Rare explains how Xbox One pirate adventure Seas of Thieves’ progression system works

While Sea of Thieves has been available in a closed Insider Program alpha form for a number of months now, as well as playable at a number of video game events, until now it’s been unclear exactly how the title’s progression system would actually work.

“Our goal with Sea of Thieves was to create a new kind of multiplayer experience — one that challenged perceptions of what multiplayer can be, and gives players a unique and fresh experience,” said Joe Neate, an executive producer at Rare, during a recent live stream, before expanding on how players can go about becoming a ‘Pirate Legend’ in Sea of Thieves. 

Reputation in the seafaring game can be acquired in a variety of ways. Players complete trading company quests in order to earn gold and cosmetic upgrades. Once quests are completed, players gain access to more varied activities and their reputation and rank is in turn increased. In typical video game fashion, once your reputation has been built up enough within the game’s trading company, you’ll unlock Pirate Legend status.

Given that Sea of Thieves has been designed from the ground up with collaborative play in mind, players are able to share quests with friends regardless of their rank or reputation level, removing a common barrier many co-operative multiplayer games suffer from.

Crews are also a big part of the game according to the live stream, with each player handling a specific aspect of the ship’s navigation. If you’re more of the solo player though, Rare has added a new solo ship option. A matchmaking mode that aims to connect lone players with a crew, has also been added to the game as well. Given that some players likely won’t have a large group of friends to play with — like myself for example — this feature makes the game significantly more accessible for lone players.

Rare says the studio has plans to add new content and features to Sea of Thieves leading up to and after the game’s release.

Sea of Thieves is set to be released on March 20th for Microsoft’s Xbox One family of consoles.