We always say it was a busy month, but June really was a busy month, wasn’t it? With a Mystery, an Event, a Showcase and an Adventure, there was hardly a moment to catch your breath, but fear not: the latest round-up is here to fill you in on anything you missed. All you need to do is sit back, pour yourself a responsible drink and join us on the latest little trip down memory lane.

We entered June with the community scrambling to uncover clues to solve the final stage of The Hoarder’s Hunt. The devilish schemes of ‘H’ had those hunters baffled for days, with the tempting promise of a golden skull only making the end goal more enticing. It took some time – and more code decryption than you’d usually expect to perform in your day-to-day life – but the Mystery was eventually cracked and the final chest opened! Of ‘H’ himself there was no sign, only one last letter left behind in farewell.

Elsewhere on the Outposts, the Sovereigns were a bit put out by all the attention the Gold Hoarders were getting, so they were only too happy to align themselves with a new Event. Captain’s Week offered opportunities for Captains across the waves to reap boosted rewards from their treasure and purchase ships at a discount – but even better, handing in those treasures to the Sovereigns allowed pirates to add the glistening Captain’s Rapier and Captain’s Heavy Sword to their armoury.

It was a good thing too, as they’d soon be called upon to take up arms again. With the launch of our latest time-limited Adventure, a summons by a powerful figure sent players out across the waves in search of a stolen artefact. After some reluctant help from the Order of Souls, the Adventure concluded with the discovery of a hidden vault and the realisation that not everything was as it seemed...


If you checked in to the Xbox Games Showcase early in June, you’ll already know our biggest news of the month: The Legend of Monkey Island is coming to Sea of Thieves! With the first of these new Tall Tales due to land later this month, our announcement article give some hints at what’s to come, along with all the details you’ll need to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Meanwhile, as Captain’s Week swept in with a gaggle of new ship owners, it seemed only reasonable to help speed them along with a handy-dandy guide to all the perks their new Captaincy status afforded them. Have you been making the best use of your ship-owning benefits?

There was also another selection of Spotlights to enjoy: this month we were joined by famed community builder and guide Wh1zzrr_ and competitive pro AweCoop to hear about their journey on the seas and any advice they were willing to share. And finally, rounding out the month, the Sea of Thieves Security Team stopped by to share some of their latest work in ensuring the seas stay safe and fair for all in our first Fair Play Update column.


With various reveals and announcements happening, you might expect that our video roster for June was filled with trailers – and it was! – but first, we took some time for a little introspection. Since ‘We Shall Sail Together’ reached 10 million streams on Spotify at the tail end of May, we started the month by speaking to one of the musical maestros behind the shanty. Did you know the opening lyrics of ‘Who Shall Not Be Returning’ were originally written for ‘We Shall Sail Together’? Now you do!

Oh, and if that wasn’t enough music news for you, June also saw ‘Return of the Damned’ added to the streaming platform of your choice for assistance in making all those big life decisions. Does it really help? Probably not, but making them will feel a lot more epic with this playing in the background.

With those inspiring shanties fresh in our minds, it was then time to reveal our latest crossover and what better way to do so than with a snazzy announcement trailer? Premiered at the Xbox Games Showcase, this video offered everyone their first glimpse into the wonderful world of Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island. Not long now…


In what should come as a surprise to no-one, Captain’s Week had us musing on eternal questions like how we’d choose whose ship to sail on, or what’s the best name for a ship, or even which Trinkets are better than all the rest. Needless to say, we came to no conclusions, but we did get to enjoy some surprisingly in-depth art critiques of everyone’s paintings.

Steering us into safer, if no less competitive waters, we closed out the Mysterious Moments #SoTShot competition early in the month with a series of spooky scenes. Later, everything got a lot more colourful as entries poured in for the Pirate Pride category and a new round of exceptional photographers earned their Golden Hour Sails. We even had a few extra sails to give away this month to anyone who could come up with an outstanding suggestion for future #SoTShot themes.

That wasn’t the only giveaway either, as one lucky Twitter user won themselves a copy of the newly compiled Sea of Thieves: Origins – Champion of Souls graphic novel! Alongside the latest round of Twitch Drops and a host of new Community Hub winners, June was clearly a good time to pick up some prizes.



And that, finally, brings us to the end of June! Was there anything we missed? What was your favourite part? What would you do if you were a fish? So many questions to consider. While you mull over these conundrums for the ages, feel free to head on over to our social channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, or join the official Forums or Discord. That way you’ll be able to keep up with all our latest news revelations and Subjects of Discourse as they arise, and ping over any feedback you want to share. Otherwise, we’ll be back in a month with all the joys of July – see you then!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: May 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: April 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2023

After a month-long parade of riddles, enigmatic clues and listening really hard to a parrot, The Hoarder’s Hunt has reached its conclusion. With a real-life golden skull, silver keys and Reaper’s Mark medallions up for grabs, the competition to outwit the mysterious ‘H’ was certainly fierce, but things didn’t always unfurl exactly how the puppet-master intended – so let’s take a look back at exactly how Sea of Thieves’ second Mystery reached its end…

The Mystery began with a taunt from ‘H’ to the Gold Hoarders, warning them not to let pirates get involved in what was to come (as if). Several words in the message were capitalised, and the note was accompanied by a post on Instagram showing a banana, precisely bruised to show an image of the Gold Hoarder.

This cryptic story pushed players through to the Instagram account of Banana Bruiser who, as their name suggests, had plenty more edible art on display. One image in particular showed the creation of the Gold Hoarder banana, and thirteen mysterious symbols.

Some cursory cryptology and the note from ‘H’ revealed these symbols were intended to be decoded with a Pigpen cipher, and once translated they read ‘bitlysotfruit’ – a shortened internet URL that led to five images, each with more Pigpen symbols, a symbol of a fruit found in-game and an intriguing Spotify logo.

The angle at which a Pigpen symbol should be rotated is critical, and pirates were able to glean that information by aligning the fruits with an image posted on the Sea of Thieves Twitter account, giving a total of 16 scrambled letters. Pirates began to speculate that these should be decoded via a Vigenère cipher, which shifts letters ahead in the alphabet according to a keyword.

Where was that keyword? Scouring the canvases in the Sea of Thieves Spotify account soon revealed six more hidden letters spelling out ‘BOUNTY’, but the order of the original 16 still needed to be taken into consideration. Here, most pirates seemingly missed another clue available via Spotify – this time, the #BeMorePirate playlist, which had recently received a sneaky shuffle.

