A Kitty in the Sea of Thieves
The other day, I finally gave in and bought a pet in Sea of Thieves. I’ve wanted a pet in Sea of Thieves for a long time, but I’ve been holding off for a long time, while i slowly earned enough Ancient Coins in order to be able to afford one. Ancient Coins in Sea of Thieves are the premium currency, and are actually pretty expensive, considering that the game itself is often €40. That being said, most people get Sea of Thieves for free or for cheap via the XBox Game Pass, so Microsoft and Rare have to make their money somewhere. Ancient Coins aren’t complete real-money-only though, you can get Ancient Coins in the seasonal battle pass and you can VERY RARELY find Ancient Skeletons which drop Ancient Coins when killed.
Anyway, I decided to get a cat. I’ve been a cat person since I was 18, only really having met one ancient dog when I was very small, and not having had a pet of my own until I was an adult. While monkeys, dogs, foxes and birds are also on offer, I felt a cat would be more fun. There are three types of cat, Wildcats, Maus and Ragamuffins. Ragamuffins are big and fluffy, Maus are lean and slender and Wildcats are muscular and more rounded. The cat I chose was a Stormy Maus, which is a slender, grey tabby cat. What I really wanted was a cow cat but there isn’t one in Sea of Thieves, most of the cats are just one simple colour.
I bought my cat for 499 Ancient Coins (which turns out to be around $5 in real money) and quickly headed back to my ship to equip my cat, completely missing the pet chest in the Pirate Emporium. After very little thought, I named my new cat Ringo, after the grey kitty I lost several years ago. A fitting tribute to a cat I loved. And immediately, shenanigans began.
At first though, I couldn’t find Ringo the digital cat. He would walk a few steps then disappear the moment I took my eyes off him. Turns out, this is normal. There are lots of spots on a ship where a pet will disappear and sleep or sit in, and that’s where Ringo would routinely teleport off to. His favourite spot seems to be on the banister in front of the wheel, getting in the way of Fox, who was steering the ship. Luckily, if you can’t find your pet, you can just go to the pet chest and re-equip them. Picking up your pet is easy, and you can pet them with left click. Right click holds the pet out, the same way you hold most items out, so they can be picked up by other players. You can pick up and pet any pet you see, regardless of who they belong to.
Pets will also eat food if you hand it to them. You don’t actually need to feed pets, they look after themselves, and feeding them is nothing but a waste of food. But it’s quite amusing having Ringo leave a bite mark in a pork chop.
As for me, I spent most of our voyage running around carrying Ringo. I’d occasionally carry the real Ringo around my bedroom and he always seemed to like it (especially in winter whenever I wore my fluffy hoodie) so I assume that Sea of Thieves Ringo enjoys it too. The digital cat though didn’t enjoy it when I fell off the ship into water. Animals panic in the water while being carried and it’s not the nicest thing. I also fed Ringo some cooked pork chop because why not, and spent probably way too long petting my new best friend.
Was it really worth $5 for a digital pet? Probably not. And I almost certainly won’t ever buy another pet. Unless they add a cow cat and the ability to have two pets at once. After all, I’d love for pirate Ringo to have a friend in pirate Mog.