Part of the Sea of Conquest Handbook — this is the main hub. Start here, then branch out:

Sea of Conquest Codes: Free rewards, and why most code lists are dead.

Recipes Hub: Every galley and distillery recipe.

Hero Tier List: Who to invest in before you waste resources.

Ships Hub: Hulls, builds and upgrade requirements.

Progression Hub: The power curve, explained.

Quick Answer

Sea of Conquest is a pirate-themed strategy game built around one thing: your flagship. Everything else — heroes, cabins, sub-ships, the world map — feeds that hull. If you are new, your entire first month should follow one rule: push the main story quests, upgrade the flagship as often as the requirements allow, and never spend a resource on something that does not raise flagship level or hero quality. Do that and you will out-pace 80% of your server without paying anything.

Overview: What You Are Actually Playing

Sea of Conquest: Pirate War is a base-builder wearing a pirate costume. Instead of a castle you get a ship, instead of buildings you get cabins inside that ship, and instead of marching armies you send fleets — a flagship plus escort ships, each crewed by heroes.

Three loops run at the same time, and new players usually only notice the first one:

The build loop. Upgrade cabins, upgrade the flagship, unlock the next tier of everything.
The hero loop. Pull heroes, level them, promote them, slot them as captains and first mates.
The map loop. Sail out, farm resources, fight monsters, take ports, fight other players.

The build loop gates the other two. A maxed hero on an under-levelled hull loses to an average hero on a properly upgraded one. That is the single most important thing to understand in your first week, and it is why our progression guide leads with build order rather than hero rankings.

Your First Session: The Opening Hour

The tutorial hands you a lot and explains very little. Here is what actually matters.

Do the story quests until they stop being trivial. Early chapter rewards are the densest source of resources in the game. Do not wander off to explore until the quest chain starts asking for materials you do not have.

Claim everything in the mail and events tab. Launch rewards, pre-registration rewards and login rewards are all sitting there. Try the long-lived gift codes — SOC777, SEAOFCONQUEST, MEBOOTY and SOC888 — on day one.

⚠️ Start the Pirate King's Trail immediately. It expires in 7 days. It awards the Epic ship Crimson Sentinel and the Epic healer Madame Lulu, and since a 6-star Epic beats a 2-star Legendary, those two are worth more than most early summons. Azure Promise gives you the Epic hero Will on day 2 of its login track. Both have deadlines you cannot recover — see the events hub.

Pick a server you can live with. Server age matters enormously in this genre. A brand-new server means you compete with people at your own stage. Joining a six-month-old server means you are farm for whales. If you are reading this before you install, wait for a fresh server. If you already started on an old one, our server transfer guide covers your options.

Join an active alliance immediately. Not the first one that invites you — an active one. Alliance help cuts construction timers, and alliance gifts are a permanent passive income of resources and hero shards. A dead alliance costs you more than being solo, because you stop looking for a better one.

Flagship Build Order (The Part Everyone Gets Wrong)

Your flagship level is the master gate. Nearly every cabin is capped at flagship level, so a cabin you rushed ahead of schedule sits idle while your flagship catches up.

The order that works:

Flagship level first, always. The moment the upgrade button lights up, take it. If it is blocked, the blocker tells you what to fix next.
Whatever the flagship upgrade demands, second. Requirements are usually a mix of cabin levels and materials. Build exactly what is required and not one level more.
Resource cabins third. Storage and production keep the queue fed. Under-building these is why players stall at the mid-teens.
Combat cabins last — but not never. The Gun Bay and equivalent combat rooms matter enormously for PvP; they just do not gate progression the way the others do.

The cabins guide breaks down what each room does and which ones repay early investment. If you want the exact material list at each tier, see the ship upgrade requirements guide.

The mistake to avoid: spreading upgrades evenly across every cabin. It feels productive and it is the slowest possible route. Build tall on the critical path, ignore everything else until it blocks you.

Heroes: Who to Invest In

You will pull more heroes than you can afford to level. Investment is close to irreversible early on, so pick carefully.

Invest in heroes you will still use in three months. That usually means the highest-rarity heroes you own, in the roles you actually need. Rarity is not a personality — a top-tier hero in the wrong slot still under-performs.

Match damage types for a free +20%. Placing a hero on a ship that matches their damage type grants a +20% attribute bonus. It costs nothing and most players have someone in the wrong seat. See the best heroes for ships guide.

Stars beat rarity. A 6-star Epic outperforms a 2-star Legendary — so build the hero you can finish, not the one you might one day pull. Cursed Ed, an Epic universal damage amplifier, is the best value hero in the game for a free account.

Do not scatter shards. Promoting one hero to the next rarity tier beats levelling five heroes halfway, every single time.

Full rankings live in the hero tier list, and once your core team is set, trinkets are the cheapest power increase available to a free-to-play account.

The Cooking and Distillery System

This surprises new players: Sea of Conquest has a full crafting economy built around food and drink. The galley cooks dishes, the distillery makes drinks, and the outputs feed buffs, quests, event submissions and trade.

It is not optional flavour content. Recipe items are requested constantly by events and commissions, and the ingredients are gathered on the world map, so falling behind on cooking means failing objectives that hand out genuinely good rewards.

