The Ammo & Arsenal Update — a shot for every job, and full controller support
Pirate Twist v1.1.0 — the Ammo & Arsenal update ⚓
The biggest patch since Early Access launched. Your shot locker just became a real decision, six boss captains learned to fight with a signature shot, and controllers are fully, natively in — Deck, PlayStation, Xbox.
🎯 Every shot flies its own way
The cannon does the reloading — same drill for every ball. What changes now is what the ball does in the air:
- Round — the long arm. Full range, best accuracy, free and endless. Your only load for sinking anything at distance.
- Chain — cuts rigging. Slow, short-ranged, tumbling — but it strips a runner's sails and speed. Close in and stop the chase.
- Grape — clears decks. A close-range fan that shreds crew and throttles their reload. Board them while they reel.
- Fire — burns. Lodges and ignites for a damage-over-time — on a prep cooldown, because a burning prize is a burning payday. Half the cargo goes down with her.
Grape's cheaper and stocked deeper now; chain's the scarce, committal opener. All of it drawn from how these shots actually worked in the age of sail — the drill manuals timed the gun, not the load.
💀 Six boss captains, six ways to die
Every boss now fights with a signature shot and a full three-gun broadside that rolls out one thunder at a time:
- Blacksteel pounds your hull with round.
- Mara Vane and Ironjaw Holt cut your sails with chain and won't let you kite.
- Deadeye Saint-Cyr and Reaver Bron rake your crew with grape.
- Powderkeg Quinn sets you alight from stand-off.
Their guns and yours now play by exactly the same rules — the same caps, the same recovery, the same physics. Cripple them and it's pressure you have to keep pressing; get crippled and you're back on your feet by the time the next sail fills.
🎮 Full controller support — every pad, every screen
- Native Steam Input — bind real named actions ("Fire Cannons", "Load Chain Shot"), not key emulation. Official layouts for Steam Deck and PlayStation ship as the default.
- Every menu answers a stick — navigate, confirm with ✕, back with ○, page crews with L1/R1. No trackpad required.
- Your pad's own buttons — a DualShock reads L1/R1/△□✕○, a Deck reads its own. D-pad steers; the controls disconnect-pause if you set the pad down.
🧭 A deeper company, an honest ledger
- Crew screens page cleanly, the berths you earn actually stick between ports, and every hand's card shows the real bonus it grants — rares finally read like rares.
- Skill tree rewards commitment — a column's next skill opens once the one above is mastered. Deep skills are a real investment now.
🛠️ Fixes that matter
- Playtest and retail saves no longer bleed into each other — separate campaigns at last.
- The Steam overlay works on Mac — it never did before this build. Our bad, and fixed.
- Winning no longer freezes on the victory screen; resumed islands stop the ship where the coast actually is; repair heals exactly the number it promises.
🗣️ This patch was steered by players — steer the next one
Almost everything above started as a player report or a filmed bug, and reports that change the game get named in the notes. Three straight questions for the crew:
- How do the four shots feel to choose between? Is every load worth loading?
- Are the boss captains reading as distinct fights? Too hard, too soft, just right?
- Controller players — what still deserves a button?
Answer right here in the comments, in the Discord's bug-reports forum (the ship's ledger answers every report), or on the Steam discussions board.
⭐ And if the voyage's been good to you
An honest Steam review — any length, blunt is welcome — is the wind in a solo dev's sails. It's what decides how many captains ever find this game.