Sea of Thieves is an upcoming multiplayer pirate game scheduled to release in March 2026. It’s a pirate game, and pirates often say the world is a sea of troubles. As such, the Tall Tales Riddle Guide is designed to help you solve your troubles. How? It’s a series of riddle guides, each containing a series of riddles that you can solve in order to get a reward.
Sea of Thieves is a game that is filled with tons of misconceptions. Some of these misconceptions are perhaps a result of the game not really being ready for launch, while others are just made up stories put out by players to get an edge. One of the most prevalent of these misconceptions is the story that Captain Windfall of the Grey Fox, a ship with an enormous treasure chest, could not be found on the ship the entire game.
For starters, the characters you meet on Sea of Thieves are not the same as the ones in the game. These people are, in fact, a collection of tall tales, riddles and puzzles, for you to answer. The sea is filled with many such mysteries waiting to be solved—and below, we’ll share some of the most common Sea of Thieves riddles and tall tales.
Learn how to answer the difficult riddles of the Tall Tales and become a pirate legend.
The Tall Tale of the Shores of Gold is made up of nine distinct journeys.
The Shroudbreaker journey is the first in the series, and it sets the tone for the rest of the adventure. Depending on your crew, how aggressive other players are, and how fast you attempt to accomplish each stage, each trip may take anywhere from two to three hours.
Because this is the first trip of its type in the Sea of Thieves, it’s well worth your time to take it all in.
How to Begin the Sea of Thieves Tall Tales
When you reach the mission’s conclusion, the main individual you interacted with at the beginning will usually tell you where to locate the next trip. The Mysterious Stranger, for example, will disclose that Madame Olivia at Plunder Outpost may know anything once you complete the Shroudbreaker.
However, there are times when the quest-giver provides you with minimal information. Follow this instructions or open the Tall Tale, highlight the trip you desire, and click the “further details” option to find out where you should travel next.
You must finish the Shores of Gold Tall Tale in order the first time you play it. Once you’ve completed the Tall Tale, you may go on any trip at any time. Because you haven’t completed the prior trips, you may come across diaries in the wild that you can’t engage with when you first start.
Totem Cheat Sheet for Sea of Thieves
Here’s a cheat sheet for the Sea of Thieves totems you’ll earn during Tall Tales’ major tasks; you’ll need to refer to it later.
The Shroudbreaker, Stars of a Thief, or The Art of the Trickster Tall Tale are the only ways to get these Totems.
These Totems are Trinket-sized and may be stored in Container Chests. The appropriate Totem Vault will be unlocked by each of these Totem Keys. The Keyholes are square-shaped sculptures tucked away amid the rocks, with Totem Cave Paintings nearby.
Totem Keys may only be used by the crew undertaking the Tall Tale, and they cannot be sold to any Trading Company. The Tall Tale will fail if the Totem Key is lost or submerged.
On Large Islands, there are six different kinds of Totem Keys that are needed to open the corresponding Totem Vaults:
| Totem | Vault | Island | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Totem of the Moon | Vault of the Moon | The Isle of Crescents | Inside the Cave system’s northern reaches. |
| Totem of the Snake | Snake Vault is a vault that houses snakes. | Hideaway of the Mermaid | In the shadow of the North Western Arch. |
| Totem of the Scarab | Vault of the Scarab | Crook’s Hollow is a place in Crook’s Hollow. | Close to the waterfall, on the southern cave wall. |
| Totem of the Boar | Vault of the Boar | Devil’s Ridge is a mountain range in the United States. | On the South East shore, among the rocks. |
| Totem Shark | Vault of the Sharks | The Fall of the Kraken | To the north, under the Great Arch, among the rocks. |
| Totem of the Crab | Vault of the Crab | Uncharted Territory (N-13) | Among the coral reefs, in an underwater cave. |
Riddles of the Cursed Rogue
Sea of Thieves is another basic collection of puzzles. In The Cursed Rogue, you are tasked with tracking down the remains of Briggsy, a Pirate Lord.
You’ll need to pay attention to the island images in the narrative to locate the Skeleton Key. These images will provide information about the island where the Skeleton Key is hidden. Every player’s island will be unique, so you’ll have to depend on the picture clues to help you locate the correct one.
- Snake Island is part of the “Northern Ancient Isles” group.
- Shark Bait Cove – “Southern Ancient Isles”
- Devil’s Ridge from “Eastern Ancient Isles”
You should find several skeletons eager for a scrap (and with the aforementioned key!) if you get to the appropriate area.
When you come across Captain Avery, a skeleton captain who is guarding the key, you’ll know you’ve discovered it. You’ll have to fight and kill the captain in order for him to drop the key. Take it back with you after you’ve received it from him, and you’ll be ready to begin the next phase of the journey.
