Armor bar

The current amount of armor you have.

c) Special attack bar

The special attack bar fills partially whenever you damage an enemy. Once full, the eye will light up and you will now have the oportunity to use a special attack; each class has a different special. See Section 5. Classes for descriptions of all special attacks available.

d) Round Counter

On some maps, a round counter may appear. This counter displays how close each team is to winning the round. The first team to reach zero wins.

e) Weapon select

By default, use the scroll wheel to see the weapon selection panel. Scroll through the weapons to find the one you want.

f) Ammo

On the lower right you'll find the ammunition counter. This can be crossbow bolts, longbow arrows, throwing axes, blunderbuss shots, javelins or pistols. For the flintlock pistol, there are two icons - one of them represents how many pistols you have loaded and the other is how many bullets you have for reloading.

G) Power Meter

This meter represents the power charge of your weapon. You can charge your melee and ranged attacks to do more damage. Be careful when charging your weapon, if held for too long the bar will go back down and your attack won't be at full power.

H) Territory Icons

These icons represent the territories of the map and who controls them. A blinking territory is in control of that team and will reduce their tickets.

3 - Combat

a) Attacking

Melee - Hold your attack button (Default Mouse1) to charge your attack, release the button to swing. Attacking with a melee weapon can be done in one of four directions. Choosing a direction to swing corresponds to your movement when first charging the attack. Moving left swings Right -> Left, moving right swings Left -> Right, forward is an Overhead chop and moving backwards is a stab. A prepared attack can be cancelled by pressing the block key (mouse2).
Hit detection now takes into account the weapon's arc. With a big enough arc (most two-handed weapons) it is possible to hit multiple opponents who are close enough together.
Hitting an opponent with a 100% charged attack will break their block and deal damage; this also has a chance of stunning them.
Try to keep your melee weapons focused on enemies, throughout the duration of your swing, to inflict maximum damage.
When two players strike each other with fully charged attacks at the same time, they will both be stunned.
Ranged - When using the throwing axes, javelins or longbow, you need to charge the weapon fully for maximum damage and distance. The javelin's charge increases by running forward. When aiming at distant targets, keep in mind the arc of the projectile and the time it will take to get there. This is especially important if your opponent is moving.
A prepared attack can be cancelled by pressing the block key (mouse2).
Projectiles fired at close range targets will do significantly less damage than if fired from further distances.
Pistols are more accurate when standing still, and the blunderbuss has a limited range due to shot spread; the closer the opponent is, the more damage it will do.
Special Attacks - Keep an eye on your special meter; it will slowly fill as you do damage to your oponents. When the meter is full, use your special by hitting your special button (Default Mouse3). Not all weapons have a special, check Section 5. Classes for more info.

b) Blocking

Parrying - You can parry with any melee weapon (Default Mouse2) in one of four directions. The direction you block will be automatically chosen for you; this will depend on the attack direction of your closest enemy.
A successful perfect parry will mitigate all damage and stun your opponent, as well as allow you to perform a quick counter attack.
If you block to the wrong direction of your enemy's attack you will take partial damage and there is a chance you will be stunned.
Enemy weapons and shields that are glowing are fully charged and have the potential to break your block.
Shield Blocks - Shields can be used to block (Default Mouse2) both ranged and melee. While blocking, the player may hit their attack button to bash the enemy with their shield. You may also charge your shield bash as you would a normal attack. A fully charged shield bash will knock a chest from your enemy's hands. The greater the charge of your shield bash - the further enemies will be pushed back.
Shields have health points that differ for each shield. A shield that loses all of its health will break and become unusable; you can repair your shield by picking up armor.
An enemy blocking with their shield will take partial damage from a fully charged melee attack.
Counter Attacking - After a 'Perfect Parry' the player can hit their attack button to do a quick counter attack. The opponent will be stunned and unable to block.
Weapon Sizes - The size of your weapon vs. your opponents weapon will decide how well you can parry.
Small weapons cannot 'Perfect Parry' large ones, but will reduce the damage taken when performing a successful parry.

4 - Game Modes

Last Team Standing (LTS)

The simplest game mode of them all - Kill everyone you see who is not on your team. The last team with living players wins the round. Win the most rounds to claim overall victory!

