Sea of Thieves alliances guide: how to join and benefits

There are ways in which you could play as a solo pirate in Sea of Thieves, but adventuring is so much more fun and rewarding when you’re part of a crew. Once you’ve gotten a handle on how to play the game, taking on voyages and attacking other players with fellow pirates is where the real fun begins. Alliances make it much easier to coordinate and team up with your fellow scallywags, but how you form them and all the benefits they can provide are somewhat obfuscated. It isn’t as simple as joining a party through a menu like in other games, so follow our treasure map to learn all about how alliances work in Sea of Thieves.

How to join or start an alliance

Alliances aren’t made in menus, but require you to do some work in-game. Just like real pirates, alliances are determined by what flag you’re flying. When you’re sailing near a ship you want to partner up with, climb up your crow’s nest and interact with the flag box. Go to the Alliances tab and choose the Offer Alliance flag. If the other ship is also flying that flag, you can then change your flag to the Join Alliance flag to fully form the alliance. There is no limit on how many ships can be in an alliance at once in one game.

If you ever want to end your alliance, you can just go to the flag box again and choose the Leave Alliance flag, and you will be a solo pirate once more. Alliances will also end when you or the other players leave the game.

What are the benefits of an alliance?

There are several reasons why you would want to form an alliance in Sea of Thieves. The most obvious one is that any ship you are in an alliance with will be visible to you on your Map Table, and vice versa. Also, all allied crews will have their names displayed in purple to be easier to identify. When you place a Voyage on your Voyage Table, it will also appear on all your alliance members’ tables as well. You can also find any treasures associated with alliance members’ Riddle or X Marks the Spot Maps. The biggest benefit, though, is that all rewards earned are shared. If you sell a treasure, not only do you get the full value of it, but any players in your alliance will get 50% of the value too. The only exceptions are Broken Emissary Flags and Reaper’s Chests, which are not shared. Finally, you are allowed to revive downed alliance members while on their ships.

Just know that being in an alliance does not prevent you from attacking and killing the other members. so don’t automatically assume you can trust someone just because you’ve joined an alliance with them.