Rogue Waters

Rogue Waters is a pirate adventure about Captain Cutter, caught in a struggle for power and vengeance. You navigate dangerous waters, pursue legendary treasure and confront immortal Captain Blackbone while uncovering the Sea Shepherd prophecy. The story spans three acts and follows themes of loyalty, betrayal and revenge.

Prepare your crew

Before each run, you use the Pirate Cave as a hub to equip ship upgrades and choose crew members. You can recruit from six classes, each with distinct abilities and playstyles, then upgrade crew skills after runs. Damage persists between runs, so injured crew members need to be swapped out while they heal.

Explore changing waters

Each run generates new encounters and procedurally shifts the world, bringing fresh secrets, combat scenarios and treasure. You face varied pirate factions and enemy types, choosing which encounters to take on. Your crew fights aboard ships and on land, and you can visit shops to heal, upgrade crew, buy cannons and repair your ship. You can also extort a shop for loot, but doing so starts a fight.

Fight at sea and ashore

Encounters begin with sea battles, where you fire cannons at key areas of enemy ships. Your ship and enemy vessels have distinct buffs that can be destroyed, and crew members can be targeted and killed, so you need to protect your ship and crew before boarding.

During the boarding phase, your crew fights enemies hand to hand. Use their abilities to maneuver opponents and pin them against obstacles for fatal damage. You can also push enemies into spikes, pick up one-time weapons or swing into position on ropes.

Summon sea creatures

You can free legendary sea creatures from captivity, earn their trust and summon them during boarding fights. Three creatures can assist your crew:

• The Kraken: crushes nearby enemies.
• The Mermaid: disrupts enemies and pushes them in any direction.
• The Giant Snail: drops a deadly spiked obstacle onto the deck.

Progress between runs

Each run resets your equipment and items, while permanently unlocking upgrades for your crew, ship and Captain Cutter. Personal items include extra weapons, attack modifiers and ability side upgrades. Shipboard weapons such as cannons reset too, though each run starts with a usable basic set; ship modules also reset.

Permanent progress includes unlocking skill trees for crew members and Captain Cutter, and acquiring ship and port facility upgrades in the Pirate Cave.