Why return old cosmetics? Who does it benefit?

@neon-ic0n

All they have to do is actually make reasonable alternatives to these 'rare' cosmetics, whether it be via recolors or otherwise.

That's kinda my point with returning old cosmetics which already have recolours for the express purpose of giving people an alternative if they missed out on the original. Likewise the idea of ''I just want it for more cosmetic options'' is also appeased by making more recolours or just making new stuff in general. No reason to actually return it.

You could literally just make a new variant of old cosmetics that is only from doubloons like idk ''Shining Mercenary, Shining Bone Crusher'' etc, but they for some reason still will demand they get the old one.

I think the issue with people trying to gatekeep the cosmetics is that I'm not gonna use the OG Bone Crusher figurehead because I think it's cool, I'm going to use it because when I played the game for the first time in 2020 I asked my friend if I could get that figurehead on my ship after seeing it on a skeleton sloop. He told me I could have if I had played sooner. I just like how it looks. I main skeleton curse, and often have a bone crew on my ship because that was the way I want to enjoy SoT atmospherically. Bone Crusher figurehead has been the only cosmetic I've ever truly wanted in this game, aside from skeleton curse. I got skeleton curse in 3 weeks of hard grinding. People who gatekeep the cosmetics because of some sort of perceived rarity forget that its a video game and people want to have cool looking pirate ship. The first thing I ever did while playing SoT was try to steal a skeleton ship because I liked how cool they looked and I wanted to be a skeleton captain myself, of a skeleton crew. Since the first HOUR that I played SoT, before I did even a single voyage, before I had even a single level in any company, before I understood the concept of limited time cosmetics in the game, I wanted to have that figurehead on my ship. 99% of players who have these cosmetics either don't play anymore or don't use them because they prefer something newer.
So who does it hurt? Everyone who wants this game to live.

@fred-fisheye I'm already in 3 guilds and no one in them has bone crusher, so no I cannot.

You know how I know? I played about 1400 hours of SoT in 2025 alone. I did over 1500 hourglass matches, and in all that time I only saw one person who ever had bone crusher figurehead equipped. No feelings about it, I have seen over 2000 boats in the last year alone and only one of them had that figurehead. I often ask players how long they've been playing for and the overwhelming majority of players I ask say that they've been playing for 1-3 years. Almost none of them were even playing when bone crusher was available to get.

You're gatekeeping for the sake of gatekeeping. These cosmetics cannot be sold, traded, or in any way exchanged. Their "rArItY" is entirely artificial and due to the fact that over 90% of the playerbase wasn't aware that the game existed back then. Who does it benefit??? Who does it harm to put them back in? You're gonna be mad that your pixels are no longer rare and players can be happy to have cosmetics they've wanted for half a decade? Cry harder, it's a video game first and foremost, where the players are supposed to be able to make a fun pirate and a cool pirate ship.

Lets look at hard numbers. 40 million people have bought this game and it gets about 10k players at peak on weekends. Even if the steam numbers are only 1/4 of all the players, 40,000 players is not a lot compared to how many own it. 0.1% or less of people who have bought the game play it at all. 99.9% of people who have ever played this game no longer do. So it stands to reason that the overwhelming majority of players who had old cosmetics also do not play still.

@fred-fisheye You're arguing from a false pretense. You still haven't told me how is hurts people to have old cosmetics re-introduced to players who never had a chance to get them. I've told you my objective truths and you have clearly read them, so explain to me why your player experience would be diminished because I'm suddenly allowed to have a cosmetic I wasn't able to get before that you presumably have? There is no market or value to cosmetics. They cannot be bought from players, or sold or traded to players. There is no economy or even impact of one person having something on their boat they previously weren't able to get.

Yes, it's a smart answer, because the only answer you'll be able to give me about why you think it's valid to gatekeep old cosmetics will be crying, whinging, and complaining. There is no valid reason to gatekeep old (non celebratory) cosmetics in a video game where the main point and only progression in the video game is to unlock those cosmetics. It's not my fault that I didn't hear about a game soon enough to unlock something.

