10. The Future of Hourglass PVP

Since Season 9 comes to the Sea of Thieves later this week, I thought it was a good time to look back on Season 8... And talk about the future of its key feature: hourglass PVP.

Will the Hourglass become a constant part of life on the Sea of Thieves (like an emissary flag) or will it disappear with Season 8?

1. The Success of Season 7 (Captaincy)

In their podcasts and public statements, Rare developers have constantly stressed that, unlike the Sunken Kingdom or Sea Forts of earlier updates, Season 7 (Captaincy) and Season 8 (Hourglass PVP) were not simply new additions to the game map. Instead, they were designed to provide new infrastructure systems that change the way we play the game.

So far, Season 7 (Captaincy) has been very successful in this regard. In Season 8, Rare introduced new milestones (a Captaincy feature) related to Hourglass PVP. By advancing these milestones, players could unlock ship decorations and trinkets inspired by the new Guardians of Fortune and Servants of Flame factions.

Similarly, when Season 9 launches later this week, I expect there will be new milestones and rewards relating to the new treasures and features that come with that update. We've already learned that there will be a commendation for selling the new Chests of Fortune, which can only be found at Forts of Fortune. Personally, I'm hoping there are (Captaincy) milestones that records how many stolen Chests of Fortune we've sold... and that advancing this milestone will reward us with a trinket of the Chest of Fortune for our ships.

Since the beginning, stealing Chests of Legends has been the "end game" of the Sea of Thieves. The "Legendary Thief" commendation for stealing five Chests of Legends was a fun idea... but after you finished the commendation the game stopped tracking our steals. Season 9's Chest of Fortune (pictured above) will likely become the Chest of Legends 2.0. The Captaincy milestone and logbook features would be an excellent way for players to track (and show off!) their steals.

2. The Problem of Season 8 (Hourglass PVP)

As described above, Rare can add new milestones and trinkets each season, effortlessly using the features of Season 7 to keep players engaged. But can they do the same with Season 8's Hourglass PVP? What incentives will players have to engage in Hourglass PVP in Season 9 and beyond? 

Of course, many people will continue diving below the waves to grind the rewards that they couldn't obtain before Season 8 ended. And as I suggested in my January piece How to Enjoy Season 8, I expect the hourglass will continue as the popular choice for server hopping. 

But if that is all, then Season 8 isn't really that different from Season 4, which introduced the sunken kingdoms. With the exception of "The Sirens' Prize" (Adventure 7) in September 2022, since Season 4 ended the shrines are mainly visited by players who either did not finish the commendations during Season 4, or to harvest tridents for PVE encounters. 

HitboTC talks about how to farm tridents to speed up your PVE adventures.

My understanding is that Rare wants Season 8 (Hourglass PVP) to be like Season 7 (Captaincy) — a feature that players will use often in normal sessions. They do not want it to be like Season 4 (Sunken Kingdoms) or a Tall Tale — something that players grind for four months then almost never use again.

If Rare wants Hourglass PVP to become a permanent part of the game like Captaincy, they are going to have to make some changes. Below, I offer a few suggestions that I think could make adventures more exciting and encourage players to continue using Hourglass PVP after Season 8 ends.

Suggestion 1: Add Seasonal Hourglass Rewards

One obvious solution is to add new rewards for both the Guardians of Fortune and the Servants of Flame factions. 

Currently, the top reward for each faction is at level 1000. In the long term, I think Rare should certainly continue to raise the level cap and add new rewards for the most dedicated and skilled hourglass users.

But in the short term, I think Rare should create new commendations each season that require a player to use the hourglass while enjoying the new season's features. Completing these commendations will give players access to new cosmetics.

For example, as mentioned above, Season 9 will introduce a new Chest of Fortune and encourage players to do world events, especially the Fort of Fortune and Fort of the Damned. New commendations might include completing the Fort of the Damned 50 times with the hourglass active, or stacking three of the new Chests of Fortune on your ship at once. There might also be a commendation for stealing the new chest from a crew that you invade by diving with the hourglass 

Season 9 will center around chaotic, multi-crew battles over the Fort of Fortune and Fort of the Damned. By adding Hourglass PVP commendations into the mix, Rare has an opportunity to compound the chaos!

Suggestion 2: Reveal Rival Ships on the Map

During Season 8, most hourglass PVP seemed to involve two diving crews. Occasionally, one diving crew would invade a defensive crew. And once in a blue moon, hourglass players might run into each other on the map. Many players are sick of diving and eager to return to adventure in Season 9. Rare should find new ways to encourage PVP among players who use the hourglass without diving.

Creating new commendations every season as described above will certainly lead to a lot of players using the hourglass while they play. This alone would increase the likelihood of organic encounters between Hourglass users.

