Pirate Legends yearning for some adventure to really test their nautical prowess will finally get their wish from 21st April, when Sea of Thieves launches Legend of the Veil – a brand-new, story driven quest designed exclusively for the piratical cream of the crop.
Rare initially teased Legend of the Veil during its Sea of Thieves’ 2022 roadmap reveal back in January, and with a release date for the adventure now confirmed, the developer has shared more on what players can expect to see come its arrival.
While Sea of Thieves’ existing Pirate-Legend-focused Athena Voyages are little more than a clutch of Trading Company tasks strung together into one lengthy quest, Legend of the Veil is aiming to be rather more ambitious, blending the cinematic presentation of previous Tall Tales adventures – complete with cut-scenes, music, and voice work – with the randomness and replayability of standard voyages.
To that end, Legend of the Veil will take Pirate Legends and their crews on a three chapter quest to assist the Pirate Lord, who’ll appear on-ship once the quest begins, in gathering special stones to place in the Veil Mask first seen in last month’s Shrouded Islands story episode. The voyage will always conclude with the same epic showdown but, interestingly, the first two chapters will be randomised on each new play-through, drawing from a selection of different challenges, each with their own permutations.
These first two chapters aim to strike a balance between puzzling and combat, and Rare has shared some of the potential activities Pirate Legends may be asked to embark on in its new Deep Dive video. They might, for instance, find themselves exploring a vast underwater shipwreck graveyard, dodging sharks, navigating multiple vessels’ labyrinthine innards, and hunting out strange mechanisms and secret compartments in order to find the key to the captain’s cabin and locate a Veil Stone.
There are also twists on Sea of Thieves’ familiar treasure maps, designed to test Pirate Legends’ familiarity with the world. Some maps might only reveal a small, zoomed-in area of an island, for instance, while pictorial maps will require players to locate islands and their treasure based on their knowledge of local landmarks. There are also maps where players must figure out what’s amiss in order to locate their spoils.
Other potential quests take place on haunted islands, offering a spooky makeover for some of Sea of Thieves’ most beautiful locales. Here, players will meet Belle and aid her quest by using a lantern to locate and light ghostly statues – whereupon they’ll need to fight phantoms and their fearsome Soulflame Captain. Help is at hand, however, as Sea of Thieves’ long-referenced but never-before-seen Ancients will lend assistance in battle.
Once the randomised assemblage of Chapters 1 and 2 are complete, Pirate Legends will need to embark on one final epic encounter, chasing a whirling tornado across storm-ravaged seas – all while fending off ghost ships and launching a cannonball assault on fortresses dotted around the ocean, including one last mega-fortress to bring proceedings to a close.
It’s an intriguing enough proposition as-is, but, as an extra incentive to get stuck into Legend of the Veil, Rare is boosting the Athena level cap up from 20 to 30, and introducing a range of new Ancients-themed cosmetics – a new ship set, weapons, and outfits – to unlock along the way.
Legend of the Veil comes to Sea of Thieves on 21st April, but before then, Rare is holding a special weekend of celebrations to mark the recently announced milestone of over 1m players having reached Pirate Legend status.
Starting tomorrow, 8th April, Pirate Legends will receive the Silvered Legendary Eyepatch for simply logging in, and can earn double gold and reputation rewards for items handed in to the Mysterious Stranger. The festivities will open up to everyone on Sunday, 10th April, with double gold, reputation, and Renown rewards, and come to a close on Monday, 11th April at 10am BST. Expect to find discounts on ship sets, emotes, and pet outfits (including some exclusive to Pirate Legends) in the Pirate Emporium store throughout the weekend.
