Ultimate Guide to the Shrouded Spoils

Everything You Need to Know

The Shrouded Spoils update launches with a surprising wealth of features, and of course, many new challenges and rewards. Unlike previous major updates, there is no story campaign to experience. This guide will walk you through how to earn every commendation and reward.

Watch out for the rolling zone of fog- low visibility!

Who are the Bilge Rats?

Duke the Bilge Rat is an adventurer that can be found in any of the game’s Taverns (where you spawn). Talk to him to find out about the current in game event that’s taking place. Events like the Shrouded Spoils present challenges for you to complete, called “Commendations”, which will earn Doubloons, a special currency that can only be used in Duke’s shop, and can purchase limited-time event-exclusive cosmetic items, as well as gold and reputation levels in the game’s three reputation factions. You can find out what the current available commendations are by opening the menu, navigating to “Reputation”, and selecting Bilge Rats. The Bilge Rat menu is newly renovated to divide up every past event into its own page, though keep in mind that events predating “Cursed Crews” will no longer reward you with Doubloons.

For the duration of this event, Duke’s shop contains new “Wailing Barnacle” ship cosmetic items. The usual cosmetic pieces, the Hull, Livery, Figurehead, and Flag are there of course, but new with Shrouded Spoils is the option to customize the ship’s Wheel, Capstan, and Cannons, and these three options are available in Duke’s shop as well. The “Wailing Barnacle” ship set costs 40 Doubloons per item, for a whopping total of 280 Doubloons. These cosmetics are usually only available for roughly four weeks, so let’s get to earning those Doubloons!

Commendation Breakdown

A mysterious fog now creeps around the Sea of Thieves. This new environmental threat not only impacts voyaging pirates, but it’s had a ripple effect throughout the world. Skeleton Ships are roaming the seas with confidence, collecting new types of loot and storing it in new Stronghold locations. Even the beasts of the deep have been stirred by the strange weather, with a more aggressive Kraken and new varieties of Megalodon both finally offering reward for their defeat. The Bilge Rats are rewarding any pirate brave enough to face these threats- are you one of them?

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Any of the following commendations related to selling a specific loot item (Skeleton Captain’s Chests/Skulls, Stronghold Chests/Skulls/Gun powder/Crate, Mermaid Gems) will NOT trigger if a member of your alliance is the one to sell the item. What this means is, if you create an alliance to cooperatively tackle a fort for instance, and you split the loot, you will ONLY earn commendations on the loot that YOUR crew sells.

Kraken Hunting Season

With the new update, the Kraken has been given a rework. Not only does it now have the ability to attack any sized ship, but it has a new side-slap attack and it’s ship-grip attack deals damage more localized to the spot where it’s grabbed hold. Luckily, defeating the beast finally produces a reward- check the seas for glinting gold whenever a tentacle goes down, and you should find a skull, chest, or gold item floating in the murk.

Kraken Hunter- Defeat 1 Kraken (Earns 10 Doubloons)
Master Kraken Hunter- Defeat 5 Krakens (Earns 20 Doubloons + Title)
Legendary Kraken Hunter- Defeat 10 Krakens (Earns 50 Doubloons + Title)

Tips

1. Summoning the Kraken relies on good old RNG, but the spawn rate seems increased after completing a fort or Cursed Sails encounter.
2. Keep a healthy stock of supplies, Sea Beasts will drain them
3. Don’t accidentally escape! If your sails are down, your ship will gradually leave the fight- raise them if you plan to finish it

Megalomania

The Megalodon, giant shark of the deep, has been newly upgraded with 5 unique variants, each with different color scheme and attributes. Like the Kraken, these two have begun dropping valuable loot in the water near their bodies after defeat. To earn your doubloons, you’ll need to kill 1 of each type of Megalodon.

Defeat The Hungering One (5 Doubloons + Title)
Defeat The Crested Queen (10 Doubloons + Title)
Defeat The Shadowmaw (15 Doubloons + Title)
Defeat The Ancient Terror (25 Doubloons + Title)
Defeat The Shrouded Ghost (50 Doubloons + Title)

Tips

1. Like the Kraken, Megalodon spawning is random, though it’s rumored that the Shrouded Ghost only spawns inside the thick fog
2. Megalodons will retreat if you lead them to close to the shallows around an island. If you want to fight one, best to raise your sails
3. Equip two firearms while fighting a sea creature, so you can keep up the fire power- a sword’s not that useful here

Stronghold Destroyer

Skeleton Strongholds or “Skull Forts” have seen an upgrade as well. Firstly, a new system will dynamically cycle between Skull Forts and Cursed Sails Battles whenever one is not being engaged with. Second, while previously only three fort locations in the game could host these Stronghold battles, now all 9 can get in on the rotation. Finally, inside the loot vault you’ll encounter two brand new Stronghold-tier loot items: The Stronghold Gun Powder Barrel, and the Crate of Ancient Bone Dust, both worth as much as the usual Stronghold Skull and Stronghold Chest items, and both rewarding reputation with the Merchant Alliance. To earn your doubloons, you’ll need to cash in these four pieces of valuable loot.

Master of Black Powder- Sell 10 Stronghold Gunpowder Barrels (20 Doubloons)
Golden Master of Strongholds- Sell 10 Stronghold Chests (20 Doubloons)
Mystical Master of Strongholds- Sell 10 Stronghold Skulls (20 Doubloons)
Master of Ancient Bone Dust- Sell 10 Crates of Ancient Bone Dust (20 Doubloons)
Title: “Master of Stronghold Spoils”- Complete all four commendations

Tips

1. Careful with the Stronghold Gunpowder Barrel. It will explode if you shoot or stab it, and the explosion is three times larger than a typical barrel. Even storing it in your Crow’s Nest won’t protect your boat from an explosion that big!
2. Try to park as close to the island as possible, preferably between two cannon towers, to stop the gunners from continually blasting you.
3. Some of these items have a chance of floating up from a defeated Megalodon or Kraken as well.