You’ll need the chest now that you’ve obtained the key – if you flip the pages of your quest book, you’ll discover another entry that specifies specific places (which correlate to landmarks in the book’s drawings!) Check out our route planner to see where you need to travel.
- Sketch of three Maoi heads – Thieves’ Haven
- Plunder Valley bird statue drawing
- Crook’s Hollow rowing skeleton drawing
Riddles from the Legendary Storyteller
This is when things become a little difficult. There are various puzzles in The Legendary Storyteller that correlate to the childish entries in your log book, and they are randomized each time you start the quest.
We’ve included the names of some of Tasha’s stories below, along with the matching island you’ll need to visit; hopefully your book matches up!
- Treasure Hunting – K9 (Uncharted Island with shipwreck)
- Mermaid’s Hideaway – Fish Friends
- Old Salts Atoll is under attack by baddies.
- The Crooked Masts – Monster Hunting (Shipwreck)
- Scurvy Isle – Naughty Man
- Lone Cove has the smallest boat.
Later on, you’ll be handed a plank and given another series of riddles; all you have to do is flip the plank to discover the precise locations where you need go to line up the broken pieces – spoilers!
Riddles of a Thief’s Stars
Stars of a Thief is much more perplexing than the previous game, requiring the explanation of an entire system in order to comprehend its major puzzles. But we’ll get to it later; the first one is pretty straightforward.
The instructions on how to locate the Ancient Spyglass will read one or two ways when you first open your journal – here’s where to go and dig:
- Rum Runner’s Isle – “Face the North Star” (near a solitary hanging lantern)
- Twin Groves – “My back to the North Star” (beneath a tree between two rocks)
Things start to become more complicated after that’s worked out. The spyglass displays constellations in the sky that correlate to puzzle entries, which you must decode in order to locate the Star Jewels. We could list it by entry, but because we don’t know whether we have all of them (they’re all random, just as in The Legendary Storyteller), it’s simpler to demonstrate how the constellations operate.
(Image courtesy of rarethief.com)
You receive a geographical location and a constellation direction to follow in every puzzle we’ve discovered. We’re certain you can solve the case on your own by looking up the location in your provided entry and following the instructions. Here’s what each constellation means in terms of direction:
- North of the Great Kraken
- North/North-East Sea Queen
- North-Eastern Boar
- East/North-East fish
- East – Great Warrior/Warmonger
- East/South-East Crab
- South-East Scarab
- South/Southeast Feather
- South Atlantic One-Eyed Shark
- South/South-West Bear
- South-West arrow
- West/South-West Flame
- West – Boat
- West/North-West Snake
- North West – Eagle
- North/North-West Turtle
So, if you get the order to “Follow arrow to land unmarked,” you’d look for the direction that corresponds to the Arrow constellation, which in this instance is south-west from your specified position.
Simply take your gems to N13’s subterranean cave to lock them in place and obtain the totem, which, when followed (see the Totem cheat sheet! ), will unlock the ancient chamber.
The second puzzle part begins after you’ve entered; however, now that you’ve grasped the constellation system, it’ll be simple. In this part, you’ll be given a randomized two-stanza poem. Each line, however, correlates to the constellation descriptions in your textbook. You’ll be able to deduce what each line says if you navigate there. The list continues on and on: “Warmonger” means Great Warrior, “Old Mother” implies Kraken, and so on. After you’ve mapped each line to a symbol, match up the blocks in the chamber to accomplish the task. Phew!
Riddles of the Wild Rose
Returning to more straightforward riddles — You must solve a long-winded mystery involving two lovers in The Wild Rose. It will first ask you to locate the Chest of Memories using the quest book’s diary notes.
There are three main places where it may be discovered, and they’re all listed in the logbook – so go to Boulder Cay, Rapier Cay, or Sandy Shallows, depending on what your journal says.
After you’ve dug out the chest, look for the souvenirs, which include a music box and a spice box that can be turned into an enchanted compass. Because this is another instance of randomized entries, below are the titles of each entry and their associated islands:
- Wanderer’s Refuge – Our First Dance
- Lagoon of Whispers – Our First Kiss
- The pig hunt is on! – Sands of Salt
- I’m doing what I’m greatest at! Boulder Cay is a small island in the Bahamas.
- It was the day we discovered our pendants! – Sea Dogs Take a Break
- Lonely Isle (Day 81)
- Lone Cove – Our First Bounty
- The Debate – Twin Groves
- Sailor’s Bounty is the ideal plan.
- Smuggler’s Bay – Our Promises
- – Cannon Cove – We made it through our first ambush!
In certain cases, additional steps are required — for example, in ‘Our First Dance,’ you must watch their motions to determine the precise position of the chest – each entry includes a drawing of Rose and George standing over a specific spot – underneath them is nearly always where the chest is!
