During the 2021 Xbox Gamescom Showcase, the Executive Producer of Sea of Thieves, Joe Neate, announced a crossover event with the Borderlands franchise called the "Making Mayhem" event. Players will have the opportunity to earn new cosmetics for their ship inspired by the beloved Gearbox series. This crossover comes behind Sea of Thieves' recent Pirates of the Caribbean expansion.
Borderlands is seen as the original shooter-looter franchise, and Borderlands 3 received a plethora of content and even more guns than the previous games. Sea of Thieves is an always-online game where players can traverse the seas as a pirate, completing quests, finding treasure, and killing skeletons (as well as other players occasionally). The Pirates of the Caribbean expansion brought familiar locations and characters from the movies to the game and allowed players to immerse themselves further into this pirate world. The crossover between Sea of Thieves and Borderlands seems a little unexpected given how fitting the Pirates of the Caribbean expansion was, but they are both RPGs with similar end goals: kill enemies and loot their treasure.
Xbox announced the "Making Mayhem" crossover event gives players the opportunity to unlock the Mayhem Ship Set by, of course, making mayhem. To start, players have to visit Larinna in-game who offers two types of challenges for players to complete to work toward the set: "Major Mayhem Challenges" and "Minor Mayhem Challenges." Completing the challenges will earn players Favour and this will unlock parts of the Mayhem Ship Set. Similar to how players complete challenges and earn rewards in Borderlands 3 events, as players reach Favour thresholds in-game, parts of the set will be unlocked and available to equip in-game within 72 hours. This event is time-limited and is active starting today, August 24, to September 7.
The look of the new ship set screams Borderlands. The main colors for the sail and ship are yellow, orange, and red, with a hint of grey on the ship's design, and both feature vault symbols, which are iconic and known throughout the series. The cannons and on-board design continue with this color scheme. Perhaps the most noticeable aspects of the set are the capstan and the figurehead. The capstan features yellow, light yellow, and black with a bright blue circle on top, a clear reference to everyone's favorite robot, Cl4p-Tp aka Claptrap. The figurehead also pays homage to Claptrap, with a barrel form of the robot with a yellow body design and a blue "eye" wearing a red scarf and holding a sword. The design of the set makes sense for a crossover even with Borderlands and also coincides with the two-year anniversary of Borderlands 3.
Whether a fan of being a pirate or of the classic shooter-looter franchise, fans alike are sure to enjoy the Mayhem Ship Set and the new Mayhem Challenges in-game. This is sure to bring new players to Sea of Thieves and excite Borderlands fans who already play the game. Though it is arguable as to if Claptrap actually helps or hinders missions he is involved with, it is pretty cool to have design aspects influenced by him in a different game.
Sea of Thieves is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC on Windows 10, and Steam. Borderlands 3 is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, Steam, and Stadia.
Source: Xbox/YouTube