Sea of Thieves Safer Seas and High Seas
Safer Seas is a private single-ship session with no other crews and no PvP, and it now pays the full 100 percent of gold and reputation rather than the 30 percent it launched with. The tradeoff moved to a hard rank 25 cap on every Trading Company, plus no access at all to Athena's Fortune, Reaper's Bones, emissaries, or the Hourglass. High Seas is the full game with up to five other crews on the server. A third mode, Custom Seas, is a private session with host-configurable rules.
The most repeated piece of misinformation about Sea of Thieves is that Safer Seas pays 30 percent. It has not for a long time, and the correction matters because the mode is far more viable than its reputation suggests.
The full comparison
| High Seas | Safer Seas | |
|---|---|---|
| Other crews | Up to five other ships | None |
| PvP | Yes | None |
| Gold and reputation | 100% | 100% |
| Trading Company cap | 100 | Rank 25 |
| Athena's Fortune | Yes | Locked |
| Reaper's Bones | Yes | Locked |
| Emissary flags | Yes | Locked |
| Hourglass and Allegiance | Yes | Locked |
| Pirate Legend reachable | Yes | No |
| Tall Tales | Yes | Yes, all of them |
| World events | Yes | Yes |
| Quest Board posting | Yes | No |
| Ship type | Chartered or captained | Chartered only |
| Live events like Gold and Glory | Yes | No |
What changed, and when
Safer Seas launched paying 30 percent of normal gold and reputation. Patch 3.2.2 raised it to the full 100 percent, matching High Seas exactly.
To balance that, the Trading Company progression cap dropped from rank 40 to rank 25. So the mode became more generous per-hour and more limited in ceiling at the same time.
If a guide, video, or forum post tells you Safer Seas pays a fraction of normal rates, it predates that patch.
Safer Seas uses Chartered Ships only. Your captained ship, with its name, persistent cosmetics, and milestones, does not come with you into the mode.
Where Safer Seas genuinely wins
Tall Tales. All of them work, and they pay the same. Tall Tales involve long stretches of reading journals and solving puzzles in caves, which is exactly the situation where a Galleon appearing ruins two hours of work. Doing your first run of every campaign in Safer Seas is the correct play even for veterans.
Learning to sail. Raising sails, angling to the wind, anchor turns, and docking are all much easier to practice when nobody is shooting at you.
Playing tired, or with a friend who has never played. No pressure, no loss.
Fishing. The Hunter's Call caps at 100 like every company, but the rank 25 ceiling applies here too, so it is a place to learn the mechanics rather than to grind the company out.
Where Safer Seas falls short
The rank 25 cap arrives much faster than new players expect, and everything past it lives in High Seas. Two entire companies are missing, the emissary system that multiplies rewards by up to 150 percent is missing, and Pirate Legend is unreachable.
Safer Seas is a training ground and a Tall Tale theater. It is not a parallel version of the game you can live in permanently.
When should you switch to High Seas?
When you can do these five things without thinking:
- Raise, lower, and angle sails for the current wind.
- Perform an anchor turn.
- Patch holes lowest-first, then bail.
- Read the sky signals and identify an event.
- Dock and sell a full hold without stranding your ship.
That is roughly the point where losing a fight becomes a lesson rather than a disaster. Expect to be sunk regardless. Everyone is.
Switching modes is not permanent and costs nothing. Your reputation, gold, and cosmetics are all account-wide, so you can run Tall Tales in Safer Seas on Monday and emissary runs on High Seas on Tuesday with the same pirate.
And the third mode
Custom Seas launched with Season 20 in June 2026 and is free for everyone who owns the game. It is a private session where the host controls the rules, the weather, the spawns, and the win conditions, which makes it a different proposition from both modes above. Full detail in Custom Seas.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much gold does Safer Seas pay in Sea of Thieves?
The full 100 percent, identical to High Seas. It launched at 30 percent and was raised in patch 3.2.2, with the Trading Company cap dropping from rank 40 to rank 25 as the balancing change. Sources still quoting 30 percent are out of date.
What is locked in Safer Seas?
Athena's Fortune, Reaper's Bones, emissary flags, the Hourglass and Allegiance, Quest Board posting, and live events like Gold and Glory. Trading Company progression also caps at rank 25, which makes Pirate Legend unreachable in the mode.
Can you play Tall Tales in Safer Seas?
Yes, every campaign, at the same gold and commendation payout as High Seas. It is the strongest reason to use the mode even as an experienced player, because a Tall Tale run has long puzzle sections that another crew can easily ruin.
Can you use your captained ship in Safer Seas?
No. Safer Seas sessions use Chartered Ships only, so your named ship with its persistent cosmetics and milestones stays behind. You sail a standard chartered vessel instead.
How many other crews are on a High Seas server?
Up to five other ships share the server with you, in any mix of Sloops, Brigantines, and Galleons. That is what makes world event sky signals contested, since every crew sees the same signal at the same moment.
What to Read Next
- Custom Seas. The third mode, its host controls, and how it differs from both Safer Seas and High Seas.
- Getting Started. Which mode to begin in and the traps that catch new crews.
- Tall Tales. The content that makes Safer Seas worth using at any skill level.
- Trading Companies and Reputation. The 100-level track that the rank 25 cap cuts short.
- Pirate Legend and Endgame. Everything that requires leaving Safer Seas behind.