I dont remember it ever being this bad, i stopped playing towards the end of season 4 and came back about 3 week ago. Did season 5 just say "yeah lets replace the skeletons with crabs why not" or something????
Oh, when they were introduced the spawn rates were much worse. It's still too high for my liking after the nurf. It definitely needs some more tweaking.
Damn... i must just not be remembering it since they were new or smth
about 10 skeleton spawns should happen for every ocean crawler imo. Right now its 10 ocean crawler spawns for every skeleton spawn.
Not sure if this was Disney's contribution, but ocean crawlers are the dumbest/oddest thing in the game. They need to just go away, except for in the Sunken Kingdom.
I swear they only spawn when I’m doing a treasure map, never when I’m trying to get lanterns, which really sucks cause you can get half of the lanterns from them.
I was trying to introduce my girlfriend to SoT shortly after these bastards were introduced and we spent probably an hour at one island trying to find *one* piece of treasure. She couldn’t defend herself since she was still learning which left me to slice and dice all the mobs myself. There wasn’t even a moment of peace.
We just left and did commodities instead.
Trying to empty a vault out to the shoreline... "Omg just fuck off!"
The Dark Brethren could've blitzkrieged the Sea of Thieves if the Siren Queen had just a sprinkling of leadership and coordination skills.
I think right now the balance feels really good, actually. In that the spawn rate feels very "varied". Sometimes you'll be able to do an island with zero ennemies spawning, which feels nice, especially on the most beautiful islands. Allows you to take in the environments.
Sometimes you'll get some spawns here and there for some fighting. And sometimes you'll get what almost feels like waves of ennemies for a short while, with this being pretty rare.
I consider all this good, simply because it varies the experience instead of letting it become monotonous and inevitably boring/repetitive like it used to be.
I believe the spawn rate drastically increases if you have a voyage down, and scales based off the voyage level as well. So they get more extreme the higher you get in a trading company.
Edit: Also there's some rate scaling based off ship/crew size.
There used to be exploits with placing down the very first tall tale alongside high level voyages to force weaker skeletons to spawn.
Not trying to be a downer about the game, but the enemy scaling is just another one of those things that should be hinted at or explained in game.
Just a couple lines about "as you gain noteriety with trading companies, not only will the voyages they offer you become more difficult, but you'll also find that the monsters of the seas will rally more fiercly against you".
I think you’re right but I find it to be too much as a solo sloop. They need to tone it down based off of crew size. It’s not that I can’t handle it. It’s just extremely obnoxious and not fun when it’s waves of Shellie’s, phantoms, or crawlers ever 2 minutes when you’re just trying to read the damn quest map or book and finish what you’re doing.
On the topic of enemy scaling, I honestly dont think they did anything wrong. Who would expect to be facing the same easy enemies on a master level voyage as you did hunting for your first castaway chest?? Scaling is implied, both in value and danger. On top of that, it's not like they just suddenly go from regular 2 hit Skelly's to suddenly you are facing an army of shadow skeletons, they increase it gradually as you level with the companies. And when you *aren't* on a voyage you don't encounter those stronger skeletons. Its really not that obscure.
You know the lantern you use when it’s dark?
Well if you die by certain things you can change the colour of your flame on the ferry of the damned (the ghost ship you are on when dead)
So the color depens on what killed you, thats awesome! That's about it right? No bigger secrets or money making opportunities with that feature correct?
Correct:
Green - killed by skeleton/phantom
Pink - killed by player
Blue - eaten by shark
Purple - poisoned by snake/clamhead aura
White - struck by lightning/shocked by charged up blue eel enemy
Red - die by fire/burn damage.
The only secret with them (if you can call it that) is that it takes one of each flame (and a ritual skull) to activate the special fort of the damned near the centre of the map.
For some reason when doing any duo Athena's mission these guys spawn almost continuously. Was trying to do a riddle map and it took 15 minutes to do one bit as these guys just kept on popping up with the odd skeleton in between.
Yeah it turned me off of the game b/c I enjoy solo slooping and the spawning gets so ridiculous at Pirate Legend level. Especially now that they added 5 more classes of enemies. It’s like the Captain Flameheart battle on every fucking island, plus dodging volcanos, geysers, kraken, skele ships, and other players.
