Sea of Thieves: Shrine of Ancient Tears Guide - Rare Thief (2024)

The Shrine of Ancient Tears is one of the six Shrines found in the Sunken Kingdom. This Shrine holds what was once a great meeting place. Long ago, the Ancients would meet with the merfolk in sacred locations located throughout the Sea of Thieves. As this meeting place became of such great importance, the Ancients built a temple around this particular meeting place.

After the Ancients vanished, some of their old temples fell into ruin at the bottom of the ocean. Sirens used the temple to build a Shrine around it, encasing it in coral and darkness.

You will need to have your lantern ready as you venture inside if you wish to uncover the secrets left behind.

This guide will walk you through the Shrine, step by step, showing you how to solve the puzzles, uncover each secret, and read every journal found within the Shrine.

You will unlock the Shrine of Ancient Tears and Mystery of the Shrine of Ancient Tears commendations if you follow along.

Don’t forget to store any treasure you find along the way in the Sunken Merfolk Statues!

You can find the Shrine of Ancient Tears in The Ancient Isles just South East of Thieves’ Haven. You can locate it on your Map Table at the coordinates N20.

As you sail closer to the Shrine, you will spot purple and blue lights swirling into the sky. These lights help indicate the exact location of the Shrine below the water.

Park your ship within the lights and dive into the water!

You can find the entrance to the Shrine of Ancient Tears at the base of the Shrine on the Northside.

Once you are at the base of the Shrine on the Northside, you’ll find the entrance blocked by a Siren Window. Damage the pink Coral Orb to open the Siren Window and head inside.

Once you pass through the Siren Window barrier, you’ll enter a small cavern.

Head to the southwest side of the room to find a hole in the ground. This whole drops into a staircase of coral. This staircase will lead you down to a large chamber with ancient structures.

In the middle of the chamber, near the large well, is a stone altar. Laying next to it is a journal. Read it, and you will uncover the first secret of the Shrine. The name of this journal is ‘1. Shrine of Ancient Tears’.

After reading this journal, climb up the stone staircase to the southeast side of the chamber. You’ll find a ladder here. Climb up it to find another ladder to climb up.

Platform around the top of the chamber until you reach the room high up to the West. Inside you will come across a painting of water and a lever. Pull the lever to drain the water from the well.

Exit the room with the lever and jump off the stone diving board into the well in the center of the chamber. After you land in the water, swim to the East to find an altar with a journal on it. Read it to uncover the second secret.The name of this journal is ‘2. Strange Tales’.

Light the four torches around the altar to open a path out of the well and a secret alcove that has the Coral Plinth.

Use the newly opened path to climb back up to the main chamber where you were before. You’ll need to move another lever blocking your way to the main chamber.

Once back in the main chamber, you’ll need to activate the Floor Plate Puzzle.

There is a stone path with staircases that runs around the chamber’s perimeter, making a large square. Walk around this path and light four torches at the corner of each side of the room.

You should also notice four floor plates on the ground near each of thetorcheswith a symbol painted on it.

After lighting all fourtorches, run around the stone path stepping on the four floor plates quickly in succession. Having all four floor plates pressed simultaneously will open up the large stone door to the East on the second floor of the chamber, just left of the first ladder you climbed.

Inside you’ll find treasure and a journal sitting on a barrel on the Southside of the room. Read the journal to uncover another secret. The name of this journal is ‘5. The Chest of Everlasting Sorrow’.

Light all fourtorchinside this room. You will now have lit eighttorcheswhich is required to open up a large stone door to the West side of the chamber you were just in, across from the room you are in now.

Go through the doors you just opened and keep walking West until you enter a small room with a butterfly, turtle, parrot, and crab rock painting in it. You’ll notice a pillar below each painted symbol.

Laying next to the column with a crab above will be another journal. Read it to uncover the fourth secret. The name of this journal is ‘4. Fate of the Silver Blade’.

Walk back from this small room, not into the main chamber, but to the hallway that runs North and South. Along this hallway are three levers with butterfly paintings next to them and threetorches.

First, light the threetorchesalong the hall. This will light the butterfly column in the room with the four different symboled columns.

Next, you need to interact with all three levers quickly to open the Butterly stone door that is currently locked to the South. There should be two levers on your left and one on your right as you walk down the entire path.

If you interact with all three quickly, it will open the butterfly door and the butterfly column with the second journal you red with light.

Fight a coral skeleton.

Once you interact with three turtle levers, two turtles stone doors will open. One door that leads to a room with treasure, and another door that leads East to the next area.

Next to one of the Turtle levers tucked away in the back South West area is another journal to read. Read it to uncover the fifth secret. The name of this journal is ‘3. Return of the Silver Blade’.

You’ll also need to light the two newtorchesrevealed across from the journal when you solved the lever puzzle.

Head to the next hallway and defeat the Coral Skeleton waiting for you there.

In this next area, you will be interacting with Parrot levers. But first, light the fourtorchesin this area.

There are three levers to interact with. They must all be down at the same time to open the next door.

While before the floor plates have been opening secret compartments to treasure, the first floor plate you find in the parrot chamber next to a parrot lever will open a secret compartment with a parrot lever behind you. The compartment has a parrot symbol above it.

Interact with all three levers to open the locked stone door.

The next area is the crab area. Light all fourtorchesin this area.

This time, two floor plates will reveal two levers you need to interact with. There are a total of three levers.

The second floor plate will reveal a lever, and the second to last floor plate will reveal a lever. Interact with all three to open the large stone crab door.

Once you have lit all thetorches, a large stone door in the room with the four animal columns will open up.

You can find the Breath of the Sea in the Shrine of Ancient Tears on the lowest level of the Shrine. To reach the Coral Plinth where the Breath of the Sea sits, you’ll need to drain the well and light thetorchesaround the altar at the bottom of the Shrine.

The Breath of the Sea will only be there if you are on an active Coral Message in a Bottle voyage that leads you to this Shrine.