Sea of Thieves: Voyage of Legends
Sea of Thieves: Voyage of Legends Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Game board: Game Board Central Hub, Game Board Sea Tiles (6), Outpost Board.
Standees: Player Sloop Standees (8), Player Brigantine Standees (8), Player Galleon Standees (4), Kraken Standee, Megalodon Standee, Skeleton Sloop Standee, Skeleton Galleon Standee.
Tokens: Action Tokens (12), Reputation Tokens (4), Special Crew Tokens (18), Crew Tokens (28), First Player Token, Water Level Tokens (8), Progress Tokens (22), Damage Tokens (39), Kraken Tentacle Tokens (6), 100 Gold Tokens (42), 500 Gold Tokens (15), 1000 Gold Tokens (13), 5000 Gold Tokens (5), Skeleton Tokens (20), Skeleton Captain Tokens (8).
Loot tokens: Resource (30), Mermaid Gem (4) (400g), Treasure Chest (4) (1 x 300g, 3 x 100g), Bounty Skull (4) (1 x 300g, 3 x 100g), Goods Crate (4) (1 x 300g, 3 x 100g).
Treasure tokens: Mermaid Gem (6) (2 x 800g, 4 x 600g), Treasure Chest (10) (4 x 500g, 6 x 300g), Bounty Skull (10) (4 x 500g, 6 x 300g), Goods Crate (10) (4 x 500g, 6 x 300g), Trinket (6) (300g).
Cards: Kraken Cards (2), Megalodon Cards (2), Skeleton Fort Card (1), Skeleton Ship Cards (3), Sloop / Brigantine Ship Cards (8), Galleon Ship Cards (4), Special Crew Cards (18), Event Cards (20), Fortune Cards (52), Meagre Voyage Cards (18), Valuable Voyage Cards (18), Legendary Voyage Cards (18), Rules Reference Cards (4).
Other: Token Bags, Dice (10), Standee Clips (12).
Game Overview
In Sea of Thieves: The Board Game, 2-4 players compete to become a Pirate Legend before any of their rivals. To achieve this, they'll need to gain reputation, earned by completing voyages and commissions, raiding Skeleton Forts, and hunting the vicious Megalodon and the terrifying Kraken.
At the end of the game, the player with the highest reputation score will win!
Carrying out tasks will also earn precious gold, which can be spent on better crew, bigger ships, and more challenging voyages with larger rewards.
And finally, players should always keep an eye on their rivals… fortune is ever fickle, and no pirate worth their salt is above a sneaky trick or two!
The Basics
The Game Board
The game board is made up of a central hub tile and six sea tiles. This is the ocean that the players will move their ships on, each ship represented by a standee.
Waypoints. Each sea tile has three waypoints, indicated by three different symbols. These are used when adding new ships, monsters, and cargo to the game board.
Rolling a sea tile. The central hub has numbers from 1 to 6 marked around its edge, each aligned with one of the sea tiles. During the game, when a player is instructed to roll a random sea tile, roll a die and refer to the tile connected to the corresponding number on the central hub.
When playing a two-player game, if the die shows a 1 or a 6, reroll the die.
Hexes. Each tile is made up of a number of hexagonal spaces, or hexes. Each hex is one of four types:
- Open sea hexes contain open water and can be moved through freely.
- Island hexes contain an island. Ships can move through these hexes freely. Islands can be looted and might be the destination for some voyages.
- Treacherous waters hexes contain dangerous reefs. If a ship moves into one of these hexes it gains a damage token, unless it ends its movement in the hex.
- The Outpost hex is in the middle of the central hub tile. Ships can move through this hex freely. A ship in the same hex as the Outpost can carry out several activities, such as trading cargo, making repairs, and looking for work.
A hex can have a maximum of two standees in it.
If a player's standee ends its movement in a hex that already contains two standees, the player chooses another player's standee in the hex, and that player moves their standee into an adjacent hex of their choice. If a standee can't be moved (because the standees in the hex do not belong to other players), the player can't move their standee into the hex.
A standee can move through a hex already containing two standees without penalty. A standee can end its movement in its current hex at any time during a move.
