Player Guide

Buying and selling

The shop is where you buy and sell food, water, medicine and barter goods. Stock up before a voyage, sell your loot, and pick up medicine when your crew is in bad shape.

Every crate, barrel, box, bolt or bale takes one slot in your hold. Cannons and repair kits take no space at all. Each item tells you how much you can own and whether gold or cargo space is holding you back, and the trade summary shows how full your hold will be afterwards. You can always sell, but you can only buy what fits.

Trading works by setting how much of each item you want to own. Set it lower than what you have and you sell the rest. Set it higher and you buy the difference. You can change several items in one go, so the gold from one sale can pay for another purchase. Nothing happens until you press Transfer, and then either the whole trade goes through or none of it does. The day buttons top up food and water for that many days, counting what you already carry.

The market sells fixed batches of goods, often cheaply. You buy the whole batch or nothing, so you need gold for all of it. If you plan to resell, compare the offer with what the shop pays and check that a shop in town actually accepts those goods. Offers can include goods the local shop doesn't trade, and sometimes cannons or repair kits, which normally come from the shipyard.

Apothecary

The apothecary in the market sells remedies that heal your whole crew at once. Each remedy restores a fixed amount of health and costs 0.6 gold per crew member for every point it gives. You pay full price even if your crew only needs a little, so choose the remedy that matches how hurt they are. Picked well, it's the cheapest way to heal in port. You can't buy a remedy without a crew, or when they're already in full health.

Merchandise reference

Food and water

You need enough food and water for every day at sea, so far-off towns need bigger stores. Every 10 crew members eat a crate of food a day, and every 5 drink a barrel of water, rounded to whole units. Even a tiny crew gets through at least one of each. Towns your supplies won't get you to have yellow labels on the map, and your advisor warns you when some ports are out of reach. When you pick a town, you see the distance and what you need before you confirm.

Every day at sea eats into your food and water. If you run out, the voyage still carries on, but you'll have to restock before you can sail again.

Barter goods

Barter goods are porcelain, spices, tobacco, rum, sugar, silk, tea, cotton. Loot them in battle or buy them at the market, then sell them where a shop wants them. They exist to be traded. The tavern charges gold for its food, tobacco and rum, so it never touches what's in your hold.

Every shop trades tobacco and rum. The rest only sell in the towns listed in the merchandise reference above. Sell all barter goods sells everything the local shop accepts and keeps the rest aboard.

Lose a sea battle and one of your ships may go down, though never your last one. That one only takes damage. A bigger fleet holds a bigger crew, and a bigger crew mans more cannons. The ships you meet grow stronger along with you, and stronger ships tend to carry more gold.

A Pirate can own 3 ships. Every promotion raises the limit, and a Duke can command 15.

Different ship types

Cargo

Your hold is the cargo space of all your ships added together. Food, water, medicine and barter goods take one slot each, while cannons and repair kits take none. Crew & Fleet shows how full you are. An overloaded fleet can't leave port, so sell some goods or buy another ship. You can still sell or remove a ship that leaves you overloaded, but the game warns you first.

Ship health and repairs

Your ships take damage whenever the enemy lands a hit, whether you win the battle or not. A ship with no health left is disabled, and you can't leave port until it's fixed. The shipyard repairs ships for 5 gold per point of damage. It also buys any ship for half what it cost new, however battered it is. You need at least one ship to sail. You can remove ships from your fleet, just not while at sea and not your last one.

Repair kits let you patch up a ship anywhere, even in the middle of a voyage. Shipyards sell them for 60 gold and buy them back for 40 gold. To use one, open Crew & Fleet, click Use under Equipment > Repair kits, and pick a ship and how many kits to spend. Each kit restores up to 10 health. You can also find kits in market offers and battle loot.

A half-wrecked ship needs five kits, and two of them need ten. Fewer kits give a partial repair, but a small repair still uses up a whole kit. Kits cost a little more than the shipyard does for the same repair, so they're best saved for when you're at sea.

Cannons

Your manned cannons decide how hard you hit, and how strong the ships you meet will be. Each cannon needs two crew members, so 20 cannons and 30 crew give you 15 manned cannons. Cannons without a crew do nothing in battle. The shipyard buys and sells them, and you're allowed to sail without any.

