Master Pirate Moves in Sea of Thieves

I’m pretty proud of myself, so I just have to brag and share the awesome moments I had in the Sea of Thieves closed beta yesterday.

I had about 30 minutes to kill so I hopped into the game thinking I would just sail around in a one-man dinghy. In the past (Alpha) I hadn’t encountered a lot of players. Usually I could sail for an hour and see no one. That’s why I was shocked when I saw a massive set of sails on the horizon.

A chill ran down my spine. Only moments earlier I had jumped off my ship and onto land to try and find some hidden treasure. Crap! I sprinted back to my ship!

Raising the anchor felt like an eternity. The sails were growing bigger by the second. SPLASH! The anchor was up. I whipped around and unfurled the sales and tacked them with the wind. Bringing her about I quickly peered over my shoulder just in time to see a cannon ball wizz past my head.

”ARRRRRR!” – I heard the other players shouting in their mics!

The other ship was fully-manned with by a crew of four pirates. At this point I was flipping out. I hadn’t sailed solo more than once before, and handling the tails all by myself was starting to feel overwhelming. I quickly veered around the small island knowing they couldn’t adapt as quickly due to their ship’s size.

Looking behind me again they were pretty far out and hadn’t turned. I decided to go back to the island and get that treasure. They probably gave up knowing I didn’t have anything.

As I pulled up to the island I’m not really sure what happened. It was all a blur. Before I realize what happened, the ship was back and right on top of me. “GET HIM!!!!” They screamed in their mics. BAM BAM BAM BAM! Cannon balls were pummeling me. Or… so I thought.

”WTF! HOW DID YOU GUYS MISS?!” One of them screamed. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Every shot missed me practically point blank. What novice pirates!

My heart practically beating out of my chest I once again brought my sails out and darted off as fast as I could. This time, I wasn’t about to fall for their tricks again.

They had to turn around, so that gave me a nice lead. I was probably 10-15 seconds ahead of them minimum, but with the wind at their backs that big ship was gaining on me.

… could it work? Could this crazy idea I was concocting actually work?

LET’S DO THIS!

I threw the wheel as far as it would go to the left and reached over to drop my anchor. My ship lurched and creaked with a roar and to my absolute glee my ship had literally turned on a dime! It was something right out of Pirates of the Caribbean! I was now facing them and without thinking I fired my one port side cannon into their hull — below water level because I know that’s how you cause a ship to take on water — while audibly yelling in my mic, “G’day, fellas!”

Quite proud of myself, and knowing they were pissed, I headed back to port at one of the main outposts. My play time for the evening was coming to a close.

As I pulled into port, sure enough the fellas weren’t going to give up. They were coming right up onto my ship with a vengeance. I was off my ship already and in town. One of them leapt off their ship and onto mine. Huh… he started to sail away with it. Wondering if I should even care, knowing I was logging off, I decided to send him off with one last hurrah.

In the back of my ship I saw the gun powder barrel I had found on one of the islands. Could I? I mean… they added sniper rifles… On a one man ship the back is completely open and the helm is right there exposed. Could I make that shot? I pulled out my sniper rifle, took aim through that cracked scope, and BANG! I watched my bullet lob over to my ship as it pulled away, a triumphant goon at the helm.

That’s when the smile on my face grew so big my cheeks hurt. I watched as the ship exploded and sank in fire as my bullet connected with the powder keg. Gloriously proud of my master pirate moves, I logged off for the night.

Now THAT’S how you play a pirate.