Sea of Thieves: A solo sloop skeleton fort story

Sea of Thieves screenshot from the deck of a ship

I logged into Sea of Thieves as a solo sloop during my lunch break today, figuring I’d do a quick voyage. This led to an experience just shy of an hour that made me love this game even more than I already had. This article shares that story in hopes that you, reading it as a someone interested in the game, might enjoy a similar experience one day. I’m excited – let’s dive in!


The Voyage Begins

As mentioned, I had about an hour to play during lunch time, since I work from home. So I logged in as a solo sloop and grabbed a quick coffee while loading. When it loaded, naturally, I see the skeleton fort skull in the sky, pretty close to the Outpost I was at. So I thought, “Alright, let’s just go check it out. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Without any extra supplies and low expectations, I approach the skeleton fort and I’m the only pirate there. Of course, as I approach, the skeleton cannons are destroying my small ship. I rush downstairs to start patching and it’s a losing battle – water starts filling the boat. Out of nowhere, an enemy pirate boards my boat and starts patching and tossing buckets of water out with me. We go back up, don’t say anything and he sets off on his solo sloop.

At this point, I’m thankful I didn’t sink and that not every other player is aggressive. So I get my bearings, turn the ship around and notice a large rock next to the fort. I make a run for it, full speed, and anchor my sloop behind the rock at the fort, protecting it from cannon fire – I’m safe… and alone… at a skeleton fort.


The Confrontation

A few moments later, that same pirate that saved me shows up in the distance. So I stand on the bow of my sloop with my lantern raise, calling him over. He pulls up next to me, closer to the shore, anchors, and jumps off his boat towards the cannon tower shooting his sloop. So of course, I jump off my boat to his and start patching it up while he’s dealing with the cannon.

He takes care of the cannon, I’ve got his sloop back in a healthy state – we’re good. I start raising his sail and then move to his anchor and he yells, “Hey dude, your ship is the other one!” I laughed and said, “Yeah I know, but watch this – trust me.” I angle his ship so the cannons are facing the shore and start shooting the skeletons on the island. I recommended we work together and he gladly agreed.

Much like if I was in a larger party, he managed the island and would wrangle up all the skeletons and lead them back to the shore where I was waiting with cannons loaded. Once there, he would leap back so I didn’t hit him with the cannon and we cleared wave after wave of skeletons.

I think now is a good time to mention that as we started all of this up, I took it upon myself to place a Gunpowder Barrel in the bottom of his ship. I didn’t know this guy, and forts are quite valuable – you never know if he’s going to try to pull a quick one. Kind of felt bad, but I was able to pull it off without him noticing from the land.


The Victory and Departure

Moving on, we finally cleared all the waves together, without killing each other, and killed the fort boss. I immediately jumped off the ship, as he picked up the fort key. This was the moment of truth. I spoke out, “Well, what do you think dude? Split it 50/50?” I was relived when he replied, “Yeah, you grab the chests, I’ll grab the skulls.”

Surely this was too good to be true, right? We started moving all the booty out of the vault, constantly checking the horizon for the inevitable galleon that was bound to come ruin our awesome experience. We spent the next 10 minutes or so anxiously running valuables to each of our ships. This was really happening exactly how we (I) planned it to.

As we were finishing up, I recommended we sail to the outpost together. He agreed, we picked up our anchors, each with a sloop full of treasure, and headed to our destination. When we arrived, I gracefully slammed my sloop into the shoreline and could hear him laughing in the distance, as he looped around to the merchant dock and parked as any humane pirate would.

We began running our bounty to the appropriate vendors and had zero resistance from any outside parties. We were sticking to our word – no betrayals, no violence, just teamwork and splitting the bounty – this was amazing to me. Once we finished up selling everything, we compared how much gold we made and were both pleasantly surprised it was a comparable distribution.

Before we parted ways, I told him I had to confess something. It was then I led him to his own ship and we went downstairs. I pointed out the Gunpowder Barrel and said, “Sorry about this, but it was an insurance policy, just in case. Thank you for being awesome.” We both laughed, said our goodbyes, and parted ways.


Conclusion

This is absolutely not the kind of article you’d typically see me write. With that said, Sea of Thieves is not a typical game. At this point in launch, many people are so hung up on the depth and progression of the game (which is a totally viable concern for longevity) that they are genuinely missing out on experiences and opportunities within the game itself to play the game and enjoy the encounters and voyages it offers.

I hope this story was as enjoyable to read as it was to experience on my behalf. If after reading this story, you have a more positive view on the game and the experiences you can enjoy within it by encountering others, then the purpose of the article has been validated.

Thank you for reading and good luck on your voyages in the open sea!

Accomp

Accomp is a Software Engineer by day, MMO enthusiast by night, full-time dad, and part-time content creator. He's been writing guides for MMOs for years and has a strong passion for user experience and helping other gamers improve. You can follow him on Twitter to keep up or join his Discord to hang out with his community.

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