I've been playing Sea of Thieves fairly casually and intermittently since its release in 2018, but you'd still think I'd be a Pirate Legend by now. But still, you'd think I'd be a pirate legend by now: two veteran Sea of Thieves players have started up new characters and ranked them up to pirate legend in a day.

It was a very long and tumultuous day: the two pirates, Moonlitius and Disable_Chicken, leveled in the three trading companies (Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, Merchant Alliance) required to become Pirate Legends in It took less than 22 hours of continuous play to reach 50. And he did it on a sloop, the smallest ship in the game, without sinking once, despite incredibly intense combat with several larger ships.

Below you can watch the entire 21 hours, 48 minutes, and 6 seconds video (in two parts), or at least skim through it as I did. What is truly amazing is that the duo may have actually finished a few hours earlier.

Spotting a galleon heading for Devil's Ridge (the largest ship in the game, usually operated by a crew of four), a fellow pirate speculated that its crew might be coming to the island to clear out the treasure room. They decided to sink the galleon and steal the treasure from the vault themselves.

That part went very well (you can see it starting at 07:30:00 in the video below). However, the crew of the galleon respawned with their new ship and spent several hours chasing two pirates across the map in an attempt to steal the stolen treasure again.

To make matters worse, the galleon eventually joined up with a three-man ship named Brigantine, and the two larger ships joined forces to hunt the duo and their little sloop. Around eight hours into the video above, the chase and skirmish continues for more than an hour, traversing the map to the edge of the red sea, where the ship automatically begins to take heavy damage.

The option of taking the lead with a larger ship was not really an option. With so much treasure loaded on the sloop, it would take at least 20 or 30 minutes to unload everything at the outpost, and they would never get more than a minute or two ahead of their pursuers. And it is remarkable that two pirates eventually manage to sink a galleon for the second time and escape the fastest ship in the game, the brigantine.

Some other highlights:

I have not watched the entire video, but it is tense and fun, and highlights several interesting aspects of Sea of Thieves. The maneuverability of the sloop favors small crews, but the resurrection system (added some time ago) makes it much tougher to wipe out large squads.

And of course, if you sink another ship, it can respawn very close by with a full load of supplies. If they are angry enough and patient enough, they will return again and again for revenge.

Via Reddit.