Corsair Cove tasks players with developing a pirate colony from minimal starting assets. Gameplay involves constructing buildings to extract materials and sustain a pirate workforce, with technological upgrades earned through completing objectives. Players choose between a narrative campaign or open-ended scenarios, adjusting difficulty via resource limitations and enemy intensity. Disruptive events—plague outbreaks, hunter attacks, and sea monsters—periodically disrupt settlements as they expand.

The game distinguishes itself through terrain design that makes meticulous planning impractical: towering cliffs, narrow ravines, and rocky formations force organic, asymmetrical settlements rather than the orderly layouts typical of city-builders. This constraint aligns visually with the lawless pirate theme. Atmospheric details—weathered clifftop structures, footbridges between buildings, lantern-lit harbours—create immersion. However, rapid growth creates resource strain, making measured expansion a core strategic requirement.