How to get the Ashen Curse in Sea of Thieves

The Devil’s Roar in Sea of Thieves has long been home to the coolest vanity items the game has to offer, and none stand out more than the Ashen Curse. Fortunately, afflicting your pirate with a multitude of molten scars simply requires completion of a specific Tall Tale.

Curses like this one are a cosmetic in Sea of Thieves often tied to quest commendations. They take things one step further compared to similar cosmetic items like makeup or scars by altering the look of a much larger portion of your pirate’s body. The Ashen Curse, for example, not only covers your character in glowing scars, but also chars portions of the body black and even makes your ribcage glow a fiery orange from within.

Here’s what you’ll need to do in order to get your hands on the Ashen Curse for yourself, which can be earned in both High Seas and Safer Seas.

How do you get the Ashen Curse in Sea of Thieves?

The Ashen Curse can be obtained as a reward for completing the Blackwyche Reborn commendation, which is tied to the Heart of Fire Tall Tale. The Heart of Fire can be started by voting on the Tall Tale inside of the tavern at Morrow’s Peak, right next to Tallulah.

The Blackwyche Reborn commendation requires finishing all of the other commendations associated with the Heart of Fire, of which there are eight in total.

It can look daunting at first when you see all of the commendations laid out like that, but you will complete at least four of them the first time that you complete Heart of Fire. The Liar’s Hideout, one of the paths, The Fire Rises and Heart of Fire are all commendations you’ll earn when hitting specific points in the story.

That means the only commendations that will require any amount of additional effort on your part will be finding Stitcher Jim’s journals and completing the other two paths that you didn’t take on your first run of the quest.

The three paths in Captain Flameheart’s Lair

To get the Ashen Curse, you’ll need to take all three paths in Flameheart’s Lair: the Eternal King, the Forsaken Flame and the Burning Heart. These are each located behind the three doors you encounter after the underwater and jumping puzzle section of the lair. You can only complete one of these paths per run, so we recommend you take a different path each time that you replay Heart of Fire on the way to unlocking the Saver of Souls commendation.

Each pathway is strewn with various challenges, including timed fire traps, swinging spikes, and combat sections. While they are all slightly different, you won’t find anything in one of the paths that you haven’t already had to take on in another, making each of them easy to knock out sequentially.

Stitcher Jim’s journals

As with other Tall Tales in Sea of Thieves, five journals are hidden throughout the locations you visit during Heart of Fire. You’ll need to read all of them to get the Stitcher’s Schemes commendation for the Ashen Curse.

The first of Jim’s journals is located on Liar’s Backbone in Stitcher Jim’s hideout. Players will come across it in the cave, propped up on a small wooden shelf. The other four are all located in Captain Flameheart’s Lair. The second is in the room where the three doorways are located, placed in front of the middle door. The other three are hidden inside of the path of the Eternal King, Forsaken Flame and Burning Heart respectively, so you should try to locate and pick them up as you go through each to save yourself from needing to do even more replays.

Once you’ve completed all eight commendations, you will automatically complete The Blackwyche Reborn commendation and earn the Ashen Curse vanity item as your reward. It’s a great addition to your pirate’s wardrobe by itself, but there’s plenty of other excellent cosmetic items you can pair it with to really stand out on the high seas.