@potatosord

He told me I could have if I had played sooner. I just like how it looks. I main skeleton curse, and often have a bone crew on my ship because that was the way I want to enjoy SoT atmospherically.

This reasoning doesn't justify returning it. It would also justify returning literally everything; Black Dog, Arena stuff, seasonal items, adventure mementos, etc. Literally every single cosmetic that is no longer available if you just say ''But I like it'' then it should be returned. There is both the Fearless Bone Crusher and Obsidian Bone Crusher variants of this set for you to still use the figurehead of in order to get the same atmosphere, not only that but many other skeleton themed sets that offer a figurehead of a Skull. In theory this should be enough; you missed the original but they have given you multiple options in order to obtain a similar effect, which is why at that point I consider being like ''but I want that one'' to be not a good reason.

People who gatekeep the cosmetics because of some sort of perceived rarity forget that its a video game and people want to have cool looking pirate ship.

Would you be okay if they made Skeleton Curse something you just get immediately when you start the game? Or have every outpost cosmetic reduced to cost 1 gold? This games progression is purely for cosmetics; rarity is part of the game. Whether that's because something is hard to get or because you can no longer get it. This is a concept that persists outside of sea of thieves as rare things go for much higher prices even if they aren't even as good as the default.

The first thing I ever did while playing SoT was try to steal a skeleton ship because I liked how cool they looked and I wanted to be a skeleton captain myself, of a skeleton crew. I wanted to have that figurehead on my ship.

You have multiple options to get this effect including two recolours.

So who does it hurt? Everyone who wants this game to live.

FOMO in gaming generally does the opposite of that unfortunately; Rare has always used fomo in order to incentivise playing the game and still do it to this day with making limited content ie Act 2 as well as the deed rewards that come as part of participating in it. Since Season 6 Rare started to lean into the far more casual short form playstyle and reworked the game around this; all this did was mean that people that enjoyed the game got tired of it and there was just a constant influx of new players without many staying for long. This has resulted in the game dropping in players significantly as it does not keep a playerbase but is rather a revolving door of people that play it once and drop it. I think 'getting rid' of legacy content to satiate newer players that didn't get them is another step in this direction. again FOMO items are still added to this day; in 5 years stuff obtainable right now will be considered cool stuff; assuming the game lasts this long. Literally as part of the Doubloon reset which is partly done to return FOMO items... is them adding FOMO doubloon items prior to the reset. Give it 2 years after the doubloon reset and new gen players will be complaining they cannot get whatever the FOMO doubloon items are ''its unfair just because I didn't play back then, I have plenty of doubloons I should be able to purchase them''.

@potatosord

overall just a bad emotional argument

You're gatekeeping for the sake of gatekeeping.

not at all. The main reason I want certain items to remain limited are items that were tied to participating in Sea of Thieves evolving story. Items that were added to be a ''I was here'', something that tells the story of your pirate and the different things they have done. For example Bone Crusher was locked behind participating in the Cursed Sails Event; where Skeletons first took to the waves on Skeleton Ships and tried to fight against the Outposts with Skeleton Fleets in multiple locations, you got these items for successfully defending against this Skeleton Threat as well as learning about the creation of the Warsmith as at this point she was just a regular outpost NPC.

13 Bone Crusher Items are limited, 26 are not, and including recolours there's 100 total Bone Crusher items. You can get 87/100 of them and that's not enough for you to live out your skeleton crew fantasy.

The real issue is that Rare was lazy back in the day (still are) and instead of making a unique item to make limited, they just went ''eh lets just make like a chunk of the bone crusher stuff limited and call it a day''. So unfortunately the only two options are either to

• Keep the 13 items limited; add multiple recolours to make up for it
• make the 13 items available; and ruin items that were added to be mementos of participating in the story.

I'm sure because you weren't there it won't matter to you, but I think it should matter in a game like SoT with like 10,000+ cosmetics where only like 500 or so are limited to past events.

And again this issue of them using parts of normal sets and throwing a limited time on them for no reason is still happening. Literally right now you can obtain Ship Crests for the Companies by completing the time limited Act 2 deeds, even though it makes no sense to give Company cosmetics for this content, meaning once this content is gone they will be unavailable.

due to the fact that over 90% of the playerbase wasn't aware that the game existed back then. Who does it benefit???

