Ahoy scallywags! This is an updated repost of my old tips and tricks thread. Feel free to add anything to the list that I may have missed!
The Basics
Use a mic. This isn't an absolute requirement but I promise you even a small amount of communication will go a really long way towards having a successful session.
If you don't have a mic or just can't talk, don't sweat it! There's a "Non-Verbal Communication system in place just for you! On Xbox press "Up" on the D-Pad and PC players use the "G" key to access it. Note that the NVC system is context sensitive so the available options will change depending on what you're doing or what you're looking at and what you're holding.
In ship to ship combat, aim to land your cannonballs just below the waterline on the other ship. Landing shots above the waterline will poke holes in the other ship's middle deck (not lower deck). Since it's above the waterline the other ship will not take on any water from the hole.
The compass can be raised by pressing and holding the right (trigger/mouse button).While held up, your character will walk slower and you should hear (feel if using a controller with vibration) your character taking steps (paces). This is handy for counting out your paces for riddle maps.
The lantern can be turned on and off as well as held higher depending on which trigger/mouse button you press while holding it.
Planks are for patching holes in the ship. Buckets are for bailing water and catching vomit. Bananas are for regenerating your health.
All of these supplies can be found in barrels on islands and sometimes found in barrels floating out at sea, as well as in marked refillable barrels on your ship.
If you're using a bucket to bail water, you must throw the full bucket of water overboard. Going up one deck and tossing your water into the middle deck will just result in the water going back down to the lower deck. This seems pretty obvious but you'd be surprised how many people seem to not realize this one...
On the Sloop (1-2 man ship), you can toss water out of the windows. No need to go to the top deck.
Don't be afraid of falling off the ship or the ship leaving you behind. Just wait for the ship to get far enough away so that it causes a mermaid to spawn for you and then take the mermaid teleport back to your ship.
Angle the sails so that they catch the "wind lines" like a bucket would catch water.
Don't be afraid to try and steer the boat. However, if you do decide to take the helm, make sure you know where your crew wants to be heading so that you can head in that direction.
On the Galleon (4 player ship), if your crew isn't communicating well, consider leaving the middle sail pulled up just a touch so that the helmsman can see the front of the ship.
Sailing off the map causes your ship to take constant damage. I am unsure if this is a "final product" version of this feature, but I figured you should be aware that this is how the game currently works because your crew may get mad at you for accidentally sinking the ship if you had like 10+ chests aboard.
You can resupply the labeled (painted on) barrels on your ship by either holding the object it contains and pushing the appropriate button (this removes the items from your personal inventory).
Refillable barrels have an item cap of 100 per barrel.
On the Galleon, when out of ship to ship combat always be sure to repair the holes in the middle deck. This can save you from certain disaster later. On the Sloop, always repair holes in the "middle" deck as water can still get in through those holes via waves.
You can turn the ship quickly by performing a "hand brake" turn. To do this, have the helmsman turn the wheel fully left of fully right and then drop the anchor. After the hand brake has been pulled you will obviously need to raise the anchor again before you can resume moving.
Get your ship stuck? Raise all of the sails and then try spinning the wheel. If that doesn't work, use the "Scuttle Ship" option found in the start menu. Note that the scuttle ship option needs to be voted on by the crew in order to happen.
You cannot share a treasure map with another crew. They won't be able to spawn chests on your maps. However, once the chest has been spawned (you've hit it with a shovel), they can totally shoot you, and finish digging it up... or vice versa.
Your ship will occasionally take hull damage when sailing through a storm. This can pile up pretty quickly too so be mindful of it. You should be able to hear audio cues of wood breaking to indicate you've sprung a new leak.
You cannot fill another ship with sea water from your bucket. Really hope they change this one.
If you drink enough grog, eventually you will get sick. If you hold the bucket while getting sick, this will fill the bucket with puke. You can then throw this at other people to cause them temporary partial sightedness. I'm not sure where this would fit into a tactical situation but, uh, it's a feature at your disposal.
When you sink another ship (or your own) any treasure chests that were on board will float to the surface for a brief time (also a ton of sharks will probably spawn). They won't stay floating forever though! Eventually they start sinking and after they sink a certain distance they will be lost to the watery depths forever! (they despawn if you don't get them in time)
Bananas are life. Pick them up whenever you see them, if you're ever not full on health and have them, eat them, and if you ever have extras, throw them in the banana barrel.
