Clans, fleets and crews
A pirate game is better with a friend at the wheel and your own people on the guns. Here is how to gather a crew, found a clan, raise a shared flag and take a whole fleet to sea under one tag.
Updated 12.11.2026Play for free
A crew on one ship
The easiest way to play with friends is to invite them aboard. Whoever climbs onto your ship serves under you and wakes up on your ship, and the loot from merchants is shared with the whole crew. Friendly fire is off: no sabre, bullet or cannonball can hurt your own people.
Crews have ranks: sailor, gunner, bosun, navigator, first mate and captain. The captain, first mate and bosun can repair the ship with planks. On a big ship there is work for everyone — one at the wheel, others on the guns, more getting ready to board. Combat is covered in Sea battles and boarding.
How to found a clan
A clan is a permanent crew with a name and a tag. The tag shows above your nickname in the game, and clanmates cannot hurt each other.
- Found: menu → Clan. You need 5,000 doubloons, a name of 3 to 24 characters and a tag of 2–4 letters or digits.
- Invite: the leader invites a player by number — the number is shown in the Players online list — and the invited player accepts it themselves.
- Size: up to 30 members, and you can belong to only one clan.
- Treasury: any member can deposit doubloons; the leader pays them out.
- Management: the leader can remove a member, hand over leadership or disband the clan; if the leader leaves, the longest-serving member takes over.
The clan flag and a shared fleet
The clan leader has a flag designer: cloth colour, pattern, emblem, its position and size. The finished flag flies from the mainmast of every member’s ship, so at sea everyone can tell whose fleet it is. Each captain still picks the hull colour, sails and ship name at the shipyard.
A clan fleet is several clanmates’ ships sailing together: light ships run merchants down while heavy ones hold the line with their broadsides. Place a marker on the sea chart — the whole crew sees it — and arrive at the target together. Which ships suit which roles is explained in the Ships guide.
Chat, voice and the scoreboard
Text chat has General, Clan, Ship and Officers tabs, and each channel is visible only to the people it belongs to. Voice chat works by distance: you hear whoever is nearby, which makes giving orders on deck easy.
Hold Tab (on a phone — the Players online menu) to open the scoreboard: player number, nickname with clan tag, ship and class, rank and connection. The leader uses the number from the scoreboard to invite newcomers to the clan.
How to find a crew
No friends in the game yet? No problem. Stand by the main pier of Tortuga — it is the green zone where nobody shoots and where every newcomer arrives. Open the scoreboard with Tab: it shows who is at sea right now, on which ship and in which clan. Write in the general chat or simply speak up in voice chat — players nearby will hear you.
If you already have a ship, invite people aboard: there is a place at the guns for everyone, and the loot is shared. And if you want to join a strong clan, visit the forum: clans recruit and introduce themselves in their own groups.
Clans on the forum
Clans have their own groups on the captains’ forum, where they plan voyages, recruit and share loot and screenshots. Your forum profile shows your skin, rank and ship. If you are just starting out, read How to play and invite your friends — Black Crown is a multiplayer pirate game you can play with friends right in the browser, on phone and PC.