Trickster Riddles: An Art Form
Returning to perplexing riddles, The Art of the Trickster transports you to Plunder Valley, where you will encounter Salty the parrot. Once you’ve started the quest, go to a nearby cave and rearrange several skeletons in order to free the imprisoned spyglass. Follow the steps below:
- “Captain points to the fire and ash” – The skeleton should point to the fire.
- “Hand-in-hand, two lovers confront their fate.” – Make the skeletons that are married clasp hands (ugh!)
- “The thief hides behind a gold mask.” – Interact with the skeleton holding the mask until they put it on.
- “The Rum Runner put her drink to rest” – Double-check that the skeleton who is drinking is really drinking.
The cage with the spyglass will be dropped as a result of this. Sorted! Now that you’ve got that, go back through your quest book to find the location of the markings on Discovery Ridge or Plunder Valley – for some reason, the authors of this book have figured out LIDAR, so they’ve made the process simple by marking the skull on each map – simply stand on the point and align the eyes of the broken spyglass on the objects in your eyeline to find the key.
The remainder of the mission is straightforward: leave the island and go to Sailor’s Bounty, where you’ll find a skeleton fragment and a slew of traps. Best of luck!
Riddles of the Morningstar’s Fate
Once you’ve started this mission by going to the Ferry of the Damned (feed the sharks! ), you’ll be told to go to the highest peak of either Kraken’s Fall or Marauder’s Arch (check the wording in your logbook) and you’ll find a sarcophagus with an Enchanted Lantern inside – which will reveal spooky ghosts!
Once you have the light, go to Old Faithful Isle and follow the Morningstar crew’s footsteps across the island, finding the relevant keys to release them. The only thing to keep in mind is that to locate the treasure in the end, you must utilize the map behind the trio, where X designates the location on the island where you must dig — there are no other puzzles to solve.
Riddles of the Morningstar’s Revenge
The logs are in an underwater shipwreck on the south side of Boulder Cay – the next part of the quest is a chest, which is also found here, underneath a palm tree on the opposite end of Boulder Cay – head to Boulder Cay – the logs are in an underwater shipwreck on the south side of the island – the next part of the quest is a chest, which is also found here, underneath a palm tree on the opposite end of Boulder Cay –
Once you’ve put on your fancy new outfit, head to Cannon Cove and kill Captain Gripper for Graymarrow’s Orders, which add a code and a legend to your quest book. There’s no secret to this riddle; all you have to do is match the symbols to the legend, and the game will direct you to the skull – the answers are all laid out for you. Ours was discovered in a cave.
Now go to Sunken Grove, fight Captain Shaw, and take the instructions to decipher the chalice’s location. You may believe you’re done after you acquire the chalice, but you still have to fight Greymarrow. Study your orders again for the last puzzle – on the penultimate page, there will be a letter and a number surrounded by apostrophes – ‘Q’ for Cannon Cove and ‘3′ for Sunken Grove – combine them to obtain Q3, the co-ordinates you’ll need to locate Graymarrow and have your final confrontation. Best of luck!
Riddles of Gold Shores
It’s finally time to set sail for the Golden Shores, but how do you get there?
You’ll find yourself in this mystery pirate el dorado if you go to the Devil’s Shroud.
Once there, you’ll need four tokens from four vaults, each with its own mystery. Here’s how to deal with them.
- West Vault: Look for four circles on the map on the vault’s center table. Normally, you’d have to hunt out the symbols on your own, but this is a guide, darn it! Kraken, Shark, Turtle, and Flame are in order from left to right.
- North Vault: Stay away from the spikes and spin the blocks twice until they’re all the same color. You’re searching for snakes the first time, then the three figures holding a flame the second time.
- East Vault: Look up at the ceiling for a Gold Hoarders key configuration – just create that shape out of the blocks and escape with the token!
- South Vault: Light the braziers and go through your book for the Southern Vault log; you’re searching for the symbols that are unique to each pillar and can be discovered in any sequence. Grab the medallion by rotating!
Once you’ve obtained the tokens, just place them in the southern Compass Vault, and the remainder of the quest will be a linear run through a trap-filled room, culminating in a devastating boss fight with the Gold Hoarder!
Take your spoils, great pirate!
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Frequently Asked Questions
What do you get for completing tall tales sea of thieves?
You get a treasure map, which will lead you to a chest of gold.
What order should I play tall tales sea of thieves?
The order of the game is not important, but you should play through each story to get a better understanding of the world and its lore.
What is the hardest Tall Tale in sea of thieves?
The Kraken is a legendary sea monster that has been featured in many Tall Tales. Its said to be the largest and most fearsome creature of all time, and it will eat anything that comes near it.
