Sea of Thieves Tips and Tricks
Each entry below is one mechanic, what it costs you, and the season it was last checked against. Filter by category or difficulty to narrow the list, and use the anchor beside any heading to link straight to a single tip.
Boarding Defense
#Shooting a keg on your deck does the boarder's job
Pick it up and throw it overboard instead, off the side or stern and never off the bow of a moving ship, since you will sail straight into your own keg. Detonating it yourself is exactly the outcome whoever dropped it wanted. Shooting a keg is only correct while the carrier is still approaching at range.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Hourglass
#Pick Servants of the Flame until you are a Legend
Faction battles raise your company Emissary Flag automatically, and the Athena's Fortune flag is locked behind Pirate Legend, so Guardians wins pay a non-Legend no company reputation. Servants wins feed Reaper's Bones instead, which anyone can fly at rank 15. Allegiance tracks per faction and switching never resets it, only your active win streak.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Ship Combat
#Chain shot takes masts down and still holes a hull
A Sloop's mast has three damage points and chain shot deals two, so it takes a second hit, while Brigantine and Galleon masts fall to one. Chain also strips a wheel or capstan outright where cannonballs chip spokes and pegs one at a time. A hull hit still opens a smaller hole than a cannonball, so a miss is never wasted.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Sword Fundamentals
#Hold the cutlass attack for a forward lunge dash
Hold the attack to charge, then jump the moment the sword starts moving forward, or release it at a ledge and lunge off the edge. The dash closes several meters and damages on contact, the fastest way across an enemy deck, and it doubles as an escape from a point-blank blunderbuss. Most players never learn the timing.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
World Events
#The Kraken picks its target at random, not by cargo
The target is random, a 1 in 5 chance on a full server, and cargo plays no part. Since patch 3.3.2 it can also surface while some World Events are running, so an active fort no longer keeps you safe. It still tends to catch crews right as they finish an event, holed and full, so bank a haul before you hunt the next one.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Sailing
#Anchor turns and raised-sail turns are different tools
Drop anchor mid-turn only when you need the sharpest possible pivot and can afford to wind the capstan back up afterward. For every other course change, raise your sails into the turn instead, which tightens it while keeping your anchor ready, and a solo slooper can lean on that for nearly every turn. Harpooning a rock mid-sail whips the ship around harder than the rudder ever could.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Treasure Handling
#A Chest of Sorrow below deck will sink a Sloop
It floods far faster than most crews expect and there is no hull damage anywhere to warn you, so the first sign is water at your knees. Keep it on the top deck where you can watch it, or bail beside it, and never walk away from one on a Sloop.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
#Sinking does not put your treasure anywhere safe
It floats back up at the wreck and sits on the surface for about five minutes before it sinks and despawns, with Trade Good Crates lasting closer to fifteen. Anyone in the area can lift the whole haul in that window, and the crew that sank you is usually still watching. Sell in small batches.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Emissaries
#An Emissary Flag needs rank 15 and pays five grades
Once raised it climbs as you sell that company's treasure, paying plus 33 percent at Grade 2, plus 67 at Grade 3, plus 100 at Grade 4, and plus 150 at Grade 5. Most flags never show on the map, but Grade 5 Reaper's Bones emissaries can see every emissary ship on theirs, so raise one when you can defend it.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Events
#Emissary rewards spike every Wednesday at 10:00 UTC
Rare runs a recurring event between seasons that boosts rewards for crews flying Trading Company flags, with an additional multiplier per Grade, and it runs for a full 24 hours. Planning a Grade 5 session around that window is gold you would otherwise leave behind.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Fishing
#The rare fish in each family cannot be cooked at all
Every one of the ten families has a treasured variant that sells as a treasure item, not as food. The handling gives it away: a treasured fish is carried and placed like treasure and will not go into a food barrel or your pouch. They only bite at the marked spots on fishing voyages. Sell them exactly as caught.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Safer Seas
#Safer Seas pays 100 percent gold, not 30
Patch 3.2.2 raised it to match High Seas exactly, up from the 30 percent the mode paid before. The tradeoff is a hard rank 25 cap on every Trading Company, down from 40. That limit is what stops the mode being a risk-free run at Pirate Legend.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Selling
#Reaper's Bones buys almost every company's treasure
Sell it at the Reaper's Hideout instead of an outpost and the gold is identical, but the reputation goes to Reaper's and not to the company the loot came from. They refuse contraband, fish and meat, and most quest items. Use it to steer reputation, and remember the Hideout is the most contested dock in the game.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Pirate Legend
#Hitting level 50 alone will not make you a Pirate Legend
You have to buy the level 50 Promotion from each of your three companies afterwards, because the Mysterious Stranger checks for the purchased promotions and not the reputation level. Reach 50 in three, buy all three, then speak to him in any outpost tavern.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
#Athena's Fortune cannot count toward Pirate Legend
Pirate Legend needs rank 50 with three other companies, and Athena's is never one of them. You can still bank Athena reputation early by selling its treasure to the Mysterious Stranger, but the company's voyages, flag, and promotions all wait for the title. Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, and Merchant Alliance stay the usual picks.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Reputation
#Level 100 is one Distinction tier, not the ceiling
The caps moved to 100 in patch 2.10.0, with The Hunter's Call following in 3.3.0. Passing 100 rolls a company into the next Distinction and those run to V, so the full track is five times the number the menu shows you.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Tall Tales
#Tall Tales have been playable in any order since 2024
Patch 2.10.1 in February 2024 unlocked every chapter of every tale, retiring the old locked chapter-by-chapter march through Shores of Gold. Pick the tale you want and start at whichever chapter you like.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Fishing
#A moving ship will not let you land a fish
Anchor or drift before you cast, and get off the ship entirely if you want the calmest line. Fishing off the back of a Galleon under sail burns bait for nothing at all, which is the usual reason a first session at the Hunter's Call goes badly.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
Safer Seas
#Your captained ship does not come into Safer Seas
The mode uses Chartered Ships only, so the name, the persistent cosmetics, and the milestones attached to your own vessel all stay behind while you sail a standard chartered one. Everything on your pirate is account-wide, but the ship itself is not.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
World Events
#The Kraken is the one event with no cloud or beacon
It announces itself through a sound cue and the water going black with ink around your hull, and it comes to you instead of spawning somewhere you can choose to sail toward. There is no way at all to see it coming on the map.
Checked against Season 20 · Reviewed by Scot
What to Read Next
- Ship Combat and Damage Control. Cannons, boarding, sword work, and repair order in full.
- Ships and Sailing. Anchor turns, sail trim, and how each hull actually handles.
- Voyages and Treasure. Every treasure type, what it sells for, and which ones fight back.
- Trading Companies and Reputation. Emissaries, reputation caps, and where to sell.
- Safer Seas and High Seas. What each mode pays and what it quietly takes away.
- World Events and Raids. Forts, Fleets, and the sea monsters that find you first.
- Getting Started. Your first sessions on the Sea of Thieves.