Sea of Thieves’ New Mystery Aims to Be ‘The Ultimate Treasure Hunt’, With a Real-Life Golden Skull on Offer

Because the story goes, in 1730, Olivier Levasseur stood on the gallows, awaiting his execution for a lifetime of piracy – which had included the theft of an unlimited treasure haul from a Portuguese galleon, subsequently buried on the Seychelles island of Mahé. Requested for any final phrases, Levasseur eliminated a necklace from his neck, shouted, “My treasure for he who can perceive!”, and threw it into the watching crowd. That necklace was hung with a parchment that includes a 17-line cryptogram, seemingly providing the placement of his hidden riches. For greater than three centuries, treasure hunters have tried and did not decode the message on that parchment, and the gold stays misplaced to at the present time.

It’s a becoming inspiration for Sea of Thieves’ new thriller, The Hoarder’s Hunt, which is able to take gamers each in-game and past within the hunt for a real-life treasure – a golden cranium, which will probably be awarded to the primary participant that solves a mess of puzzles (with extra bodily treasure for the subsequent 110 gamers to succeed in the tip of the method, and in-game rewards for others who participate). These puzzles may not be fairly as troublesome to decode as Levasseur’s treasure, but it surely definitely received’t be a easy course of.

For Lead Designer Chris Davies, the promise of the occasion is easy: “To ship the last word treasure hunt. Sea of Thieves is 5 years outdated, and we’ve achieved numerous permitting gamers to pursue that pirate fantasy of seeking out treasure, and digging it up. [So,] how can we provide the last word model of that? Taking it outdoors of the sport in addition to in-game and really supply real-world treasure for our group to look out.”

To do this, The Hoarder’s Hunt will function out-of-game puzzles, unfold out throughout the web world, which is able to lead you to otherwise-locked in-game Voyages, which in flip result in extra out-of-game clues to decode. All of this will probably be wrapped up within the story of a brand new character, H, who – for the subsequent 4 weeks – will ship gamers cryptic messages, serving to direct them to their subsequent aim, resulting in a race to the prize (and you may signal as much as obtain H’s first message now). The primary participant to complete that closing Voyage will obtain the golden cranium as their reward.

Other than Levasseur’s gold, the occasion has been impressed by different treasure hunts, from Cadbury’s Conundrum promotion (which provided actual golden eggs for those who might remedy complicated puzzle books), to Prepared Participant One’s story about a web-based hunt with huge real-life rewards. But it surely’s additionally a response to earlier Sea of Thieves occasions. Earlier than launch, Uncommon arrange a quest to earn real-life golden bananas, and the sport’s first Thriller occasion noticed gamers cracking the case of who killed Sea Canine DeMarco. However The Hoarder’s Hunt goals to enhance on each.

The hunt for the Golden Bananas noticed fewer and fewer gamers capable of take part till its finish – The Hoarder’s Hunt will stay open to all proper till its conclusion. In the meantime, the Thriller of DeMarco was pretty open-ended, resulting in a really lengthy thriller, dominated by clues solely from Uncommon’s personal social channels. This hunt will probably be way more open but it surely’ll be time-limited, giving gamers extra attention-grabbing puzzles, however with an endgoal all the time in sight.

To do that, Uncommon has labored with real-life puzzlemasters, tasked with creating actually mind-boggling duties that can ship gamers everywhere in the web within the hunt for the subsequent answer – with a view to creating a really attention-grabbing dynamic: this must be a collaborative effort, with a number of gamers working collectively to uncover options – till it transforms into a person hunt for that closing treasure.

“What we don’t need,” explains Davies, “is people, puzzle specialists, to type of squirrel themselves away and remedy these individually. We would like this to be one thing the place the group must lean on one another, the place they speculate on potential avenues of investigation to search out the options. And by getting the group working collectively, that’s what makes it such an attention-grabbing dynamic shift, [until] folks attain that time of, ‘Okay, that is really a race with a cool prize on the finish of it.’”

And that closing race will probably be fascinating to see – the second this turns into a real dash for the tip will probably be a take a look at for gamers’ ethical compasses in addition to their brains. It’s actually the primary participant to resolve the thriller that earns the reward – not their crew. The ultimate golden cranium comes with 4 removable golden keys, permitting the victorious participant to reward their crew – however they don’t must. That’s very a lot by design:

“[This is] the last word take a look at of the Pirate Code,” says Head of Model and Licensing, Adam Park. “As a result of basically as a crew you’ll be able to go and win this prize however whoever proposed that voyage would be the precise winner. In order that individual might at that time flip round and select to maintain the prize for themselves, or it’s been made in such a approach that it may be break up with the keys – they’ll share their spoils however once more, it’s going to be one other fascinating take a look at of how folks really behave. I do know what I’d do… you’d by no means hear from me once more.”

