A top-down rogue-like. Two ways to play: the Voyage campaign, or hold the line in Port Defense.
Campaign: Episode I: Caribbean
Sail the Caribbean from 1717 to 1737 amassing a fortune in gold, then reach the end of your career to retire rich. As of v0.25b you get one chance to cheat death before the run is over.
Cutters and corsairs are fast small vessels often flying false colors. Later frigates and armed caravels appear until the hunter and the ship-of-the-line rule the water, hitting harder and reloading faster.
Sailing your ship
Tap anywhere for a virtual tiller and drag to move, or use WASD / arrow keys on PC or tablet.
Wind: the compass rose shows the wind. A fair wind hastens you; a foul one slows you. Sail refits let you sail faster into the wind.
Water: your crew drinks fresh water between ports. Keep barrels aboard — run dry and you slow and sicken and will die. Buy it cheap at any port or river camp.
Rivers: smaller ships like sloops can slip upstream to the inland boucanier and fur camps.
Trading
Dock at a port or camp with the ⚓ MAKE PORT button, then buy and sell from the MARKET tab.
Prices vary by port and by how much stock the store has.
Your hometown (the port nearest your spawn) trades at friendly rates.
Hire a bookkeeper in the shipyard to add cargo cost to your stats plate.
Rumors heard at markets and from passing traders quote prices at other ports.
Governors
The GOVERNOR at each port offers errands — deliver dispatches for silver plus a few coin to fund yer journey. A good way to rebuild if ye ever run out of coin.
Ship & upgrades
The SHIPYARD at each port offers:
Repairs — patch your hull after a fight. Costs climb as the years wear on. Cannon can be fixed and re-mounted too.
Cannon & battery type — carronades hit hard up close, culverins are all-rounders, long nines outrange nearly anything.
Gun drill — faster reloads. Gunnery mastery also climbs on its own: +5% every four ships sunk.
Hull plating — soaks a share of every hit so you float longer.
Sails — tack tighter into the wind.
SpyGlass — adds vision range.
Bigger ships — more cargo and guns, but slower and harder to run in. Sloop → Large Sloop → Caravel → Merchantman.
Guns dismounted & the remount
A solid critical hit can dismount your whole battery — if your guns are down then you cannot fire at all. Your only move is to make a run for it.
To fire again you must careen & repair in port. Remounting the guns costs coin on top of the hull repair, and that cost scales with the year — the longer your voyage has run, the dearer it gets.
Once remounted, your guns are run out anew and ready. Sometimes you can even salvage a serviceable cannon from a wreck you sink.
Danger
Pirates hunt the open water and grow more numerous over time. Fight them or outrun them.
False flags: some pirates fly a friendly flag until they close in and hoist the jolly roger.
Grapeshot is hard to find outside indie ports like Tortuga. It fires devastating close-range volleys and can shatter a mast, leaving a ship dead in the water.
Forts: most ports have shore guns that fire on nearby pirates — friendlier waters near a friendly port.
Lose a ship and you forfeit your cargo and half your purse, washing ashore at your hometown for another go.
Playing pirate
The 🏴☠ ATTACK button lets you raid trading ships. Sink them for booty and coin — galleons are the richest prize but sail with an escort.
Hold close to a wreck to salvage her gold, cargo, and the odd cannon.
Raiding turns nearby ports against you for a while — but Tortuga has no fort, asks no questions, and pays well for plunder.
Special Operations
Spanish Treasure fleet — a fat, well-guarded convoy that rides through every so often.
Buried treasure maps — turn up now and then from sinkings; dig up gold treasure.
Rum-running contracts on the down low for extra coin.
damsel-in-distress rescues for extra coin and the romance of it all.
The goal
A shorter mode, captain. Can ye defend 2-3 of our ports against escalating waves of pirate brethren. If every port falls we Lose but we Win by holding fast to the fight and sinking the Juggernaut that rides in with the final wave.
Holding the harbor
Each port has 460 hull points. Pirates besiege a port if they can approach close to it — the more attackers on a harbor, the faster it bleeds.
Drive attackers off and a port slowly regens when left alone. Keep them peeled off the walls.
You get one chance to cheat death — two ships can be lost before defeat.
Forts fight with you
Unlike the campaign, the defended ports' shore batteries are real co-defenders here — they reload far faster and hit hard. Position your ship so their guns can share the load.
The waves
Nine waves of enemies build from a few attackers to a dozen, spaced roughly 45-62 seconds apart.
The final wave brings the Juggernaut — a 1,400-HP monster. Sink Juggs for the win.
Your guns still matter
The same combat rules apply — round shot, grapeshot, gunnery mastery, and the dismount risk. A crit that knocks out your battery here is dire, since there's no leisurely port stop mid-siege. Fight carefully.