The Sea-Wolf breaks on the reef. You wake on a beach with Quartermaster Maddox, 500 Timber, 400 Iron, 200 Rum, 120 Gold and nobody to boss around. The opening hour teaches every habit the rest of the game is built on, so it pays to know what each step is for.

The tutorial, beat by beat

A glowing hand points at the next thing to tap. Early beats lock everything else. Later beats only suggest, and a Go button on Maddox's card carries you to the right screen.

1. Raise the Timber Cove. Your first workshop. Timber pays for almost everything early on.
2. Claim a quest in the Captain's Log. Building the Cove finished one. The Log is where your building money comes from, so learn this tap first.
3. Build a Crew Quarters. A roof and one bunk. Nobody lives on your island until they have a bed.
4. Fit a Sawbench in the Cove. Workshops make nothing by themselves. The stations inside them do.
5. Build the Ship's Galley. A bed and a meal make a resident. Your first one walks in and sits at the Sawbench, and Timber starts to flow.
6. Raise the Manor to 2. The Manor's level is the ceiling for everything else.
7. Build the Foundry. Iron, for hulls and for fitting stations.
8. Climb to Manor 4. The Distillery arrives at 3 and the Vault at 4. Each Manor step names the buildings it wants first.
9. Build the Tavern. Heroes drink here.
10. Make your first recruitment call. One call is free every day. Use it.
11. Build the Gun Foundry. Your first shipyard. It builds Broadsides, the all-round hull.
12. Train ten ships. The quest for raising the Gun Foundry pays for this batch.
13. Win your first hunt. Open the sea chart, tap a level 1 to 3 beast near your island, and send the ten.

The Log pays for the climb

Your workshops are too small in the first hour to fund the Manor by themselves, and they are meant to be. The Captain's Log covers the gap: each chapter's quests and its chest pay for that chapter's buildings and the Manor step after it. Follow the Log and you reach Manor 6 in well under an hour of building time. Skip it and you stall.

• Open the Log from the scroll chip on your island. A red dot means something is ready to claim.
• Each chapter ends in a chest. The chest is the big payment, so finish every quest in the chapter.
• Chapter 3 hands you ten shards of Crimson Vane, a Legendary. Ten shards unlock any hero.

The moment the tutorial lets go

• Clear the forest. A flag appears at the tree line when the Manor reaches a new ring. Tap it. You are paid in Timber for the chopping and more plots open up.
• Open the Castaway's Landfall. A seven-day run of founding tasks that only new captains get. Its last seal is a second helping of Crimson Vane shards.
• Log in tomorrow. Day 2 of the login calendar is another ten Crimson Vane shards.
• Keep the builder busy. You have one building crew. An idle crew is the only real waste in the early game.
• Seat your residents. The crew pill at the top shows a red dot when a station has nobody at it. An empty station makes nothing. See Residents, Bunks & Stations.
• Join a Hive at Manor 5. Crewmates shave your timers for free. See The Hive.

Your first week

Two calendars run for every new captain. The login streak pays every day you show up, and a missed day pauses it instead of resetting it.

Login streak	Reward
Day 1	2k Timber2k Iron
Day 2	3 Skeleton Keys10 Crimson Vane shards
Day 3	10k Rum10k Gold
Day 4	2 × 1h Speedup
Day 5	3 Blueprints
Day 6	5 Arena Tokens
Day 7	200 Doubloons3 Fortune Chests5 Skeleton Keys

The Castaway's Landfall opens a new chapter of tasks each day for five days, and you have the full seven days to finish them. Every task earns marks toward five seals.

Seal	Reward
5 marks	10k Timber10k Iron5 × 5m Speedup
25 marks	5 Skeleton Keys5 × 15m Speedup
50 marks	300 Doubloons5 Blueprints
80 marks	2 Fortune Chests400 Doubloons
120 marks	500 Doubloons2 Fortune Chests10 Crimson Vane shards

Everything in the Archipelago runs on UTC. The day turns over at 00:00 UTC. Three short visits a day beat one long one, because several of your meters fill up and then stop.

Every visit

• Start a build, a research and a training order. Three clocks run side by side. Fill them before anything else.
• Claim finished ships. A finished training order waits in its yard until you tap its bubble. Unclaimed ships are not in your fleet and do not defend.
• Tap Help all in your Hive. It costs nothing, and it is how your own timers get shaved in return.
• Spend stamina. It caps at 200 and refills one point every 5 minutes, which is more than a full bar a day. A hunt costs 10. A full bar is wasted stamina.
• Send your marches out. Short gathers while you play, the longest gather you can reach before you sleep.
• Clear the Intel board. 8 new missions every 8 hours. See Intel missions.
• Collect the Sanctum's idle haul. It stops filling after 9 hours.

Once a day

• The free Tavern call. One a day, and it counts toward the guarantee. See The Tavern.
• The login reward on the Daily screen.
• Daily Missions. Small jobs across the whole game. Each pays a little by itself and adds points toward five chests.
• The Bounty Board. 3 bounties and a bonus chest for clearing all of them.
• Arena attempts. You hold 5 and one comes back every hour.
• Hive donations. 20 charges, one back every 7 minutes. Each click costs a little more than the last until the day resets.
• The Hive's daily gift, and any gift chests your crewmates' purchases dropped.
• The VIP chest. It grows every day in a row you claim it and falls back if you miss one.
• The Storehouse ration. A free 50 stamina, once before noon UTC and once after.

Daily Missions

Missions you cannot do yet still show on the list, greyed out, so you can see what is coming. Forgot to claim? Anything you earned is mailed to you after the reset.

Before you log off

• Queue the longest build and research you can afford. Sleep is free build time.
• Send gather marches to the highest level islands you can reach. A full hold coming home is offline income.
• Look at your shield. If it is down and you hold more than your Vault protects, spend the surplus or shield up. See the safe line.

The Captain's Manor is the spine of your island. No building can be raised past the level the Manor allows, most systems open at a Manor level, and the island itself grows with it. When you are not sure what to do next, the answer is usually "whatever the next Manor level asks for".

Plan a level

Slide to the Manor level you are working toward.

How the gates work

• Each Manor step lists buildings that must stand at a given level first. Tap the Manor and each missing one has a Go button that takes you to its plot.
• Where you own several of a building, your tallest one counts.
• Up to Manor 10 the gates introduce new buildings. From 11 on they settle into a rhythm: the Great Anchor one level behind the Manor, plus one of the Gun Foundry, Ironhull Drydock, Privateer Wharf or Blacksmith in turn.
• Workshops and houses have a second gate of their own: every open station or bunk must be fitted to its cap before the building levels. See fitting out.

The full ladder

Manor	Cost	Build time	Build first
2	400400	20s	Timber Cove 1
3	800800	34s	Crew Quarters 2, Foundry 1
4	1.6k1.6k	44s	Distillery 2, Tavern 1
5	4.5k4.5k672	2m 26s	Vault 1, Gun Foundry 1, Crew Quarters 3
6	12.5k12.5k3.8k1.9k	9m 15s	Foundry 5, Great Anchor 1
7	35.1k35.1k10.5k5.3k	35m 8s	Timber Cove 6, Ironhull Drydock 1, Guard Post 1
8	98.3k98.3k29.5k14.8k	2h 13m	Arena 1, Lighthouse 1
9	167k167k50.2k25.1k	3h 4m	Blacksmith 1, Surgeon's Shack 1
10	284k284k85.3k42.6k	4h 14m	Shipyard 9, Command Center 9
11	483k483k145k72.5k	5h 50m	Great Anchor 10, Gun Foundry 10
12	821k821k246k123k	8h 4m	Great Anchor 11, Ironhull Drydock 11
13	1.4M1.4M419k209k	11h 8m	Great Anchor 12, Privateer Wharf 12
14	2.4M2.4M712k356k	15h 22m	Great Anchor 13, Blacksmith 13
15	3.3M3.3M983k491k	19h 58m	Great Anchor 14, Gun Foundry 14
16	4.5M4.5M1.4M678k	1d 1h	Great Anchor 15, Ironhull Drydock 15
17	6.2M6.2M1.9M936k	1d 9h	Great Anchor 16, Privateer Wharf 16
18	8.6M8.6M2.6M1.3M	1d 19h	Great Anchor 17, Blacksmith 17
19	11.9M11.9M3.6M1.8M	2d 9h	Great Anchor 18, Gun Foundry 18
20	16.4M16.4M4.9M2.5M	3d 2h	Great Anchor 19, Ironhull Drydock 19
21	21.5M21.5M6.4M3.2M	3d 16h	Great Anchor 20, Privateer Wharf 20
22	28.1M28.1M8.4M4.2M	4d 9h	Great Anchor 21, Blacksmith 21
23	36.9M36.9M11.1M5.5M	5d 5h	Great Anchor 22, Gun Foundry 22
24	48.3M48.3M14.5M7.2M	6d 4h	Great Anchor 23, Ironhull Drydock 23
25	63.3M63.3M19M9.5M	7d 9h	Great Anchor 24, Privateer Wharf 24
26	82.2M82.2M24.7M12.3M	8d 11h	Great Anchor 25, Blacksmith 25
27	107M107M32.1M16M	9d 18h	Great Anchor 26, Gun Foundry 26
28	139M139M41.7M20.8M	11d 5h	Great Anchor 27, Ironhull Drydock 27
29	181M181M54.2M27.1M	12d 21h	Great Anchor 28, Privateer Wharf 28
30	235M235M70.5M35.2M	14d 20h	Great Anchor 29, Blacksmith 29

The forest and the fog

Your whole island exists from the first day, but most of it stands under forest, and the far rings under fog as well. When the Manor reaches a new ring, a flag appears at the tree line. One tap clears it, opens the plots beneath and pays you Timber for the lumber.

Opens at	Forest ring	Timber you are paid for clearing it
Manor 1	Ring 0	the starting clearing
Manor 2	Ring 1	200
Manor 4	Ring 2	1.1k
Manor 6	Ring 3	8.8k
Manor 8	Ring 4	41.8k

What opens when

Most systems need a Manor level, and some also need their building to be standing.

Your island is laid out in streets, with the Manor at the back and every door facing the harbour. Buildings belong to seven districts. Tap any building to open its sheet, and tap Enter on the sheet to go straight to the system it runs.

Building basics

• One crew builds one thing at a time. A second builder can be rented for 250 Doubloons for 48 hours, or bought for good in the Treasury.
• Nothing finishes for free. Spend speedup items on a running timer, or Doubloons to finish it outright. See speedups.
• Ask your Hive. Every build posts a help request by itself once you are in a Hive.
• The Manor is the ceiling. A building's next level shows the Manor level it needs.

Every building

Command district

• 

  Captain's Manor

  The heart of the island. Its level caps every other building and opens new systems.

  Manor 1Max level 30

• 

  Tavern

  Recruit heroes here. One free call every day.

  Manor 3Max level 1

• 

  Bounty Board

  Three bounties a day, and a chest for clearing all three.

  Manor 4Max level 1

• 

  Command Center

  One more march slot every five levels, and room for bigger rallies.