Now fittingly headlined with New Order, the first letter of each remaining song in the playlist spelled out ‘POM’, ‘COC’, ‘MAN’, ‘BAN’, ‘PIN’, hinting at the order in which the letters associated with each fruit should be entered into the Vigenère cipher. Even so, with only so many possible combinations to work through, the community cleverly put the undecoded clues in alphabetical order and soon decrypted the phrase ‘ZEROUTCFOURFIVET’ – or, when written another way, 0UTC45T – the first keyword to enter back on the Sea of Thieves website.

With this accomplished, pirates raced to grab their Voyages for Larinna and set sail with the clues from ‘H’ in hand, ultimately digging up the Plated Silver Key from beneath the tallest tree at Lone Cove. Then it was time for a well-deserved rest before the next stage of the Mystery began…


When a second note from ‘H’ arrived, they seemed to have birds on the brain. As soon as Stage Two began, ‘A Message from ‘H’’ began to broadcast on the official Sea of Thieves Twitch channel, showing a pair of parrots in the tavern squawking various, apparently random words.

During the stream, one of the birds took a fancy to a rather bruised banana, revealing another series of Pigpen symbols – by now, pirates immediately knew to translate them to ‘WHATTHREEWORDS’, suggesting that only a couple of the screeched phrases would be needed.

Oddly, though, the YouTube video of the stream seemed to be sending players to Google Maps instead of a more understandable location… In fact, what3words.com is a website that converts three-word phrases into map coordinates, so the true trick was to work out which three phrases resulted in locations that would mean something to pirates.

There were a lot of combinations to try, but by working together the community divined that ‘TURKEY GOAT LIVES’ equated to the Cutty Sark – once a British tea clipper, now a maritime museum. Exploring the community’s uploaded photos of the surrounding area via Google Street View revealed a perched parrot, a Gold Hoarder symbol and more Pigpen, which was promptly decoded into another shortened URL.

Things now took a musical turn, as a parchment covered in parrot prints turned out to be a cuneiform cipher hiding the lyrics of Sea of Thieves shanty ‘We Shall Sail Together’, albeit viewed through a purely phonetic lens. The last line of the parchment, however, was entirely new and read ‘Xbox Wire marks the spot’.

That Xbox news site had recently published an article about The Hoarder’s Hunt, and a thorough examination of the accompanying artwork revealed that not all was as it should be. A miniscule X was distorting the picture, and examining it in an image editor showed its true colours – in this case, the hexadecimal colour value ‘#2FACED’. Like 0UTC45T before it, this could also be read as another veiled insult from ‘H’, and 2FACED was duly confirmed to be the second of the Mystery’s keywords.

The hunt for the Argent Silver Key could now begin, with the musings of ‘H’ guiding pirates to Plunder Valley. Their interference in a game meant for the Gold Hoarders was not going to go unnoticed much longer…


In this third stage, ‘H’ revealed previously unseen artistic talent which he used to further his schemes. The newest note was accompanied by images of Gold Hoarder portraits, some of which had been scuffed with unusual scratch marks.

There were dozens of these to discover; some on social channels, others in videos or developers’ tweets. Pirates gathered up the portraits, once again turned to the Pigpen cipher and realised that many of these scratches were the parrots’ words from the last stage of the Mystery. What hidden value did they still possess?

Quite a lot, as it happens. Correctly combined by pairing parchments, these phrases were determined to be the identities of Twitter accounts – @WashedRobot, @frost_locker and @rockeddiet, each of which had posted a painting of a crew playing cards, titled ‘A Pirate Hand’. These images appeared identical at first glance, but it didn’t take long for players to spot a key difference in each painting (specifically, unique Roman numerals), nor to notice that the accounts’ profiles seemed to be teasing a new website address. However, one key piece was still missing…

Following the remaining Pigpen clues took pirates to Instagram, where a striking 3D image containing a skull and cannonball with a blue bird atop them clued artistic admirers into the existence of a fourth Twitter account. @SkullCannonball possessed not only a fourth version of ‘A Pirate Hand’, but the information in their profile allowed for the completion of the partial web address. Pirates flocked to ‘http://youareapiratepuppet.com’ in earnest, but there was still more to uncover.

Studying the cards being held in each painting variation unearthed the word ‘HEARTLESS’, which certainly seemed like the kind of term ‘H’ would use. Appending it to the newly discovered URL gave ‘http://youareapiratepuppet.com/heartless’, a page which held an abstract kind of map, first glimpsed alongside the parrots, and a new riddle to solve.

Applying some keen anagramming skills to the capitalised words in the riddle to form Sea of Thieves phrases and places, then pairing those with their co-ordinates on the adjacent map, led to the sequence ‘B07R1SSGJ5’. When searched for online, results included Amazon’s ASIN for the Sea of Thieves: Origins comic ‘The Price of Gold’, a sure sign pirates were on the right track.

Next, by treating certain suspect details in the paintings and map image as inputs for an Arnold cipher (historically used to pull specific terms from larger volumes of text), pirates were able to focus on a particular page, panel and word – ‘grudge’. Appending this to the piratepuppet.com URL just as they had with ‘heartless’, a new webpage and the final keyword, 3DGURG, were located.

In-game, the Sterling Silver Key was retrieved from Kraken’s Fall and returned to the Gold Hoarders. With all three keys found, the chest was opened at last – only to reveal another, smaller chest! ‘H’ was clearly not to be trusted, and this meant that the final stage of The Hoarder’s Hunt would be what revealed both the final key and the true treasure.


As the last stage began and another note from ‘H’ berated pirates for interfering in his scheme, the Sea of Thieves account tweeted out a short, Pigpen-dotted addendum from ‘H’ bidding pirates to find him, and a mysterious chest decked out with seafaring symbols.

Meanwhile, @SkullCannonball and the other accounts that had previously hosted paintings revealed themselves to be under the control of ‘H’, then unleashed fresh puzzles of their own: a riddle, a star chart, a word grid and a story full of jumbled words.

As if that wasn’t enough, each of the accounts now guided players to a map fragment covered in markings, which when pieced together correctly made an ‘H’ in the centre. The remaining markings could be overlaid with the original treasure chest image – a fact that would become important later…

Not content with dispensing map fragments, revised profiles on these four accounts also clued pirates into the need for a Foursquare cipher, populating it with the three Voyage-unlocking keywords discovered in the prior stages, and the standard alphabet in the fourth square.

