Be a Pirate Beginner Guide: Your First Session, Step by Step

Quick answer

Your first session of Be a Pirate is a guided loop: swim to shore, talk to Old Finn to get your raft, sail to Small Island, dig up a glowing treasure chest, carry it back to your ship, and open it at the Treasure Broker in Starter Port. That first chest already earns you coins, and from there you buy the Dinghy, practice the swivel gun, and sink your first enemy boat. After that, the Quartermaster, daily rewards, and island discovery give you clear goals.

• Talk to Old Finn on Starter Island to get your first raft
• Dig where the ground glows gold, then carry the chest to your ship
• Open chests at the Treasure Broker (Goldtooth Gus) in Starter Port
• Buy the Dinghy at the Shipwright and complete the target practice
• Claim daily rewards every session — they add up fast

Be a Pirate by GiovaDev puts you on the water from minute one: the game advertises 8 seas to sail, enemy ships to blast, the Kraken to survive, legendary treasure to dig up, and 24 ships to upgrade through. You don't need to understand all of that on day one, though — the tutorial walks you through the core loop, and this guide covers exactly what to expect in your first session.

Getting your first ship

A new session starts with the objective SWIM TO SHORE. Once you reach Starter Island, talk to Old Finn. He hands you your very first ship — a raft — with a 'RAFT UNLOCKED!' banner, and you gain a level on the spot (at Lv 2 that's +4 Health and +2% Strength). Your next objective becomes SAIL TO THE SMALL ISLAND.

When you take the helm, a sailing control card shows you the basics: Sail, Brake / Reverse, Steer, and Leave the helm. A destination marker shows how far you are from your current objective — for example, 'Small Island - 108m' — so you always know which way to head.

Your first treasure

On Small Island the objective is FIND THE TREASURE, with the hint 'Dig where the ground glows gold.' Walk up to a glowing sand spot and dig: a 'YOU STRUCK TREASURE!' card appears. In the tutorial, that find was a common wooden chest worth about $120, which jumps into your arms when it lands.

You then carry the chest to your raft on foot ('CARRY IT TO YOUR RAFT'). Boarding your ship stows it in the hold — the starter raft's hold is small, shown as 'Stored in Hold: 1/2'. Watch that capacity: one player hit the hold limit and couldn't stow any more treasure. If you're grabbing more than one chest, plan trips back to the ship.

Earning coins at Starter Port

Sail to Starter Port (look for the 'WELCOME TO STARTER PORT' sign) and head to the TREASURE BROKER shop, run by Goldtooth Gus right next to the HARBORMASTER stand. Opening your chests there yields coins and items — one player kept a pocket pistol from an open and showed a coin balance of $279 shortly after. This is how your first session pays off: dig, carry, sail back, open, repeat.

Your first upgrade and first fight

At the Shipwright, buy the Dinghy — 'Faster, sturdier and more cargo space!' than your raft. Old Finn then bolts a swivel gun onto it ('FITTING A SWIVEL GUN'). The tutorial target exercise SHOOT THE TARGETS (Targets destroyed: 0 / 3) uses Q to fire left and E to fire right. Note that cannons only fire from the correct side of the ship, so line up your targets on the matching side.

Once the targets are gone, the tutorial throws your first real enemy at you: a Pirate Rowboat - Lv1 with the objective SINK THE PIRATE BOAT! It shoots back, so keep moving and use your gun on the right side. Sinking it rewards loot and a level-up — and this carries forward, since sinking other boats yields their loot too.

Hazards to respect early

Not everything near the starter route is a target. Two early hazards matter, and each has a different safe response:

Data table

Hazard

Kraken tentacle

What happens

A giant black tentacle rises near the starter route; when it appears, the objective switches to 'HEAD BACK TO PORT'.

What to do

A starter-tier ship should simply avoid it.

Hazard

Sharks

What happens

In recorded runs, shooting a shark in the CURSED SEA led to the shark destroying the player's Dinghy in the counter-attack, and other players report the same.

What to do

With a starter ship, don't pick fights you can't win yet.

Data table

Hazard	What happens	What to do
Kraken tentacle	A giant black tentacle rises near the starter route; when it appears, the objective switches to 'HEAD BACK TO PORT'.	A starter-tier ship should simply avoid it.
Sharks	In recorded runs, shooting a shark in the CURSED SEA led to the shark destroying the player's Dinghy in the counter-attack, and other players report the same.	With a starter ship, don't pick fights you can't win yet.

Treasure digging and broker sales are your safe income early on.

Free coins: daily rewards

Open the DAILY REWARDS panel each time you play — its motto is 'Sail in every day - the loot grows with your streak!' Week 1 runs from Day 1 at $1,600 plus 10 planks up to a Day 7 $7,800 JACKPOT, and a claim button shows when the next reward is ready (for example, 'NEXT IN 19h 59m'). Players advise claiming it every session; a few clicks for thousands of coins is hard to beat early on.

Your first goals after the tutorial

Once the tutorial ends, the game points you to the Quartermaster — 'quartermaster has work for you, go see him.' Quartermaster Quill offers a job at the Coral Isles east of the port with an earn-5,000 objective; one player completed it for roughly 10,000 coins. Quest payouts like that vary, but it's a clear early direction.

Beyond that, sensible early objectives, in a sensible order, are:

Checklist

• Claim daily rewards

  Every session, to keep your streak growing.

• Work the Quartermaster's quests

  Starting with the Coral Isles job.

• Discover new islands

  Spotting Coral Island, for example, is progress in itself.

• Loot outer islands

  Such as the crab island, for chests and clams.

• Just sail

  Sailing itself appears to grant EXP/strength over time, so time on the water is never wasted.

The bottom line

Your first session is simple: finish the Old Finn tutorial, learn the helm, dig your first glowing-spot treasure, sell it to Goldtooth Gus, upgrade to the Dinghy, and sink the tutorial rowboat. From there, the Quartermaster, daily rewards, and island discovery give you a steady stream of goals — and when you're ready for bigger hunts, our treasure location and combat guides pick up where this one ends." }