Gameplay
Survive. Build. Sail.
Every system in Ships and Shanties exists to answer one question: how far will you take the ship?
Stay alive, then do something with it
Survival and gathering
The basic loop starts on the shoreline: collect food and raw materials, manage what the environment demands of you, and keep going.
Survival is the foundation rather than the whole game. It is what funds your curiosity and keeps you in the field long enough to build something worth sailing.
What you make says what you have become
Crafting and equipment
Gathered materials become tools, weapons and gear. Equipment improves across a series of material and tool stages, from basic survival kit to advanced equipment made from rare materials.
Gear is meant to feel practical and handmade, and to look more storied as you progress rather than simply shinier.
Your ship, your way
Shipbuilding and customisation
Construction is how a camp becomes a base, and how a hull becomes a ship. You do not build a hull from scratch: you make it at a shipwright table, then build your ship on top of it.
Customisation is the big idea. Every ship has sails and rigging, and the rest is yours to add and change however you like. Shipwright table tiers unlock bigger and better hulls to build on.
Go further than the last time
Exploration and discovery
The world holds coastal environments, islands, settlements, ruins, shipwrecks and other discoverable places. The further you sail from home, the more there is to find, and the less certain the way back.
Make the ship pay for itself
Trade and economy
Goods have value, and the sea connects the people who want them. Carry cargo between settlements, buy and sell, and put your ship to work.
Trade is part of how you fund bigger ambitions: better materials, better fittings and a better ship.
Choose who you sail for
Quests and factions
Quests give your voyages a purpose beyond the next horizon, and the factions that hold the coast give them consequences. Who you work with, and who you cross, shapes where you are welcome.
Not everyone here is a player
NPC settlements
Inhabited settlements stand along the coasts and across the islands: places to resupply, trade, pick up work and meet the people who live there.
The sea does not wait for you
A persistent world
The world is persistent, with activity that carries on around you: settlements, traders and factions are part of a living sea rather than a backdrop for your voyage.
The quieter side of the sea
Fishing and seafaring activities
Fishing equipment, resources and other maritime activities are part of the wider experience: the patient, ordinary work that makes a seafaring life feel lived in.
Better materials, better ships
Progression
New resources, tools, equipment and capabilities become available as you advance. Beyond ordinary survival materials sit rare materials and increasingly legendary equipment, with a hint of the supernatural.
Separately, the shipwright table has tiers of its own. Each one unlocks bigger and better hulls to build your ship on.
A game still being made
Ships and Shanties is in development. The systems described here reflect the design and are labelled by availability as the game matures. Specific recipes, statistics and numbers are not published until they are final.
The sea is calling
Follow the development of Ships and Shanties and prepare for the journey ahead.