  Manor 9Max level 30

Trade district

• 

  Timber Cove

  Sawbenches turn the forest into Timber.

  Manor 1Max level 30

• 

  Foundry

  Anvils hammer out Iron, the stuff of hulls and stations.

  Manor 2Max level 30

• 

  Distillery

  Copper stills make Rum. Every ship you train drinks some.

  Manor 3Max level 30

• 

  Vault

  Assay tables mint Gold, and the Vault's level sets how much of every resource raiders can never touch.

  Manor 4Max level 30

Settlement district

• 

  Crew Quarters

  Housing. One resident per bunk, up to four bunks a house, eight houses in all.

  Manor 1Max level 10

• 

  Ship's Galley

  Feeds the island. No meal, no resident. Better meals mean fewer sick days.

  Manor 1Max level 25

• 

  Sick Bay

  Where sick residents get back on their feet.

  Manor 3Max level 20

Naval district

• 

  Shipyard

  The harbour. Its level sets how many ships a single march can carry.

  Manor 2Max level 30

• 

  Gun Foundry

  Trains Broadsides. Its level opens Broadside tiers and bigger batches.

  Manor 4Max level 30

• 

  Crow's Nest

  Warns you of incoming raids. Higher levels tell you more about who is coming.

  Manor 5Max level 20

• 

  Ironhull Drydock

  Trains Vanguards. Its level opens Vanguard tiers and bigger batches.

  Manor 6Max level 30

• 

  Privateer Wharf

  Trains Longshots. Its level opens Longshot tiers and bigger batches.

  Manor 7Max level 30

• 

  Surgeon's Shack

  The Infirmary. More beds for wounded ships and a bigger share of every loss saved.

  Manor 7Max level 20

• 

  Blacksmith

  Research. Economy, military and logistics, one project at a time.

  Manor 8Max level 30

• Press Gang Office

  The Press Gang. Ships the full Infirmary had no bed for wait here to be bought back with Loyalty; without it they are lost.

  Manor 10Max level 18

Defense district

• 

  Guard Post

  Command of the home garrison. Pick the three heroes who lead your ships when raiders land.

  Manor 6Max level 20

• 

  Tower

  Cannon batteries. They fire on raiders and on the Broodtide.

  Manor 6Max level 10

Conquest district

• 

  Navigator's Sanctum

  The Navigator's Sanctum: a thousand-stage solo ladder that also earns while you sleep.

  Manor 3Max level 1

• 

  Arena

  Hero squads against other captains' squads, on a seasonal trophy ladder.

  Manor 7Max level 1

Social district

• 

  Great Anchor

  Your door into a Hive. Its level makes every help tap on your timers bigger, and lets more crewmates tap.

  Manor 5Max level 30

• 

  Lighthouse

  A beacon over your home waters. The Manor asks for one on the way to level 8.

  Manor 7Max level 20

Four resources run the island. Timber and Iron build things. Rum crews your ships from the very first hull. Gold arrives last and is asked for by higher ship tiers, station supports and the dearer upgrades.

Where resources come from

• Your workshops, steadily, as long as residents sit at the stations inside them.
• The Captain's Log, which funds most of the early climb. See the Log pays for the climb.
• Gathering at resource islands on the sea chart. This is your offline income.
• Hunting sea beasts and raiding other captains.
• Events, dailies and the Sanctum, in smaller, steadier amounts.

The four workshops

One workshop arrives at each of the first four Manor levels. A workshop's own level makes nothing. Its level opens more station spots and raises how far each station can be fitted, and the stations do the work. The figures below are a workshop at full stretch.

Hourly output with every station placed, seated and fitted to its cap

Workshop	Makes	Station	Opens	Lv 1 /h	Lv 5 /h	Lv 10 /h	Lv 20 /h	Lv 30 /h
Timber Cove	Timber	Sawbench	Manor 1	530	3.2k	21.1k	105k	388k
Foundry	Iron	Anvil	Manor 2	530	3.2k	21.1k	105k	388k
Distillery	Rum	Copper Still	Manor 3	530	3.2k	21.1k	105k	388k
Vault	Gold	Assay Table	Manor 4	280	1.7k	11.2k	55.9k	207k

The Storehouse and the safe line

Everything you own sits in one Storehouse, and the Storehouse has no ceiling. It does have a safe line for each resource. A raider who wins takes what sits above the line and can never touch what sits below it.

The safe line is your Vault's protection plus a flat bonus from your VIP rank. The VIP part only counts while your VIP time is running.

Tap any resource in the top bar to see your own line. It reads "safe up to" and the number.

Speedups and Doubloons

Doubloons are the premium coin. You earn a trickle from feats, events, login days and chests, and you can buy them. Their best uses are a second builder, shields when you need one, and stamina on a hunting day. Their worst use is finishing short timers.

Speedups are items that cut time off any running build, research or training order. Finishing a timer outright with Doubloons is priced by how much time is left.

Speedup item	Price
1m	1
5m	3
15m	8
1h	25
8h	150

Time left on the timer	Doubloons to finish now
up to 5m	5
up to 15m	12
up to 1h	25
up to 4h	55
up to 8h	110
up to 1d	220
longer	450 per day

The other coins

Most systems pay in a currency of their own, and each has a shop that takes it. The Glossary names every one. The ones you meet first:

• Skeleton Keys make recruitment calls at the The Tavern.
• Captain XP pools on your account and is poured into whichever hero you choose.
• Alliance Credits, Arena Tokens and Event Tokens are spent at their posts in the Market.
• Blueprints are asked for by the higher military research.

The people walking your streets are your residents, and you can count them: there is one villager on the island for every resident you house. They are the engine under the whole economy.

How to get more residents

Your residents are the smaller of two numbers: the bunks you have placed and the meals your Galley serves. New residents move in the instant there is both a bed and a meal for them.

• Bunks go inside Crew Quarters. Each house comes with its first bunk and opens one more spot per level, up to four.
• Houses: you can build eight. The first two are there from Manor 1, and the rest open at Manor 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. That makes 32 residents on a fully housed island.
• Meals come from the Ship's Galley. If the Galley falls behind your bunks, the Galley is the cap. Upgrade it.

Stations and seats

Each workshop holds up to six stations: Sawbenches in the Timber Cove, Anvils in the Foundry, Copper Stills in the Distillery, Assay Tables in the Vault. A station with a resident sitting at it produces. A station with nobody at it produces nothing at all.

• Place a station and one idle resident sits down at it by themselves.
• After that, seating is yours to manage. Open a workshop's Residents tab, or tap Fill all to seat every idle hand at once.
• The crew pill in the top bar reads working / total and shows a red dot while a seat is empty.

Fitting out

Every station and bunk has its own level. Raising it is instant, needs no builder, and can be held down to climb several levels at once. Stations cost Iron. Bunks cost Timber. Support pieces cost Gold and each adds a few percent to the whole workshop.

Spare hands

Once you house more residents than you have stations, the extras become spare hands. Each one lends every workshop 2%, up to 12 hands. Housing is never wasted.

Sickness

When raiders win a fight on your island, some residents are laid up and leave their stations. They recover in the Sick Bay, a few at a time. A better Galley helps twice: each meal tier above the first means 8% fewer residents fall sick and the rest recover 8% faster.

Heroes are the captains who sail under you, and the game lists them on the Captains screen. They ride with your fleets, lead your garrison, fight for you in the Arena and the Sanctum, and a few of them simply make your workshops run better by being on the payroll. Tap any card for the full kit.

AllVanguardBroadsideLongshotLegendaryEpicRare

Gen 1Admiral GravesGen 1Crimson VaneGen 1"Phantom" MarisolGen 2Ironwall KhatunGen 2"Salvo" SantiagoGen 2Yara of the Long TideGen 3Stormwall BjornGen 3Hurricane HelGen 3Galeshot NaiaGen 4The Drowned KingGen 4Revenant ThorneGen 4Siren EvangelineGen 5Leviathan's HeraldGen 5Depthcharger RynnGen 5Kraken Mother CalypsoGen 6CharybdisGen 6The MaelstromGen 6Davy JonesVIPGoldmaw the InsatiableVIPSeabane the UnboughtBastion BertrandGrapnel GarciaThundering TheoPowdermonkey PruFarsight FreyaLongshot LenaBarnaby the LumberjackSilas the SmelterPieces-of-Eight PearlMarina the Brewer

What a hero does

• Every hero has a type: Vanguard, Broadside or Longshot. On a march, a hero's stats flow into the ship stacks of their own type. See the Trinity.
• A march carries up to three heroes. The order you pick them in matters: the hero in slot 1 is the one whose skill you lend when you join a rally.
• Squad fights use five. The Arena and the Sanctum send a lineup of five heroes, each leading a squad.
• Three heroes lead your garrison, one of each type. See your garrison.

Rarity

• Rare heroes are your economy officers. Each one raises a single resource's production by 15% for as long as you own them. They carry two skills in each tree.
• Epic heroes are the working fighters, two for each ship type, with three skills in each tree.
• Legendary heroes arrive in generations of three as your kingdom ages. They add an exclusive weapon and a six-chapter Chronicle that unseals as they earn stars.

Getting a hero

Every hero unlocks at 10 shards, whatever the rarity. Shards after that go into stars. Heroes start at zero stars.

• The The Tavern drops Rare and Epic shards, and Legendary shards of Crimson Vane only.
• Crimson Vane is the free Legendary. The Log, the login calendar and the Landfall give you enough shards to unlock him and start on his stars in your first week.
• Other Legendaries come from shard rotations in the Market, events and packs. Two are reserved for the VIP ladder.
• New generations join when your kingdom is old enough. See the launch script.

Once you own a hero, Raising Heroes covers levels, stars, skills, weapons and gear.

A hero grows along five tracks. They stack, and each is fed by a different item, so you are rarely choosing between them. You are choosing which hero gets fed.

Levels

Captain XP lands in one shared pool, from hunts, the Sanctum, Arena wins, Intel and chests. Open a hero and press Level up to spend it. Hold the button to climb several levels. Heroes go to level 80, and the last thirty levels cost far more than the first fifty.

Stars

Shards beyond the unlock go into pips. Six pips make a star, and five stars is the top. Every pip adds 5% of the hero's base stats, so a five-star hero stands at two and a half times where they started. The cost per pip is the same for every rarity.

Stars do more than raise stats. They open skill slots, lift the cap on skill levels, and unseal a Legendary's Chronicle.

Skills

Each hero has two skill trees.

• Conquest skills work in the Navigator's Sanctum only. They level with Conquest Books.
• Expedition skills work everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and island defence. They level with Expedition Books.

First skill in each tree

open at 0★

Second

opens at 2★

Third

opens at 3★

Skill level cap

stars + 1

Books for levels 2, 3, 4, 5

10 · 25 · 45 · 75

A skill is already working at level 1. Level 5 needs a four-star hero. Many Expedition skills roll a chance on every volley, which is why a slightly weaker fleet sometimes wins: luck is part of the sea.

Exclusive weapons

Each Legendary owns a named weapon with ten levels. It adds Attack, Defense, Health and Lethality, and carries two skills of its own:

• a Conquest skill for the Sanctum, which levels at weapon levels 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9;
• an Expedition skill that only fires in one situation, either when the hero leads a rally or when the hero defends your island. It levels at weapon levels 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.

