The shortest of months has passed us by in record time, but that hasn’t stopped us from packing those 28 days with exciting content to get stuck into. There’s so much to cover that we’re just going to skip the preamble and dive right in, okay? Okay. Let’s go.

After the stargazing Adventure that took up the second half of January, we decided that in February we’d keep our attentions a little closer to home with the latest Community Day! On February 11th, pirates from across the seas came together to celebrate, and many of you took to Twitter to share your adventures and bump the collective Emissary Grade to the max. The more adventurous souls also tackled a Community Day-themed bingo card – were you able to cross off any squares?

Later in the month, the Trading Companies and Factions came together and agreed that it was time for a deeply uncharacteristic show of generosity. So was born Double Rewards Week! They took turns in offering variations on doubled gold, reputation, Renown and Allegiance bonuses to all pirates for one day only, before a traditional Gold & Glory Weekend capped things off neatly.

The Pirate Emporium took on an otherworldly look halfway through the month, when February’s update brought not just PvP matchmaking improvements and miscellaneous tweaks and balances, but saw the Infinite Depths collection phasing into view. A comprehensive collection it is too, with a ship set, costume, weapons and emote. The same theme extended to February’s freebie, the not-so-protective Armour Mock Emote, while sweet-toothed pirates were in for a treat of their own with the Pancake Puzzler Emote as a free login bonus for the week around Shrove Tuesday. Where does it go though?


We kicked off the month with our very own article bracing everyone for Season Eight Community Day, then quickly followed it up with preparations for the prestigious Style of Thieves competition, by way of articles explaining the rules of engagement and Season Eight’s themes. The latest tournament has now finished, but it’s still good to read up on if you want to get your planning in early for the next bout…

February saw two new player Spotlights for you to enjoy. First up was MiniMeMarcLee’s Community Spotlight, discussing his woodworking creations and how he sailed as one of the Pioneers of Sea of Thieves. Then our Creator Spotlight zeroed in on harmonica harmoniser LazyBuzzard, the conversation ranging from how he started streaming during the first Covid lockdown to his work in raising awareness of mental health, with a sprinkling of advice for anyone looking to follow in his footsteps.

The Community Hub was also updated with fresh batches of fantastic player creations. In February we were snuggling up warm with treats like a Company-inspired blanket and celebrating some of the phenomenal highlights from Community Day. Of course, there’s another day worthy of note in February too…


With Season Nine taking shape on the horizon, episode 10 of our official podcast started off the month by looking back on everything that happened during Season Eight and what’s coming in the near future. And even if you’d rather avoid possible spoilers, you can still enjoy the team’s discussion about their… favourite days of the week?

Once we’d gotten over Mike Chapman’s baffling answer of “Monday”, it was time for Season Eight Community Day! We weren’t about to let the festivities pass without getting involved ourselves, so a keen team of Rare team members headed over to the in-house Tavern to put on a sneaky stream of our own.

By the time we hit the middle of the month, Sea of Thieves News was back, giving us a hint of what would be coming up over the next few weeks and beyond. Lead Designer Chris Davies even stopped by to fill us in on the future of Adventures…

Closing out the month, we teamed up with SpecialEffect for GameBlast 2023! Heading back to the Tavern for another stream, we set crews against one another in an explosive battle over Gunpowder Barrels. Together, the community managed to raise more than £11,000 to help make gaming more accessible to people with disabilities – thank you so much to everyone who joined us!


Amongst the excitement around Community Day, February also found time to host one of the most important social media events of the Season – the Style of Thieves competition. Players were tasked with dressing up their pirate in ways that reflected the four categories: Historical Dress Up, Athena Ambassadors, Party Gear and Repping Reapers. Winners walked away with their very own Fashionista’s Finery Gloves, and the knowledge that they really do have a Clothing Chest to die for.

Style of Thieves wasn’t the only competition to get involved with, of course. There were two #SoTShot draws this month, starting with a quick trip to Hollywood for the cinematic Movie Moments category. From there we wanted to carry on the camaraderie of Community Day, and thus came the Friendship theme to help us all feel warm and fuzzy. Skills lie elsewhere? Who’s up for an island identification challenge? Maybe even two?

In less competitive news, Twitter got creative with sharing their approaches to piracy, alternative names for the Chest of Sorrow and what this goodest of boys should be called (dogs being a particularly big deal on some channels). It wasn’t all peaceful though: elsewhere, we had arguments over kegs, took a stand on spelling and got salty over a contentious Outpost. But the good news for a month centered on Community Day is that the sea ahead is clear and nothing bad’s about to happen. Small mercies.



So that was February! For the shortest month, we managed to cram a lot in there and it doesn’t look like we’re slowing down even a little bit for March, so stick with us! If you want to follow along with everything that’s happening as it happens, hitch your Rowboat to our social ship on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, or join the official Forums or Discord. For now though, farewell! We’re off to chill out to some undersea vibes in an attempt to retain our composure before Sea of Thieves’ fifth anniversary hits. See you then!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2023

The fifth anniversary of Sea of Thieves is almost upon us! If you were able to tune in to the preview livestream on Twitch or YouTube, you’ll already know that the celebrations are already well underway – but if not, have no fear! We’re here to sum up everything that’s happening in the next few weeks and fill you in on how you can get involved, unlocking a pile of rewards for yourself in the process.

The party kicked off on March 6th, with the Marauder’s Medley Event. Spanning 10 days, this Event revisits some of Sea of Thieves’ greatest updates by offering a themed collection of Challenges to undertake. Keep checking in and ticking off at least one Goal per Challenge to unlock classic cosmetic rewards from anniversaries past, as well as the stylish new Fabulous Five Eyepatch. For a full breakdown of the Challenges, check out our dedicated Marauder’s Medley page!



Those aren’t the only cosmetics you can snag this anniversary: log in between March 17th and March 22nd (10am UTC) and you’ll find the Lustrous Legend Figurehead waiting for you in your Ship Customisation Chest. Alternatively, if you’re in the market for a specific cosmetic, you might be interested in our Anniversary Sale! From March 17th–28th, a sprawling selection of items from sets including those themed around classic Rare games and Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life – our 2021 collaboration with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean – will be on sale in the Pirate Emporium.

Even if you’re low on Ancient Coins, you can always swing by the Emporium during the sale to grab the free Down the Hatch Emote and share a few celebratory grogs with friends. Thanks to all the freebies and rewards being dished out this month, you’ll have no shortage of material when posing for pirate selfies at the fifth anniversary picture wall – a temporary addition to New Golden Sands Outpost from March 20th!



For those of you in search of something to watch rather than play, we’ve got plenty to keep you entertained. Twitch Drops will be available for all participating streamers (not just Sea of Thieves Partners) to offer between March 16th and 20th, so tune in then to your Sea of Thieves creator of choice to earn the latest batch of rewards.

Then, from the world of Twitch streams to the big screen, we’re going cinematic with our next announcement: the feature-length documentary Sea of Thieves: Voyage of a Lifetime will be premiering on the day of the fifth anniversary, March 20th! Featuring new interviews and never-before-seen footage, the film looks back on the highs and lows of developing Sea of Thieves and lifts the curtain on all the work that’s gone into making the game what it is today.


Of course, there’s no way to celebrate our anniversary without also celebrating the tremendous community that has been with us throughout the last five years. That’s why we’re going to be holding not just a Community Day, but an extra-special Community Weekend from March 25th–27th! Anyone who logs in during this event will be treated to multiple freebies: the latest event flag (this time in tasteful gold and black), the delicious Baker’s Barrel Disguise Emote and a free Pirate Legend Voyage to explore at leisure.

