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No. The first time you open the game it quietly creates an anonymous captain for you, so you can start playing straight away. Your progress is saved to our servers, but that anonymous captain is tied to the device you are playing on.

To keep your fleet if you change or lose that device, add an email to it (see the next question). An email is also required before you can buy gold.

1. Tap ACCOUNT on the top bar (or open Settings, then Captain's papers, then Contact details, then Add an email).
2. Enter an email and a password. This upgrades the captain you are already playing in place, so your campaign, fleet and anything bought stay exactly where they are.
3. On the other device, open the same screen and sign in with the same email and password. Your progress comes across.

Once you are signed in, Captain's papers says "Signed in. This account carries yer fleet anywhere."

Open Settings. The top of the screen shows your captain's name, your Captain ID, whether you are signed in (and as which email), and a save status:

• "progress saved to the cloud" means our servers have your save.
• "offline - saved on this device only" means the game cannot reach our servers right now. Your progress is kept on the device until the connection returns.

Signing in to an account that already exists switches the device to that account's save. The game does not merge the anonymous captain that was on the device into it, so the device shows the signed-in account's progress instead.

If you want to keep the progress on a device, add an email to that captain first (it upgrades in place) rather than signing in to a different account. If you have lost progress this way, email us with the Captain IDs you remember and we will take a look.

Open the account screen (the ACCOUNT button on the top bar when you are signed out), type your email and choose Forgot it?. We will email you a link to set a new password. Check your spam folder if it does not arrive.

Your email is the key INVO uses to find your INVO ID and gold balance, so proving you can read it stops anyone else from claiming it. In Captain's papers, open Contact details and choose Send me the proving link, then open the link in the email.

Choose Sign out in Settings (it appears next to Captain's papers when you are signed in). You can also find it in Captain's papers under Contact details.

Signing out does not delete anything. Your account, fleet and gold stay safe on the server under your email, and the device starts over as a fresh anonymous captain. Sign in with the same email later to bring everything back, or sign in with a different email to switch accounts.

Open Captain's papers (from Settings, or your name on the top bar) and choose Change name. Names can be up to 24 characters.

Your phone number is edited in place under Contact details. Your email is the account you sign in with, so changing it goes through Change the account on the same screen.

A passkey is a digital credential that lives on your own device and is unlocked with your fingerprint, face, device PIN or a hardware security key. It never leaves the device and cannot be read out to anyone, which is why Ship Busters uses it to approve moving gold.

You only need a passkey to send or collect gold transfers. You do not need one to play, to sign in or to buy gold.

The first time you set up a passkey on a device, INVO sends a one-time code to the phone number and email on your account to confirm it is really you. A passkey belongs to the device it was made on, so a new device may need one of its own.

On the passkey setup screen, choose Lost or replaced yer passkey? and follow the steps to recover. When the new passkey is made, the old one stops working.

For your safety, a newly replaced passkey can collect gold straight away but cannot send gold for 24 hours. The game tells you when sending opens again. If your old device is still to hand, use that instead and skip the wait.

The desktop game window cannot hold a passkey, so approval happens on your phone instead:

1. The game shows Approve it on yer phone with a QR code and a short code.
2. Scan the QR code with your phone (or open the address shown and type the code), then approve with your fingerprint or face.
3. Keep the game open. It waits for the approval and finishes the transfer on its own. A countdown shows how long the code stays valid.

On Steam there is also an Open it in me browser button, if your computer's browser already has your passkey.

First time on a new phone? The game asks you to confirm on the game screen that the phone is yours, and shows a short match code. Press Aye, it shows that code only if your phone is showing the same code. If it is not, press No, that is not me phone and nothing leaves your purse.

Gold is Ship Busters' premium currency. It runs on the INVO network from Invo Tech Inc., the developer of Ship Busters, and is kept as a gold balance on your INVO ID, tied to your account's email. Gold is bought with real money and is never earned through play.

The game is free to play and in-game purchases are optional: nothing sold in the shop is needed to finish the campaign or win a duel.

Gold rides with your INVO ID, not with the device. INVO finds your gold balance by your email, and your receipts go there too. When you try to buy without one, the game shows Sign in to buy first and opens the checkout straight after.

• Browser and mobile: INVO's secure checkout opens inside the game. We never see or store your card number.
• Steam on Windows: you pay with your Steam Wallet, and Steam shows its own confirmation over the game.
• Steam on macOS: you pay with your Steam Wallet, but Steam's overlay cannot draw over the game on a Mac, so Steam's checkout page opens in a window of its own and closes when the order completes.

