Salty Seas

Salty Seas is a free, open world, massive multiplayer 3D pirate game made by the independent UK developer Yp3d Hundreds of players share one ocean inspired by the Caribbean of roughly 1700 to 1830, when the Royal Navy, French and Spanish fleets, privateers and pirates all fought over the same sea lanes. Every sail on the horizon belongs to a real person, and you rarely know which ones are friendly.

Released in 2026, it runs straight in the browser on WebGL2 and three.js, with nothing to install. It comes from the same studio as Ships 3D and Tanks 3D, but it is much more than a naval shooter. Between fights you can haul cargo to traders, fish, hunt sharks and pumas on the islands, ride horses and walk the decks in first or third person with a pistol or sabre in hand.

Making a Fortune Before the First Broadside

Cargo that has to be carried

Trade is a physical job here. Loot comes as barrels of Beer, Wine and Rum and chests of Gold and Gems, and each one has to be picked up and carried by hand. Once you lift a barrel, an arrow points to the trader who buys that item and a counter shows how many metres away it is. If the trader is on another island, you need a boat, and other players can see a slow ship weighed down with cargo from a long way off. Every sale counts toward the weekly Cargo Trades board, and selling 50 items earns the gold Merchant award.

The quieter jobs: fishing and hunting

Gold doesn't only come from looting. A fishing rod lets you cast and reel in fish from shore or from the deck. Sharks circle the water and pumas roam the islands, and their bodies can be carried off and sold just like cargo. Each has its own weekly leaderboard (Fish Caught, Shark Kills, Shark Trades and Puma Trades) plus a long-term award: Angler for 100 fish, Shark hunter for 30 sharks and Puma hunter for 100 pumas. The islands are guarded by pirates and skeletons as well, so a hunting trip ashore can still turn into a gunfight.

What the gold buys

Traders sell weapons and special cannonballs, and many of them stay locked until you reach the level they need. The basic tools never wear out. The named gear lasts a set number of hits or shots, and you pay gold to refill it. The game's files list blades such as the Galley Shiv, Boarding Axe, Viper Fang, Corsair Cutlass, Dead Man's Cutlass, Crabshell Cutlass, King Crab's Claw, Anchor's Wrath and Poseidon's Trident. Some of them poison on every hit, and others freeze the target and slow it down. The guns include the Duelist's Flintlock, Brown Bess, Megalodon Musket, Dragon's Breath and Thunderclap Blunderbuss, the last two firing scattering pellets. You can only carry one weapon of each kind, so any upgrade replaces the one in your hand.

Picking Fights on Open Water

The wind decides who gets there first

Speed comes from trimming the sails, not just holding the helm straight. The in-game Angles of Sail guide covers five points of sail. When running with the wind behind you, the sails sit straight across the ship. On a broad reach you turn them about 20°, on a beam reach 45°, close-hauled about 70°, and into the wind they line up with the hull. The wind arrow sits on the map's compass. The simplest rule is to turn the sails halfway between your heading and the wind and stop once they stop flapping. Flapping sails cost you up to 15% of your speed, and that is often the gap between catching a target and watching it get away.

Hulls from a raft to a first-rate

The ship picker shows each vessel's health, speed, turning and cannon count, plus its length and width, and ships unlock as your level rises. The files list a raft and two rowing boats at the bottom. Above them come the two-gun Sloop and Cutter, then the four-gun Clipper and Frigate, a six-gun Warship, a 14-gun Flying Dutchman and, at the top, an 18-gun First Rate. The ship you pick becomes the one your crew spawns aboard when the crew has no ship at sea. A single player can sail any of them. On the bigger hulls, though, the work really calls for a crew, with one player on the helm, one on the sails and the rest at the guns.

Choosing the right shot

Solid shot is the long-range hull breaker. Grapeshot bursts into a cluster of small balls for close range, sweeping crew off an enemy deck, though only some of the balls can hit the same target. Traders also sell fire cannonballs, which set a ship ablaze so it keeps burning after the hit, ice cannonballs, which frost the hull and slow it with every hit, and an explosive shell. Ice is the one to use on a ship that is trying to run away.

Sinking it or stealing it

Sinking an enemy isn't the only way to win. You can come alongside, climb the ladders and clear the deck with muskets, pistols and blades. Then plant your Crew Flag on the deck to claim the ship for your own crew. Ships sunk from your own deck count toward the platinum Ship hunter award (50 sinkings). Deck fighting has its own awards too: Cutthroat, Musket marksman, Flintlock duellist and Sabre master at 100 kills each, and Brawler for 20 kills with bare fists.

Clans, islands and the weekly boards

The map names twelve places, including Havana, Port, Jungle, Fort, Mansion, Temple, Shanty, Mangrove, Windswept Isles, Northern Outpost and the West and South Wrecks. It also marks other players, navy ships, hostile ships and traders in different colours. Leaderboards cover the last 7 days, and the top 50 on each board get a coloured name in chat. Clans have short and long names, a minimum join level and scheduled clan events. Their points fade with a 7-day half-life, so a clan only stays at the top while its members keep sailing.

More naval and multiplayer battle games on gameVgames:

• Ships 3D Yp3d's earlier naval battle game, with warships, broadsides and crews of friends.
• Redcoats.io a huge line-battle shooter with muskets and enemy forts from the same developer.
• Tanks 3D Yp3d's multiplayer tank battles across large open battlefields.