A Guide To Captaincy In Sea Of Thieves (Legacy Guide)

Captaincy is an awesome feature added into Sea Of Thieves in Season 7, however it can get confusing for newer players, this guide is aimed to help dumb down Captaincy as, to be honest, it can be super confusing!

*UPDATE* This guide is now a Legacy Guide, meaning it's no longer being updated, however the infomation here will still be useful for a lot of players, so please keep reading, but be aware somethings might have changed since this was updated, there are no plans to update this guide due to constant Steam errors.

What is Captaincy?

Captaincy is a feature introduced in Season 7, where you're able to purchase your own ship! And being able to do some pretty cool stuff with your new boat! Including saving any cosmetics on it for a small fee, gaining access to new cosmetic options including trinkets, ship titles and more, while also gaining access to an exclusive shop for your ship at the Shipwright Shops at any outpost, exclusive access to The Sovereigns to sell your loot to, being able to store and do Captain Voyages, access to new achievements and new ways to track your progression in the game and gain new rewards.

I will go more into the rewards and exclusive content as this guide goes on.

"Do I need to be a Captain to obtain access to all the previously mentioned things?"

NOT EVERYTHING!

Nearly all the things I mentioned above can be obtained or accessed by playing on any Captained Ship here's what you will miss out while not being a Captain of your ship.

• Levelling up YOUR ships, any progress you have made will go into your Pirate's Milestones and whatever ship you're on
  
  
• Being able to customise the ship UNLESS the Captain of the ship allows it in the menu
  
  
• Not being able to track certain Achievements

Everything else from your Milestones, the remaining achievements, the exclusive Shipwright shop and more are all available to be used while on a Captained Ship!

So if you don't or have a friend that doesn't play Sea Of Thieves often, only one of you needs to be a Captain to track your Pirate's Milestones! However if you both want Ship Milestones, you might want to take turns.

How to become a Captain

In the Ship menu on the Main Menu, you can see a "My Ships" option, click on that and you are welcomed by this page which has all the ships and their prices.
Purchase the ship you want!
Name your ship, and you should gain access to a new menu where you can set sail with YOUR brand new boat!

Renaming your ship

Don't like your ship's name? You can always rename it by buying a Ship Renaming Deed in the Pirate Emporium for 499 Ancient Coins.

Also when naming your ship, please name it something tasteful!

Listen, I like dirty and rude stuff, you like dirty and rude stuff, no matter how old you are, we're always gonna love dumb dirty and rude things as we're all kids at heart, however that doesn't mean you should name your ship something dirty, as it can lead Rare into punishing you.

Remember some words are not allowed even though they don't appear they should be!

As shown by this Reddit user, some words are censored or not allowed to be used as a ship's name, bloody for an example to many people is a normal word to describe something covered in blood, however in Traditional English, bloody is seen as a swear word on the same level as s**t or f**k by some people...yea I don't know why eitherso just a heads up, Rare do censor or ban words for a reason, and they are open to feedback, tell them on the forums or on social media why you think some words should be unbanned or banned.

Pirate and Ship Milestones

Milestones the best way to put it, are like Big Commendations that have Small Commendations inside them that level up everytime you finish them, and everytime you level up a Small Commendation, your level for your Big Commendation goes up, both of the levels are endless.

When in the Milestone menus for either Pirate or Ship Milestones, click whatever Milestones you want to level up, to see what challenges are inside for you to complete to level up your Milestones, below are the basic gist of what each Milestones are about.

The Gold Seeker
The Gold Seeker focuses on making gold ingame from sales.

The Voyager
The Voyager focuses on exploring the world, counting miles, going to new islands and finishing Emissary Voyages.

The Emissary

The Emissary focuses on becoming a High Level Emissary and selling to specfic Emissaries.

The Hunter

The Hunter focuses on Fishing, cooking and eating food.

The Feared

The Feared focuses on killing NPCs such as Skeletons and Megladons, and clearing World Events.

The Rouge

The Rouge focuses on time spent on the immersive side of Sea Of Thieves, such as playing music, drinking grog, sitting and sleeping.

The Ill-Fated
The Ill-Fated focuses on stuff of misfortune, such as dieing, bucketing water, repairing damage, time spent in storms and more.

The Captain

Exclusive to the Pirate Milestones, this just shows how many ships you own.

Diffrences between Pirate and Ship Milestones

Pirate Milestones

• As long as you're on a Captained Ship, these will continue to be tracked as normal!
  
  
• When leveling these up, you will unlock the ability to buy new cosmetics to be used on any ship!

Ship Milestones

• As long as you're the Captain and currently using THIS SHIP, these will continue to be tracked as normal!
  
  
• When leveling these up, you will unlock new cosmetics for THIS SHIP ONLY! They cannot be transfered onto another ship!
  
