Commendations and Secrets to “A Pirate’s Life” Tall Tale | Sea of Thieves

Arr… This be Cap’n Jailkin ‘er to tell ye all how to unlock all yer commendations for the first Tall Tale “A Pirate’s Life”. Now I don’t be rec’mendin this ‘ere guide if ye haven’t completed the Tall Tale on yer own yet, as we’ll be skipping all the parts that were covered in that guide.

Now before we be setting off on this ‘ere voy…. *COUGH* *COUGH*… talking like a pirate sure hurts your throat. So to get started, I just wanna make sure you all know that this guide was made possible due to the collective efforts of Kevduit, Sinduit, DustyyGrinn and myself. We spent the better part of 3 hours raking through every inch of this tall tale to ensure we could provide you with everything you need in one place.

Before we begin looking into how to earn all the commendations I just want to break them down into two types of commendations.

Story Commendations

There are 5 story related commendations that you WILL earn just completing the Tall Tale from start to finish. We wont be going over those ones here as they can all be earned by following our “A Pirate’s Life Tall Tale Guide” HERE

Secret Commendations

This is what you’re here for, unlocking all the commendations so you can earn the beautiful Cursed Captains sales (and hat) and boost your renown. We’ll start at the second part of the tall tale, you may have to run through Dead Man’s Grotto real quick to get here.

Head down the path to the right until you come to a locked gate. To open the gate you’ll need to head up the stairs to the left.

At the top of the stairs you’ll find a Brazier that needs a bit of flame. Raise your lantern and light it up to unlock the gate.

Now make your way straight down towards the wrecked ships where you’ll be greeted by your new best chattering friend the Cursed Captain. You can feel free to ignore him for the time being, we have REAL things to accomplish here. We’re going to unlock ALL the secret commendations in order.

Raising the Dead

The First Secret Commendation we unlock in this walkthrough is Raising the Dead. Now this is earned by discovering Dougie, the buried pirate. We start this quest in the second floor of the Tavern.

Once you reach the second floor of the Tavern there will be a map table with an unlit candle beckoning to your lantern. Light the candle and 3 ghosts will appear studying the map. With a little peak at the map you’ll see a big red X near the northern most part of the island.

Cursed Captain Journal - The Haul of a Lifetime

Before you head off to that “X”, turn around from the map table and go outside, you’ll see across the gap the first Journal, read it.

Leave the Tavern and head towards the Cursed Captains Ship, This is the ship with the big red masts. Once you get to the ship head down the pathway to the right and you’ll find where the buried treasure once layed.

Try as hard as we did, there is no treasure left here, just a trail of gold coins leading away from the scene of the crime. Follow them! At the end of the trail there will be a well placed digging spot, start digging and you will find Dougie

Treasure for the Dead

Once Duggie is pulled up out of the earth he will have an unlit lantern at his side, well, be a proper pirate and lit it for him. He’ll “come alive” once the flame burns again and ask you find his final missing treasure.

Leave Dougie to rest and head back to our squawking Cursed Captain. From under his cage you want to head North where you will see a plank boardwalk. Follow it!

Inside will be a bedroom fit for a Captain. Now there is alot to unpack in this tiny room, there is a pully on the left, the Captain himself in the bed and stairs that lead up to a balcony on the far right.

Cursed Captain Journal - Dissent in the Ranks

Before doing anything, go ahead and grab your second book sitting on the bookshelf next to the bed.

Now its time to see what the Captain is looking at, when you approach him you will get an option to interact which will move his arm up and down, looking at the magnifying glass you can see he’s examining the area by the Tavern, but you can’t quite tell where at yet.

Well this is no problem at all, nothing a little light can’t help with, we all know reading books in the dark is bad for your eyes anyways. Time to open the curtains, interact with the pully and slide those curtains open.

Unfortunately their isn’t much sunlight in Sailor’s Grave, so you’ll need lend a bit of light. Head up the stairs and you’ll find a total of three torches around the balcony, light them all!

Now that you’ve turned on the lights its time to head back to the captain and see if you can see what he sees. Looking closely at the map we can see that an X has appeared, which can only mean one thing!

It’s SHOVEL TIME! Na Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Na, Can’t Tou… oh right, sorry. Leave the Captain to rest in his Captain size bed and head on over to the Tavern to unearth your newly discovered treasure.

Now the map is a bit hard to tell exactly where that little X is sitting at, but after a few (hundred) tries my crew and I found it right in front of another plank build pathway under a lantern.

With Treasure in hand, return to poor Dougie and give his treasure back to him. He’ll thank you and give you the key to the chest with the promise that the contents are yours to keep.

Take the Key and open the chest to find Poor Dougie’s Medallion laying inside the chest. With this in hand you have finished your second secret of this tall tale.

