OK, hear me out. Sea of Thieves has many magical and mystical things in it, so if we can have elemental gems that we can put into a sword, it could make the game interesting in the ways that people can use the gems' powers. Show here's my idea:
There are 3 types of gems for 3 elements: Water, Air/Wind, and Fire. You find these gems by completing quests for the Order of Souls, who reward you with a specified gem once you've completed the quest. You can only have 1 type of element, and that element can only be on 1 sword, but it can be swapped to a different sword, but can't be on 2, like say you have 10 different swords and you choose water, you can only have water, no more elements, and it can only be on 1 sword. Now each element has 2 modes; assisting mode and combat mode. Assisting mode assists you on things like transportation and enhancing things like how far your cannons can shoot. Now there will also be a tier system of this where the max will be 3 gems of a specific element, which, when you have 3 gems of that element, gives you 2 combat abilities and 2 assist abilities. Here are the abilities you get for each element at each number of gems:
Water:
First Gem: Combat ability: A simple slash that gives off a water trail that matches the direction you slashed in, but it does increase the damage by like 5%; this will be in all slashes that aren't related to an ability, and can't be deselected. Assist ability: None.
Second Gem: Combat ability: A vortex that does a small amount of damage, but pushes back players, skeletons, and phantoms. Assist ability: A wave that pushes your ship and stays with your ship, even if you turn, and it lasts for 30 seconds, and can be combined with an ability of the wind gems.
Third Gem: Combat enhancement: The damage of elemental attacks are increased by 10%. Assist ability: You can summon a vortex in the water that attracts enemy ships and keeps them stuck there for 30 seconds, but it comes at a cost of 50% of your total health bar, no matter how much health you're at.
Bonus ability: You swing faster and it's easier for you to catch fish and you have better luck of rarer fish appearing.
Air/Wind
First Gem: Combat ability: A simple slash that gives off a wind trail that matches the direction you slashed in, and it does knock back enemies a little bit; this will be in all slashes that aren't related to an ability, and can't be deselected. Assist ability: None.
Second Gem: Combat ability: Summon a small tornado that traps enemies and then sends them flying up a little bit, but mostly backwards. Assist ability: Summon winds that always blow into your sails for 30 seconds, which can be combined with a water gem ability.
Third Gem: Combat enhancement: The damage of elemental attacks are increased by 10%. Assist ability: You summon a twister that causes a storm to follow a ship that you targeted for 30 seconds, but it comes at a cost of 50% of your total health bar, no matter how much health you're at.
Bonus ability: You jump higher and can shoot more accurate sniper shots.
Fire
First Gem: Combat ability: A simple slash that gives off a fire trail that matches the direction you slashed in, and it deals burning damage for 3 seconds, which knocks off 5% of health; this will be in all slashes that aren't related to an ability, and can't be deselected. Assist ability: None.
Second Gem: Combat ability: You thrust forward, leaving a fire trail behind you that catches things on fire, including enemies, and if you thrust at an enemy, they get knocked back and they get set on fire. Assist ability: You increase the range of cannon every time you shoot a cannon by setting off a bigger explosion in the cannon.
Third Gem: Combat enhancement: The damage of elemental attacks are increased by 10%. Assist ability: Fire bombs have bigger radius and more power and deal more damage.
Bonus ability: You can set off flares without having to use cannons, but can use your sword to do it, and kegs are more powerful when set off by you.
The bonus abilities are unlocked once you have gotten and embedded your third gem into your sword. Also, the gems add a little style to your swords.
Let me know what you guys think.
