Everything you need to know about the Sunken Curse

Low-down on the Latest SOT Adventure

Beginning with patch 1.1.6 released this past Wednesday July 11th, the Sunken Curse is the third and latest Bilge Rat Adventure to grace the Sea of Thieves. If you haven’t had a chance to engage with the event yet, here’s everything you’ll need to know.

Bilge Rat Adventures

Who are the Bilge Rats? Duke and his merry gang of adventurers (or possibly just Duke) are a clan of swashbucklers that seek challenge on the Sea of Thieves for nothing more than the thrill of adventure- they care not for reputation or gold, and instead spend their days crafting challenges for intrepid pirates seeking unique limited time thrills.

In come the Bilge Rat Adventures, biweekly events which introduce new mechanics to the Sea of Thieves, as well as new rewards.

Bilge Rat Adventures consist of a set of challenges or “Commendations”, which when completed will earn you scalawags a number of “Doubloons”, a special Bilge Rat exclusive currency which can buy time limited cosmetics or be turned into standard Reputation levels or even Gold. Completing some subset of the commendations will typically yield a base level “title” exclusive to the event (which can be equipped in the clothing chest), while completing the full set of commendations tends to unlock a more impressive “master” title. Finally, a set of “legendary” tiered commendations aim to add longevity and repetition to the events, adding further doubloon earnings and a legendary title.

Where the Bilge Rat Adventures become interesting is their limited time nature- an event only lasts for two weeks, after which those commendations will still be unlockable and those challenges still remain present in the world, but the doubloon rewards and limited time cosmetic purchases will no longer be available and a new Bilge Rat Adventure will begin.

So What’s the Sunken Curse?

Ideally, Bilge Rat Adventures will be a set of challenges created off the heels of a new gameplay addition to the Sea of Thieves, and Sunken Curse is not the exception. The new gameplay mechanic introduced in 1.1.6 is the opportunity for the game’s random loot drops, such as chests, skulls, trinkets, and crates, to spawn at the bottom of the sea bed surrounding the in game islands.

To draw attention to this feature, Rare have added among these loot drops a new in game object: The Cursed Merfolk Statue. As far as the lore is concerned, these statues are mysterious as are their origins, but Duke the Bilge Rat has discovered that they can be destroyed, and he’ll reward you doubloons for doing just that.

Merfolk Statues come in three varieties: Sapphire, Emerald, and Ruby. They spawn at random under the water surrounding the islands, and emit both a deep sounding musical cue as well as a color coded glint of light to guide you toward their whereabouts. Your goal is to destroy them which can be easier said than done: the statues create a field of energy that harms you when you’re near, and they regenerate health quickly when attacked. The only way to destroy them is to keep up sustained firepower against them using any weapon available, but there’s a catch- the three varieties represent a scale of difficulty in their destruction. Sapphire Statues are easy to defeat even alone, while Emerald Statues take much longer sustained damage from a solo player, and Ruby Statues are impossible to defeat alone without a large stock pile of gun powder.

The trick with the event is, the more difficult the statue, the more you are encouraged to enlist the help of other pirates- but no more than a full crew of four is necessary to take out the statues with ease. This may come as a relief to players who have struggled with previous challenges that required intra-crew cooperation.

The Challenge

The primary level of the event (earning you the Curse Breaker title) consists of three commendations: breaking three Sapphire Statues (earns 5 doubloons), breaking three Emerald Statues (earns 8 doubloons), and breaking three Ruby Statues (earns 12 doubloons).

The “second tier” so to speak, which earns the Master Curse Breaker title is three further commendations: break fifteen Sapphires to earn another 15 doubloons, break fifteen Emeralds to earn 25 doubloons, and break fifteen Rubies to earn 35 doubloons.

Finally, the legendary tier commendations are quite simple: break 100 total Statues to earn 50 more doubloons, and the Legendary Curse Breaker title.

The Rewards

Exclusive to the Sunken Curse event are three articles of nautical themed clothing from the newly introduced “Wailing Barnacle” cosmetic set. The Wailing Barnacle hat, dress, and jacket are available for the duration of the event for 20 Doubloons each.

The extra doubloons can be spent on Letters of Recommendation, which will increase one of your three trading alliance reputations a full level (for 30 Doubloons), or three different sizes of gold pouches (10 Doubloons for 2500 Gold, 15 Doubloons for 5000 Gold, and 20 Doubloons for 10000 Gold). These gold and reputation rewards do not expire at the end of the event, so feel free to stockpile extra Doubloons if you so desire.

More Details and Tips

• It’s recommended to run in a full galleon crew to tackle these statues, at least until the Master Ruby Breaker commendation is completed. After, a 2 man sloop is most efficient for reaching the Legendary Curse Breaker title.
• Every large sized island you visit is likely to contain 1–3 statues, while micro-islands typically contain 0 or 1.
• Strategy varies depending on how much time you have to devote to the event:
  IF you need to speedrun the event: try scuttling the ship, breaking all statues at an island, and then scuttling the ship again. This is the quickest fast travel between islands when you don’t have cargo you care to keep.
  IF you aren’t in a rush: voyage around the map as normal, and search for statues at every island you visit along the way. The commendations are very achievable during a normal two weeks worth of regular Sea of Thieves play (much more manageable than Gun Powder Skeletons were)
• To Find Statues: swim a lap around the island at a 20 meter radius from the shore, and listen closely for the sound cues of the Statues. If in a crew of multiple pirates, have one swim clockwise in this fashion while the other swims counterclockwise to quickly search the perimeter of the island.
• Statues can spawn along beaches even poking above the water, and in deep pools or inland sources of water.