Guide to The Fort of the Damned
A Haunting New Event
NOTE: Some of the Commendations and Doubloon Rewards from this event are TIME LIMITED and will disappear from the game after the November 20th Update! They are marked clearly below with a TIME LIMITED! label.
Launching on October 16th and running until November 20th, the latest monthly event is “Fort of the Damned”- one of the game’s skeleton forts has been cursed as a gateway to the Sea of the Damned, and challenging new Shadow of Fate skeletons are guarding rich hoards of treasure at the fort…
The event includes some limited time voyages and commendations in the Bilge Rat Mercenary Tab, as well as a new “Fort of the Damned” Bilge Rat tab with permanent commendations.
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 . This month also adds another tab under Bilge Rats, the “Fort of the Damned”, which contains commendations that are NOT time limited.
(The other tabs represent past events whose challenges and rewards are still available- click here for a Guide to Every Past Event)
Mercenary Voyages and some of their commendations, doubloons, and titles will be replaced with new ones with every new update. 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 October Shopper’s Guide for a list of everything in Duke’s Black Market!!
Mercenary Voyages
The big draw of this update is the new Fort of the Damned in game raid-event, and there are a host of commendations described further down about that new feature. However, in addition to that there are limited time voyages in Duke’s Black Market shop, and some limited time commendations and rewards tied to those as well.
Skull Seeker Voyages
Duke is giving away four new LIMITED TIME voyage types, each with commendations attached:
Skull Seeker Voyage in The Wilds/Ancient Isles/Shores of Plenty
These regional voyages send you on a Skeleton Bounty Quest against a single wave of Shadow Skeletons, and then a Shadow Skeleton Captain. Defeating the Captain will drop a Villainous Bounty Skull, and a Skeleton’s Orders Quest
Once you pick up the Skeleton’s Orders, a new Quest will appear in your Quest Wheel- Don’t Forget to pick it up where the Captain went down!
Read more on the Skeleton’s Orders Quests further down below.
- Defeating the Captain ends the Skull Seeker Voyage, and unlocks a commendation for each region you do it in, worth 5 Doubloons each.
- Completing Skull Seeker Voyages in all of these three regions earns you the Skull Keeper Title, and 25 Doubloons.
Legendary Skull Seeker Voyage
The Legendary Skull Seeker Voyage is exclusive to Pirate Legends to buy, but can be shared with crew mates or gifted to players by other pirate legends.
The voyage is mostly similar to the regional voyages, but it’s not locked to any one region, and it contains two chapters instead of one. Each chapter works the same, with a single shadow Skeleton Captain that will drop a Villainous Bounty Skull and a Skeleton’s Orders Quest. Additionally, the two Skeleton’s Orders Quests will yield twice as many X’s as the regular voyage’s one, meaning additional rewards (see below)
- Completing the Legendary Skull Seeker Voyage earns 10 Doubloons
Skeleton’s Orders Quest
Each Captain you kill in the Legendary Skull Seeker Voyages will drop a Skeleton’s Orders quest that you can pick up, adding a new voyage to your inventory. The voyage appears similar to a “Message in a Bottle” voyage that you can find littering the world.
An X-Marks the spot map will contain 1 X if you found it during the regular regional Skull Seeker voyages, and 2 X’s if you found it during the Legendary Skull Seeker voyage. But beware, on this island you will be attacked by one or more Shadows of Fate, a new breed of Shadow Skeleton that can only be made vulnerable by a specific color of lantern flame.
If you don’t have the flame needed to weaken the Shadow of Fate, simply avoid them and gather your treasure
- 1 X is guaranteed to contain a Ritual Skull, which can be sold to Duke for 10 Doubloons or used to activate the Fort of the Damned
- The 2nd X, which only maps from the Legendary Voyage will contain, may yield Reaper’s Chests, Stronghold Gun Powder Barrels, or Rag and Bone Crates, all very valuable and sought after items.
The Vigilant Rogue
The pirate Stitcher Jim can be found on Castaway Isle, observing the nearby Fort of the Damned. He will fill you in on what he knows of this terrifying new cursed Fort, and talking to him earns 5 Doubloons
Everything described in this Mercenary Voyage section is TIME LIMITED, and will no longer be available to experience after the update on November 20th. Complete this content before it disappears forever!
The Fort of the Damned
This is the main attraction of this update, a glorious new “super fort” that can be activated at any time with an elaborate ritual, contains more difficult new Shadow skeleton varieties, and gives a much bigger reward.
A new Fort of the Damned section can be found in the Bilge Rats section of the Reputation Tab on the in game Menu Screen. This tab lists out all of the commendations you can earn for taking on this treacherous new fort, and none of these are time limited.