Weapons are raised with Weapon Widgets. Widgets come per generation: Gen 1 widgets feed any Gen 1 weapon and no other. The two VIP heroes share the Gen 1 supply. The first level costs 5 widgets and each level after costs 5 more, 275 in all.

Hero gear

Gear opens at Manor 15. Each hero wears four pieces: helm, chest, gloves and boots. Gear drops from Gear Crates, which come from hunts, Fortune Chests, Sanctum bosses and the Sanctum's idle haul. Crates you earn before Manor 15 wait for you.

• Gear comes in three sets, one per ship type. Two pieces of a set add 5% to Attack, Defense and Health. All four add 12% and 8% Lethality.
• Enhance a piece with Whetstones. Each level adds 8% to what the piece gives.
• Reforge a piece for 8 Whetstones to re-roll which set it belongs to.
• Gloves and boots are the offensive slots. They are where gear Lethality comes from.

Mastery Forging opens at Manor 20. It multiplies everything a piece gives, up to five times over, and is paid in Mastery Hammers. Each Mastery level needs the piece enhanced to a certain level first, so only the rarest pieces can be forged all the way.

Lethality

Lethality is the fourth combat stat: a flat boost to all damage dealt. No hero starts with any. It is earned from exclusive weapons, gloves and boots, the second Expedition skill of Broadside and Longshot heroes, research, pets and VIP.

The Tavern is where you recruit. Every call hands you exactly one thing off a weighted table. Often that is hero shards. Just as often it is Captain XP, a speedup or a crate of resources. Nothing is wasted, and the odds below are the real ones.

Advanced Recruitment

Calls cost Skeleton Keys, which come from the Captain's Log, login days, bounties and events. One call a day is free, and the free call counts toward the guarantees like any other.

• Captain XP ×1,00020%
• Rare Hero — 1 shard18%
• 5m Speedup12%
• Epic Hero — 1 shard11%
• Captain XP ×5,00010%
• Timber ×1,5006%
• Gold ×1,5006%
• Iron ×1,5005.5%
• Rum ×1,5005.5%
• Rare Hero — 10 shards4%
• Epic Hero — 10 shards2%

An Epic hero drop within

30 calls

A Legendary 10-shard drop within

0 calls

This week's featured hero

+50% rate

Epic Recruitment

The second banner opens Fortune Chests. Chests drop from hunts, bounties, rallies and events, or cost 150 Doubloons each. The table is richer, and every chest also carries 2 Whetstones and a one-in-four chance of a Gear Crate.

• Rare Hero — 1 shard15%
• Captain XP ×5,00015%
• 1h Speedup15%
• Epic Hero — 1 shard13%
• Captain XP ×10,00010%
• Timber ×10,0006%
• Gold ×10,0006%
• Rare Hero — 10 shards5%
• Legendary Hero — 1 shard4%
• Rum ×5,0003.8%
• Iron ×5,0003.7%
• Epic Hero — 10 shards3%
• Legendary Hero — 10 shards0.5%

An Epic hero drop within

40 chests

A Legendary 10-shard drop within

200 chests

Spending keys well

• Take the free call every day. Over a month that is thirty calls and most of an Epic guarantee for nothing.
• The Pirate Lord Trials have a day that scores recruitment. If the Trials are close, hold your keys for it. See the Trials.
• Shards for a hero you have already maxed are not lost. They turn into Shard Dust, which buys shards of your choice from the roster.

Your navy is made of three kinds of hull. Each beats one and loses to another. Learn the triangle and you will win fights against captains with more ships than you.

The Trinity

A hull firing on the type it counters deals 35% more damage. A hull firing on the type that counters it deals 30% less. Every stack in a battle picks its target by this rule, going for the largest enemy stack of the type it beats.

• 

  Vanguard

  Armored ram — the frontline wall. Crushes Broadside hulls, slow but hard to sink.

  Built at

  Ironhull Drydock

  Beats

  Broadside

  Tier 1 attack / defense / hull

  10 / 20 / 90

  Speed

  80

  Tier 1 hold

  30

• 

  Broadside

  Balanced gun-deck — the workhorse. Tears through Longshot raiders.

  Built at

  Gun Foundry

  Beats

  Longshot

  Tier 1 attack / defense / hull

  8 / 10 / 40

  Speed

  100

  Tier 1 hold

  50

• 

  Longshot

  Swift chaser — long guns and big holds. Outranges Vanguards, but thin-hulled.

  Built at

  Privateer Wharf

  Beats

  Vanguard

  Tier 1 attack / defense / hull

  14 / 5 / 25

  Speed

  130

  Tier 1 hold

  80

The three yards

Each type is built at its own yard, and the three yards work side by side. The Gun Foundry opens first, the Ironhull Drydock at Manor 6 and the Privateer Wharf at Manor 7.

• A yard's level unlocks higher tiers of its hull and bigger training orders.
• Each yard runs one order at a time, a new build or a promotion. Start the next one when it is done.
• A finished order waits in its yard until you claim it: tap the yard's bubble on the island, or the Claim button in the Shipyard. Until you do, those ships are not in your fleet and they do not defend your island.
• The promote arrow lifts ships you already own up one tier for much less than building new ones. It uses the yard's one order.
• Your Hive can help a running order. A finished order has nothing left to help.

Tiers

Every hull climbs from Tier 1 to Tier 10. A higher tier is stronger, carries more and costs more. All ships drink Rum from the first tier. Gold joins the bill at Tier 3.

Broadside

Tier	Gun Foundry	Cost per ship	Time per ship	Attack	Defense	Hull	Hold
T1	Lv 1	507520	12s	8	10	40	50
T2	Lv 4	8012032	16s	10	12.5	50	57
T3	Lv 7	1281925126	21s	12.5	15.6	62	66
T4	Lv 11	2053078241	28s	15.6	19.5	78	76
T5	Lv 14	32849213166	37s	19.5	24.4	98	87
T6	Lv 17	524786210105	49s	24.4	30.5	122	101
T7	Lv 20	8391.3k336168	1m 5s	30.5	38.1	153	116
T8	Lv 24	1.3k2k537268	1m 26s	38.1	47.7	191	133
T9	Lv 27	2.1k3.2k859429	1m 55s	47.7	59.6	238	153
T10	Lv 30	3.4k5.2k1.4k687	2m 32s	59.6	74.5	298	176

Vanguard

Tier	Ironhull Drydock	Cost per ship	Time per ship	Attack	Defense	Hull	Hold
T1	Lv 1	9011036	19s	10	20	90	30
T2	Lv 4	14417658	25s	12.5	25	112	35
T3	Lv 7	2302829246	33s	15.6	31.2	141	40
T4	Lv 11	36945114774	44s	19.5	39.1	176	46
T5	Lv 14	590721236118	59s	24.4	48.8	220	52
T6	Lv 17	9441.2k377189	1m 18s	30.5	61	275	60
T7	Lv 20	1.5k1.8k604302	1m 43s	38.1	76.3	343	69
T8	Lv 24	2.4k3k966483	2m 17s	47.7	95.4	429	80
T9	Lv 27	3.9k4.7k1.5k773	3m 2s	59.6	119.2	536	92
T10	Lv 30	6.2k7.6k2.5k1.2k	4m 1s	74.5	149	671	106

Longshot

Tier	Privateer Wharf	Cost per ship	Time per ship	Attack	Defense	Hull	Hold
T1	Lv 1	402516	7s	14	5	25	80
T2	Lv 4	644026	9s	17.5	6.2	31	92
T3	Lv 7	102644120	12s	21.9	7.8	39	106
T4	Lv 11	1641026633	16s	27.3	9.8	49	122
T5	Lv 14	26216410552	22s	34.2	12.2	61	140
T6	Lv 17	41926216884	29s	42.7	15.3	76	161
T7	Lv 20	671419268134	38s	53.4	19.1	95	185
T8	Lv 24	1.1k671429215	50s	66.8	23.8	119	213
T9	Lv 27	1.7k1.1k687344	1m 7s	83.5	29.8	149	245
T10	Lv 30	2.7k1.7k1.1k550	1m 29s	104.3	37.2	186	281

How many ships you can send

The Shipyard is your harbour. Its level sets how many ships one march can carry, and that number grows enormously: thirty at the start, a hundred and sixty thousand at the top.

Ships at home

Ships that are not out on a march are not idle. Every ship in your harbour fights in the garrison when your island is attacked. See your garrison.

Beyond your beach lies one shared sea per kingdom: 384 cells across, with the Maelstrom Citadel at its dead centre. Everything on it is arranged by distance from that centre. The closer to the Maelstrom, the richer and the deadlier.

Reading the chart

• You start on the rim. Every new island lands in the outer band, where the beasts are small enough for a fresh fleet.
• Sail inward for more. Beast levels, resource island levels and the great wardens all climb as you approach the centre.
• The minimap shows the whole kingdom, your island as a gold pip, and your fleets as moving dots. Tap it to jump.
• Find cycles through the nearest resource island or beast of the level you ask for.
• Zoom all the way out to see the other kingdoms. You can look around any of them and message their captains, but you cannot sail there.

Sending a march

Tap a target and its sheet offers the one thing you can do there: Gather, Hunt, Scout, Raid or Rally. The deploy screen then opens already filled in, with your strongest free heroes and a full load of your best ships, or whatever you sent last time on that kind of trip.

• Three hero slots. Slot 1 is the hero you picked first.
• A slider for every stack of ships at home, up to your Shipyard's limit.
• One button, labelled with the trip, its stamina cost and its sailing time.

When a march comes home its ships fold back into your harbour by themselves. There are no fleets to manage between trips.

March slots to start

3

Command Center

+1 every 5 levels

VIP 6 and up

+1 while VIP time runs

The most you can field

8, plus 1 bought for good

Stamina

Fighting on the sea costs stamina. Gathering, scouting and raiding other captains cost none.

Full bar

200

Refill

1 every 5 min

A hunt

10

Opening a rally

25

Joining a rally

free

Storehouse ration

+50 every 12h

Tap the stamina pill in the top bar for the ration, a Doubloon refill and Stamina Ration items, which can push you past a full bar.

Gathering

Resource islands come in eight levels for each of the four resources. Your fleet sails out, loads until its holds are full or the island runs dry, and sails home. Bigger holds and more ships mean more cargo. Longshots carry the most.

The Maelstrom is a prison. The Drowned Kingdom built it and bound eight great beasts into it as living seals, one to a ring, circling. The seals are slipping. What you meet on the sea is either a warden off its ring or the spawn it sheds.

The brood

Roaming beasts are warden spawn drifting outward on the current. They come in five kinds across thirty levels, and you hunt them with a single march. They are your everyday fight: stamina in, resources and Captain XP out.

• 

  Brine Skitters levels 1 to 6

  Warden spawn, knuckle-high and far too many of them. Every ring sheds them; none of the wardens has ever seemed to mind.

• 

  Reef Serpents levels 7 to 12

  Tide Serpent brood, still small enough to take for a rope in the water. Not for long, and never twice.

