Highlights
- Gold is essential in Sea of Thieves for purchasing cosmetics, better voyages, and ranks within Trading Companies, so it's important to prioritize purchases wisely.
- Buying bait crates, merchant commodities, and voyages can lead to more gold and better rewards, providing valuable opportunities for progress and profit.
- Spending gold on outfits, ship customization, storage crates, trinkets, and weapon skins allows players to showcase their individuality and style, making their pirate and ship stand out in the game.
In Sea of Thieves, gold is the lifeblood of any pirate who wants to progress in the game, as it's the source of income for cosmetics, better voyages, and ranks within the Trading Companies. It's not always easy to earn and takes tenacity to build, so there are standout expenditures that players may want to prioritize over other more frivolous purchases.
Some gold purchases are purely functional and serve to secure more gold. Others are about progressing and earning better titles or simply showing off a pirate's wealth, riches, and status. Sea of Thieves contains huge choices of what to spend gold on, especially with even more customization options and ways to play from the Season 7 update. Therefore, it's worth panning for the shiniest and most profitable golden purchases and rewards.
Updated August 8, 2023 by Gemma Johnson: Earning gold is one of the main priorities for any pirates in Sea of Thieves, as making money opens up a wealth of opportunities and options for players. However, accumulating gold as the main in-game currency is time-consuming and items sometimes have a hefty price tag, so knowing what to spend gold on in Sea of Thieves is crucial.
Recently, Sea of Thieves has focused more on updating its Pirate Emporium with Ancient-coin-specific cosmetics rather than adding more gold purchase options and other in-game content beyond The Legend of Monkey Island. That said, there are already so many things available to buy with gold in Sea of Thieves that can also give players more things to do in the game that might get overlooked, especially while awaiting Season 10. This article updates the original entries and adds three new ones.
13 Buy Bait For Better Fishing
Fishing in Sea of Thieves can be one of the most relaxing things to do for those who fancy something different that also makes money. While bait isn't necessary to fish, certain types are essential to catch specific species in Sea of Thieves' best fishing spots.
Bait crates aren't overly new, but are a helpful quality-life feature that enables players to buy a box of 50 grubs, leeches, and earthworms rather than dig them up. A crate costs 5000 gold from an Outpost Merchant or Hunters Call Seapost representative, or 3,500 gold from a Captain's voyage shop for a bait supply. Even common fish are worth around 800 gold, with the value increasing to over 10,000 gold and beyond for rarer varieties, especially when cooked.
12 Merchant Commodities To Farm Emissary Grade Points
Buying Merchant commodities is sometimes overlooked, but they can help pave the way to more gold and help increase Emissary points. At any Sea of Thieves Outpost or at Port Merrick, players can spend gold on boxes of unrefined tea, broken stone, unclassified gems, and more in the resources and commodities option.
Costing between 160-360 gold each, boxes of commodities are loose change in Sea of Thieves that players can cash into the Reapers first to help raise their Emissary grade and net more profits. Alternatively, players can deliver them to other Outposts via the Merchant Alliance Inventories book for a decent return on initial investment.
11 Purchase Voyages That Lead To Bigger Rewards
Using gold to buy certain voyages is also worth the coin, as voyages often lead to high-value rewards as one of the best ways to make money. For instance, Lost Shipment voyages are some of the most lucrative quests to get more treasure. Although purchased using Doubloons, players can also seek Season 9's valuable Chest of Fortune by purchasing the Legendary Search for the Skull of Destiny voyage.
Players can also buy voyages in bundles when sailing on Captained ships if they possess high-enough renown with the different Trading Companies.
10 Buy And Captain A Ship
Season 7 enabled players to captain and name a ship in Sea of Thieves for the first time, and players can choose to buy a Sloop, Brigantine, or Galleon if they have enough gold. If players want to secure a fleet of 15 ships, they'll need to accumulate a lot of gold, but the Sloop is the most affordable at 250,000 gold coins.
Becoming the captain of a ship is awesome and choosing a name is part of the fun, with many funny and brilliant names in circulation. It's also possible to get the 'A Fleeting Fancy' achievement when players own 15 captained ships, which is an impressive feat. Owning a ship also opens the door to Captain's voyages and other captaincy-exclusive options like ship customization.
9 Spend Gold To Raise Rank For Better Voyages
Some of the best voyages can be the most lucrative when it comes to earning gold, and in Sea of Thieves, sometimes players must spend a little gold to earn a lot more. Spending hard-earned gold on titles to raise player Rank within each Trading Company is worth it to unlock better voyages and the ability to sail as an Emissary, such as the Gold Hoarder Vault Voyages for sizable loot.
