Rare continues to pump out content for its massive hit game Sea of Thieves. Recently they released Season 18 of the swashbuckling title and with it came 4 brand new achievements all tied to the same thing in the game, the Eternal Guards. This guide will help you unlock all 4 achievements as efficiently as possible with tips on how to obtain each one.
As mentioned off the top the 4 achievements are all tied to the Eternal Guards, a new enemy type within Sea of Thieves. The Eternal Guards are of similar strength to the Ashen Lords so they put up a pretty good fight and you will definitely need to be prepared for a big fight and probably expect to die a few times during the battle.
Achievements
There are 4 new achievements with the Season 18 update. They are as follows.
| Achievement | Gamerscore | Description |
| Vanquisher of the Eternal | 50G | You Defeated an Eternal Guard |
| Violet Violence | 40G | Use a Black Powder Barrel on an Eternal Guard |
| Broker of Banishment | 20G | You sold a Banished Ancient Treasure |
| Explorer of Sacred Places | 40G | Unlock all three Sanctuaries of the Banished |
Vanquisher of the Eternal
50G
You Defeated an Eternal Guard
Violet Violence
40G
Use a Black Powder Barrel on an Eternal Guard
Broker of Banishment
20G
You sold a Banished Ancient Treasure
Explorer of Sacred Places
40G
Unlock all three Sanctuaries of the Banished
Overall, it is a relatively easy list that will probably take you 2 or 3 hours to unlock if you are only focusing on the Season 18 achievements. You will need to defeat an Eternal Guard at least 3 times in order to unlock the 3 Sanctuaries which will be the most time consuming. Luckily it won’t need to be in 1 game.
How To Find & Defeat Eternal Guard
First of all, we need to find an Eternal Guard. The Eternal Guards are found only on “large” islands. So don’t expect to find any on tiny islands. What you are looking for on the islands are large blue coffins. These coffins contain an Eternal Guard which you will spawn by lighting 3 spots on the coffin with your lantern.
Luckily, they are relatively easy to spot since they have a blue glow on them making them easier to spot than some other items. Additionally, as you get near one, the game will change the music in your game to also help guide you to one. Once you do so the battle will commence!
The battle itself is relatively straight forward. The Eternal Guard will spawn and has a few attacks that he will hit you with, and it does pack quite the punch. It will also teleport around you and become invisible for periods of time. While it’s teleporting, it will be invulnerable to any of your attacks, so do your best to track it and get the jump on it once it finishes the teleporting and attack it.
As you wear it down, its armor will begin to crack and the music will intensify. This is the only real way to tell how you are doing. Once you have defeated it once you will unlock the Vanquisher of the Eternal achievement for defeating it. This is the easiest of the 4 achievements and one you will unlock first.
Violet Violence Achievement Guide
The most difficult achievement of the Season 18 update is most definitely Violet Violence which requires you to damage and Eternal Guard with a Black Powder barrel. The Black Powder barrel needs to detonate for it to count, meaning you cannot just set it down and hope the Eternal Guard hits the barrel. You need to ignite it and hit it.
In order to obtain a Black Powder barrel, you must do a Smuggler’s run voyage. These voyages will task you with heading to a smuggler merchant and transporting 3 items. One of the 3 items is a Black Powder barrel. Additionally, you only receive one barrel which means if you try with your barrel and miss, you need to do another smuggler’s run to obtain one.
What makes the achievement difficult beyond needing to obtain the Black Powder barrel is the fact that the barrel takes about 10 seconds to explode once you light it. With the Eternal Guard teleporting around and being invulnerable, there is a good chance your barrel will go off while it’s teleporting.
We recommend holding the barrel and letting it detonate in your hands to unlock this so that you can just run at the Guard when he’s in an animation for an attack. If you don’t think it will land you can quickly press LT to snuff out the barrel and try again before it explodes.
Luckily, we have a bit of a method to make this easier incase you don’t succeed on your first try.
Hunt On A Smuggler’s Voyage Island
When you first enter a game you will want to go to your captain’d ship and go to the voyage table and select a “Dive to” Smuggler’s Run. Set sail and do the dive and it will bring you to one of the Smuggler islands in the Devil’s Roar area. Now simply head to the island and find the smuggler merchant who will give you the items. For the purposes of the achievement you won’t need the first two items, but feel free to grab them if you want, just make sure you have the barrel.
Now if you are REALLY lucky, you will find a coffin on this exact island (you are at either Ruby Falls or Fetchers Rest). If not, you will want to sail to whichever of the above mentioned island you aren’t at in hopes of finding a coffin. If you then you are well set to earn this. You can cancel your current smuggler’s voyage now and you can start a new one that isn’t the dive to.
You will now have a 50/50 shot of the voyage starting at the island you are on with the coffin. If it is, great you may begin and if you fail to hit the Eternal Guard with the barrel, simply restart to the smuggler merchant on the island again and they will give you a new barrel.
If you didn’t get the right island, then just cancel the voyage and start a new one until you do get the right island. If you fail now you can simply run back to your ship and cancel the smugglers run and do another one until you get the same island as a starting point for the voyage. This resets the quest and gives you a new barrel while staying on the island with the spawned Guard.
You don’t have to use this method, but it will save you a lot of time having to travel back and forth to get more barrels if you do screw up.
Explorer of Sacred Places Guide
Now that you’ve defeated an Eternal Guard and hopefully hit it with a Black Powder barrel, we can move on to the last 2 achievements. Upon defeating the Eternal Guard it will drop a key for the Sanctuaries.
The Sanctuaries are on 3 separate islands, all in the Devil’s Roar area of the map. The islands are
- Brimstone Rock
- Cinder Islet
- Flame End
Take the key to any of these sanctuaries, unlock the door to the vault and find your haul. There is quite a bit of loot in these vaults so it is well worth your time to do this beyond just the achievements.
In order to obtain the Explorer of Sacred Places achievement you are going to need to defeat 3 Eternal Guards and open each of the vaults. Luckily, you don’t need to do this all in 1 game and incase you forget which island you’ve done and which you haven’t each one has a commendation tied to it so just head to your commendations and find which one you are missing.
Broker of Banishment Guide
Now that you’ve opened the vault and gathered all the loot onto your ship, it’s time to cash in! You’ve likely been playing Sea of Thieves quite a while if you are here for these guides, so simply take one of the many treasure chests that are labeled “Banished” from the vault and sell it at an outpost to obtain this achievement as well as some well earned gold!
That is all she wrote for season 18. We hope this guide has helped you figure out the Eternal Guards and how to obtain the 4 achievements tied to the season. Give this a like if it helped and check back to our site for more guides, news, reviews and everything gaming!
