Sea of Thieves is an open-world game that offers risk, reward, and a lot of mayhem. The action-adventure game was released in 2018 and has continued to host millions of players, setting sail solo or with crews and exploring the many islands in a vast pirate world. Sea of Thieves has been released for almost five years and is still churning out new content, using a season pass system and frequent collaborations with other popular franchises to keep player pirates coming back for more. While the game is built to emphasize player freedom and exploration, there are quite a few rules and tricks that gamers have had to learn the hard way.
Sea of Thieves is on its eighth season of content, with a "Community Friendship Day" on February 12, 2023, and other multiplayer celebrations occurring throughout the year. Even with the focus on player autonomy, the title does offer a particularly compelling collection of story campaigns called "Tall Tales" - featuring Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and other iconic figures from the franchise. Outside the game's story campaign, gamers have had to make their own rules to become Captains - especially regarding rival pirates, skeletons, ghosts, massive monsters, and the old flooded pirate ship.
Sea of Thieves: Lone Pirates Enjoy Total Freedom, But Need To Take Extra Precautions
While some open-world action-adventure games have a multiplayer mode that is entirely inaccessible for single players, Sea of Thieves is the opposite. Solo players can enjoy almost every perk of the game - if not more -but an added challenge comes with it. Sea of Thieves has players choose the size of their boat, but the sloop is the only one suitable for solo experiences. Once players have their ship, they're solely responsible for everything involving exploration, sailing, and combat.
There are ways to make the single-player experience easier and more enjoyable. Some players have established Sea of Thieves unwritten rules, including keeping their lanterns turned off to avoid enemy attention, sticking to long-range rifles, and being hyper-vigilant regarding ship damage. The solo experience might be a slower start than having an entire crew, but players who focus on avoiding ship battles and taking shorter voyages can find the life of a lone pirate freeing. After all, Sea of Thieves uses a unique voting system that factors in the input of the entire crew, but when playing solo, this decision is all up to the player.
Traveling To The End Of The World Leads To A Short Voyage In Sea of Thieves
While the real Earth allows pirates to travel around the globe, the pirates in Sea of Thieves aren't as lucky. While Sea of Thieves boasts a twelve square-mile open world and over 70 charted islands on the flat in-game map, there's treachery when exploring every nook and cranny. Pirates exploring freely should avoid sailing toward the end of the map, as it almost always means certain doom. When players cross into "uncharted waters," the environment will turn a menacing red, and their ship will take massive damage, eventually capsizing.
Focus On Faction Voyages But Complete Them Before Capsizing or Ending A Play Session
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Sea of Thieves features many adventures that take the pirate life to the extreme, but making decent money can sometimes feel like a slog. Some players have tried to solve this issue by taking quests and setting out for an extended period, then returning to an outpost with an immense amount of sellable goods. Players have learned the consequences of this method the hard way, as not returning to an outpost to redeem quest rewards means the hard work done is wholly annulled. This means that players who quit the game early or capsize end up with no rewards for their efforts.
There are some techniques that Sea of Thieves players use to avoid this brutal outcome. When choosing between quests for Sea of Thieves emissaries like the Gold Hoarders, the Merchant Alliance, and The Order of Souls, it's important to pick wisely. Some merchant quests require chests to be found, goods to be returned, or skeleton captains to be killed, each with their distinct challenges. It can be easier to loop together voyage quests from the same faction, jumping between different faction quests. This way, players have learned to prioritize in a game all about wise choices.
In Sea of Thieves, The Most Dangerous Enemy For A Pirate Ship Is Water
Although the game is packed with wondrous magical artifacts and strange magic, Sea of Thieves uses quite a bit of realism regarding ship health. Unless a player has made enough money to be a Sea of Thieves captain of their permanent ship, they are essentially "loaning" a new ship every session, meaning that anything on or in the ship disappears when it's destroyed. One of the most common and preventable ways a pirate ship can capsize is if the player is unaware of holes in the hull. Even the smallest scraps against a shallow sea bed or island beach can result in devastating hull damage over time.
When a player sails into something that causes hull damage, there isn't always an indication. Some gamers have even anchored and left their ship to find it has wholly capsized while they were gone. To prevent this, some players have started to habitually check their ships for damage before anchoring their boats and leaving to explore. Of course, Sea of Thieves pirates need a constant stock of wood to repair holes. Even the most vigilant pirates have been caught off guard by flooding due to storms. Players should watch the rats in their ship - if they've moved to higher ground, there's water below.
If The Ocean Is Pitch Black, It's A Sea of Thieves Kraken Attack
One of the biggest challenges in Sea of Thieves is that the optional tutorial leaves out quite a few tips for safely navigating the open world. In fact, between steering, checking the map, and manning the sails, checking for danger can be the last thing on players' minds. What Sea of Thieves leaves out of the tutorial is pitch-black water usually means a ship is about to be attacked by a massive sea monster. Even at night, the Kraken can infamously attack any ship in Sea of Thieves, including tiny sloops without the capabilities to defeat it. This means that sailing away is usually the best option, but when stuck in combat, aim down.
Sea of Thieves is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.