Voyage symbols. Each sea tile also has at least one voyage symbol. These are used during setup to ensure the islands in play match those in the voyage decks, and during the game, players can use them to quickly locate the islands on any voyage cards they have.
Ships, Crew, and Cargo
Ships
Each player controls a small alliance of two ships. At the start of the game, these are both Sloops. During the game, these ships can be upgraded by spending gold at the Outpost.
Each ship has a standee and a corresponding ship card.
Each ship card shows a number of crew slots (2 for a Sloop, 3 for a Brigantine, and 4 for a Galleon) and a water gauge. At the start of the game, a water level token is placed on the lowest space of the water gauge. If the ship gets damaged and starts taking on water, this token will move up the gauge—and if it reaches the top, the ship will sink!
Crew
Crew are represented by double-sided crew tokens. Each crew token has unique artwork, but all crew tokens are the same and can be used interchangeably.
Crew tokens begin the game face-up, showing the full colour pirate crew artwork. If a crew member is defeated, their token is flipped face-down so the defeated crew image in green is showing.
When a crew member is defeated, the player who controls the ship chooses which crew token is flipped face down, unless a special rule states otherwise.
There are also special crew that players can hire (see Special Crew).
Crew Rolls
During a game, players will often be called on to make a crew roll for one of their ships, to determine how successful they are at a specific task or action.
When a player makes a crew roll for one of their ships, they roll a die for each face-up crew and special crew token the ship has. After rolling, any dice showing 1 or 2 are discarded. Each die showing 3, 4, or 5 counts as a success. Each die showing 6 counts as two successes.
Each instance requiring a crew roll will explain how to resolve any successes. Players don't have to use all their successes from a crew roll.
Damage
When a ship or sea monster suffers damage, damage tokens are placed on its card.
Damage tokens are double sided; one side represents a single point of damage, and the other represents 3 damage to help players reduce the clutter on the board.
Resources
Ships at sea will need a ready supply of wooden planks for patching up holes and fruit for invigorating battered pirates. These are represented by resource tokens.
During a player's turn, the crew will be able to use resource tokens to repair their ship.
In addition, when a player's crew token is defeated, they can discard a resource token from the hold of the ship the crew token is on to prevent the crew token from being defeated.
Provided they have the tokens to discard, there is no limit to how many resource tokens a player can discard during their turn. When a resource token is discarded return it to the loot bag.
Cargo
During the game, ships can scour islands (and some waters) for precious cargo, represented by cargo tokens. There are two different types of cargo token:
- Loot tokens are found during plunder actions, when players draw from the loot bag. The majority of loot tokens are resources, but there is also a small number of other items in the bag.
- Treasure tokens are readily found on Skeleton Sloops and shipwrecks, and are also the reward for some voyages. Treasure tokens are typically valuable cargo, which can be traded for gold (and sometimes reputation).
Cargo tokens in a hex are floating on the tide or sitting in the open, waiting to be plundered. When on hexes, cargo tokens are always placed face up.
Cargo tokens can be placed on a ship card, in the ship's hold. While on a ship card, cargo tokens are kept face-down. If they're on a player's ship card, that player can look at them freely. There is no limit to how many tokens a ship can have in its hold.
During their turn, a player can swap cargo tokens between their ship cards, provided both ships are in the same hex, and neither of them is part way through a move.
Loot and Treasure Bags
Throughout the game players will be required to draw tokens from either the loot bag or the treasure bag.
When drawing a token from a bag, draw the token without looking into the bag.
If a rule requires a player to draw a specific token (such as a skeleton or a resource token) the player searches the bag to find the specific token.
In the unlikely event that a bag runs out of tokens, the player draws as many tokens as they are able to. If a bag doesn't contain a specified token, the player doesn't draw any tokens.
Enemies and Ocean Hazards
Skeletons
Skeletons are undead pirates, cursed to haunt the Sea of Thieves and attack any who disturb them. Skeletons are represented by skeleton tokens. At the start of the game, skeletons are dotted around the board on island hexes, but as the game progresses more will appear.
