Pledging allegiance to your chosen Trading Company in Sea of Thieves has gotten just a bit more in-depth thanks to the Ships of Fortune update, which focuses on a new Free Company that encourages PK’ing and adding a new Emissaries system to all of the game’s Free Companies.
The Emissary system is, effectively, a new layer added to the existing Free Company reputation grind, with a new ranking system that offers up extra cosmetic rewards and adds a multiplier to chests cashed in with a chosen Free Company provided players are flying that faction’s flag. Players can choose to be an Emissary for any of the Free Companies so long as they have the right rank and gold for the one-time fee, and flying the flag of any of the factions is decided via crew vote. Earning ranks is a simple matter of continuing to complete activities like voyages, defeating sea beasts and skeleton ships, and clearing skeleton forts. Once players hit a maximum rank of five, a special and highly lucrative voyage will be unlocked.
This same rank system applies to the new Reaper’s Bones Free Company, whose sole purpose is to encourage direct plunder of others. Advancement with this faction involves taking out other people’s ships and turning in their loot, as well as turning in a special Emissary Flag fragment that drops when a player’s ship is flying another faction’s colors for more rewards. Being an Emissary of the Reaper’s Bones will show your ship on the maps of other players, but hitting max rank with this particular faction will unlock the ability to see every other person’s ship on your map, making hunting other players a little bit easier.
While Emissaries are the major part of the update, there are other features as well, including a level cap increase for all Trading Companies, quality-of-life features like optional nameplates for crew members and map markers highlighting the starting locations for Tall Tales, the ability for players to revive one another, and a big shift in the Arena that sees players fighting over a single treasure chest that’s illuminated on a smaller map in shorter 15-minute matches.
There’s lots more to take in with this update, so players would do well to look through the release notes, and a video guide on the Emissary system is below.
