How to find and use the Trident of Dark Tides in Sea of Thieves

The Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life expansion introduces a lot of concepts for new story quests, but many of these items and other features carry over to the larger game as well. The Trident of Dark Tides is one such feature — an item you can pick up and use as a weapon. In combat against AI or player enemies, it is similar to the Ashen Winds skull, if you replaced breathing fire with blowing deadly bubbles. Here’s what you need to know about how to find the Trident of Dark Tides and how they work in Sea of Thieves.

How to find the Trident of Dark Tides

The Trident of Dark Tides will be available during scripted moments in A Pirate’s Life Tall Tales, but there is a number of ways to find and obtain one or several of these staffs in the main adventure mode. Here are some ways other community members and we have found the Trident of Dark Tides:

• Defeating a Siren Leader
• Sinking a Skeleton Ship
• Finding one in a shipwreck
• Opening a Skeleton Fort vault
• Found randomly washed up on a beach

Related: Can Sea of Thieves be played solo?

How to use the Trident of Dark Tides

Remember that this is an item you carry — you cannot sprint or interact with anything else, including your own inventory, while you are wielding the Trident of Dark Tides. However, you can put it down to the ground if you need to use your hands for anything else or want another player to pick it up for their own use. Shooting bubbles with the Trident involves holding the primary fire button or trigger; let go to release a bubble. It will be much easier to hold the alt-fire button or trigger, as it will aim your Trident forward and have it ready.

There are three different levels of bubble you can shoot at enemies, which entirely depends on how long you hold the primary fire button. Smaller bubbles are good for directly impacting enemies and for high-pressure situations. Medium-sized bubbles will have some splash damage. And finally, the largest bubble you can make will have more significant damage and knockback.

Note that the Trident has a limited charge, as the blue crystal indicates. As the blue light fades, your bubble “ammo” is depleted. The color of your staff will also start to fade into grey. Once the Trident is entirely out of charge, it will dissolve in your hands. To clarify: you cannot sell the Trident of Dark Tides to any Trading Company.