It's About Pirates Builds: Best Weapons, Officers, and Ship Synergies to Try

Most first runs in It's About Pirates end the same way: a promising sloop turns into driftwood somewhere around the third adventure. That is why planning It's About Pirates builds early matters — the survivors-like loop keeps handing you loot, officers, and weapon slots, and every pickup either sharpens your ship or muddies it. This guide breaks down the build framework using the official Steam store page for It's About Pirates, the launch press release, and early player experience, so your next voyage starts with a plan instead of a panic.

How It's About Pirates Builds Come Together

It's About Pirates is a pirate survivors-like from Austrian indie studio Elderwoof Games, released on Steam on November 6, 2026 after about two years of development, per the Steam listing and the studio's launch announcement. The pitch is straightforward: combine deadly weapons, powerful items, and a fearless captain until your ship can survive storms of cannonballs, mythical sea monsters, and an end-of-run boss.

Every It's About Pirates build passes through three layers:

• Weapon mounts — side cannons, front and rear fittings, plus rams.
• Items and officers — modifiers for reload, range, crit chance, elemental damage, morale, plunder, armor, and crew stats.
• Captain and faction — the Steam page counts 10 captains and 6 factions with unique abilities, including faction skills such as Conviction and Calypso's Wrath that upgrade as you collect matching items.

Steam lists over 140 build-shaping items and separately more than 150 collectible ship parts. Player experience from early gameplay videos suggests level-ups typically offer a three-choice pick, and the shop between days sells weapons, items, and crew hires. Any combat or build effect of the 150+ collectible parts is for reference only until verified.

The Parts You're Actually Choosing

The table below summarizes components shown on the Steam page or demonstrated in early playthroughs. Treat the effects as directional — roll values and upgrade prices vary between runs.

Five It's About Pirates Builds to Try

These shells come from watching the game played, not from a solved meta — the game launched days before this snapshot, so treat them as starting points.

1. The broadside cannon build

Take raw cannon damage at almost every level-up, then layer reload and crit once your base numbers feel healthy. In one recorded run, the host kept stacking cannon levels until the cannon hit level four, leaned on automatic aiming, and focused his attention on dodging. Add a grapeshot swivel for the moments when enemies close in tight.

2. The ram build

Spike ram and heavy ram turn your hull into the weapon, which means sailing speed, armor, and repair all matter as much as damage. One player reported a puffer fish pickup that paid out extra gold for enemies killed with ram attacks — a small economy engine if you plan to steer through shoals of sharks rather than shell them from range.

3. The fire and elemental build

Elemental damage is its own stat, so fire-flavored It's About Pirates builds want the flamethrower in a rear mount, flaming barrels left in your wake, and items like matchsticks that add elemental damage and reload. The tradeoff is positioning: dropped hazards reward kiting patterns rather than straight-line brawling.

4. The harpoon pierce build

Harpoons scale into high single-target damage and pair naturally with the harpooner officer and pierce-damage items. Because armored threats soak cannon fire, a pierce setup gives you an answer to hammerhead sharks and the magma turtle boss that closes out a run.

5. The crit and range build

Spotter officers and long-range swivels push your effective engagement distance out. One player read the compass item as granting crit chance per captain level, which makes an early pickup disproportionately valuable across a long run. Be warned: that same player found sniper swivel hits noticeably softer per shot than upgraded cannons, so range is the point, not raw numbers.

Crew, Boost, and Gold: What Decides a Run

Damage in It's About Pirates is not purely a health-bar problem. Player experience shows that hits also cost you crew members, and sirens pull your sailors away if you sail too close — so a build with strong armor and repair is a build with more bodies for the late-game fights.

A few habits that survive contact with the game:

• Guard the breeze boost. It recharges slowly; spend it on boss patterns, not on the way to a treasure barrel.
• Read before you auto-upgrade. The auto-upgrade button spends your entire purse and may not prioritize the weapon you actually use.
• Equip what you buy. Newly purchased weapons sit in inventory until you slot them.
• Check for rerolls. The shop offers a reroll, which is often better than buying a stat you do not need.
• Respect the hazards. Volcanoes, mines, lightning, and islands that fire on you kill more runs than enemy ships do.

One recurring community observation: leveling up appears to restore health, which makes aggressive XP routes less suicidal than they look. That is player experience, not a documented rule.

Captains, Factions, and Long-Term Progression

Progress stretches past a single voyage. The Steam page advertises 30 adventures, 10 captains, 6 factions, quests across different pirate realms, an Endless mode, and Steam leaderboards, plus achievements, Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing. The developers also recommend playing with a controller, and both Xbox and PlayStation pads are listed as supported.

Gems you earn during runs feed a cosmetic shop for sails, rudders, hulls, and flags, according to a player walkthrough, while item barrels opened from your inventory appear to unlock new passive items. As of a 2026-11-09 capture of the Steam store page, the listing recorded "All Reviews: Mixed (34)," with 67% of those 34 user reviews positive, a 15% launch discount from $11.75 to $9.98 with the offer dated to end November 16, and one paid content add-on priced at $3.99. Those numbers are an early snapshot and will move.

If you want to see the combat loop before committing, the IGN gameplay trailer for It's About Pirates shows the naval bullet-hell framing in motion.

FAQ

How many items and parts are available for It's About Pirates builds? The Steam page advertises over 140 items to shape your build and more than 150 unique ship parts to collect across adventures, plus 6 factions with distinct abilities.

Do I have to aim manually? No. It's About Pirates supports both automatic and manual aiming, so a broadside build works fine on auto-aim while manual fire rewards tighter positioning.

What is the end-of-run structure? Each run closes with a boss encounter after a series of sailing days, and clearing it unlocks the next adventure and new captains. One player's footage showed a magma turtle as the first boss around day 11 to 12.

What should a first-time player focus on when planning It's About Pirates builds? Pick one damage lane — cannons, ram, harpoon, or elemental — and spend your early level-ups reinforcing it instead of spreading stats thin. Keep enough gold for crew and one weapon upgrade before the boss, and save the breeze boost for the moments that actually threaten your hull.