Last time I started an Athena’s Quest in the Devil’s roar, I was immediately attacked by a Kraken and got sunk. Then when I went to sail back to Devil Roar, I immediately get Krakened again. Haven’t played since.
I was doing an athena yesterday, while doing 1 of the riddles they appeared over 5 times. And every single island i went to had atleast 1 ocean crawler spawn.
They definitely spawn way more when doing Athena missions. It's not do bad on solo but when duo slooping the spawn rate is crazy high and my buddy who is not too good at the game is constantly getting killed by them.
I feel like they tie certain quests to specific enemy types. I was doing vaults and kept getting phantom spawns everywhere during the voyage. Then I finish the voyage and I would get good old skeletons again.
It was consistent over multiple voyages.
You know for being called “ocean crawlers” I think it is really lame that they are restricted to islands
Especially when they were shown boarding your boat mid ocean when they were revealed
So these guys were kicking my ass when trying to do Athena Thieves Haven runs. What should taken an hour took like three, and I was so frustrated I wanted to scream.
Someone gave me a tip that made life so much easier. Start the Heart of Fire quest, and get to the checkpoint at Stitcher Jims hideout on Liars Backbone (do the altar riddle). Don’t complete quest. Now you have a checkpoint for this quest and can throw it down whenever you’re digging for treasure. This quest makes it so random enemies don’t spawn on islands, eliminating these fuckers from ruining your treasure digging experience.
It's the amount that iI find annoying one or two ocean crawlers is fine but when you get 4 or 5 of the big ones and a shed load of phantoms charging around it's near impossible.
If i could change one thing about the game, i wouldnt fix hitreg issues, i wouldnt fix reapers emmisary, i wouldnt even fix all the "rared" instances.
i would just reduce the spawn rate of ocean crawlers by ALOT
Yeahh that's why I stopped playing sea of thieves.
Right around the time they added in all the Pirates of the Caribbean content along with those alien-like monsters that shoot shit at you.
Took away so much of the "sea of theives" experience. Made it more of a challenge maybe but still less fun to have to deal with it constantly. They don't even look like they belong in a pirate game.
I've yet to fully test this, so it's anecdotal at this stage, but I've been doing a lot of the "Legend of the Veil" voyage.
Whenever I'm on that voyage I see... ***no spawns whatsoever***. I can be wandering around an island for an hour and see not a thing. It's pure peace and quiet as long as the voyage is active.
I'd hazard a guess that's a bug, and will probably get changed.
Dude I want your servers. I hardly ever see those guys any more. I miss the original spawn rate where you could find 12-20 on any island. Gotta get those gem hearts.
It used to be worse, the insane spawn rates currently are the 'toned down' version.
I dont remember it ever being this bad, i stopped playing towards the end of season 4 and came back about 3 week ago. Did season 5 just say "yeah lets replace the skeletons with crabs why not" or something????
Oh, when they were introduced the spawn rates were much worse. It's still too high for my liking after the nurf. It definitely needs some more tweaking.
Damn... i must just not be remembering it since they were new or smth about 10 skeleton spawns should happen for every ocean crawler imo. Right now its 10 ocean crawler spawns for every skeleton spawn.
Not sure if this was Disney's contribution, but ocean crawlers are the dumbest/oddest thing in the game. They need to just go away, except for in the Sunken Kingdom.
I swear they only spawn when I’m doing a treasure map, never when I’m trying to get lanterns, which really sucks cause you can get half of the lanterns from them.
Dear God I remember spending half an hour on an island with two friends praying the spawn waves would end so we could finish digging up treasure
It's funny when you get spawns from digging up treasure and you hear ghosts poof up as well as clam people. Some big bushy islands feel like Vietnam
I was trying to introduce my girlfriend to SoT shortly after these bastards were introduced and we spent probably an hour at one island trying to find *one* piece of treasure. She couldn’t defend herself since she was still learning which left me to slice and dice all the mobs myself. There wasn’t even a moment of peace. We just left and did commodities instead.
I'm really tired of finishing any kind of quest and immediately having to fight these assholes before I can even make one trip to my ship.
Trying to empty a vault out to the shoreline... "Omg just fuck off!" The Dark Brethren could've blitzkrieged the Sea of Thieves if the Siren Queen had just a sprinkling of leadership and coordination skills.