Booty (BT)

The objective of booty mode is to infiltrate the enemy bases and bring back as many chests as you can to your own base. Every chest at your base will lower the counter. The first team to reach zero on this counter wins the round. On some maps, a particular team may start with all of the chests with the objective of defending them from the other teams who have no chests. To compensate for the advantage, the team will have a much higher counter. In other maps there may be chests in areas of the map outside of team zones. The effective team must strike a balance between offense and defense, for if everyone is on offense, an enemy may steal chests from the base while no one is there. Should everyone be concentrated on defense, there is no possibility of obtaining more chests. Capturing a chest that was previously owned by another team will remove 5 tickets from your counter and add 5 to theirs. First team to hit 0 tickets wins.
Standing in an enemy's chest zone will stall their tickets from decreasing.
Use your special while carrying a chest to gain a speed boost for a few seconds.

Territory (TE)

Territory is exactly as the name says. The objective is to capture and hold the territories throughout the map. Once a territory is captured, it will count down that team's tickets. The more territories your team holds, the faster your counter goes down. In some maps, holding all of the territories at once will initiate a final countdown; if your team holds all of the territories for the duration of that countdown, you win automatically. Otherwise, the first team to reach 0 wins the game.
Standing in an enemy territory, even when outnumbered, will slow the rate that their tickets will decline.
Standing in a territory you control will prevent an equal or lesser number of enemies from neutralizing it.
It's impossible to capture a neutral territory without first clearing out all the enemies inside.

Objective Push

This is an interesting game mode as it will change depending on the map. Mappers have free reign to make anything an objective as long as it has an input/output ability. The designated team that defends must hold out until the timer hits zero, the designated attackers must complete the objectives before the timer reaches zero. If you're a mapper, check here for a quick guide.

Trinket Wars (TW)

In Trinket Wars, each team gets its own ancient relic to protect. The objective is to score kills on enemy players whilst holding your teams trinket or being near your team's trinket carrier. Once you've collectively scored enough points to satisfy the level's ticket requirement, you win! Teamwork is very heavily emphasized in this mode. Only losers fly solo!

5 - Classes

Visual Studio 2022 Offline Install [updated] Online

Installing Visual Studio 2022 offline is a tactical move for developers working in secure environments or with limited bandwidth. Unlike older software versions that came on a single ISO, modern Visual Studio requires you to build your own custom "mini-repository" of the exact tools you need Microsoft Learn The Strategy: "Download Once, Install Anywhere" The process revolves around creating a local layout

, which is essentially a curated folder of installation files. Microsoft Learn Preparation

: On a machine with internet access, download the Visual Studio bootstrapper (e.g., vs_professional.exe The Master Command

: Run a command to download your preferred workloads to a specific folder. For example, a complete Enterprise layout can require at least : Use specific flags like followed by workload IDs (e.g., Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop ) to keep the download size manageable. Transfer & Execute

: Copy your layout folder to the offline machine via a USB drive or network share. Offline Enforcement : When running the installer on the target machine, use the

flag. This prevents the installer from trying to "phone home" and failing due to a lack of connection. Microsoft Learn Pro Tips for a Smoother Offline Experience

Can Visual Studio be installed on an offline PC? - Microsoft Q&A visual studio 2022 offline install

Overview

This guide shows how to download and install Visual Studio 2022 offline (all required packages available locally) for machines without internet access. Steps cover creating an offline layout, transferring it to the target machine, and installing.

Conclusion

The Visual Studio 2022 offline installation method is a robust, enterprise-grade feature that puts control back into the hands of the administrator. By creating a local layout, you decouple your development environment from the whims of internet connectivity and bandwidth caps.

Remember the three pillars of a successful offline install:

Targeted --add commands to keep the layout manageable.
Certificate management for truly offline machines.
Regular --layout updates to keep security patches current.

With this guide, you can now deploy Visual Studio 2022 to the farthest corners of your network, whether connected to the cloud or buried deep in a secure data silo. Happy coding—offline.