Eating one banana restores 25% of your HP.
Get unlucky enough to have a troll in your crew? Use the "Vote To Brig" feature to let him sit in time out for a bit. You and your crew can either choose to vote him back out after you think the nasty troll has learned their lesson, or you can just leave them there until they quit out of the game.
Nervous about crewing up with other players? The Sloop allows you to play solo if you wish to dip your toes into the water first. Be aware though that it's still a shared world so you will still be able to run into other, potentially hostile, players in the world. Personal advice, there's safety in numbers so crew up on a Galleon! (Plus this game is just way more fun when you play with a team of mates).
Not all items in the game are given to you straight away (like the very powerful Blunderbuss, must be purchased for 930 gold). Some items must be purchased from a merchant. Merchants can be found on Outpost islands.
Voyages are purchased from the Goldhoarder's merchant. He's a odd looking fellow that's located in a small tent on Outpost islands.
In order to earn gold you must turn in the treasure chests you find to the Goldhoarders trading company merchant. If you haven't turned the chest in yet, that gold isn't officially yours yet and can be stolen by other players or last at sea!
Aide from voyages, treasure chests can also be found on sunken ships and sometimes randomly spawned on the various islands. So make sure to explore everything!
Tips n Tricks:
When treasure hunting via X marks the spot type maps, it can sometimes help to use landmark objects that are directly North/South/East/West of the X, then pull out your compass, face the appropriate direction, swap to the shovel and start digging up a line.
When it comes to riddle maps... figure it out for yourself. Seriously I'm not giving any tips here. Figuring out the riddle for yourself is half the fun!
If your inventory is full, empty it into the refillable barrels before stepping foot on land. This is particularly a good idea when it comes to cannonballs and planks. Sometimes you'll want to keep some bananas on hand so maybe consider not putting all of those in the barrel.
If you see another ship docked or at or just leaving an outpost and you're coming in loaded down with treasures, know that 9 times out of 10 that ship WILL come after you. If you don't want to risk it consider altering course to a different outpost.
This one seems pretty obvious butt, turning off the lanterns on your ship makes it harder to see at night. It's not invisible and with the addition of the spyglass, there's still a pretty good chance you'll be spotted. But leaving them off is at least a mild advantage over trying to be stealthy while aboard the fully lit Midnight Fiesta cruise ship.
Got another ship chasing you down and you don't want to fight them? Have a crew member (or yourself) volunteer to jump off the back of the boat and attempt to board their ship and drop their anchor. If successful this will more often than not provide your crew with enough distance to lose the pursuers.
Chasing down another ship to sink them and steal their loot? Have someone stand near the front of the boat with eyes trained on the water looking for white nameplates. The other crew will probably be trying to board you to drop your anchor.
When storing your chests on your ship. Leave your "regular" chests in the captains quarters or other easily visible areas on the bottom deck and hide your more valuable chests elsewhere on the ship. Should another player sneak aboard your ship they will most likely check these two areas first if they mean to run off with your treasure which means they will be more likely to take off with your "meh" chest rather than spending extra time hunting down your more valuable chests.
Clever locations to hide the chest include... in the crows nest, on the captain's balcony (Galleon exclusive location), the front portion of the middle deck, against the stairs or walls tucked by barrels on the lower deck, under the steering wheel of the ship, in front of the steering wheel on the ship (between the wheel stand and the railing), and on the sail cross beams (you can hop down to them by going to the crows nest first). Also note that turning off the lanterns near the chests (should they be below deck) will also help disguise them.
On the Galleon, try to avoid "hand brake" turns in ship to ship combat. Instead raise one (or two) of the sails and then lower them again once you're going in the right direction. The Sloop is nimble enough that you shouldn't need to raise the sail unless you intend to slow down.
On the Galleon, in the time it takes one player to plug up 3 holes (4 if they're REALLY fast), the bottom deck of the ship will have completely filled with water. If you run down below to repair the ship and you see 3 or more holes, tell your crew you need help. The Sloop appears to fill with water at a slower rate.