The people that knew the game existed; also just everyone else. Rare stuff is cool, both for the one that has it and the one that doesn't. Its a ''oh wow look that ship has Mercenary Sails'', as well as a ''oh god that ship has Mercenary Sails''. If you re-add this stuff it just becomes another random cosmetic with no uniqueness, you lose these interactions and everything just becomes more stale.

If you do have 1400 hours with 1500+ hourglass matches; surely you understand the concept of gauging a crew based on their cosmetics? Like you see a ship check their ship cosmetics to determine if you think these will be experienced players? You really wanna remove this nuance just so you can have a bone ship even though you already can?

You're gonna be mad that your pixels are no longer rare and players can be happy to have cosmetics they've wanted for half a decade?

Pixel argument is stupid and most people have realised it and have stopped saying it. I already explained it in my original post. That alongside the fact you think we are ''gatekeeping for the sake of gatekeeping'' without once referencing the actual reason; tells me you didn't even read the post you just saw the title and assumed you knew what me or anyone else in here has said so far.

Cry harder, it's a video game first and foremost, where the players are supposed to be able to make a fun pirate and a cool pirate ship.

You know being the first person to say Cry Harder makes you look like the dumb one right? Like you're suggesting the other person is crying while in the same sentence suggesting you are upset you cannot make a fun and cool pirate ship in a video game; despite you having access to thousands of cosmetics. ''But I want that one mommy!''

Lets look at hard numbers. 40 million people have bought this game and it gets about 10k players at peak on weekends. Even if the steam numbers are only 1/4 of all the players, 40,000 players is not a lot compared to how many own it. 0.1% or less of people who have bought the game play it at all. 99.9% of people who have ever played this game no longer do. So it stands to reason that the overwhelming majority of players who had old cosmetics also do not play still.

where are you getting 40 million? from like SoT announcements of ''we have had 40 million pirates''? Yea a lot of that is gamepass, people who have gamepass for any other reason and thought eh I'll try sot and quit after 2 minutes. You're conflating a fake 40 million number to a presumed 40k playercount based on steam numbers and using that as your justification.

Just to note here are some cool steam achievement statistics. Bear in mind this is steam, meaning people that specifically bought the game, not those that play on gamepass.

31% of players have not sank an enemy ship
33% of players have not sailed in wind
38% of players have not completed a voyage
45% of players have not completed the maiden voyage (tutorial)
49% of players have not bought a single cosmetic
81% of players have not blocked with a sword

and again; xbox numbers (the largest majority) are going to be significantly worse with so many people that left without even touching their ship. The 40 million number means literally nothing. Taking some of those statistics and applying the fact that a lot of xbox players never left the outpost will mean its very likely that 90%+ has never blocked with a sword, 70%+ have never bought a cosmetic, etc. If you're saying that 0.01% of people (a fake statistic) have the old items therefore it benefits the other 99.99%; 99.50% of those players are not current players, and 70% of those players have never even bought a single cosmetic in the first place. 0.0001% of players have the old items and 0.001% of people care to get them, when you use a crazy 40 million statistic like that suddenly everything becomes arbitrary.

@unseemlytag

This'll annoy you, but there's a way to get the kraken skull figurehead the skeletons use. I know, because it's on one of my ships. Just find me, add me to your crew and I'll be happy to add it on. I've also got a lot of the Barnacle stuff, too. So you can get Wailing Barnacle cannons and the Bone Crusher figurehead just by having me around.

Doesn't annoy me at all, unless you intended to reply that to the person who said the message you quoted; I also quoted it, I was not the original person who said it. You can't save other peoples cosmetics onto your ship to use permanently. The only real way to use items you don't own consistently is to be in a guild that has a ship with those items on it.

@unseemlytag

True, but it's in the earlier Commendations. You have to do a sail-by and cannonball some skeletons with a green cb (NOT the ones the ghost ships drop), then blow the affected ones up with a regular one. I forget how many you have to do this for, but that's how you get the kraken ( "bone crusher" ) figurehead. The other one is a palette-swap with the BB called "Sizzling Sinker". That one's black and orange, but (much) harder to get.

