Sea of Thieves Fort of the Damned (FotD) Guide

This section will go over what the raid is and basic information regarding it.

The FotD raid is a manually-activated event on the island known as the Fort of the Damned. It must be started by a player, and can be cooperatively worked at by multiple players (if they chose not to tear each other apart).

The raid itself is almost identical to a typical Skeleton Fortress / Skull Cloud event, with the main difference being that the difficulty and reward is much higher.

Multiple commendations are tied to the event. They can be found in Reputation > Bilge Rats > Fort of the Damned. Most of them pay out with up to 25 dubloons, and are completed by doing things you’d be doing during the event.

The island that you begin the raid on was previously known as Old Boot Fort, until it was changed in an update. There are no cannons or skeleton watchtowers at the island, making it very easy to
approach it. However, the island is littered with tnt barrels, making it easy to sabotage anybody there.

You will be able to distinguish the fort from relatively far away, as it is covered in a black fog (similar to the center of the storm). Approaching it will gradually turn the water and sky into a murky / dark color. Once inside the fog, it will not effect the view of the players. This means that if you have your ship parked close to the island, no other players will be able to see the location or type of ship that you have until they get close enough (while you can see them from the moment they enter your horizon).

Battlegills cannot be caught at this fort (according to the wiki).

Section tl;dr:
-It’s a more rewarding but more difficult version of a skeleton fort raid.

The photo is of the Fort of the Damned on the map.

Credit to the Sea of Thieves wiki ( https://seaofthieves.gamepedia.com/Fort_of_the_Damned_(Raid) ) for the photo attached to this section.

This section will explain how to begin the FotD raid, and how to prepare for it.

To begin the event, you need 2 things:
-A ritual skull
-Every flame of fate color (White, Red, Purple, Blue, Green, and Pink).

The inside of the ‘fort’ on the Fort of the Damned has a caged skeleton without a head and 6 statues of the ferryman, carrying a lantern and bearing scars or decorations relating to each flame of fate.

Placing the ritual skull on the skeleton (a prompt will appear, telling you to do this) and lighting every lantern will begin the raid.

In typical Sea of Thieves fashion, you can never prepare enough for something. You should loot the barrels on whatever island you spawn at, and then loot the ones at the Fort before you begin. I do not have a recommendation for how many items you should have, but it’s better safe than sorry.

I like to find every gunpowder barrel on the island and place them in a safe spot (like the top of the fort crow’s nest) so other players cannot use them offensively.

For your crew, my personal preference is a brigantine (it’s fast, well-equipped, and lets you have three crew-members). However, I have done the raid in both a two-man sloop and four-man galleon.

Sloops are, in my opinion, the worst ship to use for this event. While they are nimble and easy to operate, the two-man limitations can be a big problem if other people show up to take your stuff.

Brigantines work well with the extra firepower, speed, and crew-member. Two people can work on the fort while one watches for any incoming ships.

Galleons work just as well as a brig, being the best option if you’re worried about other players. Galleons can take a much greater beating and put out a much higher rate of cannonball spam, making them great for ship-pvp. Having a fourth crew-member is also a great bonus.

Section tl;dr:
-You need a ritual skull and all the flames of fate to begin the event.
-Prepare by getting a good amount of materials
-The more people you bring to help the better.

Once again, credit to the wiki for the photo. It’s a Ritual Skull.
Link to the page here: https://seaofthieves.gamepedia.com/Ritual_Skull

This section is a ‘continued’ version of section 1.

Ritual skulls and the flames of fate are not too easy to get, so this will go over all of the ways to get them and how to make it easier.

Ritual skulls are like normal bounty skulls, but they are white with red paint and a red glow. They can be sold to Duke at any tavern for a couple dubloons.

You can obtain ritual skulls from:
-A possible reward inside an opened Ashen Chest,
-Dropped as a reward for killing skeleton ships,
-From completing the once-a-month Ritual Skull Quest sold by Duke at a tavern.

The most consistent and easy way to obtain one is from the quest sold by duke. It is always a X-marks-the-spot map of the outpost you bought it from. However, these can only be bought every so often. You can have crew members take turns buying them if you wish to do it that often (without the hassle of obtaining one from other methods).

The flames of fate are also relatively easy to obtain. You get the flames from dying to certain things and then interacting on the big lantern in the middle of the Ferry of the Damned with your lantern. The ways to obtain the colors are:
-Pink: Die to a player on another crew,
-Red: Die to fire,
-Blue: Die to sharks,
-Green: Die to skeletons,
-Purple: Die to snakes,
-White: Die to lightning.

The hardest flames of fate to get are White and Pink. Green, Purple, and Blue are straightforward. You can get red by throwing firebombs at yourself.

There is no easy way to get pink, besides finding a player that is willing to kill you but not your ship.