Whenever a skeleton is placed on the board it is drawn from the loot bag. When a skeleton is defeated, its token is removed from the board and returned to the loot bag.
Skeleton Captains
There are eight Skeleton Captains, each with a unique token. During the game certain rules will instruct players to place these tokens on the game board. When placing a Skeleton Captain, shuffle the tokens and place a random token.
Skeleton captains are treated like normal skeletons, but can't be defeated if there are any normal skeleton tokens in the same hex. When a skeleton captain is defeated, its token remains in its current hex and is flipped to its captain's treasure face.
Captain's treasure is a type of cargo, and can be plundered and traded like other cargo tokens. Unlike normal cargo, captain's treasure should always have their captain's treasure side showing when placed on a ship card, so every player can see it.
When a captain's treasure is sold during a trade action, the player receives both the reputation and gold values on the token.
Sea Monsters
There are two sea monsters in the game—the Kraken, and the Megalodon.
Each monster has its own card and is represented on the game board with its own standee. Rules for these terrifying creatures are covered later.
Decks and the Outpost Board
Card Decks
In addition to individual cards for ships and monsters, there are four main card types in the game, split across several decks. These are the event, special crew, fortune and voyage decks. During the game these decks are placed surrounding the Outpost board.
Fortune and Voyage cards are discussed in this section. Event and special crew cards are discussed in their relevant sections.
Fortune Cards
Fortune cards represent good luck, quirks of fate, and dirty tricks, and allow players to gain an advantage over their rivals.
Each card will indicate when it can be played, and the effects of doing so. Once the card has been resolved, discard it.
Players can play multiple fortune cards at the same time and combine their effects, if they meet the criteria to play them. Players can also discard any fortune card after making a crew roll to re-roll any number of dice in the roll. Should they wish, players can do this multiple times for a single roll, discarding a card each time.
Players can hold any number of fortune cards in their hand, but must discard down to three during the clean up phase at the end of their turn.
Reputation
Many cards will score the players reputation, which is how they'll win the game. Players use the track around the outside of the Outpost board to record their reputation score. When a player gains reputation, move their reputation token forward an equal number of spaces, ascending numerically.
When a player loses reputation, move their reputation token back an equal number of spaces, descending numerically.
A player losing reputation can never go lower than zero.
In the rare occurrence that a player scores beyond 35 reputation, flip their reputation token so the "+35" side is showing, and continue around the track from the start again.
Discarding Cards
Whenever a player is required to discard a card of any type, place the discarded card face-down at the bottom of its respective deck.
Voyages
Voyage cards can be bought from the Outpost, representing contracts with one of the three trading companies. Voyage cards give players the opportunity to earn reputation, gold, and other rewards. There are three levels of voyage card, which scale upwards in terms of difficulty, length, and completion rewards.
Voyages from every level are available right from the start, but meagre voyages are the easiest way to earn gold, used to upgrade your ship and hire better crew. These are needed to earn the larger rewards that the harder voyages provide.
Players can hold any number of voyage cards in their hand, but must discard down to three during the clean up phase at the end of their turn.
Starting a Voyage
A player can start a voyage for one of their ships at the start of any of the ship's actions, by placing a voyage card from their hand face up next to the ship card.
Voyage cards remain with a ship until the voyage is completed, or the voyage is abandoned.
A ship can only undertake a single voyage at any time.
Completing a Voyage
Each voyage card informs players how to complete it.
Some voyages are completed when meeting a certain criteria, such as landing on a specific island, or performing one or more specific actions.
Other voyages require players to place progress tokens on the card after achieving a series of goals, and the voyage is completed once a set number of tokens have been collected. Progress tokens are double sided; one side represents a single point of progress, and the other represents 3 progress to help players reduce the clutter on the board.
When a ship completes a voyage, the ship's player claims the reward listed at the bottom of the card.
- If the reward is reputation, the player advances their reputation token along the track.
- If the reward is gold, they gain an equal value of gold tokens from the supply.
- If the reward is one or more treasure tokens, the player draws the tokens from the treasure bag and places them on the ship's card.
After completing a voyage and claiming the reward, the voyage card is discarded.