Like previous Community Days, players can bump up the shared Community Emissary Grade via social media, with increasing rewards and boosts available at each Grade passed. As a special Anniversary treat, hitting Grade Five will not only grant all players boosted gold, reputation, Seasonal Renown and Faction Allegiance, it’ll also cause more Ancient Skeletons to start appearing across the seas. Together they’ll have 50 million Ancient Coins for the taking, so if you’ve been eyeing anything in the Pirate Emporium you can’t quite afford, now’s the time to get involved!

And finally, as if all these Anniversary celebrations weren’t enough to get excited about, Sea of Thieves Season Nine is right around the corner. Due to land on March 16th, the new Season introduces more loot opportunities and prestigious rewards, a host of new and upgraded features requested by the community, 100 levels of Seasonal progression to climb by raising Renown, and of course an Emporium restock including a brand new Plunder Pass. We’ll have a dedicated article on launch day, but for now keep an eye on our social channels for more, and dive into the newly released Content Update video for a glimpse at what’s coming up!

The time has come once again to take a peek behind the curtain of one of our latest in-game cosmetic collections. After shedding light on the Snowbound Ship Lantern and unpicking the punk biker aesthetic of the Islehopper Outlaw set in previous instalments, we thought that this time we’d head in a slightly more… sinister direction. Enter the assassin-inspired Ravenwood collection, available through the Season Eight Plunder Pass!

As well as a corvid-themed ship design, the Ravenwood collection features our latest evolving costume with three stages to be unlocked through the Season, reflecting your progress. But how did the whole set come into being? Let’s find out…

Pirates and dagger-wielding assassins might have no real historical relationship to one another, but it’s fair to say they scratch a similar cultural itch for the ‘high adventure with swords’ genre of fiction. With that in mind, it was inevitable that we’d bring the two together sooner or later.

Unsurprisingly, both the Ravenwood ship set and costume are filled with raven motifs, favouring the blacks, blues and purples of a pirate who prefers to keep to the shadows. It was the costume that came first this time, as Senior Concept Artist Ine T'Sjoen elaborates:

“The Ravenwood set started out as part of a concept jam. This is when the Concept team have a few days to come up with as many ideas as we can for future cosmetics. The idea of a raven was tossed around until one of our talented artists created the costume, combining it with an assassin theme to evoke a raven in a way that was less like a literal bird. The costume then inspired the rest of the ship set and other items. As we worked on these, we thought of how we could make the ship feel like the lair of an assassin who uses ravens as a calling card.”



The assassin theme really comes into its own with the evolving Ravenwood Costume. With three stages to unlock, the outfit consists of a maskless version, one with a white mask and a final variant in which the mask turns black. Designing these evolving costumes isn’t as simple as it might first appear, however. According to Ine, creating three unique but equally appealing designs can be a tricky balance:

“Costumes are designed as part of a set that, from the Art team’s point of view, may at some point appear in the Pirate Emporium. So when we design the additional two versions for the Plunder Pass, we always try to find the balance between making a new version that feels like a step in an evolution, but has as much value as the other two costumes. It is at times tricky and some sets lean into the evolving part, whereas in the Ravenwood set, we put more emphasis on making sure players had three different roleplay options.

“We had the idea to add a bird mask to the costume early on. From a role-playing aspect, it made sense to give a mysterious character something to hide their face behind. But we also wanted to give players the chance to remove the mask and equip their own hairstyle, beard and hat. So even though not much else changes between the three costumes in this case, it gives more freedom to players to choose how they want to use their cosmetics.”


Once the corvid aesthetic had been nailed down, the team got to work bringing the collection to life in-game. First up, Principal Environment Artist Andy Betts describes how the team developed the ever-shifting colour palette of a raven’s feathers:

“Once again, the challenges involved in the 3D creation of the Ravenwood set were similar to those we face when making any set, in that we first need a new shader from Tech Art to convey a special element or feature found on the items. This can be anything such as a new type of glow or transparency, or in this case the oily reflections seen on the materials to replicate that sheen found on raven feathers. We already had the tech available to achieve a similar look on the ship’s sails.

“Senior Environment Artist Sophie Ingledew and I handled the creation of this set both internally and externally. When we had the cannon, wheel etc. viewable in our in-game lighting and almost finished, it gave us a good opportunity to work alongside the Character and Tech teams to tweak the shaders some more, adjusting the colours used to get the right look.”



Fortunately, the team didn’t have to start from scratch when it came to perfecting the signature raven feather shimmer. Emmett Green from the Technical Art team explains how pre-existing work was able to offer a helping hand:

“We had an iridescent material used for Kraken ink already, so we decided to use that as a baseline and adjust the look from there, using an alpha mask for intensity. The iridescent look uses the normal map on the feathers and cloth.

“We often separate materials for props and characters, which makes it important to pay extra attention to how characters look next to the rest of a set. Our props and character materials were slightly different this time – one material had the ability to use custom roughness and metallic values while the other didn’t, so I needed to add those options to balance everything and give our artists more control. We ended up using a greyscale metallic map for visual interest, as full metallic gave us darker values with too much contrast, whereas no metallic felt too washed out.”



While one part of the team focused on making sure they could replicate the unique colours needed, others set to work creating the 3D model. With so many customisation options for pirates’ appearance available in the game, Principal Character Artist Lorenzo Melizza explains how they account for players’ different styles:

“Starting from a great-looking concept, the translation to 3D always poses a threat. We have to be faithful to the original idea but make sure the model will still work within our system and look good with all the different pirates’ shapes. Keeping a good silhouette and maintaining good colour was vital here to keep the original mean look of this concept.

“The feathers on this costume are key to its design, so we had to be very careful while working on them. Our Tech Art team always comes through and helps us achieve the best look possible with every material we use, and this is another good example of our teams’ collaboration.

“The mask was a task of its own, as is often the case with these more complex costumes. We went through several iterations, initially allowing the mask’s shapes to follow every possible pirate face shape, but that proved impossible in the end. This just shows how much variety we have in terms of pirates’ face shapes, as accommodating all of them with the mask gave us some real ‘monsters’!”

Over on the animation side of things, we couldn’t have a costume set this cool without giving it an equally exciting emote, could we? To that end, the team put together the suitably threatening In for the Kill Emote. You might not have anticipated its humble origins, however, as Lead Animator Andrew Burt lets us into a secret:

“The emote was actually based on me twiddling dinner knives in my misspent youth. Our outsource team then made it look better!”


With the collection taking shape, it was time for a little bit of wordsmithing from the writing team to bring everything together and flesh out the lore with item descriptions. Editorial Lead Leigh Loveday goes into a little more detail:

“When a new Plunder Pass launches, that means a whole new Season is launching too and there’ll be a lot of cosmetics to cover in the combined text tracker doc, from Emporium additions and Outpost shop stock to Seasonal progression rewards and Emissary Ledger exclusives. So it was a bonus in a busy month when the Ravenwood set fell into our laps pretty much fully formed.

“Usually the name is placeholder and we start by brainstorming new ones, but in this case Ravenwood felt perfectly fitting (others on the table were along similar lines like Raven Wing, Ravenbone and Raven’s Trail). And the ‘raven assassin with a ship as a lair’ theme offered plenty to work with – we used the descriptions to formalise the Ravenwood order as an actual mysterious institution, one that regarded the costume’s birdlike masks as a system of rank and prestige. As for the ship set, the figurehead descriptions were probably the most entertaining to write as you can’t really go wrong with something that manages to cram in birds, skulls, coffins and daggers.”


When all the pieces came together, the end result was the wonderfully gothic, intimidating Ravenwood set we see today. Andy Betts sums it up:

“I think everyone was really pleased with how this set turned out, and it’s another good example of how pushing that unique element or feature can make a set that little bit more special.”

