Thinking of Buying - is it fun solo?

[Jenn O Cide]

I've watched some videos on the game ,but it looks like most of them are old because it's been out for a while.
I'm someone who likes to play games like ark, 7 days to die, valheim, etc as a solo player. I know the game will be harder that way, but is it viable for day to day gaming? Just curious to see some thoughts from the current community.

[Empurress MeowMeows]

It can be done but it can also be pretty stressful... you will always have to deal with the thought of while you are on a big island doing a quest that someone will sail by your ship ready to sink it. By time you get back to your ship it may be to late to save it so there goes whatever X hours spent getting whatever you had on it. Or getting to your location without running into a player galleon while also getting hit by a skele ship. Being able to dive to quest locations at the start if you have no treasures on board has made it a little less stressful though. Yes, there is safer seas but it is so badly limited that it is only really good if you plan to do tall tales. Those are like story quests but they can also be slow and hair pulling for at points. I would say SoT is best with a friend and that solo isn't that great. It can be hard to sail a ship, shoot other ships, and have to repair all at once by yourself. Is it doable? yes! Is it fun to do? Depends on you I guess... I find it stressful so I tend to avoid fights if I am stuck solo.

[Jenn O Cide]

Thank you for the honest opinion. I appreciate the time you took to type it out.
I'll keep it in mind perhaps when my normal round of friends start to go through their 'bored of their current game' cycle.

Appreciate you! Happy Sailing

[PrplGrl]

Sorry for the long post, but hope it gives you an idea of what solo play is like in this game. Solo in this game is definitely fun, but only on the safe seas. I definitely would not say it's viable for day to day gaming on the high seas, because on there, it's tense and stressful 24/7, from not having anyone to watch your back against attacks from people, and you never know if someone's just gonna come out of nowhere around the side of a rock. Also easy to freak out just from seeing a speck on the horizon, thinking it's a ship coming at you, when it's just a rock or a tree.
The high seas is guaranteed to always end up being a nightmare at some point for solo play; even if there's some days where you don't get harassed by hostile players, on the days that it does happen, it really sucks when people waste your time like that, and over time, the amount of these attacks racks up, and can become very overwhelming and irritating to tolerate.

The safe seas, though, is amazing for solo play, it's the mode I would absolutely recommend specifically for that. Yeah, there are limits, but they really aren't even a big deal - small price to pay, to provide a much more enjoyable gaming experience; It's easy to earn money super fast from getting your own stuff, or getting it from npcs, as opposed to how it is on the high seas, having it stolen from other players, or wasting hours going on pursuits chasing players, when it's much faster for people to earn their own loot themselves.
It provides a much more enjoyable experience, imo, because it's completely stress-free with not having to worry about any players coming along and interrupting your questing; I mean, the voyages to find your own treasure or fight npcs are already lots of fun on their own, but even MORE so without the threat of players. And you can even play with friends on there, and have fun moments without having a rude interruption from some player, lol :D
But you'll get much more out of your time, because, see, the thing with player attacks in this game - It has the potential of ruining both parties' experience. Meaning, it doesn't just waste time for the people being attacked, but even for the attackers, too. A lot of the time, chases can drag on for hours, with the attacker getting nothing out of their efforts, when they could have already had a truckload of loot on their ship from heading straight to the destination of their own voyage.

There's exciting npc enemies like skeletons, skeleton ships, megalodons, mermaid sirens and world events you can fight, as well as skull forts and underwater shrines you can loot from, which is such a pain to go for in high seas, because a lot of people don't care when someone else is already at one of these, and just want to wipe them out from the area so they can selfishly have it all for themselves. Would sharing kill them, lol?
Playing with friends in the high seas is just as fun, but for solo play, Safe seas takes the cake on that one :D If, in the case, you prefer to do pvp, better to do it with a crew, doing it solo is not fun a lot of the time :D

[Empurress MeowMeows]

