Sea of Thieves (XB/PC/Game Pass/PS5) - Over 40m players. Coming to PS5 on 30th April. 2024 details.

I'm not a fan of the loot barrels now having gunpowder barrels among them. I was pretty looted up and exploded, ended up Sinking on way to outpost.

How long does it take to really get a grip for all the "stuff" in this game? I guess i have played about 8 hrs and have watched quite a few videos, but there are still so many things (mechanics) that i haven't grasped or am not familiar with. Like i have never retrieved anything with my harpoon gun. And i still cant work out a quick way to reload canons quickly (ie while using them) with any ammo type other than standard. Quite often if i pick up chainshot i cant actually see it in my item radial. And why do people stash powder barrels in the crows nest? Damage limitation if hit? I'm guessing it must take your mast out right?

I have learnt that if i look behind me i can see my sea chart, which is a massive win.

Got in to a pirate ghost ship battle (not apparent it was an NPC ship until i boarded it on being rammed, impressive AI). There were.... a lot of skeletons on board.

Yesterday i got stopped by the sea police (!), which was hilarious until it went slightly racist at the end. COME ON INTERNET PEOPLE, YOU WERE 90% OF THE WAY TO GENUINELY MAKING ME HAVE A HEART WARMING EXPERIENCE.

Anyway, game is good. Really good. Want to play with others. I'm becoming a dab hand practicing with the non verbal dialogue ring.

Last edited by Photek on Fri Jul 31, 2020 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'll attempt to answer some.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Like i have never retrieved anything with my harpoon gun.

I barely use them, I mean, if you stop at right time around loot barrels in the world you can use the Harpoon gun to pluck a barrel (and skulls, chests etc) out of the water. (you then have to release holding harpoon to loot barrel/take chest off it)

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:And i still cant work out a quick way to reload canons quickly (ie while using them) with any ammo type other than standard.

You can select a chain shot or special cannon balls with RB or something. I actually can't remember but I'll have a go tonight and reply.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:And why do people stash powder barrels in the crows nest? Damage limitation if hit? I'm guessing it must take your mast out right?

Yes it will mess your mast up (mast damage was only added about 4months ago) but your mast being damaged does not sink or contribute to sinking your ship. If a gunpowder barrel explodes on deck (or god forbid below), you're chances of rescuing your ship from sinking (especially in a sloop and on your own) are tiny.

Gunpowder barrels explode easily if you end up fighting with another ship (skelly/ghost/other players). Even if you put them below deck, if the bow gets hit near them they blow up.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:I have learnt that if i look behind me i can see my sea chart, which is a massive win.
Got in to a pirate ghost ship battle (not apparent it was an NPC ship until i boarded it on being rammed, impressive AI). There were.... a lot of skeletons on board.

Looking behind at map is huge and it's hard to get used to not having that on the other 2 boat types that have it below deck.
Yeah the enemy AI ships are well done, fighting another Skelly sloop is very doable on SP, you have to run off to bail and fix holes a bit but it's easily done, it just takes more time than if you had 1 other to help. Remember, when hitting an enemy ship with cannon balls, aim at where their boat meets the water, try and hit as low as possible.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Anyway, game is good. Really good. Want to play with others. I'm becoming a dab hand practicing with the non verbal dialogue ring.

I should be around Saturday night.

One thing that is helpful is, you can raise an Alliance Flag/Pennant (every ship has one equpped). simply go up to the crows nest and flag box (opposite side to bell) and you'll see loads of flags, hit RB and you'll see the Alliance Pennant.

As you sail with this raised it means 2 things, other ships, more experienced ships usually will leave you be but more importantly, if they have their alliance pennant raised and sail close enough to you, you create an alliance. All loot you and they get while allied will be shared so you could be sailing along and receive money and stuff randomly as they cash in their loot. You can also see your allied boats on the map.

This is what it looks like:

Other tip is, one of the Emissary options represents The Reapers Bones, their 'job' is to sink other Emissaries and hand in their flags (when an emissary ship sinks it's flag remains). The higher the rank of Emissary the more reward they get but CRUCIALLY, Reapers Bones Emissary boats show up on the map, so always zoom out every now and then to see if they are near you because they'll attack either way usually and although versatile, the Sloop is the slowest boat in the game.

Attach Rowboats to back of your boat too, if see one on island, you can push it into the water then row it to back of boat and hold Y to attach (it's a bit fiddly as you have to stop rowing to attach it). It's handy in the volcanic region where some of the water is super heated so you can take row boat to island instead.

Photek wrote:I'm not a fan of the loot barrels now having gunpowder barrels among them. I was pretty looted up and exploded, ended up Sinking on way to outpost.

Hasn't that been a thing for a while? When playing with Matt a month or so ago we blew up from a barrel mixed with other gooseberry fool in the sea.

with barrels, don't put the barrels from fort up on the mast, it will take out your ship even that high up and if people see it they will gun for it. Hiding it down below is the best bet for people not hitting in intentionally, the problem is a lucky shot will still sink your ship. strawberry floating barrels.