Abandoning a Voyage
A player can abandon one of their ship's voyages at any time during their turn.
When a player abandons a voyage they incur the penalty listed at the bottom of the card, and then discard it.
If a ship with a voyage card sinks, the voyage is immediately abandoned.
Setting Up
The cover sheet's back includes a set-up guide for the first game; for a first game use it rather than the instructions here.
The Game Board
The game board is made up of a central hub tile and six sea tiles. To start, place the central hub in the middle of the playing area, and then attach the sea tiles.
For the first game, follow the pattern shown on the cover sheet, to keep things simple.
In subsequent games, shuffle the sea tiles together and place them in a random order. Always ensure the orientation and position of the sea tiles match the markings on the central hub.
Two-Player Games
Two-player games use a different board layout, to ensure the players can't easily stay out of each other's way.
When setting up the board for a two-player game, flip the central hub to the side featuring the crossed out sea tile markings, and only place four sea tiles, in the layout shown in the rulebook.
Sea tiles have two sides, each with a different layout, featuring a different configuration of island positions, hexes, and waypoints. This allows every game to have a different map, keeping things interesting for veterans.
Bags and Tokens
Place a face-up skeleton token on each skeleton symbol on the board, then place a random treasure token face-up on each treasure symbol on the board.
Place all of the remaining treasure tokens in the treasure bag.
Place all of the loot tokens and remaining skeleton tokens in the loot bag. Don't place the skeleton captain tokens in the loot bag.
If playing a two-player game, remove eight skeleton tokens before adding the rest to the bag, then return the removed tokens to the game box.
Place both bags and the remaining tokens by the side of the board, forming a supply within reach of each player.
Decks and the Outpost Board
Place the Outpost board next to the game board, where each player can see it.
Shuffle the special crew deck and place it face-down on the corresponding slot. Then, deal a card from the deck face-up into the three available crew slots.
Shuffle the event and fortune decks and place each deck face-down on the corresponding slot.
Voyage Decks
Shuffle each voyage deck and place them face-down on the corresponding slots.
When setting up a two player game, search each deck for any cards featuring a voyage symbol that doesn't appear on any of the face-up sea tiles. Remove these cards and return them to the game box.
Tip: for your first few games, don't use the Megalodon, Kraken, or Skeleton Forts. They'll add some real fun for veterans, but might get in the way of learning how to play the game. To remove these elements, return their cards, tokens, and standees to the box.
Player Setup
Each player chooses a colour and places the corresponding reputation token on the starting position on the Outpost board's score track, marked with a 0.
They then take that colour's three action tokens, reference card, and both of the corresponding Sloop ship cards, and place them in front of them.
For both ship cards, place a crew token with the full colour side face-up on each of the crew slots, and a water level token on the bottom space of the water gauge. Then, the player draws two resource tokens from the loot bag and places both tokens face-down in the ship's hold.
Each player should also place their colour's Brigantine and Galleon Standees, and Galleon card to one side, in case these are needed during the game.
Monster Setup
If it hasn't been returned to the box, place the Kraken card next to the board. Shuffle the six kraken tentacle tokens and place them with the tentacle side face-up next to the card.
Final Setup
The player who most recently ate a banana takes the first player token.
If there's any dispute over this, or if this is deemed a brazenly unfair way of selecting a first player, get each player to roll a die, and give the token to whichever player rolls highest.
Each player then takes their starting gold from the supply.
The player with the first player token takes 600 gold, and then working clockwise, the second player takes 700 gold, the third player takes 800 gold, and the fourth player takes 900 gold. If there are less than four players, these values remain the same—e.g., in a three-player game, the third player still takes 800 gold.
Each player draws three cards from the fortune deck, and three cards from the meagre voyage deck.
Starting with the player who has the first player token and going clockwise, each player places both of their ships in one of the four hexagonal spaces containing an island on the central hub tile. When placing ships, players can't place their ships in a hex that already contains another player's ships.
It's time to start the game!
Playing the Game
Games take place across a series of rounds. Each round has the following phases, played in the order shown.
- Fleets Phase
- Ocean Hazards Phase
- Event Phase
- Fortune Phase
As soon as a phase ends, the next phase begins. Once the fortune phase has ended the round also ends, and the next round begins.
