Sea of Thieves is finally upon us! I’ve personally been playing this game for over a year since early in the Alpha stage, and I must say.. I’m extremly excited!
One thing I will say about Sea of Thieves though is that they defintely do not hold your hand learning your way around the game. I like this to some extent, but it can be kinda frustrating in the beginning, especially once you start trying to use the Voyage system (more on this later.)
This guide is intended as a beginner’s guide to get you started sailing, hunting treasure, catching animals, making boat loads of gold, and you guessed it.. killing things! In the process you might even kit yourself out in some cool cosmetics, get drunk (in game anyway,) and get eaten by sharks.
Sounds like a good time right? Hell yeah it does..
Finding your Ship
When you initially login to Sea of Thieves, you should spawn at one of many Outposts. These Outposts are relatively safe areas where the NPC Merchants and Guild Leaders hang out.
At the Outpost, you’ll see a dock nearby where you ship awaits you. It’s usually best to stock up on items from the barrels and boxes at the Outpost first however, and check out what voyages the different Guild members have.
It’s also important to note that if your ship is destroyed, or if you get a decent distance from your ship (including but not limited to falling off your ship while it’s in transit) you’ll see a mermaid spawn out in the water with a stream of smoke above her. Talk to her and she’ll teleport you to your ship.
Manging Your Items and Weapons
On your left bumper (or default Q on PC) you’ll find a radial menu for your items, and on your right bumper (or default E on PC) you’ll find your map and/or current mission objectives. If you don’t have any maps or voyage objectives yet that’s ok, we’ll cover that down below.
You’ll use your item radial menu the most, and you’ll see how many of each item you currently have. As of writing this article you can carry a maximum of 5 bananas, 5 bananas, and 10 cannonballs. You’ll typically want to keep a couple slots open in each when exploring an island so you can bring more back and stock up your ship. There is a container for each of these with very high capacities.
You’ll also be able to find crates to place some of these items in and sell for profit or use as mobile caches. If you find one of these crates when you’re exploring it’s generally a good idea to snag them and at least have a mobile supply that you can use for various scenarios.
Hitting the Y button (or scrolling with the mouse wheel) will cycle through your current weapons. You can only carry two weapons at a time, and by default you should start with a sword and a pistol. If you want to switch out for a Blunderbuss or the long range rifle, you’ll have to switch one of them out.
Also note that you have very limited ammo for each weapon, currently only 5 shots of each weapon equipped. You can refill these at the ammo box on your ship. You can also change your weapon loadout at at the item box on your ship as and outside one of the shops at any Outpost.
How to Sail your Ship
Finding your ship is one thing, but sailing it is another. It can be a little daunting at first, and it’s meant to be. It’s damn near impossible to run the Galleon alone, as it should be. Sailing the sloop solo is doable, but it will be bit tough until you figure out all of the controls.
The main things you need to know first is how to manage your sails. The Galleon has three masts, and the Sloop has just one. Each mast has two controls on each side of the ship; one for setting the sail angle and another for setting the sail length. You’ll need to manage these a lot, so get used to where they’re located.
Letting the sails all the way down and turning them into the wind will allow you to catch full sail and gain as much speed as possible. Alternatively, when you want to slow down when you’re approaching an island for example, you can raise your sails half way or more to slow down quite a bit and set anchor in a better location, and potentially save you from crashing your ship.
You can see which direction the wind is blowing by the trails in the air, as well as by the flag at the top of your center mast. When you turn your sails perfectly with the wind they will billow out. You’ll want to constantly manage this when you’re sailing long distances.
The anchor is in the middle of the deck on the larger Galleon, and right behind the wheel on the Sloop. Pulling up anchor will take a little time, and pulling it up solo on the Galleon is a nightmare. Once it’s all the way up it will lock into place. Dropping it down just requires you to activate it, and it will drop down pretty quickly. It’s important to get used to the time it takes to completely drop anchor, as this will greatly effect if you crash into things when attempting to stop.
The wheel of the ship is at the back. It’s fairly straight forward, however keep in mind that you’re sailing a large vessel, and turning is not very fast. You’ll notice gold handles on the wheel, these mark the center of the wheel. On the Sloop the wheel only makes one full turn around in each direction, however on the Galleon it makes two full rotations in each direction, so keep this in mind when trying to naviage. Also make note that there is a compas mounted to the railing to the right of the wheel when you’re facing it, this is extremely valuable when navigating.