Everywhere, gold is added to your gold balance when the payment is confirmed on the server side. That means a payment still pays out even if you close the game the moment it clears.

Open Captain's papers and choose Purchase history. It lists gold bought, gold spent and anything refunded on your account, with the date, time, the price in US dollars where there is one, and the gold amount. Anything that has not completed shows its status next to it.

If it says "No email on file yet", you are not signed in to the account the purchase was made on.

1. Give it a minute. Gold is credited when the payment is confirmed, which can land a moment after the checkout closes.
2. Check you are signed in to the same account you bought with (Settings shows "signed in as" and your email).
3. Open Purchase history and look for the order.

Still missing? Email support@ourinvo.com with your Captain ID, the email on your account, the platform (browser, iPhone, Steam on Windows or Mac), roughly when you bought, the amount, and your receipt or Steam purchase confirmation if you have one.

Email support@ourinvo.com first, with the same details as above, and tell us what looks wrong. Purchases are processed by INVO under INVO's terms, and as our Terms of Use explain, purchases are final except where a refund is required by law or granted by INVO. We will look into every charge you ask about.

Players under 18 need a parent or guardian's permission to make purchases. If a child made a purchase without permission, tell us.

The monthly Captain's Charter renews automatically. To stop it, open the Captain's Charter screen in the game and choose cancel. Your charter keeps running to the end of the month you have paid for. On Steam, cancel from inside the game in the same way.

When a charter ends, its perks stop, but nothing you own is taken away.

Because gold lives on the INVO network, it can leave Ship Busters. You can send gold to another captain in Ship Busters using their phone number, or move it to another supported INVO game, where it arrives as that game's currency. Moves to another supported INVO game carry an INVO fee, and the send form shows each game's limits before you commit.

Choose TRANSFERS on the top bar, or open Captain's papers and choose Gold transfers. The window has three tabs:

• Send: pick where the gold goes, enter the number and the amount, then approve.
• Collect: gold waiting for you, collected with one passkey tap.
• Activity: moves waiting on you, moves on their way, and finished ones.

• An account with an email (see saving your progress).
• Your own phone number on file, under Captain's papers then Contact details. Gold is sent to phone numbers. Your number is an address, not a password.
• A passkey on the device, or on Steam and other desktop builds, your phone to approve with (see device approval).

Starting a transfer reserves the amount; it does not spend it. The reservation lasts ten minutes. If you do not approve it in that time it lapses, nothing is spent, and the gold comes back on its own. The Send screen tells you how much is being held, and the Activity tab shows the move as "never confirmed, so nothing was spent".

Open the Collect tab. Anything waiting has a Collect button that you confirm with your passkey. If this device has no passkey yet, the tab offers Enrol this device first.

If your current device cannot hold a passkey, the gold keeps: open the game somewhere that can, within INVO's holding window, and collect it there.

Yes, in the full game on Steam. The transfer window works the same way; the only difference is that you approve on your phone instead of in the game window (see device approval).

The Steam Next Fest demo does not include transfers, purchases or account screens.

INVO only moves gold between games that are live on its network. A greyed-out game is not accepting transfers yet, so the game stops you before you enter a number or an amount. Try again later or pick another destination.

Ship Busters launches on October 29, 2026 on every platform at once: Windows and macOS on Steam, iOS on the App Store, Android on Google Play, and in your web browser. Before that, the free demo is playable on Steam (Windows and macOS) during Steam Next Fest, October 19 to October 26. The game is free to play everywhere, developed by Invo Tech Inc. and published by Wagyu Games LLC. Wishlist it on Steam to be told when it goes live.

Ship Busters will keep growing after launch. We plan to finish the seven-seas campaign, complete all 12 gear sets, grow online Arena play, bring in the Gauntlet, the Daily Challenge and Dungeons, and widen the ordnance, the accessibility options and the languages. Balance and content will keep being updated along the way.

At launch you can play Campaign and Arena. Coming soon: Gauntlet, Daily Challenge and Dungeons.

• Campaign (at launch): seven seas with seven battles each, 49 in all, with a guided tutorial to start.
• Arena (at launch): live multiplayer duels against another captain. This is the newest part of the game and the most likely to change.
• Gauntlet (coming soon): an endless wave mode that will throw ships at you until you break.
• Daily Challenge (coming soon): every captain will get the same fight on the same seed, so the only variable is you.
• Dungeons (coming soon): a separate run-based mode with its own encounters and rewards.