There's no limit to the number of rounds—play continues until the end of the game is triggered.
1. Fleets Phase
In this phase, each player takes a turn, starting with the player with the first player token, then proceeding clockwise. Once each player has taken a turn, the phase ends.
During a player's turn, follow the steps below, in the order shown.
A. Sunken Ships Respawn B. Actions C. Rising Waters D. Clean Up
A. Sunken Ship Respawn
If either (or both) of the player's ships have sunk, roll a random sea tile and place the ship(s) in any one island hex on that tile. If every island hex on the tile already contains two ships, the player rolls another random sea tile instead.
When a ship is respawned, flip all its crew tokens face-up, discard any damage tokens it has, and place its water level token on the lowest space on the water gauge.
On the first round of the game, skip this step, and go straight to the next one.
B. Actions
During this step, the player can make up to three actions in total.
When a player makes an action, they place an action token on the card belonging to the ship that is making the action. If a ship has two action tokens, it can't make any more actions.
When an action token is placed on a ship, each of the ship's crew tokens can immediately perform one of the following tasks, before the ship's action is resolved.
Tasks
- Revive: If the crew token is showing the defeated side, flip the token face-up. Defeated crew must perform this task.
- Sail: Move the ship into an adjacent hex.
- Repair: Discard a resource token from the ship's hold, then discard a damage token from the ship's card. This task can't be taken if the ship doesn't have any resource tokens in its hold.
- Bail: Lower the ship's water level token by one space.
After all tasks have been resolved, the ship then performs one of the following actions, or a special action from one of the player's fortune cards. If the ship performs a special action, discard the fortune card after resolving the action.
1. Full Sail
Make a crew roll for the ship. For each success, move the ship up to one hex. This movement must be made in a straight line.
2. Open Fire
Choose another ship or an enemy in the same hex as the ship as the target, then make a crew roll for the ship making the action. For each success, place one damage token on the target's card.
3. Plunder
Make a crew roll for the ship. The player can carry out one of the following entries for each success. Entries are declared and resolved one at a time, and can be chosen multiple times.
- Fight: Discard a skeleton from the ship's hex.
- Loot: This entry can only be chosen if the ship is in the same hex as an island. Draw a token from the loot bag. Cargo tokens are placed face-down in the ship's hold. Skeleton tokens are placed in the ship's hex.
- Haul: Remove a cargo token from the ship's hex and place it face down in the ship's hold.
After the player has finished spending their successes, defeat one of the ship's crew members for each skeleton in the ship's hex.
Remember, you can play a voyage card at the start of each action—but don't forget that each ship can only have one voyage at a time! Pesky skeletons keep defeating your crew? Remember you can spend a resource on your ship to stop a crewmember being defeated.
4. Trade
This action can only be chosen when a ship is in the Outpost hex. It is made up of several stages, each of which is optional, but must be carried out in the order below.
- Sell Cargo - Remove any number of cargo tokens from the ship's hold, and gain gold equal to the combined value of the tokens from the supply. Return the tokens to their corresponding bags, or discard them if they don't belong to a bag. Remember that captain's treasure tokens also earn reputation.
- Repair - Reset the ship's water token to the lowest space on the water gauge. The player can then remove as many damage tokens as they want from the ship, discarding 100 gold per removed token.
- Upgrade - This option can only be chosen if the ship has no damage tokens and its water level token is in the lowest space on the water gauge. Discard 1200 gold to upgrade a Sloop to a Brigantine, and 1800 gold to upgrade a Brigantine to a Galleon. A ship can be upgraded multiple times during this stage.
- Hire Special Crew - Take one or more of the face-up special crew cards from the Outpost board and place the card(s) next to the ship, discarding gold equal to the value of the card(s). Place the corresponding special crew token in one of the ship's crew slots, returning the token that's already there to the supply.
- Seek New Voyages - Draw any combination of three cards from the voyage decks. If the player wishes to add any of the cards to their hand, they discard gold equal to the value of the card(s). Cards that are not added to the player's hand are discarded.