With the models polished, copy locked in, assets prepared and everything ready to go, all that was left was to set it loose. As a Plunder Pass exclusive, the set was revealed with the announcement of Season Eight, and arrived in-game as we kicked off the Battle for the Sea of Thieves in November.

The response to the Season release as a whole was hugely positive, but happily the Ravenwood set didn’t get lost in the noise. Olivia Arnell from the Production team was pleased with the reaction:

“Players really seemed to enjoy this set, with the bonus of it being an interesting break from the colour schemes of sets we've released in previous Plunder Passes. Many of them loved the built-in mask and the option to wear the costume without it, we saw some great screenshots shared of crews wearing the costume and getting into some roleplay!”



Social Media Lead James Bowden agrees: “We saw lots of players, including Kit on our official Discord, noting the dark colours as a cause for their affection – while others, like Surprise (also of Discord), took the time to let us know that they’re outfitting their ship with its pleasingly angular cannons.

“The option to wear the costume without the mask so players could leave their pirate’s scowling mug in full view was a hit (one example being SaltRageJoe who expressed a simple declaration of love for the feathered outfit on Twitter, while others like Fiensonix were happy to keep the mask on and brood in the shadows), and it’s always fun for us to see so many players across social channels having fun with the built-in emote!”

While the collection included a full ship livery and evolving costume, any well-equipped pirate will know that leaves certain things conspicuously missing, begging the question: are we going to be seeing Ravenwood weapon or equipment sets any time soon? We pressed Olivia for info:

“For fans of the Ravenwood cosmetics, we definitely have something exciting coming to the Pirate Emporium in the future. We have indeed created weapons and an equipment item to go with this set, you’ll just have to wait a little longer to get your hands on them!”



And that’s the story of the Ravenwood set! Thank you as always to all the different teams for walking us through the work that goes into developing these cosmetics. If you’re interested in acquiring the Ravenwood collection for yourself, be sure to drop into your local branch of the Pirate Emporium and pick up a Season Eight Plunder Pass before the Season ends a little later in March! After that, the masked assassins and their ships will sail back into the shadows – and while it’s likely they’ll re-emerge in the Emporium in future, there’s no telling when…

For more behind-the-scenes insights, you can find the previous entries in this series in our News section, as well as a range of other content covering everything going on with Sea of Thieves. To hear new announcements as they come, you’ll want to be following our social channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok or getting involved in our official Forums or Discord server. Feel free to let us know which recent cosmetic sets you’d like to see covered in this series too!

As we storm into the twilight of Season Eight, get set to salivate over this month’s heavy-hitting Emporium update along with more improvements to ship combat matchmaking following changes made in the last update. Need a quick refresher on the Battle for the Sea of Thieves? Hit play on that trailer...


Ready to see exactly what’s new? Future fashion, Faction action and, er, a frying pan await you in the full release notes for this update below!

The future comes calling on the shopkeepers of the Pirate Emporium this month with a supply drop containing the Halo-inspired Infinite Depths collection. Costume, ship set, weapons and heroic poses – it's a treasure trove of Sea of Thieves-styled cosmetics fit for a chief.

Season Eight Plunder Pass

• Anyone wishing to take full advantage of Season Eight rewards can still buy the Plunder Pass. Any rewards unlocked will become available upon purchase, so players who have raised their Renown throughout Season Eight can instantly see their hard work rewarded before the Season ends.
  
• This Season’s Plunder Pass offers early access to the complete Ravenwood Ship Collection and evolving Ravenwood Costume, and can be purchased at any time through the Pirate Log, Pirate Emporium or Steam Item Store.

Infinite Depths Ship Collection

• Follow in the footsteps of fellow outlaws beneath distant stars with this rebellious ship set. The Collector’s Sails and Figurehead are available to purchase separately.
  
• Pirates looking for just the core components of this ship set can purchase them in an Essential Bundle at a reduced cost.

Infinite Depths Costume

• Blending traditional armour and piratical style, this costume makes a masterful addition to any pirate’s Clothing Chest.
  
• Players wearing this costume can also use the Constant Companion Emote. Even in the toughest of battles, the figure inside this music box brings you comfort.

Infinite Depths Weapons

• With their unearthly sheen, these alien designs aren't quite like anything else you can find on the Sea of Thieves.

Infinite Depths Weapon Pose Emote

• Face anything the future can throw at you with this supply of weapon-specific emotes.

Freebie Armour Mock Emote

• While it's a reach to say this borrowed move will protect you from anything, it does at least make you feel a bit safer.

Matchmaking Improvements

• Further improvements in this area have now increased the size of the matchmaking pools, allowing players to find more crews who have joined the fight. These improvements work towards reducing matchmaking times and improving the suitability of skill-based matches.

Athena’s Fortune Emissary Flags

• In the Battle for the Sea of Thieves, Athena’s Fortune Emissary Flags won from same Faction battles can now be handed to the Mysterious Stranger in return for gold and reputation. This ensures that players can profit from same Faction battles as well as rival Faction battles.

Ghost Ship Damage Balancing

• Player ships colliding with a Ghost Ship during an encounter will now result in reduced hull damage.

Hiding Ship Names

• Captains now have access to a new setting, providing creators with more control over their Ship’s Crest, Banner and Logbook. Captains enabling ‘Hide My Ship Name From Others’ will now find the ship’s name is replaced when their ship is viewed by any other player.
  
• The existing settings for replacing gamertags, ship names and Captains’ gamertags have all been renamed to improve consistency.

Mauve Majestic Sovereign Clothing

• The Outpost clothing shops now stock the Mauve Majestic Sovereign clothing set, available to purchase for gold.

New Vanity Items

• A selection of additional items have arrived at the Outpost clothing shops, giving pirates more options to customise their look. The Cascade Hair, Twin Tails Beard and Ancient Ward Tattoo can now be purchased with gold.

Free Pancake Puzzler Emote

• Countless pancakes are tossed, caught and eaten in the lands beyond the Devil's Shroud at this time of year, and pirates have decided they want in on the action.
  
• Set sail on the Sea of Thieves between February 17th and February 24th (10am UTC) to have the free Pancake Puzzler Emote delivered to your Vanity Chest, allowing you to join in with the pancake-flipping festivities! The catching, not so much...

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock even more cosmetics throughout Season Eight with Twitch Drops! Stay tuned to Sea of Thieves social channels to find out when Twitch Drops will be active for Partnered streamers, allowing players to earn Eastern Winds Sapphire items.
  
• Find out how to link your accounts and more on our dedicated Twitch Drops page.

Gameplay

• Ammo Crates being held by another pirate can now be harpooned.
  
• Players attempting to stand on a barrel attached to a ship’s harpoon will now find they slip off into the water.
  
• Players using the ship’s harpoon while migrating across servers will now find the harpoon remains usable on arrival.
  
• Pirates travelling through the Tunnels of the Damned with a barrel attached to their harpoon will now find they can release the item and continue to use the harpoon when reaching their destination.
  
• Gunpowder Barrels aboard a ship will now be detonated by attacks from Ghost Ships, Megalodons and Krakens.
  
• Taking resources or fireworks from a crate and then using a Sunken Merfolk Statue to return to the ship will no longer refill the crate with items.
  
• The contents of storage containers will no longer revert to default values after migrating to a new server.
  
• Exclusive Athena’s Fortune items from the Legend of the Veil Voyage will now progress the Hider of Legendary Secrets Commendation.
  
• Pondies will no longer appear in the lower level of Sea Forts.

The Battle for the Sea of Thieves

• Dropping treasure off the side of the ship while sailing below the waves no longer causes the item to float away above the ship.
  
• Players can no longer beach their ship on an island during a battle to be moved outside the battle area.
  
