Everything you need to know about Mercenary Voyages (Updated 12/11/19)
Reap the Rewards
Mercenary Voyages are a type of Bilge Rat Adventure, which are limited time events with new things to do and rewards to earn. Specifically, they involve the Bilge Rat in the Tavern selling new special types of voyages for your crew to take part in. After the event is over, the voyages disappear and most or all of the commendations are no longer available.
HISTORY:
Feb 6th, 2019- Mercenary Voyage of the Rum Runner (Sampled all voyage types during “Friends Play Free” week)
March 6th, 2019- Reaper’s Run of Wanderer’s Refuge
March 20th, 2019- Reaper’s Run of Shipwreck Bay
July 17th, 2019- monthly event titled Black Powder Stashes
August 14th, 2019- monthly event titled Dark Relics
September 11th, 2019- monthly event titled Smuggler’s Fortune
October 16th, 2019- monthly event titled Fort of the Damned
November 20th, 2019- monthly event titled Ashen Treasures
December 11th, 2019- monthly event titled Festival of Giving
This Guide walks you through how to complete Mercenary voyages, earn commendations, and purchase your rewards.
What are Bilge Rat Adventures?
Bilge Rat Adventures are mini-events in Sea of Thieves which offer you new Commendations. Commendations are challenges to complete in the game, and completing Bilge Rat Commendations earns a special currency called Doubloons. In every Tavern (where you spawn in), you can find a Bilge Rat (Duke or Stitcher Jim), who will give information on the latest ongoing Adventure, and allow you to spend your Doubloons on limited time cosmetic rewards, bags of regular gold, or levels up in any of the Trading Company reputations. You can view what Commendations there are by opening the menu, going to the Reputation tab, clicking on Bilge Rats, and clicking on pages for each past and present Adventure.
What are Mercenary Voyages?
Mercenary Voyages are unique varieties of voyages instead of the usual Gold Hoarder, Merchant Alliance, Order of Souls, or Athena’s Fortune voyages. They are purchased from the tavern Bilge Rat (and are now free). Only one member of your crew must purchase the voyage for all crew mates to participate, and the first time you complete a type of Mercenary Voyage, you will earn a commendation and some Doubloons. You can purchase the voyage again as many times as you want.
Festival of Giving- Gift Seeker Voyages
December 11th- Mid January
A shipment of festival gifts was sunk, and now the gifts are scattered far and wide. Even skeletons are hoarding them at forts, and Stitcher Jim has Gift Seeker voyages to help you track them down- as long as you’ll deliver them to his beloved, the Mysterious Stranger hanging out at the “Reaper’s Hideout” at I13 on the map. But beware- the skeleton Lords that sank the shipment will defend their hoard if you go digging for the gifts!
CLICK HERE FOR THE GUIDE TO GIFT SEEKER VOYAGES
Ashen Treasures- Key Seeker Voyages
November 20th-December 11th
In addition to a NON TIME LIMITED tab of Ashen Treasures commendations, Stitcher Jim offered up Key Seeker voyages to help you try and track down the Key Masters guarding Ashen Keys, as well as Legend exclusive Guardian Lure voyages to easily track down Ashen Chests. Limited time commendations were awarded for completing Jim’s voyages.
CLICK HERE FOR THE GUIDE TO ASHEN TREASURES
Fort of the Damned
October 16th-November 20th
In addition to a NON TIME LIMITED new in game Fort challenge, with its own tab of commendations and rewards, Duke has identified the whereabouts of some new Shadow of Fate skeletons and their Ritual Skulls that are needed to activate the fort. Limited Time Commendations are awarded for completing Duke’s Skull Seeker voyages in each region as well as finding and talking to Stitcher Jim about the Fort of the Damned.
CLICK HERE FOR THE GUIDE TO FORT OF THE DAMNED
Smuggler’s Fortune
September 11th-October 16th
Shipwreck Bay is loaded with buried Rag and Bone Crates which need to be delivered under a short time limit to four nearby “inner” Seaposts, while another voyage has you deliver those Crates from the inner Seaposts to the four further away “outer” Seaposts. Some of these commendations are NOT Time Limited and will persist after the event ends!
CLICK HERE FOR THE GUIDE TO SMUGGLER’S FORTUNE
Dark Relics
August 14th-September 11th
A Dark Relic Voyage in each region leads you to collect the Dark Relics themselves, 5 of which are available but discovered at random. Ritual Skulls are also found, leading to a lot of potential Order of Souls reputation gains.
