Guide to Smuggler’s Fortune/Reaper’s Grave Voyages
The Latest Monthly Bilge Rat Event
NOTE: Some of the Commendations and Doubloon Rewards from this event are TIME LIMITED and will disappear from the game following the October 16th Update! They are marked clearly below with a TIME LIMITED! label.
Launching on September 11th, 2019 and running until October 16th, the latest monthly event in Sea of Thieves is “Smuggler’s Fortune”. With it comes new voyages to undertake, with new commendations, doubloons, and titles to earn.
For a full Breakdown of everything new in this update, click here!
What are Monthly Events??
Every month Sea of Thieves launches a new set of optional voyages, and with them are a handful of challenges called “Bilge Rat Commendations”. To find out what the current month’s event is, talk to Duke in any tavern (the place where you first spawn into a server)- and if you browse his shop you’ll find the new voyages free to purchase.
You can view the current crop of commendations (challenges associated with this event) and their rewards by opening the menu, navigating to Reputation, clicking on “Bilge Rats”, and selecting the “Mercenary Voyages” tab .
(The other tabs represent past events whose challenges and rewards are still available- click here for a Guide to Every Past Event)
Monthly Voyages and some of their commendations, doubloons, and titles will be replaced on the second Wednesday of every month. Complete them before they go away forever!
Completing the Commendations earns Titles, which you can equip to show off to other players, and Doubloons, which are a special currency that can only be spent on items from Duke’s Black Market Shop.
Check out our September Shopper’s Guide for a list of everything in Duke’s Black Market!!
Smuggler’s Fortune: New Voyages
The event consists of three new voyages that each have us delivering mysterious new “Rag and Bone Crates”. These voyages are a time limited feature that will disappear after the October 16th update, but Rag and Bone Crates will persist in the game by some other means. I discuss these Crates in further detail and I break down the commendations surrounding these voyages down below, but first an overview of what each voyage entails:
1. Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay Voyage
Starting this voyage produces an “X-Marks the Spot Map” for Shipwreck Bay- that’s right, every player’s voyage points to Shipwreck Bay. I predict a lot of ship-wrecking going on, so be on your toes.
The map will contain 7 X’s, and at each X you’ll dig up a Rag and Bone Crate that wants to be delivered to one of the “inner” Sea posts closest to Shipwreck Bay: either Wild Treasures Store, Three Paces East Seapost, North Star Seapost, or Stephen’s Spoils. The crates should only point to three of these four locations.
2. Legendary Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay Voyage
This voyage is exclusive to Pirate Legends to purchase, and it gives you 10 X’s on the Reaper’s Grave Voyage instead of 7. It also has a chance of pointing you to all four Inner Seapost destinations.
3. Seapost to Seapost Voyage
If you want to avoid the traffic at Shipwreck Bay, the Seapost-to-Seapost voyage will have you picking up Rag and Bone Crate voyages from those “Inner Seaposts” and delivering them to the four “Outer” Seaposts that are a bit further away- that’s The Spoils of Plenty Store, The Finest Trading Post, Brian’s Bazaar, and Roaring Traders.
When you start the voyage, you’re told to go to an Inner Seapost to pick up 2 Rag and Bone Crates, and those will notify you of which Outer Seapost to deliver to (they’ll both go to the same destination)
Rag and Bones Crates
These new Merchant style items can’t be damaged or destroyed, but they do have delivery tickets telling you where and when to deliver them. The tricky part may be getting them from Shipwreck bay and nearby Seaposts when there’s a lot of traffic in those seas. Also:
- Rag and Bone Crates have a 36 hour time limit.
- That’s IN GAME time, ie 36 Real Life Minutes from the moment the crate is dug up or received from an NPC
- If delivered on time, you receive +5 Doubloons for each crate. This is not from a commendation, this is true of every Rag and Bone Crate you deliver and is a potential “infinite” source of Doubloons!
- If not on time, the crate will read “Late” but they’re still worth 250 gold if delivered late, and not all the commendations require them to be on time!
