Before I start, I want to clarify that this isn’t a guide on how to loot the Dark Sea effectively. I don’t want people to follow a rigid ship build I designed or a specific list of to-dos and to-don’ts when grinding for sealed chests. This thread is mostly to inform people about what to expect in the Dark Sea, and let them create their own preferred plan of attack.
I’m making a few assumptions, too:
- You have a Brig
- You are at least somewhat capable in combat
- You have deckhands and quartermasters
I’ll split this up in two different categories:
Environmental Threats
1. Waves
The most consistent headache you have to deal with are the copious amounts of waves that run amok in the Dark Sea. They all come in different sizes and form wherever they want, sometimes imbued with magic. They’ll deal damage to your ship upon impact, with bigger waves hitting even harder (but this can be mitigated by Bracing).
It’s always advised to dodge waves if you can, but if you ever find yourself unable to (such as when you’re boxed in from all sides, or one forms right on top of you), the best you can do is hold down that G key and take the hit.
But the most annoying (and potentially deadly) part about waves is that one can sweep your character along with it, dragging you into the open ocean and preventing you from moving at all until it lets you go some distance away. This makes you easy pickings for sea monsters, and could cause you to drown if you were caught with low stamina. To prevent this, either take command of your ship (or any other position, such as on a cannon, mortar, or attachment), or dodge it by moving your character out of the way.
1b. Closing Waves
Every now and then, one of your Quartermasters will remark that two waves are closing in up ahead or something similar. This is a random event that involves two giant waves spawning and being timed to engulf your ship if you continue on your current path. When you see the quartermaster deliver their warning in the chat, either turn your ship away, or stop it completely to let the waves pass before continuing. Your ship will take immense damage from this, so there’s no point in braving the onslaught with the G key when you have plenty of time to dodge.
2. Whirlpools
A less significant threat are the whirlpools, which will trap your ship in and cause it to take continuous damage. They’re utterly massive compared to the ones that spawn in the War Seas, and there is very little chance that even your brig can escape one if caught. They also sometimes come imbued with magic. However, since they’re stationary, are extremely easy to spot, and aren’t as common as waves, you can easily sail right around them without batting an eye.
3. Lightning
A more annoying and potentially infuriating occurrence is the heavy lightning you’ll encounter. Lightning strikes are incredibly common in the Dark Sea, and come in two forms. Red, and bluish-purple. Both deal immense damage to your ship and character, and there is absolutely no way to counter them; they hit without much warning at all. All you can do is pray that one doesn’t decide to come down right on top of you.
Bluish-purple strikes are your traditional lightning bolts and strike once, dealing 600-some damage to anything it hits at a minimum. They paralyze you and knock you off your ship’s helm.
The red lightning has the same effects, but strikes three times and does 300-some damage at a minimum each, totalling up to 900 or more since your character will be stunned and unable to move before the second and third ones hit.
Both of these are terrifying to encounter as they can obliterate your run instantaneously, especially when you’re recovering lost hp after a previous fight. Hilariously enough, they may sometimes hit enemy NPCs and put them at a massive hp disadvantage for you, which is probably the only upside to their existence.
4. Magic Rain
A somewhat less common occurrence is magic rain, which is basically just giant magic projectiles falling from the sky over a large patch of area. You won’t encounter them too often, and they can mostly be regarded as a more bearable form of lightning. You’ll take heavy damage when getting struck by one, but you have a much smaller chance of dying to them, and there’s actually the option to sail around the rain if you spot it in the distance.
5. Magic Tornadoes
Treat this as a whirlpool that’s actually kind of a nuisance. Tornadoes of a random magic type can spawn in any place they want, including smack in the middle of the island you’re trying to loot, or even on top of your ship. Normally, they spawn in the distance and are crazy easy to spot and thus dodge, but they can decimate your ship’s hp if you sail too close to them, or pick your character up and hurl them into the air.
The only exception are Shadow tornadoes, since their black color blends in perfectly to the Dark Sea’s atmosphere. You may find yourself sailing directly into one unwittingly, so the best way to avoid Shadow tornadoes is to listen for their distinct howl and sail away from it.
6. Poisonous Rain
From Insanity 1 onwards, your character may suffer from poisonous rain, which causes you to take relentless damage until you either seek shelter or wash it off in the brig’s bath. It cannot be predicted and can afflict your character at any moment, but upon clearing, there’s at least a long cooldown before you can be afflicted again.