White can seem difficult to obtain, but if you travel into the center of the storm, get yourself below 50% hp, and stand on the crow’s nest with your sword equipped. It should not be long until you are struck.

section tl;dr:
-Get ritual skulls from the quests sold by duke
-Use sword and stand on a high place to get struck by lightning for white flame of fate.

This section details the events of the event and how to tackle them. Do not read if you do not wish to spoil it for yourself.

Once you successfully begin the event, a large skeleton-shaped cloud with red, glowing eyes will appear directly above the island. This alerts all people on the server that you are fighting for the FotD. Many players will want to steal this from you, and they will likely come sometime during the event.

The fort of the Damned raid works like a normal skeleton fort raid, where waves of skeletons will spawn until a Skeleton Lord will appear. However, things work differently on this island.

The skeletons that spawn are all variants of the Shadow Skeletons that can only be killed during the day or after a flash from a lantern. These skeletons, though, are all different colors (each of which is a color for a flame of fate). Grabbing a lantern color from the statues at the Fort of the Damned and then shining a skeleton of that same color will turn them into a form that can be damaged. These skeletons also seem to have more health than normal ones.

Occasionally, skeletons will spawn with Skeleton Fort Gunpowder Barrels in their hands. These things have an extremely large explosion. Do not let them get anywhere near your ship, or their explosion will likely hit it. If you can kill the skeletons without their barrel detonating, you can sell the barrels for around 5k if you can safely bring them to the Merchant Alliance (or Reaper’s Bones).

The Skeleton Lord boss of this island will always be . In this event, he works almost identical to every other Skeleton Lord, with a few differences.
-He does not do the teleport ability.
-His “minion summon” only summons the flame of fate skeletons.
-His hp does not scale down/up when there are less/more people in a crew. His hp stays at the hp setting of a four-man crew. Because of this, fighting him alone is very difficult and time consuming.

However, there are spaces on the ‘dock’ of the island where the boss can target somebody who is on their ship, allowing the crew to safely gun/cannon him down from a safe distance.

Section tl;dr:
-Skeletons need lantern colors to fight
-Boss very hard

The photo is of a Stronghold Gunpowder barrel (what I’ve been referring to as a Skeleton Fort Gunpowder Barrel).
Link to the wiki for that: https://seaofthieves.gamepedia.com/Stronghold_Gunpowder_Barrel

This section just explains what to do during the event in case more players arrive.

As briefly mentioned in section 2, a lot of players will be coming to steal the fort from you.

Whenever I do the event, I have one person go to the crow’s nest of the fort at common intervals. They should keep an eye out and alert the group of any ships on the horizon. Both skeleton and player ships seem to come close to the island, so it’s important to keep tabs on anything that could cause problems.

The smoke around the island will hide your crews ship from anybody coming (until they get relatively close), so you have a lot of time to decide if the ship is coming or not. If it looks like the ship is coming, get all of your crew to retreat to your boat. Your crew has the advantages of an early view of the other ship, the materials on the island, and a knowledge of where gunpowder barrels are.

Galleons are the biggest threat, as they (as previously mentioned) can tank a lot of hits and fire from 4 cannons at once. Your crew should get to preparing to fight as soon as possible if you see one coming.

If your crew is sunk by whoever approached you, one of the best ways to get revenge is to sail straight back to the island. If your crew did a good job of defending your ship, the other crew should have a few damaged spots and low supplies. This will make it easier for you once you return.

From there, it’s best to use your own strategies and skill for fighting. I wish ye’ the best of luck.

Section tl;dr:
-Prepare for other people to come after you

This section details what to do after you kill the boss and open the vault.

This section is simple. Fill the ship with the stuff in the vault and book it. Some people may be waiting for you to finish the event or be arriving just as it ends.

The vault will always have four Skeleton Fort Gunpowder Barrels, a few normal gunpowder barrels, Reaper’s Bones chests/bounties, and other expensive loot.

The Fort Barrels can blow your entire ship up if they are detonated from inside it, and they’ll damage your ship and knock over your mast if they’re in the Crow’s Nest. If you choose to bring them, you should avoid combat with others at all costs.

The Reaper’s Bones loot will share your location with the rest of the server (as it will put two little markers on the map). This will make it easy for other players to track you, if you choose to take them.

Fortunately, a few outposts and the Reaper’s Hideout are very close by. The faster you load up your ship and escape, the easier life will be (this is another benefit of having a full crew of four people).

Section tl;dr:
-Take the dangerous stuff if you want
-Get out of there, fast

The photo is of the Reaper’s Bounty, a possible reward from the event.
Credit to the SoT wiki for the photo: https://seaofthieves.gamepedia.com/Reaper%E2%80%99s_Bounty