A Guide to *Sometimes* Running Away

I’ll be honest, I don’t think running all the time will get you anywhere in Sea of Thieves. If you always run, then you never learn to fight. And that means, the second you get caught, you’re basically screwed. But there are definitely times where you NEED to run away. After all, I occasionally play solo, and I am definitely not skilled enough to take on a rank 5 reaper galleon on my own. The thing is, you need to be SMART when you run away. And today, I want to share a few tips to help you survive out there.

Make use of the wind

The wind in the Sea of Thieves is a fickle mistress and, if I’m honest, I’m not really sure how to really utilize it outside of “wind in sails makes boat go fast”. However, since (most of the time) the person running away is in a sloop, there’s one really easy trick to follow: just sail directly into the wind. Yes, it’s slow as fuck, but the sloop is fastest when sailing directly into the wind. Galleons are fastest if they have the wind directly behind them blowing into their sails. Brigs are… uh… second best everywhere.

A Horn of Fair Winds (or a fart cone, as I like to call it) will speed things up though. Considering they are more common after season 17, it’s worth finding one and hanging onto it for emergencies. They are very common in ship wrecks, but they wash up on beaches on smaller islands too.

Leave presents

I normally don’t carry kegs on my ship. They’re dangerous and prone to exploding. But occasionally, if you’re doing Smugglers stuff or happen upon them in barrel piles, you can pick them up and then deliver them to whoever is chasing you. And since kegs often explode if they are struck by a passing ship, all you have to do is grab one and drop it off the back of your boat. You can drop low value loot overboard as well in a bid to distract folks, but that’s more of a last-ditch thing if you think you’re not going to make it.

You can also lead chasers into dangerous terrain. Volcanoes are easier to dodge if you’re on a sloop than a galleon, and sloops can also swerve towards and through narrow gaps in rocks, which larger shops can’t quickly maneuver around. Megs (especially the Ancient Megs that wander around and do their own thing) can also be a good distraction as long as you don’t engage them – a meg will tend to lock on to one ship but will target the one that aggros them first if there are multiple ships nearby.

However, I recommend against using skelly ships as a distraction. If they target you and use a cursed cannon ball, they will ruin your day.

Abuse the Shores of Gold

The north eastern corner of the map of the Sea of Thieves is surrounded in mystery. Actually, it’s surrounded by a red sea which will sink ships that do not have the Shroudbreaker fitted to them and aren’t doing the Shores of Gold tall tale. Normally, this involves completing all the previous tall tales, then sailing to Morrow’s, speaking to Morrow, getting the thingy and then sailing north into treachery. And after you finish the tall tale, the Shroudbreaker vanishes. BUT if you reach the checkpoint in the Shores of Gold tall tale and don’t finish the voyage, you can cancel the tall tale and reactivate it whenever you want, which will give you the Shroudbreaker. As long as you never finish the tall tale and cancel it when you are done, you can activate the tall tale (but can’t activate other voyages) and sail into the Shores of Gold. And other players can’t follow…

… Theoretically. Me and my crew once chased someone into the Shores of Gold because we ALSO have the checkpoint for it. And they ended up sinking. But for the casual player, it’s unlikely they have a checkpoint at the ready.

Learn to get rid of boarders

You need to learn how to get people off your boat. If they hit your anchor, you’re screwed. Luckily, while boarding IS easier these days, thanks to the grapple gun, they still have to land on your ladder or score a deck shot from above, and that’s unlikely if they’re chasing you. But getting people off your ladder has also never been easier. Just one pellet from the blunderbuss will send them flying. Alternatively, if you can’t aim, throw a blunder bomb. You can also place bear traps at the top of the ladders and place a blunder bomb in those, if you can’t take your hands off the wheel at all.

The aforementioned Horn of Fair Winds will also knock players off your ship, and a Skull of Siren Song/Sorrow is also a good deterrent. The latter are all over the bloody place after Season 17, and they also have no value to anyone but Smugglers so you might as well keep a few on board.

Board them

This is harder to do if you are solo, but nothing is stopping you from jumping off, trying to board their ship and hitting their anchor.Even if you die, if you manage to hit the anchor and they don’t manage to catch it, you can waste a huge amount of their time and perhaps even escape completely. Combine your boarding attempt with a bone caller or fire bomb and you’ll be a fine distraction while your ship runs off on its own.

However, if they are good at guarding ladders, this can, over time, lead to them catching up, because you’re not around to make micro-adjustments to the wheels and sails for maximum speed and distance. If you’re not getting anywhere close to the anchor after several attempts, it might be worth trying other tactics.

Fight back

Seriously, learn to fight back. If you can land several chainshots and immobilize them, there’s nothing they can do to chase you. Use the curse cannon balls, use the bone callers, use your cannon balls and chainshots. If you mess up and they catch up to you, you NEED to fight back or you WILL sink. I’ve been chased by bigger ships and escaped because I can land my chainshots. And even if you don’t think you can win? Use everything anyway. Fight until the end and deprive them of at the very least your supplies and good food. Your cursed cannon balls are better in your pockets than theirs, you might as well use them, then eat all your pineapples in the process.

In fact, fighting back might actually scare people off. It won’t work on everyone, but proving you’re not an easy target may force someone to disengage, especially if they are low on supplies. And, in all honesty? You might end up sinking them. You don’t know until you try.

Sure, there are other tricks, such as diving to a new server or using the checkpoints for A Pirate’s Life or the Monkey Island tall tales, but they require you giving up all your loot. At that point, you might as well just scuttle and give your chasers your loot anyway, considering how long the cut scenes are for those tall tales. But if you fight back, if you disable their ship so they can’t follow you, then you can get to an outpost, sell as much as you can and THEN dive and get to safety.