• 

  Storm Rays levels 13 to 18

  Ray brood, running the weather line. Where they shoal, the warden is somewhere underneath them.

• 

  Abyssal Maws levels 19 to 24

  Angler brood that never grew a light. All the appetite, none of the patience.

• 

  Drowned Leviathans levels 25 to 30

  Not the Elder. Its castoffs — things that came up too near the door, too early, and were never finished.

• A hunt costs 10 stamina and is decided the moment your fleet arrives.
• Every hero on the march earns the full Captain XP, so bring three.
• Loot is limited by what your surviving ships can carry home.
• Each kill has a chance to drop a Fortune Chest and a Gear Crate.
• A slain pack surfaces again somewhere else in its band a little later.

Level	Brood	Ships	Cells from the Citadel	Loot (up to what your holds carry)
1	Brine Skitters	8	169 to 184	800800300150
2	Brine Skitters	10	164 to 184	912912342171
3	Brine Skitters	16	159 to 184	1k1k390195
4	Brine Skitters	23	153 to 183	1.2k1.2k444222
5	Brine Skitters	36	148 to 178	1.4k1.4k507253
6	Brine Skitters	62	143 to 173	1.5k1.5k578289
7	Reef Serpents	111	138 to 168	1.8k1.8k658329
8	Reef Serpents	204	132 to 162	2k2k751375
9	Reef Serpents	375	127 to 157	2.3k2.3k856428
10	Reef Serpents	688	122 to 152	2.6k2.6k976488
11	Reef Serpents	1.1k	117 to 147	3k3k1.1k556
12	Reef Serpents	1.9k	111 to 141	3.4k3.4k1.3k634
13	Storm Rays	3.2k	106 to 136	3.9k3.9k1.4k723
14	Storm Rays	5.3k	101 to 131	4.4k4.4k1.6k824
15	Storm Rays	9.1k	96 to 126	5k5k1.9k939
16	Storm Rays	13k	90 to 120	5.7k5.7k2.1k1.1k
17	Storm Rays	18.7k	85 to 115	6.5k6.5k2.4k1.2k
18	Storm Rays	27.5k	80 to 110	7.4k7.4k2.8k1.4k
19	Abyssal Maws	39.6k	75 to 105	8.5k8.5k3.2k1.6k
20	Abyssal Maws	58.1k	69 to 99	9.6k9.6k3.6k1.8k
21	Abyssal Maws	80k	64 to 94	11k11k4.1k2.1k
22	Abyssal Maws	109k	59 to 89	12.5k12.5k4.7k2.4k
23	Abyssal Maws	150k	54 to 84	14.3k14.3k5.4k2.7k
24	Abyssal Maws	206k	48 to 78	16.3k16.3k6.1k3.1k
25	Drowned Leviathans	283k	43 to 73	18.6k18.6k7k3.5k
26	Drowned Leviathans	346k	38 to 68	21.2k21.2k7.9k4k
27	Drowned Leviathans	426k	33 to 63	24.1k24.1k9.1k4.5k
28	Drowned Leviathans	524k	32 to 57	27.5k27.5k10.3k5.2k
29	Drowned Leviathans	642k	32 to 52	31.4k31.4k11.8k5.9k
30	Drowned Leviathans	791k	32 to 47	35.8k35.8k13.4k6.7k

The eight wardens

The wardens themselves are a different matter. They can only be fought by a rally: one captain sounds the horn and their Hive sails together. See rallies. Each warden keeps to its own ring, numbered 8 at the rim down to 1 at the Maelstrom's door, and the deeper ones only surface as your kingdom grows older.

1. 8

   Reef Drake creature level 1, from day 0

   No longer than a longboat, and it suns itself on the shoals like it owns them. Every captain's first real fight — and the first thing out here that ever answered a horn.

   1.9k strong169 to 184 cells out2 Beast Cores a win

   60k60k30k12k

2. 7

   Tide Serpent creature level 2, from day 0

   It runs with the tide and turns with it, so you never fight it where you found it. The old charts mark its ring. It has not been on it in four hundred years.

   14.4k strong147 to 177 cells out3 Beast Cores a win

   78k78k39k15.6k

3. 6

   Brine Kraken creature level 3, from day 0

   Eight arms, no hurry. It takes a hull the way you'd take a cork from a bottle — slowly, and all at once.

   61.2k strong126 to 156 cells out4 Beast Cores a win

   101k101k50.7k20.3k

4. 5

   Storm Ray creature level 4, surfaces on kingdom day 30

   It rides ahead of foul weather, which is why every squall out here looks sent. A warden pulling on its tether drags the sky along with it.

   317k strong104 to 134 cells out5 Beast Cores a win

   132k132k65.9k26.4k

5. 4

   Abyssal Angler creature level 5, surfaces on kingdom day 60

   The light comes first. By the time you've worked out the light is attached to something, you've been sailing toward it an hour.

   491k strong82 to 112 cells out6 Beast Cores a win

   171k171k85.7k34.3k

6. 3

   Frost Orca creature level 6, surfaces on kingdom day 100

   It carries cold up from where cold lives. Rigging stiffens, hands slow, and it circles — always the same way round. The way its ring once turned.

   1.3M strong60 to 90 cells out7 Beast Cores a win

   223k223k111k44.6k

7. 2

   Maelstrom Hydra creature level 7, surfaces on kingdom day 150

   It surfaces in nine places at once and none of them are guesses. Named for the prison it was bound to — not the other way about, whatever the new charts say.

   1.6M strong39 to 69 cells out8 Beast Cores a win

   290k290k145k57.9k

8. 1

   Elder Leviathan creature level 8, surfaces on kingdom day 210

   The first thing that ever came up, and the only one that has never gone back down. It does not circle the Maelstrom. The Maelstrom circles it.

   2.3M strong32 to 47 cells out9 Beast Cores a win

   376k376k188k75.3k

A warden's loot is shared between everyone in the rally. Its Beast Cores are not shared: every captain in a winning rally receives the full count. Cores are the only way to tame a warden of your own, which is the business of the Beast Pen.

A warden pulled off its ring has spent an age being the line that holds, and it goes looking for a new line. Give it one. A tamed warden does not sail into battle. It strengthens every squad you own, all the time, and the bonuses of every beast in your pen add together.

Opens at

Manor 15

And when the kingdom is

40 days old

To tame one

10 Beast Cores

Beast calls at once

1

Taming

Each warden is tamed with ten Beast Cores of its own kind, and cores only drop from winning a rally against that warden. You cannot buy the beast itself.

The pen is also a ladder. Each warden asks that the one before it is already tamed and raised to a certain level, so nobody skips to the deep ones.

Raising a beast

• Levels cost Chum. Every level adds a sliver of Attack and Defense to all your squads.
• Every 10 levels the beast must be advanced before it can go on. Advancing costs Ring-Iron, the old tether metal, and gives a bigger jump.
• Level caps depend on quality: Rare wardens stop at 50, Epic at 70, Legendary at 100.

Refinement

Each beast also carries six small bonuses: Health and Lethality for each of the three ship types. Spend a Taming Mark to re-roll all six. Every stat can step up to a better band and rolls again inside it, and it keeps whichever is higher, the old value or the new one. A refinement can never make a beast worse.

Beast calls

At level 10 a beast learns its call: a strong buff to all your squads that lasts 2 hours and then rests for 20. The call grows stronger every ten levels. Only one call can be active across your whole pen, so sound the right one before a rally, a Citadel fight or a big raid.

Where the supplies come from

• Beast Cores: winning warden rallies. Nowhere else.
• Chum, Ring-Iron and Taming Marks: the Hive Stores, the Arena Quartermaster and the Warden's Bazaar each stock some every week, and the Treasury sells them. See Stores & VIP.

Every fight in the game, from a level 1 hunt to the Citadel, is settled by the same rules. You do not steer it. You win it beforehand, with what you send and who leads it.

The shape of a fight

• Each stack fights as a unit. Your 400 Tier 3 Broadsides are one unit. Your 200 Tier 2 Longshots are another.
• Both sides fire at the same time, volley after volley, until one side has nothing left.
• Targets follow the Trinity. A stack aims at the biggest enemy stack of the type it counters, for 35% more damage. See the Trinity.
• Size sets the tempo. Huge fleets hit proportionally harder, so big battles do not drag. Size changes how fast a fight ends, never who wins it.
• A fight that somehow lasts 300 volleys ends with the attacker pulling back.

What heroes add

A hero on a march strengthens the stacks of their own type. Their Expedition skills switch on at the first volley: some are flat boosts to your squads, some weaken the enemy, and many roll a chance on every volley.

Four stats matter. Attack and Lethality raise the damage you deal. Defense and Health decide how long your hulls last. Shields from abilities can absorb at most half a unit's hull, and no stack of damage reduction can cut a hit below a quarter.

Where your losses go

Ships that fall in battle are not all gone. Against another captain, or in a Hive fight for a sanctuary, a fortress or the Citadel, half of every loss is saved with no Surgeon's Shack, and a taller Shack saves more, up to 85%.

The sea's creatures never sink a ship. In a hunt, or a rally on a creature, every ship you lose is injured, not lost, whatever your Shack. The one way a hunt costs you ships is a full Infirmary, below.

Lightly injured

return by themselves after a short timer

Injured

wait in the Infirmary until you pay to heal them

Lost

gone for good

• Healing costs a fraction of what the ships cost to build and runs on a timer your Hive can help with.
• The Infirmary has beds, set by your Surgeon's Shack level. When it is full, 30% of the overflow dies and the rest are taken by the Press Gang.
• Press-ganged ships can be bought back with Loyalty, which trickles in from 240 a day and faster at the higher Surgeon's Shack levels. Every ship costs 2 Loyalty, whatever its tier, so a Press Gang as big as your Infirmary is back within a month at most.

The battle report

Every fight writes a report. It arrives by mail, and a toast takes you straight to it. Your side is always on the left in teal.

• Overview: ships sent, kills, losses, injured, lightly injured, and the Power each side lost.
• Bonus details: the real stat bonuses each side's ships fought with.
• Heroes and skills: how often each skill triggered, the damage it dealt and the damage it saved.
• The timeline: how the fight swung, volley by volley.
• Insights: a few plain sentences on why it went the way it did. A counter, a stat gap, a lucky skill.

Star a report to keep it, or share it to Hive or World chat. Anyone in your kingdom can open a shared report.

Sooner or later someone sails at your island, or you sail at theirs. This page covers both ends of that march.

Shields

A shielded island cannot be scouted, raided or rallied. Every new captain starts under a 72-hour shield. After that, protection is something you choose.

Shield	Price	Supply
8h charge	free	5 charges, one back every 7 days
2h shield	40	any time off cooldown
8h shield	120	any time off cooldown
24h shield	300	any time off cooldown
72h shield	700	any time off cooldown

Scouting

Scout before you commit. A scout is a small, fast march that carries no heroes and fights nobody. The more ships you send, the more the report reveals, and bigger targets need more ships for the same detail. A good Crow's Nest on the other side may spot your scout.

