Spring is just starting to bloom here at Rare HQ, which means it’s time we got around to the brisk business of rounding up February’s developments! It was a briskly busy month that boasted some extremely exciting announcements, so let’s jump right into the recap…

As always, we had a monthly update ready to go, this time integrating Sea of Thieves with the latest Xbox Game Development Kit, making some visual and technical tweaks to various systems – and, most importantly, introducing the first Collector’s Pet fox as the Reaper’s Heart set expanded again in the month of love. For a full rundown of all February’s changes and additions, or just to find out what on earth GDK integration actually means, stop by the relevant release notes and have a read.

With the update behind us, we found ourselves squaring up to another Season’s Community Weekend! That meant encouraging all you fine folks to take to Twitch and watch Sea of Thieves streams, getting that shared Community Emissary Grade up before setting sail and reaping all those increased rewards. At the same time, new Pop-Up Plunder maps had pirates racing to uncover valuable treasures across the seas! All you had to do was find it…


One specific piece of Sea of Thieves news somewhat eclipsed the rest this month, but before that, we had to make sure everyone was fully prepared for Season 11 Community Weekend! Early in the month, our Head of Comms Christina stopped by with all the details and a peek at the goodies on offer for anyone who took part.

Then it was time for the big reveal: Sea of Thieves is coming to PlayStation®5 this April, bringing countless more players in to join the crowds merrily playing on our current platforms! This momentous news obviously raised a lot of questions – namely when we can expect this flood of fresh-faced sailors to arrive – so we made sure there was a full article with all the info ready to unleash following the announcement.

Even with all this going on, our regularly scheduled programming continued with fresh Spotlight features: a Creator Spotlight with Jon Bardcore, digging into his journey from a two-year-old with a NES to a fully-fledged content creator, and a Community Spotlight on Captain McGuffin, Head of Forensics at Ancient Isles University and contributor to the Sea of Thieves Portugal community. Give them a read!


Getting into the business of the regular content update and Seasonal Community Weekend early in the month, the video team fired off February’s instalment of Sea of Thieves News to get everyone up to speed. Not long after that, the update made its debut and we got to delight in some of the new cosmetics arriving on the seas.

Bringing Sea of Thieves to a whole new platform is extremely exciting news for all of us, so of course we were going to have a little fun with the announcement videos. That meant finally responding to some historic player-submitted messages, before bringing various team members together to share their thoughts on this new chapter for our favourite pirate playground.

With that news out in the world, it was time for our Season 11 Community Weekend, and with it a Community team Twitch stream! As well as offering another option for watching and contributing to the Community Emissary Grade, the stream also let us support our friends over at SpecialEffect and raise money for the wonderful GameBlast24. Thank you to everyone who joined us and for all the amazing donations, helping us to raise over £40,000 for a fantastic charity!


Picture-loving pirates had another two rounds of #SoTShot to enjoy in February: firstly sharing some love for their favourite stories outside the Sea of Thieves with creative costuming for the Cosplay Corsairs theme, then, after the Trading Companies complained about being left out, competing to represent their favourite Company in increasingly elaborate ways. Not to be outdone, the Community Hub also featured a fresh line-up, celebrating everything from a perfect loot steal to the friends we really did make along the way.

Player creations weren’t the only things earning some appreciation: we kicked off February by asking everyone to spend a couple of minutes enjoying the majesty of Season 11’s title screen music (while expanding the repertoire of our official soundtrack on all the usual streaming platforms), before getting sidetracked by that same screen’s troublesome bowsprit. At least nobody had time to get too upset about that before being further derailed by discussions of which Shipmate Trinket is the best Shipmate Trinket (the answer is that they’re all the best Shipmate Trinket, don’t listen to that tweet).

All that debate was exhausting, but it didn’t take long to get into another conversation about which island is the best island to run around. Fortunately, by that point Community Weekend was imminent and Picture Wall selfies were providing ample distraction. So much so, in fact, that we got a little too excited when trying to take our own… no matter. The end of the month was fast approaching, so we capped things off with a few tasty jellybeans.


