The Sea of Thieves’ Harpoon

On every ship, big and small, there’s always two harpoons waiting for you on the front of your ship. For what looks like such a simple mechanic, the harpoons are there for a myriad of reasons, and have more uses than you’d think.

The most common use for a harpoon is for grabbing things in the water. Whenever you defeat an enemy ship, once the ship has sunk and despawned, all their loot comes floating up to the surface. You can then get on your harpoon and start grabbing the floating loot, for safe storage on your ship. Now, these days, the harpoons immediately drop harpooned loot directly behind you, but that wasn’t always the case. The auto-removal from the harpoon was added in season 8. Before then, you needed two people on the harpoon: one to harpoon the loot and one to grab the loot and remove it from the harpoon. This took forever, especially with someone who has clumsy fingers like me. Now though, you just harpoon the loot and it automatically removes itself from the harpoon and appears by your feet.

The harpoons can also grab things on land. For example, Gold Hoarder vaults contain a lot of treasure. But the vaults are generally underground or in a cave. But rather than carrying everything to the ship by hand, if you park close enough, you can just dump everything on the beach in full view of the harpoons, then just use the harpoons to finish the rest of the journey.

As well as loot, you can actually grab people too. This is particularly useful if you want to get somewhere in a hurry, you can just snipe your crew with the harpoons and get them back on your ship. Admittedly, the first time I was harpooned back onto a ship, it scared the crap out of me because it’s so fast.

However, the harpoons can be used offensively, not just for loot. A semi-common tactic is to harpoon someone off an enemy ship, then shoot them in the face with a blunderbuss while they’re disorientated. Just make sure you are quick, because the person you just harpooned has an equal chance of shooting you in the face. Still, it’s a good tactic, even if they don’t die, simply because you waste their time trying to get back onto their own ship. Alternatively, if you are close enough, you can harpoon the entire enemy ship. Again, this can be a bit risky, but it allows you to catch up with the enemy ship, so you can start shooting at them.

What I like most though is using the harpoons to turn. When you are close enough to land, you can fire a harpoon, which will embed itself in the rocks, allowing you to turn far more quickly rather than just using sails and the wheel alone. It’s also a ton of fun, and I can’t help but say “weeee!” every time someone does it. Harpoon turning is easier and quicker than an anchor turn, but you can only do harpoon turns in shallow waters or near islands, which is a bit of a downside. But at least you can use a harpoon to drag yourself closer to something like the Sovereigns, when you’re ready to cash out.

Either way, you shouldn’t underestimate the harpoon. It is a valuable tool that can save time, money and lives.