Claiming Commissions
Each trading company favours a particular type of cargo, and will reward ships that supply them in bulk. The Gold Hoarders favour treasure chests, the Order of Souls prefer bounty skulls, and the Merchant Alliance seek trade goods crates.
If a player sells three treasure chests, bounty skulls, or goods crates during the same trade action, they claim a commission from the corresponding trading company, and gain two reputation in addition to the gold value of the cargo. Players can claim multiple commissions during a single trade action if they sell multiple sets of three.
Mermaid Gems are extremely valuable items that can be used in place of any other cargo type—for example, a player could claim a Gold Hoarder's commission by selling a treasure chest and two Mermaid Gems; two treasure chests and one Mermaid Gem; or even three Mermaid Gems.
The Sea of Thieves is home to several mysterious trading factions, each with their own agenda and objectives. They'll pay in both gold and reputation for any cargo you sell them, but also offer voyages which provide even greater rewards.
- The Gold Hoarders are a clandestine society dedicated to recovering the lost riches of the Sea of Thieves. They offer maps to buried treasure… and if you can find it, the booty is all yours!
- The Order of Souls seek bounty skulls, whose heads still swim with memories of long-hidden treasure. Their voyages will see you hunting down all manner of skeletons. It's dangerous work, but they pay well!
- The Merchant Alliance ensures a healthy goods trade flows between the different Outposts. Their voyages are simple enough, but require a lot of sailing!
Upgrading a Ship
When upgrading a Sloop, flip the ship's card over to the Brigantine side, and replace the ship's Sloop standee with a Brigantine standee. Place any cargo and crew tokens the ship had on the new ship, adding an additional crew token from the supply to the card.
When upgrading a Brigantine, replace the ship's card with a Galleon ship card and replace the ship's Brigantine standee with a Galleon standee. Place any cargo and crew tokens the ship had on the new ship, adding an additional crew token from the supply to the card.
Special Crew
During the game, players will have the opportunity to recruit special crew from the Outpost. Special crew members have unique special crew cards and matching special crew tokens.
Each special crew card has a set of rules that are always in effect, unless their crew token has the defeated side face-up. Special crew may be defeated just like normal crew.
Players may hire duplicates of the same special crew card (i.e. two Scouts), allowing them to benefit from the same rules multiple times. If a special crew token is replaced, discard the corresponding special crew card from next to the ship.
If a ship with special crew on it sinks, discard the special crew cards next to the ship, and return their token(s) to the supply, replacing them with crew tokens.
C. Rising Waters
Raise the water level token on each of the player's ships by one space for each damage token on the ship. If the token reaches the top of the water gauge, the ship sinks.
Sinking Ships
If a ship sinks, remove its standee from the game board, and place any cargo tokens from the ship's hold in the hex it was previously in.
The ship will respawn at the start of the player's next turn—if the ship has been upgraded to a Brigantine or a Galleon, it will not lose its upgrade(s) when it respawns.
Remember, if a ship sinks it must abandon its current voyage if it has one, and suffer any penalties on the voyage card. Additionally, any special crew on the ship are discarded and replaced with crew tokens.
D. Clean Up
At the end of a player's turn, they remove all of the action tokens from their ship cards. If the player has more than three fortune or voyage cards in their hand, they discard down to a maximum of three of each card.
If there are any empty special crew slots on the Outpost, draw new cards from the deck to replace them.
At the end of this step, play continues clockwise to the next player. If every player has taken their turn, the phase ends, and the next phase begins.
2. Ocean Hazards Phase
In this phase, monsters and skeleton ships on the game board take their turns. The enemy with the lowest number on their reference card goes first, followed by the enemy with the next lowest number, and so on until each enemy has taken a turn.
In addition to their reference cards, enemies also have a unique behaviour card. When an enemy takes a turn it follows the rules on this card like a flow chart, starting with the initial question and following the arrows to determine the actions it takes and when its turn ends.
Behaviour charts are simple and intuitive, and after using them a couple of times, you might not even need them anymore! If you do need a guide, however, they can also be found on reference cards.
