Professional Ship Simulator Beginner Guide - Tutorial Missions and First Steps

Professional Ship Simulator is an Early Access maritime simulation from SWE Systems, published by Aerosoft and released on Steam on Sep 16, 2026 at $36.99. A first session starts with the guided tutorials, and the store listing is the only official description of what the simulation contains.

What the store listing says the game is

The store text describes a large-scale maritime simulation built for players who want precision rather than arcade shortcuts. Each vessel is operated through systems modelled on real ship operations, from propulsion and navigation to power generation and transmission.

Radar with AIS and CPA, sonar and radio communication are all named in the listing. The simulation layer also covers propeller torque, bank effect, wind and current drift, anchor behaviour and line tension, and the hull can take damage and flood.

How the tutorial path works

The published progression is short to describe and specific about its vocabulary: start with guided tutorials or take on structured missions, then earn credits, expand the fleet and acquire licences. That list is the whole of the onboarding route as published.

• Guided tutorials for the onboard systems.
• Structured missions for credits.
• Licences that gate larger vessels.
• Fleet expansion from a small harbour operator upward.

No tutorial length, mission count or credit value is published with it, so none is claimed here.

The published fleet

Nine ship types are named in the store text, running from small service craft to commercial hulls. The listing gives no per-ship statistics, so the table below reproduces the names only.

Published ship type	Scale on the listing
Tugboat	Small service vessel
Fishing trawler	Small working vessel
Rescue vessel	Service vessel
Offshore ship	Mid-size working vessel
Yacht	Leisure vessel
Container ship	Large commercial vessel
Bulk carrier	Large commercial vessel
LNG tanker	Large commercial vessel
Cruise ship	Large commercial vessel

Because the ships are named and not described, the sensible reading is that the fleet grows through the licence path rather than through a shop screen.

The two published maps

Two environments are named with measurements, which is unusually exact for a store page. The Island of Rugen is listed at 60km by 120km and the Strait of Dover at 140km by 140km, with over 40 harbours between them.

The listing also says the map system is tile-based and moddable, and that harbour activity and wildlife are simulated. Climate is simulated too: a full day and night cycle sits alongside optional real-time weather data, and storm fronts, wind, currents, fog, rain, snow and rough seas all affect handling.

Early access and what is not published

As an Early Access release, the listing promises growth but does not describe it. No roadmap, no update schedule, no new ship list and no mod support detail is published on the store page or in the appdetails record, so those are reported as not published rather than inferred from the Early Access tag.

The one figure worth holding on to is the guide price: $36.99 in the US at capture, with no discount shown. Everything else on the page is a statement of what is simulated rather than how well.

Where to go next

The systems behind the tutorials are broken down on How It Plays, the build and requirement facts are on Availability, and the launch record is on Launch & Demo.