One by one, three of the accounts’ puzzles fell to pirate ingenuity, revealing the phrases ‘Monarch’, ‘Eagle’ and ‘Snake’. Writing these out in sequence and plucking eight appropriate letters (indicated via the Pigpen) revealed a new pirate phrase in the making, and although pirates didn’t yet have all the pieces they needed, they were confident enough to head back to Twitter in search of ‘H’.

Sure enough, a new @HSeesAll account held a lengthy riddle surrounded by coins that left everyone stumped for a while, at least until a second note surfaced with suspiciously similar traits. This proved that players were on the right track, while also confirming that the word grid puzzle still held a crucial piece of information.

At this point, the cunning ‘H’ almost got the best of our pirates. Each of the clues that players had uncovered corresponded to a symbol on or around the chest image, with the fourth symbol being hinted at by a new phrase, ‘AFORECLOUD’, that had already been found in the word grid. That same word grid now needed to be treated as a word search.

Hidden within the heart of the grid’s many recognisable words was a seemingly meaningless sequence, ‘LOSSURRIC’. Words in word searches can be laid out in any direction, and immediately before ‘cirrus’, the cloud, was ‘Sol’, the sun. If pirates had located all four symbols around the chest – the Monarch, the Eagle, the Snake and the Sun – and drawn an X between them, they would have spied their starting point on the overlaid map: Booty Isle.

But even though they didn’t have a clear origin for a journey, nothing will keep a pirate from forging into the unknown. By returning to @HSeesAll’s riddle, treating the first letter of each line as a compass bearing and the number of words in each line as squares on the Sea of Thieves map, pirates soon found themselves aiming for Tribute Peak.

One last, spoken message from ‘H’ now confirmed the significance of the coins surrounding their riddle. By counting the cash piles and taking the appropriate letters from the phrase TRIBUTEPEAK, pirates were able to spell out ‘bait’, ‘trap’, ‘break’ and ‘retake’, a lengthy phrase that served as the keyword for the final Voyage.

Heading out onto the open waves, players saw the final clues fall one by one as they took a whirlwind tour of many of the game’s iconic landmarks. The Hoarder’s Hunt was complete at last, although ‘H’ – finally unmasking himself as the embittered outcast Hogarth, once of the Gold Hoarders and last seen in their Sea of Thieves: Origins comic miniseries mentioned above – remains at large.

Congratulations to our lucky winners, and thanks to all to set sail and joined The Hoarder’s Hunt!

It’s been just over five years since Sea of Thieves set sail and, in this time, we have always striven to maintain a safe, inclusive and fair environment for our players. This includes consistently allocating resources to combat both cheating and toxic behaviour.

In recent months we’ve seen an increase in player reports around cheating, and we wanted to take this opportunity to offer an honest and transparent view into our efforts in this space.

To paraphrase the Sea of Thieves Code of Conduct, Rare has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of in-game hacking or cheating, and any transgression can result in permanent enforcement action. Your reports alone have resulted in the termination of over 7,000 accounts in the last 12 months, with nearly 5,000 bans in the last six months of players confirmed to be cheating in-game.

Further to this, our security team have issued permanent bans to an additional 8,000 accounts in the last 12 months as a result of internal cheat detection and anti-tampering measures.

In addition to enforcement action, we also work diligently behind the scenes to detect and block newly developed and evolving cheats. This includes (but is not limited to) the cheats/hacks listed below:

• A hack that allowed players to move at an incredibly high rate of speed. Often used to evade attacks, chase down ships or transport items.
  
• A hack that allowed players to grab loot from a greater distance than intended.
  
• The ability to grant items to a player’s account without the prerequisites to do so – this also resulted in the termination of 4,500 accounts that were detected to be using this exploit.
  
• A cheat that enabled the ability to bucket water from your own ship directly into the hull of another ship.
  
• Blocking exploits used to earn gold in order to earn inordinately high scores within the Emissary Ledger.

We have always been clear around what we expect from our community, and we take reports of in-game toxicity incredibly seriously. Our moderation teams work tirelessly in this area to ensure that Sea of Thieves remains a welcoming and inclusive place.

In the past 12 months as a response to player reports, we have manually issued over 8,500 suspensions to accounts that have demonstrated negative behaviours towards fellow players. In addition to general rules around bad behaviour and non-discriminatory language, we have enabled more stringent action around the use of discriminatory language. For example, the use of hate speech will result in players receiving our harshest suspension and an immediate final warning.

We also run regular sweeps of both pet names and ship names that do not meet our community standards to issue enforcement action to players. In order to streamline this process, we recently added an in-game reporting feature (see May’s release notes) which allows players to report the gamertag, ship name or pet name of any player they come into contact with. These reports are then reviewed by our moderation team who can take any necessary action.

The items mentioned in this update are just a small selection of the actions and improvements our security and moderation teams regularly make. Rest assured, we are always listening to your invaluable feedback and will continue to use this to guide our efforts to bring meaningful change.

While stamping out cheating and toxicity remains a top priority within Rare, the overwhelming majority of the millions of players within our community help to maintain the safe and inclusive environment of which we are so proud, and to this majority we say thank you. We will never stop striving to maintain the integrity of the game you care so passionately about.

See you on the seas.

– The Sea of Thieves Security Team

Following a recent revisit to Sea of Thieves’ Captaincy system and changes made to streamline player progression (which we encourage you to read about in more detail), we thought it’d be well worth recapping the reasons why you might want to buy your own ship and set sail as a Captain in the first place. So here’s a handy reminder of the perks available to our Captains of Adventure!

Say goodbye to rentals – your ship is now your own, purchased with hard-earned gold and gaining its own history and reputation as you sail upon it. There’s a certain amount of pride that comes with adventuring on something that’s been by your side through naval battles and Kraken attacks, rather than something you set foot on for the very first time that day.

Conversely, the sweet sorrow of sinking is so much more painful when it’s your own vessel descending into the murky depths, the battle scars that persist across your ship’s hull when it’s hauled back to the surface serving as a sharp reminder of your defeat. However…

If the hull of your ship looks like a slice of Swiss cheese and you’d rather it was as smooth as the skin of a freshly picked banana, being a Captain can help with that too. Visit a shipwright at any Outpost and they’ll be able to make your ship look box-fresh and beautiful again!

