Iron Sights Previews

A guide to the weapon skins with the best iron sights, with visual previews.

Intro

In Sea of Thieves, there are two weapon types that rely on iron sights to aim: the Flintlock Pistol and the Blunderbuss. Given that you can customize the appearance of these weapons via different skins, some skins are bound to be "better" than others when it comes to accuracy and field of vision. This guide includes screenshots of the best non-paid, non-time-limited skins available for these weapons along with crosshairs added in post to show where your point of aim should be for each skin.

Flintlocks

Given that this is a precision weapon that relies on iron sights, which skin you use is the most important out of all four weapons.

The Sailor Flintlock has no iron sights, but also no real obstructions. Aimed with the top-center of the barrel.


The Mercenary family of Flintlock skins is generally considered one of the best. It can be obtained easily in its Mercenary and Aristocrat forms and also has rare and coveted variants like Ebony or Cultured Aristocrat, plus the various Insider-exclusive Silver Blade variants. It's aimed with the tip of its iron sight.


The Sea Dog family also contests the top spot for Flintlock skins. It's aimed with the top of the barrel, but it's hexagonal and therefore has a tight angular "sight".


The Bilge Rat family is similar to the Sailor Flintlock in that they have a less precise sight (to be more specific, they have no sights), but offer an improved field of vision for those that can naturally aim with the center of their screen.


The Barnacle family is similar to the Bilge Rat variant, but its rarity gives it a much higher level of prestige. It's also aimed with a slight vertical offset from the top of the barrel.


The Wild Rose family is easy to obtain, and quite viable. It has a rare Gilded Phoenix variant that is very prestigious. It's aimed with its iron sight.


The Kraken family is close enough for government work, at least. It has a small angular "sight" made from the spiky protrusions, with the point of aim being very slightly above its tip.
The Ocean Crawler family is an unconventional choice, but surprisingly viable. It's aimed with the angled tip of the crab chitin.


The Admiral family is no-frills and viable. It's aimed very slightly below the tip of the hexagonal barrel.


The Sovereign family is sadly not quite as well-aligned as it could be, but is at least symmetrical and is quite nice-looking. It's aimed slightly below the tip of the barrel, in the center.


The Merchant Ambassador Flintlock is quite similar to the Sovereign's, but is a bit better-aligned and in my opinion looks even better. It's aimed slightly above the center of the barrel.


The Masked Renegade Flintlock is very thin, but has some minor accuracy problems in exchange (it also glows vigorously red). It's aimed slightly above the barrel, level with the top of the left-side protrusion.


The Hunter family is a false friend, which looks like it should be quite accurate when aimed with the tip of the barrel but is actually aimed above and also (critically) off-center. Beware.


The Parrot family is not even worth showing. It's "holy 'I'm-blind', batman" levels of bad.

Blunderbuss

Because the Blunderbuss is a close-range shotgun weapon with a high spread, the absolute accuracy of the "sights" on a given skin is slightly less important than the skin's field of vision.

The Sailor Blunderbuss is no-frills and reliable. It's aimed slightly above the top-center of the barrel.


The Sea Dog family once again has a very good point-of-aim, right at the tip of the hexagonal barrel.


The Admiral family is extremely reliable, again aimed at the top of the hexagonal barrel.


The Bilge Rat family trades accuracy for field-of-view, but on the Blunderbuss this is an ideal option. It's aimed like the Sailor, just above the top of the barrel.


The Barnacle family is again no-frills, all prestige. Again aimed like Sailor, top of the barrel.


The Forsaken Ashes family is quite reliable, if you can stand the glow (or use the Seared variant seen here for a much more manageable one). It's aimed inside the V created by the two torn barrel pieces, with a slight rightward offset (the V is off-center to the left).


The Hunter family redeems itself on the Blunderbuss by being accurate and still quite thin. It's aimed with the tip of the rivet on the front of the barrel.


The Merchant Ambassador Blunderbuss is excellent, with the caveat that you must aim with the base of the iron sight rather than the tip (then again, since an opponent's stomach is generally considered the best point of aim for the blunderbuss, perhaps using the tip would be helpful).


The Ocean Crawler family is even stronger here than on the Flintlock. It's aimed with the exact tip of the barrel.


The Relic of Darkness Blunderbuss is surprisingly reliable. It's aimed with the green gem.


The Sovereign/Aristocrat family can be used well, provided you learn to aim with the gem in the center of the barrel rather than the barrel itself.


The Eastern Winds family is reliable once gotten used to (just mind that people will likely mock you for using the Ashen Dragon variant). It's aimed slightly to the left of the dragon's tail.

Eye of Reach

The Eye of Reach uses a scope overlay that is the same for every rifle, barring some skins which include colored filters. Your choice of skin therefore has no bearing on how accurate your shots will be, however you can still optimize your skin choice by choosing skins with small and narrow scopes.

As a point of comparison, these three screenshots were all taken after backing up against the mast of this Sloop and aiming at the tip of the bowsprit.

The Sailor Eye of Reach:

The Sailor version of this gun is actually one of the better ones already.


The Ocean Crawler Eye of Reach:

See how much more of the harpoons are blocked by the rifle's scope.


The Silent Barnacle of Eye of Reach:

A slight improvement.


I won't do an exhaustive list of the best rifle skins, since it's easy to visually estimate how much it blocks your view just by looking at the shop preview icon.

Cutlass

Smaller and thinner swords are more ideal, but this only really has much of an effect in the split-second during the animation after blocking a hit where the sword is right up in your face. Most sword animations don't really stay in your screen long enough or get close enough for a larger blade to have much of an effect.

The Sailor Cutlass (a medium-sized sword):



The Searing Forsaken Ashes Cutlass (an exceptionally large sword):



The Rapier of the Bristling Barnacle (an exceptionally small sword):


Other than staying away from self-illuminated skins if you care about stealth, there's no particularly significant reason that you can't use whatever sword you want. Still, if you want to optimize, it's easy to do so just by looking at the sword's thumbnail icon.

Outro

And that's it for the guide so far. There are doubtless many more viable weapons than what is shown here- though likely to be restricted behind time, money, or past events.

Any suggestions? Want to contribute an image of a weapon you have? Let me know.

Thanks for reading.

[Cpt. Swann]

Really good guide

[✠DonaldAlex TrumpJonesFreeman]

they really need better weapon sights ngl

[76561198871864449]

legendary spirit is kinda good ngl

[Hextore]

what about the kraken and parrot families

[LuckZ]

poop



thanks for the guide

[76561198871864449]

what about bone crusher stuff

[❤ Nenu ❤]

could you do the dark adventurers pistol?