One million players have hit the Sea of Thieves endgame milestone Pirate Legend, according to a new blog post by Rare producer Joe Neate.
That’s a significant number of people who’ve jumped into the game since launch and stuck around long enough to hit the endgame content. Keeping players around once they’d had a taste of everything the game had to offer has always been one of SoT‘s biggest problems. Hitting a milestone like this suggests that Rare’s decision to rework the game around the new player experience has paid dividends.
To celebrate, Rare is throwing a week-long in-game pirate party.
What is a Pirate Legend?
Pirate Legend is a status conferred when a player reaches Level 50 on any three of the game’s major trading companies and buys their corresponding level promotions. Hitting Pirate Legend opens up long legendary voyages that grant the game’s rarest and most valuable loot. It also grants the We Shall Sail Together shanty. Playing this shanty in any outpost tavern will open the secret, subterranean Pirate Legend Hideout. This hidden area is home to vendors selling rare and eye-wateringly expensive cosmetics that denote your status on the seas.
Achieving Pirate Legend status used to be quite an arduous task. I played Sea of Thieves semi-regularly during its first year and still only hit PL right before the Year 2 content drop. These days, it’s quite a bit easier to hit Pirate Legend. With the trading company level cap raised to 75, the trip to 50 is far quicker than its ever been. Popular Sea of Thieves streamers like LDSylvr run regular challenges to see how quickly they can hit Pirate Legend.
Because of this, the SoT community broadly considers the official Pirate Legend title and garments the mark of a bad player. Anyone found wearing them is instantly written off as a showboat and a braggart. The accepted procedure is hitting PL, being proud of yourself for doing it, but not making a big deal out of it. The true Sea Dog understands that Pirate Legend is a state of mind, not a garish purple waistcoat covered in gold chain.
I was told there would be a party
There is indeed a pirate party. Starting tonight AEST, Rare will embark on a weeklong Pirate Legend celebration. Here’s the breakdown direct from the blog:
- April 5 – We’ll be serving up some piping hot stats on the Pirate Legend experience. Ever wondered how many Legends have maxed out Athena’s Fortune, or how many Voyages players might have to complete to hit Legendary status? Jump into these significant stats on the official Sea of Thieves website and SoT social channels.
- April 6 – Join Sea of Thieves Partner HitboTC as he starts a journey from swabbie to Legend live on Sea of Thieves TV! Legends Week showcases the first episode of a seven-part weekly series, streamed live on the official Sea of Thieves Twitch channel and the official Xbox Twitch channel, and later available on demand on HitboTC’s YouTube channel.
- April 7 – Enjoy an exclusive video insight into the upcoming Legend of the Veil Voyage, a brand new replayable experience for Pirate Legends. This Voyage is set to deliver new map types and some memorable setpieces, so check Sea of Thieves on YouTube on this day to see what awaits our Legends a little later in Season Six.
- April 8 – In-game activities kick off for Pirate Legends, offering double gold and reputation for items handed in to the Mysterious Stranger over the weekend. As an extra incentive, some treasure items also provide Athena’s Fortune reputation when they usually wouldn’t!
- April 9 – We spotlight some Legendary activities on the Sea of Thieves website, with inspiring Pirate Legend feats in the Community Hub and our inaugural Legend Spotlight – a new type of player profile to sit alongside our regular Community and Creator Spotlights.
- April 10 – The festivities expand to all pirates, with a one-day Gold & Glory multiplier offering boosts to gold, reputation and Renown – plus free Athena’s Fortune Fireworks from the Merchant Alliance, and extra bonuses for all pirates generous enough to gift treasure to other players on this day!
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April 11 – The third and final day for Pirate Legends to log in and receive a Silvered Legendary Eyepatch, available from Friday April 8 to Monday April 11 (10am BST). This is also the final day of a special weekend sale in the Pirate Emporium – be sure to check that out for savings on ship sets, emotes and pet outfits, including some only available to Legends!
So, as you can see, some of this stuff is on BST or British Standard Time. This is because Rare is a British developer, and all its servers operate on its local time. Australian SoT players are used to this timezone differential being a real thorn in our sides. Here, it rears its head again. The Gold and Glory Weekend that grants 2x gold and XP to Pirate Legends will kick off on BST, meaning Australian players will sleep through a fair bit of it. We’ll also be asleep, as usual, when the Gold Rush hour and Friday Fort Nights kick off over the weekend. Pirates looking to make the most of the extra time will have to be up rather early indeed.
The decision to open up the Gold and Glory Weekend to all players on Sunday is also a strange one. Due to the timezone differential, Australian players that need to go to work on Monday will miss out. The event will start for us on Sunday evening and end on Monday evening right before most of us are ready to log on.
A modest request to Rare: please consider using local timezones for timed events like these. The Australians are suffering.
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