And that was February! Shortest month of the year it may be, but we all managed to get plenty done, don’t you think? Remember, if you want to share your thoughts or keep up with the news as it happens, check in with us on all the usual social channels: Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, and the official Forums and Discord. Otherwise, we’ll be over here trying to find a better word than ‘sink’. Bye!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2024

GDK Integration

• Sea of Thieves now operates on the latest Xbox GDK (Game Development Kit). Players on PC are encouraged to update to the latest graphics drivers to ensure the best compatibility and performance.
  
• Sea of Thieves now supports DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 where supported by the hardware. While the title will now auto-detect and optimise the experience, players can also choose within the game settings.
  
• General client performance improvements should be seen throughout the experience, with PC players seeing the largest improvements.

Improved Athena’s Fortune Voyages

• The Voyage of Legends and Ashen Voyage of Legends have now been refreshed, providing a shorter session experience and consistently delivering rewards for the Athena’s Fortune Trading Company.

Improved Raid Voyage Rewards

• While diving to a Raid Voyage will continue to reward crews with a concentrated number of high-value items, making the spoils easier to carry than numerous lower-value items, the total quantity and value of items awarded and their visual impact have now been slightly increased following player feedback.
  
• Crews completing Raid Voyages for the Athena’s Fortune Trading Company will now find that only Athena’s Fortune treasure is awarded.

Skull of Siren Song Guild Reputation

• Guild Reputation will now be earned by taking part in the Skull of Siren Song Voyage when this is active on the server.
  
• Crews can earn a modest amount of Guild Reputation when selling an empty Chest of Siren Song, and a significant boost to Guild Reputation when handing in the Skull of Siren Song to Briggsy. The existing gold and Renown earned from these rewards remains unchanged.

Emissary Voyage Improvements

• Players starting an Athena’s Fortune Emissary Voyage in The Devil’s Roar will now be further rewarded with an Ashen Chest of Legends upon completion.

Ashen Winds Skull Value

• The Ashen Winds Skull no longer loses value by being used. Fire away, pirates!

Access to Tall Tales

• All Tall Tales across the Shores of Gold arc, Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life and the recently released Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island are now unlocked and can be played freely in any order.

Water Visual Improvements

• Could the water look any better? When viewed from a distance, the surface of the water now appears smoother, improving its appearance.

Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium page to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

• Reaper's Heart Fox
  
• Reaper’s Heart Instrument Bundle
  
• Reaper’s Heart Lantern Bundle
  
• Reaper’s Heart Equipment Bundle
  
• Islehopper Outlaw Big Bundle
  
• Infinite Depths Big Bundle
  
• Wailing Barnacle Pet Outfits
  
• Toe Reach Emote (free!)
  
• Reaper’s Reserve Bundle (Steam Store)

New Outpost Stock!

• The Outpost equipment shops have received a new shipment of instruments from the Maestro set!
  
• Players can also pick up the fetching Low Bun Hair from the clothing shops.

Season 11 Community Weekend

• From Saturday, February 24th to Monday, February 26th (11am UTC), all pirates are welcome to set sail and join in our latest Community Weekend with free gifts to snap up, Twitch Drops to claim, player stories to share and more glorious Pop-Up Plunder!
  
• As always, raising the Community Emissary Grade (by tuning in to streamers within the Sea of Thieves category on Twitch) will unlock gold, reputation, Seasonal Renown, Allegiance and Guild Reputation boosts for all players.
  
• Find out everything you need to know in our Season 11 Community Weekend news article.

Gameplay

• Crews purchasing Supply Crates from the Merchant Alliance should find that if a player is unable to retrieve a crate, a crate is now provided on the next attempt.
  
• Pirate Legends speaking to the Pirate Lord should now consistently be able to access the Athena’s Fortune Trading Company shop.
  
• Crews diving to a Voyage should no longer find other crews already taking part in the encounter on arrival.
  
• Crews diving to a Raid Voyage and then cancelling the Voyage will no longer gain rewards in addition to those the Voyage would usually offer.
  
• The Legendary Herald Costume now unlocks at the intended level, Athena’s Fortune 100.
  
• Players completing the Trading Company Tutorial Voyages will now earn the intended reputation for the Company.
  
• Tridents will no longer grant Emissary Grade progression when brought on board a ship.
  
