It s About Pirates Tips and Tricks: Builds, Captains, and Survival Guide

Why the Ship Is the Main Character

It s About Pirates is a pirate survivor roguelike built around one idea: your vessel, not your reflexes, is what carries a run. If you approach it like a character-action game and try to out-twitch the screen, the first storm of cannonballs will end you. The It s About Pirates tips and tricks below focus on the systems the game actually exposes — builds, captains, factions, aiming modes, and part collecting — rather than speculation. Everything here is drawn from the game's press kit listing and the Steam store page, so you can plan around confirmed features. Treat these It s About Pirates tips and tricks as a framework you refine with your own runs.

The core loop is straightforward to describe and much harder to survive: blast relentless enemy waves, scoop up loot, then reinvest that loot into ship upgrades before the next escalation arrives. Difficulty climbs as you go, which means a build that feels comfortable early will be tested hard later. Planning beats reacting.

Know the Systems Before Your First Run

Before you theorycraft anything, get the confirmed feature list straight. The table below reflects the game's press kit as captured on 2026-11-09.

That is a lot of interlocking choice for a survivor-style game, and it explains why so many early runs stall. You are not just dodging — you are assembling a machine out of weapons, items, and parts.

Build Around Weapons and Items, Not Around Luck

The press kit is explicit that the game wants you to combine weapons, items, and a captain into unique builds, and that upgrades include flamethrowers, harpoons, mortars, and a broad arsenal beyond them. With over 140 items in the pool, the practical lesson is focus. A ship carrying four half-finished ideas usually loses to a ship carrying two ideas that reinforce each other.

A few habits that pay off:

• Pick a range identity early. Flamethrowers and harpoons imply very different engagement distances. Decide what your ship wants to be doing and buy items that support it.
• Read every item as a multiplier, not a standalone. Items that shape a build matter more when they stack on the same plan.
• Time your heavy hits. The design calls out timing attacks for devastating impact, so holding a volley for the right moment is a skill worth practicing.
• Save burst for sea monsters. Mythical monsters are named as a threat, and they are exactly the kind of target that punishes chip damage.

The other half of the equation is positioning. Cannonball storms are described as something you navigate through, not something you out-tank. Moving with intent between shots is one of the most transferable It s About Pirates tips and tricks you can build.

Match Your Captain and Faction to the Plan

Ten captains and six factions with unique abilities is the most interesting lever in the game, and also the easiest to waste. The temptation is to pick a favorite and never switch. The better approach is to treat captains as different starting conditions and factions as ability packages that either amplify or fight your build.

Ask two questions before committing:

1. Does this captain's identity push me toward a weapon type I already understand?
2. Does this faction's ability fill the gap my build has, or duplicate something I already do well?

If your build already clears waves efficiently, a faction ability that covers single-target pressure is worth more than another wave-clear tool. If your build struggles with crowds, flip that logic. Rotating captains is also the cheapest way to learn the item pool, because you will see which synergies show up repeatedly across different starts.

Automatic vs Manual Aiming: When to Switch

Having both aiming modes is a genuine quality-of-life feature, and using only one is leaving value on the table. Automatic aiming keeps your attention on movement and dodging, which is what you want while you are learning enemy patterns or threading through heavy cannonball fire. Manual aiming hands you precision at the cost of attention.

A practical split:

• Learn with automatic. Spend your first runs watching how enemies approach and where damage comes from.
• Switch to manual for priority targets. Big, slow threats and monsters reward deliberate aim far more than trash waves do.
• Return to automatic in chaos. When the screen fills, staying alive matters more than squeezing out perfect shots.

Quests, 150+ Parts, and the Long Haul

Ship customization runs through parts: over 150 unique components discovered during play, with quests across different pirate realms feeding your collection. This is the meta layer that makes repeated runs feel like progress rather than restarting from zero. If a run is going badly, finishing a quest line is often worth more than squeezing out a few extra waves.

Loot also unlocks new ship skins, which gives you a cosmetic reason to keep collecting. Whether investment in the 150+ collectible ship parts provides raw combat power or compounds into stronger later runs is for reference only until verified.

One more structural point: 30 adventures is a long runway. Do not spend your entire upgrade budget in the first few. Spread investment so you have room to respond when enemy difficulty steps up.

Endless Mode Is Your Build Test

Once you have a build you believe in, Endless mode is where it gets audited. The press kit lists Endless mode as a skill test alongside a leaderboard for players chasing a top spot. That combination is useful: it gives you a repeatable stress test and a way to compare your ship against other players' designs.

Use Endless deliberately. If your build collapses at the same point repeatedly, the problem is usually structural — too little single-target damage, or too much investment in a weapon the faction ability does not support. Change one variable per attempt so you can actually tell what worked. That discipline is worth more than any single item.

FAQ

How many captains and factions are in It s About Pirates? The press kit lists 10 captains and 6 factions with unique abilities. Because each captain changes your starting conditions, rotating them is the fastest way to learn which item synergies hold up.

Can I switch between automatic and manual aiming? Yes. Both automatic and manual aiming are listed features. Most players get more out of automatic while learning enemy patterns and manual for large, high-value targets.

Do I need to complete quests to progress? Quests are not framed as mandatory, but they expand your collection of ship components across different pirate realms. Since customization draws on over 150 unique parts, questing is the most reliable way to widen your options.

What is the best way to use these It s About Pirates tips and tricks? Apply one change at a time. Pick a range identity, match your captain and faction to it, then test the result in Endless mode before rebuilding. Iterating on a single variable beats copying someone else's loadout.