Thoughts on Safer Seas Now They’re Out

The other day, I was busy sailing on my own when I received an invite from my sister’s waifu (let’s call him Garbo, based on his username), inviting me to join him on a galleon on Safer Seas. So I finished the Ghost Fort I was doing (I’d only been playing for about 20 minutes), sold up all my loot and spent an eternity sitting in a loading screen, accepted his invite then sat in another long loading screen to join him. Also joining us were my sister and their friend, a very new player who had only played the tutorial.

Once I loaded in, I realized we were on a charter ship. I’d forgotten that you can’t use captained ships on Safer Seas, so seeing a plain, unpainted galleon was pretty weird. Especially since I’d seen Garbo’s ship before, and he has a nice galleon. Anyway, we had to wait a bit, because sister was busy fashioning her pirate, and our friend hadn’t downloaded the 8GB Safer Seas update yet. So we basically just stocked up, while sister continued to spend forever fashioning her pirate. She came out with a semi-buff guy in a skirt, slim jacket and black tube top. Because of course she did.

Anyway, we kinda didn’t really do much. We just did world events and sailed from island to island, with me and Garbo doing most of the work. Garbo’s a good helmsman, but you do need a bit of help on a galleon, with its three sails that need maintenance, and the fact that galleons steer like lead balloons. Meanwhile, sister and her friend kept on downing drinks and playing music. Eventually, we rocked up to an island with a big red tornado on it, and we fought an Ashen Lord. Death was pretty common, but, frankly, it made a change, since nothing so far had been particularly… threatening. Well, things had been for our friend, who was brand new to the game, but for me and Garbo, it was just another day on the seas.

So we grabbed our loot and headed for New Golden Sands (because Port Merrick is a crap name, the guy never did anything of note) to sell up. And damn that was depressing. Normally, I sail with an Emissary flag, and even at low ranks, you still get a bonus. But selling an Ashen Winds skull for 3000 gold was just sad. We had to sell manually as well, since we couldn’t use Sovereigns – they require you to have a captained ship.

But I totally see why the gold and reputation are capped. We were playing super casually, doing basically nothing. But if we’d been playing optimally, we could have stacked loot for hours and hours on end, with no risk of losing any of it. The only way you could lose your ship is if you are not paying attention at all, or are very new and on your own. But even then, you can just sail back to where you sunk, pick up all your loot with no threat at all, and just leave again.

Alternatively, you can do what we did after we sold everything, and set fire to your ship. In fact, we did this twice, but the second time, sister lost heart and decided to try and save the ship. We spent way too long trying to put the fire out, because sister changed her mind as the ship started to sink. We did save the ship, but it used pretty much all our resources.

Frankly, Safer Seas wasn’t for me. I found it kinda boring without the threat of other people, and 99% of the damage to our ship came from either one skeleton galleon or our repeated attempts to set the boat on fire. I mostly joined in to play with my sister and Garbo, who had been looking forward to being able to get drunk and play uber-casually. Me though, I enjoy fighting other ships and engaging in naval battles, even when the odds are against me, so I’ll mostly stick to High Seas.

But really, I don’t think people should use Safer Seas for most of their play time. It’s not there as your own private server, it’s designed so that new players can learn the ropes more easily. It’s a learning tool, a stepping stone. Once you get the hang of things, you’re kinda supposed to go to High Seas and slowly make your way towards becoming a Pirate Legend. The only good thing is being able to do Tall Tales (which do take a long time) while on your own in relative safety.

If you just want to be drunk and dick about, then Safer Seas is fine. But if you care about gold or Pirate Legends or emissaries or anything more than just learning the basics, then I’d recommend sticking to High Seas. Once you’ve learned the ropes, of course.