Battle for the Sea of Thieves: Complete Guide

Choose Your Side

Beginning with Season 8 of Sea of Thieves, a brand new on demand PvP feature has been added to the game’s Adventure world sandbox. Will you choose to fight for The Pirate Lord, or Captain Flameheart? Will you receive a ghostly blessing or a skeletal curse? Read on for all of the thrilling details.

WHAT is the Battle for the Sea of Thieves?

Players can now participate in an on demand, PVP battle mode at any time while sailing in the Adventure sandbox of Sea of Thieves, thanks to a new Hourglass of Fate located on the ship’s Voyage Table.

Approaching the Hourglass of Fate allows players to swap between representing one of two factions: The Guardians of Fortune, or the Servants of the Flame. You are NOT locked into one faction, and can change at any time!

Once you vote to enter the Battle for the Sea of Thieves on behalf of one of the factions, you agree to be attacked at some point by an enemy crew of the rival faction. You can also choose to go on the offensive and do the attacking yourself!

“Hunting” Other Crews

After voting to enter the battle, there’s a “War Map” option on the Voyage Table. This allows you to enter “Matchmaking” by a crew vote.

• After sailing to open sea, your ship will dive beneath the waves and leave your current server to go “on the hunt” in the matchmaking queue. You’ll sail through a temporary loading zone, as the game searches for an opponent for you to face.
  NOTE: This operates the same as entering the Tunnels of the Damned- you can take resource and supply crates through matchmaking but NOT your treasure!
• Opponents are always on opposite factions, of similar crew size (Solo Sloop vs Solo Sloop, Duo Sloop vs Duo Sloop, Brigantine vs Brigantine, or Galleon vs Galleon), and have a similar “skill rating”, which is a behind-the-scenes stat the game tracks based on your performance in these battles.
• Your ship will rise up out of the waves on a new server in the very near vicinity of a suitable enemy. You’ve caught them by surprise, now time to battle!

Being “Invaded” by Other Crews

Once you’ve opted into the Battle for the Sea of Thieves, you don’t have to enter matchmaking from the battle map!

• Instead, you are free to sail about the seas doing whatever you want, including Quests and World Events
• Eventually, another crew that chose to go “on the hunt” will arise out of the sea as described in the above section, ready to “invade” you- so be prepared for a fight even if you don’t go diving for one!
  NOTE: A crew will ONLY “invade” you and engage in an attack if you have Opted In to the Battle for the Sea of Thieves at your ship’s Hourglass!
• As you gather treasure on your ship while awaiting an enemy attack, you’ll raise your Treasure Grade, which you can view at your ship’s Hourglass of Fate. This will earn you more Faction “Allegiance” if you successfully defend yourself in an “invasion”. You can read more about Allegiance, this mode’s new progression system, later in the guide.

Winning the Battle

If you entered Matchmaking and have risen out of the sea to attack a defending ship, or if you’ve been sailing about and have just seen an attacker appear in such a fashion, you are now officially “in battle”!

• While engaged in a Battle under this system, a battle “boundary” will appear on your ship’s map. You CANNOT run from the fight, for if you try to sail out of this boundary, you will receive on screen warnings, and eventually your Hourglass will EXPLODE and instantly sink your ship!
• Both crews are locked into battle until one of them sinks, and the other is victorious. The crew that sinks is migrated away to a new server, while the victor remains where the battle ended. The two crews are separated so the winning crew cannot grief the loser, or attack their respawned ship over and over!
• The victor can recover treasure from their sunken enemy, and then are free to do as they please- maybe they will return to outpost, or gather more supplies, or visit their War Map to enter matchmaking again. The victor will not be invaded by another crew for at least a 20 minute cooldown.

But you may be wondering, Why should I enter the Battle for the Sea of Thieves??

Faction Allegiance and Progression

Under the Reputation Tab, there are two new factions that players can level up by engaging in the Battle for the Sea of Thieves. The Guardians of Fortune represent the Pirate Lord and his allies, and their vision for the pirate’s life. The Servants of the Flame represent Captain Flameheart and his army, and their hopes of dominating the Sea of Thieves.

