The Cargo Run voyages in Sea of Thieves give you the chance to act as a courier between NPCs in the game. You’ll have to set out to meet with one at a distinct location, retrieve their shipment, and then ferry it across the sea to the recipient. You’ll have a certain amount of time to do that, so if you’re grabbing one of these voyages, make sure you can complete it with your crew in a timely fashion.
The Cargo Runs are available from any Merchant Alliance company representatives. You can find them at any of the outposts.
Buying a Cargo Run and securing your cargo
You can normally find any of the Merchant Alliance representatives closer to the docks at an outpost. They typically have blue attire on and are carrying a manifest in their hand. They’ll have a cargo run available for purchase when you speak to them. Your level with the Merchant Alliance increases the amount of cargo you’ll be delivering, so as you rank up with this trading company, you can expect to receive more cargo when conducting these runs.
When you accept the cargo run from the Merchant Alliance representative, go to your quests tab in your quick menu, and pull out the order you were given. It’ll break down your starting location, who gave you the quest, and how many crates they want you to deliver.
Now, the NPC you first have to speak with will be the Merchant Alliance representative who gave you the quest. You can approach them and accept the cargo they want you to ferry on your ship. There are three types of cargo you can receive from these representatives, and they have the possibility of being damaged on your voyage. You’ll receive more gold for delivering them undamaged, and how you take care of them will be different for each one.
- Cloth: A fabric that can absorb water at incredible rates, and it is considered damaged if they take on any water before reaching their destination.
- Plants: A crate of ferns that require water during the journey. If they do not receive any amount of water, they will decay, and any amount of decay id considered damaged before reaching their destination.
- Rum bottles: These fragile bottles are easy to break, and if they shake, rock, or you mishandle them, they will be considered damaged before reaching their destination. You can break these bottles by jumping while you carry them, if a cannon explodes near them, or if you hold them and fall a large distance, typically when you take fall damage.
Based on what cargo types you receive, you’ll want to find a good location for them in your ship. For example, the plants want to be on the very bottom of the ship where you can flood the lower decks with water to keep them soaked, maintaining their high quality. You want to put rum bottles somewhere secure but away from locations that are high-value targets for enemy cannon fire. The cloth will want to be wherever the plants are not and somewhere high up, away from the ground, if your ship takes on more water at any point during the journey.
Delivering the Cargo for the Cargo Run voyage
After you’ve secured your cargo, approach each one, and there will be a delivery note attached to it. That note will have the destination of that piece of cargo going and who will receive it.
The first part of the cargo note details who gets it and where it’s going. The outpost should never be too hard to find, and you can always reference the map on your vessel to map out the best path. When you’re looking where that person is at the outpost, it is important to remember that the first letter always connects to the person’s occupation. So, we’re giving it to Carl for our cargo run, which means Carl will be operating the clothing store at that outpost.
The last part of the delivery information details the time and date of when you must have it finished. The time and date do not correspond to the actual time and date, but the game’s information. You can always reference it by checking your watch, which you can pull up by going to your item wheel. The watch will be on the second page, with all of your instruments.
After you’ve mapped out a path, you’re ready to set sail. These voyages will vary in difficulty, based on the overall path, if your encounter any random spawns, players or find yourself in the middle of a storm.
When you’ve arrived, the hardest delivery will likely be giving the rum bottles away. Make sure to dock your ship as close to the outpost’s docking area as close as possible, and be delicate when jumping from your ship. The first, small jump, should be fine, but don’t do it more than you have to. Once you’ve handed in all of the crates, the voyage is finished.
