How to avoid a lot of PvP

are you sick of Double Gunning Reaper dweebs never leaving you alone?

Worry not. I will show you how to avoid as much pvp as possible in Sea of Thieves

Introduction

Sea of Thieves is a game about PvE and PvP.

However, a good chunk of the player base (myself included) do not enjoy the PvP aspect of the game. Whether its because of losing an hour of loot in 5 minutes or simply not liking how weapons function, doesn't matter.

This Guide is to help those players minimize the PvP experience while being chased as much as possible.

Note: unless they add private servers you will not be able to ALWAYS avoid combat, you will get sunk once in a while, its just a part of the game. WE WON EVERYBODY, PRIVATE SERVERS IN DECEMBER

Basics

you should be running a sloop solo due to its maneuverability and small size.

once you spawn in do the basics, collect food, wood, and yes, even cannonballs and more importantly, chain shots.

now get out on the Seas and go do your voyages, nothing to lose if you're sunk with no loot.

Step 1: Eyes Meet

This is the moment you (or your opponent) see the other ship.

what you should first do, is take note of their size, distance from you, and their direction.

if they are a far away sloop going the opposite direction from you, not too much to worry about, just keep your eye on them.

If its a Galleon with wind gunning for you, now worry


Once you notice a Dangerous target, move on to step 2.

Step 2: Stop and Flee

once you realize a hazard is after you, even if loot is still on the island, you lower sails and you RUN.

Surviving against PvP will often require losing some loot, its a sacrifice you make by cutting out a major part of gameplay.

about 25% of the time, once you flee, the chaser will often give up if you noticed them too early.

If loot is still on the island, even better, they will generally take the free food instead of chasing you for an unknown amount of time to maybe catch you and get your loot.

If both these conditions fail, they will continue to chase, move onto step 3.

Step 3: Evasive Maneuvers

So, You're on the run with them not too far behind. what now?

Now, my good Pirates, is when you embrace your inner rat and use that small ship of yours to your advantage. Go around Islands, use Unorthodox sailing methods to try and shake them, NEVER go in a straight line unless you have a speed advantage (Galleon against wind is much slower than a Sloop)

All this makes you hard to hit, annoying to board, and unfun to chase, half the game of escape is NEVER letting the Chaser have fun. if a chaser is getting bored, they will give up.

it is your job as a Solo PvE player to NEVER give in and let them catch you. You may not win every time, but even when they win, they will soon realize they spent 25 minutes chasing a sloop for bad loot.

how do I know you will have bad loot? Step 4.

Step 4: Dropping the Load

While Evading, if the chase goes on long enough, you're bound to end up close to an outpost.

This is your opportunity, this is the second most INFURIATING thing you can do to a loot hungry chaser.

You are going to grab whatever is most valuable in your loot pile, and once you're close to the island, let your ship sail on by while you jump off and sell it, before mermaiding back to the ship

If they dont notice, whatever, keep running

if they do notice, they usually give up knowing they'll waste their time and half the loot will be gone by the time they do catch you.

Note: this is only recommended if you can guarantee you wont be caught by the time you get back. DO NOT DO IF THEY ARE CLOSE, THEY CAN KILL YOU BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN SELL

Step 5: Forced into PvP

If you MUST partake in combat, this is when you use those chain shots I told you to collect

you have 1 job, take down their Mast(s), or if you're confident in your aim, shoot their steering wheel, this will cripple their speed or maneuverability. this gives you time to get some distance to keep running or, if you're lucky, get away all together.

during this phase you MUST watch your ladders, this is the time you are most likely to be boarded, and as a solo slooper avoiding pvp, once they are on your ship it is OVER. camp ladder with blunderbuss and/or Blunderbombs

Step 6: The Last Resort

Lets say its the end of the line, you've ran from them so long you've reached a dead end, the end of the map

turning is too risky or will slow you so much, that the chase will become a very sad one sided fight.

You've gone this long, them getting the loot now is not an option anymore.

