Getting started
Pirates of the Burning Sea is a sailing MMO set in the Caribbean of 1720. You are a ship’s captain: you sail the open sea between ports, fight ship-to-ship battles with broadsides and boarding actions, and take part in a player-driven economy where nearly every ship and fitting is built by other players.
Nations and careers
Section titled “Nations and careers”You sail for one of four flags — Britain, France, Spain, or the Pirates — and pick a career that decides your skill lines and the ships you are best at:
| Career | Flag | Style |
|---|---|---|
| Naval Officer | National | Heavy warships and line-of-battle tactics |
| Privateer | National | Fast hulls, hit-and-run gunnery, boarding |
| Freetrader | National | Merchant hulls, cargo, and the economy |
| Buccaneer | Pirate | Group support, smuggling and slippery sailing |
| Cutthroat | Pirate | Brutal gunnery, boarding and capturing ships |
Career skills are exclusive; sailing, gunnery, repair and the avatar (boarding) fighting styles are shared. Browse them all under Skills, filtered by career, or read Careers for what each one plays like.
Ships come in five hull sizes — Small, Medium, Large, Huge and Colossal — which decide the outfitting and cannons they accept. A ship exists in your inventory as a deed; use the deed and the ship appears at the dock. Deeds are built at a Shipyard, bought from NPC shipwrights, or taken from captured ships. Read Understanding ships to make sense of a stat sheet.
Ports and the map
Section titled “Ports and the map”There are 86 ports. Each belongs to a nation and has a set of natural resources that decides which structures can be built there. Most ports can be fought over in port battles; capitals and starter ports cannot. See Ports and the world map.
The economy
Section titled “The economy”Players harvest raw materials at structures placed in ports, refine them in workshops, and assemble ships, fittings and consumables at Shipyards, Outfitters and Provisioners. Every step is a recipe with inputs, an output, a craft time and a workshop. Read The economy and Crafting step by step for the full picture.