Finally, crates are color coded based on WHERE they are being delivered:
-Wild Treasures Store: Red
-Stephen’s Spoils: Purple
-Three Paces East: Green
-North Star Seapost: Brownish Yellow
-All OUTER Seaposts: Grey
The Commendations
Although delivering Rag and Bone Crates might get you doubloons or gold, there’s a much bigger reason to do these voyages: there are 250 Limited Time Doubloons to be earned from commendations, as well as Three Titles. Some of these are only available until October 16th, 2019, while others will remain in the game.
Delivering Rag and Bone Crates:
At EACH of the Inner Seaposts (Wild Treasures Store, Stephen’s Spoils, North Star Seapost, Three Paces East Seapost), you’ll earn:
- 5 Doubloons for delivering a crate on time
TIME LIMITED! - 10 doubloons for delivering 5 total crates (on time not needed)
- 5 Doubloons for delivering a stolen crate (on time not needed)
When doing the Seapost to Seapost voyages and delivering from inner to outer Seaposts (The Spoils of Plenty Store, Finest Trading Post, Brian’s Bazaar, Roaring Traders), at each Sea post you’ll earn:
- 5 Doubloons for delivering a crate On Time
TIME LIMITED!
Finally, there are a few longer term goals which earn doubloons as well as fancy new Titles to show off:
- 25 Doubloons+“Merchant of Death” for delivering one rag and bone crate to all eight seaposts ON TIME.
TIME LIMITED! - 50 Doubloons+“Bone Haul Bandit” for delivering 10 stolen rag and bone crates
- 50 Doubloons+“Bone Haul Bearer” for delivering 50 total rag and bone crates
Other Commendations:
Firstly, for completing the Reaper’s Grave Voyages:
- 5 Doubloons Complete 1 Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay Voyage
TIME LIMITED! - 10 Doubloons Complete 3 Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay Voyages
TIME LIMITED!
And last but not least, there’s some exploring you can do on the uncharted island that’s marked on the map table at I-13. A familiar face and a mysterious figure have both appeared on the island, and their presence hints at the ongoing lore of these monthly events and the story they are telling.
- 5 Doubloons: Find and Speak to Stitcher Jim on I-13
TIME LIMITED! - 5 Doubloons: Find all of the sketches made by Sticher Jim’s Beloved
For the latter, Jim’s “Beloved” is a masked mystery woman on the east end of the island who doesn’t speak. She’s drawn 5 sketches that you can find on the island near her and Jim.
Additional Tips
- Every Rag and Bone Crate that’s delivered on time is worth 5 Doubloons. You can farm Doubloons this way, but keep in mind that you only have 36 minutes on each crate from the moment a shovel digs into them or they are picked up from an NPC. You may want to only load up cargo to one or two different Seaposts at a time if you are trying to get them all delivered on time. This might mean only digging up a few of the X’s on a map and coming back for the rest after a speedy delivery run.
- On the other hand, for most of the commendations you don’t have to deliver on time. One crate per Seapost must be on time to get all the commendations, but every other commendation does NOT require them within the time limit. If you just want the commendations quickly and aren’t farming for every possible doubloon, then don’t sweat the time limit
- Use the color coding… if you can: the crates that deliver to Inner Seaposts are all color coded to their location, so if you’re trying to find a few matching ones to try and deliver quickly in that time limit, you can tell what you’ve dug up by seeing the color. This can be difficult though in dark lighting such as night time and cloud cover, especially in the gloomy Wilds.
- The commendations that require “stolen” crates don’t actually require you to betray anybody: any crate you sell that was dug up or received by another crew counts, even if you just found it or they traded with you. Keen an eye out for abandoned crates that crews didn’t finish digging up or delivering- they might be late, but they’re still “stolen”
- Trading works: IF you have a friendly ship on your server that is willing to ally with you and coordinate, then you can be much more efficient with deliveries. When you dig up your X’s on Shipwreck bay and have them going to a variety of locations, a friendly crew might trade some of theirs for yours so you can get more that go to a single location. This allows more to be delivered on time
NOTE: Some of the Commendations and Doubloon Rewards from this event are TIME LIMITED and will disappear from the game following the October 16th Update! They are marked clearly above with a TIME LIMITED! label.
