Encounters

Encounters are various dangerous situations that Player Crews can come across in Adventure Mode, often with great potential for riches.

World Events
These major World Events are both dangerous and enticing. Only one of these will be active at a given time within a single server. These Events are signified by large markers or Clouds in the Skies. Once a Crew clears the event, or the event timer runs out, the cloud will disappear and the Kraken will start looking for prey. After the Kraken encounter has been triggered, another random World Event will begin shortly after.

Skeleton Fort
Skeleton Forts are open world events that are indicated by a large Skull Cloud with green thundering eyes. An active Skeleton Fort can appear at any of the Fortress type Islands, upon which the fortifications and Cannons on the islands will become manned by Skeletons, who are trying to defend the Fortress Vault that will be locked for the duration of the event. Only one Skeleton Fort can be active at a time. A Skeleton Fort will stay active for around 30 minutes when not disturbed. When you are within range of a Skeleton Fort, you will hear the ominous Skeleton Fort theme. Once on the Fort, around 12 waves of Skeletons of varying types will have to be defeated for the last three Skeleton Captain waves to appear. The first Boss wave spawns a Skeleton Captain that drops a Villainous Bounty Skull, the second Boss wave spawns an Ashen Key Master and Ashen Guardian that allow players to get an Ashen Key and Ashen Chest. The final boss wave summons one of the three Skeleton Lords: The Mutinous Helmsman, The Two-Faced Scoundrel or The Duchess. Once the Lord is killed, it will drop a Stronghold Skull, a Skeleton's Orders Quest leading to a Rag & Bone Crate and the Stronghold Key, which can be used to open the Vault below the main Fortress tower. The Vault will remain locked while the Key is still physically in the server. A Skeleton Fort Event is fairly profitable, with the Vault hiding away one of each Stronghold rarity item, a handful of various other Treasure, a couple Gunpowder Barrels, Mermaid Gems, Gifts and an Ashen Chest. Molten Sands Fortress rewards Crews with an additional Chest of Rage for the increased risk that stems from the Volcanic region. Along with this, there is a low chance that a special kind of fort will appear, known as a Fort of Fortune. These forts typically have much more difficulty, with the benefit of many more rewards. This means that they are incredible hotspots for ships and treasure alike.

Fort of Fortune
A Fort of Fortune is an open world event that is identical to the Skeleton Fort event, but is more challenging, with the key differences is that Skeleton Captains will drop Skeleton Orders for armaments, the bosses being all 3 Skeleton Lords and one of the 4 Ashen Lords as the final boss, and the rewards found in the fort vault include high value treasure, including Athena Treasures.

Skeleton Fleet
A Skeleton Fleet is an open world event that is indicated by a large Ship Cloud with green thundering. A Skeleton Fleet cloud can either appear in the middle of The Sea of Thieves or deep within The Devil's Roar and will disappear in around 30 minutes unless activated. A Skeleton Fleet will become active after a Ship sails into the range of the Cloud. Upon activation, three waves of 1-2 Skeleton Ships will appear around the ships, and the cloud will show white thundering from where the cannons would be. Each of the defeated regular Skeleton Ships will count toward Skeleton Ship commendations and will also drop loot from regular Skeleton Ship loot tables. During the last wave, one of the Skeleton Ships will spawn with a Skeleton Captain on board. After the Captain's Galleon is sunk, the event is over, even if the other ship from the last wave is still up. A Skeleton Captain's Ship will generally drop 4 Skeleton Captain's Chests, 4 Skeleton Captain's Skulls, 3 Ritual Skulls and 3 Ashen Chests in addition to regular Skeleton Ship Loot.

Ghost Fleet
A Ghost Fleet is an open world event that is indicated by the appearance of Captain Flameheart in the Skies. This Event sees Flameheart send a fleet of Ghost Ships to attack a single Large Island in the three main Regions. When approached, Flameheart will taunt Players and Crews throughout the whole Event. The Event consists of four waves: two Grunt Ghost Ship waves and two Ghost Captain Ship waves. The first and third wave require Players to take down seven of the fragile Grunt Ghost Ships, the second wave requires Crews to take down two Ships sailing the Sails of the Ashen Dragon and the final wave sees Crews face off against Flameheart's own ship, the Burning Blade. The Captain Ships will drop a variety of Ghostly Treasure, with Flameheart's Ship leaving behind a guaranteed Captain Skull of the Damned and a Cannonball Crate of the Damned that allows players to use Ghostly Cannonballs of the Ships themselves.