How to Install Visual Studio 2022 Offline: A Complete Guide

Installing Visual Studio on a machine with limited or no internet access—often called a "dark site" or air-gapped environment—requires a bit of preparation. Since Microsoft no longer provides standard ISO files for Visual Studio 2022, you must create a local layout on an internet-connected PC and transfer it. Installing Visual Studio 2022 offline is a tactical

Here is a step-by-step guide to generating and using an offline installer for Visual Studio 2022. Phase 1: Create the Offline Layout (Internet Required)

First, you need to download the "bootstrapper" for your specific edition from the Official Visual Studio Download Page. Download the Bootstrapper: Community: vs_community.exe Professional: vs_professional.exe Enterprise: vs_enterprise.exe

Run the Layout Command: Open a Command Prompt as an Administrator and run the following command to download the files. This example creates a layout for the Professional edition with basic .NET and Web workloads in English:

vs_professional.exe --layout C:\VS2022Offline --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb --includeOptional --lang en-US Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard

Tip: To download everything (caution: this can exceed 40GB+), use --layout C:\VS2022Offline without specific --add parameters. Phase 2: Transfer and Install (Offline Machine)

Once the download finishes, copy the entire C:\VS2022Offline folder to your target machine using a USB drive or internal network share. Overview This guide shows how to download and

Install Certificates: Navigate to the certificates folder within your layout directory. Right-click and install each certificate to ensure the installer is recognized as trusted by the offline OS.

Run the Offline Installation: On the offline machine, open an Administrator Command Prompt and run the installer using the --noWeb flag to prevent it from trying to reach Microsoft servers:

C:\VS2022Offline\vs_professional.exe --noWeb --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard

The --noWeb switch is critical; without it, the installer may fail if it detects a missing component and tries to download it. Pro-Tips & Troubleshooting Create an offline installation - Visual Studio (Windows)

Here’s a helpful step-by-step guide to performing an offline installation of Visual Studio 2022.

Prerequisites

A Windows machine with internet access to create the offline layout.
Sufficient local storage: layout size depends on workloads selected (several GB — typically 10–50+ GB).
Visual Studio 2022 installer executable (VisualStudioSetup.exe).

Basic Command (Full Download)

To download everything for a specific edition (warning: this is massive—over 40GB), use:

vs_enterprise.exe --layout C:\VS2022_Offline_Layout

This downloads every possible workload, component, SDK, and language pack. It is the "kitchen sink" approach.

6 - Scoreboard

Team Scores

The left most side of the scoreboard lists the three teams with their appropriate flag backgrounds. The larger number next to the gold trophy icon is the number of times that team has placed first in the map. The second number, next to the silver trophy, is the number of times that team has placed second. There is no trophy for third place, because third place doesn't count for anything!

Players

The next section of the scoreboard displays the players. The players are separated by which team they are on and are arranged, in descending order, by score.
The first icon represents the player's avatar; if that player is a steam friend of yours they will also have a friend icon attached to their avatar.
Next to the avatar is the player's steam name.
The icon next in line is that player's class icon. Check the scoreboard to see which classes are already being played on your team.
Next to the player's icon is a section for showing when a player has died. This section may also have a tag under it for Developers, Testers, Admins, Contributors and Donators. Server admins can also set sv_communitygroup to the ID of a specific group; that group's title will show up for any players in that group, as long as the title does not conflict with the tags previously mentioned.
The section to the right of here is reserved for Score and Latency, as well as a speaker icon that shows when a player is using their mic. Click on the speaker icon to mute a player's microphone and text chat.

Score Breakdown

The section on the right side of the scoreboard is your personal score breakdown. This is displayed under the name and 3D representation of the class you are currently playing.

Kills - The number of enemies whom you have killed.
Assists - Your kill assists. You get an assist any time you were the last to damage a player within a few seconds of a teammate killing them.
Death - The number of deaths you've suffered. (Good thing it's just a game!)
Kill Bonuses - You get kill bonuses from things like getting revenge in last team standing, grail kills, etc.
Assist Bonuses - Just like kill bonuses, but when you get the assist.
Healing - Points you get from healing your teammates. Not currently used.
Captures - You gain capture points from completing objectives. This includes capturing a chest, capturing a territory, etc.
Defenses - The number of times you've defended an objective. This could be returning a stolen chest, defending a territory, etc.

7 - Pickups

Food

Look around the map for plates of delicious chicken to restore your health. Don't be frightened by the much anticipated burp that comes after downing an entire chicken in half a second. What a pig you've become!

Armor/Ammo

Armor and Ammo are strategically placed throughout each map. Armor is important for absorbing damage and ranged weapons don't work without ammo!