Pirate roguelike Rogue Waters is a complex web of turn-based strategy

To command your crew of pirates like a pro, here are our best beginner tips for the new roguelike turn-based strategy game, Rogue Waters.

Rogue Waters, releasing on September 30, is a game of swashbuckling pirates and tactical, turn-based battles. You’ll take on the role of a cunning captain with command over a cutthroat crew (and some willing sea monsters). Raid your way through swathes of rival buccaneers, and you’ll uncover an ocean of mysteries surrounding the strange new resource everyone’s dying to get their hands on, ‘Glass’.

We’ve spent hours swimming through these treacherous Rogue Waters, and we reckon we’ve found our sea legs. To help you prepare for the launch of this new turn-based strategy game, here are some top tips that’ll help you get started.

Invest in your crew (but mainly Captain Cutter)

Before a raid begins, you’ll spend some time at your home base, deciding which ship parts and people to invest in. The local tavern is filled with scoundrels ready to join your crew, and it’s well worth parting with your precious Glass to hire them.

Each potential crew member features multiple skill trees that you can unlock as they gain experience sailing the seven seas. Carefully cultivating these trees gives you a crew with a wide range of abilities, from tactical Backstabbers to tank-y Bruisers.

Despite how useful your crew can be, the most important member of the team to invest in is yourself. Captain Cutter is the protagonist of Rogue Waters, and this means he gets some unique benefits his mateys don’t.

If a crew member is killed in combat, some mysterious magic will bring them back from the dead in a future battle. However, the traumatic experience takes its toll, and their maximum health is reduced by one. Unique, named crew members must spend time resting at the quarters in home base to bring their maximum health back up.

Captain Cutter, however, is restored to full vitality between raids. He’s the most sturdy member of your crew, and he’s the only one who must venture out on every raid (he /is/ the captain, after all). This means that buffing him is extra vital for success. We’ve seen Cutter take down an entire crew /alone/ after his own were cut down by cutlasses, so it’s a worthy investment.

Invest in your ship’s cannons early

Rogue Waters splits raids into two distinct sections: naval combat and melee combat. The first of these phases sees you sailing your ship and charting a course to your goal. Often, this course leads you to attack another vessel – but before you can board, you must weaken them first.

Naval combat is turn-based, and your only weapons are your ship’s cannons. Each turn, you’ll see what part of your ship the enemy plans to blast, and you can spend Command Points to set off your own cannons. Each part of the rival ship – types of crew member, modules that buff the enemy, and their cannons – has a health bar you must deplete to remove them. Destroying their cannons helps keep your own modules and crew out of danger, but removing enemy modules or crew members will make the upcoming melee combat phase significantly easier. Choose wisely.

One way to make this tough choice even easier is to strengthen your arsenal. The workshop back at home base can be used to increase your starting number of cannons, your starting number of Command Points, and the power level of your starting cannons.

Plus, in the early stages of a raid, we recommend targeting enemy ships that offer powerful cannons as loot. If you quickly become a serious threat in naval combat, all future encounters will be significantly easier for you. That means you can easily target elite ships and gather the best loot along your journey.

Get to know the environment you’re fighting in

In melee combat, other pirates aren’t the only enemies you’re up against – the environment can be just as dangerous for your crew. Many pirates (yours and the opponents) push the target of their attacks after they make a strike. Being shoved into walls, other people, spikes, fire, or tar all cause extra damage or debuffs. And if your opponent can hit you hard enough, they’re likely to send you overboard.

The silver lining here is that you can also subject your enemies to these same environmental effects. Before the fighting gets going, you can choose where your crew will board the ship, and this is the perfect time to plan your approach.

Are there several enemies lined up that a Spearmaiden could attack simultaneously? Or is there a vulnerable pirate backed into a corner, ready to take some excess damage? It’s also important to consider the type of enemies you’re facing.

For example, when facing large numbers of enemies, we’d recommend that your pirates stick together. You don’t want them /too/ close together, as that gives your enemy the chance to push you into each other and deal extra damage, but a lone pirate often ends up being a dead pirate. The exception to this rule is when facing enemies that can deal area-of-effect damage, such as the Bomber.

You can learn more about Rogue Waters on the official website. Or, for more of the best turn-based strategy games, head to PCGamesN’s dedicated guide for further recommendations.