Last month’s update introduced the mystical Reaper’s Chest to the Sea of Thieves for pirates to hunt down and turn into our good friend Duke for some sweet, sweet doubloons.

While Duke ended up accumulating a nice haul of valuable loot from cracking open these Reaper’s Chests, he also collected a lot of worthless rubbish. Tons and tons of dirty rags and boring old bones were stashed in most of the Reaper’s Chests.

With no buyers in sight, Duke decided to burry all of the rags and bones in crates on Shipwreck Bay until he could figure out a more proper way to dispose of them.

Remember Stitcher Jim? That yellow-bellied, mutinous… Where was I? Ah! Well, apparently Stitcher Jim, that mischievous fellow who betrayed the Forsaken Shore Alliance, heard about Duke’s predicament and has offered to help in hopes of Duke looking at him in a new, more favorable light.

Stitcher Jim has struck a deal with the Seaposts in the Sea of Thieves to help clear up all the worthless crates of rag and bones buried at Shipwreck Bay.

While you do the heavy lifting of this venture by completing two new Mercenary Voyages, Stitcher Jim is still hiding out.

To complete the commendations—and earn all possible doubloons—for this month’s mercenary voyage, you’ll need to find Stitcher Jim, his new friend, and some sketches? 

Seeing as this is not part of the actual Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay Voyage or the Seapost to Seapost Voyages—and seeing as this article is already a bit of a monstrosity—we’ve separated Stitcher Jim’s whereabouts into a separate article: Stitcher Jim Resurfaces in the Sea of Thieves.

To get to work, head on over to Duke located at the Tavern on any Outpost. You can start with either a Reaper’s Grave Voyage or a Seapost to Seapost Voyage.

Both are free to purchase! Before, Duke’s special Mercenary Voyages would cost doubloons, but with this Smuggler’s Fortune update Duke has been revising his policies. From now on, he will provide his voyages will require no upfront investment.

Reaper’s Grave Voyages

Reaper’s Grave Voyages will have you digging up Rag and Bone crates at Shipwreck Bay and delivering them to three or four different Seaposts— depending on whether you do the Athena’s Reaper’s Grave Voyage.

Seapost to Seapost Voyages

The Seaposts that have been taking the Shipwreck Bay crates need help dealing with such an excess of crates and are off loading the surplus to other Seaposts farther away. So, Seapost to Seapost Voyages will have you delivering Rag and Bone crates between Seaposts.

Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay Voyage

The Reaper’s Grave Voyage will always be a single x-marks-the-spot quest on Shipwreck Bay. As we mentioned before, this is where Duke has decided to bury all of his unwanted items.

Sail on over to Shipwreck Bay and park on the side of the island with the most X’s on your quest map for convenience.

Just like Gold Hoarder x-marks-the-spot quests, digging up 7 Rag and Bone Crates on Shipwreck Bay—without doing anything further—will “complete” the voyage.

Completing the voyage one time—even without turning in any of the crates—will unlock the Grave Digger commendation and put 5 doubloons in your pocket.

Completing the voyage three times will to unlock the Money For Old Bones commendation—for which you will be rewarded with even more doubloons.

What do I do with the Rag and Bone Crates?

Deliver them! Although the voyage is complete upon digging up the crates, delivering the Rag & Bone crates will earn you dozens of commendations, plus doubloons or gold—depending on how swiftly ye sail!

The 7 Rag and Bone crates you dig up during The Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay voyage will go to three of the four nearby Seaposts. The four nearby Seaposts include two in The Wilds, and the two Seaposts nearest to the Wilds in The Shores of Plenty and The Ancient Isles.

The two in The Wilds are: (1) Three Paces East Seapost, and (2) The Wild Treasures Store. The nearest Seapost in The Shores of Plenty is The North Star Seapost. The nearest Seapost in The Ancient Isles is Stephen’s Spoils.

Delivering 5 Rag and Bone chests to each of the four nearby Seaposts unlocks the “Repeat Business” commendations. These grant you 10 doubloons each.

These commendations include: Wild Treasures Repeat Business, Three Paces East Repeat Business, The North Star Repeat Business and Stephen’s Spoils Repeat Business.

Do I need to turn Rag and Bone Crates in on time for Commendations?

This depends on the Commendations you seek.

Commendations for just turning in your Rag and Bone Crates—late or not

If you miss your time window, don’t just throw your crates overboard! They are still valuable. First, to unlock the “Repeat Business” commendations, you only need to turn in the crates. It does not matter if the crates are late.

Second, well… we’ll get to that in the “Compensation” section below.

Commendations for turning in your Rag and Bone Crates On Time

There are 8 commendations that require you to turn in one Rag and Bone crate on time to each of the eight Seaposts.

The time-sensitive commendations are: Wild Dash, Three Paces Race, Chasing the North Star, Stephen’s Spoils Sprint, Plenty of Speed, Fast and Finest, Bazaar Boost and Racing Traders.

