Summary
- Sea of Thieves has kicked off its newest Mystery occasion, The Hoarder’s Hunt.
- The four-week occasion will see gamers fixing puzzles each in-game and elsewhere on-line, with real-life treasure to be gained.
- We spoke to the workforce behind the Mystery to find the way it was impressed, the way it was made, and be taught a bit of about what’s in retailer.
As the story goes, in 1730, Olivier Levasseur stood on the gallows, awaiting his execution for a lifetime of piracy – which had included the theft of an infinite treasure haul from a Portuguese galleon, subsequently buried on the Seychelles island of Mahé. Asked for any final phrases, Levasseur eliminated a necklace from his neck, shouted, “My treasure for he who can perceive!”, and threw it into the watching crowd. That necklace was hung with a parchment that includes a 17-line cryptogram, seemingly providing the situation of his hidden riches. For greater than three centuries, treasure hunters have tried and didn’t decode the message on that parchment, and the gold stays misplaced to at the present time.
It’s a becoming inspiration for Sea of Thieves’ new thriller, The Hoarder’s Hunt, which can take gamers each in-game and past within the hunt for a real-life treasure – a golden cranium, which might be awarded to the primary participant that solves a large number of puzzles (with extra bodily treasure for the subsequent 110 gamers to succeed in the tip of the method, and in-game rewards for others who participate). Those puzzles won’t be fairly as tough to decode as Levasseur’s treasure, nevertheless it actually gained’t be a easy course of.
For Lead Designer Chris Davies, the promise of the occasion is easy: “To ship the last word treasure hunt. Sea of Thieves is 5 years outdated, and we’ve carried out a number of permitting gamers to pursue that pirate fantasy of looking for treasure, and digging it up. [So,] how can we provide the last word model of that? Taking it outdoors of the sport in addition to in-game and really provide real-world treasure for our group to go looking out.”
To try this, The Hoarder’s Hunt will characteristic out-of-game puzzles, unfold out throughout the net world, which can lead you to otherwise-locked in-game Voyages, which in flip result in extra out-of-game clues to decode. All of this might be wrapped up within the story of a brand new character, H, who – for the subsequent 4 weeks – will ship gamers cryptic messages, serving to direct them to their subsequent objective, resulting in a race to the prize (and you may signal as much as obtain H’s first message now). The first participant to complete that last Voyage will obtain the golden cranium as their reward.
Aside from Levasseur’s gold, the occasion has been impressed by different treasure hunts, from Cadbury’s Conundrum promotion (which supplied actual golden eggs for people who may resolve complicated puzzle books), to Ready Player One’s story about a web based hunt with huge real-life rewards. But it’s additionally a response to earlier Sea of Thieves occasions. Before launch, Rare arrange a quest to earn real-life golden bananas, and the sport’s first Mystery occasion noticed gamers cracking the case of who killed Sea Dog DeMarco. But The Hoarder’s Hunt goals to enhance on each.
The hunt for the Golden Bananas noticed fewer and fewer gamers in a position to take part till its finish – The Hoarder’s Hunt will stay open to all proper till its conclusion. Meanwhile, the Mystery of DeMarco was pretty open-ended, resulting in a really lengthy thriller, dominated by clues solely from Rare’s personal social channels. This hunt might be much more open nevertheless it’ll be time-limited, giving gamers extra attention-grabbing puzzles, however with an endgoal all the time in sight.
To do that, Rare has labored with real-life puzzlemasters, tasked with creating really mind-boggling duties that can ship gamers everywhere in the web within the hunt for the subsequent answer – with a view to creating a really attention-grabbing dynamic: this must be a collaborative effort, with a number of gamers working collectively to uncover options – till it transforms into a person hunt for that last treasure.
“What we don’t need,” explains Davies, “is people, puzzle specialists, to sort of squirrel themselves away and resolve these individually. We need this to be one thing the place the group must lean on one another, the place they speculate on potential avenues of investigation to seek out the options. And by getting the group working collectively, that’s what makes it such an attention-grabbing dynamic shift, [until] folks attain that time of, ‘Okay, that is really a race with a cool prize on the finish of it.’”