Think of these factions both somewhat as new “Trading Companies” you can progress through, with some key similarities and differences.

• Like trading companies, these factions are both seen under the Reputation Tab in the game menu. Both can be leveled up to unlock exclusive rewards, and both have a list of “Commendations” to unlock that aid in progress and unlocking rewards as well.
• Unlike trading companies, these factions level up by “Allegiance” instead of “Reputation”, and Allegiance is only gained while you have opted in to the Battle for the Sea of Thieves at the Hourglass of Fate on your ship. The max level of Allegiance is greater than the Trading Companies, and these two factions also do not have their own Emissary Ledgers, though you are free to sail as ANY company Emissary while sailing in the Battle for the Sea of Thieves.

If you want to level up your Faction “Allegiance” quickly, you’ll need to know about your Hourglass Value, building up a winning Streak, and becoming a Faction Champion.

Hourglass Value, Streaks, and Faction Champions

Whether you’ve gone on the offensive and dived beneath the waves to enter matchmaking, or sailed about your business and defended yourself from impromptu attackers, you earn Hourglass Value whenever you win a Battle.

• Hourglass Value is finally “cashed out” when you vote to leave the Battle for the Sea of Thieves at an Athena’s Fortune or Reaper’s Bones Emissary Table. It increases the longer you continue to battle without sinking, but is totally lost when you sink

Winning Streaks build up whenever you sink another ship in an official Battle scenario. The higher your winning streak, the greater your Hourglass value will be, and the more your Faction Allegiance will rise after each successive battle.

• The Multiplier you get from Streaks maxes out at Streak level 4, but you can continue to build your streak beyond that for bragging rights!
• As stated earlier, stacking a large quantity of Treasure aboard raises your Treasure Grade which increases your Allegiance by a greater amount when you manage to defend it. This stacks with your Streaks!

A Faction Champion is any crew that is currently on a winning Streak of 4 or greater. Becoming a “Champion” during your session has 2 effects:

• Champions are visible on the map table to ALL other crews on a server, even ones which are not engaged in the Battle for the Sea of Thieves. This is still an open sandbox, and anyone can come after you!
• Once you become a Faction Champion, you have a new option at the War Map on your Voyage Table: while choosing to dive into Matchmaking, Champions have the option to match against ships that are a larger size than their own crew. Ready to test your mettle?

Faction Hideouts and Rewards

As you progress through one or both of these two new factions, there are many rewards to unlock. Not only are there new cosmetics tied to reaching certain Allegiance levels, which you can access in the Pirate Legend or Reaper’s Hideout shops, but there are also two new “Alignments” to progress under the Captaincy System, which in turn unlocks exclusive Trinkets for players to adorn their Captained ships with.

But the greatest rewards come when pirates reach Allegiance level 100 in each of the new factions.

• After reaching Allegiance 100 in the Guardians of Fortune Faction, and also being a Pirate Legend, the Pirate Lord will grant access to an exclusive back-room of the Athena’s Fortune hideout which contains more NPCs and options to discover
• Players can then talk to the Pirate Lord and be granted the Blessing of Athena, finally unlocking an equippable “curse” that turns them into a Ghost! There are even greater rewards to unlock in the tavern beyond Allegiance level 100
• After reaching Allegiance 100 in the Servants of the Flame Faction, and also being Level 75 Reputation in the Reaper’s Bones, pirates will be able to take an elevator in the Reaper’s Hideout to access a sprawling underground base for Flameheart’s forces.
• Players can then partake in the Ritual of the Flame, drinking from a cursed chalice and gaining access to an equippable “curse” that turns them into a Skeleton! Becoming a skeleton grants access to a whole new set of customizations to unlock at higher Allegiance Levels with the faction

That’s all you need to know to become a hardened warrior in the ongoing Battle for the Sea of Thieves! Make sure to stay tuned to our social channel on Twitter.com for all of our Sea of Thieves guides and walkthroughs, and we’ll see you on the seas (hopefully on the same side of battle!)