“A good name is rather to be chosen than riches,” as they say, and as Captain you get to bestow the name of your choice upon your ship. Provided it meets the criteria, the Pirate Lord himself will officially recognise your chosen name, engraving it on the Ship’s Crest and stern the first time you set foot on deck.

Even better, other pirates who spy your ship from across the sea will be presented with a Ship’s Banner letting them know your ship’s name, and the name of the Captain at its helm. Will you choose a name that strikes fear into the heart of all who see it? One that taunts other pirates into attack? Or will you take the opportunity to make a joke so daft that those who see it are rendered helpless with laughter? That’s the great thing about being a Captain – the choice is yours.


Speaking of choice, Captain status also brings far greater control over how your ship looks. Channel your inner designer as you customise your chair, bed, table and more to create the Captain’s cabin of your dreams. Then you can further decorate your ship with Trinkets, be they knick-knacks purchased from the shipwright or Trophies unlocked via your daring deeds.

So that you don’t have to spend your precious plunder procurement time fiddling around in the Ship Customisation Chest, you can save the inner and outer customisations so that your ship looks ship-shape, shiny and ready to go at the start of each and every session.

Being a Captain comes with a certain amount of prestige, and you may find that people who ignored you before are now very interested in hearing what you have to say – and sell. The Sovereigns have set up their fancy marquees at every Outpost, and they’re so keen to make friends with pirate Captains that they’ll deliver your treasure to the Trading Companies on your behalf. They’ve even installed Rowboat docks and harpoons to make unloading treasure easy for anyone sailing on a Captained ship.

No more separating your Castaway’s Chests from your Coral Skulls and Cannonball Crates – hand it all in to your local Sovereign, then kick back and enjoy the view as the gold and reputation come rolling in.

It’s not just the Sovereigns, though. Being a Captain unlocks other bonus services that were previously unavailable to you. Instead of having to scour an Outpost’s barrels for supplies and lug anything you find across the island, onto your ship and below deck for storage, a quick visit to the shipwright’s shop (and a palm full of gold to sweeten the deal, of course) can see your barrels stocked up with cannonballs, meat, fruit, wood, bait and even throwables like firebombs and blunderbombs.

The shipwrights also sell special Captain’s Voyages to keep on the bookcase on your ship ¬– these span a variety of Trading Companies and give you more control over what your Voyage will entail and how long it will take you to complete.



And that wraps up our whistle-stop tour of Captaincy benefits! We hope it was enlightening to all those fresh-faced pirates who’ve taken their maiden voyage since Captaincy arrived back in Season Seven, and reinvigorating to any Captains who’ve already dabbled but still have much more to explore. As recent changes have made the rewards more achievable than ever, now’s the perfect time to do it!

Season Nine soldiers on and brings action aplenty over the weeks ahead! The Captain’s Week Event rolls out the recently promised Captaincy changes, and hot on its heels comes the latest time-limited trip through another story-driven Adventure. It’s also a particularly fine month for Pirate Emporium variety, and a fresh collection of fixes and balances rounds out June’s offerings!


Last month’s release notes are still available for recent content reference, or going further back to the start of Season Nine, the release notes from launch and the trailer above will get you up to speed on all its primary features. Right now though, the itemised breakdown of a brand new monthly update awaits. Ready... and away!

While the Sea of Thieves’ most curious crews have recently been chasing down Mystery clues, we’re now firmly back in story-driven territory for our next outing. A familiar face seeks assistance to recover a missing artefact as this twelfth time-limited Adventure begins!

Adventure 12 (June 22nd – July 6th)

• To start the Adventure, talk to Larinna to hear of a prominent figure in the affairs of pirates seeking help to hunt down a stolen treasure.
  
• Follow Larinna’s directions to the meeting point, find out what’s at stake and pledge to help recover the artefact before its power ends up in the wrong hands.
  
• This Adventure will take you through twists and tricky decisions, and you’re encouraged to stay on your guard for signs of the treachery that its name suggests...
  
• Pirates who fully complete this Adventure will earn an exclusive Title and a cosmetic reward to serve as a Memento of their quest.

Something for pirates of all persuasions this month! Brand new Ship’s Banners and a brooding Ship’s Crest, sweet pets for the treat lovers and Brawler Emotes for the bruisers, Big Bundles weighing down the shelves and the Beachcomber’s Bounty ship set back with weapons to match.

Season Nine Plunder Pass

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

Chocolatier’s Companion Pets

• Two strange new beasts have arrived on the Sea of Thieves for pet-loving pirates to adopt. Choose between a Parakeet or Alsatian and try to avoid leaving them out in the sun for too long!

Beachcomber’s Bounty Weapons

• A rugged survivalist managed to cobble together these four weapons in a cave, with nothing but the scraps of their smashed-up ship.

Beachcomber’s Bounty Ship Collection

• Previously featured in the Season Seven Plunder Pass, all parts of the Beachcomber Bounty Ship Collection are now available to purchase from the Pirate Emporium.

Ship’s Banners

• The Emporium now offers a selection of exclusive Ship’s Banners for Captains. Choose from the Royal Coronet, Reaver and Forgotten Temple designs to help your ship stand out when spied from afar!

Dark Warsmith Ship’s Crest

• Any ship’s name that evokes dread in all who read it is worthy of a Ship’s Crest to match.

Brawler Emote Bundle

• Even without a weapon at hand, a pirate should always be ready for some fisticuffs to defend their loot.

Lodestar Big Bundle

• Wreath yourself in skies and stars with this expansive Lodestar bundle. Includes the full ship collection, costume, weapons and spyglass, plus cat and parrot pets.

Dark Warsmith Big Bundle

• Join some of the Sea of Thieves’ most fearsome pirates with this heavy-duty Dark Warsmith bundle. Includes the full ship collection, costume and weapons.

Freebie Pail Percussion Emote

• Even when you have an actual drum tucked away, sometimes you just like to use what’s at hand.

Solid Gold Bundle (Store Only)

• Want to dazzle in any company? A pirate of true opulence should hoard this Solid Gold Bundle, which contains two Collector’s Pets: the Gold Curse Wildcat and Gold Curse Parakeet. Also includes 1000 Ancient Coins to spend in the Pirate Emporium and a free bonus of 25,000 gold. Head to the Steam Item Store to find out more.

Reduced Cannonball Knockback

• Players sailing a Galleon or Brigantine will find that the knockback from cannonball splash damage no longer propels them so far into the air, preventing them from being so easily sent overboard. However, they will still be knocked back and disorientated by the blast. This change makes the knockback experience consistent across all ship sizes.

