Pioneers: High Seas — play online free with friends
Sail beyond the main island — ships, pirates and gold await. Scales to 6 sailors.
If you know the classic Catan: Seafarers, you already know the idea — Pioneers: High Seas is TableTop's original take on the same style of game, free to play online.
The classic island game plus the sea: build ships to reach small islands, dodge the pirate, strike gold — and race to 14 victory points.
Play Pioneers: High Seas now — it's freeCreate a room in one tap and share the invite link — friends join instantly in their browser or in the TableTop app, no account needed to play.
How to play Pioneers: High Seas
The map
- Everyone starts on the main island — both starting settlements must be placed there.
- Small islands lie across the sea. The first settlement you build on each small island is worth 2 bonus victory points.
- If a starting settlement sits on the coast, you may place a ship instead of a road next to it.
Ships
- Ship: 1 wood + 1 sheep (max 15). Ships are built on sea or coastal edges, starting from your coastal settlements.
- Ships work like roads over water, but a road and a ship only connect through one of your settlements or cities.
- Once per turn you may move a ship from the open end of a shipping route to another valid spot — unless it was built this turn or the pirate sits next to it.
- Longest Trail counts your longest combined road + ship route.
- Trailblazing builds any mix of 2 roads and/or ships.
The pirate
- When you roll a 7 or play a militia card, you may move the pirate to a sea hex instead of moving the bandit.
- The pirate steals one random card from a player with a ship next to its hex.
- No ships may be built or moved on the edges of the pirate's hex.
Gold fields
- When a gold field's number is rolled, each adjacent player takes any resource of their choice — 1 per settlement, 2 per city.
Winning
- Settlements 1 point, cities 2, victory point cards 1, Longest Trail and Strongest Militia 2 each.
- Your first settlement on each small island is worth 2 bonus points.
- First player to reach 14 points wins.
Setup
- Players take turns placing two settlements, each with an adjacent road. Order snakes: last player places their second settlement first.
- Your second settlement immediately pays you one of each resource on the hexes it touches.
Your turn
- Roll the dice. Every hex with that number produces: 1 resource per adjacent settlement, 2 per city (unless the bandit sits on it).
- Then build, buy development cards and trade as much as you can afford.
- Misclicked? Once per turn you can undo your last build, ship move or bank trade — until you roll, trade with a player or play a card.
- End your turn to pass the dice to the next player.
Rolling a 7
- Nothing produces. Everyone holding more than 7 resource cards discards half of them.
- The roller moves the bandit to a new hex and steals one random card from a player next to it.
- The robbed hex produces nothing until the bandit moves again.
Building costs
- Road: 1 wood + 1 brick (max 15). Must connect to your roads or buildings.
- Settlement: 1 wood + 1 brick + 1 sheep + 1 wheat (max 5). Must touch one of your roads and be at least 2 spots away from any other building.
- City: 2 wheat + 3 ore (max 4). Upgrades one of your settlements.
- Development card: 1 sheep + 1 wheat + 1 ore.
Trading
- On your turn you can propose trades to other players — they accept or decline.
- Trade with the bank at 4:1, or 3:1 if you have a settlement on a generic harbor, or 2:1 for that resource on a resource harbor.
Development cards
- Militia: move the bandit and steal a card. Playing 3+ militia cards earns Strongest Militia (2 points) — until someone plays more.
- Trailblazing: place 2 free roads.
- Bumper Harvest: take any 2 resources from the bank.
- Corner the Market: name a resource — every player gives you all of theirs.
- Victory Point cards stay hidden and count toward your total.
Playing with 5-6 players
- The main island grows from 19 to 30 hexes, with two deserts and 11 harbors.
- More small islands lie across the sea, including a third gold field.
- The bank holds 24 of each resource and the development deck grows to 34 cards.
- Everything else plays exactly the same — ships, the pirate, island bonuses and the race to 14 points are unchanged.