7. The Ghost Curse

Season 8 introduced new PVP features built around a war between the new Guardians of Fortune and Servants of Flame factions. When you reach level 100 in either faction, you will receive a curse: the ghost curse from the Guardians and the skeleton curse from the Servants. Jimi has already reached level 100 in the Guardians faction, so today I would like to talk about my first impressions of the ghost curse.

1. Ghoulish Shenanigans

Chances are, you've died a lot in the Sea of Thieves and have already seen a ghost version of your character on the Ferry of the Damned. The ghost curse is pretty much the same thing with some sparkles.

With the ghost curse, your character will look a bit like the Pirate Lord or Pendragon... or just some unfortunate victim of spawn-campers ruminating about his life choices on the Ferry of the Damned!

While previous curses were similar to tattoos or makeup, only partially affecting your appearance, the new ghost and skeleton curses completely change your character. It's entertaining to see the reactions of other players!

Recently, a video by the Sea of Thieves streamer and YouTuber Blurbs received over one million views. In the video, Blurbs uses the skeleton curse and pretends to be a skeleton fort NPC. (Click here to see Blurbs' video!)

As a ghost, your character can easily blend in with phantom NPCs at sea fortresses. Recently, one of my crewmates was spooked when he saw my character carrying a powder keg through a sea fortress. For a moment, he thought I was a new kind of phantom NPC, akin to the skeletons with powder kegs. Shouting "Wow!!!" he ran away as fast as his peg leg could carry him!

Scare friend and foe alike as a gunpowder phantom!

2. A Truly Legendary Experience

After you reach level 100 in the Guardians faction, you can access a new area in the Pirate Legend hideout. There, you will receive the curse (or "blessing" as they prefer to call it) from the Pirate Lord himself in a rather inspiring ceremony, complete with speech and song.

You can find many videos of the ceremony online, but I recommend you wait to experience it for yourself. That is what I did, and it was worth it. The cinematic and curse are fitting rewards for the dedication it takes to reach level 100.

I think this is the kind of reward we all wanted when we became Pirate Legends back in the day. Rare has delivered a truly legendary experience for players who persevere in Season 8! 👍

Upon reaching level 100, Jimi got to shake hands with the Pirate Lord himself!

3. Cursed Commendations and Emotes are a Great Idea!

Before Season 8, there were five curses available to players on the Sea of Thieves. Each of these curses required a bit of work to complete. They were the reward for a long grind. You could use them as a cosmetic to show off your achievements, but obtaining the curse was the end of the road. 

The original curses were a little scary, don't you think? 😰 Jimi collected them all, but they were so intimidating he never used them!

In contrast, the Season 8 ghost and skeleton curses are milestones in a long journey. To drive this point home, Rare has added commendations for completing certain achievements while equipping these curses. These achievements include repeating old Tall Tales, winning battles, or defeating Ashen Lords or phantoms.

Wearing the ghost curse, Jimi revisits Flameheart and Pendragon in the Seabound Soul Tall Tale.

The new curses have special emotes that can only be used while the curse is equipped. In the past, many outfits (usually available only on the Pirate Emporium) had this feature, but this is the first time curses have had unique emotes. The emotes really make the curses feel special.

Jimi has spent many, many years at sea, so this standing while sleeping (or sleeping while standing) emote is perfect!

In short, through commendations and emotes, Rare encourages us to use these new curses. As someone who never equipped curses before, I really like this idea. It's nice to have an incentive to wear a curse. Some of the emotes would be fun to use in our non-cursed forms. Perhaps the curse emotes could be added as rewards for completing all of the curse achievements?

In any case, I hope that Rare will consider adding special commendations and emotes to the old curses down the road.