Captains of Adventure Balancing

• A large number of Pirate and Ship Milestones have been rebalanced to make gaining Classes easier, and any progress already made will automatically be converted, potentially boosting players to higher Classes.
  
• The number of Classes required to buy the four tiers of Trinkets has been significantly reduced.
  
• The cost for saving cosmetics to a Captained ship has been removed, and this function is now free.
  
• The gold cost for purchasing ship decorations and Trinkets has been significantly reduced.
  
• Any Captain’s Beds that unlock through Milestones will now unlock at Class 2 instead of Class 5.

Video Support

• Players logging in to Sea of Thieves will find that the front end menu now has the ability to display video content. This will serve the latest trailers and content directly in-game, and once watched or skipped will return to the beloved Map Table animation.
  
• Players will now also find video content within the What’s New section of the front end menu, which can be browsed and rewatched on demand.

Aristocrat Hairstyles

• The urge to style yourself exquisitely needn’t stop when you reach the top of your head, as these additional hairstyles become available from Outpost shops.

Captain’s Week (June 15th – June 22nd)

• To encourage pirates to test the waters of Captaincy and explore the permanent improvements introduced this month, the Captain’s Week Event comes with a whole package of perks!
  
• Enjoy heavy discounts on ship purchases, boosted rewards when sailing on a Captained ship, new weapons to earn by using the Sovereigns’ services and a Pirate Emporium sale full of bargains for keen Captains.
  
• Visit the Captain’s Week Event page for more, and discover details on the permanent Captaincy changes in the dedicated news article.

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock cosmetics throughout Season Nine 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 a selection of items from the Eastern Winds Sapphire set.
  
• Find out how to link your accounts and more on our dedicated Twitch Drops page.

Gameplay

• Seagulls above barrels no longer prevent Megalodons from appearing across the seas, bringing the frequency of Megalodon encounters back to intended levels.
  
• Letters of Recommendation and Ritual Skull Voyages from Larinna have now been refreshed, and players can purchase twice the usual amount to cover those missed last month.

Battle for the Sea of Thieves

• The Hourglass is no longer interactable after a ship has been sunk, or scuttled by the crew.
  
• Crews losing a battle should now consistently be sent to the sinking wreck sequence and moved to a new location.

Captains of Adventure

• Rowboats that become damaged while docked to a ship will now visually show the damage prior to being undocked.
  
• The Pirate Milestone for Rowboats Docked will now increase when a Rowboat is docked to your ship by any player.

Pirate Emporium

• The icon for the Night Wulf Eye of Reach is now centered.
  
• The Crab Dab Emote and Monkey Dance Emote are no longer showing their sale prices.
  
• The Cutler Beckett Costume Set has now been updated to show the correct description of the item.

Visual and Audio

• When fishing, the names of fish that surface will now be shown consistently.
  
• The Flag of the Bristling Barnacle can now be equipped on a Brigantine.
  
• Pirates’ hands no longer intersect with the Order of Souls and Merchant Alliance Shovels.
  
• When approaching the location of an active Bounty Quest, the music will now consistently switch to the appropriate theme.

Text and Localisation

• The action of delivering, giving and selling items is now more clearly translated when playing in the Korean language.
  
• ‘The Legendary Storyteller’ – The Quest Book now correctly references Port Merrick.
  
• ‘Dark Brethren’ – A typo in the initial notification when starting the Tale from a checkpoint has been corrected.

Performance and Stability

• Improved server performance when large numbers of floating items are left at sea.
  
• Improved server stability to avoid instances of players being disconnected from their session.
  
• Steam players encountering a file corruption issue will now be shown an error message on launch rather than becoming stuck in a loop.

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: 5.84 GB

Sea of Thieves fans hoping for a glimpse at what's coming their way over the next few months were in for a treat at this year's Xbox Games Showcase event, held on June 11th. Last year, the same event saw the wraps come off Season Seven's packed Captaincy feature set, while back in 2021 our Showcase included the reveal of Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life. It's a high standard of announcement to measure up to, but we hope you'll be pleased with what we've unveiled for 2023...


After expressing our team's fondness for the Monkey Island franchise via the Easter eggs left for players to find in Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life, the integration is finally coming your way! We've worked closely with Lucasfilm Games to bring Monkey Island to Sea of Thieves, resulting in an experience that's expansive, exciting and entertaining.

Over the course of three brand new Tall Tales, you'll be invited to tour and explore beloved locations beginning with Mêlée Island, and interact with iconic characters including Guybrush Threepwood himself. Throughout The Legend of Monkey Island you'll solve puzzles, tussle with adversaries and tackle unexpected trials as you strive to put right situations that have gone bizarrely wrong and confront a looming peril born of powers from both worlds.

Players can expect to learn more about how these places are connected through an experience underscored by a rich seam of comedy, but right now we want to leave as much as possible to be discovered as you go. Whether this is your dream crossover as a long-term fan or fated to be your first foray onto the shores of Monkey Island, we hope you'll feel the love that's gone into this collaboration and find plenty to love in return.

The Legend of Monkey Island is coming free to all Sea of Thieves players, beginning with the first of three new Tall Tales on July 20th. Bring your wits, your finest hat and a talking skull, and we'll see you mighty pirates there.

Oh yes friends, it’s that time once again. May might have breezed past in the blink of an eye, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t do our best to absolutely cram it with all kinds of content for you to enjoy. And as always, we wanted to provide you with a full round-up of everything that you might have missed, so let’s just get right to it…

The beginning of May was shrouded in Mystery. After an initial heads-up that something strange was afoot, the first of several letters from the shadowy ‘H’ was delivered to the Gold Hoarders. Filled with riddles, the note – and those that followed – led pirates down a twisting path to uncover a series of codes and in-game Voyages. Though three keys have been found at the time of writing, The Hoarder’s Hunt is not yet over…

Something that came with far less uncertainty attached was the May content update! We were so keen for you to know all the details, in fact, that we ensured the traditional set of release notes was ready to go alongside the usual curated collection of fixes and improvements, new player reporting tools and some efficient new Merchant Alliance gear at the Outposts.

The Pirate Emporium saw a fresh wave of cosmetics in May’s update too, bringing a range of new costumes, pets and Trinkets straight out of classic crossover Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life. This stock refresh also saw the return of Season Six’s Plunder Pass set, the Spring Blossom collection, now with additional weapons and a fishing rod to round out the look. A new Mystery also meant new merch, with a range of Hoarder’s Hunt designs popping up in the Rare store through the month.