Pedz wrote:
Photek wrote:I'm not a fan of the loot barrels now having gunpowder barrels among them. I was pretty looted up and exploded, ended up Sinking on way to outpost.

Hasn't that been a thing for a while? When playing with Matt a month or so ago we blew up from a barrel mixed with other gooseberry fool in the sea.

Yeah it has, just saying I don't like it. :lol:

Photek wrote:
Pedz wrote:
Photek wrote:I'm not a fan of the loot barrels now having gunpowder barrels among them. I was pretty looted up and exploded, ended up Sinking on way to outpost.

Hasn't that been a thing for a while? When playing with Matt a month or so ago we blew up from a barrel mixed with other gooseberry fool in the sea.

Yeah it has, just saying I don't like it.

Ah, fair enough.

Photek - thanks for all the detailed reply’s. I have been raising the alliance flag on occasion. No takers yet but early days.
Did not know about the row boat thing - will try that next time I’m on. And will keep an eye out for you!

Sometimes you get a good alliance, sometimes you get an alliance where the team track you then ram you, take you out and loot all your gooseberry fool :lol:

You need to stop doing that Pedz!

Photek wrote:You need to stop doing that Pedz!

Wish I was good enough

Had a good couple of hours where I didn’t see anyone. The number of random things that happened was insane! Heavy storms, shark attacks, sunken loot. I guess it’s really come on over the past couple of years.

Managed to use a rowboat to ferry some skulls off an island (plus a chicken) fairly quickly, so thanks again for the primer Photek!

Yesterday was good fun on this. The voyages were pretty small, with only one island per voyage, but I did find a lone Skelly Captain on Cannon Cove and stole his orders (and skull). Then as I was leaving, a red tornado alit in the sky. An Ashen Boss had appeared on the island I had just left. Not that I was to know that's what it meant. I was just curious about seeing what it was, but the outpost I was selling at was near enough that the music kept butting in. Then, as I was selling the things in my last chest, two other pirates arrive. Back on my ship, they take it over, and tell me that we're going to take on the Ashen Boss. They instruct me to set the alliance flag, and we become joined together as we take it on.

That was a thrilling fight, with it able to do some massive damage and area of effect attacks. Got through a load of fruit and still died a few times. But they were right - upon defeat a load of loot was dropped. The two ships then sailed back to the outpost, where everything was sold and a lot of gold made. Could have continued on with them and raided a fort, but I needed to turn off as I'd already spent way longer than I had meant to sailing the seas. They also seemed to understand that I had no communication beyond the radial, as they never expected any communication back (they were clearly on PC as they were able to text chat).

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Had a good couple of hours where I didn’t see anyone. The number of random things that happened was insane! Heavy storms, shark attacks, sunken loot. I guess it’s really come on over the past couple of years.

Managed to use a rowboat to ferry some skulls off an island (plus a chicken) fairly quickly, so thanks again for the primer Photek!

One evening I was playing this with The Watching artist and we were doing a fort, another ship came along to try and screw us over. We battled them, ship to ship (none of that jumping off with a barrel to blow each other up bollocks) and while that happened we were close enough to the fort for that to be shooting us and we had a Meg pop on us and attack too. It was an amazing fight. We even won it... for once.

Another time we were in battle with another ship we were attacked by a meg and Kraken. Sometimes a Kraken popping up can help, most of the time, it doesn't.

Dogs soon -

Been a while since I had a Chest of Sorrow, so I forgot when it's crying the ship fills with water. Only realised when the bong sounded to indicate a sinking ship. I grabbed that chest and swam it all the way to Ancient Spire Outpost. Never feared for an attack to come as much as that journey.

Brave the Vaults of the Ancients in September’s Free Sea of Thieves Update

Summary

Vaults of the Ancients is the latest Sea of Thieves monthly update, coming September 9 and free for all players across Xbox One, Windows 10, Xbox Game Pass and Steam.
New Treasure Vault Voyages let players seek hidden keys for the Gold Hoarders, then decide whether to tackle the Vaults’ challenges themselves!
Dogs finally join cats, parrots and monkeys in the Pirate Emporium, allowing players to pick up a canine sidekick for their adventures.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/09/ ... es-update/

How easy is this to play with randoms or solo? Thinking of trying it as I got Game Pass for PC to play Flight Sim.

You should be fine solo with the sloop as long as you stick with the three trading companies missions. Anything else requires at least one more person or even a full set of four. Sometimes other sailors will be friendly, and you'll hook up an alliance and go hunting the roaming bosses. Other times they'll drive-by cannon your ass while you're parked at an island (or even outpost) and there's little you'll be able to do about it. Though mostly you can avoid encounters with others as long as you're aware of where they are.

Sea of Thieves (XB/PC/Game Pass/PS5) - Over 40m players. Coming to PS5 on 30th April. 2024 details.

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