“That’s why I’d by no means crew up with you Adam,” laughs Davies.

All of this has led Uncommon to suppose in new methods about the way it delivers this Thriller. For the out-of-game puzzles, the mantra has been that there’s no puzzle too troublesome, so long as the clues have been offered pretty, and that not less than just a few gamers might crack the code and share it with the group. I received’t give something away, however be ready to search for clues in some very surprising locations.

Even the in-game Voyages are a brand new enterprise, although:

“We’re calling them Hunt Voyages,” says Davies. “In the end, you’re trying to find one of many keys that can be utilized to unlock the chests which have been added to each Gold Hoarders tent. It’s a novel Voyage, completely different to what we’ve achieved earlier than. It’s going to ship you all through the places within the sport, island-hopping, to do a map-wide scavenger hunt for these keys. However clearly, after 5 years, our super-engaged gamers know these places just like the again of their hand. And what we really need this to really feel like is, even when you haven’t performed the sport as a lot, even when you’ve just lately joined the sport, you’ve nonetheless acquired an incredible probability of profitable these.”

The important thing to that’s the new character, H. Gamers have been fixing in-game riddles for years, however H speaks to gamers in a completely completely different approach: “H will see issues via a barely completely different lens and describe issues in a barely completely different approach. You may’t depend on how we normally describe these features of the scenes, it’s good to interpret H’s lexicon and the way they discuss these items, try to perceive what H was seeing after they have been making these notes and following of their footsteps.”

In impact, H would be the sport’s personal model of the Thriller’s inspiration, Levasseur, providing inscrutable supplies for gamers to puzzle over, focus on, and work collectively on – till they strike out on their very own to obtain the last word prize. However don’t dilly-dally; you’ve got rather a lot lower than 300 years to determine this one out.

The Hoarder’s Hunt begins in Sea of Thieves right this moment. Join now to participate.

Sea of Thieves 2023 Version

Microsoft Studios

☆☆☆☆☆
944

★★★★★

$39.99

$19.99

Xbox One X Enhanced

PC Sport Move

Xbox Sport Move

Xbox Stay Gold membership required to play on Xbox One; offered individually.

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2023 Version Out Now
Have fun 5 years since Sea of Thieves’ launch with this particular version of the sport, which features a copy of Sea of Thieves itself with all everlasting content material added since launch, plus a ten,000 gold bonus and a collection of Hunter cosmetics. The Hunter Cutlass, Pistol, Compass, Hat, Jacket and Sails will make sure you reduce a formidable determine as you set sail for journey!
Concerning the Sport

Sea of Thieves provides the important pirate expertise, from crusing and combating to exploring and looting – all the things it’s good to reside the pirate life and change into a legend in your personal proper. With no set roles, you’ve got full freedom to method the world, and different gamers, nonetheless you select.
Whether or not you’re voyaging as a gaggle or crusing solo, you’re sure to come across different crews on this shared world journey – however will they be mates or foes, and the way will you reply?

A Huge Open World
Discover an enormous open world full of unspoiled islands and underwater kingdoms. Tackle quests to hunt for misplaced loot, forge a fame with the Buying and selling Firms and battle foes from Phantoms and Ocean Crawlers to Megalodons and the mighty Kraken. Strive your hand at fishing, make maps to your personal buried treasure or select from lots of of different elective targets and side-quests!

Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life
Play the Tall Tales to expertise Sea of Thieves’ distinctive narrative-driven campaigns, and be part of forces with Captain Jack Sparrow in Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life, an acclaimed authentic story that brings Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean crusing into Sea of Thieves. These immersive and cinematic quests present round 30 hours of the last word pirate journey.

A Sport That’s At all times Rising
With every Season bringing in new sport options each three months alongside common in-game Occasions and new narrative Adventures, Sea of Thieves is a service-based sport that’s nonetheless rising and evolving. Test again commonly to see what free content material has been newly added, and see how far you’ll be able to climb via every Season’s 100 ranges of Renown to earn particular rewards.

Turn into Legend
In your journey to change into a Pirate Legend you’ll amass loot, construct a fame and outline a novel private type along with your hard-earned rewards. Adventurer. Explorer. Conqueror. What’s going to your legend be?