On Becoming A Pirate Legend

Sea of Thieves doesn’t really have much of an obvious end goal. There is a LOT to unlock, but as a final goal, it’s mostly just getting huge amounts of money and infamy. That and hunting down emissaries to kill them. However, before we talk about end game stuff, there’s a specific rank that you need to acquire, before you do anything too interesting.

I’m talking about being a Pirate Legend, and finding myself deeper inside SoT lore.

When I first started playing Sea of Thieves, I thought it’d take a while to become a Pirate Legend. After all, with a title like that, who wouldn’t want to be a Pirate Legend? My expectations included having to do various missions, complete puzzles, explore and more. But no, it’s not really like that.To be able to get the Pirate Legend rewards, you need to reach rank 50 with three different emissaries.

This isn’t that hard to do, it’s just time-consuming. Even an idiot like me can slowly rank up over time, by doing various jobs for each of the emissaries and carrying their flags around. I managed to get to rank 50 with the Reaper’s Bones first, mostly because they will happily buy anything from you. I next ranked up with Gold Hoarders, because, well, they will also buy a lot of things from you. I chose the Merchants Alliance as emissary number three simply because I was one level higher with them than I was with the Order. Plus, those skulls are creepy.

But what does being a Pirate Legend get you?

Well, aside from the purple and gold gear that matches with nothing else in Sea of Thieves, you get access to a secret location. Underneath each bar on every outpost, if you play a certain song, the floor opens up and reveals a small path. Follow the path and you find yourself at Athena’s Fortune. Here you can join in on the pirate legend party. More importantly though, you can sign up for Athena voyages, which give out better rewards.

However, it’s worth noting that becoming a Pirate Legend isn’t actually that awe-inspiring. Loads of people are Pirate Legends because getting to level 50 with three emissaries isn’t actually that difficult. You don’t need to spam anything, you can just play at your own pace, and eventually you’ll organically reach level 50. Especially if you start with Reapers and Gold Hoarders who will buy pretty much anything.

As for me though, despite Pirate Legends not really seeming that legendary, I was pulled into a Stormcloud tradition: that everyone in the crew had to put on Pirate Legend gear and play in a more trickster way. What turned from a session of “help Phovos get level 50” turned into a “holy shit we need that Order emissary flag now!” session.

Good Sport

Emissary flags seem to be rarer and rarer these days, but the Stormcloud, with its rank 5 Reapers flag had spotted a particularly rare one. Unfortunately, it was a rank 2 emissary being run by a solo player on a sloop. Rather than killing him, we helped him get to level 5, let him sell his loot, then sank his ship. He was very happy to help, as he managed to make lots of gold. He also must have been really confused that he was being helped by a group all wearing purple and gold.

Once we went our separate ways, I immediately put my normal costume back on. Because I think my normal loadout is much nicer than a ton of obvious purple and gold. I’ll keep the belt on though, because it’s pretty cool.

Anyway, now I have Pirate Legend, I need to find something else to do.