Sea of Thieves Iron Sights Previews

Intro

In Sea of Thieves, there are two weapon types that rely on iron sights to aim: the Flintlock Pistol and the Blunderbuss. Given that you can customize the appearance of these weapons via different skins, some skins are bound to be "better" than others when it comes to accuracy and field of vision. This guide includes screenshots of the best non-paid, non-time-limited skins available for these weapons along with crosshairs added in post to show where your point of aim should be for each skin.

Flintlocks

Given that this is a precision weapon that relies on iron sights, which skin you use is the most important out of all four weapons.

The Sailor Flintlock has no iron sights, but also no real obstructions.

The Mercenary family of Flintlock skins is generally considered one of the best. It can be obtained easily in its Mercenary and Aristocrat forms and also has rare and coveted variants like Ebony or Cultured Aristocrat, plus the various Insider-exclusive Silver Blade variants.

The Sea Dog family also contests the top spot for Flintlock skins.

The Bilge Rat family is similar to the Sailor Flintlock in that they have a less precise sight (to be more specific, they have no sights), but offer an improved field of vision for those that can naturally aim with the center of their screen.

The Barnacle family is similar to the Bilge Rat variant, but its rarity gives it a much higher level of prestige.

The Wild Rose family is easy to obtain, and quite viable. It has a rare Gilded Phoenix variant that is very prestigious.

The Ocean Crawler family is an unconventional choice, but surprisingly viable.

The Admiral family is no-frills and viable.

The Sovereign family is sadly not quite as well-aligned as it could be, but is at least symmetrical and is quite nice-looking.

The Merchant Ambassador Flintlock is quite similar to the Sovereign's, but is a bit better-aligned and in my opinion looks even better.

The Masked Renegade Flintlock is very thin, but has some minor accuracy problems in exchange (it also glows vigorously red).

The Hunter family is a false friend, which looks like it should be quite accurate when aimed with the tip of the barrel but is actually aimed above and also (critically) off-center. Beware.

Blunderbuss

Because the Blunderbuss is a close-range shotgun weapon with a high spread, the absolute accuracy of the "sights" on a given skin is slightly less important than the skin's field of vision.

The Sailor Blunderbuss is no-frills and reliable.

The Sea Dog family once again has a very good point-of-aim.

The Admiral family is extremely reliable.

The Bilge Rat family trades accuracy for field-of-view, but on the Blunderbuss this is an ideal option.

The Barnacle family is again no-frills, all prestige.

The Forsaken Ashes family is quite reliable, if you can stand the glow (or use the Seared variant seen here for a much more manageable one).

The Hunter family redeems itself on the Blunderbuss by being accurate and still quite thin.

The Merchant Ambassador Blunderbuss is excellent, with the caveat that you must aim with the base of the iron sight rather than the tip (then again, since an opponent's stomach is generally considered the best point of aim for the blunderbuss, perhaps using the tip would be helpful).

The Ocean Crawler family is even stronger here than on the Flintlock.

The Relic of Darkness Blunderbuss is surprisingly reliable.

The Sovereign/Aristocrat family can be used well, provided you learn to aim with the gem in the center of the barrel rather than the barrel itself.

The Eastern Winds family is reliable once gotten used to (just mind that people will likely mock you for using the Ashen Dragon variant).

Eye Of Reach

The Eye of Reach uses a scope overlay that is the same for every rifle, barring some skins which include colored filters. Your choice of skin therefore has no bearing on how accurate your shots will be, however you can still optimize your skin choice by choosing skins with small and narrow scopes.

As a point of comparison, these three screenshots were all taken after backing up against the mast of this Sloop and aiming at the tip of the bowsprit.

The Sailor Eye of Reach:

The Sailor version of this gun is actually one of the better ones already.

The Ocean Crawler Eye of Reach:

See how much more of the harpoons are blocked by the rifle's scope.

The Silent Barnacle of Eye of Reach:

A slight improvement.

I won't do an exhaustive list of the best rifle skins, since it's easy to visually estimate how much it blocks your view just by looking at the shop preview icon.

Cutlass

Smaller and thinner swords are more ideal, but this only really has much of an effect in the split-second during the animation after blocking a hit where the sword is right up in your face. Most sword animations don't really stay in your screen long enough or get close enough for a larger blade to have much of an effect.

The Sailor Cutlass (a medium-sized sword):

The Searing Forsaken Ashes Cutlass (an exceptionally large sword):

The Rapier of the Bristling Barnacle (an exceptionally small sword):

Other than staying away from self-illuminated skins if you care about stealth, there's no particularly significant reason that you can't use whatever sword you want. Still, if you want to optimize, it's easy to do so just by looking at the sword's thumbnail icon.

Outro

And that's it for the guide so far. There are doubtless many more viable weapons than what is shown here- though likely to be restricted behind time, money, or past events.

Any suggestions? Want to contribute an image of a weapon you have? Let me know.

Thanks for reading.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2962905526

Iron Sights Previews