Purpose of crew members

Your crew sails the ships and mans the cannons, two sailors to a gun. To leave port, you need at least as many crew as your ships require together, and no more than they can hold.

Long voyages wear sailors down. Their mood drops a little every day at sea, and a win in battle lifts it a lot. If their mood hits rock bottom, they refuse to leave port.

Cheer them up at the tavern, or hand out gold with Give gold in Manage Crew. A bigger crew costs more gold to please.

Sea battles and tavern brawls cost your crew health. Nobody dies, but an exhausted crew won't start a new journey. Heal them with Give medicine in Manage Crew, a remedy from the apothecary, or Serve supper at the tavern. Each box of medicine gives 20 health, shared across the whole crew, so a large crew needs more boxes. Give gold and Give medicine need a crew, and do nothing once mood or health is full.

Getting more crew members

After a victory, some of the beaten crew may sign on with you. Friendly sailors at the tavern sometimes offer to join for free, too. New recruits can push you over what your fleet can hold, so buy another ship or dismiss a few before you sail.

Keeping your crew happy and healthy

A happy crew starts at the tavern. Serve supper, smoke tobacco, pour the wine or pass the rum to lift their mood, and supper heals them as well. You pay for every crew member. You can't order a round without a crew, or when it wouldn't make them any happier or healthier.

Sailors

Some sailors at the tavern are happy to join your crew for free. Others are spoiling for a fight. Beat them and you pocket a little gold, but your crew gets hurt either way. You can always ignore them and walk away.

Cards

Pick how much of your gold to bet, then choose one of five cards. Pick the right one and you win five times your bet. Pick wrong and you lose it. Bet all of 100 gold and you walk away with 600 or nothing. The bet is at least 1 gold and only comes from what you carry, never the bank.

Nations

Lost Seas takes place in the 17th century Caribbean, where England, France, Spain, Holland fight over the islands. England is at war with France, and Spain with Holland.

Levels

Your nation rewards you for beating its enemy. Every victory against the enemy raises your level by one, and losing to them costs you nothing. Attacking your own nation's ships lowers your level by one, win or lose. Neutral nations and pirates don't affect your level at all, but beating them still pays in gold.

Titles

The higher your level, the better the title the governor offers you at the City Hall. Visit a town of your own nation to accept a promotion. Each one pays gold and lets you own more ships, which means more crew, more cannons and more cargo. Once you have a title you keep it, even if your level drops later. Working your way up to Duke is one goal worth chasing.

The different titles

Changing nation

You can switch sides at the City Hall of any town belonging to the nation you want to join. They'll take you if you've beaten their enemy more often than you've fought them, counting your defeats too. The difference sets your new title, which may be lower than the one you have now. Title rewards are only paid once, so you only get gold for a title higher than any you've been paid for before.

Say you're Spanish with 50 wins against French ships and you've never attacked an English ship. England will welcome you as an Admiral.

Getting some gold

You earn gold by plundering ships, selling goods or ships, collecting title rewards, and winning at cards or in tavern brawls.

Now and then a won battle turns up a treasure. Each one belongs to a particular town, and that town's City Hall pays you gold for it.

Beat a pirate ship and you might capture a famous wanted pirate. Each one is wanted by a particular town, and that town's City Hall pays a bounty that depends on the crimes they committed. You can see your prisoners in the Crew & Fleet drawer.

Saving money

Lose a sea battle and the enemy takes every coin you carry, however big your fleet. Gold in the bank stays safe.

Every bank shares the same account, whatever the town or nation. Deposit 100 gold in Panama and you can take it out again in Port Royale.

Before you sail, keep what you need for shopping and bank the rest. If you have a loan, pay it off first, because you can't deposit until you do.

Loans

The bank lends you up to 10,000 gold in total, with no interest or fees. Until it's fully repaid you can't deposit, but you can still withdraw your savings. Pay it back bit by bit or all at once.

Ventures

The bank also sells shares in famous trading voyages. You pay the stake from the gold you carry, so withdraw savings or take a loan if you're short. Each voyage comes back after a set number of days, your advisor lets you know, and you collect your share at any bank.

Bigger stakes pay better, and they're riskier too. You won't know how the voyage went until you collect. A share can return more than you paid, less, or nothing at all. You can hold one share in each venture at a time.