Those are the Fearless and Obsidian Bone Crusher Figureheads, not the original Bone Crusher Figureheads.

People are apparently annoyed they cannot get the original one despite there being two recolours and plenty of other items that fit the same theme.

@frogfish12 Colours are an important part of design. I don't want the bone crusher in red or black, I want it in white.

@potatosord

Colours are an important part of design. I don't want the bone crusher in red or black, I want it in white.

Here are all the Figureheads I can find still available that feature a White Skull.

Rogue Sea Dog, Ruffian Sea Dog, Gold Hoarder, Headless Horseman, Fearless Servant Figurehead, Legendary Reaper Figurehead, Islehopper Outlaw, Collectors Islehopper Outlaw, Stone Islehopper Outlaw, Collectors Stone Islehopper Outlaw, Deadlock Jailer, Dire Dark Warsmith, Dire Dark Warsmith Collectors, Riptide Rodeo, Ravenwood, Collectors Ravenwood, Sawbones

What's your next reasoning ''But I want specifically the one skeleton ships have''

Likewise if you wish to make a ship based on Skeletons I am unsure why it needs to be a white one, there are plenty of items you can use to make a skeleton themed boat of all different colours, opening the door to like 50+ figureheads being viable here. It really just sounds like you want a hyper specific thing for no reason.

Also worth noting; Could Rare not just like add a new White Skull Figurehead and that would be okay? would it specifically need to be the old one for you to settle?

@frogfish12
I would compromise for a similar one, but instead of a Kraken skull it could be a Meg skull.
That would be fine for me and i could be white.

Also none of the other skull figureheads, get close to the OG bonecrusher one.
The Kraken skull design is just better.

Here are all the Figureheads I can find still available that feature a White Skull.

Spinal figurehead is also good, but it is currently unavailable though it has returned multiple times (twitch drops, events, and plunder games reward iirc)

@frogfish12 How many of them feature a white kraken skull?

"It sounds like you want a hyper specific thing for no reason" It sounds like you need to read my past comments where I talk about how the design of the skeleton ship has been one of my driving factors for playing this game for the last 5.5 years.

@potatosord Actually just thought about it, and since you referenced my want for skeleton themed cosmetics, you know what I want in terms of design and why I want it, you're intentionally arguing with bad intentions. You're selectively responding to my arguments.

@potatosord

"It sounds like you want a hyper specific thing for no reason" It sounds like you need to read my past comments where I talk about how the design of the skeleton ship has been one of my driving factors for playing this game for the last 5.5 years.

No I did read that; I'm saying I disagree that they should ruin legacy content because someone wants something they didn't get when there are multiple alternatives that fit the theme both with 2 kraken skulls, multiple white skulls and even more just skulls/skeletons in general. This logic of like ''but I want that one!'' would also be justifiable reasoning to bring back quite literally anything that you can't get anymore including stuff like arena cosmetics, NAL and SoC sails, Overachiever sails, Golden Legendary, Black Dog, etc.

Again given your previous messages it sounds like you did not read the original post as you said ''gatekeeping for the sake of gatekeeping'' without acknowledging the actual reason. I'm Curious are you still completely fine with the return of items knowing fully well the items were locked intended to show that you were present during the evolving story of Sea of Thieves and being part of its history? If you've been playing for 5.5 years you surely have also experienced a great amount of its history and some items to reflect that too. Again with only 13/39 Original Bone Crusher and 13/100 Bone Crusher being limited I do not find that to be restrictive enough to justify re-adding the small amount of locked items because you are for some reason unsatisfied with having 87/100 items that fit the Skeleton Ship theme.

If liking the Design of the Skeleton Ships is one of your 'driving factors' for playing the game; and for this entire time you have been unable to create a ship that meets your satisfaction, how are you still playing this game? I imagine its because you do in fact have a ship you have been using that fits the theme of Skeleton Ship the entire time. Like I'm sure now that they've said they will re-add Bone Crusher you're happy with that but its not like you were unsatisfied prior as you have played for 5.5 years just fine without your driving factor for playing. If they now said ''actually we've reviewed it and will not be re-adding Bone Crusher'' would you then be upset and argue for it to come back?