A Powerful Thirst

By far one of my favorite commendations that I earned in the tall tale, filling Captain Bones’ tankard. This easily can be done before the other two commendations we’ve covered so far, but to make things easier for the next we placed it here.

We’ll start this task in conjunction with retrieving the good old Cursed Captain from his caged doom. So head up towards the cage until you get to the pully’s part of the course.

From this two platform area, if we use a keen eye, we can make out a slight gap in the cliffs on the right. Upon further examination there is actually a huge hole, I’d say a pirate size hole, tucked neatly away.

Once inside the cave you’ll stumble across a secret stash of grog and one lovely bottle of Captain Bone’ Special Recipe. Grab it and open the cell door to leave the cave.

Now you’ll want to head up to the top of the mast and cut down the Cursed Captain and head back to ground level. Just don’t forget to bring the grog with you.

Next we’ll want to head back to where we dug up Dougie’s treasure and head south to take the walkway to the back end of the ship.

Cursed Captain Journal - Off the Edge of the Map

Inside the ship there is the third book sitting on one of the tables.

Now that you’ve satisfied your thirst for knowledge its time to wake the dead and satisfy their thirst. Light the candle next to the chess board and wait till the captain needs a refill.

Ship of Thieves

Now after seeing Captain Bone loose his mind over a game of chess you probably noticed a key sitting next to the chess board, here’s where all your work so far comes together.

First thing you need to do is go out of the ship and run back to grab Poor Dougie’s Medallion as you will need it for your buy in to play.

Once you’ve placed your bet you’ll need a player, someone who’s head is ready to be attached to the pile of bones next to you. So go grab the Cursed Captain and put him in coach, he’s ready to play.

Now its time to learn why the Captain ALWAYS wins. After watching the Cursed Captain’s pro gamer moves he’ll use his ultimate and win the match. This will allow you to take the key from the table.

With key in hand you’ll want to head back towards the elevator that you took to free the Cursed Captain. You’ll find the locked door that your newly earned key fits to. Open it up to retrieve you’re reward.

Keep in mind that the gold from these piles are NOT shared among the crew, it’s first come first serve, so make sure you head for those gold piles first as they are worth about 2,000 gold each.

Secret of the Grave

Now that you’ve finished looting the gold from this ship it’s time to start setting thing up for the next secret.

Go to the back of the boat where you’ll see the masts and on the right side is a pully. Interact with it and move the sails out of the way of the giant brazier.

Next we’ll want to head to the lighthouse, make sure you bring the Cursed Captain with you, and run your peg leg all the way to the top.

Cursed Captain Journal - Strange, Yet Familiar

Once you reach the top there is the fourth journal sitting on the bookshelf.

After collecting the Journal progress through the story mode until you have lit the lighthouse’s brazier. Once lit you’ll want to turn it around and point it the the newly reveled brazier and set it ablaze. Make sure you light the other ones to summon the Ferryman’s ship while you’re here.

Now you’ll want to wait and take the Cursed Captain head down from the Lighthouse and head back towards the first gate that you entered through. You’ll need to turn to the left BEFORE that gate and you’ll see the newly opened pathway.

Drop the Cursed Captain and head across the bridge. Once across the bridge you’ll discover the wrecked ship and earn your commendation.

The Crew of the Headless Monkey

Now that you’ve found the Secret ship its time to find the 5 books scattered about, Now these are mostly in plain site but some can be missed if you get distracted by the shiny bits.

The Crew of the Headless Monkey - A Headless Monkey

Start by heading straight the the tipped over mast, at its base you will find the first book next to the lantern.

The Crew of the Headless Monkey - Raising the Mad Monkey

Next you’ll want to head up the stairs to the broken mast where you’ll find the second book resting on the ledge of the mast.

The Crew of the Headless Monkey - Somewhere in the Caribbean

The third book and Captain Key is located right up by the ships missing wheel. Read the book and take the Key.

After grabbing the key you’ll want to hop off the left (port) side of the ship, from here you’ll see the door that your new key unlocks.

Inside the Captains quarters you’ll find the final two books and complete the commendation.

The Crew of the Headless Monkey - Fresh Waters

The Crew of the Headless Monkey - A Fateful Pursuit

Cursed Captain Journal - Lights Out

Now many of you may have found this last Journal during your story mode run through, but for those who didn’t here’s what to do.

Leave the wrecked ship and grab the captains skull. You’ll want to head over to the Cursed Captains ship, unlock it by placing the Captains Skull on the headless corpse.

After the door is open head up to the captains quarters and the final Journal will be on the bookshelf to the right of the map table.

With the final journal read you will have unlocked the last TWO commendations and now have the Cursed Captains Hat and Sails unlocked.

If you enjoyed this guide, be sure to check out our other’s guides.