Raiding

1. Tap an unshielded island and choose Raid. Your shield drops.
2. The defender is warned. They always get at least 30 seconds.
3. Your march fights the island's garrison and its towers.
4. Win, and your surviving ships load everything above the defender's safe line, up to what their holds can carry, and sail home with it.

A solo raid on an island of similar strength is hard on purpose, because every ship the defender owns is at home. Islands like that are rally targets. Solo raids are for softer prey, or for captains whose fleets are out.

Your garrison

You do not have to set up a defence for it to exist.

• Every ship in your harbour defends. Ships out on a march do not.
• Three heroes lead the garrison, one of each type. Choose them at the Guard Post. If your pick is away, the strongest hero of that type at home steps in.
• Towers fire on the attackers. Against raids they fire at half strength.
• A Legendary whose weapon skill reads "when defending the island" uses it here.
• If you are anchored to your Hive, the Chain Net stiffens the whole garrison. See anchoring.

Garrison losses go to your Infirmary and Press Gang like any others.

The Crow's Nest

The Crow's Nest sounds the alarm the moment a raid sets sail, with a countdown on every screen. A taller Nest tells you more.

Fire

Losing a defence does more than cost you resources. Some of your residents are laid up, and the island catches fire.

Island integrity

100 +10 per Guard Post level

Each lost defence

−25

While burning

−5 an hour

Repair

+25 every 30 min

Douse it now

120 Doubloons

If integrity reaches zero, your island is carried off to a random spot in the same waters and given a free 8-hour shield. It is the sea's way of ending a siege: nobody can farm the same island forever.

Not being a target

• Keep your stores under the safe line. Raiders check the scout report, and an island with nothing above the line is not worth the ships.
• Raise the Vault. Its protection is sized to keep your next Manor upgrade safe.
• Keep VIP time running if you can. It adds a large flat amount to the safe line.
• Use the free shield charges before a night away. You hold up to 5.
• Join a Hive and anchor. Lone islands get picked first.

The Arena is where you fight other captains without risking a plank of your island. It opens at Manor 7 once the Arena is built. Nothing is lost here except trophies.

How it works

• You set one lineup of five heroes. Each leads a squad of a hundred ships. The same lineup attacks for you and defends for you while you are away.
• Pick an opponent from the Challenge List. The fight resolves at once and you get the full battle report.
• Win and you take trophies from them. Beating someone above you pays more.
• A draw goes to the defender. If time runs out, the attacker needs clearly more hull left to be given the win.
• The Arena uses Expedition skills.

Attempts

5

One returns every

hour

Refill

50 Doubloons

Each win pays

150 Gold, 400 Captain XP, 1 token

Tiers and seasons

A season lasts 30 days. When it ends you are paid by the highest tier you reached, not where you finished, and trophies are pulled part of the way back toward the middle for a fresh climb.

Tier	Trophies	Season reward, by your peak tier
Bronze	0	20 Arena Tokens50 Doubloons
Silver	400	40 Arena Tokens120 Doubloons
Gold	800	70 Arena Tokens220 Doubloons
Platinum	1,200	110 Arena Tokens360 Doubloons
Diamond	1,600	160 Arena Tokens540 Doubloons
Legend	2,000	240 Arena Tokens800 Doubloons

Building a lineup

• Mix the three types. A lineup of one type folds to whoever brings its counter.
• Stars and skill levels count for more here than raw ship numbers, because every squad is the same size.
• Look at your opponent's lineup before you attack. The list shows their five faces.

Arena Tokens are spent at the Arena Quartermaster in the Market, which stocks hero shards on a rotation along with Beast Pen supplies.

The Navigator's Sanctum is the solo campaign: your five best heroes against a ladder of 1,000 stages. It opens at Manor 3 and it is the best steady source of Captain XP in the game.

Climbing

• Pick five heroes on the Squad Settings screen. Quick Deploy fills it with your strongest.
• You can only attempt the next stage. There is no going back to farm old ones.
• Every 5th stage is a boss. Every 10th is a wall, tougher than its neighbours.
• When your squad's power is at least double the stage's, the button reads Victory is assured and skips the fight.
• Losing costs nothing. Raise your heroes and try again.

What a first clear pays

• Captain XP and Gold on every stage, growing with depth.
• Bosses add a Gear Crate and 8 Mastery Hammers.
• Hero shards on the first four stages, on every boss up to stage 60, and on every twentieth stage after that.

The Smuggler's Boat

The chest on the Sanctum screen fills by itself, around the clock, at a rate set by the highest stage you have cleared. It pays Gold, Captain XP and, the deeper you are, Gear Crates more and more often.

Per stage cleared, each hour

10 Gold, 30 Captain XP

Stops filling after

9 hours

Every stage you clear is a permanent raise. Collect it at least twice a day so it never sits full.

Intel missions

The Intel board opens at Manor 5. It pins 8 missions every 8 hours, at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC, and it is the metronome of a good day.

• Three kinds turn up: Sea Beast Hunts, Castaway Rescues and Tavern Brawls. Each costs 10 stamina.
• Missions come in five qualities. Better quality means a harder fight and a richer reward.
• The Dread Bounty is the board's boss. It costs 25 stamina and grows tougher each time you beat it in a cycle.
• Rewards include Captain XP, Crimson Vane shards on the better missions, and Harpoons for your Hive's Drowned Colossus.
• Completing missions raises your Intel level, up to 20, which improves the quality the board deals you.

A Hive is an alliance of captains in one kingdom. Joining one is the single biggest upgrade available to a new player, and it costs nothing. The Hive opens at Manor 5 once you have built the Great Anchor.

Founding or joining

Tap the Hive tab, or the big button in Alliance chat. The panel has two tabs.

• Join lists every Hive in your kingdom with its tag, level and member count. Open Hives have a Join button.
• Create needs a name and a tag of 3 to 5 letters, and a choice between open to all and invite only.

You can belong to one Hive at a time. Ranks run Member, Elder, Officer, Leader. A Hive starts with room for 50 captains and gains 5 more with every Hive level. The Hive levels up from its members' contribution.

Help

Every build, research, training order and Infirmary heal you start posts a help request by itself. Each crewmate can tap it once, and each tap cuts time off your timer. Help all answers every open request in the Hive in one tap.

How much each tap is worth, and how many crewmates can help one timer, depends on the level of your own Great Anchor.

Donating

Donating turns resources into Alliance Credits for you and contribution for the Hive. One tap spends one charge.

Charges

20

One returns every

7 min

First tap of the day pays

20 credits

Twentieth pays

285 credits

Each tap in a day costs more than the one before and pays more credits. The ladder resets at 00:00 UTC. Credits are spent at the Hive Stores in the Market.

Gifts

• The daily gift. One free chest a day for every member.
• Purchase gifts. Whenever any member buys something in the Treasury, every member receives a gift chest. Bigger purchases drop better chests.
• Gifts expire after 72 hours, so open them when you see the dot.
• Every gift also raises the Hive's gift level, which makes future chests richer.

Anchoring and the Chain Net

A Hive has a home on the sea chart, marked by its Great Anchor. Anchoring moves your island into the cluster around it.

• Each anchored island adds 3% to the Chain Net, up to 30%. The Net strengthens every anchored member's garrison.
• A raider has to sail into the middle of all of you, and a rally from your Hive is never far away.
• If the Hive has not placed its anchor yet, a Leader anchoring drops it at their own island.

Chat

Chat opens at Manor 6. The strip above the navigation bar shows the latest lines, and a swipe changes channel. World is your whole kingdom, Alliance is your Hive, and Personal is private messages, which also reach captains in other kingdoms.

What else a Hive gives you

• Rallies against wardens, enemy islands and the great prizes.
• The Drowned Colossus, a rally target only your Hive can raise.
• Buffs for every member from sanctuaries and fortresses held in the Sanctuary War.
• A run at the Citadel and the crown.

Some things on the sea are too big for one captain. A rally gathers several marches under one leader and lands them as a single blow.

Rallies

1. Someone opens it. Tap a target and choose Rally. Opening costs 25 stamina and you pick how long to gather: 5, 10, 30 or 60 minutes.
2. Crewmates join. Each composes a march on the deploy screen and commits it. Joining is free. One march per captain.
3. The horn sounds. When the timer ends the whole rally sails as one and fights as one.
4. Everyone goes home. Loot is split evenly, each captain's losses go to their own Infirmary, and every march folds back into its own harbour.

Marches in a rally

3 +2 per 5 Command Center levels of the leader

Joiner skills that count

the best 4

Who brings what

• The leader brings the heroes and the account bonuses. Their heroes lead every march in the rally, and their research, Governor gear and pets apply to all of it.
• Each joiner brings ships, and lends one skill: the first Expedition skill of the hero they put in slot 1.
• Only the four highest-level joiner skills count. The lobby shows which.
• Identical skills add up. A chance skill rolls once, at the level of the best copy.

What you can rally

• The eight wardens, for big loot and Beast Cores.
• An enemy island. This drops the shield of everyone who opens or joins, and takes loot by the same rules as a raid.
• Sanctuaries and fortresses during the Sanctuary War.
• The Maelstrom Citadel during its window.

The Drowned Colossus

The Drowned Colossus is your Hive's own rally target: a stone giant of the Drowned Kingdom that an Officer raises beside the Great Anchor. It has no hull to sink and it never fires back. Every rally simply scores the damage it does.

Stands for

30 minutes

Can be raised again after

about 2 days

Rally countdown

5 minutes

Only rallies reach it, and only from an island anchored to the Hive. Opening and joining are free, and no ship is ever lost. Each march scores its own damage, fighting on the rally leader's bonuses and heroes, so joining a strong leader's rally scores more. Archers do the damage: a march of almost all Longshots, with a sliver of Vanguards and Broadsides, scores best.

Your damage pays twice. When the Colossus sinks, every damage bracket you reached in that raising pays out, and each bracket needs double the last. Beyond that, a lifetime ladder pays each rung once, the first time a single raising carries you past it.

The Tidechain is the Hive's standing investment. Members donate Harpoons, which come from Intel missions, and every level makes every march hit the Colossus harder.

The Sanctuary War

Sixteen strongholds stand in fixed places on every kingdom's sea: four fortresses close to the Maelstrom and twelve sanctuaries further out. Every second Saturday at 12:00 UTC, for four hours, every Hive can fight for them. The first war comes on kingdom day 28.

• During the window any Hive may rally any stronghold, and any member may attack one with a march of their own.
• Break the garrison and your Hive starts a hold. Keep it unbroken for the full time and the stronghold is yours.
• A rival winning a fight there takes the hold over and the clock starts again. If you already own it, winning cancels their hold.
• When the window closes, each member of a holding Hive is mailed the spoils for every stronghold held.
• You keep a stronghold, and its buff, until another Hive takes it in a later war.

Kind	Unbroken hold to take it	Garrison hull	Spoils for each member at the close
Sanctuary	15 min	2.9M	40k Timber40k Iron20k Rum10k Gold2 × 1h Speedup60 Event Tokens
Fortress	30 min	54.5M	100k Timber100k Iron50k Rum25k Gold5 × 1h Speedup50 Doubloons150 Event Tokens

Buffs from several strongholds add together. That is the whole point of holding more than one.