And that last race might be fascinating to see – the second this turns into a real dash for the tip might be a check for gamers’ ethical compasses in addition to their brains. It’s really the primary participant to resolve the thriller that earns the reward – not their crew. The last golden cranium comes with 4 removable golden keys, permitting the victorious participant to reward their crew – however they don’t should. That’s very a lot by design:
“[This is] the last word check of the Pirate Code,” says Head of Brand and Licensing, Adam Park. “Because essentially as a crew you may go and win this prize however whoever proposed that voyage would be the precise winner. So that particular person may at that time flip round and select to maintain the prize for themselves, or it’s been made in such a method that it may be cut up with the keys – they’ll share their spoils however once more, it’s going to be one other fascinating check of how folks really behave. I do know what I’d do… you’d by no means hear from me once more.”
“That’s why I’d by no means crew up with you Adam,” laughs Davies.
All of this has led Rare to assume in new methods about the way it delivers this Mystery. For the out-of-game puzzles, the mantra has been that there’s no puzzle too tough, so long as the clues have been offered pretty, and that at the very least a couple of gamers may crack the code and share it with the group. I gained’t give something away, however be ready to search for clues in some very sudden locations.
Even the in-game Voyages are a brand new endeavor, although:
“We’re calling them Hunt Voyages,” says Davies. “Ultimately, you’re looking for one of many keys that can be utilized to unlock the chests which have been added to each Gold Hoarders tent. It’s a novel Voyage, completely different to what we’ve carried out earlier than. It’s going to ship you all through the places within the sport, island-hopping, to do a map-wide scavenger hunt for these keys. But clearly, after 5 years, our super-engaged gamers know these places just like the again of their hand. And what we really need this to really feel like is, even if you happen to haven’t performed the sport as a lot, even if you happen to’ve just lately joined the sport, you’ve nonetheless received an awesome likelihood of successful these.”
The key to that’s the new character, H. Players have been fixing in-game riddles for years, however H speaks to gamers in a wholly completely different method: “H will see issues by a barely completely different lens and describe issues in a barely completely different method. You can’t depend on how we normally describe these elements of the scenes, you’ll want to interpret H’s lexicon and the way they speak about this stuff, attempt to perceive what H was seeing after they had been making these notes and following of their footsteps.”
In impact, H would be the sport’s personal model of the Mystery’s inspiration, Levasseur, providing inscrutable supplies for gamers to puzzle over, talk about, and work collectively on – till they strike out on their very own to obtain the last word prize. But don’t dilly-dally; you’ve gotten lots lower than 300 years to determine this one out.
The Hoarder’s Hunt begins in Sea of Thieves at this time. Sign up now to participate.
Sea of Thieves 2023 Edition
Microsoft Studios
$39.99
$19.99
Xbox One X Enhanced
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Live Gold membership required to play on Xbox One; offered individually.
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2023 Edition Out Now
Celebrate 5 years since Sea of Thieves’ launch with this particular version of the sport, which features a copy of Sea of Thieves itself with all everlasting content material added since launch, plus a ten,000 gold bonus and a number of Hunter cosmetics. The Hunter Cutlass, Pistol, Compass, Hat, Jacket and Sails will make sure you reduce a formidable determine as you set sail for journey!
About the Game
Sea of Thieves provides the important pirate expertise, from crusing and combating to exploring and looting – every thing you’ll want to dwell the pirate life and develop into a legend in your personal proper. With no set roles, you’ve gotten full freedom to method the world, and different gamers, nonetheless you select.
Whether you’re voyaging as a bunch or crusing solo, you’re sure to come across different crews on this shared world journey – however will they be pals or foes, and the way will you reply?
A Vast Open World
Explore an enormous open world full of unspoiled islands and underwater kingdoms. Take on quests to hunt for misplaced loot, forge a popularity with the Trading Companies and battle foes from Phantoms and Ocean Crawlers to Megalodons and the mighty Kraken. Try your hand at fishing, make maps to your personal buried treasure or select from a whole lot of different elective objectives and side-quests!
Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life
Play the Tall Tales to expertise Sea of Thieves’ distinctive narrative-driven campaigns, and be part of forces with Captain Jack Sparrow in Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life, an acclaimed authentic story that brings Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean crusing into Sea of Thieves. These immersive and cinematic quests present round 30 hours of the last word pirate journey.
A Game That’s Always Growing
With every Season bringing in new sport options each three months alongside common in-game Events and new narrative Adventures, Sea of Thieves is a service-based sport that’s nonetheless rising and evolving. Check again often to see what free content material has been newly added, and see how far you may climb by every Season’s 100 ranges of Renown to earn particular rewards.
Become Legend
On your journey to develop into a Pirate Legend you’ll amass loot, construct a popularity and outline a novel private fashion together with your hard-earned rewards. Adventurer. Explorer. Conqueror. What will your legend be?