  
• When you reach level 50 with any of the Ship Milestones, you can then buy a brand new Ship of the same type! Also make sure you are Ship Milestone 50 with ONE Ship Milestone to be able to buy a new Ship! It doesn't count if you're level 25 with The Hunter and level 25 with The Feared, it's level 50 with one or it doesn't count!

IF YOU'RE NOT ON A CAPTAINED SHIP, NOTHING WILL BE TRACKED!

The Sovereigns

To a lot of players, The Sovereigns are the biggest benefit to being on a Captained Ship, as these guys only deal with Captained Ships and ignore everyone else, The Sovereigns basically work as a free delivery service, whenever you sell something to them, they will do all the hard carrying for you, taking your items to the appropriate Emissary.

Pros of The Sovereigns

• A lot more easier and quicker to sell compared to selling the normal way, especially due to the fact they have their own pier to park your boat next to and have harpoons to help too!, with some smart players able to sell all of their loot within a minute!
  
  
• They deliver items to your respected Emissary, for an example if you're a Level 5 Gold Hoarder Emissary Ship, they will deliver items such as Mermaid Gems and Breaths Of The Sea to the Gold Hoarders, so you still gain your Emissary Bonus as normal!
  
  
• Unlike selling to the Reapers, The Sovereigns track Commendations that are for certain Emissaries, for an example "Hoarder of Grog Soaked Gold" which requires you to sell 100 Chest of a Thousand Grogs to the Gold Hoarders, will still be counted if you sell to The Sovereigns!

Downsides of The Sovereigns

• The Sovereign's building is a very easy spot to tuck on, so it might be wise to attack the area for a short bit before you start selling if you're worried about losing your loot!
  
  
• They don't take Reaper Loot like Broken Emissary Flags, Bounty or Reaper Chests, Humble and Generous Gifts, and Captain Logbooks.
  
  
• Any deliveries you need to do still need to go to the recipient, as selling them to The Sovereigns will count as normal loot.

So they have their pros and cons, but the pros heavily outweigh the cons 99% of the time, so there's no reason to ignore them.

The Exclusive Shipwright Shop And Captain Voyages!

When on a Captained Ship, the Shipwright becomes a lot more helpful! Instead of just being the place to buy Ship Cosmetics, they can now offer exclusive services!

What Shipwrights can offer in their new shop

1. Supply Bundles

These are bundles of supplies that can give you a small boost before you set off, this includes wood, cannonballs, Fruit, Meat, Fishing Bait and a combo of Blunder and Firebombs, when bought they go straight into their respective Barrels on your ship!

You can also combine these with Merchant Supplies, giving you a huge amount of food, wood and Cannonballs to cause some mayhem with!

2. Captain Voyages

Captain Voyages are essentially regular Voyages you can buy at the other Emissary Shops, however you can store up to 50 of these on a ship at a time instead of just 3 on your pirate, however you need to reach a specific level of the respective Emissary before you're able to buy them, in addition for older players like myself, the lower level variants of these Voyages are super quick and easy to do, allowing you to grab some easy Commendations much faster then before!

Captain Voyages are stored on your ship on a small bookshelf to be viewed at any time, and you can activate them like any normal voyage on the Captain's Table.

3. Ship Repairs

Any cosmetic damage your ship takes is now permanent and will stay over when you next log in, including paint being removed on the hull, Wheel and Capstan parts being replaced with wood, and wood that was used to patch holes, if you want the ship to look it's best, you can now ask the Shipwright to fix up your ship! For a small fee of course.

If you're not on a Captained Ship, these offers won't be accessible!

Ship TItle and Banner

Whenever you or a crewmate approach your ship, or an enemy spots you with their spyglass, your ship's name will appear with it's banner and title, for an example here is my flagship, The Golden Rage, it has the The Legendary Hunter Title and Hunter's Banner equipped on it.

How to equip these cosmetics

In the Ship Customisation Box next to the Shipwright's Shop, go to Ship Decoration, then keep scrolling right until you find them.

Banners

Banners are unlocked by reaching a certain level in Ship Milestones, when you unlock them, you earn 4 for free, and are able to save any of the banners onto your ship for free.

Ship Titles

Ship Titles like Banners are unlocked by reaching a certain level in Ship Milestones, again you unlock them for free and are able to save them to your ship for free. However unlike Banners and Captain Logbooks, there are "Legendary" variants of Ship Titles, which are unlocked at level 50 on certain Milestones, remember when you reach level 50 in any Ship Milestone, you can buy another ship of that type if you wish to.