This is when you pull all the stops.

you see the end of the map? Keep. going. forward.



they have 2 options

1. chase you into death itself, if this occurs, there was nothing you could have done to stop them

2. they reluctantly turn away, maybe wait around for you.


but even if they wait, it is over. this card is not one you take back. you sail into your death like a man, repair and bucket as long as possible, the further you get the better.



And with this, your journey can start again elsewhere, hopefully away from the sweaty reapers

this doesnt work anymore lol, but just start dropping your chests in the water one at a time while you run, makes it annoying for them to slow down and harpoon your stuff

Modern Times Bring Modern Solutions

With the introduction of Safer Sea's, for a 70% gold reduction. you will soon be able to sail the seas without worrying of reapers looking for your booty, we're through the hardest part ladies and gents, well done.

Conclusion

Now with all this info, you're ready to get out there and be the slimiest most annoying little escapee to ever sail the seas, have fun, and drink those reaper tears.

[Raft]

When running away from an aggressive ship, it's also possible to let one crewmate board them if they're chasing in a predictable path - drop their anchor, firebomb, spawn kill them. By the time they overcame my crewmate, my ship was nowhere in their sight.

Also possible to use the Shroudbreaker (Shores of Gold Tall Tale) to sail to that area exclusive to ships with shroudbreakers. If the enemy ship doesn't have the Shroudbreaker, they'd have to give up chase or sink.

[Raft]

I prefer to play with crewmates on a brig. Makes a lot of challenges much easier to handle (e.g. Kraken, Legend of the Veil). 1 Helm/Bucket, 1 Cannon main, 1 Repair/Cannon. It's also easier to negotiate peace from a place of strength (and firepower).

I suggest offering an alliance by using the Speaking Trumpet while the ships are faraway (and have no loot available). I send someone over to begin the alliance process. If things go awry with my ambassador, I quickly sail away. If my crewmate give the green light that they're friendly, I'll sail near. Made 4 alliances in 1 session this way. If anyone starts firing, I either fight or run.

[Airsoftskinny]

Mabey dont get shit on

[Listed]

your loot will spawn at the edge of the devils shroud, letting them collect it anyway. rare added this specifically because reapers whined that the person they were annoying for 30 minutes made sure nobody got the loot, and of course rare caved because they like pvp players more

[★Akashiro★]

How is it not possible anymore to just sail into the Devil's Shroud to commit self die?

[Hench-Unit 008 🏳️‍⚧]

Ngl the next time I try to negotiate with a PvE ship (If I ever want to do Reapers even though I'm not that good at PvP) when playing with my friends, we should defo negotiate with them and maybe even ally up with them lol if they don't see us as a threat
I suppose if they refuse to ally, we *could* threaten to blow up their ship so they could give us a cut of their loot, but not to the point of actually sinking them
If that doesn't work, we'll just take their most valuable loot ourselves and make a run for it lol
We could also leave their ship intact but keep a close eye on it just in case it tries to follow us
That might be really fun! Gonna tell my friends that we could do that lol

[Hench-Unit 008 🏳️‍⚧]

@Matthew I do agree that PvP should definitely be way more than that, but I don't necessarily think that battle royales (or any other kind of PvP game) is the main problem to blame lol (I personally play Fortnite unironically lol but I've been having tons of fun!)

I do think that the nature of other PvP games is a factor because you know the other team/s are the enemies already, but the main problem here is that some people may just wanna sink for the sake of it lol even if they know they could befriend another ship

If you have good loot or an emi flag, then you should probably expect a fight, but if you don't have that much loot while just chilling or fishing, the ones who sink you definitely need to change their aggressive way of playing lol

They also definitely should promote making alliances more lol

[Spy with birthday hat]

your pp is small if you chase down pve'ers for no reason

[Lildragon556]

if people would just understand when someone is a waste of ammo, i might have a seafarers chest on me at any given time, it removes the frustration of getting killed, very rarely do i have more than one chest on me. its a waste of cannonballs to sink me, and its also not very impressive since i have the reaction time of a drunk sloth

[Matthew]

PvP aspect of the game could be so much more than just killing on sight..
But alas, we live in the age of 3 second attention spans and reptile brain inducing retardation that are battle royals.