It's About Pirates How to Play: Beginner Guide to Builds, Captains, and Ship Upgrades

If you searched for It's About Pirates how to play, the short answer is that your ship — not a hero — is the build. You steer a vessel through relentless enemy waves, scoop up loot, and stack weapons like mortars, harpoons, and flamethrowers until the screen turns into a fireworks show. Learning how to play It's About Pirates matters because the official listing advertises over 140 build-shaping items and separately more than 150 collectible ship parts. The first few in-run choices come from documented weapons and items; any run effect from the 150+ collectible parts is for reference only until verified. This guide sticks to what the developer and storefront actually document.

What Kind of Game Is It's About Pirates?

The Steam page calls It's About Pirates a survivors-like: you blast through waves of enemies, collect loot, and upgrade your ship for naval battles. IGN's game page for It's About Pirates summarizes it as an action-packed single-player pirate roguelike. The listed tags fill in the rest — action roguelike, bullet heaven, bullet hell, top-down, isometric, naval combat, score attack.

Here is the verified shape of the package:

• Developer and publisher: Elderwoof Games, on PC via Steam.
• Release date: November 6, 2026.
• Player count: single-player only, with Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Steam Leaderboards, and Family Sharing.
• Content scale: 10 captains, 6 factions with unique abilities, over 140 items, more than 150 ship parts, 30 adventures, and an Endless mode.
• Input: the developers recommend a controller, and Xbox and PlayStation controller support is listed.

It's About Pirates How to Play: The Core Run Loop

The store description does not walk through a menu-by-menu tutorial, so treat the sequence below as the loop the game is built around rather than a fixed screen order. It is the clearest It's About Pirates how to play roadmap the official material supports.

1. Commit to a captain. There are 10 different captains, and the pitch promises that pairing a captain with weapons and items creates unique builds. Your captain is half of your identity before a shot is fired.
2. Pick a faction. Six factions come with unique abilities, which gives you a second lever to pull before the action starts.
3. Sail an adventure. Thirty adventures are listed, and the enemies scale as you push forward.
4. Blast the waves and time your hits. The page specifically mentions navigating storms of cannonballs, facing mythical sea monsters, and timing attacks for devastating impact.
5. Collect loot and stack upgrades. Weapons include flamethrowers, harpoons, and mortars, backed by a broader arsenal of deadly upgrades. The design intent is strategic combination, not random grabbing.
6. Grow the collection between runs. Ship parts are discovered through play, and completing quests across different pirate realms expands your component collection.
7. Push Endless and the boards. Once the standard adventures feel solved, Endless mode and the leaderboard are the long tail.

Controls and Aiming: Auto vs Manual

Aiming is an explicit feature, and it has two modes: automatic or manual. Auto-aim is the friendlier on-ramp if you are new to bullet-heaven games, because it lets you concentrate on positioning your ship and dodging. Manual aiming is where the timing line from the description matters — "time your attacks for devastating impact" suggests deliberate shots pay off more than sprayed ones.

Because the developers recommend a controller, expect the sticks to feel like the intended setup. Two caveats worth knowing before you buy:

• Steam listed Steam Deck compatibility as Unknown as of November 9, 2026, even though the studio posted a Steam Deck news item in September 2026. Check the store page yourself before planning handheld play.
• Interface text is available in English plus 12 additional languages, per the Steam listing.

Both columns require a 64-bit processor and operating system, so the game is light by modern standards.

Build Tips: How to Play It's About Pirates Without Wasting Runs

Most It's About Pirates how to play questions boil down to one thing: what do I upgrade first? The listing gives you five separate systems to spend decisions on. Use this table to see how they fit together.

A few practical habits follow directly from that structure. Bank collection progress whenever a quest is close to finished, because parts and skins carry across runs in a way a single strong weapon does not. When a run starts to collapse, stop chasing damage and time your heavy hits — the description frames impact timing as the difference-maker against sea monsters. And if the build is not coming together, treat Endless mode as a testing ground rather than a score chase.

Early reception is worth factoring into your patience level. As of November 9, 2026, the Steam page recorded a "Mixed" all-time rating from 34 user reviews, with 67% positive. A sample that small swings easily, and Update #2 was the studio's most recent post at the November 9 snapshot, following Update #1 on November 7, so expect tuning changes.

Modes, Progression, and the Leaderboard

Beyond the 30 adventures, the game ships with leaderboards and an Endless mode, which is where the score-attack tags come from. Loot unlocks new ship skins, quests across pirate realms feed your parts collection, and the leaderboard is positioned as the place to "claim your place among the top pirates."

There is also one piece of paid content: a single DLC item listed at $3.99 in the same snapshot. Two bundles were live on the page — It's About Pirates with Soulstone Survivors, and It's About Pirates with Endless Rails — both advertised as saving 10% on the pair.

Price and Review Snapshot

Everything in this table comes from one capture of the official It's About Pirates Steam store page, saved on November 9, 2026. These are frozen observations, not live values.

Prices, promotions, and review totals move. Check the store page for the current numbers rather than assuming the snapshot above still applies.

FAQ

Is It's About Pirates multiplayer or co-op? It is single-player only. The Steam feature list shows no multiplayer, and IGN's summary describes a single-player pirate roguelike. Nothing in the official material suggests co-op.

Do I need a controller to play It's About Pirates? No, but the developers recommend one, and Xbox and PlayStation controllers are both listed as supported. If you are just learning how to play It's About Pirates, a gamepad plus automatic aiming is the gentlest combination.

How long does a full playthrough take? That is not documented in the sources used here. What is confirmed is the content count: 30 adventures, 10 captains, 6 factions, plus an Endless mode for repeat runs. Expect replay value rather than a single fixed campaign length.

Is It's About Pirates available on Steam Deck? Steam listed compatibility as "Unknown" as of November 9, 2026, despite a September 2026 developer post about the Deck. Verify the compatibility badge on the store page before buying for handheld play.