A Twitch streamer is poised to become Sea of Thieves' very first Pirate Legend today

Update, 7.12pm: Prod1g has successfully managed to reach reputation rank 50 across all three merchant guilds (although his methods remain controversial), and is the first Sea of Thieves' player to attain legendary status.

Those wishing to avoid spoilers should probably stop reading now. For everyone else, here's how things appear to progress once a Pirate Legend is crowned: when all three factions are maxed out, you can speak to the mysterious stranger in a tavern. Suitably satisfied, they'll reward your efforts with a new title, a legendary outfit, and a new shanty.

There's also an accompanying "riddle" which heavily implies (although this one took the best part of two hours to solve in the stream) that you should play the new tune where you stand. And lo, the legendary hideout, accessible via a secret staircase, lay beneath you all this time.

As for the new legendary voyages doled out by the Pirate Lord, these currently appear to be eight-part quests, consisting of a mix of the same tasks set by the three main merchant factions. It would be fair to say that certain portions of the Sea of Thieves community are a little underwhelmed. I'll update this story if anything more transpires.

Original story, 4.12pm: A Twitch streamer looks set to become Sea of Thieves' very first Pirate Legend - the ultimate in-game status that can be bestowed on a player right now - in a matter of hours.

Streamer Prod1g has been playing Rare's multiplayer pirate adventure around the clock since launch, completing quests to rise through the ranks of the Gold Hoarders, Merchants Alliance and Order of Souls guilds. Current wisdom suggests that once Prod1g reaches Level 50 in all three factions, Sea of Thieves' endgame will kick in, bringing Pirate Legend status within reach.

In the run-up to release, Rare explained that once players had maxed out their reputation ranks, they'd discover a secret which gives access to a quest to do "a certain thing in a certain place".

Once this task is complete, successful players will finally be crowned Pirate Legends, gaining a key that opens the door to a hidden area of the world - and the mysterious Tavern of Legends.

This cavernous area features a vast waterfall leading back to the real world - right now, my money's on it spitting players out through the mysterious arch in the centre of the map - and players will eventually be able to make it their base of operations once the ability to become Pirate Captains arrives with Sea of Thieves' first major update in a few months.

Until then, Pirate Legends can accept legendary voyages from the Pirate Lord at the The Tavern of Legends, which are said to be the most challenging and rewarding quests in the game. Rare has likened these quests to public events, as "if Sea of Thieves did raid content". We won't know more than that, of course, until the first Pirate Legend has been crowned.

If Prod1g continues at his current pace, it seems likely that he'll reach maximum reputation with all three factions within the next few hours. Right now, he's at Level 50 with the Gold Hoarders and Merchants Alliance, and Level 49 with the Order of Souls. Quite how involved the journey to Pirate Legend will be once Level 50 is reached across the board remains to be seen.

When Eurogamer spoke to Rare before release, the developer said that it expected the first Pirate Legend to arrive "a couple of weeks after launch", which is shaping up to be a pretty accurate estimate, if all goes well.

However, some Sea of Thieves players are already expressing discontent with Prod1g's methods on the road to Pirate Legend, given that viewers are farming items on his behalf so that he can hop into a crew and claim the rewards. Others of course, say it's all in the community - and scallywag - spirit of Rare's piratical adventure.

Hopefully it won't be long before the Tavern of Legends' secrets are revealed.