Storms

A Storm is one of the different weather effects in Sea of Thieves. Sailing through Storms is a challenge for even the most experienced crews and should not be taken lightly.

A Storm is an always present dark cloud roaming the seas which can be easily spotted from afar. It contains heavy rain and wind, wild waves, and dangerous lightning which produces thunder that can be heard from afar. The edge of a storm is a light storm, the center of a storm is a heavy storm, where Stormfish can be caught.

Movement
The Storm always moves on a path independent from the direction of the Wind, and travels only within The Wilds, The Ancient Isles and The Shores of Plenty; It does not travel or spawn within The Devil's Roar. Once the Storm hits the edge of the map at the Devil's Shroud or Devil's Roar, it will bounce back into The Sea of Thieves, along the same vein as an old DVD player or Windows screensaver. Its movement path is thought to be on a loop of approximately 250 game days (4 days, 4 hours real time).

Intensity
A storm's weather intensity varies from a Light Storm at its edges, to a Heavy Storm at its centre.

The Light Storm at its outer edges is indicated by light rain that will slowly starts filling up your ship with rainwater. The storm cloud will also darken the surroundings.

The Heavy Storm inside is where the weather is the most intense, indicated by a pitch black cloud above the player. The ship's bell will start ringing uncontrollably in the wind, and any Compass will start spinning around wildly. The Wheel of the ship will start pulling towards one side or another, requiring someone to keep it steady while sailing. Due to the spin of the wheel, an un-anchored ship in a Storm will spin around. Rainwater will start filling the Ship at a faster rate at this point.

Stormfish can only be caught in range of a heavy storm, using the ringing bell as an indicator for this can be helpful.

Sailing in heavy storms can be dangerous as the strong waves will cause holes in the hull of the ship. Strong waves also deal damage to any Rowboats in the waters. The shorelines of Islands, and the vicinity of Shipwrecks and Seaposts in Heavy Storms have calmer waters and do not cause damage to a ship's hull, making islands within storms ideal for fishing up Stormfish.

Lightning
Lightning can be found inside a storm, striking down from the sky dealing around 20 damage to any player hit, or 70 damage if a Cutlass is equipped. A Cutlass will also attract lightning more often.

Lightning can strike through the hull of a ship, meaning that a player swimming under a ship or standing inside a ship can still be hit by Lightning. Additionally, lightning will blow up any Gunpowder Barrels it comes in contact with. Therefore, a crew must be very careful of sailing through a storm with these aboard, especially the Stronghold Gunpowder Barrel which will immediately sink the ship.

Lightning can kill Skeletons and any Animals

The White Flame of Fate is obtained by dying to a Lightning strike.

Lightning can also start Fires, however, the rain from a Storm will usually extinguish the fires before they can spread.

Trivia

 * The storm seems to follow the same path across servers.
 * Lightning bolts have an in-game model, meaning that they can be Harpooned.
 * All Admiral Belts have a description suggesting that they increase the chance of being struck by lightning, however there is no evidence of that being true.