• Dying when diving below the waves to hunt another crew will no longer cause the battle to fail for both crews.
  
• The Commendations entitled His Favourite Crew and Risk It All now have updated descriptions, clarifying that any Faction ship destroyed will progress this Commendation.
  
• The Commendations entitled Quite the Collection and Souvenir! now display all requirements in their descriptions.

Captains of Adventure

• Captains saving a livery, decoration or Trinket should now consistently find their saved customisations persist between sessions.
  
• Crews will no longer find their ship fails to release a Captain’s Logbook when sinking, even when the server already contains many Ruined Logbooks.
  
• When browsing the Shipwright’s shop, backing out of a shop type will now return to the previous page instead of closing the menu.
  
• After migrating to a different server, the ‘Placed by’ information for a Trinket will now show the correct gamertag.
  
• Players can no longer equip the same Trinket in multiple locations over the maximum limit.
  
• The Treasured Memento Mori will now appear in the Trinket Box after purchasing.
  
• Skeleton Orders found while doing a Fort of Fortune and then completed will now update the Pirate Milestone for Discovered Quests Completed.
  
• Pirates’ hands will no longer intersect with the Captain’s Logbook the first time players interact with it.

Legend of the Veil

• Starting and cancelling Legend of the Veil Voyages should now ensure that treasure from Shipwreck Graveyards is removed from the world.

Pirate Emporium

• The icon for the Labyrinth Looter Cannons has now been improved.
  
• The icon for the Mandrake Cannon Flare has been updated to its finalised form.

Environment

• Harpoons located at the Sovereigns will once again be able to fire down at all angles to retrieve treasure from the ships below without hitting an invisible surface.
  
• An active Skeleton Fort at Old Brinestone Fortress once again fires its cannons at ships on approach.
  
• Chests can no longer fall under a wooden platform outside the tavern at Sanctuary Outpost.

User Interface

• Cycling through throwables using an assigned hotkey will no longer cause the cannonball section on a player’s radial to disappear.

Accessibility

• The ‘Disable Blur’ option now continues to function after travelling through the Tunnels of the Damned.

Visual and Audio

• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ - The Cursed Captain’s skull will no longer appear to float if a player buries then digs him back up.
  
• ‘The Shroudbreaker’ - The opening dialogue with the Mysterious Stranger is now present when starting the Tall Tale at New Golden Sands Outpost.
  
• Players whispering using the Speaking Trumpet while using non-verbal chat will now find their message is only sent a short distance, matching the distance of a whispered voice.
  
• When observing a pirate fishing, players should no longer see their arms move unnaturally across a range of body types.
  
• A floating book can no longer be seen at Smugglers’ Bay.
  
• Pirates’ mouths no longer intersect with the Craggy Beard when worn.
  
• Pressure plate audio effects should no longer be triggered when moving around a specific location in the Pirate Legend Hideout.
  
• A spherical visual effect is no longer present when viewing patches of verdant growth at Marauder’s Arch.

Text and Localisation

• ‘Dark Brethren’ - Text within the Quest Book now appears correctly across a range of languages.

Performance and Stability

• Further server optimisations made to reduce the frequency of server performance spikes, which can result in players experiencing lag spikes, rubberbanding and server correction during gameplay.
  
• Players on lower-performing hardware may notice a small improvement to the speed at which textures load in when approaching an island.
  
• Improved server stability to help prevent instances where using the harpoon could cause players to be disconnected from their session.

Localisation Issues

• The text for some newly added Emporium and Outpost cosmetics is not currently available in all languages, and will temporarily appear in English until this is resolved.

Reduced Server Performance

• Players may experience scenarios where they encounter ping spikes at random while playing, resulting in rubberbanding or client stutters. While improvements were most recently released in update 2.7.3, the team continue to work on further improvements for future updates.

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection

• In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While small improvements continue to be delivered during our regular updates, we are continuing to investigate and identify further improvements to the player combat experience.

To learn more about known issues in Sea of Thieves currently being tracked and their status, head over to our Known Issues support site article.

Download Size:

• Steam: 6.75 GB

Welcome to 2023! Would you believe it’s already been over a month since the start of the new year? Well, turns out it has because we’re back with another round-up of all the goings-on and happenings of January, all together in one convenient place. If you’d thought we’d have a quiet few weeks after the holiday break excitement then you couldn’t be more wrong. Let’s get into it…

The big event in January was, of course, our latest time-limited Adventure. ‘The Secret Wilds’ had players following in the footsteps of Captain Briggsy as her memories took form throughout The Wilds and beyond. Using her old mask, now imbued with mystical powers by Madame Olivia, pirates were able to find shapes in the stars and uncover the legend of a cure to the curse that afflicts Tasha. Whether or not those efforts will succeed remains to be seen…

The new year also meant new fashions, and the Pirate Emporium was ready to oblige. The latest collection to charge onto the scene was the Labyrinth Looter set, taking its cue from a monstrous creature of myth. Meanwhile, the Pocket Pebble Emote granted players a singularly sturdy new pet and the Oar-Inspiring Emote Bundle showed off the multifunctionality of your favourite Rowboat accessory. Throw in the usual free monthly emote silently beckoning you over and it was a good month to pad out your emote radial.

That wasn’t all for January, with the Battle for the Sea of Thieves introduced at the start of Season Eight also getting a brace of updates and improvements. See the release notes for the full story!


You’re likely familiar with the drill by now: with a new Adventure to explore, there was, of course, an Adventures Ahead article to catch you up to speed on the story so far. This time we were delving into the hidden power of Briggsy’s mask and the history behind the Skeleton Curse.

In community news, we wasted no time in getting back to our ongoing series of Spotlights. First in line was a Community Spotlight on illustrious illustrator Shabby to talk about how Sea of Thieves has helped to inspire his artwork; then, towards the end of the month, a new Creator Spotlight centered on the famously hirsute Beardageddon, discussing how he came to the Sea of Thieves and relaying some of his favourite memories from the game.

January also saw a host of new entries into the Community Hub, including a suitably wintry festive ship design and a mind-boggling trick of perspective. Meanwhile, the Rare Store celebrated Lunar New Year with a selection of Year of the Rabbit goodies, while snack lovers were offered another way to pick up some striking new ship parts!



After the excitement of Grogmanay finished off the Festival of Giving for another year, we started looking ahead at what’s coming with 2023’s first instalment of Sea of Thieves News – hosted by a new face too, in keeping with this season of new beginnings.

Anyone looking to fill out their Eastern Winds Sapphire collection will have enjoyed January’s Twitch Drops, with the entire ship set – and a bonus tankard – available to anyone who tuned in to Partnered Sea of Thieves streamers. On the other hand, if you’re more into listening to things than watching them, don’t forget to check out the newly released ‘Factions of Fate’ soundtrack addition for all your battle music needs.

Closing out the month, we took the opportunity to welcome new and returning players to the sea with 10 Things You Need To Know about Sea of Thieves in 2023 before setting sail. You wouldn’t think you could cram all that information into seven minutes or less, but pirates can be sneaky like that.


We came into the new year fighting fit and looking for a battle cry to match. With the Battle for the Sea of Thieves raging on, starting a fight is easier than ever, so it’s good to have a few lined up whenever you weigh anchor!

In less combative news, players remembered the revelries of Grogmanay with the first #SoTShot competition of the year. Under the Pirate Party theme, players across the sea got creative with fireworks and festivities, leading to a submissions folder overflowing with colourful scenes and joyous celebrations before the focus moved on to recreating Movie Moments.

