Sea of Thieves Cursed Rogue: how to complete part two of the Shores of Gold campaign

No spoilers, but the Sea of Thieves Cursed Rogue is one of the coolest Sea of Thieves Tall Tales in the lengthy campaign. It's even cooler that it comes early on for players new to Sea of Thieves to enjoy. If you've completed the Sea of Thieves Shroudbreaker and are looking to expand your understanding of the pirate lore, here's how to get through the Sea of Thieves Cursed Rogue and discover the truth about one of the world's most infamous pirates.

To Plunder Outpost

During the final stages of ‘The Sea of Thieves Shroudbreaker’ voyage, the Mysterious Stranger tells you to visit Madame Olivia at Plunder Outpost. Head to Plunder Outpost and enter the Order of Souls tent to vote on the Tall Tale with your crew. A new book should appear in your map menu and Madame Olivia will tell you to hunt down some artefacts and return them to her, so that she can help you find Briggsy.

Finding the skeleton key

The first step on the voyage is locating the skeleton key. Read the first entry in the book and look for any identifying words that match the name of islands or regions, or images that look like locations you’ve seen before. The entry speaks of a crew hiding a skeleton key on an island, but the exact location will differ from pirate to pirate. Potential locations it could be include Snake Island (references the northern Ancient Isles and a central island), Shark Bait Cove (alludes to the southern Ancient Isles and a cove), and Devil’s Ridge (mentions the eastern Ancient Isles and settling atop a hill).

Head to the island that best fits the description from your book and follow the skeleton voices to locate the whereabouts of Captain Avery and his crew. Defeat the Captain and he will drop a skeleton key for you to pick up. Don’t worry about any of the remaining skeletons, just take the key and run back to your ship. Keep the key safe as you’ll need it for the next part of the voyage.

Discovering the skeleton chest

After finding the key, open up your book again and flick to the next entry. This will tell of a skeleton chest that was buried on another island.

Use the images to correctly identify the island and the whereabouts of the chest’s burial site. Depending on which book you have, this could be either Thieves’ Haven (the one with the image of three heads), Plunder Valley (the one featuring a bird statue), or Crook’s Hollow (the one containing a campfire in a cave).

Head to the location that best matches the description in your book and defeat Captain Blake and his crew. Unlike the last boss, he won’t drop an item for you to pick up. Instead you will have to dig up the chest yourself (the location is pictured in your book and should be close by).

Once you have the chest, return to the ship and drop it. Now pick up the skeleton key and use it on the chest to open it. There should be a broken telescope and a star map inside.

Locating Briggsy, the cursed rogue

What you need to do now is return back to Plunder Outpost and hand both of the items in to Madame Olivia. After a brief ritual, she will present you with an enchanted compass that will point you towards Briggsy’s location. Take the compass and return to your ship.

Follow the compass and it will lead you to an island where Briggsy will be waiting for you. If you’re struggling to find her, you can use the compass while searching the island in order to aid in your search. Pretty soon you should hear her talk. Follow this sound to locate her.

Briggsy is unlike the other skeletons you may have encountered. On top of being faster, she also has three magical abilities: she can summon other skeletons, teleport around the island, and explode to cause damage to nearby enemies. Focus your attacks on Briggsy and then when she folds her arms to signal she is about to explode, run away in the opposite direction. Keep on top of healing and it won’t be long before you best her in battle. Collect the skull when it drops and a prompt will appear, telling you to visit Madame Olivia again at Plunder Outpost.

Give Briggy’s skull to Madame Olivia and she will absorb the Pirate Lord’s memories. She will then tell you some names of people you’ll need to speak to in order to start the next bunch of quests (Tasha, Sudds, Salty, Wild Rose). Exit the tent once she finishes her speech and you will unlock a new commendation called ‘The Cursed Rogue’ and the Briggsy’s Sword cosmetic. To unlock the Order of Souls’ Eye Curse, you will need to defeat Briggsy 5 times to unlock the ‘Briggsy’s Greatest Foe’ commendation and locate all of the Bounty Hunter’s journals.

Completing ‘The Hunter’s Trail’ quest

In order to unlock ‘The Hunter’s Trail’ commendation, you will need to visit 5 islands to locate some journals. Before heading off, reactivate ‘The Cursed Rogue’ Tall Tale, as you can only interact with the journals while a quest is active. Here are the locations:

Shark Bait Cove
The first journal is found in a rowboat along the inside beach of the outer ring.

Discovery Ridge
You’ll find the next journal along the north east beach of Discovery Ridge next to a skeleton and a rowboat.

Wanderer’s Refuge
The next closest journal is on Wanderer’s Refuge. Head to the well on the top of the island then walk towards a set of buildings. On the outside of one of the buildings, you’ll find the book positioned between a wooden plank and the stone wall.

Crook’s Hollow
Head to Crook’s Hollow and enter the cave that leads to the interior campfire. There should be a skeleton along one of the walls, who has a book by their side.

Kraken’s Fall
The final journal is on Kraken’s Fall. Head to the skull pile near the wooden fence and the book is behind it.