~ Updated after playing 135 hours ~
Captaincy is out. Cool cosmetic stuff,
but has insane grinds for all of the trinkets (like being on fire for 100 hours and catching thousands of fish) and some of the pirate/boat levels (like sleeping, sitting and playing shanties for an hour per level).
Hopefully these are significantly reduced as they will not be gained through regular gameplay, with many being near-impossible.
The new levels have since been balanced, with most requirements being lowered. However high level trophies will still be very grindy. For example: the infamous hour on fire has been reduced to 5 minutes per level, while fish caught has been reduced from 25 to 10. Therefore you still need 100 fish for the first trophy and 1000 for the last. All 'gold earned as an emissary' levels are an exception, instead being raised from 30,000 to 100,000.

The game can be fun, but has a lot holding it back. An Xbox account is also required to play.
Don't play it solo. It's not designed for solo players and is really tedious. Some events are also near impossible.

You can team up with random players, but expect plenty of griefers and incompetents. If you get any decent players they will likely have to leave before you're finished, then soon be replaced with someone worse.

With at least one friend it's actually pretty fun, however you're always at the mercy of other players who may steal your loot. You'll always be on a server with up to 5 ships and 16 players. Any other crews can kill you, destroy your ship and steal your loot whenever they want. This can really sting and is guaranteed to happen sooner or later.

Sailing is slow and boring, regardless of crew size. Occasionally it becomes exciting for a while when you run into a surprise enemy event that may sink you.
There was also a separate gamemode called 'Arena' until a few months ago that focused purely on PvP. The Arena players are now in Adventure mode with everyone else, sinking them.

The game has a lot of bugs that have been around a long time. Don't expect them to ever be fixed.
Visuals and audio are great, although I had to use the 'cursed' graphics preset because occasional GPU spikes were freezing my PC. Thankfully you can rejoin a session if the game crashes.
Unfortunately the menu graphics like to lower their resolution (like distant objects do) for no reason; this can be fixed by changing any graphics setting back and forth, but shouldn't be a problem in the first place.
If you use Windows 10 LTSC, you can't invite Xbox players to your session; but they can invite you.

The only rewards are cosmetics like clothing, ship parts, weapons, handheld items (compass, bucket, telescope, etc) and titles to go by your gamertag. Everyone is equal and only limited by experience. You can also use your money to buy some useful items such as ammo boxes and storage crates, but they are just pickups and not permanent upgrades.

Season passes exist. You can reach 100 levels during each season, which unlock currency, cosmetics and titles. If you buy the pass, you get extra items.
Unfortunately there's elitism here, with Pirate Legends (a status unlocked by reaching level 50 with 3 companies) getting some extra cosmetics. Reaching PL in a later season will not unlock them.
Season pass items are unobtainable once the season finishes.

One of the 6 companies (excluding the Pirate Legend exclusive one) does not have an emissary flag (it's a multiplier that increases as you get company related treasure.)
This company is Hunter's Call. It's exceptionally boring to level up and considered one of the biggest grinds in the game. You just do a dull fishing minigame, cook meat and fish, then sell it for a low payout that you could have got doing anything else in a fraction of the time.

You cannot freely customise your character and have to use a random character generator until you get one you're happy with. This includes gender, face type, beard, body type, haircut, hair colour, eye colour, blind eyes, scars and default tattoos. You can't filter anything, not even gender.
You can buy tattoos, hair dye and change your haircut and beard, but nothing else. You can buy an appearance changing potion, but it just dumps you back into the generator.

[b]~ Updated after playing 135 hours ~[/b] Captaincy is out. Cool cosmetic stuff, [strike]but has insane grinds for all of the trinkets (like being on fire for 100 hours and catching thousands of fish) and some of the pirate/boat levels (like sleeping, sitting and playing shanties for an hour per level). Hopefully these are significantly reduced as they will not be gained through regular gameplay, with many being near-impossible.[/strike] The new levels have since been balanced, with most requirements being lowered. However high level trophies will still be very grindy. For example: the infamous hour on fire has been reduced to 5 minutes per level, while fish caught has been reduced from 25 to 10. Therefore you still need 100 fish for the first trophy and 1000 for the last. All 'gold earned as an emissary' levels are an exception, instead being [b]raised[/b] from 30,000 to 100,000. [i]The game can be fun, but has a lot holding it back. An Xbox account is also required to play.[/i] [b]Don't play it solo.[/b] It's not designed for solo players and is really tedious. Some events are also near impossible. You can team up with random players, but expect plenty of griefers and incompetents. If you get any decent players they will likely have to leave before you're finished, then soon be replaced with someone worse. With at least one friend it's actually pretty fun, however [b]you're always at the mercy of other players who may steal your loot.[/b] You'll always be on a server with up to 5 ships and 16 players. Any other crews can kill you, destroy your ship and steal your loot whenever they want. This can really sting and is guaranteed to happen sooner or later. Sailing is slow and boring, regardless of crew size. Occasionally it becomes exciting for a while when you run into a surprise enemy event that may sink you. There was also a separate gamemode called 'Arena' until a few months ago that focused purely on PvP. The Arena players are now in Adventure mode with everyone else, sinking them. The game has a lot of bugs that have been around a long time. Don't expect them to ever be fixed. Visuals and audio are great, although I had to use the 'cursed' graphics preset because occasional GPU spikes were freezing my PC. Thankfully you can rejoin a session if the game crashes. Unfortunately the menu graphics like to lower their resolution (like distant objects do) for no reason; this can be fixed by changing any graphics setting back and forth, but shouldn't be a problem in the first place. [i]If you use Windows 10 LTSC, you can't invite Xbox players to your session; but they can invite you.[/i] The only rewards are cosmetics like clothing, ship parts, weapons, handheld items (compass, bucket, telescope, etc) and titles to go by your gamertag. Everyone is equal and only limited by experience. You can also use your money to buy some useful items such as ammo boxes and storage crates, but they are just pickups and not permanent upgrades. Season passes exist. You can reach 100 levels during each season, which unlock currency, cosmetics and titles. If you buy the pass, you get extra items. [b]Unfortunately there's elitism here,[/b] with Pirate Legends (a status unlocked by reaching level 50 with 3 companies) getting some extra cosmetics. Reaching PL in a later season will not unlock them. [b]Season pass items are unobtainable once the season finishes.[/b] One of the 6 companies (excluding the Pirate Legend exclusive one) does not have an emissary flag (it's a multiplier that increases as you get company related treasure.) This company is Hunter's Call. It's exceptionally boring to level up and considered one of the biggest grinds in the game. You just do a dull fishing minigame, cook meat and fish, then sell it for a low payout that you could have got doing anything else in a fraction of the time. [b]You cannot freely customise your character[/b] and have to use a random character generator until you get one you're happy with. This includes gender, face type, beard, body type, haircut, hair colour, eye colour, blind eyes, scars and default tattoos. You can't filter anything, not even gender. You can buy tattoos, hair dye and change your haircut and beard, but nothing else. You can buy an appearance changing potion, but it just dumps you back into the generator.