You've used the ''its a video game/just pixels'' argument prior which should in theory apply both ways. It matters just as little if you do or don't get your item, its insignificant regardless. It is very wild for you to use the pixels argument while you are arguing for a hyper specific figurehead because you won't use other Skeleton themed items nor the two other recolours of the item because you want one that specifically has white pixels on your screen over brown or black/orange pixels.

And again; if your main reasoning is wanting a White Kraken Skull; if they added a new cosmetic that was also a white Kraken skull would you be okay with this? or does it specifically need to be the old one returning? Like if they made a 'Pristine Bone Crusher Figurehead' would that satisfy you?

The second main issue I have with these cosmetics returning is that its lazy; they're again taking the approach of just rereleasing existing stuff rather than making new stuff. They have the choice to either model something new, recolour something old, or return something old 1:1; and they're choosing the easiest option as they always do. If the Doubloon store purely features old stuff then people that already have them continue to not having anything to purchase; and they made specific mention of veteran players that have way too many doubloons; which will still be the case in the new doubloon store unless they add new stuff alongside the old stuff. I think a good middle ground would've just been to add new recolours of legacy items that are purchased via doubloons as well as re-imagined new modelled sets inspired by the originals.

@dermasterbob

Also none of the other skull figureheads, get close to the OG bonecrusher one.

The Kraken skull design is just better.

For sure the original one is very nice; I'm saying in reference to the idea of like creating a ship designed around Skeletons and a Skeleton Crew; you can make so much different stuff exploring different design themes and colours outside of just ''I want to 1:1 recreate the Skeleton Ship without any unique creativity from myself''.

@potatosord

you referenced my want for skeleton themed cosmetics, you know what I want in terms of design and why I want it, you're intentionally arguing with bad intentions. You're selectively responding to my arguments.

Your original post said the following;

I'm not gonna use the OG Bone Crusher figurehead because I think it's cool, I'm going to use it because when I played the game for the first time in 2020 I asked my friend if I could get that figurehead on my ship after seeing it on a skeleton sloop. He told me I could have if I had played sooner. I just like how it looks. I main skeleton curse, and often have a bone crew on my ship because that was the way I want to enjoy SoT atmospherically.

You like the aesthetic of Skeletons in this game and want to design a ship based on having a Bone Crew. I understand that. I'm saying that there are so many options to create a ship with a skeleton Aesthetic that isn't 1:1 just using the Skeleton Ship Figurehead; and again if you do want to use that figurehead you can use two different colours of it to create a Rusted Aesthetic akin to the Rusted Skulls set with the Fearless Bone Crusher, as well as a Fire/Obsidian Skeleton Aesthetic with the Obsidian Bone Crusher Figurehead. And then once you explore past purely Bone Crusher there are like 20+ Figureheads that feature specifically a white Skull, as well as likely 50+ that just have a Skull/Skeleton in general. You have so many options to pick from, and again with your previous post saying that Skeleton Crew is a driving reason you've played for 5.5 years; you've clearly somehow made it work all this time.

I find it odd to think it should return purely for a hyper specific reason specifically for you; rather than arguing a more broader point about like ''it benefits everyone'' kinda thing. Which again I also disagree with; I just find a personal anecdote to not really be a good justification for ruining legacy content.

I'm also not selectively responding to your arguments nor arguing with bad intentions; If I did I would've said something immature like ''cry harder '' instead of actually explaining my reasoning. If I have missed one of your arguments as to why it should return please remind me. So far I have gathered;

• you want it because you've liked skeleton ships since you started
• you enjoy the skeleton aesthetic and run skeleton curse with a bone crew
• you want to be a skeleton captain of a skeleton crew

@unseemlytag
Thats exactly what i want.
Give me the Jaw with teeth.

Who does it benefit?
Literally me and hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of others who arrived in past years.
Why some people wine about it? Don't you have anything more valuable in life, than just few packs of pixels?
You don't own these pixels, you didn't pay for them, didn't buy the license for personal use, so let the new players enjoy the game farming blue coins for old good looking skins.