There are two types of structured activities; Tall Tales and Voyages. Both of these are considered to be a quest type activity. Although they both are quests around the world, Tall Tales and Voyages are very different from each other.
Voyages
To compare to a traditional MMO, voyages are equivalent to questing. All voyages send you out on an adventure to either find buried treasure chests, kill skeleton captains, or hunt down various items.
Starting a voyage is very easy once you know where to go. Voyages need to be purchased, and are sold by the four major alliances; however, you will not have access to the Athena’s Fortune voyages until you reach pirate legend.
The Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, and Merchant Alliance are the three core alliances of the game. Every outpost will have these three merchants available for you to either purchase voyages from or turn in your treasure.
Tips for solving riddle quests:
Some voyages are riddles, that release clues as you complete each step. For example, reach X place on the island and raise lantern in the air (not an actual clue). The riddle won’t register if you are running around with a lantern hoping to trigger it. The full animation of pulling out your lantern and raising it in the right spot will activate the next clue (no shortcuts). When you solve a portion of the riddle, a green glowing light bursts from the clue location and rumbles the island, awarding the next step in the riddle.
How count “paces”:
In the example above, the riddle instructs you to dig 5 paces South of the roaring flame painted on a stone. Paces are not walking. Paces are a specific walking action triggered while holding your compass up to your face.
Pull out your compass and hold it up by holding down right-click (or left trigger on Xbox). While still holding the compass to your face begin to walk forward. This triggers the ‘pacing’ steps. There are some haptic feedback and animations that help with counting how many paces you have taken. It may take a second to get used to, but once you get the hang of it it’s easy.
Tall Tales
Another adventure on the list of PvE activities are the story quests, referred to as Tall Tales. In short, these are storyline quests that lead you through an adventure to uncover unique items that aid in your journey through the Tall Tale you have selected. Some tales are locked behind prerequisite tales, but the first one, The Shroudbreaker is playable day one out at sea.
We have been working on a series of Tall Tale Guides, that will help you along your journey in finding the Shores of Gold. We are currently still working hard to get these guides out.
Bottle Quests
Keep an eye out for a shiny bottle inside barrels, stranded out at sea, or half-buried in the sand. These are bottle quests that unlock single page voyages that you do not need to vote on or pay to participate. When a member of your team finds a bottle quest, simply picking it up grants access to the mission inside. Everyone on your boat will have the mission in their HUD the instant it is picked up.