1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Guides

The most common Sea of Thieves problems and how to fix them

By

Microsoft and Rare launched online pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves on March 20, and players around the world have started exploring its vast waters and blowing each other up with their ships’ cannons.

Recommended Videos

When everything is working as intended, Sea of Thieves can be an exhilarating adventure, but players have reported a number of technical issues and bugs, which can sometimes keep us from finding as much fun as we’d like. We compiled a list of the most common problems players have reported, as well as how to fix them.

Connection issues

While Sea of Thieves depends on online group-ups, sometimes the digital waves get a little choppy.  Upon loading into the Sea of Thieves main menu, you might see a message such as “KiwiBeard, “Greybeard,” or “DaffodilBeard,” among other facial hair-themed errors. The majority of these are error messages related to the game’s servers rather than a problem with your system or your own internet connection.

Possible solutions:

  • There isn’t much you can do to resolve server-side errors. Instead, check back during hours where game traffic is likely to be lower, such as the middle of the day. The server changes Rare made in 2020 have gone a long way to fixing serious traffic issues, but connection problems can still pop up from time to time. To see if it’s a widespread issue or something wrong with your own connection, it’s a good idea to visit sites like Downdetector and see if other players are having problems.
  • If you get either a “CinnamonBeard” or “BronzeBeard” connection error, Rare recommends completely quitting the Sea of Thieves application and restarting it. To do this on Xbox One, return to the system’s dashboard, highlight the game and press the Menu button. Choose to quit the game, then start it as you normally do and attempt to connect again.

Missing reputation, ship, or currency

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Occasionally, you may load into Sea of Thieves and find you don’t have any items, that your currency will be completely depleted, or that your ship hasn’t appeared. You may also find you aren’t receiving new money or earning reputation for completing voyages.

Possible solutions:

  • Quit to the main menu of Sea of Thieves and then reconnect to the game. This will usually alleviate any issues you have with your currency being completely missing or with your ship not spawning at the dock. If it doesn’t work on your first attempt, try reconnecting a second time. Should this fail, you may just need to wait it out.
  • As of 2021, Rare has largely solved this issue with server fixes. If you find it still happens to you, you may want to check with support and your ISP to see if you are having unique connection issues.

Server mergers are causing chaos

One of Rare’s solutions to managing servers and player density is to create server mergers that join players together so the seas stay active and interesting. When a migration like this happens, it can cause several problems, such as teleporting your ship to other players’ ships or glitches when trying to navigate after a migration.

Possible solutions:

  • Keep your game updated and wait for Rare to make improvements — this is an area the studio is actively working on to improve.
  • Rare is also testing custom server options that would allow players to create private game modes for themselves that wouldn’t be migrated at all. This feature isn’t fully fleshed out yet but could provide a solution in the future if you want to avoid merging servers.

A new quest parchment is completely blank

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Skeleton Captains and similar enemies can drop quest parchments to start a new voyage in search of buried treasure. The thrill of getting a parchment drop is occasionally thwarted when players take a look and find nothing but a blank parchment with no clues or an island map to be found.

Possible solutions: 

  • Exit the game, and log back in. Your quest parchment should remain in your possession, but now it will show the proper information. Rare continues to tackle this bug with various improvements, but it can still happen.

Using a mermaid causes freezing and black screens

The mermaids found in open water act as beacons that can teleport a lost sailer back to their ship if they got stranded in the chaos (or, you know, jumped off for the fun of it). However, players encounter an annoying bug that causes the game to freeze on a black screen when they try to use a mermaid. This indicates a bug when the game tries to find the new location of the ship and teleport the player there.

Fortunately, this problem should be largely in the past, as long as you make sure that your version of Sea of Thieves is updated. Rare recently patched this issue and is reporting that it should no longer occur.

Glitches and gameplay issues

Sea of thieves flying ship

There are a few other problems in Sea of Thieves that don’t appear to be tied directly to server issues. These range from the amusing to the frustrating, and most of them don’t have any player-side solutions.

  • Ships going airborne: Occasionally, you will see a player’s ship launch into the sky like a killer whale and soar through the air before landing in the water once again. We encountered it after damaging an enemy with cannonballs, but it can be frustrating when you’re trying to navigate through tight areas, and a ship suddenly lands in front of you.
  • Dropping through the floor of your ship: When entering the bottom deck of your ship, you can transport through the floor and land in the sea, requiring a mermaid in order to get back on board.
  • Material and supplies not working correctly: We encountered a bug with consumable items that made for some pretty stressful fights. Instead of being able to carry 10 cannonballs or five bananas, we were only able to carry two of each. The game would still display the incorrect number, however, dropping from nine cannonballs to zero after loading the second into a cannon. We were able to correct this by quitting to the main menu and reconnecting to the game.

