Run the test above for at least 60 seconds. Here is what each
number means for this game specifically.
Packet loss (the beard errors)
Rare names its connection errors after coloured beards rather than numbering them, and most of the common ones mean the same underlying thing: the client and the service stopped being able to talk. Sustained loss on this chart is the leading cause you can act on, and it usually shows here long before it shows as a boot to the main menu.
Jitter (desync on your own deck)
Your position is computed relative to a moving ship. When updates arrive unevenly, your client's idea of where the ship is drifts from the server's, and you get the effect crews describe as being on a different boat - falling through a deck, standing in the sea, or seeing a crewmate at the helm when they are in the crow's nest.
Ping (in a game of shared servers)
You are not alone on your server; other crews are on it too, and ship-to-ship combat is decided under the same conditions for everyone. Under 80 ms keeps cannon aiming and boarding honest. Above that, the lead you have to give a moving ship becomes a guess rather than a skill.
What you see in game, and which number on this page explains it.
In most multiplayer games, positions are absolute. A player is at a point in the world, the server says so, and the client draws them there. Sea of Thieves adds a layer: much of the time you are standing on a ship that is itself moving, rocking on simulated water and being replicated to you like any other object. Your position has to be resolved relative to that, continuously.
That makes the game unusually sensitive to uneven delivery rather than to raw latency. A steady 90 ms is perfectly playable; a 40 ms connection that arrives in clumps is not, because each clump is a moment where your client and the server disagree about where the deck under your feet is. The symptoms that follow - falling through the ship, appearing in the sea, seeing a crewmate somewhere they are not - are all versions of the same drift.
The shared server adds the other half. Several crews occupy one server instance, so a ship fight is not two clients negotiating with each other but two crews resolving against a common authority. That is the right design for fairness, and it means the only variable that differs between you and the crew shooting at you is each side's own path to that authority.
Rare's decision to name its errors rather than number them makes them memorable but not self-explanatory, and players tend to treat every one of them as the same event. They are not. Some point at the network path, others at account or session handling, and only the first kind is something a cable or a router setting will ever fix. Pairing the name with a measurement of your own line at that moment is what turns the message into information.
If the chart above shows packet loss or high jitter, work through
these in order.
What do the beard errors in Sea of Thieves mean?
Rare names connection errors after coloured beards instead of using numeric codes, and different names point at different layers - the connection to the service, the account, or the session. The common ones share a cause: the client and the service stopped being able to communicate.
Why do I fall through the deck of my own ship?
Because your position is relative to a ship that is itself a moving, server-simulated object. If your client's idea of where the ship is drifts from the server's, you end up standing where the deck no longer is. That drift comes from uneven update delivery.
Is packet loss why I keep getting kicked?
It is the most common cause you can do something about. Run this test for a few minutes: red lines here at the times you get ejected make the case, and a clean chart points at the service instead.
Does everyone on my server share the same conditions?
The server is shared between several crews, so ship-to-ship fights are resolved by the same authority for both sides. What differs is each player's own path to it - which is exactly the part this page measures.