Captain Flameheart and his fleet of ghost ships attempt to take over the Sea of Thieves. You can participate in the world event if you see the massive orange skull in the sky with a beard and a big hat. Navigate to the place and you should find a huge fleet of ghosts circling the island. Take them down one by one to summon more powerful ships and eventually Flameheart's flagship, the Burning Blade.
Defeat Captain Flameheart
The world event includes four waves that you must complete to survive and beat the captain. At the end of each wave of the event, you and your crew must face a new fleet of battle-ready ghost ships that appear. The orange skull above the event should talk to you all the time, continually joking about you and your crew's odds, and gets more and more worried as the battle continues.
First wave
The first wave of the event should already be ready for you to fight when you arrive, and only features growling ghost ships. Grumpy ships only require three direct hits from a cannonball before disappearing, making them extremely easy to take down. The way they usually beat players is their overwhelming numbers. You want to make sure you bounce back between fixing your ship, dumping the water, and having someone on a cannon. Sometimes it is better to fix the ship and release the water than to retaliate. You will complete the first wave after defeating seven grunts.
While grunts are easy to take out, they carry Damned Storage Crates, which contain a fair amount of wood planks and cannonballs. You'll spot them in the water by the ghostly spirits around them, much like seagulls do for barrels in water. You and your crew want to make every effort to obtain them throughout the encounter with Captain Flameheart.
Second wave
Any remaining growling ships from the first wave will enter portals to leave the island. After that, two Ashen Dragon Ships ghost ships appear with a pair of growl ships. While Grunts have the same amount of hit points you defeated in Wave 10, Ash Ships are much more durable, firing more powerful cannons, and require XNUMX direct hits from your cannonballs before they vanish. . Once both Dragon Ashen ships are gone, the third wave begins.
Third wave
This wave is unusually similar to the first, where you have to bring down seven growl ships before moving on to the next wave. It would be nice to take your time with this wave to collect the Damned Storage Crates you find.
Fourth wave
The final wave involves taking on Captain Flameheart's ship, the Burning Blade, alongside a pair of Ash Dragon ships from the first wave. There are also a handful of regular Ghost Captains sailing around the island with a pair of growl ships protecting them. You will win the wave and complete the event after defeating Burning Blade, which requires 24 direct hits to disappear. However, you can delay the fight and get more loot by taking down the Captain and the Ash Dragon ships before taking down the Searing Blade.
Your best strategy is to switch between shooting the pair of ash dragon ships and shooting the scorching blade. Although they may look like, the Burning Blade has a distinct burning heart on its sails, which makes it easy to find. To come away with the most loot, you want to capture whatever the stronger ships give up, as they can easily vanish over time. The loot is shown by the ghostly specters hovering above them in the water.
Other player ships can potentially join this world event at any time. They can show up to form an alliance with you against Captain Flameheart or steal your hard-earned loot.