Possible solutions: 

  • With bugs like these, the best thing to do is restart the instant, join your crew again, and set off on a new voyage. Rare continues to issue bug fixes and remains actively involved in updating Sea of Thieves, so problems like this do tend to get addressed and improved with time.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
All status effects in Lies of P and how to cure them

Lies of P is a challenging role-playing game that will test your mettle at every turn with deadly enemies and dastardly environmental traps. But to make things even a bit more difficult, you'll have to contend with a collection of status effects that can majorly affect your character and make things much harder for you in battle. We've compiled a list of all status effects in Lies of P, as well as a list of ways to cure them.
All status effects
There are a total of seven status effects, with each either dealing damage or having a noticeable impact on your ability to perform in battle. Here are all of them and how they work.
Overheat
Overheat is caused by taking too much fire damage too quickly. When the Overheat bar fills entirely, you'll begin to burn and lose health until it is cured or wears off naturally. During this time, your Guard Regain recovery amount will also be reduced, which can drastically impact your survivability in fast-paced encounters.
Shock
When Shock is applied, your character's stamina recovery will be reduced significantly, which can have devastating consequences. Until this effect is cured or wears of naturally, you'll be stuck with very limited movement and attack opportunities due to your decreased stamina.
Electric Shock
Not to be confused with standard Shock, Electric Shock is caused by taking too much Electric Blitz damage in a short period of time. When this happens, you'll take increased Electric Blitz and physical damage for the duration of the effect, and your Fable meter will drain continuously, which can reduce your attack options in combat.
Decay
Decay is caused by taking too much Acid damage within a small time window. This will cause constant weapon and acid damage, both of which can make life difficult for you in battle since letting it go on for too long can result in needing to repair your weapon while also dodging your foes' attacks.
Corruption
Corruption is caused by a buildup of, well, Corruption. When this happens, you'll be afflicted with what is essentially your textbook poison effect, meaning your HP will drain continuously until it wears off or is healed with an item. This can be especially challenging to cope with when also fighting enemies, so avoiding sources of Corruption is highly advised when possible.
Break
Break is an annoying status effect to contend with, as letting its bar build up entirely will temporarily decrease how much health your Pulse Cells heal. This can be especially frustrating when you already find yourself at low health and don't have many Pulse Cells left, but it's usually best to wait until the effect wears off before healing so you can ensure you get the maximum amount of health possible.
Disruption
Disruption is perhaps the most concerning of all status effects in the game, as you'll be instantly killed when the Disruption bar fills up entirely. If you find yourself in a situation where a lot of Disruption damage is being doled out, it's best to back off until the bar depletes some or you'll soon be seeing a Game Over screen.
How to cure status effects
There are multiple items in the game designed to help you cure specific ailments, as well as items that can increase your resistance to them so that you can reduce your chance of becoming infected to begin with. You can find these cure and resistance items in various places while exploring throughout the game, or you can buy them with Ergo from Polendia at Hotel Krat.

Attribute Purification Ampoule - Cures Overheat, Electric Shock, Decay, and Corruption
Special Purification Ampoule - Cures Shock, Break, and Disruption
Attribute Resistance Ampoule - Enhances resistance to Overheat, Electric Shock, Decay, and Corruption
Special Resistance Ampoule - Enhances resistance to Shock, Break, and Disruption

Read more
All status effects in Starfield and how to cure them

Bethesda is known for making intense, choice-driven games where many dialogue and story decisions you make can have a drastic impact on your character and path in the world. This sometimes also means you make choices that end up having negative impacts on your character, and Starfield has taken this to an entirely new level with an absolutely staggering amount of status effects to deal with as you trek across the universe.

Luckily, you can cure all of them with a quick trip to a doctor or by using an elusive Panacea, but these afflictions can still be debilitating until you're able to make that happen. Since there are so many afflictions to keep up with in Starfield, we've compiled a list of all of them alongside their color coding and how to cure them using the game's various useful items, so read on for everything you need to know about status effects in this galaxy-hopping adventure.
All status effects in Starfield and how to cure them
Brain Injury
Color Coding: Yellow

Read more
Fortnite Artifact Axe: how to destroy stones and best location

Anyone who plays Fortnite long enough will come to love its yearly summer festivities, and as usual, this year's Summer Escape Event has proven to be a great time for players looking to engage in fun quests and earn new cosmetics. This week provides a new quest that tasks you with destroying 10 stones in battle royale mode, which offers you the reward of a new harvesting tool known as the Artifact Axe. If you're wondering what qualifies as a stone and how to destroy them, we'll give you the details below.
How to destroy stones in Fortnite to earn the Artifact Axe
First of all, you've probably hidden behind some of these stones before because, well, the game is actually just referring to the large rocks you can find scattered all across the map. Some are larger than others, but they're all easily identifiable and can be destroyed by smacking them repeatedly with a harvesting tool. In other words, you're quite likely to run across plenty of them playing naturally, especially if you spend any time in forests or along the coast.

If you're wanting to know of a spot that will help you knock the quest out quicker, you can try heading to the beach to the south of Kenjutsu Crossing at the bottom of the map.

Read more