What Rare Announced
The official Sea of Thieves account said the cutlass is available from MS Rewards until January 15th, in select territories, for pirates who carry out a few digital tasks. The post didn't list those tasks. It pointed to a separate page for details.
The Sea of Thieves Wiki lists the quest's window as November 3, 2026 to January 15, 2027. It also notes the offer is only available in select regions. That makes the quest roughly ten weeks long, longer than the "two months" some coverage suggests. The wiki is a community source, not a Microsoft page, so treat the start date as secondary evidence.
How the Quest Works
The Rewards quest is not simply a few vague tasks. Sources describe a checklist on your Rewards dashboard, but they disagree on the exact search counts.
- Rare Thief's guide: Activate the quest by clicking through to the official Sea of Thieves website. Then complete at least one Bing search a day for five days on both desktop and mobile.
- A player post on the official Sea of Thieves forums: The task is five desktop and seven mobile searches.
Both accounts agree that the work is Bing searches on desktop and mobile, spread over several days. They differ on the mobile count and the pacing. The quest card in your own Rewards dashboard is the authority, so follow the numbers it shows. Don't plan around either third-party figure.
Some practical points:
- Use matching accounts. Rare Thief says you should be logged into Microsoft Rewards and the Sea of Thieves website with the same account you use for the game. If they don't match, you won't get credit or the cutlass.
- Start early. The searches appear to be spread over days, so don't leave the quest until the last week of the window.
- Expect no point cost. Rare Thief says you can earn it without spending a single point. The reward comes from completing the quest, not from redeeming points.
Why You Might Not See It
Rare Thief says the quest is only available to select Microsoft Rewards accounts. If it doesn't appear on your dashboard, your account isn't among the participating ones. Being in a supported country may therefore not be enough on its own.
Players on the official forums reported gaps in coverage. One said it wasn't available in Austria, and another said it wasn't available in Ireland, even though a previous Rewards cosmetic had been. One forum user guessed this was tied to sweepstakes or gambling rules. That is speculation, not a confirmed reason.
The sweepstakes link is real, though. The forum poster notes the quest also gives five bonus entries into a Total Prize Drop sweepstakes. A Microsoft Rewards terms page for that Prize Drop sweepstakes confirms it. It says members get five entries by completing all the activities on the Sea of Thieves Cerulean Sheen Cutlass quest. The wiki's name for the quest, "Cerulean Sheen Cutlass and 5 bonus entries," matches this. Microsoft doesn't publish a country list here, so I won't offer one.
The Reward Itself
The wiki classifies the item as a cutlass cosmetic in the Standalone Cosmetics set and as time-limited. It lists the item as introduced in update 3.9.1 on October 22, 2026. Rare Thief adds that the cutlass isn't part of a larger set and can't be bought from any in-game shop. The HappyGamer report says it only changes how the blade looks. I found no gameplay-stat testing either way, so treat it as a skin.
What to Do
- Check your Microsoft Rewards dashboard while signed in with the account tied to your Sea of Thieves profile.
- If the Sea of Thieves quest appears, activate it through the official site link.
- Read the task card for its exact search counts and timing.
- Search with Bing on both desktop and mobile, spacing the searches out as the quest requires.
- Set a reminder well before January 15 so the quest doesn't lapse.
If the quest never shows up, there is no known workaround. Microsoft decides which accounts see the quest, so you can only watch for the in-game item.
The Bigger Picture
Microsoft Rewards tie-ins keep Bing searches and Microsoft accounts in front of players, and Sea of Thieves has run similar promotions before. Rare Thief's note on an earlier Rewards cosmetic set says the same region limit applied, with the promotion region-locked like other Microsoft promotions. The cost to you is a few days of searching. The cost to Microsoft is small too, which is why these promotions keep appearing.
The practical advice is simple: check your dashboard, start early, and trust the quest card over any guide. That includes this one.