Sea of Thieves‘ recent Flameheart centric Return of the Damned event is only the second in the game’s history to hinge on player choice. The outcome of the new event will decide the direction the story takes in the future and will have lasting effects on the game world as we know it. The quest involves helping to complete the ritual reviving the fearsome Captain Flameheart or saving the brave Sir Arthur Pendragon, who is attempting to stop the resurrection from beyond the grave.
Flameheart was originally introduced in a Tall Tale, one of the game’s story-driven questlines, several years ago. It was Pendragon that freed the spectral bully from his prison, unleashing him on the Sea of Thieves in the first place. His large, spectral head would appear above certain islands as an emergent event for players to take on, as he yelled obscenities at them all the while. Then, earlier this year, Flameheart abruptly vanished.
If players decide to save Flameheart, it will be the first time he has returned to the game in months. It will propel the story in a new direction, imperilling the Sea of Thieves right as it grapples with the intrusion of the Grand Maritime Union and its Sovereign emissaries. If players decide to save Pendragon, Flameheart will be thwarted, though perhaps not for good. What else could come from saving Pendragon is not known. This is the chance that Rare wants players to take. They can form an idea of what may happen if they go for a particular outcome, but nothing is certain. Their decisions may reverberate through the Sea of Thieves for years to come.
What is known is that there is a clear desire among Sea of Thieves players for Flameheart to return to the game. When the Flameheart event was removed, Rare did not replace it with another emergent activity. Other things have been added since — ghost fortresses, captaincy, and limited-time events. As things currently stand, Flameheart appears to be ahead by a pretty wide mark. Everyone wants their floating head in the sky back, and they’re stopping at nothing to get it. Part of this is driven by the fact that Flameheart is a known quantity. Pendragon, less so. He’s turned up in a few different adventures and Tall Tales in-game but is a more prominent figure in the tie-in novels that very few in the player base have ever read. Because of the lack of familiarity with Pendragon, players want him dead.
The last time Sea of Thieves had an event like this was to decide the fate of the popular Golden Sands Outpost. Wreathed in spectral fog and left in ruins after a surprise Reaper attack, players could choose to save the town or leave it a damned and haunted shell of its former self. Completing the event for either Merrick and his allies, or the Reapers and theirs, would push the needle toward the desired outcome. The battle came down to the wire, with Rare having to extend the event’s total playtime due to the closeness of player scrapping. In the end, Golden Sands was saved. Now known as New Golden Sands Outpost, the town is in the process of rebuilding as a port town with stone walls and battlements to prevent them ever getting jumped again.
The Return of the Damned adventure runs until November 17th, when either Flameheart or Pendragon’s fate will be sealed for good. You can play it on Game Pass.
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