Bilge Rats

Type

 Set Sail For Adventure

The **Bilge Rats** are a Trading Company in *Sea of Thieves* represented in every Outpost's Tavern. The current Bilge Rats representative is Larinna. The Bilge Rats offer various services for Bilge Rat Doubloons and Gold. The main goal of Bilge Rats is to send players on new and exciting Adventures as soon as the opportunity presents itself. As such, the Bilge Rats are often the ones to contact about any current Bilge Rat Adventures, new Items or Mercenary Voyages related to the latest Content Updates.

Unlike other Trading Companies, the Bilge Rats do not care for the Player's Reputation. Instead, they care for their daring deeds on the seas, indicated by their Commendations. For many Commendations, the Bilge Rats gladly offer Bilge Rat Doubloons to spend at their Black Market.

## The Bilge Rats

### Who are the Bilge Rats?

The Bilge Rats were formed as a response to the encroaching presence of the Trading Companies. They don’t have a founder or a leader exactly, because they’re all far too independent, but one day a feisty pirate named Larinna and her crew decided that the pirate life was too precious a thing to squander by being too serious.

Not wanting to follow orders or do anything that could even remotely resemble work, they became the Bilge Rats: tenacious, uncontrollable and a bit wild. Their aim is to get together with like-minded louts and go seeking the real Sea of Thieves.

### What do the Bilge Rats do?

 Pirates are many things: scoundrels, heroes, explorers and fighters... But most of all, they’re free. The Bilge Rats are here to ensure that it stays that way, encouraging pirates to follow their noses, be relentless in search of adventure (and trouble), and challenge themselves on the path to Pirate Legend.

The Bilge Rats keep their ears on the pulse of the Seas and their fingers to the Ground! They pride themselves on catching all the best rumours by exploring, adventuring and spending a lot (like, a lot) of time in the Taverns! So whenever something changes on The Sea of Thieves, they know about it and can usually turn it into a game or contest by lunchtime. What’s the point in being a pirate if you can’t prove that you’re the best pirate with some ridiculous stunt?

For example, during the Skeleton Thrones Content Update, the Bilge Rats themselves went out to the remotest locations to build and hide Skeleton Thrones, challenging Player Crews to find all 10 of them and take a seat on top of the world in exchange for new unique Cosmetics. Following the update, the Bilge Rats always kept an eye on new happenings on the Seas, sending Players to tackle new threats or discoveries for a return of Doubloons, Commendations and Cosmetics.

### Duke, Stitcher Jim and Flameheart

As of the August 2019 Dark Relics (Content Update), the Bilge Rats started to follow mysterious happenings around the Seas, aided by the newly reformed Stitcher Jim and his beloved reticent Masked Stranger. The update saw the Stranger and Jim set up camp on the then uncharted I/J-12 Island, tasking the Bilge Rats with finding and recovering mysterious Dark Relics and Reaper’s Chests. The following Smuggler’s Fortune Update saw Jim, Duke and the Stranger working out a plan to take all the Bones left-over from Reaper's Chests, place them in Rag & Bone Crates and have them delivered across Seaposts all over the Seas to perform some sort of a Ritual with Dark Relics in the middle of the Seas at Shipwreck Bay. The next month's Fort of the Damned Content Update introduced the Fort of the Damned, which had permanently transformed Old Boot Fort during a ritual completed by the use of Dark Relics. The Ritual managed to resurrect the Ghost of Graymarrow, bringing the Skeleton Lord back from the dead. The Ritual at the Fort was only the beginning though, as the next The Seabound Soul (Content Update) saw the completion of the ritual on Shipwreck Bay, reviving and releasing Sir Arthur Pendragon from being cursed inside his own portrait on the wreck of his Ship the Blackwyche, where he was placed by Graymarrow himself. During the Tall Tale, Pendragon mentions that a mysterious stranger freed him with a Ritual and set him towards releasing the souls of three other cursed Captains. This Stranger was almost certainly tied to the **Bilge Rats**. Shamefully, Pendragon and the Player were tricked into releasing Captain Flameheart. Preceding this, Duke left Stitcher Jim in watch of the Black Market, while he supposedly set out to search for Larinna, the leader of the Bilge Rats, regarding this recent "skeletal activity". The Masked Stranger retreated to Wanda’s Hideout to work on something behind closed doors.
With the Festival of Giving (2019) update, the Masked Stranger returned to her spot at the now newly charted and named The Reaper’s Hideout at the previously uncharted reef at I/J-12 where she was collecting Gifts in behalf of Stitcher Jim who was still taking care of the Black Market business for Duke. The January 2020 Legends of the Sea (Content Update) saw Stitcher Jim vanish from his post and the return of a severely wounded Duke. According to Duke, he knew nothing of his supposed search for Larinna. He did note that he found the Heart of Fire, Flameheart's Lair, though, and claims that he was left in his state from being beat up there. Later, during the March 2020 Heart of Fire (Content Update), during the Tall Tale of the same name, the plans of Stitcher Jim and the Stranger were revealed. Namely, they used the Bilge Rats' followers to help them resurrect Captain Flameheart. It was Jim who beat up Duke and lead Pirates to Pendragon, to take over the Bilge Rats business and help them with the resurrection. The events in the Heart of Fire left Stitcher Jim betrayed by Flameheart and the Stranger and lead to the introduction of The Reaper's Bones Trading Company that follow Flameheart's desire in undoing everything the Pirate Lord's Trading Companies sought to accomplish over the Sea of Thieves.