The Festival of Giving didn’t slow down construction of our new port town – pirate builders being surprisingly work-conscious – so we took a look back on how far Golden Sands has come and even revealed a few new secrets you might not have found. Out on the water, we paused in taking advantage of reduced price crates to have a brief crisis about the deck layout of our Sloop. Fortunately we just had to look at some frogs to calm ourselves down, and from there we moved on to intriguing history lessons delivered by #TriviaTuesday and exploration by way of #SundayVibes.



All of which brings us now to February! January was obviously just the start of what we’ve got planned for 2023, so keep your ears open to get all the news as it comes. To make sure you don’t miss anything, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, or join the official Forums or Discord. See you there! Or here! Or everywhere!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: December 2022

Season Seven saw the latest creative contest swing onto the seas, and our crew and community alike delighted in a stream of stylish screenshots and clever clothing combos, with the prestigious Fashionista’s Finery Gloves being awarded to all the top scoundrel stylists who impressed us.

Of course, as Season Seven was the first iteration of the contest, we were eager to see how things went – and while some elements worked well and resulted in a colourful catwalk of costume creations, it was clear that we needed to take other parts back to the workshop for alterations. After some internal conversation, we're now pleased to present the latest rendition of rules for the next Style of Thieves contest.

Some things will stay the same while others will be changing, so make sure you read the rundown carefully if you’re planning on strutting your stuff for Season Eight!


Image credit: @Taaaaamas on Twitter

Just like last time, there will be three stages:

Theme Announcement

Four new themes will be revealed, ready for you to begin raiding your stash and planning your pose. We recommend starting to secure those shots once the categories are announced; you’ll only be given 24 hours to submit your screens for each theme!

Post Your Pics!

Along with the theme announcement, you’ll be given a date for each category’s submissions to be entered, each staying open for just 24 hours. Make sure you share your screenshot by tagging @SeaOfThieves and #StyleOfThieves on Twitter, @SeaOfThievesGame on Instagram, posting your submission as a reply to the theme post on Facebook, or through the #pirate-fashion channel in the official Sea of Thieves Discord. Be sure to include the name of the theme you’re entering in your post.

Winner Selection

The biggest change compared to our first season is that the shortlisting and winner selection will all happen internally. Our crew, including special guest judges from our Art team, will whittle down the entries to their most fashionable favourites. With three top model marauders per category, a total of 12 pairs of the glorious Fashionista’s Finery Gloves will be awarded at the end of the season’s contest.


Image credit: @SirSwizy on Twitter

How to Wow

We’ve put together some handy hints and rules for composing the perfect shot:

• No Costumes on the catwalk - we want to see your creativity and individuality, so no all-in-one Costumes, and avoid complete cosmetic sets.
  
• Unless a theme calls for it, all shots should be solo snaps, no crews. Only the pirate in the picture will be eligible for the prize.
  
• Find a simple or plain background to pose against to let your outfit pop. Backgrounds and locations will not be counted as adding to the theme.
  
• Lighting is key, so find a well-lit spot to fully show off your picks – any coloured or tactical lighting won’t be considered as part of the outfit.
  
• Toggle off your HUD for that clean finish!
  
• Screenshots should be true to the game – no editing or filters.
  
• Keep your submissions to a 16:9 ratio to help us when framing the winners.
  
• While emotes are allowed, any features added to the costume via the emote won’t be taken into consideration during judging.
  
• One shortlist will be compiled per theme, using entries across all platforms, meaning it’s not necessary to post your submission to all channels. If you make sure you use the correct tags, we will see it!

Image credit: @Sailors_Bounty on Twitter

That’s everything you need to know ahead of Season Eight’s Style of Thieves contest. Keep your spyglass trained on our social channels and this very website for the upcoming theme reveals and submission dates!

While it might be a little too late to wish you all a Happy New Year, we can definitely wish you a Happy February – and with it, the arrival of another Sea of Thieves Community Day. This Valentine’s Day-tinted community celebration is one to slink straight into your sailing schedules, with the proceedings kicking off at 10am UTC on Saturday, February 11th and lasting a full 24 hours.

While Season Eight’s brilliant new Battle for the Sea of Thieves feature might be a little bit fighty, we’ve carved out this day as a special 24 hours of showing you, our amazing community, some love. And how are we going to do that, you may ask? Well, we’re about to tell you. Let’s get into it…

Hopefully you all know the drill by now, but if you don’t, allow us to recap. The beauty of Community Day is that we put in-game rewards in your hands and give you the opportunity to collectively boost the Community Emissary Grade via Twitter. Simply by tweeting #SeaOfThievesCommunityDay after the 10am UTC kickoff, you’ll play your part in raising the in-game boosts being awarded.

There are five Community Emissary Grades to work through on the day, with the top Grade giving everyone two-and-a-half-times the regular amount of gold, reputation and Seasonal Renown for handing in hard-earned treasure. Better still, if you're also sailing as an Emissary for one of the Trading Companies, this multiplier stacks with any boosts accrued there too!

As with our last Community Day, the usual Gold Rush periods will be switched off for the duration of the day – so once that fifth Community Emissary Grade is unlocked, you can hand in loot for maximum value whenever you want.

With Renown also subject to this scaling multiplier, keen corsairs who’ve yet to hit the heady heights of level 100 in Season Eight have it all to gain from this Community Day celebration. There’ll also be a generous fixed boost to Allegiance, giving players a great opportunity to accelerate their Faction progress towards either one (or both) of Sea of Thieves’ newest Curses.


As is traditional, Season Eight Community Day comes with a couple of in-game gifts. For the romantic and pastel-persuaded among you, this event’s flag bears beautiful pink and purple hues. Collect your flag simply by logging in during the 24-hour Community Day period – and don’t forget to flap it in your crewmates’ directions to make sure they know you love them (not a euphemism).

Logging in during Season Eight’s Community Day will also bless your inventories with a second bonus: the top-drawer Scorecard Emote, allowing you to playfully rate your crew or any other passer-by on their piratical performance. Except the number on the card is chosen at random, so it’s a little bit of a lottery as to whether you’ll declare love or war. Best have a blunderbomb at the ready just in case…

These aren’t the only items you can score for your inventories this Community Day: tune in to any participating Sea of Thieves streamer for a couple of hours to bag yourself the Celestial Steed Sails (coincidentally, a perfect sail to complement the Community Day Flag) and the Ebon Flintlock. These Twitch Drops will be active from 10am UTC on February 11th alongside all our other activity, and run for 24 hours – so don’t forget to nip over to Twitch and support your favourite creator for a while.



From Saturday, February 11th to Wednesday, February 15th (both 10am UTC), swing by the Pirate Emporium to peruse an assortment of lovey-dovey items all under the spell of our Delightful Discount Sale. Fan favourites such as the Reaper’s Heart Pets and matching weapons will have their price slashed for the duration of the sale, and a whole host of romantic emotes will also be up for grabs at a discounted cost of Ancient Coins.

It’s not just the vendors of the Sea of Thieves who are all in on making sure you bag a bargain, either – most Sea of Thieves-themed items on the Rare merchandise store will be eligible for a nifty 30% discount for the duration of Community Day, to any thrifty shopper using the COMMUNITYDAY discount code at the checkout. We’ve got everything a pirate might need to gift their loved one this Valentine’s Day, so if you’re ready to lay all your cards on the table to a secret love, we can help you with the cards (as well as the table).

Extra-special event swag will also be gracing the store’s aisles, as for one day only (Community Day, unsurprisingly) an actual Community Day T-shirt and Flag will be available to purchase. You’ll need to be the speediest of shoppers to ensure you secure these time-limited items.

Our #BeMorePirate rampage returns for the latest Community Day, so make sure you’re sharing the love with your favourite friends and crewmates! It’s a day to celebrate our amazing artists, players, creators and community MVPs – so we’ll be scouring our channels and the #BeMorePirate hashtag for amazing Sea of Thieves stories, from now until the end of the big day.

