r/ArcaneOdyssey

I believe that the dark sea is the only area in the game where the experience doesn't get unbelievably boring, not just because you need to actually sail and not go in a straight line like in the war seas but because it just does the concept of a pirate game way better than the other areas of the game

The main selling point of pirate games is unpredictable exploration, in the sense that you never know what is going to happen and what you might find sailing around and the war seas just execute this aspect poorly
You already have a fully drawn map along with a direction marker (which sure, is optional and you can turn it off whenever, but it's still there), treasure charts that are usually more stressful than actually worth it, underwater structures which tbf are kinda fun but they also get repetitive fast seeing as they are pretty much just swimming around and clicking E every once in a while, not to mention fort raids which is outright ability spam for like 20 minutes
There is something that's fun independent of hours or anything else in the war seas' though which is island building, do love it alot but the fact that everything costs drachma and if you want to make unique builds you need to abuse bugs with decorations is just annoying as hell
As for pvp, it's usually just a contest to see who has the most broken build OR who can benefit from desync the most

Summed up, what I mean is that the war seas get repetitive quickly and hold a tiny amount of surprises, so they just end up becoming unengaging
Granted, this is coming from a guy that's gonna be nearing like 2K hours of total playtime and, truth be told, the war seas is engaging for anybody that doesn't have such an enormous amount of hours but they'll be guaranteed to hit that wall eventually

The dark sea excels in the points that make a pirate game genuinely entertaining, in the sense that you are going on an actual adventure and not a charted course, not to mention how the naval combat, weather and navigation in general make sailing around actually entertaining because something is ACTUALLY happening and the ship combat has high stakes as opposed to the joke that is the war seas' naval fights, not to mention how some of the items within the dark sea (mostly the far reaches) work way better as treasure in comparison to treasure charts themselves, with the only real downside being the asinine odds (Mostly hecates, you can count moly as well but it's just kinda there really, not to mention how you can buy/sell it on the auction)

The epicenter is also one of the bits within the dark sea's content pool that reinforces my enjoyment for the dark sea, seeing as you actually have an island to be looking for without the M key (or just your own memory) being right there to pretty much dox the island
The dark sea also has unique npc types aside from atlanteans which are pretty cool but personally I dont really care about them (gameplay wise), sirens are just shitty mages with fly hacks and dragons are glorified game crashers (granted powerful+ dragons are sick, but the game is still unplayable)

Now this is more of a hot take (you'll have to cut me some slack on this one because I haven't done the main story in a good few months and only use 1 slot so I don't remember all that well what it fully is), but I additionally believe that the dark sea's lore is significantly better than the main story

The main story is quite literally just: "go from this island to this island, talk to some guy, beat up bandits, talk to some guy, walk to a certain location, beat up bandits OR speak to another guy, go back to speak to said guy, beat up bandits, beat up boss that might as well just be a custom magic user (ivar) with how dumb their arena is designed along with their kit OR unbelievably easy (argos), MAYBE talk to some guy, rinse and repeat", and this is just the progression for the main story (the dialogue is fine though I guess)
Whilst the dark sea is just pure lore, I still find it significantly better than the main story as the bits thrown around on athena pages, that one book and the dialogue between npcs just craft a very interesting story of what was and no longer is that just outshines any of the story forcefully presented to whoever is playing, from the origins of the dark sea, to the lifeforms in it, sea monsters and whatever other junk was thrown in there

Maybe I just prefer the dark sea over the main story because I like trying to solve mysteries and just love horror in general (I unironically have more interest in the seekers of sight on both makrinaos and thrylos crossing than the main story) but I digress

TL;DR: I believe the dark sea, whilst being an optional endgame area, just does the game's content and story for the regular area 10 times better, even if it doesn't have island building, treasure charts, underwater structures, you name it

Saying this, this is only really just my opinion and I want to see what else any of you chums reading this have to say in regards to the comparison of the dark sea and the war seas both narratively and gameplay wise

hey everyone, right now im trying to farm ancient dragons or anything stronger for the blessing and drops, but i usually end up dying in a really stupid way and its really frustrating having to sail back to i4 to fight them again. i struggle with avoiding that dash attack where the dragon slams into the ground and also the blast spam; if any of you guys have any ideas to help me please do so. thanks!!!

So I was in the Dark Sea looking for the pages of Athena. I got a page and didnt look much at it. I interacted with the dragon blood and it gave me a cutscene and now I have Dragonborn Blessing II.

https://preview.redd.it/ryld8rrd8f2h1.png?width=663&format=png&auto=webp&s=172daedac9be81901cc5e1e5c2a8231c463b22fd

i accepted w trade? or L

https://preview.redd.it/ajk2sdfrgd2h1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=a34112a345d552ecb31e2fbb56a50970038c685b

The cannons look like something you'd get in the chimera sea.

Went to the dark sea to kill a young dragon for cazals quest and came back wi4h 3 dark sea chest. All of them had rare spell scrolls in them. Since them ive gone back everyday. I cant go one day without getting my fix of that dark sea nectar. I want to go deeper. What stats should I focus on for deeper dark sea exploration?

Is the fleet system 100 percent afk or do I have to stay in game and be afk there or can I just leave