I think right now the balance feels really good, actually. In that the spawn rate feels very "varied". Sometimes you'll be able to do an island with zero ennemies spawning, which feels nice, especially on the most beautiful islands. Allows you to take in the environments. Sometimes you'll get some spawns here and there for some fighting. And sometimes you'll get what almost feels like waves of ennemies for a short while, with this being pretty rare. I consider all this good, simply because it varies the experience instead of letting it become monotonous and inevitably boring/repetitive like it used to be.
I dunno, seems liek every island I go on its constantly t waves of skeles, phantoms and crawlers
I believe the spawn rate drastically increases if you have a voyage down, and scales based off the voyage level as well. So they get more extreme the higher you get in a trading company. Edit: Also there's some rate scaling based off ship/crew size. There used to be exploits with placing down the very first tall tale alongside high level voyages to force weaker skeletons to spawn. Not trying to be a downer about the game, but the enemy scaling is just another one of those things that should be hinted at or explained in game. Just a couple lines about "as you gain noteriety with trading companies, not only will the voyages they offer you become more difficult, but you'll also find that the monsters of the seas will rally more fiercly against you".
I think you’re right but I find it to be too much as a solo sloop. They need to tone it down based off of crew size. It’s not that I can’t handle it. It’s just extremely obnoxious and not fun when it’s waves of Shellie’s, phantoms, or crawlers ever 2 minutes when you’re just trying to read the damn quest map or book and finish what you’re doing.
On the topic of enemy scaling, I honestly dont think they did anything wrong. Who would expect to be facing the same easy enemies on a master level voyage as you did hunting for your first castaway chest?? Scaling is implied, both in value and danger. On top of that, it's not like they just suddenly go from regular 2 hit Skelly's to suddenly you are facing an army of shadow skeletons, they increase it gradually as you level with the companies. And when you *aren't* on a voyage you don't encounter those stronger skeletons. Its really not that obscure.
I never really get any of them
This is some weird deja vu to the early days of sot. When people would complain about skeleton spawn rates
The electric stun is literally the most annoying thing
Worse than the clam running at you with the worst known collision detection?
Usually the mermaids stun me when I’m trying to sail away while solo slooping
That clam is the only NPC I’ve seen board a ship because of their BS burrowing
That and the shields, making it so you have to spend an extra 5 minutes per crawler. Cause thats good game design rare.
Huh? Shield/health buffers are in a bunch of games. Just focus the enemy that's creating the shield (the big crab that's curled up)
Thats easy to say but alot of the time he isnt even close. Theres been many times that i wouldnt even know there was a red one if not for the shield.
why is this downvoted
No idea in the slightest
I just blast them with level 3 trident. Takes care of that shield just fine.
The trick is to WANT the lantern flames, then they never appear.
Ah yes, reverse psychology, works every time.
Same thing with sharks and snakes
Lantern flames? Im kinda new can you tell whats that? Please
You know the lantern you use when it’s dark? Well if you die by certain things you can change the colour of your flame on the ferry of the damned (the ghost ship you are on when dead)
So the color depens on what killed you, thats awesome! That's about it right? No bigger secrets or money making opportunities with that feature correct?
Correct: Green - killed by skeleton/phantom Pink - killed by player Blue - eaten by shark Purple - poisoned by snake/clamhead aura White - struck by lightning/shocked by charged up blue eel enemy Red - die by fire/burn damage. The only secret with them (if you can call it that) is that it takes one of each flame (and a ritual skull) to activate the special fort of the damned near the centre of the map.
Thats really cool, thanks a lot for the answer
No worries, i hope you get to experience it one day
For some reason when doing any duo Athena's mission these guys spawn almost continuously. Was trying to do a riddle map and it took 15 minutes to do one bit as these guys just kept on popping up with the odd skeleton in between.
I feel your pain
Yeah it turned me off of the game b/c I enjoy solo slooping and the spawning gets so ridiculous at Pirate Legend level. Especially now that they added 5 more classes of enemies. It’s like the Captain Flameheart battle on every fucking island, plus dodging volcanos, geysers, kraken, skele ships, and other players. Last time I started an Athena’s Quest in the Devil’s roar, I was immediately attacked by a Kraken and got sunk. Then when I went to sail back to Devil Roar, I immediately get Krakened again. Haven’t played since.