Reading the other post made me realize I should probably give you an idea of the limits of safer seas. Safer seas has a very low level cap that doesn't exist on normal seas (now called high seas) so that also means not unlocking some of the faction rewards. All earned gold is heavily reduced and to make it an even slower go of things, you don't get access to the npc that makes it easier to sell items to. You have to transport all 50 of those chests on your own to a few different npcs that are a going to be further inland than your ship so that will be some distance to carry your loot 1 at a time to. (we used to use rowboats to row them on land to the npcs before they added the npc at docks but rowboats are different now so it isn't as easy to do that anymore.) A lot of unlockables are locked to higher seas only which is how you get your cosmetics which is also a huge part of the game. You also cannot save your ship looks nor have a named captained ship in safer seas. You will have to dress up your ship every time you set out... Also again since some NPCS and quests are not allowed in safer seas that means you miss out on unlocking a lot of nice looking items. I cannot be certain for this one but I cannot say if you can progress or not in the seasonal pass in safer seas or not but I do know you can still see your current progress already made on it. I've not tried to progress in ranks on it while on safer seas before.

[Teddy Bongwater]

I have been playing since 2019. IMO the solo experience depends on what objectives you focus on in game. Doing PVP content while solo is too stressful for me, and isn't very fun. Doing PvE solo is relatively chill and enjoyable. I'd advise you to just try and avoid LOS with other ships while questing to avoid and potential conflicts. I always try and hide my sloop behind the island I'm working at. If you really want to avoid people you can quest in the Devil's Roar. I would stack ashen Athena for hours w/o any interruptions as that area of the map is RARELY populated. Safer Seas can teach you ropes, but you only get 40% of XP/Gold and lvl cap is 40 in safer seas, 75 in high seas (normal mode). Rare has added a lot of tools to help players progress so you'll progress quickly. One side note, you will want a microphone for this game. Interacting with other players over voice chat is by far my favorite aspect of the game. Made numerous alliances with cool dudes, talked people out of sinking my ship, having a microphone improved the enjoyability of the game immensely.

[Vinze88]

It don't always help to Solo. There are no smaller ships made for this: there are no Solo boats. That's why it's more work, so you prolly sink faster, sometimes, depends.

The Sloop is for two crew (2 cannons); Brig is three crew (4 cannons), Galleon is four crew (8 cannons).

Go watch Twitch. |There are solo players. You can get drops there if you got the game. But the problem is they are very very skilled, or something. And don't forget: they are SoT patrons. See, it's about efficiency, this game (SoT).

[Mikail]

Yes, but you need to learn how to play solo, you will get sink many times, but it will make you stronger, you need to play with some mind set like loot is not mine and everyone is enemy.

[Mikail]

Originally posted by Vinz:

It don't always help to Solo. There are no smaller ships made for this: there are no Solo boats. That's why it's more work, so you prolly sink faster, sometimes, depends.

The Sloop is for two crew (2 cannons); Brig is three crew (4 cannons), Galleon is four crew (8 cannons).

Go watch Twitch. |There are solo players. You can get drops there if you got the game. But the problem is they are very very skilled, or something. And don't forget: they are SoT patrons. See, it's about efficiency, this game (SoT).

Sloop is for one, you will use only 1 cannon, there is no reason to use double cannon, same like on gally you will use only 2 cannons.

[Vinze88]

Aww.... Who knows, áight?

@ 1st the Sloop was designed and tested for two 'cos of the fact there can be 2 crew on board, simple.

And you don't sink as much as you say, from my experience. while playing Solo on ANY Ship.

[Mikail]

Originally posted by Vinz:

Aww.... Who knows, áight?

@ 1st the Sloop was designed and tested for two 'cos of the fact there can be 2 crew on board, simple.

And you don't sink as much as you say, from my experience. while playing Solo on ANY Ship.

Sloop it mainly 1 guys, if you playing in 2 even better. its slowest ship to sink its just turtle, your mast got 3 hits so you can stay alive pretty ez + respawn time is just joke, you can respawn and just repair your ship in seconds.

You cant play other ships solo, if you do, stop it.

[Fail]

Originally posted by Jenn O Cide:

I've watched some videos on the game ,but it looks like most of them are old because it's been out for a while.
I'm someone who likes to play games like ark, 7 days to die, valheim, etc as a solo player. I know the game will be harder that way, but is it viable for day to day gaming? Just curious to see some thoughts from the current community.

As people have mentioned, yes it's certainly viable solo, but it's definitely "hard mode".