What is the Fort of the Damned?
What was formerly Old Boot Fort, located just north of Stephen’s Spoils, has been cursed by some dark rituals and turned into a gateway to the Sea of The Damned. The fort is now spooky as spooky gets, surrounded by a permanent eerie fog, and is the site of a new kind of Skull Fort. Unlock other forts on the sea, which activate at random on a cycle, the Fort of the Damned must be manually activated by players.
Once active, the Skull Cloud in the sky glows with bright red eyes to indicate the special variety of Fort. Players will have to face new challenges, and when completed will be rewarded with greater treasure than ever before. That’s if they can keep it out of the hands of other players…
Activating the Fort
The Fort of the Damned is activated Manually by players, and can be activated at any time by completing a ritual. To do this, you’ll need all 6 Flames of Fate, and 1 Ritual Skull
Flames of Fate
When you die in the game you travel to the Ferry of the Damned, and if you die in one of six specific ways you will be able to grab a Flame of Fate from the Ferry before returning from the dead. Approach the flame in the center of the Ferry, raise your lantern, and use the on screen prompt to “take” the flame, changing the color of your lantern light
- Red Flame: Death by fire (including erupting volcano rocks or lava flows on volcano islands)
- Green Flame: Death by Skeleton (this includes if a Gun Powder Skeleton blows itself up, but NOT if you blow the Skeleton’s powder up yourself and die in the explosion!)
- Blue Flame: Death by Shark bite (Megalodon included!)
- Purple Flame: Death by Venom (Snakes or Kraken venom)
- Pink Flame: Death by another player (must be from a different crew than your own)
- White Flame: Death by Lightning Strike (if you equip a Cutlass, the odds of being struck increase)
Note: You will LOSE your current Flame of Fate next time you die. To save it, approach a lantern on your ship, raise your lantern, and “Give” the flame to the ship lantern. Now you can store that flame in that lantern- do this with every color across the various ship lanterns!
Once you have all 6 Flames of Fate, take them to the Fort of the Damned, and “Give” the flames to the 6 Statues in the main room of the central structure. This will open a cage in the center containing a headless skeleton- now you’re only missing one piece…
Ritual Skulls
The last thing you need to activate the fort is to place a Ritual Skull on the headless skeleton. Doing so will consume the skull, and begin the waves of skeletons that you expect from a fort. But how do you find a Ritual Skull? There are currently three ways:
- Duke’s Skull Seeker Voyages: only for the duration of this event, Duke has FREE Skull Seeker voyages which I described further up above in the guide. These are guaranteed to result in a Ritual Skull at the end.
- Duke’s Skull Stashes Voyage: Duke has a permanent voyage option that you can purchase for either 30 Doubloons or 35,000 Gold, which will very quickly lead to a Ritual Skull on the very outpost. The cost is steep because it is a shortcut to a Ritual Skull with almost no effort or obstacles
- Emergent Island Skeleton Captains: Skelly Captains can be found at random patrolling islands without a crew to back them up. Killing these Skelly Captains will drop a Villainous Bounty Skull, as well as a Skeleton Captain’s Orders voyage, that will lead to a guaranteed Ritual Skull as well as other randomized rewards.
Once you’ve collected the Flames of Fate and set them to the Statue Lanterns in the Fort, and then placed a Ritual Skull on the headless Skeleton, the Fort will begin.
How to Complete the Fort
Like most active Skeleton Forts, the Fort of the Damned consists of a number of waves of Skeletons to fight, eventually leading to a Boss wave with different music. Defeating the Captain of the boss wave will end the fort and drop a Stronghold Key, which can be used to open the Vault underneath the main central structure- inside the vault are heaps of treasure.
The Difference is that the Skeletons are new Shadow of Fate skeletons, the boss captain is a Skeleton Lord, and the rewards are MUCH greater than your average fort.
Shadows of Fate
Shadow Skeletons are a common skeleton variety that are invulnerable in the dark, and in order to make them vulnerable it must be daylight or you must raise a lantern near them. Shadows of Fate are a sinister new variety that can ONLY be made vulnerable by a specific Flame of Fate on your lantern. They come in all 6 Flame of Fate color varieties, and you can identify them by the color of their eyes and the glow from their bodies.
Each wave during the Fort of the Damned will only contain a few different varieties at a time, and you can switch your lantern’s Flame of Fate at the six Statues in the main Fort structure. You will even see hands reaching out from the grate on the floor underneath the specific statue whose color you need during a particular wave, and this is handy especially if you have trouble distinguishing between colors.