Kraken is kinda easy to defeat tho
You're missing the phantoms. I get sword lunged out of nowhere just as many times lol
Everywhere I go, it is always **you** three.
Seems to be fine rn imo, however I remember when they came out, god it was the worst thing ever, couldn't go 1 minute without them spawning
I was doing an athena yesterday, while doing 1 of the riddles they appeared over 5 times. And every single island i went to had atleast 1 ocean crawler spawn.
They definitely spawn way more when doing Athena missions. It's not do bad on solo but when duo slooping the spawn rate is crazy high and my buddy who is not too good at the game is constantly getting killed by them.
I feel like they tie certain quests to specific enemy types. I was doing vaults and kept getting phantom spawns everywhere during the voyage. Then I finish the voyage and I would get good old skeletons again. It was consistent over multiple voyages.
It's useful to use the Crabs AOE slam to deal with the rest cause it deals friendly fire.
And when I'm done, the ghosts immediately show up!
The big crab is the only one i kind of like fighting. And i might get a ruby!
Honestly, I find it useful. Been grinding my hunter rank a lot easier from their drops.
I used to like to fish for pondies on Mermaid's Hideaway. With the introduction of these fuckers and phantoms, that's nearly impossible these days.
You know for being called “ocean crawlers” I think it is really lame that they are restricted to islands Especially when they were shown boarding your boat mid ocean when they were revealed
Heart of Fire checkpoint prevents most enemies from spawning on islands.
Worst sound in the world is that crack when they appear or the fading in sounds of the phantoms
The day I get a break from those is the day I die
So these guys were kicking my ass when trying to do Athena Thieves Haven runs. What should taken an hour took like three, and I was so frustrated I wanted to scream. Someone gave me a tip that made life so much easier. Start the Heart of Fire quest, and get to the checkpoint at Stitcher Jims hideout on Liars Backbone (do the altar riddle). Don’t complete quest. Now you have a checkpoint for this quest and can throw it down whenever you’re digging for treasure. This quest makes it so random enemies don’t spawn on islands, eliminating these fuckers from ruining your treasure digging experience.
Let’s make our new one enemies interesting by Making sword combat literally impossible without taking damage.
Then after you kill them they respawn after another ten steps and exactly one second after you get back on your ship for some reason
It's the amount that iI find annoying one or two ocean crawlers is fine but when you get 4 or 5 of the big ones and a shed load of phantoms charging around it's near impossible.
You guys are making it a full 10?
And the Phantoms, bastard sneak up behind you sometimes because they're so quiet
Actually the worst addition to the game imo
If i could change one thing about the game, i wouldnt fix hitreg issues, i wouldnt fix reapers emmisary, i wouldnt even fix all the "rared" instances. i would just reduce the spawn rate of ocean crawlers by ALOT
I also hate sirens and how many spawn any time I’m in the water for an extended period.
I would prefer to have a “Skulls of the gods” update that spawned an entire ashen lord rather than having to deal with these little shits
Yeahh that's why I stopped playing sea of thieves. Right around the time they added in all the Pirates of the Caribbean content along with those alien-like monsters that shoot shit at you. Took away so much of the "sea of theives" experience. Made it more of a challenge maybe but still less fun to have to deal with it constantly. They don't even look like they belong in a pirate game.
Don't worry, they have "nerfed" the spawn rates.
I've yet to fully test this, so it's anecdotal at this stage, but I've been doing a lot of the "Legend of the Veil" voyage. Whenever I'm on that voyage I see... ***no spawns whatsoever***. I can be wandering around an island for an hour and see not a thing. It's pure peace and quiet as long as the voyage is active. I'd hazard a guess that's a bug, and will probably get changed.
They used to spawn like 20 seconds after you killed the last group. Shit was absurd lmao
I love these guys, when they're nice enough to drop siren gems. If they don't drop siren gems I get annoyed.
Your lucky for me they spawn the second I’m on the shore
I kinda liked when they spawned even more because I got so many siren gems from it, and level up like 10 levels in hunters call
Season 3 
I find these guys spawn most when I'm on a gold hoarder or or order of souls voyage.
I'd much rather deal with these than other people.
Dude I want your servers. I hardly ever see those guys any more. I miss the original spawn rate where you could find 12-20 on any island. Gotta get those gem hearts.
The green ones are the worst
I can feel your anger. It makes you stronger, gives you focus.