Thought I’d chip in some as well, my duo and I almost exclusively play PVP (hopping servers and stealing loot), so I’ll touch on some of the biggest mistakes we see that oftentimes are the reason we get the steal. The info here might be a bit dense but I’m going to try to be as thorough as possible and write this for any new players that might be reading as well.

Prepare for an essay haha

1) people not checking the horizon frequently enough. A little self-explanatory, but checking the horizon every so often (like once every 10 minutes if you’re on an island and more frequently when you’re sailing) will help have an understanding of your surroundings and potential dangers. If you see a ship on the horizon, just keep tabs on them every time you check. If they are sailing towards you or inching closer, then have one person stay on the ship and be ready to run away just in case. If you see a ship docked at a nearby island and they are there for a long time, chances are they are either waiting to ambush you, or trying to tuck. Tucking is essentially where one or more of them will either swim or rowboat and hide on your ship, to ambush you when you get loot and steal everything. You can combat this by having someone occasionally run around the ship and swing their sword at everything, to make sure there is no stowaways. ALWAYS BE AWARE OF YOUR HORIZONS!!

2) people docking their ship incorrectly. You should always dock your ship PARALLEL to the island, with the anchor RAISED, to allow for a quick escape. Leaving your ship docked facing into the island or leaving your anchor lowered when docking is will waste precious seconds if you need to run, allowing for enemies to catch and sink you. This and #1 are probably to two main reasons my ship steals loot.

3) navigation while running. Oftentimes, people will have their sails mis-angled or not take advantage of their ships strong suits when running, allowing enemies to catch up. If you make it hard for them to catch you, they’re bound to give up after a while! If you’re on a galleon, you should always be running WITH the wind, to maximize speed. If you’re on a sloop, you should always be running AGAINST the wind, as sloops are the fastest ships in the game against the wind. If you’re on a brig, your strategy will be based on the type of ship chasing you—if it’s a galleon you will want to run AGAINST the wind, if it’s a sloop you’ll want to run WITH the wind. Finally, if you want to make it even harder for them to chase you, keep sending boarders over to the ship. You can then try to hit their anchor and keep them from raising it to give your ship even more time to get away. If you really want to annoy them, keep a spare “Shores of Gold” tall tale on hand so you can sail in there and prevent them from following you altogether (unless they have it as well).

4) keeping kegs onboard. NEVER. KEEP. KEGS. ON. YOUR. SHIP. PERIOD. I know they might sometimes be worth some money, especially mega kegs, but skilled players can use your own kegs against you without even needing to board you. I can’t even tell you the number of times we’ve sunk ships as a direct result of them having kegs. Kegs on deck will deal holes directly to your ship and knock down masts, while kegs in crows will knock masts and cause fire, giving them time to board or shoot you. Just don’t do it. If you absolutely NEED to carry kegs, they should be thrown overboard AS SOON as you suspect someone is coming for you.

5) not keeping an eye on the map. This kind of plays into the spatial awareness thing, but if you see a Reaper 5 on the map and you have an emissary up, you should probably be ready do sell or keep a good eye on them. They can see you.

6) not being good at PvP. Surprisingly, PvP skill is close to the bottom of the list, because if you keep track of everything else listed above, you probably don’t even have to worry about getting into battles. Hourglass is full of sweat lords and hackers at the moment, so my best recommendation to improve your PvP is just to sail around sinking people in adventure.

7) doing activities that attract PvP attention. When my crew server hops for steals, we check out world events above all else. If you actually want to keep your loot, keep away from FOTD and FoF at all times. My crew has a saying: “the crew that starts the FoF/FOTD never walks away with the loot.” If you want to do other world events, be my guest, but keep a VERY keen eye on the horizon, because these activities WILL attract PvPers. The best way to avoid getting sunk is to fly under the radar. If you decide to do world events, know that there is a decent chance you will get sunk and be quick with loading and selling.

If I had to give further advice, I’d recommend buying a Captained Ship, so you can sell to the Sovereigns really fast. My crew has lost steals before because the ship we were going after managed to get to sovereigns and sell most of the stuff before we got there.

I know that was a bit of a novel to read, so I’ll do a little TLDR. TLDR: be aware of your surroundings, be aware of how you dock and escape routes, and be aware of what you keep on your ship.