Be a Pirate Best Ships: Which Ship to Get for Your Goal

Buying a ship in Be a Pirate is simpler than the Shipwright's board makes it look. Your first hull is free, your first purchase is genuinely good enough to stop on, and the strongest boat the Shipwright shows you is the one worth saving toward. Buy the Dinghy when you can afford it, treat it as a real answer for a cheap, safe start, and reinvest everything you earn from there — the Ironclad, with 44 cannons and 95% wave resistance, is the ship that climb points at.

Which ship for your goal

Decision guide

Choose for your situation

You want a cheap, safe start

Buy the Dinghy at the Shipwright and stop there. It is faster, sturdier and carries more cargo than the Raft, and it already comes with cannons — a solid first boat that is genuinely enough for the early seas.

You want steady progression

Work the loop: collect basic loot and coins near smaller ships and islands, upgrade your current hull's speed, health and cannons, sink weaker enemy ships first, and reinvest every coin into the next ship unlock as you move through the seas in order.

You are choosing for cargo space

Cargo room comes with the hull you sail. The Dinghy already out-carries the Raft, and the Ironclad tops the board at 170 cargo — so if your hold keeps filling up mid-run, that is your cue to save for the next unlock.

You want maximum combat power

The Ironclad is the target: the strongest boat shown at the Shipwright, with 44 cannons and 95% wave resistance on its details card.

The goals overlap more than they compete: the safe start and the progression loop share one purchase, and cargo and combat power both point at the same flagship.

From Raft to Dinghy: how the start actually goes

The tutorial hands over the first ship. Talk to Old Finn on Starter Island and the banner fires: "RAFT UNLOCKED! Your very first ship. Climb aboard, captain!" — with the next objective pointing at the small island offshore. That opening sail is the Raft's whole job.

The first real decision sits at the Shipwright. The Dinghy is the first boat for sale, and its unlock banner makes the case better than any stat sheet: "DINGHY UNLOCKED! Faster, sturdier and more cargo space!" Old Finn then bolts a swivel gun onto the hull — your first gun, fired with Q for the left side and E for the right, so the target needs to sit off the side of your boat, not dead ahead.

One player who had just sold his first chest bought the Dinghy on the spot and summed it up: "a pretty good pretty solid boat to start off with... This is all we need. We don't really need anything too crazy." Take that as permission: for a cheap, safe start, the Dinghy is a legitimate stopping point, not a placeholder to rush past.

The loop that carries you up the ladder

Be a Pirate has 24 ships to unlock, and the fastest path between them is the same loop every time:

1. Loot close to home. Collect basic loot and coins near smaller ships and islands.
2. Reinvest in the hull you own. Put coins into its speed, health and cannons so it can handle tougher encounters.
3. Fight down, not up. Sink weaker enemy ships first; take on bigger targets as your power grows.
4. Dig every treasure you spot. Legendary finds pay big coin boosts that speed up the next upgrade.
5. Buy the next unlock, then repeat. Move through the seas in order so each area matches your current power level.

The combat guide covers the fighting half of that loop, and ship upgrades details what each coin buys your current hull. For the full purchase ladder — every rung the Shipwright sells after the Dinghy — see how to get ships.

Match your hull to the water

A bigger boat is not only about guns; it decides which water you can survive:

• Calm Sea is starter-friendly. Early ships can safely loot the beach islands there, where the loot sits out in the open.
• Leave the Cursed Sea's sharks alone. In that green-fogged region, one player's Dinghy shot a shark and was destroyed in the counter-attack. Until your hull is properly upgraded, do not shoot the sharks.
• Treat a kraken as a detour, not a fight. When a giant tentacle rose near the starter route, the objective flipped to "HEAD BACK TO PORT." In a starter-tier ship, steering away is the correct answer — the kraken guide covers what to watch for.

That is the quiet argument for climbing the ladder steadily rather than pushing into rough seas early: each new hull makes more of the map safe to sail.

The Ironclad in numbers

At the Shipwright, one player points straight at the Ironclad: "this is the most overpowered boat in the game" — a boat that "could literally sink any boat." Its details card reads:

Read it by your goal: the 44 cannons and 95% wave resistance are the combat case, while the 170 cargo is the high end of the board for a hauler. The cargo hold guide explains what a bigger hold changes on a digging trip, and treasure locations keep the chest income flowing between purchases.

Whichever goal you start from, the plan barely changes: buy the Dinghy, work the loop, and let each hull fund the next. When you are ready to optimize the route, how to progress fast lines the whole game up in order.