Be a Pirate Selling Guide: Where to Sell Chests and What They Pay

Quick answer

Take every chest you dig up to the Treasure Broker at Starter Port — the shop next to the 'WELCOME TO STARTER PORT' sign and the HARBORMASTER stand — and interact with the NPC Goldtooth Gus. He opens the chest on the spot, and you get coins plus items such as weapons and gear you can equip.

Chests are the island loot that turns into money in Be a Pirate, and the sale itself happens at the Treasure Broker: rather than opening the chest yourself somewhere else, the broker opens it for you and its contents go straight into your balance and inventory. Here's where to find him, how a chest run works, and what chests pay.

Where the Treasure Broker is

Chests dug up on islands are opened at Starter Port, the starting harbor. The TREASURE BROKER shop stands right next to the 'WELCOME TO STARTER PORT' sign and the HARBORMASTER stand, so it's easy to spot when you come ashore. Walk up and interact with Goldtooth Gus, the NPC at the broker: he opens the chest, and the coins and items are credited to you the moment it opens.

The recorded walk in — the dock, the broker's shop and the sign, in that order:

Watch the full guide on YouTube.

The chest run, from island to payout

Every chest follows the same short loop, and it repeats as often as you want to run it.

How the cycle works

1. 01

   Dig up a chest

   Sail to an island, jump out and dig. Island chests are the loot that converts into money in this game.

2. 02

   Carry it to your boat

   Pick the chest up and haul it aboard — the game prompts you to 'CARRY IT TO YOUR RAFT'.

3. 03

   Sail back to Starter Port

   Boarding stows the chest in your hold, shown as a counter like 'Stored in Hold: 1/2', and the objective changes to 'RETURN TO STARTER PORT'.

4. 04

   Open it with Goldtooth Gus

   Interact with the Treasure Broker at the port; he opens the chest and pays out coins plus items.

An opened chest frees a hold slot and refills your balance, so sail to the next island and dig again — this repeatable loop is how you make money in Be a Pirate.

What you get when the broker opens a chest

Opening a chest pays coins plus items, and the exact mix varies from chest to chest. Early wooden and common chests opened at Starter Port produced:

• A pocket pistol — kept and equipped as a starter weapon
• $280 in a single open, plus a ragged bandana that was equipped on the spot
• A pistol and other gear, including a rusty machete
• Coin payouts — one open left the balance at 254 coins, and another player sat at $279 after opening a second chest

Treat those as early-game examples, not fixed rates: contents and amounts differ per chest. Anything wearable or usable — the bandana, the machete, the pistol — can be equipped as soon as the broker hands it over. If you've stored up several chests, an 'open all' option appears when you open stored treasure, letting you cash in a whole trip in one go.

If your hold fills up

Hold space is limited — the 'Stored in Hold: 1/2' counter on a starter raft makes that clear — and once you're out of room, an extra chest can't be taken aboard. When that happens, sail the chests you already have back to Goldtooth Gus, open them, then head out for the rest. Bigger ships advertise more cargo space, so a ship upgrade means fewer trips per haul. Loot from sunken enemy boats is brought back to the same port area, so ship fights feed the same selling run — the combat guide covers sinking them.

For the rest of the money loop, see where to dig up treasure and how to sell it, or the cargo hold guide for more on stowage. Before a long run, it's also worth a quick check of the codes page for active freebies.