### Larinna

With the arrival of the September 2020 Vaults of the Ancients Update, the leader of the Bilge Rats, Larinna, decided to exile Duke from his post because of his failings with Jim, the Stranger and Flameheart, and take over the representation of the Bilge Rats and Black Market instead. Duke took up a new calm life at the Lagoon of Whispers aside the tattoo-artist Umbra.
The October 2020 Fate of the Damned Content Update saw Larinna offering new time-limited Fate of the Damned Voyages as well as Mysterious Notes directing people to the newest developments on the Seas. In these Voyages, Larinna tasks Player Crews with finding **Bilge Rats** who went in search of Flames of Fate and subsequently went missing. These Voyages become available each week through the Event, sending players to different Regions, collecting specific Flames and battling the Ghost of Graymarrow who is being summoned by Skeletons.

## NPCs

Unlike the other Trading Companies, the Bilge Rats Company has only one representative of note who curiously seems to appear at every single Tavern in the major Outposts at the same time:

* Larinna - The founder of the Bilge Rats, and the current Bilge Rats representative.
* Duke - The former Bilge Rats representative.
* Stitcher Jim - The previous Bilge Rats representative, currently away tending to unknown business
* Masked Stranger - Stitcher Jim's "Beloved", hiding her identity behind a mask and a dark robe. She likes drawing and seems to have intricate knowledge of dark Rituals.

## Bilge Rat Doubloons

*Main article:* Bilge Rat Doubloons
Doubloons are the official Currency of the Bilge Rats and can be acquired in various ways:

* Completing Bilge Rat Adventures or Mercenary Voyages Commendations.
* Rewarded for completing certain Weekly initiatives for the Insider Programme.
* Rewarded for completing challenges during some Events and Daily Bounties
* Selling specific Treasure items:
	+ Ritual Skulls to the **Bilge Rats** or Reaper's Bones for 10
	+ Rag & Bone Crates to the noted Seaposts or Reaper's Bones for 5
	+ Ashen Chests to the **Bilge Rats** or Reaper's Bones for 5
	+ Ashen Keys to the **Bilge Rats** or Reaper's Bones for 5
	+ Ashen Tomes to the **Bilge Rats** or Reaper's Bones for 10
	+ Gifts to The Servant of the Flame at The Reaper’s Hideout for 5 - 10
	+ Reaper’s Chests to The Servant of the Flame at The Reaper’s Hideout for 25

## Services

The Bilge Rats often explain any new features added to Sea of Thieves and send players on large-scale Bilge Rat Adventures related to these features. First of all, the Bilge Rats set certain goals and feats for the Player Pirates to achieve in the form of Commendations. The Bilge Rats pay for these feats with Bilge Rat Doubloons that can be spent at their Black Market for time-limited Cosmetics, unique Mercenary Voyages, Letters of Recommendation to prove your worth to other Trading Companies or simple Currency Exchange for swapping the Doubloons for Gold. As of the October 2020 Fate of the Damned Content Update, these new features will be presented through Mysterious Notes that will be given to players when they log in during an active Event.

### The Black Market

*Main article:* Black Market
With each Content Update that is released as a part of Bilge Rat Adventures or Mercenary Voyages, various Time-Limited Items tied to these Events are offered by the Bilge Rats. Each month, the Black Market offers new Cosmetics and Mercenary Voyages for Doubloons and Gold.

## Commendations

See the Commendations page for a complete, comprehensive list of Bilge Rat Events & their Commendations.
Completing Bilge Rat Commendations award Bilge Rat Doubloons, a currency for Time-Limited items. Some Commendations are time-limited to the duration of the event (especially any Commendations related to Mercenary Voyages), but most everything tied to Bilge Rat Adventures will be permanently available.

## Patch history

* **2.0 (April 30, 2019)**
	+ Players with unlocked Commendations for previous Mercenary Voyages will once again see their Commendations in the Reputation pages.
	+ The Title counts on the Bilge Rats Reputation page will now correctly count the Titles available to players.

* **1.4.4 (March 6, 2019)**
	+ Mercenary Voyages progress bar now showing the correct number of commendations.

* **1.4.3 (February 6, 2019)**
	+ Resolved potential crash when navigating the Bilge Rats Reputation Pages

* **1.4.0 (November 28, 2018)**
	+ Players can no longer buy Letters of Recommendation from Duke when they are already at the max level with the selected Trading Company.

* **1.3.0 (September 27, 2018)**
	+ **Bilge Rat Shop** - The Bilge Rat shop now has tabs so that time-limited items appear on a separate page to the Letters of Recommendation and gold bags.

* **1.1.7 (July 19, 2018)**
	+ The Legendary Gunpowder Title has been removed from the Bilge Rat progression UI due to it incorrectly tracking progress. The Title is currently available to players through the Bilge Rat shop once all 3 Legendary Gunpowder Skeleton Commendations have been completed.

* **1.1.6 (July 11, 2018)**
	+ **UI Update** - A small banner is shown on Commendations within the Bilge Rat progress screen when there are Bilge Rat Doubloons to be earned.
	+ The Bilge Rat progression UI now correctly counts Gunpowder Skeleton Titles towards the overall Title count.

* **1.1.3 (June 20, 2018)**
	+ **Gold bag icons** - The icons for the Bilge Rat gold bags have been updated to better show the value of the gold within!

* **1.1.2 (June 13, 2018)**
	+ Bilge Rat Progression Screen - Bilge Rats now have their own dedicated progression screen! This information can be found on the front page of the progression screen via the [Menu] (controller) or [Tab] (keyboard) buttons.
	+ **Bilge Rat Trading** – If you’re feeling a thirst for a little extra gold in ye’ pocket or fancy some Reputation in any of the three Trading Companies, the Bilge Rats can also pull a few strings and allow you to trade your Doubloons towards a bit of progress. These latter progression items will be a permanent part of the Bilge Rat shop and aren’t time limited, so make your choice wisely!

* **1.1.0 (May 29, 2018)**
	+ Introduced.