The map table is below deck and is primarily how you navigate the various locations in Sea of Thieves. The map table will always show your ships current location and which direction it is facing. You’ll be referencing this a lot in your travels.
If you crash or or take damage from cannon fire from another ship, damage is represented by holes in your ship. Most of these will be below deck, and you’ll need to go patch them with planks and potentially bail water out as well with the bucket. When scooping water off the boat, you have to haul it all the way up to the deck and dump it over the edge.
If your ship takes on too much water (typically up to the level of the deck, or near it) your boat will begin to break and sink. Note that most treasure chests will float to the top for a short time, however I’m unsure if skulls and other items will come up to the top. Eventually even chests will drop to the bottom, so keep that in mind if your ship sinks and you’re trying to recover your loot.
Even though you should be ready to sail now, wait just a moment.. You need some voyages first!
Acquiring Voyages (Quests)
Outposts are your primary source of Voyages in Sea of Thieves. A voyage might be a hunt for treasure, animal collection, or searching for a particular enemy. The type of Voyage you go on is dependant on which Guild Leader you speak to.
There are currently three Guilds in Sea of Thieves:
The Gold Hoarders – They offer treasure hunts in the form of maps and riddles. The Gold Hoarder merchant is located in a small tent, usually around the middle of the the merchant area.
The Order of Souls – They offer targets to find and eliminate. The Order of Souls merchant is located in a mid sized maroonish tent connected to one of the buildings.
The Merchants Alliance – They offer voyages to collect chickens, pigs, and snakes. The Merchants Alliance merchant is located on the main dock.
If you’re just starting out you’ll have no gold, so these merchants will offer Voyages that cost 0 gold. Pick up as many of these as you can. You can only hold a few voyages at once, so make sure they’re at least voyages you are interested in doing.
Once you have some voyages in hand and have stocked up on some bananas, cannon balls, and planks, load up on your ship. Look for boxes on your ship that you can store some items in, that way you’ll have space if you run into some more.
In the cabin of the ship you’ll find a table where you can post your voyages to have them voted on. Majority wins here, so if multiple people post voyage offers, the one with the most votes will begin and the rest will go back to their respective intentories (which you can check with within the menu.)
When the voyage begins, depending on what type of voyage you selected, you’ll either receive a map, riddle, or some type of location. Go to the map table below deck and look for your destination. Typically it’s within a short to medium radius of your current location, so you probably won’t have to look very far out.
Some voyages allow you to complete multiple in a row without heading back to an Outpost, but animal collection voyages in particular require you to return them to the Guild before you’re able to accept another Voyage. Keep this in mind also when you’re choosing the order to complete them in, as you may want to save your Merchants Alliance quests until last.
Turning in Voyages and Selling Chests
When you’re ready to turn in your chests, skulls, or animal boxes, find the nearest Outpost on your map table and head there. Keep in mind that enemy ships can sink your boat and/or steal your goods at any point, so it can be pretty risky going too long without turning them in.
Once you get to the Outpost, take the chests, skulls, or boxes to their respective merchants to get your rewards. You can only deliver one item at a time, so try to do this as quickly as possible in case someone tries to steal your goods.
After you turn in all of your loot and get your mountains of gold, it’s time to go shopping. You’ll find various merchants on the Outpost that sell various cosmetics including haircuts and beards, clothing, weapon skins, etc. The Guild merchants also offer special items for attaining certain ranks within their respective organizations.
Extra Stuff
These are the basics to get you started, but here are some extra tips that might help you on your journey, or just allow you to goof off with your friends.
- You have a mug that you can fill with grog either at the bar in town, or at the keg below deck.
- You should have a couple instruments that you can find from the “More” menu within your item menu.
- You’ll find various emotes and dances mapped to the d-pad, and the emotes are context related too so you’ll see different options depending on what item you currently have equipped.
More to Come!
This article is a work in progress and I’ll be adding more too it over time, so check back soon.
If you have tips of your own, please feel free to let us know in the comments below.
