I Don’t Get Close Quarters Combat in the Sea of Thieves

In the Sea of Thieves, I’ve managed to do a fair amount of learning. Despite my few hours, there are plenty of things I have learned, making me not completely useless. I’m good on the cannons and I’m also getting better at steering the ship. However, there is one place that I fall down, and that’s close quarters combat.

I don’t know why, I just don’t get it.

The concept is simple enough. Get into close range and then either hit them with a sword or shoot them with the blunderbuss. If you do this correctly, the pirate standing in front of you ends up keeling over. Using a sword takes more hits to actually kill someone, but it’s basically the same. Especially if the first blunderbuss doesn’t manage to kill them. But whenever I try this, I end up dying. Normally to being shot in the face with a blunderbuss.

Using a pistol or rifle isn’t much better, but at least they are a tad more consistent. They just fire single shots rather than pellets, which are way less accurate. You also don’t need to be standing right in front of someone to use them.

Is it just luck?

Feels like it sometimes. Turns out that the Sea of Thieves doesn’t have the best hit registration. Pellets and bullets tend to go wherever they want, and that can mean life or death for a lucky or unlucky pirate. I think ping can also be an issue. After all, I’m playing with friends across the globe, and it’s normally me who is the furthest away. There’s not much I can do about that, sadly.

This also applies to the guns with a slightly longer reach. However, it really doesn’t help that all the guns lack a scope or anything, making it much harder to aim if you’re not used to them. There’s also a lot to learn with the pistol and rifle, but they are a bit more consistent at least. the rifle is generally much more precise and works best over distance. The pistol though just seems annoying, its best use is for killing ghosts on sea forts. Still, in the wrong hands, these can all be deadly weapons.

Need more practice.

Of course, it’s not complete luck. There is definitely some finesse required, but blunderbussing people can be done somewhat consistently if you really try. And that’s what I am trying to do, because practice makes perfect. Problem is, you need to get into close range first, and that’s dangerous. Especially if the person attacking you is already in close quarters. All it takes is a split second to shoot or be shot at, and death is always lurking around the corner. And that’s not even taking blunder bombs and fire bombs into the question. They are a whole different danger on their own.

I suppose, at least respawn times aren’t that long. They used to be a lot longer, but respawn times were made shorter so we could get back into the action more quickly. As long as you’re not me with my shitty laptop and long, black loading screens…