Solo Play in SOT

what do people do solo for an hour or two on the seas?

The same stuff you did when you were on a galleon? Just quicker, quiet, and sometimes better. :p

Exactly what @sshteeve said with the additions of a couple of items:

• Fishing, work on collecting all types of fish to finish commendations.

• Get yourself a rowboat if the waters are hostile, will allow you to operate without being bothered.

For myself, I play solo 95% of the time and I am in the same boat as you (pun intended). Very limited on time, based on family responsibilities.

Leveling emissary doing sunken treasures, sunken cargos or just fishing.

I never try events because im not efficient yet ans takes me a lot of time to complete it.

But you can do whatever you want as solo slooper if you take care and do Things fast

@rapidursa
Back when the game came out I was also mostly a solo. I have recently realized that I have preferred to not play without others... So I've been engaging in the old ways again!
Most of the time, I'm in it for commendation hunting. Fishing solo can be one of the most relaxing experiences there is, and it's also something I haven't bothered to finish. I highly recommend fishing for small time periods, because you can pick a zone, gather a bit of bait and sail to a seapost to live out that time. If you are sure you won't run out of bait, it can be good to scuttle your ship to keep people from coming your way.

When I'm in it for gold, I like to voyage in the Devil's Roar. It's just me vs. the world, and I feel good when I sell loot after making it through the challenge. When the reputation caps were increased, I got the main 3 from 55-75 from solo slooping in the Devil's Roar. (This kind of sailing might take too long)

I don't like taking on events as a solo, because I'm always wary of attackers. When I needed skeleton ship sinks for Legend of the Sea of Thieves I did a lot of solo skeleton fleets, though. I'd only do events that other people don't like to go to often, like a skeleton fort or fleet. If you're willing to let go of the gold, doing a fleet in an hour and quitting without selling might be a good idea.

When I'm bored or waiting for my crew to get on the game, I like to sneak around on servers and do something funny to other crews or fight. Sometimes I just join open crew Arena and see what happens.

When I'm really bored I join open crews in Adventure.

Anything really, although commendations are one of those things that when I do them, I sometimes decide to do them exclusively as a solo. Commendations are difficult to with others because it's not something that people usually aim to do.

I do the same things I do when playing with a crew except if I abandon my ship to tuck on someone else's ship I don't feel like I'm abandoning a crew.

@rapidursa When I'm solo (which is most of the time anyway) but only have about an hour or slightly longer to play, I generally am either focused on mainly on certain goals or just go out and take what the seas offer but still have some general goals. Here are some examples and tips:

• Work on commendation/achievement grinds - as an example I'm working to complete the 300 shipwrecks so will go out of my way to find those and stop at them, even Reapers marked on the map but I generally leave the Reaper's Chest unless the Hideout is on the way.

• As a corollary to the above, put down voyages even if you have no intention of completing them to accumulate any needed miles on a voyage commendation/achievement for a particular faction. Also related, if it is a short voyage, try to complete it to work on the completed voyages in a particular faction. Every little bit helps.

• I also hunt skeleton ships, mainly sloops as they are rife with treasure and many times have those precious barnacled chests. Plus they are a fun thing to do with limited time.

• For your time, gold hoarders and merchant alliance voyages are the easiest to gather loot quickly.

• Work on raising emissary levels by modest amounts. It will help you in the long run on those monthly leaderboards. You don't need to get it all the way up to rank 5 - just make sure you turn in something to get credit, regardless of bonus.

Some tips:

• Watch your time. Allow yourself the time to turn in items (if that is your goal) so don't wait all the way to the end of your allotted time to attempt a turn-in. Plan you voyages to go by outposts in order to offload stuff so you aren't crunched at the end or lose it in a last minute ambush or random environment attack.

• Don't let yourself be beholden to Emissary levels. You don't need too to get to level 5 every time - something is always better than nothing.

• Skeleton captains - I always stop and take these guys out, whether I did up their orders or not. Works on a commendation/achievement progress and is good to level up Emissary quicker if you are running one.

• Be flexible. While you may have a general focus on what you would like to do, have a backup plan in case the circumstances aren't working out in your favor. Take what the sea offers instead of trying to force it to give you something. Take advantages of certain opportunities that present themselves if they will help you in some way.

I play all the time in the morning before I have to leave for work, generally only having 1-2 hours tops to play. I manage my expectations as to what I think I can do, most times I generally have pretty profitable runs in the short time. Other times I make progress on the grinds in the game but not much profit.