Example: the skeleton ship isn't in the same hex as a player's ship at the start of its turn. It is within three hexes of a player ship however, which means it will move into the hex and then attack the player's ship. Once the attack has been resolved, the skeleton ship's turn ends.
The Scurvy Knave
Sometimes, the rules will call on the Scurvy Knave to break ties or make decisions (usually when resolving event cards, or taking turns with skeleton ships and sea monsters).
The Scurvy Knave is always the player with the lowest reputation score. If multiple players are tied for the lowest reputation score, the Scurvy Knave is the player with the least gold. If there is still a tie, the Scurvy Knave is the tied player who is furthest clockwise from the player with the first player token.
The Skeleton Sloop and the Skeleton Galleon both use the Skeleton Ship behaviour card. Skeleton Forts don't have a behaviour card, and can't be attacked by player ships. Instead, they remain on their island hex, a constant danger to anyone brave or foolhardy enough to land there until they are dealt with....
Sinking Skeleton Ships
When a skeleton ship sinks, follow the normal rules for sinking ships—remove the standee from the gameboard, and place any treasure tokens from its card in the hex it was previously in.
Unlike player ships, skeleton ships do not respawn in the next round!
Damaging Enemies
Ships can attack monsters and skeleton ships just like other ships, using the open fire command. If a monster or skeleton ship suffers damage, place the damage token on its reference card.
Skeleton ships have dedicated slots for damage tokens, corresponding to where a water gauge is on a player ship. When placing damage on the Megalodon card, place tokens in the slots from left to right, starting with the top row. When placing damage on the Kraken card leave the tokens loose, following the rules on the card when it has three tokens.
Skeleton Forts can't be attacked by ships or suffer damage—in order to defeat them, ship crews will need to fight the skeletons in hand to hand combat during plunder actions.
The rules on each enemy card will detail how much damage the enemy can suffer before it is defeated.
Defeating Monsters
If the Kraken or Megalodon are defeated, return the corresponding cards and standees to the box. If an event card would summon an enemy that has been defeated, treat the symbol on the card as a skeleton ship instead.
If either enemy is removed from the game board but is not specifically described as being defeated, it remains a menace to the players—the creature has simply submerged, ready to rise and attack once more in a different location!
3. Event Phase
At the start of this phase, the Scurvy Knave draws the top card from the event deck, and then resolves each of the three sections in order, from top to bottom. Once the card has been completely resolved, it is discarded.
- Enemy Spawns - This section summons one of four different enemies. If the enemy is already on the game board, ignore the symbol. If the enemy has been defeated, treat the symbol as a skeleton ship symbol instead.
- High Seas - This section contains an event which affects several players or the game board.
- Cutthroats' Corner - This section contains an event which typically provides benefits to the Scurvy Knave. If a card is placed in front of a player, only they can use it and it remains until it is discarded, even if another player becomes the Scurvy Knave later in the game.
Once the rules for this section have been resolved or the card has been placed in front of the Scurvy Knave, the phase ends, and the next phase begins.
Enemy Spawns
Megalodon
Roll a random sea tile and place the Megalodon standee in the hex with the matching waypoint symbol on that tile.
If the Megalodon would be placed in a hex containing two ships or another enemy, place it in an adjacent hex of the Scurvy Knave's choice instead.
After the Megalodon is placed, place its card next to the game board. Note the amount of damage the Megalodon can suffer before being defeated is dependent on the number of players.
Skeleton Ship
There are two skeleton ships in the game. If there are no skeleton ships on the game board, place the Skeleton Sloop. If the Skeleton Sloop is already on the game board, place the Skeleton Galleon instead. If both skeleton ships are already on the game board, ignore this section.
Roll a random sea tile and place a skeleton ship in the hex with the matching waypoint symbol on that tile.
If a skeleton ship would be placed in a hex containing two ships or another enemy, place it in an adjacent hex of the Scurvy Knave's choice instead.
After a skeleton ship is placed, place the corresponding ship card next to the game board. Draw a number of tokens from the treasure bag equal to the number of slots on the ship's card, and place them face-up in each slot.
Unlike the Megalodon, and the Kraken, skeleton ships are not removed from the game if they are defeated and can return to the game board.
