- The formula for calculating pirate power-up intervals is improved further.

- The pirate bribe option is no longer available if the empire does not have enough energy to afford it.

- Pirates can no longer spawn in or raid systems with hostile deep space citadels.

- The monthly chance to spawn a new pirate country inside parent empire borders (if no outside systems are available) is increased. However, such spawns can now be prevented by having high naval coverage (>70%).

- Pirate strength tiers are now unlocked dynamically depending on the "End-game Start Year" galaxy setting instead of at fixed intervals. The first 6 pirate tiers will be evenly spread between 2215 and the value of said setting. For example, moving the endgame year to 2450 (250 years, 50 more than default value) increases the time between pirate tiers by 25%.

- The pirate countries can now spawn in the endgame.

- Two new pirate strength tiers are added to be unlocked during endgame.

- The resources stolen during pirate raids and required for bribes are rescaled again. They are now capped at -800 energy and -2000 trade from theft, and at -2000 energy for bribes.

- The average fleet power of early-game home guard fleets is slightly increased.

- A 6th tier of pirate strength is added. It becomes active after 181 years (33 years after the previous tier, as with all the others) and is primarily intended for players who extend their campaign time beyond the standard "100-100-100" year format.

- The resources stolen during pirate raids and required for bribes are rescaled to follow a smoother curve. The tier 6 amounts are only slightly higher than the old tier 5 ones (up to -1300 energy and -3250 trade from theft, up to -3250 energy to bribe)

- All pirate ship designs are set to use the "default" combat computer (the one used by regular empire ship designs at playthrough start) instead of various custom computers the pirates had in vanilla game. This is done to prevent unintended debris generation for unsearchable "Ship's Computer" components, which developers forgot to account for. The change only applies to new playthroughs.

- As a result, all pirate ships now prefer to fight at close range, making significantly better use of their short-range Mining Lasers.

- Pirate spawn chance modifiers from having authoritarian/egalitarian ethics are altered to check for low/high naval coverage instead (<30% and >70% naval coverage respectively)

- The "The Birth of Space Piracy" event now has a unique description for MegaCorp empires (showcased in the second screenshot).

- A small backend update to the "The Birth of Space Piracy" events. Prevents unintended bribery interaction upon reforming your government mid-event.