“WE WANTED ‘ PIRATE LEGEND’ TO MEAN SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST BEING A COOL HAT OR TITLE”
“POWER-LEVELLING IS, I GUE SS, A BAD THING IN OTHER GAMES. IN SEA OF THIEVES WE’VE FULLY EMBRACED I T”
There will be even more trading companies added as time goes on, we’re assured, to appeal to an even greater range of player motivations, and produce more emergent opportunities for teamwork and tension. There are also skeleton fortresses, Rare’s version of public events, to raid. They are accessible from the beginning of the game, live ones indicated by skullshaped clouds thundering overhead. It’s a method of drawing players from all over a server’s shared sea together. Band together to defeat the skeleton captain, then find the skeleton key that unlocks the vault below the stronghold, and you’ll find rewards more numerous than you can carry. Again, Rare is keen to let players figure out their favoured approach. Do you dash in, grab a few chests, check no other players are coming and risk a return journey? Do you team up with another nearby crew and split whatever you find equally – or double-cross them? Of equal interest is the fact that Rare is releasing the Kraken into its waters at launch, an opt-in, opt-out replayable event that’ll reward coordinated sailors who manage to pick off each of its gigantic tentacles with cannon fire – or, no doubt, lead a rival ship into its embrace.
All this means nothing, of course, if people don’t continue to play the game. Despite the overall success of the beta, the questions still remained of what exactly the long-term goal of playing Sea Of Thieves was. It turns out you won’t just earn doubloons to buy expensive coats and showy millinery: quests will also reward reputation points, with your level steadily climbing depending on the number and quality of successful missions you complete. Your reputation level is never visible to anyone but you, which Rare hopes will lead to some devious moments of deception. Even if you’re an experienced player, you can go undercover, dressing in the rags you started with and un-equipping a title so that when you drop a jewel-encrusted scroll onto the voting table, it takes everyone by surprise.
“The idea is that players share voyages,” Chapman says. “Power-levelling is, I guess, a bad thing in other games. It’s the best thing in Sea Of Thieves, and we’ve fully embraced it. You want to play with people in your crew at a different level of promotion. You want to have that feeling of, ‘They’ve got something I don’t yet have access to’. And by forging those connections with
others, it’s that whole story of, ‘Jack Sparrow’s got the map to Fountain of Youth – but he needs a crew to go and get it.’” Making friends with pirates of higher reputation gives you the opportunity to plunder more valuable goods and to face down more skilled AI. Work your way through tough enemies and tricky riddles, increase your standing with all of the trading companies, and you’ll find yourself on the cusp of becoming a Pirate Legend. “We wanted it to mean something more than just being a cool hat or title,” Chapman says. “We wanted it to be a new way to play.” Those who have proven themselves worthy will be bestowed with a special status that will help them uncover a key to a secret pirate hideout seamlessly integrated into the world, and only accessible to Pirate Legends.
Portraits of the month’s most notable players adorn the walls, while the ghosts of your similarly successful peers will wander the Tavern Of Legends, doling out dev-written whispers and rumours of new visitors and time-limited events coming to the world. A Pirate Lord vendor, meanwhile, will hand out Legendary Voyages, the most challenging quests in Sea Of Thieves that offer the most unique rewards: a whole other tier of special items and cosmetics that are different every time, designed to encourage repeated play. The secret hideout is the velvet rope in a nightclub, essentially – you can even bring a plus-three. “People want to be friends with a Pirate Legend,” Chapman says. “They can’t get access to the hideout or Legendary Voyages unless they’re with you. This is kind of the endgame for Sea Of Thieves at launch. It’s going to be fascinating to see. Do Legends play with Legends? Do they play with people who’ve just started, and shepherd other people into the game?” There are even concrete plans beyond endgame at launch – plans that Rare is all too happy to detail. Once Pirate Legends have maxed out their grind, one of the next big updates to the game will introduce the idea of Legendary Captains. The secret pirate hideout becomes their own personal hideout, and the ship therein their Flying Dutchman or Black Pearl. When others see a legendary ship out in the world, bedecked in custom colours, it fundamentally means something. Perhaps you’ll beg to join their high-rank adventures; perhaps you’ll sneak aboard, steal their treasure, dent their pride and live to tell the tale.