The Curse of Pirates playtest gave players their first hands-on look at the nautical action roguelike developed by Funky Parrot and published by HeroCraft PC. Blending the auto-firing swarm survival of Vampire Survivors with the character-driven boon drafting of Hades, the test introduced core sailing combat, four-wave stage encounters, and the game's revised Mark-slotting build system.
Access was primarily distributed during March and April 2026 through the Humble Choice subscription and official Steam playtest sign-ups, running until the test servers concluded on April 7, 2026.
Playtest Access Windows and Distribution
The playtest ran as a limited-time pre-release build designed to gather combat balancing and stability feedback ahead of the game's official September 7, 2026 release date. Access was coordinated through two main channels:
- Humble Choice Subscription: A dedicated playtest key was included for subscribers of the March 2026 Humble Choice bundle, running from March 3 through April 7, 2026.
- Steam Playtest Pre-Registration: Valve users could request access directly through the game's Steam store page, with an updated public testing wave opening on March 24, 2026.
The development team officially closed this testing phase on April 7, 2026, at 8:00 AM UTC. While the playtest app was retired at the conclusion of the event, the developers maintained a separate demo build on Steam for ongoing testing.
Core Controls and Run Structure
In Curse of Pirates, you navigate a ship through tight waters, dodging enemy debris, projectiles, and environmental obstacles while automated and manual attacks fire into surrounding enemy flotillas.
Default Keybindings
| Action | Input (Keyboard) | Functionality |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-Attack | Automatic | Fires default equipped primary cannons |
| Main Weapon / Manual Ability | Q | Activates slotted primary offensive weapon |
| Pirate Shanty | E | Triggers equipped utility song / buff barrage |
| Interact / Harvest | F | Collects magnets, activates altars, or triggers nodes |
| Dash | Left Shift | Dashes forward; can leave trails (such as vortexes or poison) |
| Ship View / Map Screen | Tab / C | Checks current stats, damage types, and inventory boons |
Wave Progression and Boss Encounters
Each run takes place across designated maritime stages divided into specific combat phases:
- Four Escalating Waves: Players must survive waves of airborne seagulls, surface raiders, and underwater horrors. As time progresses, enemy density and projectile counts spike sharply.
- Stage Bosses: Surviving the fourth wave triggers a boss confrontation, including encounters like the Vice Admiral or deep-sea leviathans.
- Endless Ghost Horde: Defeating a level boss does not immediately end the voyage; instead, it triggers an endless onslaught of ghosts from the Dead Seas to test how long a surviving build can hold out.
- Bounty Evaluation: Runs conclude with a wanted poster displaying your Steam profile and a calculated bounty score based on monsters slain and stages cleared.
Gods, Companions, and the Mark System
The playtest introduced a revised upgrade framework modeled after mythological god boons. Upgrades drop from chests, altars, and level-ups, belonging to specific allied entities.
Key Patron Characters
- Astrid Flameheart: Focuses on fiery ordnance, explosives, and tar. Key offerings include Napalm (allowing burning to proc twice), Blaze Barrier, exploding hulls, and passive health recovery when sitting inside spilled tar.
- Lord Darkbone: Focuses on undead summons, shadows, and lingering decay. Key offerings include ghostly apparitions that stun enemies based on your total summon count, shadow boomerangs, and poison-inflicting dash trails.
- Zar'Kul the Mad: An Eldritch fish god who bestows abyss-themed powers. Boons center on summoning tentacles on debuff application, schools of flesh-eating piranhas, dark ink auras, and raw Void damage.
How Marks and Ability Slots Function
Ships feature four primary ability slots alongside designated passive and boon channels:
- Socketing Rules: When acquiring Marks (such as fire infusions, blight, or void tears), you must attach them directly to an active skill slot.
- Permanent Placement: During the playtest, equipped Marks could not be unequipped or swapped out once placed in a slot.
- Rarity Scaling: Marks drop in varying rarities (Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary), progressively altering base damage modifiers, projectile counts, and proc chances.
- Damage Classifications: The system tracks distinct damage categories, including Physical, Fire, Elemental, Ghost, Void, and Lightning.
In-Run Economy and Meta Progression
Runs feature both immediate tactical resources and harbor currencies:
- In-Run Wood and Rocks: Harvested from floating debris and rocky outcroppings across the map using the interaction key. During the test, these materials appeared tied to harbor reconstruction features planned for the full game.
- Gold Booty: Dropped by enemies and discovered in floating gold crates. In the playtest hub, gold was spent to unlock starting baseline item cards such as rigged cannons, blight marks, and hexes.
- Healing Limitations: One of the most frequently discussed elements of the playtest was the scarcity of healing. Health regeneration did not occur naturally; players relied on rare healing fountains, chance altar activations, or specific synergies such as Astrid's tar-healing boon.
Playtest Technical Changes and Feedback
Player feedback collected during the March–April playtest resulted in several immediate adjustments by Funky Parrot:
- Removal of Rotating Maps: Early playtest builds included rotating camera traits on certain sand maps. Following community reports of motion sickness, the developers removed map rotation entirely in the March 24 patch.
- Feedback Prompt Frequency: Testers originally encountered browser pop-ups linking to a developer feedback form after short runs. The studio clarified that this prompt was intended to trigger once per hour rather than after every death.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Curse of Pirates officially launch?
According to the game's official Steam store listing, Curse of Pirates is scheduled to launch on September 7, 2026, priced at $9.99.
What are the minimum PC system requirements for the game?
The official Steam page lists the following minimum hardware requirements:
- OS: Windows 7/10 (64-bit)
- Processor: 2.0 GHz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 11 compatible GPU (DirectX Version 9.0 support)
- Storage: 1 GB available space
Does Curse of Pirates support controllers and Steam Deck?
The Steam store page confirms full controller support, including specific compatibility for DualShock and DualSense controllers, alongside Steam Cloud saves and achievement tracking.