Ashen Lords
The Ashen Winds World Event is indicated by the appearance of a massive red Tornado on the horizons. This Tornado leads players to the site of an Ashen Lord summoning ritual performed by Ashen Skeletons. The World Event consists of a three phase battle against one of the four Ashen Lords: Red Ruth, Old Horatio, Warden Chi, Captain Grimm. The Lords, while similar to Skeleton Lords from other encounters, possess various unique Fire themed attacks, gaining more powerful skills as the fight's phases progress. Upon defeat, the Lords leave behind an Ashen Winds Skull and 15 Devil's Roar variants of Treasure items. The Ashen Winds Skull is a special Bounty Skull that can be sold or used as a Flamethrower type Weapon.

Kraken
While different from the other Open World Events, the Kraken's attack is also considered one of them as a Kraken can only spawn when no other Open World Events are active. A Kraken does not have a Cloud indication, instead a Kraken will attack one of the first ships to be in open sea right after a World Event is completed. While not confirmed, it is believed that Krakens are more likely to target ships with the most Treasure on board, because generally, the Crews that defeat a Skeleton Fort or Fleet and set sail right after are the most likely to be in Open Seas. This is especially true to crews that defeat a Skeleton Fleet as they are generally on the edges of maps in Open Sea and no Islands to take cover at. A Kraken does not attack a ship that is within the title card range of an Island, Seapost or a Shipwreck, so it is advised to stay close to a landmark and wait for the next Fort or Fleet cloud to appear if one wants to escape the Kraken.

A Kraken's spawn is indicated by an ominous sound and the surrounding waters of a ship suddenly turning black with ink. After this, the Kraken's many tentacles will appear from within the waters and start battering and grabbing the ship. Depending on the size of the Crew or Ship a different amount of Kraken tentacles needs to be killed in order to make the Kraken turn away. A Sloop needs to defeat 2-3, a Brigantine around 5-6 and a Galleon around 7-8 tentacles. A Kraken can also be fled from if the ship is sailed outside the Kraken's Ink. Each Tentacle drops one piece of Kraken Meat and 1-2 random Treasure Items.

Raids
Raids are unique Events in that while they share some elements with World Events, they have to be activated by the Player and are active at the same time as other World Events.

Fort of the Damned
The Fort of the Damned is currently the only Raid type World Event that can be activated at any time. To activate a Fort of the Damned Raid, Players need to light the Lanterns of the 6 Ferryman Statues inside the Fort with each Flame of Fate and place a Ritual Skull on the headless skeleton inside the ritual cage.

The start of the Raid is signaled by a massive Red Skull Cloud above the Fort of the Damned, after which, 12 waves of Shadow of Fate Skeletons will start spawning on the Players. After the last wave, Ghost of Graymarrow will appear, who needs to be killed for the Fort of the Damned Key. The Vault of the Fort contains various Treasure for all Trading Companies (even Athena's Fortune and Reaper's Bones).

Emergent Encounters
These perilous encounters can occur at any time, no matter if another is also occurring. They can cross over into other encounters listed on this page, adding greater danger and challenge for the crew involved.

Skeleton Ship
A Skeleton Galleon or Sloop can either appear roaming the open seas or as a random spawn beside a player Ship. These ships can be identified from afar with their tattered sails, unique green and blue lanterns, and are sailed by a crew of Skeletons. Viewing a Skeleton Ship through a spyglass provides a unique audio cue to further distinguish it between a Player's ship. They are armed with one type of the many green or purple Cursed Cannonballs. They will usually roam from island to island, staying still for a moment until moving to another landmark. They can be aggressive immediately, or passive until Player Ship approach too closely or it is shot with a Cannon, then becoming aggressive, firing upon and following the Player's Ship. The Skeletons on the ship can fix holes with planks and put out fires but they can't bail water. Once a Skeleton Ship sinks, 3-12 pieces of Treasure items that were on board will float to the surface. Skeleton Ships have a high chance of dropping Skeleton quality loot.

Megalodon
Megalodons are huge sharks the size of Sloops who prey on unsuspecting crews in the Open Seas. There are five Megalodons of different colours, behaviours, and rarity who can appear from out the seas to a tense musical cue and start circling the crew's ship. Like Krakens, these Megalodons can only appear in the Open Seas. When players get too close to landmarks or Islands, the Megalodon will often give up the chase, lying in wait for the ship to return from the shores. Every now and then, a Megalodon will charge at the ship, knocking the ship around along with crewmates close enough to the charge and leave the hull broken. Megalodons have to be fought off with Cannons and have differing health depending on the ship's size. In addition to the Megalodon Meat, they have a similar reward pool to Skeleton Ships.