Kraken
Place a number of tentacle tokens face-up on the Kraken card equal to the number of kraken symbols on the event card.
If the sixth tentacle token is placed on the card, place the Kraken standee in the same hex as the ship with the most cargo tokens in its hold, that isn't in an island or the Outpost hex, and doesn't already have a skeleton ship or the Megalodon in its hex.
If there is a tie for ship with the highest amount of cargo, the Scurvy Knave chooses which of the eligible targets the Kraken attacks.
When placing the Kraken, if there is another ship in the hex, that ship's player places their ship in an adjacent hex of their choice to make way for the Kraken.
If the Kraken can't be placed, leave it by the side of the game board instead. Then, try to place it using the same rules at the start of the next event phase.
Skeleton Fort
Place the Skeleton Fort standee in the corresponding island hex, then draw two skeleton tokens from the loot bag and place them in the same hex. Place the Skeleton Fort card next to the game board, with a progress token in the numbered slot matching the number of players.
Skeleton Forts are not removed from the game if all of a fort's skeleton tokens are defeated and its standee is removed from the game board. The next time an event card showing a Skeleton Fort is drawn, a new fort will appear in the hex shown.
4. Fortune Phase
In this phase each player draws a fortune card. Each player then draws one additional card for each fortune symbol on the reputation track between their token and the token belonging to the player with the highest amount of reputation.
Example: Red is in the lead, and draws one fortune card. Both Yellow and Blue have one fortune card symbol between them and Red, so they each draw two cards. Green has two symbols between them and Red, so they draw three cards.
Winning the Game
The first time a player reaches 25 reputation, the end of the game is triggered. Play continues until the end of the current round, at which point the game ends and players calculate their final reputation scores.
Once the end of the game has been triggered, it can't be stopped, even if the player drops below 25 during the remainder of the round.
At the end of the round, the players' final scores are calculated as follows. As they progress through each step, players should continue to use the reputation track to keep a running total of their score.
Wealth
Each player gains 1 reputation for every full 500 Gold they have.
Voyages
Each player suffers the reputation penalties for any voyages their ships have started and haven't completed. Players ignore any voyage cards still in their hand.
Fleet and Followers
Brigantine, Galleon, and special crew cards each have a reputation value, which is added to their player's score.
Pirate Legend!
After calculating scores, whichever player has the most reputation becomes a Pirate Legend, and is declared the winner!
If there is a tie, the player who has the most treasure tokens on their ships' cards is victorious, and if there is still a tie, the winner is the player with the most loot tokens.
If that somehow still doesn't decide a winner, log onto Sea of Thieves and duel across the deck of a doomed galleon, as storm clouds roil overhead and rain lashes the mainsail!
Tips for New Players
- The bigger your ship, the more crew it has, and the more it can achieve during an action–so upgrading your ships lets you have a more efficient turn.
- The biggest difference between the three levels of voyage is how task-intensive they are. A Sloop can usually expect to complete a meagre voyage in one or two actions, but a legendary voyage might take it seven or eight actions. A galleon has twice as many crew, so it will be much quicker—and adding special crew will let you be even more efficient.
- At the end of a plunder action, any skeletons in your hex will attack you. It's not always worth spending your last success searching for treasure, as you might attract some unwanted danger!
- Resources are utterly vital, so don't rush into confrontations without them. As the game goes on and islands get covered in skeletons, it'll be harder to get your hands on them—so stock up early.
- Don't forget that you can use fortune cards to reroll dice on a crew roll. You can only keep three at the end of your turn, so don't be afraid to use them, but you're also only guaranteed to draw one at the end of the round, so don't be too reckless.
- Keep an eye on your opponents. Try to remember what cargo they've picked up, and keep an eye on what voyages their ships are on. And if one of their ships is unlucky enough to sink and leave behind a load of cargo, it would be rude not to look after it for them in your own ship's hold...
- It's best to avoid Skeleton Galleons and the Megalodon until you've got some upgrades under your belt, no matter how tempting they might be! Keep out of their way in the early game unless you've got some special crew or fortune cards that will give you an edge.