You can see all sixteen on the sea chart.

You live in one kingdom: one sea, one World chat, one set of rivals. New kingdoms open on a schedule, and each is its own world. You can look into the others from the kingdoms grid, but everything you fight for is at home.

The kingdom clock

Every kingdom runs the same script, counted in days from its first Monday. That first Monday is kingdom day 0. New events, new wardens and new generations of heroes arrive on fixed days, so no kingdom gets a head start and every captain in yours sees the same thing on the same morning.

The Kingdom screen shows your kingdom's day and what arrives next. The full schedule is in the launch script.

Generations

Legendary heroes come in generations of three: one Vanguard, one Broadside, one Longshot. Generation 1 is there from day 0. A new generation joins every sixty days until the sixth. Their Chronicles tell one long story about the Maelstrom, and it is worth reading in order.

The Maelstrom Citadel

At the centre of the sea stands the Citadel. Whoever holds it names the Pirate King.

First siege

kingdom day 50

Then

every second Saturday, 12:00 UTC

Window

5 hours

Outright win

2.5 hours held

• The Citadel can only be attacked by rally, and only during the window.
• A winning rally breaks the garrison and that Hive takes the Citadel. It stays attackable, so other Hives rally to throw them out.
• The Hive with the most total time in possession when the window ends wins. Hold it for half the window and nobody can catch you, so the siege ends on the spot.
• The Citadel and the Sanctuary War take alternate Saturdays. There is a war every weekend.

The Pirate King

The winning Hive's leader has 10 hours to name the King from among their own members. If they name nobody, the leader wears the crown.

• Every member of the King's Hive fights with +5% Attack, Defense, Health and Lethality for the whole reign.
• The King hands out titles: ministries for friends, marks of shame for enemies.
• The reign lasts until the next siege is decided.

Titles

A title holds one captain at a time. Ministries last the reign. Marks of shame last a day, no more than 2 can be out at once, and a captain who has just worn one cannot be given another straight away. Every appointment is written in a public ledger on the Kingdom screen.

Events are not random. Every kingdom runs the same four-week cycle on its own clock, with weeks starting Monday 00:00 UTC. Once you know the cycle, you know when to hoard speedups, when to hold your keys and when to keep your fleet home.

The four weeks

• Every week has a Solo Challenge with a rotating theme.
• Weeks 1 and 3 open with the Treasure Voyage. Weeks 2 and 4 open with Smuggler's Run.
• Three weeks of four have a headliner: the Kill Event weekend, the Pirate Lord Trials, then Alliance Mobilization. The fourth week has none.
• Every Saturday at 12:00 UTC there is a war: the Sanctuary War and the Citadel take turns.

The in-game Calendar, behind the Events door on your island, shows the next seven days with a live clock and a tab for every event that is running.

Clocks of your own

A few things run on your clock instead of the kingdom's.

• The Broodtide comes for your island every 8 hours, counted from the day you landed.
• The Castaway's Landfall runs for your first seven days.
• The Drowned Colossus stands when your Hive's officers raise it.
• Arena and Voyage Pass seasons last thirty days.
• Intel refills at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC. Dailies reset at 00:00 UTC.

The launch script

A young kingdom does not get everything at once. Events, wardens and hero generations arrive on fixed kingdom days. The game shows you what is next on the Calendar's arrivals list.

Most events score things you already do. You do not sign up. If you are playing while one runs, you are in it. Milestones are claimed on the event's own screen, and leaderboard prizes arrive when it ends. Solo Challenge and Warpath milestones also pay Event Tokens, which the Warden's Bazaar takes.

Solo Challenges

One theme a week, Monday to Monday, on a ten-week rotation. Five milestones to claim and a kingdom leaderboard.

Weekend Warpath

• Kill Event. Two days, Saturday and Sunday of the cycle's first week. Every raid won and every Arena victory scores. Expect the sea to be busy and keep an eye on your shield.
• Alliance Mobilization. Six days in the third week. Donations and help taps score, so it rewards the captains who look after their Hive.

The Pirate Lord Trials

The month's headline: seven days in the cycle's second week, each with its own trial, its own five milestones and its own daily board. Your points across all seven decide the grand ranking, and you need 250,000 points to be ranked at all. The kingdom's top captain is crowned Pirate Lord.

Treasure Voyage

Five days, every other week, from Manor 6. Ordinary play earns Compass Tokens. Spend 8 to chart the next node of a 50-node map hidden in fog. Most nodes hold loot. Some are traps that cost you a little. Rewards unlock at 5, 15, 30 and 50 nodes charted.

Smuggler's Run

Five days, on the weeks the Treasure Voyage rests, from Manor 6. You earn Contraband by playing and by selling spare resources to the smugglers, up to a daily limit. Spend it at a black-market stall of 6 offers that changes every run. A good way to turn a resource you have too much of into speedups.

The Broodtide

The one event you play with your hands. It opens at Manor 6 once you have a Tower. Every 8 hours a shoal of brood comes ashore on your island and makes for the Manor, and you have a 4-hour window to answer it.

• Your Towers fire by themselves. Your Governor is yours to steer: drag to send them where the fight is. The Governor can move and fire at once.
• The brood also go for your outlying stores. Stand at the gate and the stores burn. Sail out to save them and the Manor is thinner. That choice is the event.
• Three ways to resolve it: play it, finish it now on autopilot, or be away, in which case it resolves the same way autopilot would and mails you the result.
• You are paid for every wave you clear, even in defeat. Holding the island pays everything again, and saved stores add salvage.

The Castaway's Charter

A lifetime ladder, open from Manor 2, with no timer at all. Everything you do earns Renown, and eight steps pay out as you pass them. It counts everything you have ever done, so the first time you open it there is usually something to claim.

The Voyage Pass

A thirty-day season with thirty levels, from Manor 7. Play earns pass XP: 1,000 a level. Every level has a free reward. A paid track adds a second reward on each level, and buying it late still gives you everything you have already passed.

The Blacksmith opens at Manor 8. Everything it teaches is permanent and applies to your whole account, which makes it the best long-term use of a queue you have.

How research works

• One project at a time. Keep it running. An idle Blacksmith is as wasteful as an idle builder.
• Deeper projects need a taller Blacksmith and earlier projects finished first.
• Projects cost resources. The higher military ones also ask for Blueprints.
• Research timers take speedups and Hive help like any other.
• Finished projects score in Blacksmith's Week and on the Trials' Ropes & Rigging day.

Economy

More from your workshops and more from the sea.

Military

Defense, then Attack, then Hull for each ship type, with squad-wide Lethality and Health beyond them. These reach the ships themselves, so they count in every kind of fight.

Logistics

Faster marches, bigger holds and quicker rallies.

The Governor is you: the face in the top corner of the screen, the figure on your Profile, and the captain you steer by hand when the Broodtide comes ashore. Late in the game the Governor also becomes one of your strongest sources of raw fleet power.

Governor gear

Gear opens at Manor 22. There are six pieces, two for each ship type, and every piece raises that type's Attack and Defense by the same amount. Unlike hero gear, nothing drops and nothing is equipped. You forge each piece once and then enhance it.

Attack and Defense, each piece the same figure at every level.

Piece	Buffs every	Lv 1	Lv 10	Max	Max level
Captain's Tricorne	Vanguard	+9.3%	+87.4%	+171%	15
Boarding Coat	Vanguard	+9.3%	+87.4%	+171%	15
Gunner's Sabre	Broadside	+9.3%	+87.4%	+171%	15
Powder Sash	Broadside	+9.3%	+87.4%	+171%	15
Brass Spyglass	Longshot	+9.3%	+87.4%	+171%	15
Ranger's Boots	Longshot	+9.3%	+87.4%	+171%	15

• Forging and enhancing are instant. No timers.
• Every level costs Hardened Brass and Tarred Canvas. From level 6, Kraken Ink as well.
• The bonus applies to the ships themselves, in every fight, whether or not a hero is aboard.

Charms

Charms open at Manor 25. Each piece of gear has 3 charm slots, and each charm climbs ten levels, adding Attack and Health for that piece's ship type. Charms cost Charm Etching and Hex Beads.

Where the materials come from

Events, quests and chests carry all five materials, and the Treasury sells them. The Bag lists what you hold under Other, and tapping a material takes you to this screen.

Feats of Renown are one-time achievements. Each track counts something across your whole career and pays Doubloons at five tiers. They open at Manor 4.

The feats

Feats count everything you have ever done, including what you did before you opened the screen. The last tier of a track usually comes with a portrait frame.

Cosmetics

Cosmetics change how you look to other captains and never how you fight. Open the Wardrobe from your Profile to wear what you own.

• Frames go around your portrait, in chat and on your Profile.
• Nameplates and chat bubbles dress your name and your messages.
• Island and march skins change how your island and fleets look on the sea chart.

Frames are earned: feat capstones, the Castaway's Charter, the top of the Colossus ladder. Skins are bought with Sea Glass, which comes from Daily Missions chests, at the Skins post in the Market.

The Wheel of Infamy

For captains at VIP 12, VIP XP beyond the top rank becomes a pool to spend on the Wheel of Infamy. Spins pay Infamy, spent in the Infamy Hall, and Relic Fragments toward a full skin set. The Wheel's segments are drawn without replacement, so its jackpot is certain within a fixed number of spins, and the odds are shown on the Wheel.

There are three stores, and it helps to know which is which. The Market takes currencies you earn by playing. The Treasury takes real money. Infamy is for the very top of the VIP ladder.

The Market

The Market is the Shop tab on the navigation bar. It has one post per wallet. Most posts restock every Monday, and a post only appears once you have opened the system behind it.

• The Arena and Hive posts each carry a rotation of hero shards. This is the steady free route to heroes the Tavern does not drop.
• Three different posts stock Beast Pen supplies, so no single activity is the only road to a raised pet.

The Treasury

The Treasury opens from the Doubloon tile in the top bar. Purchases are delivered by the payment provider, not by your phone, so a purchase still arrives if the app closes halfway through.

• Limited Offers
• Captain's Choice
• Beastkeeper's Choice
• Shipwright's Booster
• March Queues
• Daily Deals
• Cards
• Supply Packs
• Weapon Widgets
• Honor Fund
• First Voyage
• Doubloon Coffers

• Free chests sit on the first tabs every day. Take them.
• Pack ladders. Repeatable packs come as five rungs. Buy one and the next, larger rung takes its place. Ladders return to the first rung every Monday.
• Cards pay Doubloons daily for their run. The Monthly Card adds two conveniences: your Hive's help requests are answered for you, and a won hunt sails on to the next beast by itself.
• The Honor Fund pays out as your Manor reaches each milestone.
• Every purchase drops a gift chest to your whole Hive.

VIP

Every captain is VIP 1 from the start. VIP has two parts, and they work differently.

• Rank rises when you apply VIP XP on the VIP screen. XP items come with purchases and from the free daily chest. They sit in your Bag until you use them.
• The daily chest starts at 100 VIP XP and grows by 10 for each day in a row you claim it, up to 400. Miss a day and it starts over.
• The Daily Free Bundle grows with your rank and needs VIP time to be running.
• The extra safe storage is the benefit new captains feel most. When your VIP time lapses, that protection goes with it. See the safe line.