Worthy winners will be awarded the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame, so get your submissions in soon to see if your antics warrant your (or your nominee’s) pirate’s head being graced with one of the sea’s most coveted caps.



Fiery-hearted fashionistas will be thrilled to hear that this Season’s Style of Thieves competition will be coming soon to a screen near you. Season Eight Community Day will unveil the theme list and submission dates, so all debonair corsairs keen to play dress-up can expect the latest rules of engagement come February 11th.

Keep your eyes peeled on our Sea of Thieves News page for the latest on the competition – and in the meantime, make sure your pirate’s wardrobe is well stocked for the challenge. After all, there’s a set of super-special gloves on offer for those who make the cut.

Season Eight Community Day will also see the triumphant return of the Rare crew streaming from the Tavern! From 10am UTC, you’ll be able to watch as some familiar friendly faces tackle special Community Day challenges, and generally embrace the chaos involved when a bunch of folks sneak into Rare HQ on a Saturday for shenanigans. The aforementioned Twitch Drops will of course be active on this stream, and if you’re lucky, you might even see another surprise or two during the broadcast…

It's set to be a wildly entertaining session, so swing by and say hello to our pirate crew if you find the time – we promise to do some fun shout-outs on air too!



Whether this is your first or your fourth Community Day, these events are all about celebrating every pirate who chooses to spend time on our seas. While there is an outrageous amount of gold, glory and goodies on offer, the core aim of these pirate parties is to shine the spotlight on our amazing sailors and salute their spirit. So we hope you’ll join us this Community Day to share some screenshots, bag some swag and spread some love across the waves of the Sea of Thieves!

The festive season has come and gone, but while pirates across the waves were busy celebrating Grogmanay, the Order of Souls were hard at work. Hoping to cure Tasha the tavern keeper of a skeletal curse that’s consuming her, Madame Olivia has now recovered memories of Captain Briggsy – the notorious rogue who once searched far and wide for the rumoured restorative that would free her from her own fleshless fate.



Sea of Thieves’ previous Adventure, ‘The Rogue’s Legacy’, tasked pirates with recovering keepsakes hidden by Briggsy long ago, intended to train Tasha in pirate practices as she went about retrieving them (if you need to learn more about this quest, our latest Adventures Ahead article can fill in the blanks). Three of these gifts were successfully delivered to Madame Olivia at Plunder Outpost, but that was only the beginning of the story...

All too aware how dangerous it would be to place a Skeleton Lord’s spirit back into their waiting skull, Madame Olivia has accomplished an equally tricky task, imbuing Briggsy’s distinctive mask with the memories of its former owner. How close was Briggsy to locating the cure she so desperately sought? The only way to find out is for pirates to take up the mask, learn the truth from Briggsy herself and journey to The Wilds in her wake.




Inquisitive crews will soon discover that Briggsy’s mask confers more than one advantage. Its jewelled eye is no mere gemstone; rather, it houses Ancient knowledge of secret starfields, each very different from the night sky to which pirates have become accustomed. When considered correctly, these constellations reveal a long-forgotten tale of duty and sacrifice that set Briggsy on her path to the cure, though all may not be quite as it seems...

Picking up the quest that Briggsy began so long ago is a considerable undertaking. Cunning and curiosity will be needed in equal measure if Tasha is to be saved, especially when The Wilds continue to bloom with strange, lush patches that suggest powerful forces are at work behind the scenes. To start your journey into ‘The Secret Wilds’, begin the Adventure by speaking with Larinna outside the tavern at any time between now and February 2.





Elsewhere on the waves, the Battle for the Sea of Thieves continues to rage between the Guardians of Fortune and the Servants of the Flame. The team at Rare have been hard at work improving the PvP matchmaking feature set based on player feedback, with the aim of allowing Faction crews to seek out combat much more swiftly.

As detailed in the latest release notes, today’s content update not only delivers a new Adventure but includes a number of enhancements to these on-demand ship encounters, including same-Faction battles designed to boost the pool of viable opponents and get battle-hungry crews into the fray with a minimum of waiting.


For more information on the latest Sea of Thieves update, including full release notes, visit the Sea of Thieves website. This update is available for free to all Sea of Thieves players who have bought the game on Steam. Simply download and install the latest Sea of Thieves update to get access.

New to Sea of Thieves? Find out about the latest free content updates on our What’s New page, get familiar with Who’s Who or pick up some gameplay tips from our Pirate Academy, which provides invaluable information on topics ranging from sailing to swordplay as you prepare for your maiden voyage. Learn more about Sea of Thieves here, or join the ongoing adventure at www.seaofthieves.com where you can embark on an epic journey with one of gaming’s most welcoming communities!

It’s a triple treat in this month’s content update as we point the way to a brand new time-limited Adventure, score a bullseye in the Pirate Emporium and deploy another set of improvements to the Battle for the Sea of Thieves! If you need a reminder of what everyone’s fighting about, rediscover the Season Eight trailer below...



You can also look back on the release notes from Season Eight’s launch for the complete picture, but if you know full well what the state of play is on the seas these days, don’t let us keep you any longer from sifting through the spoils of this latest update!

Time is running out for Tasha the tavern keeper as her skeletal curse continues to spread, and Madame Olivia relies on the aid of adventurous pirates as she strives to find a cure. Will you retrace Briggsy's steps through the secrets of the past in this eleventh time-limited Adventure?

‘The Secret Wilds’ (January 19th – February 2nd)

• To start the Adventure, talk to Larinna and be directed to Madame Olivia at Plunder Outpost. She will then explain the importance of retracing Briggsy’s steps to find a cure for Tasha.
  
• To aid pirates in their quest, Madame Olivia will hand over Briggsy’s Mask that will allow them to view hidden starfields. Tasha will also provide one of her childhood storybooks that she hopes will aid in the search for a cure and the missing amulet fragments.
  
• Pirates who fully complete the Adventure will earn an exclusive Title and a cosmetic reward to serve as a Memento of their quest.

From battles for honour within the same Faction to rebalanced rewards, another round of improvements have been made to on-demand ship combat in this update. Rejoin the Battle for the Sea of Thieves and rack up some Allegiance in the most balanced experience to date!

Same Faction Battles

• Improvements to matchmaking now allow players the opportunity to battle against other crews from the same Faction in a battle for honour. These improvements will reduce matchmaking times for all pirates seeking battle!
  
• Crews will vote on the War Map and begin searching for an opponent in a rival Faction as before. However, after a period of time when a rival has not been found, the search for crews will expand to include those from the same Faction.
  
• These battles for honour within a Faction will play out in exactly the same way as a traditional battle, with Allegiance, Hourglass Value and Streaks all continuing to be earned. Most Commendations and Captaincy Milestones will also continue to progress, omitting those that specifically involve the opposing Faction.

Additional Battle Locations

• Two crews travelling beneath the waves and resurfacing to fight will now find around 50 new battle locations have been added across the seas where an encounter can take place.
  
• Many of these new locations will be only a stone’s throw away from a nearby Outpost, allowing the victors an opportunity to leave their Faction and claim their Hourglass value or restock before diving back beneath the waves.

Allegiance Balancing

• Crews who are defeated in a Faction battle will now receive a slight increase to their Allegiance as compensation for their loss.
  
• Crews fighting for the Servants of the Flame and flying a Reaper’s Emissary Flag will now earn increased reputation for The Reaper’s Bones upon winning a battle.
  
• Crews who lose by being run out of the battle area will now receive a small amount of Allegiance as compensation for their loss.
  