7. Lava & Starlight
Pools of lava can be found on volcanic islands. These deal immense damage if your character falls into them. In fact, they do so much damage that the pools will stun you and prevent you from escaping, resulting in a rather embarrasing way to die in the Dark Sea.
Liquid Starlight pools are uncommonly found on regular islands. They look like a bare white surface from a distance and poison you heavily if you jump into them. They aren’t as punishing as the lava pools, and more or less deal as much damage as Poisonous Rain. To prevent it from killing you, jump out and wait for the status effect to clear.
Live Threats
1. Sea Monsters
All the sea monsters in the Dark Sea are giant versions of their regular selves, with each species possessing twice as much health as they normally do. The most common sea monster you’ll encounter is the 7000hp-strong Giant White Eyes, while regular sharks and Giant Poison Jaws are less common.
You may hear a familiar groaning noise periodically when travelling in the Dark Sea. This isn’t anything to worry about by itself. It’s only when your quartermaster shouts out an alert in chat and you see the fatass’s healthbar appear should you start scanning your surroundings. When this happens, Giant White Eyes has aggroed onto you and will eventually close in to inflict massive damage on your ship if left alone.
It is heavily advised to simply drive it away by hitting it once with a ranged attack, since upon taking damage, GWE will dive into the water and break off its pursuit. It is extremely hard to fight it for its drops, since in the open ocean, you risk getting thrown into the water by a wave. And if you attack it too much, it’ll aggro on you again and make a beeline towards your ship.
2. Island Atlanteans
On a good number of the islands that you visit, you’ll find hostile NPCs on structures who’ll attack you with weapons, fighting styles, and magic. These are the Atlanteans, and they’re divided into tiers based on their difficulty.
The further into the Dark Sea you sail, the more dangerous and higher-level they get. At Insanity 0 range, you’ll only encounter Lost Sailors, Lesser-Mutated Atlanteans, and low-level Mutated Atlanteans. All of these the average player can easily overpower and aren’t that big of a threat.
It’s only when you get into Insanity 2 or greater that Atlanteans become more trouble than they’re worth, possessing immense health pools, dealing heavy damage, and having a terrifyingly fast running speed. It’s up to you to decide whether to fight or avoid them, but on larger islands, it may actually be viable to fight a high-level Atlantean if you have plenty of open space to retreat and dodge around in.
3. Atlantean Ships
A more dangerous foe to meet in the open ocean are the Atlantean Ships, extremely durable vessels crewed by numerous Lost Sailors and led by Atlanteans. They’ll only come in Ketches and Brigs, and the further into the Dark Sea you go, the more heavily-armored they get and the more powerful their crews become. Atlantean ships will only spawn from Insanity 1 range onwards, and will aggro on your ship immediately.
Atlantean Ketches can be regarded as cannon fodder, since they only possess a fraction of a brig’s firepower, no ram, no mortar, and slower speed. Sinking them will grant a welcomed health boost to your ship.
Atlantean Brigs, on the other hand, are much more formidable. Armed with hard-hitting cannons and mortars, they won’t go down without a hard fight, which may or may not end with a net loss of your ship’s hp.
Regardless, you still need to kill the crew of the ship after you sink it if you want to loot it. Although the enemies are familiar, doing combat on the close-quarters deck of a ship is a lot trickier than on land, especially since you have to consider the relentless waves and potential sea monsters prowling the waters around you. It is recommended to sail a good distance away from a sunken Atlantean ship, before picking off its crew one at a time with long-ranged attacks.
Moreover, Arcane Odyssey might think it’ll be a fun idea to spawn multiple Atlantean ships at the same time and have them all pursue you. Speaking from experience, the most ships I’ve ever had to deal with all at once is three, but more experienced Dark Sea explorers probably seen more than that.
4. Sirens
From Insanity 1 onwards, you may hear distant singing. Following the noise will lead you to a Siren island, which is populated by at least three Sirens (the number will increase the further you travel). These enemies are notorious for their flying capabilities and fast magic or bow attacks. They can quickly overwhelm you as they often strike from different directions with vision-impairing spells and can zip around in the air to dodge any return fire. However, they are generally pretty fragile and take less hits to kill than most Atlanteans.
One way to take them down without much hassle is to hide behind the rock at the top of their island and play a game of angles, only revealing yourself to one Siren’s line of sight at a time (thus aggroing one instead of all) and dealing with them sequentially.
I’ve noted Bronze Sea in the title because Vetex said that he’ll release a DS update after he finishes each sea, so this way people in the future will know that this is outdated (until I get around to adding whatever comes after Nimbus Sea).
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