We went into the month of May thinking about June, strangely. Specifically, we’d turned our attention to the upcoming Captain’s Week Event and with it an overhaul to the existing Milestone progression system. To fill you in on all the coming changes and to make sure you had an opportunity to prepare, we made sure to run you through all the details early in the month.

With everyone suitably set for the future, it was time for a fashion show! May heralded the latest round of the prestigious Style of Thieves competition, where pirates show off their best looks in the hopes of snagging a pair of the exclusive Fashionista’s Finery Gloves. We revealed Season Nine’s themes early on to ensure everyone had time to put together the perfect outfit, along with outlining the corresponding entry deadlines. More on that later.

‘Dark Descent’ was May’s addition to the streamable Sea of Thieves soundtrack, while we also took a moment to celebrate the classic ‘We Shall Sail Together’ passing a mighty 10 million plays on Spotify! Over in community news, we weren’t about to leave you without some new Spotlights to explore: famed creator LDSylvr spoke about his experiences organising community events, then we checked in with avian enthusiast and relentless bird requester Owlet for a conversation that was mostly not about owls. Mostly.


With The Hoarder’s Hunt taking place over the month, we were far from short of videos to share with you. At the very start of May we dropped a short teaser, then followed it up with a more in-depth look at how the Mystery would actually work.

When the first letter from ‘H’ arrived, we added a launch trailer to the mix, before later kicking off Stage 2 with one of the strangest livestreams we’ve ever had the pleasure of hosting. Even then, we still weren’t done! As we moved into Stage 3, we hopped back in to catch you up on the Mystery so far and possibly sprinkle in a few clues for the most observant pirates.

And, just in case all of that wasn’t enough to keep you going, the last weekend of the month allowed Twitch viewers to bag the first batch of items from the Eastern Winds Ruby collection to fill out their Equipment Chests – and we even managed to find time to bring you two entire episodes of Sea of Thieves News. Honestly, you’d think we never let the Video team go home or something.


After the theme reveal earlier in the month, it was little surprise that one of the biggest social media events of May was the Style of Thieves contest. With four themes to get through – RPG Classes, Romantic, Spring Style and The Elements – we spent several days mid-month being inundated with some of the finest fashions the seas have ever seen. Ultimately though, winners had to be found, and as May drew to a close we picked out a handful of entries that stood out from the crowd.

With the weather warming, this month’s #SoTShot competition set our minds to summer holidays and sunshine with a delightfully whimsical Travel Poster theme. And at the same time, the Community Hub granted eight artistic members of the community their very own Hats of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame for some exceptional creations.

After so many competitions and giveaways, we took a five-minute breather with a trip to a coffee shop, before jumping right back into the thick of it with weekly #TriviaTuesday posts and an illustrated look at a selection of Season Nine stats so far. We briefly returned to the world of fashion for a discussion of favourite clothing sets, then moved on to acknowledging adventures in another kingdom and comparing good luck rituals. Do you have one? Will it help us to not fall off the dock every time we try to get on our ship? The mysteries never cease.


Well, seeing as we need to recover from another ignominious dunk in the sea, that’s all we have time for today! There were a lot of moving parts to manage throughout May, largely thanks to The Hoarder’s Hunt – which were your favourite bits? You can let us know and keep up with all Sea of Thieves news via our social channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, or by joining the official Forums or Discord. In the meantime, we’ll be back next month with another round-up. Of the previous month, obviously. See you then!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: April 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2023

When we took a deep breath and released Sea of Thieves’ second trailer into the online currents back in 2016, backed by the atmospheric arrangement and vocals of ‘We Shall Sail Together’, any dream of numbers in the millions seemed too distant to even consider.

Seven years later, including five since launch, we’ve watched well over 30 million players set sail - but we’ve never lost track of the song that accompanied our early cinematic showing. The full-length version of ‘We Shall Sail Together’ with an additional verse was released shortly after its truncated trailer debut, and it’s since resurfaced in numerous other ways and places including, as Robin mentions in the celebratory video below, unlocking the in-game Pirate Legend Hideout. It’s also a staple of our ever-growing official downloadable soundtrack, where crucially it’s just passed the milestone of being streamed 10 million times on Spotify alone.

To mark this occasion, we descended on the in-house audio department and encouraged the Sea of Thieves soundtrack maestro himself, Rare’s Music Director Robin Beanland, to chat about how the track came to life and break down the component parts to show how it all fits together.


Writer Chris Allcock, who still works on Sea of Thieves and authored the official novels Athena's Fortune and Heart of Fire, provided ‘We Shall Sail Together’ lyrics for Anna Hon to sing back in those mist-wreathed pre-launch days. He retains strong memories of what the song was striving to embody:

“We knew that the first time the world was going to be hearing this song was during the Xbox presentation as a game trailer – and traditionally in trailers, if there’s a narrator or similar character talking, their purpose is to get across what the core of what the game is about.

“In our case, the lyrics needed to do something similar, so with the visuals taking care of conveying gameplay moments like fighting a Kraken and battling skeletons, we decided to really focus on the idea of the crew bond being a key part of the game and that if you do ‘sail together’ and work as a group, you’ll ultimately succeed.

“I think it also helped to deal with any misconceptions that playing as a pirate meant you’d eventually stab your crewmates in the back and take all the treasure, which obviously was not how the game was going to work – likewise, the phrase ‘sons and daughters’ was placed early on to let players know that everyone was going to be welcome on the waves.”

As we continue to welcome pirates of all stripes and stances into our sandbox, we’d like to once again thank all those bold souls who sail with us as we hit these heartwarming heights together. Hold your course, there’s still so much more to be seen and heard...

While pirate investigators apply themselves to the latest maritime Mystery, May’s content update serves up a collection of gameplay, performance and audiovisual refinements to the overall Sea of Thieves experience. A new player reporting tool also makes its debut, and the Pirate Emporium has treats in store based on classic Tall Tales and previous Plunder Pass content alike...


If you’ve missed any of the Season Nine action so far, you can watch the trailer above and sift through the release notes from this Season’s launch along with last month’s additions. Then hop back here and commence scrolling to find out what the latest update has in store!

Relive the timeless tales of Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life with new costumes and pets to complement those that went before! The serene Spring Blossom set also returns from a previous Plunder Pass with matching extras, while the humble tankard gets some overdue emote attention...