• In rare circumstances, crews may find they are not moved away from a server after sinking while in a Faction. In this scenario, crews will no longer receive Allegiance for repeatedly sinking the same ship in a server, preventing opportunities for crews to progress faster than intended.

Deterring Teaming in Battles

• Improvements have been made to matchmaking rules to reduce the chance of crews encountering a battle with multiple opposing ships.
  
• Crews who discover two Faction ships in a battle will no longer be rewarded with Allegiance, Streak increases or Hourglass value for joining the fight and sinking the Faction ships, as they are not part of the battle.

Update on Cross-Stamp Matchmaking

• While we announced cross-stamp matchmaking in the January edition of SoT News, a critical issue was uncovered during final testing. To ensure the stability of our matchmaking as it stands, we've pulled this feature from today's release and will deliver it following further testing when we can implement it with greater confidence.

Get your head down for a new month of Emporium additions! The Labyrinth Looter collection leads the charge with a ship set, costume, weapons and drum. But there's an Oar-Inspiring new set of emotes too, and you'd need to have a heart of stone to ignore the Pocket Pebble Emote...

Season Eight Plunder Pass

• Anyone wishing to take full advantage of Season Eight rewards can still buy the Plunder Pass. Any rewards unlocked will become available upon purchase, so players who have raised their Renown throughout Season Eight can instantly see their hard work rewarded before the Season ends.
  
• This Season’s Plunder Pass offers early access to the complete Ravenwood Ship Collection and evolving Ravenwood Costume, and can be purchased at any time through the Pirate Log, Pirate Emporium, or Steam Item Store.

Labyrinth Looter Ship Collection

• Reminisce over your near-mythical misadventures with this ancient ship livery. Collector’s Sails and Figurehead are available to purchase separately.
  
• Players can also pick up just the core components of this set at a discount in the form of an Essential Ship Bundle.

Labyrinth Looter Costume

• Start a beef in this outfit inspired by a hulking beast of myth! The mask might smell awful, but it’s worth it for the intimidation.
  
• If an enemy gets too close, give them due warning with the built-in Charge Up Emote.

Labyrinth Looter Weapon Bundle

• Adorned with trophies from your amazing adventures, these weapons let everyone know you're not to be trifled with.

Labyrinth Looter Drum

• If a drum isn't enough for you, it doubles as a maze puzzle to keep you entertained on long nights at sea.

Oar-Inspiring Emote Bundle

• Oars can be good for more than just rowing, as these inventive emotes allow you to demonstrate.

Pocket Pebble Emote

• The seas can be lonely, but now there’s a handy pet rock to help keep you sane. It’s even got a little smiley face!

Freebie Come On Emote

• Beckon other pirates over to face what’s coming with this freebie emote.

Time-Limited Lunar Festival Pet Outfits

• Get your pet dancing like a dragon to celebrate the Lunar Festival in one of these striking pet outfits, back on sale for a limited time.

Amazing Adventurer Bundle (Store Only)

• Why risk venturing into perplexing passageways, especially ones where legendary beasts roam freely, when there's a safer way to acquire treasures? The Amazing Adventurer Bundle contains the bullish Labyrinth Looter Costume, Weapon Bundle and Drum, as well as 550 Ancient Coins to spend in the Pirate Emporium and a bonus haul of 25,000 gold. Head to the Steam Item Store to find out more.

Bristling Barnacle Cosmetics

• Show off your love of the sea with the new Bristling Barnacle clothing pieces, ship set, weapons and equipment. All can be purchased for gold from the appropriate shopkeepers.

Wailing Barnacle Hairstyles

• New hairstyles for this old favourite set are now available to purchase for gold from the Outpost clothing shops.

Storage Crate Pricing

• Storage Crates have now been reduced in price, and can now be purchased from the Merchant Alliance for 5,000 gold instead of the original 17,500 gold.

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock even more cosmetics throughout Season Eight with Twitch Drops! Stay tuned to Sea of Thieves social channels to find out when Twitch Drops will be active for Partnered streamers, allowing players to earn Eastern Winds Sapphire items.
  
• Find out how to link your accounts and more on our dedicated Twitch Drops page.

Gameplay

• Treasure can no longer be used around ships to reduce the damage taken from cannon fire.
  
• Treasure held by a player will no longer float in the air after being harpooned.
  
• Pirates will no longer be able to shoot through the wall underneath the stairs on the Sloop and damage players outside the ship.
  
• Treasure collected from wrecks within the Sunken Graveyard during the Legend of the Veil Voyage should no longer disappear from a crew’s ship after finishing the Voyage.
  
• Storage Crates acquired from Skeleton Ships can now be buried.
  
• Cannonball Crates of the Damned released when completing Order of Souls Ghost Ship Voyages will now only reward a single Wraith Cannonball.
  
• Athena’s Fortune artefacts found during the Legend of the Veil Voyage will now progress the Hider of Legendary Secrets Commendation when buried.
  
• Animals will now take damage when caught in the blast of cannon fire, explosions and blunderbombs.
  
• Ships can no longer be attacked by a Kraken while traversing the Tunnels of the Damned.
  
• Shadow Skeletons in the Fort of the Damned will now be instantly stunned if they emerge into an area with the correct type of lighting.
  
• If players shoot through a broken Rum Crate and hit a Gunpowder Barrel, the barrel will now explode as intended.
  
• The Old Brinestone Fortress storeroom key will no longer be present in the lock after the Fort has cleared, allowing crews to gain access again in the future.
  
• ‘Dark Brethren’ – Collecting the Siren Heart from Jack while holding an item will now drop the held item on the ground and collect the Siren Heart.

The Battle for the Sea of Thieves

• Ships that become beached and subsequently destroyed during a battle will now cause that crew to lose the encounter.
  
• Crews should no longer experience the rare scenario where they surface for battle only to find another battle already taking place.
  
• The Ghost Lord Commendation is now unlocked when meeting the requirements needed.
  
• The Commendations entitled Risk It All, His Favourite Crew, In His Name, Running the Risk, Exemplary Captain and Pretty Good At This will now progress for Captains and crewmates alike when sailing on a Captained ship.
  
• The Proven Your Worth Commendation has now been removed. The Guardian Ghost Spyglass and Guardian Ghost Speaking Trumpet can still be earned by earning the Quite the Collection Commendation.
  
• Players will now need to earn the His Favourite Crew Commendation in order to unlock the Twin Pegs lower body cosmetic instead of the previously listed Commendation.
  
• Players will now need to earn the Quite the Collection Commendation in order to unlock the Guardian Ghost Flag instead of the previously listed Commendation.
  
• Sitting down or sleeping while below the waves waiting for another opponent will no longer cause the player to become stuck or removed from the ship, or for the player’s camera to become stuck in the environment when a rival is found.
  
• If a crew’s ship is lost due to becoming beached on land, the ship will now retain its Faction status.
  
• Quickly rotating the Hourglass of Fate and joining a Faction should now consistently display the correct Faction alignment.
  
• When the Blessing of Athena’s Fortune or Ritual of the Flame cutscenes begin playing, only the players who are observing the cutscene will see the subtitles.
  
• Crew members leaving during the Blessing of Athena’s Fortune or Ritual of the Flame cutscenes should no longer cause the cutscene to end.

Captains of Adventure

• Captained ships with a large number of Captain’s Voyages in the Bookcase should no longer experience issues when purchasing ship supplies.
  
• Completing A Commission of the Ancient Veil now updates the Milestone for ‘A Veteran Voyager’.
  
• Players can now flip through the pages of a Ruined Logbook.
  
• As the ship is sinking, the Captain’s Logbook interaction prompt now disappears.
  
• When a crew member picks up their own Logbook from a wreck, their gamertag icon will now show that treasure is being carried.
  
