This Sea of Thieves video explains how you'll do quests, build reputation and establish your personal piratical presence
Sea of Thieves is one of those games that hasn't been very well communicated through development. That changes today.
The Sea of Thieves video below does more to explain Rare's open-world multiplayer pirate adventure than pretty much anything we've heard so far.
It starts by showing off character customisation in Sea of Thieves, but then goes on to describe the player's gameplay journey.
It sounds like Sea of Thieves places a lot of importance on faction reputation. There are a number of factions with different motivations and preferences, and as you complete various tasks and activities, your reputation with the various factions will change accordingly.
The factions are also important quest givers in Sea of Thieves. Quests or missions are called Voyages, and each faction offers different types of Voyages. As your reputation with a faction grows, you'll unlock new and more rewarding Voyages, and earn Commendations that grant custom titles, unlock Achievements and more.
Because Sea of Thieves is a multiplayer game, you can team up with your friends to crew a ship and complete any crew member's active Voyages. That means you'll be able to check out Voyages given by factions you're not aligned with, if your pals have been levelling them up. Nice.
To give you an idea what a Voyage might be like, Rare used the Gold Hoarder faction as an example. These greedy folk want you to seek out hidden caches they can open with their Skeleton Keys, and as they come to trust you more, will send you after more valuable stashes. You'll have to find the chests, fend off any enemies who might be guarding them, and bring them safely back to the Gold Hoarders to get your reward.
Even within this set of Voyages, there is variety. For example, Riddle Maps ensure that finding the chests isn't a matter of just following the waypoint, but of teamwork and problem solving as you piece together the clues and use your knowledge of the world of Sea of Thieves.
Other Sea of Thieves factions have different aims. For example, the Merchant Alliance ask players to scout and gather supplies, and then ship the cargo to target destinations within a designated period of time. Sometimes the resources you need are live animals and you'll have to hunt them down - and care for them once on board. So that's a whole different kettle of fish right there - or maybe cage of chickens is more appropriate.
As well as Voyages, Sea of Thieves players can just go out and explore, doing as they please. All this and much more is covered in the video above. Take a gander and get on board Xbox's next hot exclusive, pun intended.
Sea of Thieves releases in March for PC and Xbox One.