It's About Pirates Patch Notes: Update #1 and #2 Changes Explained (2026)
A dated breakdown of It's About Pirates patch notes on Steam: difficulty levels, Ship's Bells, auto-save, and fixes from Updates #1 and #2.
It's About Pirates launched on November 6, 2026, and Elderwoof Games had already shipped two updates by the time the first weekend closed out. If you are deciding whether to buy in or you are stuck on a run that suddenly feels different, the It's About Pirates patch notes are the fastest way to see what actually changed. The It's About Pirates patch notes are short — a handful of bullets each — so this breakdown paraphrases both updates, dates every claim, and separates what the developer changed from what players are reporting.
Where the It's About Pirates Patch Notes Are Posted
There is no separate studio blog or news site in the material available for this game. Every changelog lives on Steam, in two places:
- The It's About Pirates Steam Community hub, where each update is posted as its own announcement with a bullet list.
- The It's About Pirates store page, whose "Recent Events & Announcements" panel mirrors the newest posts.
As of a Steam Community hub snapshot captured on 2026-11-09, the feed showed the launch announcement, Update #1, and Update #2 at the top. The posts are written in the developer's own voice, with no version numbers and no build hashes — which means readers have to rely on the post timestamp rather than a patch version to tell them apart.
Update #1 (November 7, 2026): Difficulty Levels and Fairer Leaderboards
This was the first update after release, and it addressed the single loudest complaint in early reviews: that the game was brutally hard with no way to soften it. The headline addition was selectable difficulty for every adventure.
| Change | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Difficulty levels | Each adventure can be played on Easy, Normal, or Hard | Lets players pick a more casual pace instead of hitting a wall |
| Easy-mode tuning | More gold earned, less damage taken, enemies defeated faster | A materially gentler run, not just a label |
| Leaderboard multiplier reduced on Easy | Easier settings produce a lower score multiplier | Keeps board comparisons fair across difficulties |
| Tavern controller fix | Fixed a controller navigation issue in the tavern | Relevant because the developers recommend a controller |
| Leaderboard flag fix | Flags now display correctly on the leaderboard | Cosmetic, but visible on ranked runs |
| Steering hint tuning | The "direction-relative" steering suggestion appears more often when little gold has been collected | Better onboarding for players still learning to sail |
| Tiki boat damage reduced | Incoming damage from Tiki boats lowered | Softens one early-game spike |
| Scotland flag added | New flag option | Cosmetic |
The developer framed the difficulty switch honestly: the game is meant to be challenging, but it should also be playable casually. The multiplier reduction is the interesting design choice, because it treats Easy as a legitimate way to play rather than something to penalize.
Update #2: Ship's Bells, Auto-Save, and Clearer Upgrades
Update #2 sits at the top of the Community feed captured on 2026-11-09. The listing shows a posting time of 1:38am without a calendar date, so treat it as the newest post in that snapshot rather than pinning it to a specific day.
| Change | Detail |
|---|---|
| New: Ship's Bells | A ship customization option equipped from the main menu. Bells grant bonuses that persist through an entire run, give collected gems extra value, and can reinforce a build or offset a captain's weakness. |
| New: Auto-save | Adventures now save automatically. |
| Improved: upgrade comparison | Weapon and officer upgrades show a before-and-after comparison. |
| Changed: Treasure Map item | No longer appears in the item pool after Day 9. |
| Fixed: endless-mode curse bug | Fixed a bug where the wrong item could be lost to a curse in Endless mode. |
Two of these are bigger than they look. Auto-save directly answers a hub thread in which a player asked for a save or autosave at the end of each day because real-life interruptions were costing good runs. And the upgrade comparison panel is exactly the kind of clarity players were asking for when they complained they could not tell what an upgrade would do before paying for it.
What the Current Build Looks Like: A Dated Snapshot
Everything below is frozen to a single observation, not a live feed. All values come from the Steam store page for It's About Pirates captured on 2026-11-09, in USD, for the standard edition.
| Item | Value recorded on 2026-11-09 |
|---|---|
| Release date | November 6, 2026 |
| Developer / Publisher | Elderwoof Games |
| All-time review summary | Mixed — 67% of 34 user reviews positive |
| Price | $9.98, a 15% introductory discount from $11.75; the page stated the offer ends November 16 |
| Listed content | 30 adventures, 10 captains, 6 factions, 140+ items, 150+ ship parts |
| Additional content | One DLC item listed at $3.99 |
| Steam Deck compatibility | Unknown |
| Languages | 13 interface languages listed, with no full audio or subtitles |
The page also lists automatic or manual aiming, an Endless mode, leaderboards, Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing, and notes that a controller is the recommended input. If you want to check whether the discount or the review tally has moved since that snapshot, the store page is the only place to look — every number above has a date attached for exactly that reason.
How to Track Future It's About Pirates Patch Notes
Because changelogs only appear on Steam, a small amount of setup saves a lot of guesswork:
- Follow the game on Steam. The store page has follow and wishlist buttons, and following pushes announcements into your activity feed.
- Bookmark the Community hub, not just the store page. The hub is where the full bullet lists appear first; the store panel usually shows only the headline.
- Read the timestamp on each post. The hub uses clock times and relative labels, so a post reading "1:38am" may be newer than one with a calendar date.
- Check the comments under each update. Bug reports often surface there before they are fixed, including the "Failed to load il2cpp" launch issue reported by a player in the hub snapshot from 2026-11-09.
- Re-check after any balance change. Update #1 altered leaderboard multipliers, which affects how scores across difficulties compare.
The developer's launch post also stated an intent to keep improving and expanding the game after release, so more updates are a reasonable expectation — just not something with a schedule attached.
What Players Are Reporting After the Updates
Community reports in the hub snapshot captured on 2026-11-09 show a game with real affection and real friction. Player experience threads include:
- A request that automatic weapon upgrades fill slots front-to-back rather than left side first, for better damage balance.
- The il2cpp loading error reported after an update, with the player unsure whether Windows Defender is involved — an unconfirmed report, not a verified bug.
- Continued discussion of whether meta-progression has enough depth, with suggestions like permanent damage, health, and turn-radius upgrades rather than cosmetics alone.
Written reviews posted November 6–7, before or around the first update, split sharply. One negative review praised the art and the fresh concept but called the crew mechanic punishing and the maps too small, and refunded. A positive review liked the core loop while asking for clearer weapon-slot tooltips and longer map timers. Both complaints map onto changes the developer has already started making, which is why reading the It's About Pirates patch notes alongside the reviews gives a more accurate picture than either alone.
FAQ
Where can I find official It's About Pirates patch notes? Only on Steam. The full changelogs appear as announcements on the It's About Pirates Community hub, and headlines are mirrored in the store page's announcements panel.
Did the game add difficulty settings? Yes. Update #1, posted November 7, 2026, added Easy, Normal, and Hard options for each adventure, with Easy granting more gold, reducing damage taken, and speeding up enemy kills. Easy also carries a reduced leaderboard multiplier.
Does It's About Pirates save your progress mid-run? As of the Community hub snapshot captured on 2026-11-09, Update #2 added automatic saving for adventures. Earlier posts show players asking for exactly that feature, so older complaints about lost progress predate the change.
Are the It's About Pirates patch notes enough to judge the game by? No — pair them with dated review data. As of 2026-11-09, the Steam store page recorded a Mixed all-time summary, with 67% of 34 user reviews positive, and several negative reviews were written before the difficulty update landed.
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