Season Nine Plunder Pass

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

Tia Dalma Costume

• Dress as the enigmatic Tia Dalma and spread your otherworldly wisdom across the waves.
  
• Includes the Bon Voyage Emote. Summon an apparition of a Galleon, then send it on its way across the horizon.

Redd Costume

• Dress as the courageous Redd as you search for treasure in secret grottos, then carry it triumphantly to auction.
  
• Includes the Redd’s Heckle Emote. A pirate can always spot the true treasure at an auction – and it won’t be laying eggs.

Cutler Beckett Costume Set

• Dressing as Cutler Beckett is really just good business, with this costume set containing two variants – one with a matching hairstyle, one without.
  
• Includes the Civilised Drink Emote. Sometimes a little perturbation is needed to achieve the perfect tankard of grog for a refined palate.

Castaway Cat

• A mystical moggy that, thanks in part to being dressed as Tia Dalma, is as unpredictable as the sea.

Prominent Prisoner Monkey

• You may now, henceforth, commence with the acquisition and dispersal of bananas. Savvy?

Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life Trinkets

• Painting Bundle 1 contains painted portraits of Jack Sparrow, Davy Jones and Tia Dalma to decorate a Captained ship.
  
• Painting Bundle 2 contains the 'Eternal Freedom', 'The Cursed Ferryman' and 'What Lurks Below' paintings to decorate a Captained ship.
  
• Painting Bundle 3 contains the 'A Broken Blade', 'The Grotto's Hoard' and 'The Bayou Beckons' paintings to decorate a Captained ship.

Spring Blossom Weapon Bundle

• Spring is all about celebrating new life. You can use these weapons to make some space for it…

Spring Blossom Fishing Rod

• With its line spun from sacred twine, any angler would be blessed to use this gnarled fishing rod.

Spring Blossom Ship Collection

• Previously featured in the Season Six Plunder Pass, all parts of the Spring Blossom Ship Collection are now available to purchase from the Pirate Emporium.

Tankard Tricks Emote Bundle

• Grog’s your favourite tipple, and you know plenty of ways to fully appreciate its fabulous flavours. Show them off to your crew when performing these emotes.

Freebie Ranting Rogue Emote

• If the ship’s on fire, there’s a rat in the grog barrel or your favourite Trinket’s knocked out of place, be sure your crew know all about it.

Blooming Brigand Bundle (Store Only)

• No matter what the time of year may be, you’ll always have a spring in your step when your trusty vessel and even the contents of your armory are bursting with vitality. The Blooming Brigand Bundle contains the Spring Blossom Weapon Bundle and Fishing Rod, the Spring Blossom Figurehead and Sails, 550 Ancient Coins to spend in the Pirate Emporium and a free bonus of 25,000 gold. Head to the Steam Item Store to find out more.

Merchant Alliance Cosmetics

• Show off your allegiance to the Alliance with a new range of clothing items, weapons and equipment – all now available for gold from Outpost shops.

Supply Restocking After a Lost Battle

• Crews defeated during the Battle for the Sea of Thieves are now free to purchase Captain’s Supplies or Merchant Supplies upon arrival at the Outpost, even if one in-game day has not yet passed – allowing them to stock up and get back in the fight.

Battles Within a Storm

• Crews diving beneath the waves to battle rival ships will no longer find themselves battling in storm conditions.

Report a Player

• Within the Settings menu, players now have access to a ‘Report a Player’ option, allowing them to directly report another player to the Sea of Thieves Support team for possible moderation and action.
  
• This reporting tool allows players to be reported for inappropriate gamertags, ship names and pet names.
  
• Once the report has been completed, players will be shown a list of players who they have been in the vicinity of in the last few hours to enable the report to be targeted at a specific player.

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock cosmetics throughout Season Nine 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 a selection of items from the Eastern Winds Ruby set.
  
• Find out how to link your accounts and more on our dedicated Twitch Drops page.

Gameplay

• Pirates swimming to a ship in choppy waters are no longer able to use a ship's cannons, harpoon or Map Table to board directly from the water.
  
• Pirates striking an enemy threat with a harpoon will once again deal a small amount of damage.
  
• On discovering a Shipwreck Graveyard during a Legend of the Veil Voyage, players who previously opened the Captain's Quarters will still be able to access that area even after server migration.
  
• During a Ghost Fleet encounter, crews at a distance from the battle will no longer find that ships disappear while attempting to move to the crew’s position.
  
• Players are now able to complete the Ocean Epicurean Trial when fulfilling the required criteria.
  
• Players attempting to sell a Trident of Dark Tides while aiming it will no longer be prevented from aiming other weapons once sold.

Battle for the Sea of Thieves

• Voting on the Hourglass of Fate will now clear the Captain’s Table of any placed Tall Tale Checkpoints.
  
• Players will no longer see a ‘Quest Received’ notification when diving below the waves looking for an opponent.
  
• Solo players forcefully disconnecting from a session while travelling beneath the waves will now find their battle cancelled and arrive on a random island back at sea.
  
• The win streak UI now appears consistently even if the player force-closes the game and rejoins the session.
  
• When diving beneath the waves, players will no longer see strange light blue underwater visual effects in the distance prior to fading to black.

Captains of Adventure

• A Captain’s Logbook placed inside a Collector’s Chest no longer loses its cover customisation.
  
• The Taker of Stolen Stock Commendation now progresses when commodities are sold to Sovereigns.
  
• Improvements have been made to the Captain’s Logbook to avoid instances where the text and images inside the Logbook overlap or intersect with each other.

Pirate Emporium

• Players will now travel in the intended direction when fired from a Brigantine cannon with the Sawbones Cannons equipped.
  
• The Sawbones Jacket and Belt will now appear ghostly when equipping the Blessing of Athena’s Fortune.
  
• The iconography for the Sawbones Collector’s Sail now matches the equipped sail.
  
• The Sawbones Trinket is now centred correctly and lit from above when placed on a ship.
  
• The Sawbones Collector’s Figurehead when equipped on the Sloop will no longer display liquid through the vial corks, and will swing more noticeably.

Environment

• Players can no longer get stuck when traversing the dry dock area at Port Merrick.
  
• Players will no longer be able to see the waterline when jumping at either end of the dry dock at Port Merrick.
  
• The lanterns present at the back of the Order of Souls building at Port Merrick are now lit.
  
• Players can no longer intersect with the environment within the Sea Fort basements.
  
