Sea of Thieves beta highlights: unexpected friendship, boat catapults, and so many shanties

News
By published
A skeleton in Sea of Thieves tries to eat a banana, despite not having a GI tract.

If you've tried out the Sea of Thieves beta, you've probably had at least a couple "you wouldn't believe this happened" moments. Maybe you pulled off an expert plan to sink an enemy ship, or enjoyed an unexpected shanty with half the server population, or (most likely) something went horribly wrong and you ended up stranded at sea, still cackling about the bizarre misfortune that befell you. Even if you aren't in the beta, you can still enjoy the madcap exploits of other pirates.

I took a tour of the internet and found these 10 Sea of Thieves highlights, showing off great moments in piracy of all kinds - from rampant destruction to quiet introspection. Take a look!

Looks like your boat is blasting off again

You thought your boat's journey was done just because it started sinking? Oh, no. It had only just begun.

Article continues below

Sometimes the commando approach works out

About a billion things could have gone wrong with this plan to swim across endless open seas with an explosive barrel, but this one time, everything lined up. And the resulting ship implosion is oh so sweet. 

Unexpected friendship is best friendship

Sea of Thieves players have an unspoken shoot-on-sight policy right now (because shooting cannons and guns at stuff is fun, obvs) but this video proves that friendship can bloom even after exchanging fire.

Commend yourself to the sea

A good captain goes down with their ship. A great captain goes down with their ship while playing a sad song on their hurdy-gurdy.

What happens when you leave the map

This one's from our friends at GR+ sister site PC Gamer. I think I'd have a similar reaction if blood-red water suddenly started punching holes in the side of my boat.

"Ahoy there, we're friendly!"

Sometimes you're friendly and the other people are definitely not also friendly.

Not realistic, but believable

I like to imagine this streamer's great, great, great, great grandparent was a pirate and the Assassin's-Creed-style genetic memory is what made them duck out of the way of that virtual cannonball.

Don't hog the wheel

Note that the person who wasn't AFK could have dropped the anchor at any point and immediately stopped the boat. But this way the AFK-er learned a valuable lesson about stepping away from the damn wheel before you go to pee. 

This captain has an explosive leadership style

Backtalk? That's a 'splodin'.

Just you and the ocean

Wacky occasions of triumph and friendship are lovely, but sometimes it's nice to take a quiet moment appreciate what a lovely little 'sailing the sea simulator' Sea of Thieves can be.

The Sea of Thieves closed beta is almost over. Once it's done, we may have to wait until the game's release date of March 20 to play more. But until then, you can get a hint of some more stuff coming to the game (yes, including a kraken) from this Sea of Thieves asset datamine.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.