But how do you bury your own treasure in Sea of Thieves? What are buried treasure map bundles? And how does the Quest Board work? This SoT guide will tell you everything you need know!
How to Bury Treasure in Sea of Thieves
Burying treasure in Sea of Thieves is easy. First, you’ll need to collect some loot. This can be almost anything, from treasure chests to skulls, to item boxes, kegs, and even chickens in coops (don’t worry, they’ll be fine!). Really, your buried treasure hoard can be whatever you want it to be!
Set the item you want to bury on some dirt and pull out your shovel. Press the “secondary use” button — typically mapped to the left trigger on a controller and RMB on a mouse — to start scooping dirt.
Work that shovel a bit and your buried treasure will disappear below the surface, with nothing but some slightly disturbed dirt to indicate its location.
Custom Buried Treasure Maps & Map Bundles Explained
Once you have fully buried treasure in the dirt, a custom map will appear in your inventory, with X marking the spot. If you bury more items on an island, more X’s will appear, with up to 10 per map. You can bury things on other islands too, and each island will generate its own chart.
The buried treasure maps will also appear on your ship’s Voyage Table as a map bundle. You will want to be careful with this physical representation of your maps: map bundles can be stolen by other crews. They can be snatched directly off of the table, and if your ship sinks, map bundles will float to the surface, ready to be nabbed by whoever gets to them first.
As a well-to-do-pirate, you will want to take care of your maps and map bundles, and keep an eye out for opportunities to steal some new ones from other players.
How to Use the Sea of Thieves Quest Board for Buried Treasure
Sure, stashing loot as buried treasure is a fun part of the Sea of Thieves experience, but we all know sharing is caring. That’s where the Quest Board comes in. Once you’ve created some treasure maps, you can return to an Outpost or Seapost and find the Quest Board near the docks. Interact with it and navigate to the My Maps section. Every sharable treasure map you have will be displayed here, and you can select which maps to post.
Posting a map makes it available for other pirates to find on the Quest Board. If another crew takes your map and finds the treasure, you will receive a full share of the renown and reputation. Best of all, this can happen anytime, even while you are offline.
Don’t be surprised to drop off a few maps, and come back days later to see a message informing you of the renown you’ve earned from buried treasure. If a crew never takes your map, you will still eventually earn reputation and renown for posting it, but a lesser amount than if a crew had found it.
You are welcome to take other player-created maps from the Quest Board as well. These will be listed in the Quest Board section. Buried treasure maps are generally divided into stashes and hoards, with hoards having more loot. Still, you won’t know in advance the type or quantity of the buried treasure, so it is a bit of a gamble. It could be a mountain of valuable loot, random fruit, or event kegs set as traps.
You can discard buried treasure maps you aren’t interested in, but keep in mind that you are limited to five maps from the quest board per day. Beggars can’t be choosers.
Buried treasure is a great new addition to Sea of Thieves. It’s a perfect thematic fit and can be a great strategic move for earning renown and reputation. But don’t forget, there is plenty more to do once you’ve buried and uncovered loot to your heart’s content. You can search out some hidden journals in a Siren Shrine, or take on the Sunken Kingdom Voyage. For those, and everything Sea of Thieves, be sure to check out our dedicated SoT guides hub.