Sea of Thieves is at full sail, letting players chart and plunder its vast, choppy oceans, fighting skeletons and other players as they go. The game is completely unguided, but that allows us all to uncover every nuance, every quirk, every hidden mechanic of the game like it was buried treasure. Treasure such as Cursed Chests.
Related: Xbox Game Pass will let you play Sea of Thieves at launch.
Players have been signalling each other with lamps, singing sea shanties together, eating bananas without peeling them, getting smashed on grog, scuttling each other’s ships and looting tropical islands. The most ambitious pirates have even taken to clambering aboard other player’s galleons, unloading their victims’ cargo into the ocean and making off with the spoils.
Another thing people have discovered are Cursed Chests – tempting treasure chests that bestow special – often debilitating – properties on your hapless character when picked up. These can be sold to the Gold Hoarders to increase your reputation with them. We know of two Cursed Chest types so far:
Sea of Thieves Cursed Chests
The Chest Of Sorrow
Dry your eyes, mate. This chest makes all those pent up emotions come out. Perhaps you miss dry land, maybe this life of fighting and plundering isn’t for you, or it might be that your crewmates ate the last banana along with its delicious, chewy skin. Whatever sadness you are harbouring, it will come out when you touch The Chest of Sorrow, causing you to fill your vessel with salty tears.
The Chest of a Thousand Grogs
Drunkenness in Sea of Thieves is very convincing. Not only does it distort your vision – we have all been so drunk that we are unable to parse Twitter, right? – it also takes control of your movement. Walking along a simple pier or up some stairs turns into a true test of dexterity as you stagger this way and that, eventually falling to your briny demise if you are smashed enough. The Chest of a Thousand Grogs makes you fully drunk – as drunk as can be – all while trying to carry a heavy wooden chest.
Sea of Thieves Cursed Chests we want to see
What else might be waiting under foreign sands for us to discover? Well, we have a few suggestions. Rare, if you are reading this, please whip up the following Cursed Chests for us:
The Chest of the Siren’s Song
This chest forces you to break into song for a set amount of time. Let’s say you manage to get this back to your ship, without being heard, singing a jolly tune as you go. Now, you are sailing across the open ocean, you see an enemy ship, and you engage it in battle. While you are distracted, one of the enemy pirates swims over and sneaks onboard, then begins surreptitiously throwing your cargo overboard. They pick up the chest, and begin singing at the top of their lungs. It is your very own melodious intruder alarm.
Davy Jones’s Locker
In pirate mythology, Davy Jones’s Locker is a representation of the afterlife – the sea bed where pirates end up when they die. A Cursed Chest with the Davy Jones’s Locker attribute would simply teleport anyone who touches it for the first time to the sea floor, where they will probably be surrounded by sharks.
The Chest of the Kraken
I think we all know where this is going. Dataminers recently confirmed that Sea of Thieves has the Kraken in the game files. Touch this chest for the first time while onboard a ship, and the legendary sea monster spawns and wraps its tentacles around the vessel. It could be used as a trap, or the piratical equivalent of Begbie’s tossed glass in Trainspotting for any players who fancy a brawl with this huge mass of tentacles, barnacles, and teeth.
The Chest of Mutiny
This chest spawns a gun-toting ghost that wants you to walk the plank. If you do not comply within a set time limit, the spectre sends you to the afterlife with a single, well-placed shot. Even if you grab the chest on an island, you are forced to peg it back to your ship with the ghost in pursuit. It will only relent when you launch yourself from the plank and get yourself covered in plankton.
The Chest of the True Pirate
All good pirates have a peg leg and an eye patch, right? This chest forces you to walk around with both. Half the screen is covered up, and you walk slowly and loudly. Now, how are you going to get this thing to your own ship unnoticed?
The Chest of Aargh
This chest is a git. It hurts you. You go “aargh.” It stings.
The Chest of Bananaargh
Your inventory is now just bananas. Your gun is a banana, your compass is a banana, your periscope is a banana. They all function the same as they usually would, but they look like bananas.
The Chest of Ocean’s Wrath
Sea of Thieves looks incredible when you are caught in a storm. This chest shows off Rare’s incredible work by summoning a storm to your location, immediately putting you right in its eye.
The Chest of Disco
All your cannons begin shooting out fireworks, alerting any ships around you to your position. A disco ball could descend from your crow’s nest too, perhaps. This one only triggers once you set foot on your vessel, letting everyone around you know that you just loaded up with some treasure.
The Chest of Illusions
Land masses appear where there are none and enemies appear to be allies. You can no longer trust your eyes. Is that banana even a banana? May as well try to eat it and find out.