Start with the recipes hub, which indexes every dish and drink, then go straight to distillery recipes — drinks are requested more often than food and are the most-searched part of the whole system for good reason.

The World Map: Sailing, Fishing and Monsters

Once your flagship can survive outside the harbour, the map opens up.

Resource nodes are your bread and butter — send fleets out constantly, never let them idle in port. Sea monsters including the Kraken drop the materials you cannot farm any other way; see the sea monsters guide. Fishing is a slow but genuinely profitable side loop that most players ignore; the fishing guide covers rods, spots and species. Treasure maps turn into some of the best free chests in the game — see treasure maps and clues.

The one habit that separates good players from average ones: your fleets should never be sitting still. Idle fleets are the largest single source of lost progress in this game.

Spending: Is Sea of Conquest Pay to Win?

Honestly? It is pay-to-accelerate with a hard pay-to-win ceiling. A free player can comfortably reach the top third of a server, hold territory in an alliance, and clear most PvE content. Competing for server-first titles or winning 1v1 against a heavy spender is not realistic.

If you spend, the rule is the same as every game in this genre: buy the cheapest recurring value first — the monthly-style passes and growth funds — before you touch any one-off bundle. The review goes deeper on where the paywalls actually bite, and the top up guide explains why the official web store often beats buying in-app.

The Full Handbook: Where to Go Next

Every system in the game has a hub page here. Work down this list in roughly the order you will need them:

Hub	Covers	When it matters
Progression Guide	Power growth, build order, F2P planning	Immediately
Ships Hub	Hull archetypes, builds, upgrades	Week one
Cabins Guide	Every flagship room and its priority	Week one
Heroes Hub	Roster, roles, captain and first mate slots	Week one
Recipes Hub	Galley and distillery, every recipe	Week one
Codes	Gift codes and redemption	Day one, then at every event
Resources Hub	Gold, gems, materials and where they come from	Week two
Sailing Hub	The map, fishing, treasure, monsters	Week two
Formations Guide	Positioning and fleet management	Week two
Alliance Guide	Gangs, territory, rallies	Week two
Tier List Hub	Heroes, ships and trinkets ranked	Mid-game
Events Hub	Event priorities and pre-farming	Mid-game
Combat Mechanics	Damage types, impact, the maths	Mid-game
Trials Guide	The 5v5 turn-based campaign	Week two
Legends of Conquest	The recurring 5-day event	Mid-game

Two systems worth knowing about earlier than most players find them: the pioneer fleet, which produces returns while you are offline, and SP heroes, whose event windows close faster than you would expect.

Still deciding whether to play? The review is honest about what the game is, games like Sea of Conquest covers the alternatives, and Sea of Conquest vs Reign of Pirates explains why those two look identical. Playing for an offerwall reward? The Freecash guide is the milestone speed run.

Ten Tips I Wish Someone Had Told Me

Never leave the build queue empty, even overnight. A cheap upgrade beats an idle queue.
Save speedups for upgrades that unlock something, not for shaving an hour off a resource building.
Redeem codes the week they drop. They expire fast, which is why every list you find on Google is dead.
Stay under the radar in PvP until your flagship is competitive. Being farmable is a self-inflicted wound.
Read event requirements before the event starts. Half of them can be pre-farmed, and that is where the leaderboard positions are won.
Don't sell rare ingredients. The recipe that needs them shows up two weeks later, guaranteed.
Shield before you log off during any war event.
Do your daily commissions. The individual rewards look small; the monthly total does not.
Talk in alliance chat. Rally invites and territory intel go to people who are visibly active.
Plan around season resets. Seasons change maps, heroes and specialisations — the seasons guide explains what carries over and what does not.

Account and Setup

Account Binding — bind before you switch devices, or lose everything
PC Download Guide — client, emulators and account sync
Server Transfer — when moving is worth it

FAQ

How long does it take to become competitive in Sea of Conquest?

On a fresh server, roughly three to four weeks of consistent daily play to reach the upper-middle of the pack. Reaching the actual top requires either heavy spending or joining a top alliance early and playing every day of a season.

Can I play Sea of Conquest on PC?

Yes. There is an official PC client plus emulator options, and the game syncs across devices through your account login. Full setup instructions are in the PC guide.

Is Sea of Conquest offline?

No. It is an always-online strategy game on shared servers — your ships keep existing when you close the app, which is exactly why shielding before you log off matters.

What should I spend my first gems on?

Nothing, for the first few days. Then: build queue slots if offered, followed by hero pulls during a banner that features a hero you actually want. Gems spent on speedups early are gems wasted.

Do I need to spend money to enjoy the game?

No. The free experience is generous through the mid-game. Spending changes your ceiling, not your access.

Key Takeaways

Flagship level gates everything. Build tall on the critical path, not wide across every cabin.
Fleets should never idle. Map activity is the largest free resource stream in the game.
Concentrate hero investment into a small core rather than spreading shards thin.
Cooking and distilling are core systems, not side content — they feed events and commissions.
Join an active alliance on day one. It is the single biggest free multiplier available.

Sea of Conquest Guide: Beginner's Walkthrough, Tips and Build Order