• The Barbados sugar convoy, Barbados to Charles Towne: 500 gold for 14 days, low risk.
• The Havana tobacco run, Havana to St. Eustatius: 1,500 gold for 21 days, moderate risk.
• The Manila silk smugglers, Villa Hermosa to Curacao: 3,000 gold for 28 days, high risk.
• A share in the silver fleet, Panama to Havana: 6,000 gold for 42 days, very high risk.

Towns and nations

Every town flies the flag of one of the four nations.

Towns of England: Charles Towne, Barbados, Port Royale, Belize.

Towns of France: Tortuga, Leogane, Martinique, Biloxi.

Towns of Spain: Panama, Havana, Villa Hermosa, San Juan.

Towns of Holland: Bonaire, Curacao, St. Martin, St. Eustatius.

You arrive at the harbor, with the whole town laid out in front of you. Click a building to step inside, and Back to town takes you to the harbor again. Every town has its own shop, tavern, bank, market, shipyard and city hall. The names differ but they all work the same.

Your advisor waits at the harbor. Anything under Before you sail has to be sorted out before you can leave. Worth a look is just friendly advice. When all is well, the advisor says you're ready to set sail. Open the map with Set sail at the harbor, or Travel in the bottom menu on mobile.

You're welcome in every town, whatever your nationality. Pick one on the map to set off. If something is stopping you, the advisor pops up to explain, and you stay put until it's fixed. At sea, the map follows your ship one day at a time and stops whenever another ship comes into view.

Time

Time passes in days. Each day of sailing moves the calendar on by one, and so does arriving. Setting off and walking around town take no time at all. Your ship sails on by itself until it meets another ship or a battle ends. When you meet a ship, choose what to do, fight the battle round by round if it comes to that, and press Continue journey afterwards. After a victory with goods to plunder, Take loot and sail on does both at once.

Sailing on after a battle doesn't cost a day or any supplies. If the battle happened on the final day, your ship sails into town next, and arriving uses the day and the supplies as usual.

Weather

The weather changes from day to day, but it's only for show. It doesn't affect sailing, supplies or battles.

Battles at sea

You'll run into ships from every nation, and pirates too. Out on the open sea any flag is as likely as the next. On the last day of a voyage, most ships come from your destination's nation, so head for one of its towns if you're hunting its ships.

Most ships let you choose: attack, or ignore them and sail on. Some come at you instead. Your own nation's ships never do, but your enemy's ships and pirates often will, and other nations now and then. You can't ignore a ship that's attacking you. Fight back, or try to flee. Fleeing usually works, and when it doesn't, the battle starts anyway.

A battle lasts up to 5 rounds, and each round you either fire or evade. The more manned cannons you have compared with your opponent, the more often your shots hit. Against an equal ship, most of them land. Taking on a ship with more cannons than you is a gamble.

• Both sides start at full battle strength. It only counts during the fight and has nothing to do with your ships' health.
• When you fire, one side wins the exchange. If it's you, the enemy loses battle strength. If it's them, you lose battle strength, your ships get hit and your crew gets hurt. The worse the battle is going, the more your crew suffers.
• Evading is a coin toss, however many cannons you have. Get it right and nothing hits you. Get it wrong and you take a lighter hit than a lost exchange of fire. Evading never hurts the enemy.
• Whoever runs out of battle strength loses. If both are still afloat after the last round, the side with more strength left wins, and a draw counts as your defeat.

Every move is saved, so you can leave and come back to a battle whenever you like. Once it starts, you have to see it through before you can sail on.

Afterwards, a report shows your loot, recruits, damage and losses. Gold, recruits and treasure go straight to you. For goods, use the sliders to choose how much of each to take. Whatever fits is picked for you, food and water first and then the most valuable goods. Anything you leave behind goes down with the enemy ship, and your voyage carries on.

If you lose, the enemy takes all the gold you carry and every last unit of one to three of your goods. Your bank savings, treasures, cannons and repair kits are safe. With more than one ship, you might also lose one to the sea.

Your user ID is the key to your character. Find it under Settings, where you can also add a passkey to sign in without it.

Every character you play is remembered on this device. When you sign out, it stays on the start page with its portrait and name, so you can switch between characters with one tap. Characters with a passkey ask for it before you're let back in. Forget a character to remove it from this device. The character itself is not deleted.