It's About Pirates Automatic Aiming: When to Switch Off Manual Aim

It's About Pirates automatic aiming is the single setting that changes how every run feels, because your ship can either pick its own targets or wait for your hands. The game throws relentless waves of enemies, cannonball storms, and mythical sea monsters at you, so where your guns point is often the difference between clearing a wave and limping into the next. Getting It's About Pirates automatic aiming right early means you spend attention on positioning and build choices instead of fighting the controls.

The developer's press kit for It's About Pirates lists "Automatic or manual aiming" as a headline feature, right next to 30 adventures, 10 captains, and 6 factions. That placement matters: aim mode is treated as a core pillar of the design, not a buried accessibility toggle. Before you start tuning it, the official Steam store page for It's About Pirates is the place to confirm the build, platform, and DLC status you're actually running.

What It's About Pirates Automatic Aiming Actually Changes

Only a small set of claims about aim mode is actually documented, and it's worth separating those from things players assume. Both available sources agree that aiming is player-selectable and that attack timing still matters.

Rob's Game Shack, in a listing published 8 Aug 2026 and updated 7 Nov 2026, describes the game as a survivors-like at sea where "aiming can be set to automatic or manual, and attacks can be timed for greater effect." The developer press kit, captured 2026-11-09, adds the same feature in shorter form and separately promises that you can "time your attacks for devastating impact."

Treat the last three rows as things to test yourself rather than facts. Nothing in the public material describes per-weapon aim behavior, target priority, or a menu path, so any guide that quotes exact percentages or keybinds is guessing.

A Practical Framework for Choosing Aim Mode

The honest way to decide whether It's About Pirates automatic aiming stays on is to match the mode to what is currently demanding your attention. Three questions do most of the work.

• Are you still learning a realm? With 30 adventures to sail through, early runs are about survival and loot, not precision. Letting the ship aim keeps your hands free for dodging cannonball volleys.
• Does your build want a specific moment? If your damage comes from a slow, heavy hit, manual control over the release is what the "timed for devastating impact" design is pointing at.
• Are you on a controller? Rob's Game Shack lists full controller support on the Steam build. On a gamepad, manual aim competes with your movement thumb; auto aim resolves that conflict cleanly.

A simple habit: run a new adventure with automatic aiming to learn enemy patterns, then replay the same adventure manually once you know when the dangerous waves arrive. That costs one run and tells you more than any tier list.

Which Weapons and Builds Suit Automatic Aiming

The press kit names flamethrowers, harpoons, and mortars as part of the arsenal, and the game ships with more than 140 items to shape a build. Aim mode interacts with those weapon families differently in practice, even though the sources don't publish per-weapon rules.

• Flamethrower-style, short-range coverage is the most forgiving fit for auto aim. When your damage covers a wide area at close distance, you don't need the ship to lead a target perfectly — you need to be in the right place.
• Mortars are the weapon class most worth testing on both modes. Arcing, area-focused shots reward timing, and timing is exactly the part you control manually.
• Harpoons read as precision tools. If a weapon is designed to stick one target, manual aim at least deserves a fair trial in a boss or sea-monster fight.

Beyond weapons, the collection layer matters too: over 150 ship parts are found during play and added by completing quests across different pirate realms, and loot unlocks new ship skins. The official material does not state that the 150+ collectible parts improve hull strength or survivability, so any such combat effect is for reference only until verified.

Captains, Factions, and Adventures: What Aim Mode Can't Fix

Ten captains and six factions with unique abilities are advertised, alongside 30 adventures. It is tempting to assume one captain or faction is the "auto aim" pick, but neither source documents any captain- or faction-level aiming modifier. Don't build a run around that assumption.

What the structure does suggest is that variety is the point. With that many captains and faction abilities in rotation, your aim preference should be a constant across runs rather than something you rebuild from scratch each time. Pick the mode that suits how you play, then let captains and items supply the differences.

Manual Aim, Endless Mode, and the Leaderboard

Endless mode and a leaderboard are both confirmed features, and this is where aim mode stops being a comfort setting. Endless mode is a skill test by design, and a leaderboard invites comparison, so the mode that gives you the most control over timing is the one that usually wins out when you're pushing.

The trade-off is real, though. Manual aim costs you attention, and attention is what keeps your ship out of cannonball storms and away from mythical sea monsters. If you find yourself taking hull damage you would normally dodge, It's About Pirates automatic aiming is doing you a favor, not coddling you. Community reports on which mode ranks higher are thin on the ground so far, so treat your own leaderboard attempts as the test.

Release Snapshot and What's Confirmed So Far

It's About Pirates is out, not in Early Access. Rob's Game Shack lists it as released by Elderwoof Games on 6 Nov 2026 for Windows, with one DLC add-on on Steam.

All rows above are a frozen snapshot captured on 2026-11-09 from Rob's Game Shack's page, whose Steam data panel was synced three days earlier. They are historical values, not live ones — check the Steam page for the present state. The same caution applies to the feature counts: 30 adventures, 10 captains, 6 factions, 140+ items, and 150+ parts are developer marketing figures as of the 2026-11-09 press kit capture.

One practical consequence of that timeline: with so few reviews recorded at the snapshot date, there is no settled public consensus on the "best" aim mode. Your own testing is the strongest signal available right now.

FAQ

Is It's About Pirates automatic aiming on by default? The public sources don't say. The press kit and the Rob's Game Shack listing both confirm the option exists, but neither documents the default state, so check the options menu on your first launch before you blame the ship for a bad shot.

Does manual aim deal more damage? No source claims a damage bonus for either mode. What is documented is that attacks "can be timed for greater effect," which points to timing rather than a hidden multiplier — so manual aim's edge, if any, comes from when you fire.

Should I use manual aim in Endless mode? It's the mode most worth trying there, since Endless mode is explicitly a skill test and a leaderboard tracks results. That said, if manual aiming pulls your attention away from dodging cannonballs, the extra control isn't paying for itself.

Can I change aim mode in the middle of a run? That isn't documented. The safest plan is to set your preference before an adventure and keep a manual-aim run and an auto-aim run separate so you can compare results honestly.

The short version: It's About Pirates automatic aiming is a genuine strategic choice, not a difficulty crutch. Learn the waves with it on, then take manual control when your build and your confidence both reward precision.