With each of these 8 commendations, you will earn an additional 5 Doubloons.

Plus, once you complete all 8 commendations, you will unlock an additional commendation: Merchant of Death. The Merchant of Death commendation will earn you an additional 25 Doubloons.

This means, if you turn in one crate on time to each of the 8 Seaposts, you will earn a total of 105 Doubloons!

Wait. (8 x 5) + 25 does not equal 105! We know. Keep reading…

Compensation: other than Commendations, what do I get for delivering Rag and Bone Crates?

Ah, this depends on how swiftly you sail.

On-Time Rag and Bone Deliveries

For on-time deliveries, you will earn 5 Doubloons.

This is why when you unlock the 8 time-sensitive commendations by delivering your Rag and Bone Crates on time you will earn 105 doubloons.

You will earn 10 doubloons at each of your 8 stops: 5 doubloons for the on-time delivery, and 5 doubloons for unlocking the commendation. This amounts to 80 doubloons.

Then, for having turned in crates on time at all 8 locations, you will earn an additional 25 Doubloons. 

80 + 25 = 105

Huzzah!

Late Deliveries

For late deliveries, you will earn no doubloons. Instead, you will earn 1,500 Gold Coins.

This is why—even if you have already earned the non-time-sensitive commendations—you shouldn’t simply throw your late crates overboard.

Strategic Considerations for your Rag and Bone Crates

While “completing” the voyage is simple, actually delivering the crates to their respective Seaposts on time can be tricky. Depending on how quickly your crew finds X-marks-the-spots, the direction of the wind, or your other priorities—Ooo! Look! A Shipwreck!—you might want to strategize a bit.

How much time do I have to deliver Rag and Bone Crates?

As soon as you dig up a crate, you have 36 in-game hours to deliver the crate to its assigned Seapost. 1 hour in the Sea of Thieves equals 1 minute in real life giving you 36 minutes to successfully deliver a Rag and Bone Crate. Each crate can have a different due date depending on when you dug it up.

For example, if you dug up your first crate at noon and your second one at 1pm, 1 minute later, your first crate would be due for delivery at its Seapost at midnight and your second crate would be due at its Seapost at 1am.

How will I know where and when to deliver Rag and Bone Crates?

If you didn’t pull out your potcket watch the second you dug up the crate, don’t panic. If you’ve ever completed a “Cargo Run,” you’ll be quite familiar with Seaposts’ practices for delivery information. 

When you dig up a Rag and Bone Crate, you will see a note attached. Reading that note will let you know where—and when—the crate must be delivered.

You will also notice that the crates are color coded, according to their locations. So, after a few deliveries you will become familiar enough to know a Rag and Bone Crate’s location from its color.

Red Rag and Bone Crates are delivered to The Wild Treasures Store.

Purple Rag and Bone Crates are delivered to Stephen’s Spoils.

Green Rag and Bones Crate are delivered to Three Paces East Seapost.

Golden Yellow Rag and Bone Crates are delivered to The North Star Seapost.

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How Long Does it Take to Sail to Seaposts?

The key part in turning in these crates on time is deciding how much time it will take you to visit each Seapost. To that end, we thought pirates might like it if we added in some average sailing times.

Keep in mind: the deliveries for all 7 Rag and Bone Crates will only be split up among three Seaposts. So, you only need to sail to three Seaposts. If you dig up all 7 at once, you will be sailing once from Shipwreck Bay to a Seapost, then on to two more Seaposts. 

Also, remember these are purely anecdotal averages. Any number of things could sway your results: the wind turns against you, your crew doesn’t tend to the sails, an emergent skeleton ship appears, etc. Plan accordingly. 

Sailing Times: Shipwreck Bay to the Four Nearest Seaposts

Sailing from Shipwreck Bay to Three Paces East Seapost takes an average of 5 minutes.

Sailing from Shipwreck Bay to The Wild Treasures Store takes an average of 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

Sailing from Shipwreck Bay to The North Star Seapost takes an average 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

Sailing from Shipwreck Bay to Stephen’s Spoils takes an average of 4 minutes and 45 seconds.

Sailing Times: Seapost to Seapost

Sailing from The North Star Seapost to Stephen’s Spoils takes an average of 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

Sailing from Three Paces East Seapost to Wild Treasures Store takes an average of 6 minutes and 30 seconds.

Sailing from The Wild Treasures Store to The North Star Seapost takes an average of 7 minutes.

Sailing from Three Paces East Seapost to the North Star Seapost takes an average of 8 minutes and 30 seconds.

Sailing from Stephen’s Spoils to The Wild Treasures Store takes an average of 9 minutes.

How Quickly do you Dig?

Digging up one crate means you only have to worry about getting to one Seapost in time. Digging up a second crate could possibly mean going to two different Seaposts. 