Captain Logbook

At the Captain's Table on any Captained Ship is the Captain Logbook, which shows off what the ship has done nor only in the session, but also what the players have done in the session and certain Milestones the Ship's Captain decided to show off in the book.
When reading, you will find the Ship's name, Ship Type and the Ship's Title on the first page, while the second page has Gold Earned, Days At Sea, Islands Visited and Nautical Miles Sailed which are tracked on the session your on now.


The next page on the left display's the Captain, their name and title, along with what Pirate Milestones they want displayed, for an example I have Gold Earned, Treasures Sold, and Food Eaten.

If you have a crew member, their information will appear on the page next to the Captain's with their stats, but if you don't, you get the default page shown instead.

On Galleons and Brigs only, if you have a third and fourth crew member, more pages will be added into the Logbook just for them too.


The final pages show Days at Sea, Days since you last sunk, Nautical Miles Sailed again, Quests Completed, Fish Caught and Gold Earned during the session you're in.

Captain Logbook Cosmetics

In the Ship Customisation Box next to the Shipwright's Shop, go to Ship Decoration.
Scroll right until you find the book section, and select which book you want, you unlock Captain Logbook cosmetics by reaching a certain rank in certain Ship Milestones for free, and you unlock 4 variants of the book when you do unlock them, you can save them to your ship for no cost.

Selling stolen Captain Logbooks

When you sink or find a sunken Captained Player ship, you can collect the enemy player's Captain Logbook as a normal treasure item and sell it to the Reapers Emissary only, and depending how long the boat has been in the session for, you can get quite a bit of gold selling this.

Ship Crest

Ship Crests are unlocked at Certain Levels of Ship Milestones, and some can be bought as Premium Items in the Pirate Emporium, like with Captain Logbooks, you unlock all 4 when you reach a certain Ship Milestone level.

How to equip Ship Crests

In the Ship Customisation Box next to the Shipwright's Shop, go to Ship Decoration, then keep scrolling right until you find them.
Select the Ship Crest you want, remember that saving the Crest does cost you gold.

Where to find your Ship Crests

Your Ship Crests can be found just above or nearby the entrance to the Captain's Quarters, and on the back of your ship!

Galleon Front

Galleon Back

Brigantine Front

Brigantine Back

Sloop Front

Sloop Back

Ornaments and Trinkets

Throughout a Captained Ship, you're able to place props on to make the ship feel more like home, sometimes on a wall, shelf, on a barrel or above your bed for an example, there's places all over to place stuff, there are two main types of these props however.

Ornaments can be bought straight away at the Shipwright shop, nothing but Gold needed, as you can see here as an example, I bought all the Ornaments that's been released at the moment and here's a page of them to prove it that you can buy them all right now.

Trinkets on the other hand require certain Pirate Milestones and sometimes Commendations too to be able to be purchased, so have a look through the Shipwright's Shop and see what you like and see what you need to do to obtain the ability to buy the Trinket!

Captain's Quarters Cosmetics

These are all tied towards your Pirate Milestones, they can be bought at the Shipwright's Shop, they can be put on any ship, however some items can't be placed on certain ships due to them being missing on smaller ships like Captain Chairs for an example.
In the Ship Customisation Box next to the Shipwright's Shop, go to Ship Decoration, and select the ones you want, there are the following Captain's Quarters Cosmetics.

Table

Chair (Galleon Only)

Drapes (Galleon Only)

Bed

Rug

Chandelier (Galleon Only)

Curtains (Galleon Only)

Downsides of Captaincy

Captaincy does come with some minor downsides, while to some players like myself these aren't an issue, however to some, it can be really annoying.

All progress you earned before becoming a Captain or joining a Captained Ship will not be counted towards any Pirate Milestones!

Sold over 2 Million Gold?
Caught 200 Ruby Splashtales?
Finished 287 Voyages?
All on a Non Captained Sloop?

Tough, none of that will be added into your Pirate Milestones sadly.

Large gold cost for new, not so good or players with little time on their hands

A lot of people like myself often make hundreds of thousands of millions of gold each session, however this isn't true for everyone, and the gold cost to buy a ship, buy cosmetics and more can become quite costly, however if you're a player who wants a big goal, having a fully complete Captained Ship is a really fun goal to do!

Stealth is non existent

No matter where you ship is hidden, if a player even looks at your ship hiding behind a rock, they will still get a notification of your ship, it's name, banner and title.

Also if you have a reputation, whether that be from YouTube, Streaming, Making Guides or just being a well known player in the session or in the game overall, people might spot your name on the Captained Ship and either focus you or do everything to stay away from you.

Questions you might have about Captaincy and it's content

1. Do I need to be a Pirate Legend to become a Captain or be apart of a Captained Ship?
   
   Nope! Anyone can be a Captain! And as long as your a Captain of your own ship or apart of a Captained Ship, your Milestones will count as normal, you will only miss these 2 features.
   1. Being able to buy Athena's Fortune Captain Voyages.
   2. Exclusive dialogue from the Pirate Lord when you buy a ship for the first time.
   
