Rare organized a real-life Sea of Thieves treasure hunt for a 6 year-old superfan with cabin fever

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A loving father asked for a Sea of Thieves-inspired treasure hunt for his son, and Rare delivered in spades

Sea of Thieves Lost Shipments Voyage
(Image credit: Rare)

A Sea of Thieves-loving father-son duo recently went on a real-life treasure hunt organized by Rare to help the son get an escape from pandemic-related cabin fever.

Back in November, Trent called on Rare to help bring a bit of joy to his six-year-old son Otto, a massive fan of Sea of Thieves who'd been stuck inside and isolated from his friends due to the pandemic. Trent tells me Otto's been enrolled in virtual school and only rarely gets to spend time with other kids online.

"My son (6) LOVES sea of thieves. To the point that every hike we go on, he is looking for old pirate treasure," Trent asked Rare. "Any chance I could get in touch to come up with an amazing treasure hunt for him that would follow suit of SOT?? I wish I had the talent to make my own ...not so much luck lol. Any info or little bit of help would be much appreciated. Hard times for a little dude to be stuck playing with his dad all the time."

A few months later, Trent revealed that he'd been working with Rare's Gregg Mayles and Sea of Thieves creative director Mike Chapman to bring the father-son duo's treasure-hunting adventures to life. Once he'd scouted the forest near his home for interesting locations that Rare could write riddles about, Rare sent over a box of riddles and loot all the way from the UK to Madison, Wisconson.

"I was just going to do a normal everyday hunt that you hear of parents doing but we play SOT (a lot) so I figured maybe the writers of the riddles would be able to help me with something. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought they would have done what they did," Trent told me. "They gave me a little peek at one point but made me wait for the box to come. I'm not going to lie I might have been more excited than him."

As you can see in the heartwarming video above, Rare wrote up some creative and quite detailed riddles for Trent and Otto to solve. If you look closely, you can see the developers mentioned "a house in the woods," "a smelly dump," and the name of a street to help guide Trent and Otto. The notes also give the pirates specific directions as to which direction to go and how many steps to take to reach the prize.

Eventually the crew unearthed a nifty Sea of Thieves tote bag filled with all sorts of goodies, including the Sea of Thieves Role-Playing Game, a special edition Xbox controller, a cozy beanie, a sweet pirate mug, and a signed letter from the devs. "He 100% thought it was real pirate treasure until the final letter from Gregg and Mike," Trent mentioned.

The ecstatic reaction from Otto is utterly priceless, and proof that not all pirates are pillaging, plundering scallywags. Check out the full 10-minute video of the adventure on Reddit if you think you can handle the excess of cute.

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Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.