You could get lucky and get the same color crate back to back and deliver two at once! But you could just as easily dig up a different color and have to travel to two Seaposts. It’s up to you and your crew if you want to take the chance!

By looking at the sailing times above, two Seaposts definitely seems doable. But! There is an additional time factor you need to consider: how quickly do you and your crew find and dig up these Crates?

We found that having to travel to two different Seaposts and turning in the respective crates on time was definitely possible in the time allotted.

We also successfully delivered crates to three different Seaposts on time.

However, if you think about how often we play this game, it should be no surprise that finding x-marks-the-spots is rather quick work for us.

A Sample Voyage:

Perhaps an example of our travels might help a few pirates out there.

Once upon a time, in the very recent past, we decided to make only one trip to Shipwreck Bay before setting out for the Seaposts. This means we dug up and started the timer on all 7 Rag and Bone Crates.

Our three Seapost destinations were: The Wild Treasures Store, The North Star Seapost, and Stephen’s Spoils.

Taking into consideration the wind and the delivery dates and times, we planned our route: (1) Shipwreck Bay, (2) The Wild Treasures Store, (3) The North Star Seapost, and finally (4) Stephen’s Spoils.

Given the times listed above, this should take us approximately 17 minutes. We found and dug up our Rag and Bone Crates quickly. So, even with that additional digging time factored in, we made it with time to spare.

However, this was with ideal conditions. No, the wind was not in our favor the entire time, but it was decent. What we really mean by “perfect conditions” is that no emergent AI or PvP-happy pirates showed up. 

Legendary Reaper’s Grave of Shipwreck Bay Voyage

The Legendary version of this voyage will have you digging up ten Rag and Bone Creates on Shipwreck Bay. You might also have one additional Seapost you will need to visit.

So between 10 crates, your deliveries could be divided between four different Seaposts.

Going off the above example, we would have to throw Three Paces East Seapost into the mix.

Let’s pretend we started by going to Three Paces East Seapost, then picked up with the above route by continuing on to The Wild Treasures. Going off of the times listed above, this would add an additional 6 minutes.

An additional 6 minutes puts your approximate total sailing time at 23 minutes. This leaves only 13 minutes to spare for that total 36 minutes.

After you add in the time to dig up your Rag and Bone Crates, this leaves very little wiggle room for poor wind, poor sails, emergent AI, and rival ships.

After all, if you dig up only five crates, you might only need to sail to two or three Seaposts.

Even if you are unlucky enough to get four separate locations on digging up your first five crates, it would still save you time to stop digging and get your sailing underway. 

These legendary voyages with 10 crates will help you get closer to yet another commendation: Bone Haul Bearer. You will receive this commendation for delivering a total of 50 Rag and Bone crates to their respective Seaposts.

The Bone Haul Bearer commendation will also make you 50 doubloons richer.

Seapost to Seapost Voyage

The Seapost to Seapost Voyage will have you transferring Rag and Bone Crates from inner Seaposts from the Reaper’s Grave Voyages to outer Seaposts: The Finest Trading Seapost, Brian’s Bazaar Seapost, The Spoils of Plenty Seapost and Roaring Traders.

Completing Seapost to Seapost Voyages will help you unlock the Merchant of Death commendation discussed above. 

As mentioned above, the Reaper’s Grave Voyage will only have you going to the four Seaposts nearest to Shipwreck Bay. So, this is the only way to deliver a Rag and Bone Crate to all eight Seaposts on time.

You will also get 5 doubloons for each of these crates turned in on time!

Stolen Rag and Bone Crates

There are several commendations that require you to deliver stolen Rag and Bone crates. You will need to hunt down other crews to get this done.

You can either attack them in hopes of them having Rag and Bone crates aboard for you to take or you could try and trade your crates for theirs. They will most likely also need the commendation so you might run into some friendly pirates willing to trade!

Delivering a stolen Rag and Bone crate to each of the four inner Seaposts will get you 5 doubloons for each commendation. You will be completing the Wild Treasures Fencing commendation, North Star Fencing commendation, Stephen’s Spoils Fencing commendation and the Three Paces East Fencing commendation.

Deliver 10 stolen Rag and Bone crates to unlock the Bone Haul Bandit commendation for a whopping 50 doubloons!

By the end of this event you will be able to sail the routes to all of these Seaposts with your eyes closed!

These new Reaper’s Grave Voyages were not the only new feature to hit the seas this month! Check out our Smuggler’s Fortune Update coverage here for everything else that was released from pets to the Pirate Emporium!

What else is new?

Ah, yes! Sometimes monthly updates are really just focused around these mercenary voyages. This is not one of those updates.

This Smuggler’s Fortune update is massive! From pets in the Pirate Emporium, to Duke’s Black Market, to tantalizing new bits of lore with Stitcher Jim, this update has far more to explore!

Take a little scroll and see…