Where are the Megs?

You will almost never see a meg under 1 hour if you start a closed crew game.

From new game closed crew you're looking at a minimum of about an hour and 10 minutes up to a maximum of about 2+ hours for a meg. That's if you specifically hunt them.

The people that see them sooner in the meg hunting environment that has existed for about a year have either joined someone else's game (friends/open crew/etc) where the timer has already been going, or they are in alliance servers or quick action servers where multiple boats are around each other.

They nerfed pve so much it included/effected spawns

We know this because there aren't simultaneous spawns anymore and there haven't been for a long time.

The only exception being those servers where multiple ships are around each other and it's influencing/manipulating the hunting environment.

People that are starting a game from closed crew and either not staying on a server long enough or not spending enough time in open water are going to see very very few megs.

Organic hunting is what I do

I don't eat if I don't know what is going on out there.

and I like to eat.

Megs work on a very simple formula: they're only there whenever you don't want them to be, so just stop wanting to fight them.

@thetwistedtaste said in Where are the Megs?:

@wolfmanbush said in Where are the Megs?:

You will almost never see a meg under 1 hour

Most my play time solo is around the 1 Hour mark. I’ll have to stay on a bit longer across sessions if that’s the case. Thanks!

Doesn’t explain the 3-4 hour sessions I have with crew-mates though it once or twice a week. I guess something’s changed behind the scenes 🤔

depends how you play

for example

if you and your buddies are spending a lot of time on land and only a few minutes going from one island to another that's not only keeping the possible spawn times low it could also allow someone somewhat in the area to get one which can interfere with yours

There are dead servers where pve just stinks

If you are on a server where there are skelly ships floating around regularly that is a healthy pve server and one I would hunt

If you notice that it's quiet and that you really aren't seeing skelly ships around it indicates a higher chance of a dead pve server

@thetwistedtaste said in Where are the Megs?:

@wolfmanbush Oh we always see a lot of Skeleton Ships. Both the world event, and the roaming ones. There’s always at least 2-3 on the horizon.

We haven’t had one spawn on us though for quite some time either, but I assume that’s just because there’s already a few spawned in or I’m actively hunting those down for the “Legend of the Sea of Thieves” commendation.

I’d say 50% of my time is at sea, and the other 50% on land. I often leave the ship sailing to jump off for supplies and to complete bottle quests. Perhaps I need to stay on the ship more

Couple things to add on

If you sink it'll likely extend your timer or interfere with your spawn chances

Server merge can mess with your timer as well

@thetwistedtaste
Skoops like spawning on my sloop, and skellions still like my galley for sure.

Several hours into this session and zero megs.

Once you've passed the hour mark, how long do you usually have to sail to find your first meg?

This spot should be fine to drop anchor and just wait, right?

@wulf2k said in Where are the Megs?:

Several hours into this session and zero megs.

Once you've passed the hour mark, how long do you usually have to sail to find your first meg?

This spot should be fine to drop anchor and just wait, right?

yeah you can get one there

not every server is the same, as pve spawn hunters we never have guarantees we only have a path of patterns for consistent results

you can speed run sea forts to break up monotony, work on milestones, grab supplies, possibly get an ancient skelly

If I were to get pushed to recommend chilling in open sea or speed running sea forts along with taking out random skelly spawns I'd say go with incorporating the pve. No guarantee but I tend to do a bit better killing or completing something consistently when it comes to meg spawns.

I'm big on multitasking so time is never wasted if the meg takes a while on a server. I'm doing fleets, sinking every skelly ship, doing something for milestones at all times. Using the hostility of other players as a increase in chance for a meg spawn.

The main thing is having a good time and/or feeling rewarded

My enjoyment comes from pushing myself so that's what I do

There are many options for pretty much anyone when meg hunting, just consistently hit open water and do things you enjoy. Longer sessions are required for any real meg results.

Sinking and server merges appear to be hard resets for the timer. I've never not had the timer reset for a meg after a sink or merge unless it was someone else's meg that I stole.

@abjectarity said in Where are the Megs?:

@wulf2k do not anchor, the meg will not spawn on you if you are anchored. You want to sail out into open water like you pictured and ideally raise your sail about halfway so you don't speed off in any one direction. Keep moving, not anchored.

This isn't accurate.

I've had many meg spawns not only when not moving but also when anchored

A pve spawn from meg to kraken to skelly ship can spawn on an anchored and/or not moving ship as long as the area allows the spawn

Pve spawns are largely based on time rng, location allows it but it is not required in the rng to be moving or not anchored.

@abjectarity said in Where are the Megs?:

@wolfmanbush literally never had a meg spawn on me when my anchor was down. The moment I started to raise my anchor I'd get one sometimes, if all other requirements were met. I must have either amazing luck or poor luck.

Not a luck thing just coincidence

People often latch on to coincidences with pve spawns and see them as patterns. See it a lot with people that recommend specific locations for better spawns, including the shores of gold belief.