That being said, dedicated solo players can often turn into pvp gods :3

[[K]entucky Sperkle ♿]

its fine once you become more experienced

[P.Diddy's Baby Oil]

I think soloing in this game is bad in high seas (pvp), so you'd have to settle for the very watered down fake version of the game called safer seas (private server) in order to have any fun. Maybe they'll make safer seas more rewarding in the future, currently you have to farm for 9 hours to earn what someone on high seas earns in 1 hour. It's actually probably quite a bit worse than that because it takes so long to sell your loot also on safer seas. Selling your loot can probably take up 30%+ of your entire time. If they allow captaincy in safer seas in the future it will be a 100% better game mode.

Since "progression" in this game is entirely earning gold to buy cosmetics, you are as powerful the first time you log into the game as you are after playing for 10k hours, gear wise/ship wise. Only game sense/skill increases. So, if you don't care about cosmetics, and you like playing safer seas where lots of the content has been removed, it can be pretty chill.

[Mikail]

Originally posted by Nick_Nolte's_Mugshot:

I think soloing in this game is bad in high seas (pvp), so you'd have to settle for the very watered down fake version of the game called safer seas (private server) in order to have any fun. Maybe they'll make safer seas more rewarding in the future, currently you have to farm for 9 hours to earn what someone on high seas earns in 1 hour. It's actually probably quite a bit worse than that because it takes so long to sell your loot also on safer seas. Selling your loot can probably take up 30%+ of your entire time. If they allow captaincy in safer seas in the future it will be a 100% better game mode.

Since "progression" in this game is entirely earning gold to buy cosmetics, you are as powerful the first time you log into the game as you are after playing for 10k hours, gear wise/ship wise. Only game sense/skill increases. So, if you don't care about cosmetics, and you like playing safer seas where lots of the content has been removed, it can be pretty chill.

No, you dont.

[Ruca [PT]]

I did the same question a couple of days ago and after playing for a few days I can tell you that it is very enjoyable.
I haven´t played PvP but and I can tell you PvE aka Safer Seas area have lots of things to do and gives the player time to stop, think, plan, read stuff and to figure stuff out without the constant fear of getting attacked and robbed. Either by doing quests or free sailing you allways find different things to do that will engage you for hours.
It defentely worth it despite the limitations I have been checking are not game breaking and you get plenty of time to prepare yourself for Higher Seas aka PvP so you can go past those limitations.
As Solo sometimes I feel overwhelmed and confused and die and sink by making mistakes but that´s how I learn and overcoming those episodes it´s quite rewarding.
Example, some sessions I get constant attacks from Skelly ships, at the beginning when they showrd up I would say a bunch bad words because I was sinking for them all the time.
Now I am allways ready and hoping they come and most of those encounters go down with me firing just a couple of shoots.
While this process started to feel easy sometimes I get 2 and even 3 events on top of me testing my abilities and it feels great when the difficulty increases like that.
Even without those random encounters popping up you have so many you can activate when you want and go straight for them, dive to shipwrecks, treasure hunt, hunt different foes, attack forts, fight npc fleets and many other things. It will take you a lifetime to do everything.
Due to finnancial limitations I was relutant to buy this game as I don´t have many friends available to play at the same scheadule as me so I end up having to play alone most of the games and SoT doesn´t really force me to team up or pvp wich is great.
I just hate the No Activity Disconnect wich can be a little hard on things we need todo while at home. 5 minutes afk disconnects you from the session and you have a limited time to re-join that session or you lose eveything you got, from maps to quests and all the items collected either on inventory and ship so be carefull when taking a break or attending the door, when starting a session calculate the time you can play without long interruptions.
I could say more things but I know that it´s hard to understand ppeople talking about specific thigs you can do in a game you know nothing about and youtube videos can feel overwhelmed from dumping so much information about the game without showing exactly what´s going on.
Been there and I am glad I got to experience the game and I regret not having the chance to get it sooner. So, if you enjoy Sailling, shoting iron balls, bombs or even yourself from cannons, fight isolated or hoardes of enemies solely by areas or in waves using a sword and firearms, fishing, cooking, dig chests and bury chests, dive, explore by following objectives for the large ammount of different quests available or just because you want to do what ever you feel up to you should give it a try, you´ll enjoy it for sure,
and you get to meet the Mermaids, they´re not a myth anymore, just check it out