Sea of Thieves is giving away a real gold skull for its "greatest treasure hunt" ever

gamesradar.com:

Sea of Thieves' next Mystery will give you the chance to strike literal, real-life gold.

The first Sea of Thieves Mystery tasked players with finding and deciphering clues in and out of the game over the course of four months, but all rewards were strictly in-game. With the game's second Mystery, titled The Hoarder's Hunt, eagle-eyed pirates will have the chance to earn some real-world loot.

The top prize is a beautiful replica Gold Hoarder skull, an artist's rendition of which you can see just above. The skull comes with four golden keys you can share with your crewmates, though I suspect there will be some disagreement over who gets the skull itself. 10 runners-up will get exclusive silver keys and 100 third-place sleuths will get Reaper's Mark medallions, while everyone else can collect in-game titles, trinkets, and gold as usual. Even those not taking part in the treasure hunt will find Bullion Crowns washed up around the world, and they fetch a handsome price at the Gold Hoarders.

"What better way to reward the community for taking par tin the great treasure hunt the sea of thieves has ever seen than a real-world golden prize that they can cherish forever?" said lead designer Christopher Davies.

So how does it work? Well, a dedicated page for the Mystery will go live on Thursday, May 11, at which point eligible pirates will need to opt-in to start receiving clues. From there, you'll be sent to "obscure corners of the internet" for the first set of clues, and those will lead the most keen-eyed detectives to a keyword that'll unlock an in-game Voyage. Beat that and you'll have completed the first of four stages, titled Skin of Gold, A Feathered Fortune, Portrait of Plunder, and The Crowning Glory.

Each stage will