The whole game is free to play. In-game purchases are optional, and nothing sold is needed to finish the campaign or win a duel.

Windows, minimum:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Dual-core 2.0 GHz
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 11 capable GPU with hardware acceleration (Intel HD 4000 or newer)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 1 GB available space

Windows, recommended:

• OS: Windows 10 or 11 64-bit
• Processor: Quad-core 2.5 GHz
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Any modern dedicated GPU or recent integrated graphics (Intel Iris Xe or newer)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 1 GB available space

macOS, minimum:

• OS: macOS 12.0 Monterey
• Processor: Apple silicon or Intel (universal app)
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: Any Metal-capable GPU
• Storage: 1 GB available space

On every platform, Arena duels, daily rewards and account sync require an internet connection.

The free Ship Busters Demo is playable during Steam Next Fest, October 19 to October 26, 2026. It includes the tutorial, the Shipyard, Settings, and the campaign's first sea on Normal. Beating the Sea 1 boss ends the demo with a screen linking to the full game, our Discord and feedback.

The demo has no shop, no purchases, no transfers, and no account or sign-in screens. It plays as an anonymous captain, and demo progress does not carry over to the full game.

Ship Busters must be started through Steam. If you open the app directly, it asks Steam to relaunch it, which can look like a restart. Launch it from your Steam library instead, and make sure Steam is running and signed in.

If a purchase stops with "Steam has not said who ye are. Launch the game through Steam and try again.", quit the game and start it again from your Steam library.

The game starts in full screen. On Windows, press F11 to toggle full screen. On a Mac, press Control + Command + F. On either, Esc leaves full screen. The window can be resized down to 1280 by 720.

The macOS version is a universal app that runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs. You need macOS 12.0 Monterey or later, 4 GB of RAM, any Metal-capable GPU and 1 GB of free space. See the system requirements for the full list.

English, with full audio. More languages are planned after launch.

Two places: the Ship Busters Steam discussions and our Discord. Player feedback shapes what we build next. For anything about your account, a purchase or a transfer, email support@ourinvo.com instead.

Moment achievements (like your first sink or a ram kill) unlock when they happen while you are playing on Steam. Progress achievements (seas cleared, ships owned, gear milestones and similar) are checked against your save, so ones you earned earlier, or on another device, unlock when the Steam version next reads your save. Make sure you are signed in to the account that holds that progress.

If one still has not appeared, email us with your Captain ID and the achievement's name.

Yes. The full Steam game uses the same Ship Busters account as the other versions. Sign in with the same email and password on each one and your progress follows you. The Next Fest demo is the exception: it has no sign-in and its progress does not carry over.

No. The Steam build ships with no ad code, and its analytics are switched off entirely.

Yes. Ship Busters launches on the App Store for iPhone and iPad on October 29, 2026, free to play. Until then, the iOS version is in a pre-launch beta through Apple's TestFlight. Join our Discord for launch news.

Yes. Ship Busters launches on Google Play on October 29, 2026, free to play. Follow our Discord or socials for launch news.

Yes. The browser version launches on October 29, 2026 at ship-busters.web.app, free to play. Until launch it is a closed pre-beta that needs an access key from the team; on October 29 it opens to everyone, no key needed. Your account works the same way in a browser as on the other versions.

Recent builds fixed several causes of desktop freezes, and added automatic recovery:

• If your graphics driver drops the game's graphics context (a common cause of a frozen or black picture while music keeps playing), the game now reloads itself to recover and pulls your save back in.
• If the game ever ends up with no screen running, it brings the main menu back after a couple of seconds.
• Minimizing the window no longer freezes the game, and the desktop build shows a painted menu background instead of a video.

If it still happens: let Steam finish any pending update for Ship Busters, restart the game from Steam, update your graphics drivers, and try toggling full screen. Then email us with the details listed in Reporting a bug, including what you were doing when it froze.

The loading screen shows a line about what it is doing, such as waiting for your captain's record to come back. If it sits on the same line for a long time, check your internet connection and restart the game (or reload the page in a browser). If it keeps happening, tell us which line it stopped on.