Two Legendary heroes belong to the VIP ladder alone. Seabane the Unbought is sold through the Special Packs of VIP 1 to 6, and Goldmaw the Insatiable through VIP 7 to 12. Each set of six packs holds exactly enough shards to take that hero to five stars.

Island

Heroes

The sea and war

Time and money

Island words

Manor

The Captain's Manor. Its level caps every other building and opens new systems. See The Manor Ladder.

Resident

Someone living on your island. One bunk plus one meal makes one resident.

Bunk

A bed inside a Crew Quarters. Up to four per house.

Station

The working bench inside a workshop: Sawbench, Anvil, Copper Still, Assay Table. A seated station produces. An empty one does not.

Fit-out

Raising the stations or bunks inside a building to their cap, which the building needs before it can level up.

Spare hand

A resident with no station to sit at. Each one gives every workshop a small bonus.

Safe line

The amount of each resource raiders can never take. Your Vault plus your VIP storage bonus.

Captain's Log

The quest book. Its chapters pay for most of the early game.

Bag

Your inventory, opened from the corner of the island screen. Tap an item to go where it is spent.

Coins and items

Doubloons

The premium coin. Earned slowly, bought quickly.

Speedup

An item that cuts 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours off a running timer.

Skeleton Key

One recruitment call at the Tavern.

Fortune Chest

One call on the richer Epic Recruitment table.

Shard

A piece of a hero. Ten unlock the hero. The rest buy stars.

Shard Dust

What surplus shards turn into. It buys shards for heroes you are still collecting.

Captain XP

A shared pool you pour into any hero to raise their level.

Conquest and Expedition Books

Level a hero's skills. Conquest Books for Sanctum skills, Expedition Books for all the others.

Weapon Widget

Levels a Legendary's exclusive weapon. Each generation has its own widgets.

Gear Crate

Opens into one piece of hero gear.

Whetstone

Enhances and reforges hero gear.

Mastery Hammer

Pays for Mastery Forging, the tier above enhancement.

Blueprint

Asked for by higher military research.

Stamina

Spent on hunts, Intel missions and opening rallies.

Stamina Ration

An item worth ten stamina. Rations can lift you above a full bar.

Alliance Credits

Earned by donating to your Hive. Spent at the Hive Stores.

Arena Tokens

Earned from Arena wins and seasons. Spent at the Arena Quartermaster.

Event Tokens

Paid by event milestones and war spoils. Spent at the Warden's Bazaar.

Sea Glass

From Daily Missions chests. Buys skins.

Harpoons

From Intel missions. Donated to your Hive's Tidechain so every march hits the Drowned Colossus harder.

Compass Token

Charts a node on the Treasure Voyage.

Contraband

The currency of Smuggler's Run.

Loyalty

Trickles in daily. Buys ships back from the Press Gang.

VIP XP

Applied on the VIP screen to raise your rank.

VIP time

The clock that switches your VIP benefits on. Rank is permanent. Time runs out.

Infamy

Won on the Wheel of Infamy at VIP 12. Spent in the Infamy Hall.

Fleet and battle words

The Trinity

Vanguard beats Broadside, Broadside beats Longshot, Longshot beats Vanguard.

Tier

A hull's grade, 1 to 10. Higher is stronger, costlier and unlocked by a taller yard.

Stack

All your ships of one type and tier. A stack fights as one unit.

March

A fleet you send out: ships and up to three heroes. It folds back into the harbour when it lands.

March slot

How many marches you can have out at once.

Garrison

Every ship at home, led by three heroes, defending your island.

Lethality

The fourth combat stat. A flat boost to damage, earned from weapons, gear, skills, research, pets and VIP.

Power

One number for your whole account's strength. Useful for comparing, useless for predicting a fight against the wrong hull type.

Infirmary

Where injured ships wait to be healed. Its beds come from the Surgeon's Shack.

Press Gang

Where injured ships go when the Infirmary is full. Bought back with Loyalty.

Rally

Several marches under one leader, landing as a single attack.

Conquest and Expedition

The two skill trees. Conquest works in the Sanctum. Expedition works everywhere else.

Pip

One sixth of a star.

The world

Hive

An alliance.

Great Anchor

The building that lets you join a Hive, and the Hive's home on the sea chart.

Chain Net

A garrison bonus for members anchored around their Hive's Great Anchor.

Kingdom

One sea and everyone on it. Also called a server elsewhere.

Kingdom day

Your kingdom's age, counted from its first Monday. It decides which events, wardens and heroes exist yet.

Generation

A set of three Legendary heroes that arrives together. Six in all, sixty days apart.

The Maelstrom

The storm at the centre of the sea. A prison, built by the Drowned Kingdom.

The Citadel

The fortress at the Maelstrom's heart. Hold it longest in a siege and your Hive names the Pirate King.

Warden

One of the eight great beasts bound to the Maelstrom's rings. Fought by rally. Tameable.

Brood

Warden spawn. The roaming beasts you hunt alone, and what comes ashore in the Broodtide.

Beast Core

Dropped by a warden to every captain in a winning rally. Ten tame one.

Chum

Levels a tamed beast.

Ring-Iron

The old tether metal. Advances a beast past every tenth level.

Taming Mark

Re-rolls a beast's six refinement bonuses.

Sanctuaries and fortresses

Sixteen strongholds fought over in the Sanctuary War. Each gives its holders a buff.

Pirate King

Named by the Hive that wins the Citadel. Hands out titles.

Karath

A word in the Drowned Kingdom's script: "I am the line that holds." You will see it again.

Pirate Archipelago is a pirate strategy game for phones. Build your island, recruit captains, sail the sea, raid your mates and fight sea monsters with your Hive. Think Kingshot or Whiteout Survival, but with pirates and a proper story.

It is not released yet. That means you can still shape it. And no, you do not need to know how to code.

Why you can help

Most of this game has been built by talking to an AI, Claude. You describe what you want in plain words, it does the technical bit, and it explains what it did. Your job is the part AI is bad at: taste, fun and honest opinions.

If you can play a mobile game and say "this is boring" or "this is confusing", you are qualified.

Ways to pitch in

Pick whatever sounds fun. One is plenty.

• Playtester. Play the builds and tell us what felt slow, confusing or awesome. A screenshot and one sentence is gold.
• Story and lore. The game has a deep sea mythology: ancient sea beasts chained as a prison, a cursed admiral, a storm that is not natural. Write captain backstories, item descriptions, quest text, funny pirate lines.
• Art direction. Help pick between AI-generated art options, and write the descriptions that generate new heroes, buildings and monsters. "Make him grumpier" is real, useful feedback.
• Balance. Love spreadsheets or min-maxing? Help decide how long builds take, what things cost, and what is fair between free and paying players.
• Ideas and design. "What if Hives could..." Write it down. Good ideas become specs, and specs become features.
• Sound and music. Describe the vibe. We generate and pick.

How it actually works

1. You get access. We add you to the project and to the AI tool, Claude. It takes five minutes.
2. You chat with Claude. Like texting a very patient friend: "Read the story of Captain Vane and write a funny tavern rumour about him." or "Why does the Shipyard screen feel so cluttered?"
3. Claude does the fiddly bits. It finds the right files, makes the changes and checks nothing broke.
4. We review before anything goes in. You cannot break the game. Worst case, we just do not use it.

Rules of the ship

• Ask anything. There are no dumb questions. The AI will not judge you and neither will we.
• Opinions beat politeness. "This is bad because..." is more useful than "looks nice!"
• Keep it secret-ish. The game is unreleased, so do not post screenshots publicly yet.
• Have fun. If it feels like homework, pick a different job.

Your first 30 minutes

1. Tell us which role sounds fun. One or several.
2. Get your access sorted. We set you up.
3. Ask Claude for the tour: "Give me a quick tour of Pirate Archipelago like I'm a new player."
4. Do one tiny thing. A line of lore, one opinion on a screen, one idea.
5. Brag in the crew chat.

Words you will hear

Manor

Your main building. Its level unlocks everything else. See The Manor Ladder.

Captains, or heroes

The characters you collect and level up. See Heroes.

Hive

Our word for an alliance. See The Hive.

Brood and wardens

The sea monsters. See Beasts & Wardens.

Unity

The program the game is built in. You do not need to touch it.

PR (pull request)

A proposed change waiting for review. Claude makes these for you.

Welcome aboard, matey. Let's set sail.

RareVanguard

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

108 +4 a level

Defense

162 +6 a level

Health

1,890 +76 a level

Leads

Vanguard stacks

Passive

+15% Timber production while owned.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Heartwood opens at 0★

  Cut through the bark and the sapwood if you can, lad, but the heartwood never splits. Own Defense +25% / 36.3% / 47.5% / 58.8% / 70%.

• Felling Blow opens at 2★

  One stroke of my axe drops a mast or a man, and I have never yet needed a second. Own damage dealt +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Mast-Pine Eye opens at 0★

  I know a mast-pine from a hundred paces, so my crews never haul home a log that won't serve. Timber gathering yield +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (while owned — no need to deploy).

• Master Shipwright opens at 2★

  My crews raise a hull in half the time, and a hall in less. Construction speed +3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% (while owned — no need to deploy).

RareBroadside

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

149 +6 a level

Defense

122 +5 a level

Health

1,485 +59 a level

Leads

Broadside stacks

Passive

+15% Iron production while owned.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Seawater Quench opens at 0★

  Iron I've quenched in seawater doesn't dent, and thirty years over the forge have quenched me. Own damage taken −10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• White-Hot Core opens at 2★

  Hammer me all you like: the crust only sets harder, and the core stays white-hot. While below 50% HP: own Defense +50% / 75% / 100% / 125% / 150%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Bog-Iron Nose opens at 0★

  I can smell good ore through a fathom of bog, so my barges never haul home slag. Iron gathering yield +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (while owned — no need to deploy).

• Irons in the Fire opens at 2★

  I keep every slipway's irons hot, so the yard never waits on a bolt, a nail or a gun. Ship training speed +3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% (while owned — no need to deploy).

RareLongshot

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

182 +7 a level

Defense

81 +3 a level

Health

1,148 +46 a level

Leads

Longshot stacks

Passive

+15% Rum production while owned.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Cask Strength opens at 0★

  I soak my wadding in cask-strength rum, and the guns kick like they've drunk it. Own Attack +8% / 12% / 16% / 20% / 24%.

• Sober Second opens at 2★

  One breath to clear the haze, and the shot goes exactly where I meant it. Own damage dealt +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Riding Low opens at 0★

  I know every cane-planter's back door, so my barges always come home riding low. Rum gathering yield +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (while owned — no need to deploy).

• Splice the Mainbrace opens at 2★

  An extra tot for every hand who bled for us, and they're back on their feet twice as fast. Infirmary healing speed +10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% (while owned — no need to deploy).

