It's About Pirates Weapons List: Every Cannon, Ram, and Swivel Explained
A player-tested It's About Pirates weapons list covering cannons, rams, harpoons, swivels, flamethrowers, and the upgrades that make them hit harder.
Why a Weapons List Matters in It's About Pirates
You do not win in It's About Pirates by steering better — you win by turning a sluggish starter ship into a floating fortress of stacked guns. Each run throws weapon, officer, and crew choices at you between waves of enemy ships, and the picks you make decide whether you melt a fleet at range or get chewed up by eels. That is why an It's About Pirates weapons list is the most practical reference a new captain can keep open on a second screen.
This It's About Pirates weapons list sticks to what has actually appeared in recorded gameplay rather than guesswork. It's About Pirates plays as a pirate survival roguelite with bullet-heaven-style waves: you sail, auto-attack, vacuum up gold, then spend it in port on hull-mounted weapons and stat upgrades. Below you'll find the weapons seen so far, how the mounts fit together, and which upgrade cards are worth grabbing first.
How Weapons and Mounts Actually Work
Combat is mostly automatic once you toggle auto-attack, so your real decisions happen at the shop screen. After surviving a day at sea, you choose between a weapon upgrade, an officer, or a stat card, then spend gold on new hardware.
Two details trip up new players:
- Buying a weapon does not equip it. In the footage, a grapeshot swivel was purchased and then forgotten for a full round because it was never slotted. Always check your mount slots after shopping.
- Mounts are limited and directional. A cannon can be fitted at the front, the flamethrower goes on the back, and swivel guns and harpoons occupy their own positions. Extra harpoons and rams can be purchased once you have the gold.
An auto-upgrade button exists for players who would rather not micromanage, but it will happily spend gold you were saving for a specific weapon.
The It's About Pirates Weapons List
The table below summarizes every weapon named in community gameplay footage. Descriptions follow the in-game card text as it appeared during that recorded run.
| Weapon | Mount / category | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Cannon | Front or broadside mount | Core damage dealer; each level adds base damage |
| Spike Ram | Ram | "Designed to slice through enemies" — damage on collision |
| Heavy Ram | Ram | Heavier ram option offered alongside the spike ram |
| Harpoon | Harpoon mount | Dedicated harpoon damage; upgrades raise damage, range, and pierce |
| Mortar | Rear or deck mount | Lobbed area damage; a multi-shot variant adds extra projectiles |
| Grapeshot Swivel | Swivel mount | Fires a spread of projectiles that shreds enemies at close range |
| Sniper Swivel | Swivel mount | Long-range swivel variant offered in the shop pool |
| Flamethrower | Rear mount | Close-range fire damage fitted to the back of the ship |
Player experience matters here: the run that produced this list only reached the middle of a first adventure, so treat it as a solid starting map rather than a complete catalog. For the live store page and any updates to the roster, check It's About Pirates on Steam.
Cannons: The Damage Floor
Cannons are the safest investment in the game's early loop. Every cannon upgrade seen so far simply raised base damage, which scales everything else you bolt onto the hull. When nothing else in the shop looks exciting, dumping gold into cannon levels is never wasted — the recorded run pushed a single cannon to level four while ignoring flashier options.
Rams: Better Than They Look
The narrator initially skipped the spike ram because ramming sounded risky, then discovered the ram was doing serious work after finally equipping it. Ram damage turned out strong enough to justify building around, especially once a heavy ram and a puffer fish item (bonus gold from ram kills) entered the pool. If you like aggressive play, this is the cheapest identity in the game.
Swivels and Harpoons: The Flex Slots
Swivel guns give you a second damage pattern on top of your cannons. Grapeshot shreds at knife range, while the sniper swivel covers distance, so pairing one of each smooths out your coverage. Harpoons are a separate upgrade track entirely — the run shown took a harpoon to level two and kept being offered harpoon-specific damage, pierce, morale, range, and luck cards.
Gear and Crew Cards That Buff Your Weapons
Weapon damage in It's About Pirates often comes from cards that are not weapons at all. These appeared repeatedly in the level-up pool:
- Flintlock Pistol — base damage, pierce damage, elemental damage, and crit in one package; the strongest single card in the run.
- Eyepatch — crit chance, morale, and plunder.
- Shark Tooth Pendant — base damage and pierce damage at the cost of range.
- Turtle Shell Armor — armor plus blunt damage.
- Matchsticks — elemental damage and reload speed.
- Voodoo Doll — pierce damage and life.
- Beer Jug — lowers sailing speed but raises morale and plunder.
- Coconut — base damage and blunt damage.
- Slingshot — reload and life steal, offered through the crew-hiring screen.
Officers are the other half of the equation. A powder monkey raises reload speed and adds elemental damage, while a spotter boosts range and crit chance. Crew leaders like Conviction (Calypso's Wrath) level up by collecting faction items, so they reward commitment to a single theme.
Practical Tips for Building Around These Weapons
- Take base damage early. Cannon levels compound with every later multiplier, and the shop rarely punishes you for it.
- Pair reload with elemental cards. Matchsticks and the powder monkey both speed up how often your elemental effects land.
- Do not sleep on the ram. As this It's About Pirates weapons list shows, collision damage punched far above its price in the recorded run.
- Equip after every purchase. A weapon sitting in your inventory deals zero damage.
- Protect your crew. Damage to the ship also costs crew members, and losing two in one fight is a real setback.
- Experiment with morale and luck carefully. Player experience suggests their exact effects are not obvious from the card text alone, so treat them as speculative picks until you see results.
Use this It's About Pirates weapons list as a shopping checklist rather than a tier list. Because the game is built around randomized upgrade pools, the "best" weapon is usually the one your current run can actually support — a level-four cannon plus a heavy ram will outperform a scattered pile of one-off guns every time.
FAQ
What weapons are in It's About Pirates? Based on recorded gameplay, the roster includes cannons, spike and heavy rams, harpoons, mortars, grapeshot and sniper swivels, and a rear-mounted flamethrower, plus non-weapon gear cards that add damage, crit, and elemental effects.
Can you equip more than one weapon at a time? Yes. Ships carry multiple mount points, and the footage shows a front cannon, a rear flamethrower, ram mounts, and swivel positions all in use during a single run — but each purchase must be manually slotted.
What is the best early weapon combo in It's About Pirates? Player experience points to leveled cannons plus a ram. Cannons supply steady base damage while the ram adds free collision damage, and a puffer fish item can turn ram kills into extra gold to fund both.
Is this It's About Pirates weapons list complete? No. It reflects the weapons and upgrade cards surfaced in one recorded adventure. New weapons, officers, and variants can appear in later runs or updates, so verify current details on the official Steam page.
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