• Items can no longer become lost if placed on a table in the Merchant Alliance area at Port Merrick.
  
• Characters at Port Merrick will now be seen when approaching from a distance and will no longer pop into view.
  
• The cannon at the south-east of Port Merrick now launches pirates in the correct direction.

User Interface

• An icon will now appear next to a pirate’s name indicating they are carrying treasure after picking up a Stronghold Key.

Visual and Audio

• The beacon from the Reaper’s Chest or Reaper’s Bounty will now continue to be visible after harpooning the chest off a ship.
  
• The atmospheric effects that signify a Ghost Fleet encounter have been improved, ensuring the event is visible from across the waves.
  
• Pirates striking a Ghost Ship, Skeleton Ship or Megalodon with cannon fire will no longer hear other game music quieten for an extended period.
  
• Players will consistently see the visual effects for an active lantern during the Fort of the Damned, even when returning after death.
  
• During the Ghost of Graymarrow fight, the correct visual effects will now be shown at his feet when teleporting.
  
• Players with the Wandering Reaper Flag or Inevitable Reaper Flag equipped will now find that when representing as an Emissary, the Emissary Flag now attaches correctly.
  
• Pirates’ bodies will no longer become invisible when equipping the Order of Souls Shirt and an open jacket.
  
• When pirates are observed climbing ladders or sitting while holding the Skull of Destiny, the skull will retain its correct visual appearance.
  
• When holding a pet underwater (you monster), air bubbles now appear from the animal’s mouth.
  
• At Galleon’s Grave Outpost, the coastline audio is now heard at the correct volume.

Performance and Stability

• Improved server stability to reduce instances where players are disconnected from their session.
  
• ‘The Sunken Pearl’ – Improved server stability when migrating during this Tall Tale.

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: 7.54 GB

Greetings! It has, in fact, been an entire month since we last dropped by to fill you in on all the latest happenings on the Sea of Thieves, which means it’s once again time to dive into our recent history for the latest round-up. Even without a full-blown new Season update, the month just gone by still had plenty going on that you might have missed, so sit back and enjoy this jaunt through the excitements of April. See you on the other side!

If you were able to join us at various points throughout April, you’ll have noticed a couple of Season Nine Voyages usually reserved for Pirate Legends landing in your inventory. These free login bonuses treated all pirates to a Search for the Skull of Destiny Voyage and a Black Powder Stash Voyage to be enjoyed at leisure. Did you get the chance to dig up a disco skull of your own? Or, less profitably, maybe you ended up blowing your pirate sky high with a misplaced keg? It’s alright, we’ve all been there.

After Season Nine introduced substantial changes to the sandbox in March, April’s update gave us a chance to make some more focused tweaks and additions while improving a few systems to reduce friction for players. It was also a prime opportunity to release some dashing Order of Souls cosmetics for anyone seeking Madame Olivia’s approval. Sift through it all in the April release notes!

Alongside those new additions to the Outpost shops, the Pirate Emporium also restocked its shelves! With the Sawbones ship, weapon and clothing cosmetics, you’re now able to take up the mantle of these slightly sinister scientifically minded sailors and don your own distinctive beaked mask. Or, if you’re more of the ‘tackle your problems head-on with a weapon’ sort, the Quick Draw Weapon Pose Emote should suit your duelling needs. Whatever you’re setting out to do while Season Nine is live, remember to stick to the plan…


After we closed out March with our first ever 48-hour Community Weekend, it seemed only fitting to start April with a fond look back on everything achieved throughout the event. From a lucrative Ancient Skelly surge to selfies at the fifth anniversary Picture Wall, the weekend was a delight to reflect on and celebrate.

We also seized an opportunity to add another entry to our From Concept to Cosmetic series, this time diving into the surprisingly complex world of Ship’s Crests. Introduced with Season Seven, these nameplates enable Captains to personalise how they present their vessel to the wider Sea of Thieves, so we spoke to the devs to find out how they perfected, built and shipped these Crests in a multitude of designs.

Elsewhere, Sea of Thieves’ streamable soundtrack got another addition in the form of ‘Merrick’s Farewell’ and the upcoming Voyage of Legends board game went up for preorder, while the Community Hub got two more updates highlighting some of your fantastic creations. We also welcomed two big names to the Spotlight pantheon: a recent addition to the Partner Programme, LadyHaradaNiwa, and a serious #SoTShot aficionado, zNiinjaaa. Head on over and have a read!


April was a busy month for our Video team, bringing you not one but two new instalments of Sea of Thieves News, catching you up on all the latest gossip and sharing some of the phenomenal creations our community members have sent our way. We even played around with a football in the Tavern! It… didn’t go well.

And for even more sneak peeks behind the scenes – with substantially less physical injury – we decided to throw in a new episode of the Official Podcast. Check it out for some cheeky previews of upcoming content and to learn why we can’t stop talking about eras all of a sudden.

Coming to the end of April, we turned our attention to a worthy cause and fielded Sea of Thieves staff members alongside other bold souls from across the UK game development scene for One Big Game. Lasting a full 24 hours, this cross-studio football tournament helped to raise an outstanding £30,000 for gaming charity SpecialEffect. Thank you so much to everyone who took part, tuned in and donated!


The month started off strong on Twitter, with pirates sharing their favourite stories from the Season Nine update, but rapidly descended into disappointment when our followers let us down twice in a row. Even when we left clear instructions, we found ourselves beset with selfies. Outrageous.

Fortunately things picked up again as we revealed our latest #SoTShot champions for their Catch of the Day entries, not to mention their masterpieces on a Moonlight theme, and celebrated the completion of the mighty Port Merrick. After a bit of self-affirmation, we also shared some searching confessions about our time on the tides, told stories with emotes and reflected on the changing seas.

There were rewards to be had too: avid Twitch viewers were able to add four more items to their Eastern Winds Sapphire set by tuning into Sea of Thieves Partner streams, while those of you who joined us for One Big Game for 90 minutes or more were able to take home your very own Keepy-Uppy Emote. Just make sure you’re wearing boots when you use it – those coconuts are hard.


All of which brings us to the end of the month! And that sporting exertion has really worn us out. As always, there’ll be so much more to cover when we reconvene at the end of May, so we won’t outstay our welcome now no matter what our inner instinct says. Until then, keep up with all the latest Sea of Thieves updates as they happen via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, or join the official Forums or Discord. Otherwise, we’ll see you next month for our May round-up. So long!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2023