RareBroadside

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

149 +6 a level

Defense

122 +5 a level

Health

1,485 +59 a level

Leads

Broadside stacks

Passive

+15% Gold production while owned.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Fistful of Doubloons opens at 0★

  I load the guns with a fistful of doubloons, and gold hits harder than iron. Own damage dealt +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• Danger Money opens at 2★

  Double pay for every hand still at the guns when the water's at our knees, and I have never once failed to pay. While below 50% HP: own Attack +16% / 24% / 32% / 40% / 48%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Into the Ledger opens at 0★

  Every coin that comes aboard goes in my ledger, and nothing goes over the side on the way home. Gold gathering yield +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (while owned — no need to deploy).

• Swift Couriers opens at 2★

  My paymasters keep every fleet sailing on schedule, and late is docked from wages. March speed +3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% (while owned — no need to deploy).

EpicVanguard

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

132 +5 a level

Defense

198 +8 a level

Health

2,310 +92 a level

Leads

Vanguard stacks

Passive

+6% Vanguard Defense.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Ward-Lit Plate opens at 0★

  The ward-light in my seams flares where the blow lands, and the blow comes away the weaker for it. Own damage taken −10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• Turn the Blow opens at 2★

  I stand where a wall should be, and I turn the blow aside. Each hit on the squadron has a 40% chance to be cut by 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• Shelter of the Oath opens at 3★

  I swore no blade would reach the crew behind me, and an oath does not count heads. Every hero's Defense +5% / 7.5% / 10% / 12.5% / 15%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• The Bastion's Lee opens at 0★

  Sail in my lee, lads, for the broadside breaks on me before it ever finds you. Squads' damage taken −4% / 8% / 12% / 16% / 20%.

• Break Upon the Anvil opens at 2★

  I am the anvil this fleet is forged on, so hammer my line all day and watch the hammer wear thin. Squads' Health +3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% and Defense +2% / 4% / 6% / 8% / 10%.

• Carry Them Home opens at 3★

  No one who falls behind my shield is left to the Deep. Infirmary beds +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (while owned — no need to deploy).

EpicVanguard

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

132 +5 a level

Defense

198 +8 a level

Health

2,310 +92 a level

Leads

Vanguard stacks

Passive

+6% Vanguard Attack.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Grapnel Bite opens at 0★

  My iron bites the rail, the line snaps taut, and their whole deck lurches out from under them. Each volley has a 10% / 12.5% / 15% / 17.5% / 20% chance to stun its target for 1 turn.

• Rail to Rail opens at 2★

  Once my iron grinds their rail against mine, the oak they hid behind is only firewood at arm's length. Every enemy's Defense −5% / 7.5% / 10% / 12.5% / 15%.

• The Waiting Blade opens at 3★

  I don't chase a man across his own deck; I haul him onto my waiting blade. Own Attack +8% / 12% / 16% / 20% / 24%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Fouled Gunports opens at 0★

  Lash your hull to mine and your guns can't run out, because a cannon needs room to recoil. Enemy squads' Attack −4% / 8% / 12% / 16% / 20%.

• Short Work opens at 2★

  Every grapnel gets hacked loose in the end, so we make short work of them first. Squads' Attack +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%.

• Run Her Down opens at 3★

  Nothing that swims has outrun my line yet; we close the water before the beast can dive. March speed when sailing at a beast +20% / 40% / 60% / 80% / 100% (while owned — no need to deploy).

EpicBroadside

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

182 +7 a level

Defense

149 +6 a level

Health

1,815 +73 a level

Leads

Broadside stacks

Passive

+6% Broadside Attack.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Laid True opens at 0★

  Forty years at the breech taught me not to aim a gun but to lay it, and a ball laid true goes exactly where it is told. Own Attack +8% / 12% / 16% / 20% / 24%.

• Sponge, Load, Ram opens at 2★

  Sponge, load, ram — three words, and my crews say them faster every time round. Every 3rd volley: own Attack Speed +1% / 2% / 3% / 4% / 5%, stacking up to 10 times (up to +10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% at full stack).

• Keep Their Heads Down opens at 3★

  A gunner ducking my shot is a gunner not serving his own gun, so we never give him a quiet moment to stand up. Every enemy's Attack −5% / 7.5% / 10% / 12.5% / 15%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Beat to Quarters opens at 0★

  No drum ever beat to quarters louder than I do, and every crew within three cables runs to its gun when I roar. Squads' Attack +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%.

• The Fourth Count opens at 2★

  Every crew of mine counts the drill aloud, and on four the whole deck speaks as one gun. Every 4th volley of a squad deals +20% / 40% / 60% / 80% / 100% extra damage.

• Greenhands to Gunners opens at 3★

  Hand me a deck of greenhands at dawn and by the dog-watch I will hand you back gun-crews. Ships per training batch +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% (while owned — no need to deploy).

EpicBroadside

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

182 +7 a level

Defense

149 +6 a level

Health

1,815 +73 a level

Leads

Broadside stacks

Passive

+4% Broadside Attack, +4% Broadside Speed (the speed half applies only where she fights as a hero squadron: Sanctum, Intel; not to fleet hulls).

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Up from the Magazine opens at 0★

  Crimson Vane ran powder at nine, they say; I was running it up from the magazine at seven, and I never learned to walk. Own Attack Speed +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• One Measure Too Many opens at 2★

  The gunner's book says one measure of powder, so I pack two and let the gun decide whether it wants to live. Own damage dealt +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• Singed and Still Grinning opens at 3★

  Every round that singes me just raises the stake, and I've never once walked away from a table. When hit: a 10% chance of own Attack +4% / 6% / 8% / 10% / 12% for 3 turns, stacking up to 5 times (up to +20% / 30% / 40% / 50% / 60% at full stack).

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Powder to Every Gun opens at 0★

  I run powder to every gun on the line, yours included, and every one of them goes off on a full hot charge. Squads' Lethality +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%.

• Pray She Sings opens at 2★

  Pack her hot, touch her off and pray she sings, and the more powder I pour, the more often she does. Each volley has an 8% / 16% / 24% / 32% / 40% chance for squads to deal +50% damage.

• Half a Keg Will Do opens at 3★

  Why pry a hold or a hillside open by hand when half a keg does it in one bang and the crews just scoop up what falls out? Every gathering march's yield +3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% (while owned — no need to deploy).

EpicLongshot

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

223 +9 a level

Defense

99 +4 a level

Health

1,403 +56 a level

Leads

Longshot stacks

Passive

+6% Longshot Attack.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Load by Feel opens at 0★

  My eye never leaves the glass; my cold hands load by feel, and they load quicker than yours. Own Attack Speed +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• The Helmsman First opens at 2★

  Shoot the helmsman first, and the whole hull drifts dead under your guns. Each volley has a 10% / 12.5% / 15% / 17.5% / 20% chance to stun its target for 1 turn.

• The Long Exhale opens at 3★

  I breathe out until the frost leaves my lips, and only then does the strongest of you fall. Own damage dealt +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Marked From Aloft opens at 0★

  From the masthead I see the weak strake no one on deck can, and I sing it down to every gun. Enemy squads' Defense −5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%.

• On the Down-Roll opens at 2★

  I do not choose when the deck rolls down; I only choose what dies when it does. Each volley has a 50% chance for squads to deal +10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% damage.

• Never Chase a Shadow opens at 3★

  I sight the beast from the masthead before we weigh anchor, so my crew never sails after a shadow. Hunt stamina cost −4% / 8% / 12% / 16% / 20% (while owned — no need to deploy).

EpicLongshot

Shards drop at the Tavern and from Fortune Chests, and turn up in the Market's shard rotations.

Attack

223 +9 a level

Defense

99 +4 a level

Health

1,403 +56 a level

Leads

Longshot stacks

Passive

+6% Longshot HP.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Leaden Glyph opens at 0★

  I scratch the holding-glyph into the lead before I load it, and every gun it strikes runs out heavier than the last. Every enemy's Attack −5% / 7.5% / 10% / 12.5% / 15%.

• No Time for a Fair Copy opens at 2★

  When the wards cut into my own cuffs start to crack, I stop cutting glyphs fair and start cutting them fast. While below 50% HP: own Attack Speed +20% / 30% / 40% / 50% / 60%.

• The Closing Stroke opens at 3★

  A glyph is only a scratch on the lead until its closing stroke is cut, and then it bites. Own damage dealt +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Bind Their Hands opens at 0★

  The Drowned Kingdom cut this script to hold something vast and patient at the bottom of the sea, so a gunner's arm is no work at all. Enemy squads' damage dealt −4% / 8% / 12% / 16% / 20%.

• Written on the Hull opens at 2★

  Once my glyph is burned into your planking, every gunner in my fleet can read exactly where to put the next ball. Enemy squads take +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% damage.

• Notes in the Margin opens at 3★

  I leave my readings of the old ruin-iron on the Blacksmith's bench, and his work goes quicker with someone who can read what he is hammering. Research speed +3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% (while owned — no need to deploy).

LegendaryVanguardGen 1

A Generation 1 Legendary. Legendary shards at the Tavern are always Crimson Vane, so collect this hero from shard rotations in the Market, events and packs.

Attack

160 +6 a level

Defense

240 +10 a level

Health

2,800 +112 a level

Leads

Vanguard stacks

Passive

+8% Vanguard HP.

Conquest skills

Active in the Navigator's Sanctum only.

• Flesh of Deep-Sea Clay opens at 0★

  The sea took the warmth out of me three months down, and what it left behind does not flinch. Own damage taken −10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• Strings Drawn Taut opens at 2★

  The nearer I sink toward the trench, the harder the thing below pulls my strings. While below 50% HP: own Attack +16% / 24% / 32% / 40% / 48%.

• Four Hundred Guns opens at 3★

  The Dirge carried four hundred guns, and every captain who sails with me fires as though each one were his to command. Every hero's Attack +5% / 7.5% / 10% / 12.5% / 15%.

Expedition skills

Active everywhere else: hunts, raids, rallies, the Arena, bosses and the garrison. The first one is the skill this hero lends a rally when you join with them in slot 1.

• Already Drowned opens at 0★

  My crews went down with the Dirge once already, and the sea finds nothing left in them to take. Squads' Health +5% / 10% / 15% / 20% / 25%.

• Strange Stars opens at 2★

  Under the stars I sail by, no chart in the world will tell your gunners where to aim. Enemy squads' damage dealt −4% / 8% / 12% / 16% / 20%.

• The Cabin-Wall Tally opens at 3★

  The hand that carves the tally is the last part of me still mine, and every fifth stroke it cuts across the rest. Every 5th volley of a squad deals +20% / 40% / 60% / 80% / 100% extra damage.

Exclusive weapon: The Dirge's Broken Sabre

The flag-officer's sabre Admiral Graves wore down into the Maelstrom on the quarterdeck of the Sovereign's Dirge. It snapped a hand's breadth above the hilt and has never been sheathed since.

• Without Hesitation Conquest

  They say the light in my eyes turns human in the instant before the killing blow, and then it is gone and the broken blade falls all the same. While below 50% HP: own Attack Speed +10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30%.

• Fixed Point of Will Expedition, when defending the island

  Whatever holds me to this world holds fast, so plant my sabre in your harbour and find the current that can move it. When defending the island: defender squads' Health +5% / 7.5% / 10% / 12.5% / 15%.