Idle Ships is an incremental game with material acquisition, point generation, and building elements. The player's goal is to build various types of boats and ships to display in glass bottles on shelves, including a fishing boat, the Flying Dutchman, a Viking boat and a junk ship.
The player must click or tap repeatedly to generate enough points to perform actions. They start by selecting an icon that looks like tools and wooden boards repeatedly. They can also auto-generate points during an idle period by leaving the game tab to do other things. Additionally, they can acquire points by accepting daily rewards, buying points with crystals, and checking the spin wheel every 20 minutes.
The game then prompts the player to use the Boat icon option to apply their points to building the hull. The partial model floats and turns against a black background, so the player can see the build in all directions. They use the Top icon to build the deck and the Decor icon to add a sail. The Upgrade icon helps them access the general upgrade menu.
Idle Ships makes the player rely heavily on advertisements to enjoy certain perks. For example, they can increase their manual incremental speed or acquire work points and skip 600 seconds of clicking or tapping by watching advertisements in combination with the Speed Clicks and Time Travel icons, respectively.
After the player builds a model, they can always take a look at it on its shelf by selecting the icon that looks like a ship at the top-center of the screen.