• Captains changing a Ship’s Banner should now see the new banner after leaving the Ship Customisation Chest.

Pirate Emporium

• Players will now be able to repair the Soaring Oracle Wheel as normal.
  
• Players’ hands no longer intersect with the top of the barrel when reloading the Soaring Oracle Eye of Reach.
  
• Players can no longer equip belts over the top of the Soaring Oracle Costume.
  
• Players can no longer equip an eyepatch while wearing the Soaring Oracle Costume which includes the blindfold.
  
• The visual effects for the Soaring Oracle Costume emote have now been corrected for all body types.
  
• The aurora effect on the Boreal Aurora Cannons and Capstan is now consistent all the time.
  
• The Ravenwood Costume visual effects will now appear correctly when performing the emote while sailing on a ship.
  
• Players’ hands will now appear correctly while wearing the Mandrake Costume.

Environment

• The unfurled War Map no longer intersects with the Bone Crusher and Bilge Rat Captain’s Tables.
  
• Players will no longer be able to swim away from the Shrine of Ancient Tears and appear beneath the sea bed.
  
• It is no longer possible to swim onto the exit at the Shrine of the Coral Tomb.
  
• Players will no longer appear to start swimming on a wall at the Shrine of Ocean’s Fortune.
  
• There is no longer a hole deep underground at Wanderers Refuge.
  
• The player camera will no longer intersect with the ground while sitting south-west of the tavern on Sanctuary Outpost.
  
• Players will no longer intersect with Phantoms when sitting in the Tavern of the Damned.
  
• Players sailing on a Galleon will no longer be able to sit on a barrel where pets may also sit.

User Interface

• The fire and retract actions of the harpoon can once again be rebound within the Settings menu.

Visual and Audio

• Pirates will no longer appear tiny if they emerge from a Rowboat cannon when returning to the ship via a mermaid.
  
• The Ghostly Curse will now appear consistently when equipped by pirates of all body types.
  
• Scooping audio will no longer play when using a bucket on a dry deck or island.
  
• ‘The Sunken Pearl’ and ‘Dark Brethren’ – Areas of rising and lowering water during the Tall Tales no longer display an incorrect texture.
  
• ‘Lords of the Sea’ – Jack Sparrow’s voice now stays in sync with his location throughout the Tale.

Text and Localisation

• The Athena Shield, Is That All You’ve Got, Hunt Them Down and Righteous Victory Commendations all now have the correct requirements to unlock them listed within their descriptions.
  
• The descriptions for rank 70 and 75 promotions for Gold Hoarders, Merchant Alliance and Order of Souls have now been corrected.
  
• The text on Merchant Alliance quest parchments now appears correctly when the language is set to Russian.
  
• Samuel in the Pirate Legend Hideout no longer has an error in one of his dialogue options.
  
• The War Map tooltip for choosing to fight a larger foe is now a consistent size with other prompts.
  
• ‘The Legendary Storyteller’ – The Tall Tale book will no longer have overlapping or compressed sentences when the language is set to Thai.

Performance and Stability

• Improvements have been made to reduce scenarios where players can experience extended black screen loading times when using a mermaid or returning from the Ferry of the Damned.
  
• Reduced instances where players are being disconnected from their session when travelling through the underwater tunnels.
  
• Ubebeard error message should no longer appear after rapidly changing tabs from within the crew selection screen when setting up a session.
  
• Improved server stability to decrease the chances of players becoming disconnected from their session.
  
• Improved client stability when interacting with the Captain’s Logbook while playing on Xbox One.

Reduced Server Performance

• Players may experience scenarios where they encounter ping spikes at random while playing, resulting in rubberbanding or client stutters. While improvements were most recently released in update 2.5.3, the team continue to work on further improvements for future updates.

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection

• In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While small improvements continue to be delivered during our regular updates, we are continuing to investigate and identify further improvements to the player combat experience.

To learn more about known issues in Sea of Thieves currently being tracked and their status, head over to our Known Issues support site article.

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• Steam: 8.1 GB

If there’s one thing that can travel across the waves faster than a Galleon at full billow, it’s gossip. Grog-houses across the Sea of Thieves continue to buzz with stories and speculation, discussing strange areas of lush growth and sapphire skies that have mysteriously appeared throughout the normally desolate region known as The Wilds.

Over at The Unicorn tavern, however, Tasha is in no mood to join in with rumourmongering as she continues to face a private peril of her own. Her last few weeks have been spent waiting impatiently for answers to arrive, however indirectly, from an old friend…

There are many different kinds of transformative curses that can plague pirates going about their business, but not all of them are entirely unwelcome. Some crews will even go so far as to accept an affliction willingly as a sign of dedication to the likes of Captain Flameheart, while the Gold Hoarders consider a glittering finger or two nothing more than proof of a hard day’s work.

Tasha, on the other hand, never asked to be cursed, and while she remained oblivious to the root cause of her cadaverous conversion (discovered shortly before the events of ‘The Rogue’s Legacy’), she was not about to sit back and let it consume her without a fight. Recalling tales of a cure told by her friend and mentor, the notorious Captain Briggsy, Tasha set out for Plunder Outpost to confide in the Order of Souls, hoping that they’d be able to provide her with more concrete information.

Unfortunately for Tasha, Briggsy’s skull had been drained of its memories years ago, after her own skeletal transformation led to a fatal confrontation with pirates who knew little of Briggsy’s tragic past. This complication forced Madame Olivia to gather the knowledge she needed in a much more unorthodox fashion...



Briggsy had buried many keepsakes throughout The Wilds, intending them to be discovered by Tasha once she was old enough. Madame Olivia wisely recruited pirates who were willing to retrieve several of these guarded gifts on Tasha’s behalf, uniting the mementos with a paranormal process intended to extract memories of days long past. Much to Tasha’s relief, that ritual has finally been completed, granting Olivia fresh insight into Briggsy’s time in The Wilds – and setting the stage for another expedition to uncover the truth.

Unwilling to risk bestowing any kind of power upon the skull of a Skeleton Lord, Madame Olivia has instead chosen to transfer these memories into Briggsy’s distinctive mask, ready to be wielded by pirates prepared to undertake this Adventure. Whoever dons the mask will hear the wisdom and insights of the Cursed Rogue herself as they follow in her footsteps, scouring The Wilds on the hunt for a cure to Tasha’s curse.

And yet, as is always the case with the legends of Captain Briggsy, all is not as it seems. The distinctive jewel in Briggsy’s mask, which Madame Olivia once assumed to be little more than an ostentatious decoration, has proven to contain knowledge of its own. In fact, the gem is a star map created by the Ancients, and has been used to chart constellations that appear strangely different to the night skies today’s pirates have come to know.



As Sudds would explain at length if given the opportunity, the Ancients sought to preserve their folklore and so enshrined many of their most important legends in the heavens. Wherever these strange constellations may have originated, Briggsy clearly believed that the mythology behind them was closely tied to the curse that affected her and now attacks Tasha – and, perhaps, the means to reverse it.

If Tasha is to be saved, it will be up to pirates to complete Briggsy’s odyssey and decipher the meaning behind these strange stars, not to mention any connection the constellations might have to the recent revitalisation of The Wilds itself. Crews will get their chance to see the world through the eyes of a Legendary Storyteller when ‘The Secret Wilds’ launches on January 19th. What happens next is written in the stars…

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Adventures Ahead: ‘The Rogue’s Legacy’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Return of the Damned’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Herald of the Flame’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Sirens’ Prize’
Adventures Ahead: ‘A Hunter’s Cry’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Forsaken Hunter’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Lost Sands’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Shrouded Deep’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Forts of the Forgotten’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Shrouded Islands’