Captain of the Skeletal Seas

I already mentioned that Cursed Sails battles (the Ship Cloud encounter) and Skeleton Stronghold battles (the Skull Cloud encounter) have a new dynamic system for rotating between them. Additionally, these Cursed Sails battles now include Skeleton Sloops among their ranks, each wave can utilize a different variety of Cursed Cannonball, and they can now be active even in the treacherous waters of the Devil’s Roar. Most excitingly, Skeleton Galleons can now roam the seas freely outside of these Cursed Sails battles. Some will venture from island to island, camping out for a spell before moving on, while others patrol the sea looking for a fight. Some will even surface right along side you, just like the Megalodon.

Whether you sink a ship in a Cursed Sails battle, or one roaming the sea, they can drop Skeleton Captain’s Chests and Skulls, which you can sell to earn even more Doubloons.

Golden Skeleton Captain- Sell 20 Skeleton Captain’s Chests (20 Doubloons + Title)
Mystical Skeleton Captain- Sell 20 Skeleton Captain’s Skulls (20 Doubloons + Title)

Tips

1. These items have a chance of floating up from a defeated Kraken or Megalodon.
2. Skeletons on board these ships don’t bucket out water- they only repair holes. If you keep board them and stop them from repairing, they’ll sink quickly.
3. Gun Powder works wonders- if you can get it below their deck without blowing yourself up first

Raider of Mermaids

The Sunken Curses, ancient mermaid statues in the shallows of the Sea of Thieves, have finally returned- and this time, defeating them rewards you with a Mermaid Gem. Mermaid Gems come in three varieties for each of the three types of Statues, each more valuable than the last- and they can be sold to any faction for your choice of reputation gain.

Hoarder of Sapphire Mermaid Gems- Sell 10 Sapphire Gems (10 Doubloons)
Hoarder of Emerald Mermaid Gems- Sell 10 Emerald Gems (15 Doubloons)
Hoarder of Ruby Mermaid Gems- Sell 10 Ruby Gems (25 Doubloons)
Title: “Hoarder of Mermaid Treasure”- Complete all 3 commendations

Tips

1. Sunken Curses can be found in the shallows surrounding regular in game islands- not including outposts, forts, or seaposts. Look for the blue/green/red glint of light and the deep hum of their mermaid song.
2. You must attack a statue repeatedly until it explodes, but it will also damage you while you’re near and gradually heals itself over time.
3. Each tier heals quicker than the last, requiring more sustained damage to defeat. As a rule of thumb, Ruby requires a crew of 3–4 attacking at once, and Emerald 2–3.

Final Strategy Tips

Shrouded Spoils has essentially updated every in game macro-threat, from emergent encounters to raid-battles, and as a result, the Commendations ask you to persistently interact with all of them. This is a bunch of seemingly unconnected tasks, many of which happen at random- where do you start?

1. Supply up- drain the outpost of supplies, and if you think it’s needed, sail to another one and do it again. Keep supplying up throughout your session.
2. Travel island to island looking for Mermaid statues
3. Anytime a raid cloud appears, stop what you’re doing and go tackle that.
4. Anytime a Megalodon, Skeleton Ship, or Kraken spawns, stop what you’re doing and fight it.

If you play your session in this sequence, you should make progress in every category. Keep in mind too- you can still earn doubloons from every event starting with Cursed Crews to now- in place of step 2 of this sequence, you can easily substitute delivering cargo runs, or doing devil’s roar voyages, or voyaging with the Reaper’s Mark on, in order to earn doubloons this way. Doing any of those will still let you search for Mermaid statues at each island you visit, and you can still interrupt what you’re doing to fight an emergent threat or go tackle a raid cloud.

All of the Shrouded Spoils titles and doubloons can still be earned after the event ends, so if you’re wondering how you could possibly kill 10 Krakens in four weeks, don’t stress! The only thing that is time limited are the Wailing Barnacle Ship cosmetics, which cost a total of 280 Doubloons.

Other Features and Cosmetics

Last but not least, there are a couple odds and ends additions that you might want to know about but aren’t tied to the event’s Commendations.

For Cosmetics, the addition of customized ship wheel, capstan, and cannons is not exclusive to Duke’s limited time Wailing Barnacle set. There are other sets which are not limited time, and cost in game gold. The Admiral Set is only sold in outposts in the Shores of Plenty, the Sea Dog Set is only sold in outposts in the Wilds, and the Sovereign Set is only sold in outposts in the Ancient Isles. The Pirate Legend hideout has a Pirate Legend exclusive set for sale, and the Devil’s Roar is home to three different sets: The Ocean Crawler, Kraken, and Bone Crusher sets.

The latter three sets require some of the Shrouded Spoils Titles before they can be purchased, and the Pirate Legend set requires you to make progress in some of the new Athena’s Fortune commendations, which are progress trackers exclusive to Pirate Legends that unlock exclusive cosmetic rewards. Finally, the Athena’s Ghost Sail and Flag now have a fitting ghostly glow…

Other Features you may want to know about:

1. The Devil’s Roar volcanoes have calmed down a bit- with less frequent eruptions and less direct-targetting lava rocks.
2. While operating a cannon, you can pull up a navigation wheel to select the type of cannonball you want to load (thank god for this!)
3. Perhaps the greatest new feature of all- take out your tankard, and use the secondary action. You won’t be sorry!