The player assumes the role of a pirate, who, after being rescued from a prison ship, begins searching for pieces of a map that could take them to the mythical, long-lost world of El Dorado.

Players can complete quests, sail ships, recruit companions, and battle enemies in a turn-based combat system similar to those used in board games.

It is led by Kane, Supreme Commander of the Armada, a superintelligent humanoid clockwork whose primary goals are to reach El Dorado, make himself immortal, and then proceed to destroy the Spiral in order to recreate it in his image.

The game opens with the player character, a young pirate orphan, imprisoned aboard a ship in Skull Island after rebelling against the Armada.

Boochbeard and Mr Gandry rescue the player from the ship and send them to the hub of Skull Island to meet Captain Horace Avery, an extremely wealthy retired pirate who is the owner and steward of the entire Skyway.

The player does quests for Avery in order to earn their keep, eventually being sent to discover pieces of a map to El Dorado, a long-lost world made entirely of gold.

The player travels to various worlds of the Spiral—such as the imperial China-themed MooShu and the American frontier-themed Cool Ranch—in search of the map pieces.

For example, if a player chooses the Witchdoctor class, they will fight alongside Kan Po of the MooShu Five and Mormo of the Kraken Skulls Five.

If they choose "shipwrecked" as their parent's death in character creation, the player will be able to fight alongside Lucky Jack Russell of the Presidio Five.

[5] Due to its young core audience, Pirate101 restricts player interaction more than other games in the massively multiplayer online genre.

Other features have been designed with a preteen audience in mind; for example, defeated opponents in combat disintegrate or vanish bloodlessly.

According to a KingsIsle Entertainment press release, Pirate101 had five million registered users in October 2013, matching the first year success of Wizard101.

[13] Nick Tylwalk of GameZebo said that the helpful interface makes combat very clear and is of great assistance to children.

[14] Karen Bryan of Massively said that KingsIsle Entertainment had succeeded in making a complex enough system to challenge players without over-complicating it.