Mechanics
These are the systems that matter most for actual play. They are written as decisions rather than raw extracted strings.
Vertical building
Section titled “Vertical building”Corsair Cove is built around scarce flat land. Cliff paths, roads, ladders, bridges, and advanced logistics links keep buildings usable across height changes.
- Buildings start as a Construction Site.
This icon means the Construction Site doesn’t have a connection to the required Construction Resources.
Connect the Shipwreck to the Construction Site using a Connector.
- Open the Connections Menu
- You can place your Tents on cliffsides or on the land with .
All buildings must be connected to a Pirate Camp.
Buildings with the icon are not connected to the Pirate Camp, use Connectors to fix that.
- Place Tents on cliffsides.
- While inDemolish Mode, click on any building or connection to demolish it.
Important buildings like Pirate Camps or Warehouses will warn you before you demolish them.
- A community is built on shared principles. The Compass helps you set your path, choose Deeds, follow a guiding direction that grants you new buildings, ships and economy boosts.
Fetchers and logistics
Section titled “Fetchers and logistics”Production buildings need goods moved between deposits, processors, storage, and crew-service buildings. If a chain stalls, add fetcher capacity or shorten the path.
- You found a Shipwreck full of Construction Resources and an abandoned Construction Site, a fitting place to build a Pirate Camp.
Pirate Camps are the central hubs of your island and are needed to make other buildings function.
- Buildings start as a Construction Site.
This icon means the Construction Site doesn’t have a connection to the required Construction Resources.
Connect the Shipwreck to the Construction Site using a Connector.
- The Shipwreck will run out of Construction Resources soon.
Your island offers plenty of resources. You’ll need them for Construction, Shipbuilding, and maintaining your pirates’ Upkeep.
You can check the Overviews for more information on resources.
- Resource Production
- Construction Resources are used for buildings and ships.
To make use of these resources, you’ll need to build a place to gather them.
Open the Construction Menu and select the Woodcutter.
- When you have the Woodcutter selected, all Fertile Areas on your island are highlighted.
Certain buildings need to be built on a Fertile Area so they can produce resources.
Place your Woodcutter on a Fertile Area using and connect it to the Pirate Camp.
Crew needs
Section titled “Crew needs”Pirates need housing, food, drink, and later specialist services. Tavern, galley, and pier support matter as much as production throughput.
- Pirate Camp
- You found a Shipwreck full of Construction Resources and an abandoned Construction Site, a fitting place to build a Pirate Camp.
Pirate Camps are the central hubs of your island and are needed to make other buildings function.
- Connect the Pirate Camp to the Shipwreck using the green connectors indicators.
- Your pirates need Housing.
Pirate Camps provide only limited Housing, so you’ll need to build additional buildings.
Access your Pirate Camp to check your current Housing.
- You can place your Tents on cliffsides or on the land with .
All buildings must be connected to a Pirate Camp.
Buildings with the icon are not connected to the Pirate Camp, use Connectors to fix that.
- Select the Pirate Camp.
Ships and events
Section titled “Ships and events”Ships resolve sea events through health, crew, gun damage, boarding damage, speed, and maneuverability. Pick the ship role for the event type instead of using one ship for everything.
- Health: The ship is lost once the ship health reaches 0. The ship’s health can be restored by repairing the ship at a pier.
- Crew: The ship is lost once the ship crew reaches 0. Ship crew can be hired and fired at this ship’s pier. Advanced crew increases the overall ship power.
- Gun Damage: The destructive power of the ship. Depending on actions during Events, this does damage against opponents’ health or crew.
- Boarding Damage: The boarding power of the ship. Depending on actions during Events, this does damage against opponents health or crew.
- Speed: Rapid cruising ability of the ship. It is used in actions in the Events to overcome distance or avoid damage. Higher speed also reduces travel time on the sea.
- Manoeuvrability: The agility of the ship. It is used in actions during Events to overcome distance or avoid damage.
Ambitions and Principle Points
Section titled “Ambitions and Principle Points”The campaign pushes you through Empire, Seafaring, Notoriety, and Wealth courses. Side events and ambitions award Principle Points that unlock stronger progression.
Production chains
Section titled “Production chains”The demo data exposes 78 resources and 144 buildings or structures. Most bottlenecks are simple chain breaks: input shortage, fetcher shortage, long route, or wrong service building.
Captains and abilities
Section titled “Captains and abilities”Captains bring event choices and passives. The current build lists 45 captain choices/passives, so captain selection should be treated as an event-combat decision, not just flavor.
- Trinket Divination:
- Captain’s Riposte!: If you take damage, gain the listed dice bonus additional dice.
- Tide Turner: Steal the result of Event’s Dice Pool this turn and add it to your result next turn.
- Feint: Reduce Event’s Dice Pool result by yours this turn.
- Burning Phoenix: Gain the listed dice bonus to your dice stat next turn.
- Terrorize: Reduce the Opponent’s target by listed value for the rest of the Event.
Change History
Section titled “Change History”| Date | Update | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-10 | Demo Update #1 | Checked the tutorial and pause-mode update against the mechanics overview. |