As delightful as it may be to sail the Sea of Thieves with friends, the four player cap for crews can be a bit frustrating if you’re in a larger group. There is no native method to get more than four friends together on one instance of Sea of Thieves, and custom servers are unavailable at the time of this writing unless you are part of the Insider Program. However, there is a viable and unofficial to get together with larger groups on the same server — it just takes some patience.
It may seem like a party trick or an urban legend, but the following method has actually worked for us multiple times. Basically, the fastest way to find out if you’re on the same server as a friend not in your crew is through the Ferry of the Damned, the spooky ghost ship that you find yourself in after your pirate character dies and before they respawn. This will take a lot of trial and error, however.
First off, this will go over a lot smoother if you and any of your friends are in the same region; in our experiences, this method was successful with two players who were both in the East Coast of the United States. For the purposes of this guide, assume that there are eight different players trying out this method to get two galleons together. You can very well try other combinations of players and ships, but results may vary.
Start by having every player start their own closed crew. Through whatever means, such as voice chat, coordinate so that all players hit Set Sail at the same time. You can count down, or use a tool like time.is if you want to be super precise. Upon waking up in the tavern, as every session begins, your main goal is to kill your pirate character as quickly as possible to get to the Ferry of the Damned.
The quickest way to do this is to find blunderbombs in barrels; you should start by checking the barrels in the tavern. If you can’t find any right away, there are some on your ship, but be sure to do the next step outside of your ship. Two or three well-aimed blunderbombs at your feet will deplete your entire health bar, then hit Offer Soul to The Ferryman to speed up the process. Firebombs may take longer, and drowning will definitely take longer. Regardless of how you do this, you will find yourself in the Ferry of the Damned.
Then, play the waiting game. Every player in your group should be doing the same on their own session. Wait until every player is deceased, and should all go right, you will encounter one of them in the Ferry. If you have all died and none of you have seen each other, then relog by hitting Leave Game and do all of this over again. In our experience, this has taken 10 minutes at the least and 45 minutes at the most.
If you are successful, then do not relog. Instead, the two or more players who have found each other should respawn by leaving the Ferry. After that, invite all other players in your group to your game sessions; assuming you are doing eight players with two galleons, the two players who found each other should invite up to three other players each for everyone to be in the same session.
Coordinate to find each other on the map, as you will certainly be at different outposts, fly your Alliance Flags to team up, and continue on your voyages with a stronger crew. This setup will be perfect for getting The Legend of Glitterbeard achievement, which will require eight players to participate in a puzzle together.
