Sea of Thieves: Best Ways to make Gold in 2022
There’s more than one way to keel-haul a sailor, as the saying goes, and that’s true of earning gold. There are multiple paths to your fortune, but a few things will increase your gold accumulation regardless of what sort of adventures you may be on, so we will start with those.
The Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, Merchant’s Alliance, Reaper’s Bones, and Athena’s Fortune are the five trading companies that will trade goods for gold, and offer you the chance to represent them as an emissary. You will want to take them up on these offers, for several important reasons.
Your emissary grade will increase up to five levels as you retrieve loot associated with whichever trading company you are representing. The bonuses are as follows:
At grade 2, any goods you sell to them come with a 33% bonus. At grade 3, it’s a 67% bonus. At grade 4, the bonus is 100%. Grade 5 will earn you a whopping 150% bonus on the value of whatever you sell.
You absolutely want this multiplier if you are trying to make gold. Most emissaries offer a special voyage as a reward to anyone who reaches grade 5.
For the gold hoarders that means a set of treasure maps leading to islands densely packed with nothing but valuable Captain’s chests, or a list of destinations packed with skeleton bounty targets for the Order of Souls. The amount of gold you can earn quickly on these voyages is not to be underestimated.
When you sail and turn in loot matters. There is a daily “Gold Rush” hour from 6pm through 7pm BST, and 2am through 3am BST. During this time any gold is earned with a 1.5x multiplier. That can be combined with emissary bonus, allowing you to sell loot at triple the normal value.
There are also the Gold and Glory events. The dates and times vary, but during the duration of the event all gold and reputation gains are doubled. This can also be combined with emissary rewards and the Gold Rush.
Put all three together for a full 7.5x multiplier. That may be a lot of math for but a humble pirate, but we can assure you that it is an outrageous boost to your gold. You’ll need to keep this in mind to make gold optimally.
In good company
Once you’ve scheduled you and your team of ne’er-do-wells for ideal gold enhancing time, you need to decide on what exactly to do. There are a few choices, depending on what sort of adventure you want to be on, but there are two Trading Companies that stand above the rest.
Representing the Gold Hoarders is never a bad choice, but most of the voyages themselves can be mediocre sources of gold.
The Vaults of the Ancients, however, can be done quickly, drop quite a bit of loot as you go, and contain a special, high value chest if you can find three medallions within the vault itself to solve a puzzle. The loot in the Devil’s Roar region is higher value than elsewhere, and a team of gold hoarders can quickly fill their hold with valuables while also earning their Grade 5 emissary mission.
The Reapers Bones are unique among the emissaries. They don’t offer a Grade 5 mission (more on that in a bit), but they are equal opportunity purchasers of goods. Any and all loot is accepted by the Reapers, so that 150% bonus can be applied to absolutely anything you bring in, rather than just the pieces specific to the Company. The drawback is that everyone in the Sea will see the Reapers on the map. It’s a risk/reward scenario.
With that in mind Reapers can make their fortune with world events, fortresses, and treasures. World events typically appear as things like clouds indicating Skeleton Fleets, or red tornadoes leading you to an Ashen Lord. Defeating these challenges will uncover small fortunes ripe for the taking.
Undersea treasuries and ghost fortresses dot the map, and can be visited anytime. You and your crew will take on waves of the deceased, with a room filled with treasure, should you be victorious. Strong PVE skills can have your team clearing several per hour, enriching the crew rapidly.
All that said, absolutely nothing can beat the instant riches of sinking another vessel that is filled to the brim with valuables. At Grade 5 Reapers gain the ability to see any other emissary on the map. It’s a safe bet these crews are trying to make fortunes of their own. If you and your crew have the mettle, sinking a ship that has hours of work worth of treasure can take mere minutes, and all the riches are yours to be had.
As a bonus, sunk emissaries leave the flag representing their emissary grade behind. The Reapers will buy these, and will offer more gold for a higher-grade flag.
A Grade 5 flag can be sold for up to 10,500 gold alone. Combine that with all the treasure it took to get to Grade 5 with a 7.5x multiplier for being a Grade 5 Reaper selling during Gold Rush on a gold and glory weekend, and you can make hundreds of thousands in gold with the right mix of luck and skill.
Ramsey, the ghostly figure in Sea of Thieves like to say, “It’s not about the gold, it’s about the glory”. Well, he may be right, but the gold is pretty nice too.
Make strategic choices about what Trading Company to represent and when to sail, and you can earn plenty of both. Those Red Skull clouds aren’t a bad place to start. To learn what to do with those, and many other things in Sea of Thieves, be sure to check out our other Sea of Thieves guides.
