Best stowaways?

I dunno, I find this game has a fair amount of options to be sneaky with varied tactics on how to pull it off. Generally I enjoy slipping aboard other ships while they are working on a task. Far too often people are terrible about keeping an eye on the ship, in particular people who seem the most concerned when they lose loot cause they seem to get really mad often, compared to those who catch you in the act and make you earn it through battle.

But, admittedly, the end results are often the same as it involves taking a Keg they willing placed on their own ship and sending them to Davey Jones once they are ready to take off.

But, while I'm actively in the act of doing my sneaks, I do like to play some games to give the crew I'm about to savage a chance to find me. Tuck in pretty obvious areas and see if they notice, step out of a tuck and dance behind a pirate not paying attention before diving back into a tuck, not tucking but simply moving about the ship a bunch whole watching them in hopes they don't notice, freaking them out by talking to them in game while I'm hidden somewhere on the ship, helping the crew keep their ship alive while I wait for them to have the amount of treasure I seem worth the sink.

Lots of options for sneaking. And those are just once you make it on to the ship. Getting to the ship also poses numerous options that can be fun to try. But, getting long winded here so I'll exclude that for now.

For me, getting on the boat boils down to being able to read the target. You need to make some assessment based on a few things: what island are they at or approaching, could that island be part of a Voyage that uses specific islands (Thieves Haven Run is a good example), do they have an Emissary Flag active and for what faction and at what level is it. Using this information I'll decide if I want to try and cut them off in advance or if I need to make a more direct move.

You already noted a lot of the direct moves available to you (save for just coming in with your ship and making a direct attack, which can in and of itself be sneaky based on how you maneuver your ship to close the distance without being detected. Otherwise rowboat (you'd probably be a little sad to see how many will not notice this) for more mid to long range moves, or swimming (again, a little slower but not as bad as you might think and often missed) where you'll want to grab the ladder and chill for a bit to get a feel for if anyone heard or saw you, as well as what might be going on up on deck. When you are confident you have a play get up that ladder and get hidden.

On the other hand, if you've been able to read the target pretty well, get yourself to where they will need to be going next before they have a chance to get there. Consider what their approach would likely be so you can either hide your ship or let it sail away or be scuttled (this will make gathering the loot take a bit more as you'll need to go get your ship to collect your loot, and odds are that crew will be coming back in most cases to try and reclaim it).

Thieves Haven (and other large islands, but specifically Thieves Haven due to the layout) gives a perfect opportunity for you to climb up high on the island (putting your gamer tag often out of view distance) and wait for them to park so you can make a Sword Lunge from your high position directly into the Crow's Nest.

Some other tips would be to hide inside of loot on the ship - though this is honestly checked more often than some of the more obvious hiding spots and it is almost soul crushing how many people won't notice an enemy pirate engaged in a hide emote (since they hide gamer tags too, which seems to be what most people rely on to find enemy players as opposed to paying attention for a pirate doing some weird hide out in the open). So make sure if you really want to be good at hiding that you pick up more than just the basic hide emote as these will open more hiding options for you (which does make that emote set a little bit "pay to win" in my opinion since the variants are actually more useful gameplay wise and do open more play options for you beyond the basic emote. At minimum a coupe of Hide Emotes should be free to all (the current lay down one, should also get a free standing up one like against the wall or plank standing). Basically, everyone should have a free version of each style type available, with the other variants being the skinning of those base setups to make it a little more balanced and give all players the same options on where to hide).

Anyways, some things to keep in mind on your approach.

1. Enemy Gamer tags have a MUCH shorter view range than friendly ones (which are now almost obscene as they should really only cover you on a single island at most). This means high ground is often your friend and opens more options to get on the ship (if you miss a Crow's Nest lunge you can still try to board via the ladder like you swam over.

2. Your Gamer tag is removed when you're enough below the surface of the water to anyone above the surface. Keep low when you approach the ship (make sure you grabbed fresh air before that last dive approach) so they don't see you swimming and get your tag removed, then nab the ladder by swimming straight up to it.

That should be able to up your sneak game a bit, and hopefully also gives you some things to look out for as well for when I come sneak on your ship to steal your loot.

See you on the seas!

@idneon said in Best stowaways?:

This game doesnt seem too "sneak oriented".

So what's your best stowaway moments if you got any?

because it's a pirate game that's why it isn't sneak oriented and i have never had one because i just comandeer the ship that belongs to other players

Funniest I got was, trying to board a sloop at an outpost I said to my friend we get a ladder each, and tuck somewhere, my friend then tells me, "we are in game chat" so I replied in a whisper. "Let's whisper then, they won't hear us" we got the best reply. The guy on the sloop whispered back, "but I can still hear you".
We all laughed, made an alliance and made some new friends.

I attempted two tucks last night. The first was on wanderers refuge while a solo slooper was fighting an ashen lord. Eventually I tucked on his ship but then the lord set it ablaze. He found me burning on his ship when he came back from the ferry and failed trying to kill me while his ship sank. I ended up finishing off the boss, swimming the skull to sailor's knot stronghold where I found a rowboat, then took off looking for a skeleton ship.

Eventually a fort of the damned became active, so I rowed to dagger tooth to turn in and then rowed to the fort. I hid on the north side of the island opposite a sloop in an alliance. Two pirates were occasionally communicating with the chat wheel. Once the boss was up, I heard multiple cannons firing. I took a look and saw a brig next to the sloop. I continued to hide until they opened the vault. Then I immediately said "Well played!"

I came out of hiding and eventually everyone was playing 1812 while I'm standing on the legend chest someone had dropped at my feet. I decided to take a mermaid so I could bring a ship back and ally with them.

Before it was all over, we had completed a second fotd and I earned every challenge that requires a second crew in adventure mode except sitting in a throne.