   That's it! As for everything else, you can experience it with no problems at all!
   
   
2. Does the Captain have to be on my friends list for my Pirate Milestones to count?
   
   Nope! As long as you join a Captained Ship, your Pirate Milestones will go up! Whether it be on an open crew or someone you just met on discord, as along it's a Captained Ship, your Pirate Milestones will be tracked as normal!
   
   
3. Why does everything take such a long time to level up?
   
   The idea of Captaincy is for it to be on the side and to level up as you play the game, unlike levelling up to become Pirate Legend which is the game's first main objective, you don't grind Captaincy directly, but it grinds while you grind for other challenges, commendations and achievements.
   
   
4. Why does Rare basically reward players going AFK with The Rogue Milestones?
   
   Again the idea was to promote the immersive playstyle that you would do on the side, and not encourage you to aim these Milestones directly, Rare has updated these Milestones to not be as grindy as they once were, but just remind not only yourself but your teammates there is a time and a place to do these ones, I mean I love playing shanties and drinking grog as much as the next guy, but not while being swarmed by a Dark Adventurer Galleon crew.
   
   
5. Is it to better to be on a Captained Ship or a normal ship?
   
   Without a doubt being on a Captained Ship, it brings way too many benefits, and gives access to new goals for older players like myself to do like new achievements and cosmetics to unlock.
   There is 0 reason to go back to a normal ship when you or a friend owns a ship.
   
   
6. What happens when the Captain leaves the session?
   
   The ship no longer tracks Milestones as of now, Sea Of Thieves doesn't assign a new player as the Captain, so if your Captain leaves and you want to keep track of Milestones, then you might as well start a new ship too.
   
   
7. How many ships can you own?
   
   15, but this can be of any type, so 5 Sloops, 5 Galleons and 5 Brigantines, or 10 Sloops 2 Galleons and 3 Brigantines, as long as it counts up to 15, you can't have anymore.

Thanks for reading!

Captaincy can geuinely be confusing for some players, and I do hope this guide has made it a bit easier to understand, I'll keep this updated if Rare decides to add more Captaincy content and if I make any mistakes!

Please check out my other "In Sea Of Thieves Guides!"

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2517518271
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2634856148
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2626074704
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2683786705
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796687468
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2810294399
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2853352836
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2851036598
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2675719064
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3256143964

Don't forget to rate this guide, more is on the way if you like my work! Thanks again for reading!

[HAJAMIR]

//

[Surtr Bubingi]

FINAL UPDATE

A new guide has been released "What Your Title Says About You And Others In Sea Of Thieves 2024 Edition!"
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3256143964

As of now, this guide is now a legacy guide and will no longer be updated by me.

[Surtr Bubingi]

Update 4


A new guide has been released! "Dealing With Cheaters In Sea Of Thieves" it can be found in the "Thanks for reading" section!

[Surtr Bubingi]

Also forgot to mention, with a recent update, anything you sell to the Sovereigns will now carry over to other Emissary Milestones, so I have updated the part in "The Sovereigns" section.

[Surtr Bubingi]

Update 3

We now have a definitive answer to "How many ships can you own?" which the answer is indeed 15, I have updated the answer in the "Questions you might have about Captaincy and it's content" section.

[SkwidStuffsTTV]

You forgot the part where you spend 6 mil in 20 seconds on trinkets

[Surtr Bubingi]

Update 2

Updated the Answer to the Question "What happens when the Captain leaves the session?" with a more accurate answer.

[Surtr Bubingi]

Update 1

Two new mini guides have been released! "Managing Your Loot In Sea Of Thieves" and "Some Annoying Commendations Made Easier In Sea Of Thieves" both have been added to the "Thanks for reading" section

[Surtr Bubingi]

Sadly mr, deez I don't know the answer, I would test this myself or ask a friend but we all farmed that Commendation long ago.

However, knowing Rare and the fact the Commendation for buying those voyages are in their Emissary's Commendation page, I would guess that it wouldn't count if you bought Captain Voyages instead of the regular ones because you didn't interact with the Emissary itself, kinda like how selling Captain Chests to the Reapers won't increase the Commendation's counter on the Gold Hoarder Emissary's page.

However I maybe wrong, if you or someone could look into this, it would be heavily appreciated, one of my next guides I'm currently working on is all about making harder/grindy commendations easier to do, so any extra information would be appreciated, and I will also credit you too.

[pricken of midst]

Question on the Captain Voyages, does buying them count as buying them from their Faction?

Example; say I want to get the commendation that gives me the order of souls saber, instead of buying them from the OS merchant, will buying Voyages for order of souls count?