Each Trading Company has its own set of titles to buy, which is also handy to unlock different types of cosmetics and even cool and representative clothing, such as the Reaper's Bones Costume one of the best outfits in Sea of Thieves.
8 Stack Voyages While Sailing As An Emissary
A Sea Of Thieves tip that some players may not know about is stacking voyages. Purchasing voyages is essential to gain better rewards, loot, and raise player Renown, but it's sometimes also a neat way of getting free voyages for the price of one.
When players raise their Emissary Flag, vote for a voyage, and complete a few tasks on the quest wheel, they can raise their Sea of Thieves Emissary value to Grade 5. Afterward, sail back to an Outpost and lower the Flag for a reward as usual. Raise the Flag again, and free voyages are added to the quest wheel, filling in the gaps as represented by the silver Emissary icon. Rinse and repeat to get more free Emissary voyages and gold rewards.
7 Buy A Cool Outfit
There may be many cool outfits to purchase in the Pirate Emporium using Sea Of Thieves' Ancient Coins. However, there are tonnes more choices available to buy using gold at outposts. Outfits are a great way of standing out and showing off a player's individuality. They can also showcase players' progression in the game, such as the sought-after clothing and costumes with jaw-dropping prices in the Athena's Fortune Shop accessible to Pirate Legends.
For Pirate Legends, the Athena's Fortune Costume is one of the best outfits in the game, with its dazzling green glow and an easy way to impress other pirates while sailing the seas.
6 Invest In Storage Crates And Supplies
Spending gold on crates is essential to increase the chances of succeeding on voyages, against other players, and in World Events. Players can buy wood, fruit, and cannonballs from the Merchant Alliance representative on any Outpost, and Captained Ships now have easy access to throwables, meat supplies, and other supplies in the handy Shipwright Supply and Captain's Voyage Shop.
One of the best quality-of-life updates in Sea of Thieves is the ability to purchase an empty storage crate. Although this might seem expensive at 17,500 gold, it makes barrel-looting easy pickings.
5 Buy Trinkets And Trophies For Captained Ships
Season 7 also gave players the ability to customize their ship interior with purchasable trinkets, and trophies using gold, from bonsai trees, skulls, and more. Some trinkets can be brought outright, but others need to be unlocked before purchase by progressing through Captain's Voyages and obtaining Milestones for their Captained Ship.
Adding trinkets onto shelves and hanging paintings on walls is a fun way for players to show off their individuality and style to other players. It also showcases a visual history of their epic adventures and stories, such as the portrait of the beloved Merrick, which was awarded to players who completed the 'A Hunter's Cry' Adventure.
4 Ship Decorations
Ship decorations are another awesome thing to spend gold on for captain ships, and players can choose from various options to personalize their captained ships to their delight. This is especially true of Galleons where players can change the chair, chandeliers, and large drapes. A coordinated set of ship decorations looks impressive, especially when trinkets and trophies are added.
Players can also customize Sloops and Brigantines with options like curtains and rugs, and it's worth spending any extra gold to make the ship interior look just as good as the ship set itself.
3 Funky Equipment And Weapon Skins
There are numerous equipment and weapon skins to spend gold on in the Clothing and Athena's Fortune Shops in Sea of Thieves to go with the best and cool outfits in the game. It's worth spending any extra gold on matching equipment and weapon skins, so pirates can look the part, especially when combined with an epic ship set.
Whether it's to strike fear into the heart of enemies or show off a crew's wealth and status, coordinating equipment and weapons or mix-and-matching sets can add to the vibe that each crew wants to create.
2 Invest In Better Cosmetics
Other types of cosmetics to spend gold on are hairstyles, beards, face paint, tattoos, make-up, and even hair dye options. The Clothing and Athena's Fortune Shop both stock some super cool hairstyle options like the Dark Adventurers Stately Beard and dual-dye combinations. These all help players to make their pirates look unique and give them better cosmetic customization options than some of the more readily available choices.
Although cosmetics in Sea of Thieves aren't functional, there are many impressive varieties worth saving up gold for.
1 Awesome Ship Sails Or Sets
One of the best things to spend gold on in Sea of Thieves is a ship set or set of sails and there are many impressive varieties stocked in the Shipwright Shop. The ship is often the first thing players see of other players on the horizon through the spyglass, so it's worth earning gold to get a set that players love.
The Trading Companies have some great sets, such as the Sea of Thieves' Order of Souls Ship Set, and there are many fantastic designs for players to have fun with, such as shark ship figureheads, Kraken sails, and even carrot-shaped cannons.
Sea of Thieves is available to play on PC, Xbox, and Xbox Series X/S.