As we all know, combining water and electricity can have deadly consequences. There’s no better example of that than the fearsome Ancient Barnacled Dread. Running into this coral-encrusted beast unprepared could lead to a shocking end!
The Ancient Barnacled Dread
The Ancient Barnacled Dread is a roaming World Event available to all pirates sailing the High and Safer Seas. During the World Event, you’ll take on the Ancient Barnacled Dread, a Coral Megalodon that can electrocute pirates with a shockingly stunning bite and summon Eel-ectric enemies aboard nearby vessels.
On top of its shock-filled bite and ability to call in reinforcements, the Ancient Barnacled Dread is covered in coral plates, making it almost impenetrable. However, destroying the coral armor reveals weak spots you can target to inflict significant damage.
The Ancient Barnacled Dread is bigger and slower than regular Megalodons. It is also an expert tracker. Once you engage with it, you can expect it to follow you further across the Sea of Thieves than other Megalodons.
How to find the Ancient Barnacled Dread
Unlike other World Events, you won’t be able to locate the Ancient Barnacled Dread by scanning the horizon for a specific cloud or beacon. Instead, you’ll want to work toward reaching Hunter’s Call Emissary Grade V.
Similar to how reaching Reaper’s Bones Emissary Grade V will reveal all other Emissaries on your Map Table, achieving Hunter’s Call Emissary Grade V will reveal all Ancient Megalodons on your Map Table.
So, once you reach Emissary Grade V, if the Ancient Barnacled Dread is active, it will appear on your Map Table. The Ancient Barnacled Dread will appear as a purple shark fin with a blue lightning bolt below it.
While you should always be able to find an Ancient Megalodon, only one can be active at a time. So, if you see a shark fin with a different color, the Ancient Barnacled Dread isn’t currently roaming the sea.
However, if the Ancient Barnacled Dread is active, you can find it anywhere across the Sea of Thieves except the Shores of Gold and the Red Sea.
While randomly running into the Ancient Barnacled Dread is possible, finding it through achieving Hunter’s Call Emissary Grade V is much more efficient.
If you don’t see an icon for an Ancient Megalodon on your Map Table, it could be because of the cooldown between Ancient Megalodons. After defeating an Ancient Megalodon, you must wait around 12 minutes for another to appear. Otherwise, you should always see one as Ancient Megalodons can be active while other World Events such as a Skeleton Fort, Skeleton Fleet, and Burning Blade are active.
How to weaken the Ancient Barnacled Dread
The Ancient Barnacled Dread’s skin is nearly impenetrable, with a protective layer of coral covering most of its body. However, destroying the coral will reveal weak spots you can target to inflict significant damage against the Ancient Barnacled Dread.
The sound you’ll hear when you hit the coral differs from if you just hit its skin, letting you know you are chipping away at its protective layer. When you damage the coral enough, they will break away, revealing a weak spot.
The weak spots on the Barnacled Dread look like glowing blue scars. You’ll know you’ve hit a weak spot as an electrical blast will radiate from it when damaged.
You can ignore the weak spots and damage the Barnacled Dread like any other Megalodon. However, that will prolong the fight longer than it needs to be, as damaging its skin doesn’t do much. The most efficient way to defeat the Barnacled Dread is to break through the protective layer and hit the weak spots. You can use Cannonballs, Firearms, and other tools of destruction at your disposal.
Difficulty Scaling
The Ancient Barnacled Dread’s difficulty dynamically scales relative to the nearby crews. The scaling considers the number of crews and pirates on each crew.
So, a lone pirate sailing on a Sloop can take down the Ancient Barnacled Dread as quickly as a fully crewed Galleon fighting along other ships.
During the fight, you can expect a Sloop to receive fewer holes after a bite from the Ancient Barnacled Dread than a Brigantine or Galleon.
The health of the Ancient Barnacled Dread will also scale to the number of pirates and crews within its vicinity. A solo pirate on a Sloop can use fewer Cannonballs than larger crewed ships to take down the giant beast.
Along with bite strength and health, the frequency and number with which the Ancient Barnacled Dread can summon Eel-ectric Ocean Crawlers will scale with crews and pirates present. If you sail alone on a Sloop, you can expect to deal with one Eel-ectric every minute and a half. As your crew grows, you’ll have to deal with more Eel-ectric Ocean Crawlers.
You should be able to take down the Ancient Barnacled Dread with the supplies stocked in your ship. However, as the Ancient Megalodon has an extra layer of protection from its coral plates, purchasing additional resources for the encounter isn’t a bad idea.
If you run out of supplies, keep your eyes on the horizon for Barrels of Plenty, as they will appear near the fight.
Ancient Barnacled Dread Loot
Killing the Ancient Barnacled Dread will reward you with various Coral treasures. Hopefully, the giant shark will also relinquish some Ancient Barnacled Dread Teeth and Scales.
While not guaranteed, you can find Grisly and Pristine Barnacled Dread Teeth and Scales amongst the loot pile. The Grisly Teeth and Scales are much more common than the Pristine, which are worth more. You can sell them to the Hunter’s Call, Reaper’s Bones, and Sovereigns.
