PSA: Only certain Sea of Thieves PS5 trophies automatically unlock when linking your accounts

As Sea of Thieves opens up to players on PS5, Rare has clarified how your achievements from your Steam and Microsoft accounts will translate into trophies. The long and short of it: not every achievement will unlock a trophy after linking accounts.

In a blog post accompanying the early access launch of Sea of Thieves on PS5, Rare explained that only some trophies would automatically unlock once you connect your accounts between the Sony platform and the game on PC or Xbox. This means that those who have already unlocked every achievement in the game on Steam or Xbox will need to unlock several again, as they’re only built to trigger once per platform.

You can’t automatically unlock every Sea of Thieves PS5 Trophy you have the equivalent Achievement for on another platform

Developer Rare states that this is intentional because some achievements, such as becoming a Pirate Legend, are only designed to trigger once and will, therefore, sync. Those achievements that can trigger more than once, though, won’t transfer and must be unlocked through gameplay once again. Ultimately, it’s due to how trophies work on PS5 and not how Sea of Thieves awards them.

Some players on the Sea of Thieves subreddit are disappointed by this news because it means they’ve got to work to unlock trophies they’ve already done the equivalent work for elsewhere. However, there’s a really even split between those who don’t mind the situation, too.

I can completely understand that if someone is coming to PS5 for a game from outside of the trophy ecosystem, they probably don’t care about it. I love trophies and try to get everyone I can in the games I love, but I’ve been a PlayStation fan for decades now. Sea of Thieves originated on Xbox, and if you’ve already picked up every achievement for the game there, you’ve done the hard work and should be able to sail off on PS5 as a veteran without the need for a shiny platinum trophy to prove it.

Sea of Thieves is available in early access on PS5 now, with its full launch beginning on April 30, 2024.