On the Galleon, one player can bail water from the bottom deck faster than one hole in the bottom deck can fill it, but not faster than two holes. On a Sloop, one player can bail water about as fast as 6 holes, but not 7. This and the above aren't really tips or tricks so much as they are just handy bits of info to know.
Fast sword swipes will stun a player's movement. They can however still pull out their own sword and block your strikes. Blocking sword swipes negates both the stun effect and damage. But note that the third swipe will still knock a blocking player backwards. Heavy attacks (holding down the attack button) also appear to be unblockable.
If your destination has you sailing directly into the wind, try instead sailing slightly off angle with your sails fully turned to the side. This is a "believable but not realistic" video game version of tacking into the wind.
On the Galleon, when in ship to ship combat it is often easier to fight off the other ship with one sail raised. This improves cornering and slows down the ship enough to allow for smoother targeting from the cannoneers in choppy waters.
Sometimes the best ship to ship tactic is to not sail forward at all. You can raise all of the sails and then still pivot the ship on the spot by turning the wheel (so long as the anchor is raised). This sit and pivot can be used to lay down barrages on ships coming at your or it can be used to better line up shots against another ship that maybe isn't moving at all (likely because they have their anchor down).
Try to spread your cannon shots out. Hitting the same spot over and over won't poke multiple holes open. It'll just ensure that the other crew can't patch that one hole. Note that shooting the same spot over and over will knock anyone in that ship off of repairing the hole. So occasionally, shooting the same spot over and over is actually a good thing.
Have someone board their ship after you've poked some holes in their bottom deck. That person should guard the holes with their life. Buying your crew precious "ship sinking" time by either shooting the other crew off of repairing the hole or just distracting them so that they cannot patch up the hole(s).
Being pursued and really want to cash in those chests? Try a "sail by". Have one or two guys jump off the boat with chests in hand as you sail past an outpost but rather than stop at the outpost just keep sailing. The further away from the outpost you do the "sail by" the more likely you are to bait the other ship into chasing after your ship instead of stopping at the island. Alternatively, you can do a fake "sail by" by sailing rather close to an outpost and having one guy jump off with no chest in hand in hopes that the other ship will stop to fight that one guy thinking he has the treasure and thus breaking off and giving your crew enough space to lose them and head for another outpost.
"Sail-bys" are also handy for those of you just looking to stowaway on an enemy ship.
When trying to hide onboard an enemy ship, turn off their lanterns! This works particularly well if it's night time.
You take fall damage when shooting yourself out of a cannon if you fall far enough. However firing yourself into a wall (currently) causes no damage and also resets the fall distance. You can use this knowledge to safely launch yourself on to islands without fear of hurting yourself. (Side note here falling into water from ANY distance negates all fall damage that would have occurred)
You can use the blunderbuss and flintlock pistol as a sort of flare by shooting it straight up into the air. This can be used to help locate each other while exploring islands.
The Sloop is extremely vulnerable to attacks from the rear. You can shoot (or be shot) by cannon fire while on the helm, the anchor, the sails, or even while repairing holes in the bottom deck. Players attacking Sloops can use this knowledge to their advantage and players piloting Sloops should use this knowledge to guard their ship's weaknesses.
If you're solo in a Sloop, you should probably sail around storms when possible rather than sailing through them.
Be mindful of keeping explosive barrels onboard your ship. They can be great for damaging a ship that is pursuing you but they can be the nail in the coffin if used against you. I highly recommend NOT stowing explosive barrels below deck as clever stowaways will most definitely use them to sink your ship. But also note that stowing them topside has it's risks too as others can use it to help clear your deck of crewmates.
Last tip, this one is less of a Sea of Thieves tip and more of just a life tip... Don't be a jerk. This game is full of new players who are experiencing the game for the first time. Don't call people names or act like jerks to them just because they aren't doing something you want them to do. This includes not talking on the mic. If they aren't talking on the mic and this makes you super salty, leave the crew and go find a different one. Remove yourself from the crew rather than acting like a jerk to them in hopes that they leave. If you're an absolute "everyone must talk on their mic or else" kind of person, consider forming a crew via the club LFG, instead of being an asshat.
That's it for now. I will add more as I come up with it through out the week. HAPPY SAILING MATEYS!
-Stowaway Pup
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