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. 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 in the game’s opening days, which have kept everyone (including us) from finding the fun. We compiled a list of the most common problems players have reported, as well as any possible steps you can take to fix them.
Connection issues
Big surprise here: An online-only multiplayer game is suffering from connection issues at launch. 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. Rare is working to alleviate the issues, and they should begin to stabilize in the days following the launch.
- 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
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 any new money or earning reputation for completing voyages. Don’t worry: It’s related to the server problems Rare is having, and it can almost always be resolved.
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.
- If your reputation or currency aren’t increasing when you complete new voyages, you aren’t losing out on any rewards for good. These changes should be credited to your account at a later time. Rare is working on a permanent solution to stop this delay from occurring in the future.
Glitches and gameplay issues
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSBfHUHUtdU?feature=oembed&w=100&h=100]
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 onboard.
- 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.