CLICK HERE FOR THE GUIDE TO DARK RELICS
Black Powder Stashes
July 17th-August 14th
An array of new voyages have you digging up and delivering gun powder barrels to the trading companies, and Duke rewards you for completing voyages, selling gun powders to the companies, and delivering mermaid gems to the companies as well.
March 20th Voyages
March 20th-April 30th
This Update includes three new voyages and are in general a repeat of the same elements from the previous round earlier this month- The Mercenary Voyage of the Shores of Plenty and Mercenary Voyage of the Devil’s Roar, each sampling the different quest types but resigned to a particular world region, and The Reaper’s Run Voyage of Shipwreck Bay, a more perilous voyage which you’ll need to repeat 5 times.
Rewards
- Complete the Voyage of the Shores of Plenty:
-10 Doubloons
-Ability to purchase Mercenary Eye of Reach from Duke - Complete the Voyage of the Devil’s Roar:
-20 Doubloons
-Ability to purchase Mercenary Blunderbuss from Duke - Complete the Reaper’s Run of Shipwreck Bay:
-20 Doubloons - Complete the Reaper’s Run of Shipwreck Bay 5 times WITH the Reaper’s Mark equipped:
-50 Doubloons
-“The Shipwreck Reaper” Title
-Ability to purchase Shipwreck Reaper Sails from Duke
1 and 2: Mercenary Voyage of the Shores of Plenty/Devil’s Roar
Chapter 1:
- 1 X-Marks the Spot (x3–4 x’s)
- 1 Riddle map
- 1 Order of Souls Bounty (x3–4 captains)
- 1 Cargo Run (x6 pieces)
Final Chapter:
- 1 X-Marks the Spot (x3)
Loot: The chests and skulls you’ll find will be Captains chests or Cursed Chests, and Villainous or Hateful skulls, but your mileage may vary.
Strategy: You don’t have to deliver the pieces of cargo to complete the voyage, you only need to pick it up from the first island.
3: Reaper’s Run Voyage of Shipwreck Bay
NOTE: The legendary commendation for this event requires you to complete this voyage 5 times with the Reaper’s Mark flag equipped. In order to get credit towards this, YOU MUST EQUIP THE REAPER’S MARK FLAG BEFORE VOTING ON THE VOYAGE. You cannot change the flag mid-voyage for any reason, and that also means you cannot form Alliances once the voyage is underway.
- Chapter 1: X-Marks the Spot on Shipwreck Bay(x3 chests)
- Chapter 2: Riddle Quest on a nearby island
- Chapter 3: X-Marks the Spot on Shipwreck Bay (x6 chests)
- Chapter 4: Riddle Quest on a nearby island
- Final Chapter: X-Marks the Spot on Shipwreck Bay(x9 chests)
Loot: All Captain’s chests or Cursed Chests
Strategy: The Reaper’s Run voyage is designed to create conflict, as it forces you back to a single island (Shipwreck Bay) repeatedly, while the Reaper’s Mark flag makes your position visible to other ships on the server. There might be ships camping the island and fighting to steal your treasure.
- EQUIP THE REAPER’S MARK BEFORE STARTING THE VOYAGE
- If you can’t finish your voyage for any reason (disconnected, being griefed, etc) you will lose the 5 Doubloons that the voyage cost you to start
- Therefore, before starting the voyage look for ships with the Reaper’s mark on your map, and look at Shipwreck Bay for activity. If there’s constant cannon fire, you may want to hop to a less chaotic server before starting your voyage
- If you only care about completing the voyage (to earn the commendations) and not the treasure itself, you don’t have to dig up any chests- just sinking the first shovel dig into the ground at each chest will clear out your map
- ^If you do care about the loot, you may discover chests around Shipwreck Bay that were half-dug up by players just speedrunning the voyage
March 6th Voyages
March 6th-March 20th/NO LONGER AVAILABLE
The Early March Update includes three voyages. Two of them are nearly identical- The Mercenary Voyage of the Ancient Isles and Mercenary Voyage of the Wilds, with the difference being that they each only include islands from their respective region. The third is called the Reaper’s Run Voyage of Wanderer’s Refuge.
Rewards
There are commendations for completing the Ancient Isles and Wilds voyages, earning you 10 Doubloons each. Completing the Reaper’s Run voyage just once, with or without the Reaper’s Mark, will earn you 20 Doubloons, but there is a Legendary Reaper of Wanderer’s Refuge commendation as well- Complete the Reaper’s Run 5 Times with the Reaper’s Mark equipped, which will earn you 50 more Doubloons.
For the duration of this event Duke’s shop contains new cosmetics, however, they cannot be purchased until you’ve earned the Legendary Reaper of Wanderer’s Refuge commendation.
