The basics
The buttons and the rules most questions come down to.
Moving
W A D go where the camera looks; S walks back facing it.
You move the way your body faces, and only a right-drag turns you. Switch in Esc → Controls.
Left-drag looks around, right-drag turns you, both buttons walk. Space jumps.
The basics, in one minute
Most questions players ask come down to these buttons and six rules.
A level-5 quest appears when you reach level 4. A yellow ! over someone's head means they have work for you; a grey ! means their next job is for a later level (their card and your journal, L, say which); a ? means you're done and should go back. Do the story in order and it keeps you at the right level for each quest.
Nothing starts a fight within 8 m of one of the five fires (the town has one now). Standing by one also heals you faster (3% a second, after 8 s without a blow).
You wake at the nearest fire you've found, at half health. Below level 9 the sea takes 5% of your level's XP bar (never a level); from level 9 it takes no XP at all. Either way your worn gear loses 10% durability. It also wears a little in every fight (a point every second kill). Repair it with salvage at a fire.
Everyone online plays the same island: the same crabs, the same rares, the same tide. A mob belongs to the first crew to hit it, XP and loot included, so to help a stranger, invite them to your crew (O). Your own quest's mobs (the thief, an ambush, a false fire's Slingers) come for you alone.
Log in with a wallet on the welcome screen (one signature, no gas, nothing moves) and your characters are saved to it, on any computer. Or play as a guest: your characters are kept on the server too, but only this browser can reach them. Log in with a wallet later and they come along. A guest who stays away 30 days can't reach them again. Up to 6 characters, one for every class. Everyone starts at level 1.
If the wallet already has 6 characters, a guest's extra ones stay behind on the guest account, kept and never deleted: free a slot, then sign in with the wallet again to bring them over.
Players buy and sell with each other at the market hall in town, for $ALAMAYO. Talk to Gavel, the auctioneer at its door, or use the door (G). Walking away closes it.
Pins the Tailor, west of the market hall, puts any look you've worn over what you wear. It costs $ALAMAYO by the look's rarity; taking a look off is free.
The Barber, in town, gives your character a new style (the looks its body offers) or a new body its class can take, for $ALAMAYO.
A quest with a blue Best with chip is built for friends, but nothing checks how many you bring: any crew can go, even just you (it's hard). Nothing waits on it: the story goes on without it, so come back with a crew. It pays better: a rare piece with a forge star, and a boss's quest adds a 1 in 3 chance at one of its own pieces. No bots in crews: bring people.
A mob's normal swing just lands. Its special attacks (slams, sweeps, thrown bottles) paint the ground red first. Walk out of the red, or roll with Shift.
Your bag, food and the town's work
Your bag is 16 slots plus the pouches on your belt (three pouch slots). The Satchel (quest 7) adds 4. Sew a Boot Pouch (6) at any fire from a hundred salvage, or make a Sea-Chest Pouch (10) from 250 at level 8. A Sailcloth Sack (8), an Oilskin Duffel (10) and the Quartermaster's Kitbag (12) drop from elites, rares, the bounties and the Scrap King. At any fire, four bags of one size and some salvage make the next size up (the fire's Bags tab; a pouch you wear is never used). Right-click a pouch to put it on. Keepsakes like Homeward sit in your pockets, and the Bank in town keeps 24 more (quest 4b).
The levels stop at 10. Levels 1 to 5 each teach a power; levels 6 to 10 each give a skill point. At 10, everything you earn (kills, quests, the tide and Wreck runs) fills the gold Mastery bar instead: fourteen more points, each bar longer than the last. Six more are Marks: the first timed clear of Wreck keys 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 (your character sheet, C, shows them). Twenty-five points in all. Spend them with N; they are for keeps, and only Rigger, the Trainer, in town, can take them all back (the first time is free).
Crab legs, crab junk, roof flags, a scout's letter, a page of the keeper's log: when a quest wants one, it drops in the loot of what you kill (gold icon, Quest item). Take it: the quest counts what you carry, and the hand-in takes it. Throw it away and it stops counting. Nothing more drops once you carry enough.
Cook at any fire. A meal heals 60% of your health in 20 seconds of sitting. The two bounties teach one recipe each: Barnacle Chowder (+4 Grit) and Lamp-Oil Fritters (+4 Armour). Eat one for 10 seconds and you are Well Fed for 15 minutes on the island (not in the Wreck), even through a death, one at a time. Both need a gull egg, which only drops from mobs that still give you XP.
Every fire makes things from salvage. A Field Repair Kit (40) mends everything you wear and carry, anywhere, once. A Whetstone (20): your blows land 5% harder for 15 minutes. A Patch-Up Tonic (25): 40% of your health at once, two minutes between. Broken gear in your bag is repaired at a fire too.
Cut a Tarred Bandage at a fire from four salvage. Right-click it: stand still for 8 seconds and a fifth of the health comes back, on you or on another player you target within 5 m (a player too far away or down is told so, and nothing is used). Moving or a hit breaks it, you can't eat and bandage at once, and the same person can't be bandaged again for a minute.
Each rare, the Scrap King and four elites (Veteran Racer, Drowned Warrior, Galley Guard, Wrecker Bruiser) have pieces of their own, always rare. A rare drops one 1 time in 25. The King and those elites drop one 1 time in 50. Alone, it's simply yours. On the shared island a crew rolls for it: Need (only if your class wears it) beats Greed, and you have 60 seconds. The dice belong to the kill, so nobody can roll twice.
Up the street, the forge breaks down Wreck gear you don't need into Tidesteel and tempers what you wear (+3 item levels a rank, four ranks, paid in Tidesteel and salvage). By the Alamayo Cafe's barrels, the still brews the Wreck's flasks from Black Pearls with lamp oil or tar.
Levels and XP
Level 10 is the top. At 10, everything you earn fills the Mastery bar instead, and Mastery and the Wreck's Marks bring the rest of your talent points. A kill gives XP by its level: more for elites (×3.5), rares (×6) and bosses (×8), less for mobs under you, none at 4 levels under. A crew shares a kill's XP, +25% for each extra person. Below level 9, dying costs 5% of your level's bar, never a level; from level 9 it costs no XP.
| Level | XP to the next | Total to reach the next |
|---|---|---|
| 1 → 2 | 200 | 200 |
| 2 → 3 | 500 | 700 |
| 3 → 4 | 1,300 | 2,000 |
| 4 → 5 | 3,400 | 5,400 |
| 5 → 6 | 11,500 | 16,900 |
| 6 → 7 | 21,850 | 38,750 |
| 7 → 8 | 36,800 | 75,550 |
| 8 → 9 | 57,850 | 133,400 |
| 9 → 10 | 90,000 | 223,400 |
Rested: log out at a fire and you save up 1% of your bar a day (×1.5 with company, ×2 if your wallet owns a house on the pier), up to 5%: kills give +50% XP until it's spent (at level 10, rested doubles your Mastery instead).
Fires, health and food
Nothing hostile comes within 8 m of a lit fire. A fight that reaches one ends.
3% a second within 6 m of a fire, 1% anywhere else, after 8 s without a blow.
Sit and eat: 60% of your health over 20 s. Moving or a hit stops it.
You wake at the nearest fire you've found (by the walk), at 50% health. Below level 9, 5% of the level's XP bar goes (from level 9, no XP at all), and worn gear loses 10% durability.
10 seconds standing still, then you're at the Alamayo Cafe's door. Once every 30 minutes.
Dailies, weeklies and the Locker reset on the UTC clock: the day at 00:00 UTC, the week on Monday.