There is no graphics quality menu yet, so the biggest wins are outside the game:

• Close other programs and browser tabs that use the graphics card.
• On a laptop, plug in and use a performance power mode.
• Keep your graphics drivers, your browser and your operating system up to date.
• In a browser, make sure hardware acceleration is turned on.

Inside the game, Settings has a Screen shake slider you can turn down if the motion is uncomfortable, plus Master, Effects and Music volume. See the system requirements for minimum and recommended specs.

Check the Master, Effects and Music sliders in Settings, and your device volume. In a browser, sound starts after your first click or tap on the game.

On a touch screen, drag anywhere to aim, or tap a cannon to pick it. With a keyboard and mouse, drag anywhere to aim (click a cannon to pick it) or use Tab, the arrow keys and Space. Sail with A and D, and hold B for a broadside. Settings also has an Aim assist switch that shows a landing dot. The How to Play guide covers the rest.

• Open Settings and check you are signed in as the email you expect. If it says "not signed in", sign in with that email.
• If it says "offline - saved on this device only", your progress will sync when the connection returns.
• Remember that Reset all progress in Settings wipes the save on that device.

If none of that explains it, email us with your Captain ID (and any older Captain IDs you remember).

Yes, for some features. Arena duels, daily rewards and account sync require an internet connection, and so do the Voyage, purchases and transfers. If your connection drops, Settings shows that progress is being saved on the device only until you are back online.

Open Battles, then Arena. One captain opens a room and shares the five-character room code; the other joins with that code. Both captains press ready and the duel starts after a short countdown. There is no open matchmaking queue, so our Discord is a good place to find opponents.

Live multiplayer is the newest part of the game and the most likely to change. Duels stake nothing and award nothing, and Captain's Charter perks do not apply, so both captains meet on equal terms.

• "Could not reach the harbour master." The game cannot reach the Arena server. Check your connection and try again.
• "Splicing the line again, hold fast" Your connection dropped and the game is reconnecting on its own. Wait a moment; rejoining with the same code and the same account gets your seat back while the room is still open.
• "The line to the harbour master has parted." The connection was lost. A room closes when the last captain leaves, so open a new one and share the new code.
• "No room by that code. Check the letters." The code was mistyped, or that room has closed.
• "Both helms on that ship are taken." That room already has two captains.
• "The harbour master does not know ye. Sign in and try again." The server could not confirm who you are. Check that Settings says your progress is saved to the cloud, then restart the game and try again.
• "The other captain has dropped off the line." Your opponent lost their connection.

The daily login ladder runs for seven claims: one claim per day, with days 1 to 6 paying the pieces of the 3-star Reefrunner gear set and day 7 paying the Lightning Jewel ship (or 10,000 silver if you already own her). After the seventh claim the ladder is finished.

Missing a day does not reset your progress; your next login simply claims the next day.

The daily reset is at 00:00 UTC, which is 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. The in-game countdown shows exactly how long is left. Claims are checked against our server's clock, so changing your device's clock will not unlock an extra claim.

The Voyage is the long login track. It counts the total number of days you log in, not a streak, so missing a day never costs you anything; the voyage just takes a day longer. The server counts at most one day per reset. Voyage rewards never include gold.

Daily and Voyage claims are confirmed by our server, so they need a connection. When the game cannot reach the server, the Voyage shows your saved progress read-only with claims turned off. Check your connection and that Settings says your progress is saved to the cloud, then reopen the screen.

If you claimed something and did not receive it, email us with your Captain ID and the day you claimed.

Account deletion is by request. There is no delete button in the game today. Email support@ourinvo.com from the email on your account if you have one, include your Captain ID, and ask for deletion. We will confirm when it is done.

One exception, as our Privacy Policy explains: the financial transaction ledger is kept for audit and legal compliance even after deletion. It records currency movements, not your gameplay.

No. Reset all progress in Settings clears the save on that device only. It does not delete your account or the data on our servers. Email us for that.

Email support@ourinvo.com with your Captain ID and tell us what you need. We honor access, correction, deletion, export and objection requests for everyone, wherever you live. The Privacy Policy has the details.

In Settings, switch on Disable anonymous telemetry. That stops the game's analytics immediately, and you can switch it back the same way. The Steam version does not send analytics at all.

Ship Busters includes real-money gold purchases and player-to-player gold transfers, so it is not directed at children under 13, and players under 18 need a parent or guardian's permission for purchases and transfers. Parents can email us at any time with questions, or to have a child's data removed.