But I think it also might be nice if players who activate the hourglass could see ships of the rival faction on their map. Unlike Reaper emissaries and hourglass faction champions, who are visible to all players, I am suggesting that non-champion Servants will only be visible to players using the Guardian hourglass and vice versa.

This would encourage even more PVP among hourglass players on the adventure mode map.

Currently, by far the most efficient way to gain allegiance with the new PVP factions is to constantly dive in search of other hourglass users. These players are effectively removed from adventure mode as they constantly dive in search of new opponents. This problem could be mitigated if players could see the location of all hourglass users of the opposing faction on their map.

Suggestion 3: Add Hourglass Faction Ledgers

There are already emissary ledgers for the five main factions (Gold Hoarders, Merchant Alliance, Order of Souls, Reapers, and Athena). These are a kind of leaderboard that reset every month. At the end of the month, you get a reward based on how high you managed to get on the emissary ledgers. (Top 25%, Top 50 %, etc.)

Adding a ledger to the hourglass PVP factions (and giving rewards to players for ranking high in the ledgers) would encourage picaroons to activate the hourglass when they play. The ledger could be based on money earned from selling hourglasses and emissary flags... but I think a "rival ships sunk" counter would be even more interesting and in the PVP-focused spirit of these factions.

A monthly Emissary Ledger for the PVP factions would let players compete for the most sinks. Rewards (and glory!) for the highest scoring pirates would keep Hourglass PVP fresh each month.

Suggestion 4: Gold Bonus for Stacking Treasure with Hourglass

One of the biggest missed opportunities in Season 8 was the "Treasure Stash" meter that activates when you use the hourglass. 

Currently, if you amass treasure while you have the hourglass active, you receive a modest allegiance bonus for defending your stash and selling the hourglass. The bigger the stash and the more invading rival faction ships you sink to defend your stash, the bigger the allegiance bonus.

This is a nice idea, but it is not a very efficient way to earn allegiance. Rare (correctly, I think) kept the allegiance bonus low so that players would not level up the new factions through PVE. But the result is that it just doesn't feel that rewarding to stack treasure while using the hourglass.

Rare could make stacking treasure with the hourglass active far more attractive if they simply gave players a gold multiplier bonus. A rank 5 stash might give you a x2.5 bonus multiplier that stacks with an emissary flag for a total x5 gold bonus. In other words, stacking with an hourglass could be like a second emissary flag. This kind of bonus would definitely encourage players to activate the hourglass while engaging in normal adventure activities.

If this bonus seems like too much, they might make an additional requirement that you have to defend your stash at least once in order to activate the bonus. For example, if you reach Rank 5 stash without being invaded, you would get zero bonus from the hourglass. But if you defeat an invader before selling, you would unlock a x2.5 bonus.

In any case, with a few tweaks, the "stash" feature has the potential to encourage players to stack a lot of treasure on their ships, which would lead to some exciting and profitable PVP encounters!

This is the pop-up that appears when you look at the hourglass on your ship. Do you see the five-tiered progress bar on the bottom? This is your "treasure stash" grade. As you amass treasure on your ship, this grade will go up. By giving players a generous gold bonus for building this up to rank 5, Rare could encourage more players to use the hourglass.

Suggestion 5: Give Faction Champions Adventure Bonuses 

Currently, it is quite rare to find a faction champion. I'm sure this is largely because it is not easy to get four consecutive wins. But my understanding is that many players sell their hourglass after two or three wins for the gold and allegiance.

There should be more rewards to encourage people to strive for and maintain this rank. One simple solution is to massively increase the allegiance and gold players receive after becoming champions. The risk needs to be more tempting.

Some in the community have suggested that faction champions receive a quest for a rare chest. Perhaps it could be the new Chest of Fortune? If Faction Champions (who are already visible to all on the map) were likely to have a Chest of Fortune, pirates would flock to them like moths to a flame.

HitboTC has suggested that Champions get a gold bonus for selling treasure. Perhaps this could stack with the emissary multiplier and the stash bonus I describe in Suggestion 4 above for a super bonus! 😵

I think all of these suggestions are exciting because they would not only encourage players to use the Hourglass, but they would also encourage Champions to stick around on a server and participate in Adventure mode. What a terrifying and exciting thing it would be to spot a Champion on the horizon!

Conclusion

Currently, Hourglass PVP is not all that different from Arena. Players constantly dive in search of opponents and do not participate in adventure mode shenanigans. In its current state, I am worried that it will be fade after Season 8 ends, similar to how the Sunken Kingdom and Sea Fortresses faded after the seasons that introduced them came to a close.

Nevertheless, I believe that Hourglass PVP can survive and remain relevant, just like Season 7's Captaincy features have remained relevant in Season 8. In order for Hourglass PVP to survive, I think that the Hourglass has to be more useful in Adventure mode.

Hourglass PVP has the potential to become as popular and powerful as emissary flags. The suggestions above might help it realize that potential!