Be A Pirate

Guide

Be a Pirate Ship Combat

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Guns fire from the sides, so most fights are decided before the first shot: turn the ship so the target sits beside you, then fire while the crew reloads. A rogue sloop at level 2 is a fair first fight; a level 6 raider is not.

Line up the broadside

Cannons in Be a Pirate are mounted on the hull sides. There is no forward gun, so pointing the bow at an enemy does nothing. The working sequence is:

  1. Close to about a ship's length.
  2. Turn until the target is to your side, not ahead.
  3. Fire, then keep turning so the other side comes round while the first reloads.

Q and E rotate the aim, and the game adds an auto-aim assist, which is why a hit sometimes lands while the reticle looks slightly off. A recorded player also used a heavier shot by aiming down the sight before firing.

Pick fights by level, not by size

Enemy levels are printed with the ship. Recorded encounters include a rogue sloop at level 2, a pirate cutter at level 4 and a Jungle Raider at level 6. A hull a tier behind turns every one of those into a loss with cargo aboard, which is why the ship ladder matters more than raw aggression.

Sinking pays loot and bounty in the same action. One recorded rogue sloop dropped $78, and raiding pushed bounty from 5 to 20 to 314 across a session. The number is small next to a chest run, so early on the fight is worth it for the bounty and the practice, not the payout.

The damage you take that nobody warns you about

Sharks attack the player in the water, not just the ship, and early firearms barely scratch them. Falling overboard near a raider is more dangerous than the raider's cannons.

Repair costs wood, and the cost scales with the hull: one player reports 150 wood per repair on a late ship. Leaving port without wood turns a minor mistake into a lost run.

The Long Nine question

Two separate comments ask how to use the Long Nine cannons, and no footage we could read shows the installation screen, the slot it occupies or its damage. What we can say is structural: cannons sit on the hull, more gun slots come from bigger hulls, and the Ironclad panel is the only one that prints a gun count in our material, at 44.

Until someone records the install, treat any Long Nine guide that does not show the item as unverified. The boss page covers the fights where gun count stops mattering and positioning starts.

When to run

If the enemy's level is above your hull's comfort zone, turning away costs nothing but time. A sunk ship loses the cargo, and a repaired ship does not. Sail back, repair, and take the fight when the hull behind you matches the number in front of you.