- Wandering Reaper Flag
- Wandering Reaper Hull
- Wandering Reaper Sail
1/2. Mercenary Voyage of the Ancient Isles/The Wilds
Chapter 1:
- 1 X-Marks the Spot (x3–4 x’s)
- 1 Riddle map
- 1 Order of Souls Bounty (x3–4 captains)
- 1 Cargo Run (x6 pieces)
Final Chapter:
- 1 X-Marks the Spot (x3)
Loot: The chests and skulls you’ll find will be Captains chests or Cursed Chests, and Villainous or Hateful skulls, but your mileage may vary.
Strategy: You don’t have to deliver the pieces of cargo to complete the voyage, you only need to pick it up from the first island.
3. Reaper’s Run Voyage of Wanderer’s Refuge
NOTE: The legendary commendation for this event requires you to complete this voyage 5 times with the Reaper’s Mark flag equipped. In order to get credit towards this, YOU MUST EQUIP THE REAPER’S MARK FLAG BEFORE VOTING ON THE VOYAGE. You cannot change the flag mid-voyage for any reason, and that also means you cannot form Alliances once the voyage is underway.
- Chapter 1: X-Marks the Spot on Wanderer’s Refuge (x3 chests)
- Chapter 2: Riddle Quest on a nearby island
- Chapter 3: X-Marks the Spot on Wanderer’s Refuge (x6 chests)
- Chapter 4: Riddle Quest on a nearby island
- Final Chapter: X-Marks the Spot on Wanderer’s refuge (x9 chests)
Loot: All Captain’s chests or Cursed Chests
Strategy: The Reaper’s Run voyage is designed to create conflict, as it forces you back to a single island (Wanderer’s Refuge) repeatedly, while the Reaper’s Mark flag makes your position visible to other ships on the server. There might be ships camping the island and fighting to steal your treasure.
- If you can’t finish your voyage for any reason (disconnected, being griefed, etc) you will lose the 5 Doubloons that the voyage cost you to start
- Therefore, before starting the voyage look for ships with the Reaper’s mark on your map, and look at Wanderer’s refuge for activity. If there’s constant cannon fire, you may want to hop to a less chaotic server before starting your voyage
- EQUIP THE REAPER’S MARK BEFORE STARTING THE VOYAGE
- If you only care about completing the voyage (to earn the commendations) and not the treasure itself, you don’t have to dig up any chests- just sinking the first shovel dig into the ground at each chest will clear out your map
- ^If you do care about the loot, you may discover chests around Wanderer’s Refuge that were half-dug up by players just speedrunning the voyage
February Voyages
February 6th-March 6th/NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Mercenary Voyage of the Rum Runner
This Voyage is a sampling of every Trading Company, similar to an Athena voyage, but shorter in length and without the Athena chest rewards. These quests are great for introducing new players to the game and giving them a taste of every quest, and at relatively low difficulty.
- NOTE: From February 6th through 13th, Friends Play Free. If you own the game or play it through Gamepass, you can receive up to 3 codes during this period to share with any friends, which will allow them to play the game for free during this period. This is more fun than doing this easy voyage with all long-time veterans.
- New Players are gifted 5 Doubloons for this event. If you play with a crew of brand new players, have them buy the voyage and save your doubloons!
You’ll start with four maps in the first chapter, which will all point to islands in your general region/vicinity: A Riddle Quest, An X-Marks the Spot Map (with 4 Xs), A Skeleton Bounty Quest (with 3 Captains), A Cargo Run (with 6 crates).
The difficulty of AI on these quests is low leveled, and the rewards are generally tier 3 or 4 items (Marauder’s/Captain’s chests, Hateful/Villainous skulls), though your mileage may vary.
- NOTE: You do not have to deliver Cargo to complete the Mercenary Voyage. The Cargo Run quest is considered complete as soon as you take cargo from the NPC who is holding them, and if you choose to deliver them to their destination it is just bonus gold/not necessary.
Once all four maps are completed, the final chapter will begin and you’ll receive one final map: an X-Marks the Spot Map with 3 Xs, and each X conceals a Chest of A Thousand Grogs.
Rewards
Completing the final chapter earns the Loyal to the Coin Commendation, and 50 Bilge Rat Doubloons. These rewards are only available until March 6th.
Mercenary Sails (costs 25 Doubloons), Mercenary Hull (costs 20 Doubloons), Mercenary Flag (costs 5 Doubloons)
- NOTE: If you fail to complete the voyage for whatever reason (had to quit early, disconnected from game, etc), you can buy another one and attempt it again. It will cost another 5 Doubloons.