Unless they have been flashed by the correct color of Flame, they will be invulnerable to all damage including explosions nearby. Once they are flashed, they became vulnerable for a period of time but will return to invulnerable and require the lantern shine again.
Shadows of Fate will spawn using any combination of weapons, including gun powder and even Stronghold Gun Powder!
The Captain Wave
Once you’ve defeated enough waves of Shadows of Fate, the music will change and a final Captain Wave will appear. This includes more Shadows of Fate, but also the ghost of a familiar Skeleton Lord with a new ghostly skin. Unlike regular Skeleton Captains, a Skeleton Lord is much harder to defeat.
The Skeleton Lord that captains the Fort has a LOT more health than average Skeletons, and also can switch primary weapon at will, from Cutlass to Pistol to Blunderbuss. In addition, he can summon waves of Shadows of Fate to protect him, and perform a shockwave that deals damage and sends pirates flying.
Use the gunpowders to your advantage to help deplete his health, and once he’s dead he’ll drop a Stronghold Vault Key, which opens the Vault beneath the central chamber of the Fort.
Rewards
The haul of loot stored in the Vault is tremendous: there are potentially multiple Stronghold Chests, Stronghold Skulls, Crates of Ancient Bone Dust, Stronghold Gun Powder Barrels, Reaper’s Chests, Mermaid Gems, and best of all, the Chest of Legends. The Chest of Legends has previously only been accessible by completing an Athena’s Voyage, and can be turned in to the Mysterious Stranger at the back of any in game Tavern for Athena’s Fortune Reputation.
TIPS for the Fort
- WARNING: This is an advanced challenge that will require skill, and typically larger crews in order to complete- especially if you have to fend off rival crews that will surely come once the Fort begins
- If you keep the Flames of Fate stored on lanterns in your ship, once a fort is finished you can relight the Statues again immediately, and if you have another Ritual Skull you can instantly trigger the fort a second time. Risk taking pirates might hoard ritual skulls in order to tackle this Fort challenge back to back to back
- Before finding all six Flames of Fate, check the Fort: it may already be active and you can swoop in and team up with another crew… or steal it out from under them!
- Conversely, if you’re on the fort, you can see beyond the fog that surrounds the ghostly stronghold: keep an eye out for crews coming to contest the fort and be ready for them!
- Stock up on supplies before you start the fort! You will need a lot of Fruit, and maybe planks and cannonballs if others want to fight you for it
- Use Gunpowders to your advantage- but only after making Shadows vulnerable! Detonating a gun powder when none of the Shadow Skeletons have been made vulnerable by a Lantern will do nothing but waste the explosion
Bilge Rat Commendations & Rewards
Aside from the massive hoard of wealth inside the vault at the end, there are also Commendations you can earn for engaging with this new Fort, and these come with Doubloons and Titles and even exclusive cosmetics!
Defeat the Shadows of Fate
For each of the six different colored Shadows of Fate, there are commendations for defeating certain numbers of them. Once you defeat 5 of a particular color, you’ll get 5 Doubloons. Defeat 25 of that color, you get 10 Doubloons, and defeating 50 will net you 25 Doubloons. These commendations apply for all six varieties, making for 240 Total Doubloons.
- Each wave has a mix of colors so you aren’t going to defeat 50 of a single variety from completing one Fort alone- it will take repeated Fort of the Damned completions to kill 50 of each Shadow of Fate.
- Once you defeat one of each color of Shadow of Fate, you earn A Spectrum of Shadows, which nets 10 Doubloons as well as unlocks the ‘Lantern of the Damned’ cosmetic in the Equipment shops
Clear the Fort
Simply being the crew to activate the Fort of the Damned will earn The Summoning of the Damned, which nets +5 Doubloons and unlocks ‘Facepaint of the Damned’ cosmetic item in the Clothing shops.
If you manage to Clear the Fort of all enemies, you earn +5 Doubloons. Clearing it TEN times earns Banishing the Damned, +10 Doubloons, and unlocks the ‘Jacket of the Damned’ in the Clothing shops. Clearing it 25 times gets +25 Doubloons, and clearing it FIFTY times earns you +50 Doubloons and the “Raider of the Damned” Title.
This adds an additional 95 Doubloons Total.
The Fort and commendations are NOT TIME LIMITED, and are a long term goal that may take months to complete!
That’s all there is to say about this chilling new addition to Sea of Thieves. Duke’s limited time voyages have their own commendations, but are also a reliable way to gather Ritual Skulls for activating this exciting new Fort of the Damned, which is sure to inspire a dramatic increase in players uniting to take it on- and ferociously competing to take it all for themselves!
For a full list of new Features added in the 2.0.8 Update, Click here!