• Players speaking to the Servant of the Flame after reaching Allegiance level 100 will no longer incorrectly unlock the Become Pirate Legend achievement.
  
• Completing Medley Voyages will now increase the relevant Captaincy Milestones.
  
• Treasure sold from within a Collector’s Chest will now consistently progress associated Commendations.
  
• Grade 5 Emissary Voyages from The Devil’s Roar will now consistently provide locations within The Devil’s Roar.
  
• Players will once again discover Gold Pouches and the elusive Store Room Key within Sea Forts prior to defeating the Captain.
  
• Diving to a Sea Fort on behalf of a Trading Company will now award the correct number of treasure items within the Treasury and Store Room.
  
• The correct treasure types will now appear in Skeleton Fleet and Athena’s Fortune Sea Fort Raid Voyages.
  
• The Golden Voyager Commendation will now progress when finishing the Gold Hoarders Tutorial Voyage.
  
• Players taking on the Trading Company Tutorial Voyages with other players will now find that tutorial notifications progress for all crew members.
  
• The Commendations for earning a Company Distinction will now be earned at the correct level.
  
• Skeletons inhabiting Siren Shrines will now take the correct number of hits to defeat.
  
• The Ashen Mariner of Guilds Commendation now increases when completing Ashen Voyages and meeting the required criteria.
  
• ‘Shores of Gold’ – Crews who do not take the Gold Hoarder’s Coin from the Compass Vault will no longer become stuck when the door eventually closes, and are able to interact with the medallions and reopen the door.
  
• ‘The Cursed Rogue’ – It is no longer possible to sell the Skeleton Key to the Gold Hoarders.
  
• ‘Heart of Fire’ – Emergent encounters with enemies will continue to occur after starting the Tall Tale.

Environment

• The Shrine of the Coral Tomb should no longer have pockets of water missing.
  
• Skeletons defending Shark Fin Camp should no longer become stuck on platforms.
  
• Players can now manoeuvre a Cannon Rowboat underneath the gate at Shark Fin Camp.
  
• Players will no longer intersect with the coffins near the Bonesmith in The Reaper’s Lair.
  
• Players will no longer be able to pass through the environment within the Shrine of the Coral Tomb.
  
• Skeletons will no longer be seen floating at Molten Sands Fortress.
  
• Sloops will no longer collide unnaturally with the Sovereigns’ jetty at Dagger Tooth Outpost.
  
• Players should no longer find themselves returned to their ship when attempting to use the lift in The Reaper’s Lair.
  
• Players will no longer become stuck within the environment in areas of the Shrine of Hungering.
  
• Players will no longer find themselves getting stuck on the trees near the fish statue at Shark Bait Cove.
  
• The Vault door at Kraken's Fall now descends all the way into the ground.
  
• ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Players will no longer intersect with the statues on Monkey Island.
  
• ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Players will no longer find themselves launched into the air when walking near the rock ladders by the stockade on Monkey Island.

User Interface

• Crew members taking damage will now show the correct Crew Status icon in their nameplate.
  
• The Sunken Kingdom Voyage now correctly displays the appropriate icons to indicate the Voyage length.
  
• Visual improvements have been made to Company-specific notifications when diving below the waves to take on a Trading Company Voyage.
  
• Improved background imagery is now used when a Trading Company promotion is available.
  
• Approaching a Sea Fort will now display the appropriate banners.
  
• When progressing from level 100 to Distinction 1 within a Trading Company, the UI animation will now appear correctly.
  
• References to Old Boot Fort have been removed from maps within the Emissary Tutorial.

Visual and Audio

• The correct battle music will now be heard during the battle while on the Order of Souls Tutorial voyage.
  
• Players should no longer see their hands moving inside the Paradise Garden Eye of Reach while reloading.
  
• The Sailor Figurehead should now change colour to match the selected hull.
  
• The Swashbuckling Story Emote should no longer cause larger players’ arms to bend unnaturally when performed.
  
• During Trading Company Tutorial Voyages, the Voyage completion music should no longer overlap with the outro music.
  
• The Boarhunter Cannons should no longer pop backwards when fired.
  
• Players of all sizes should now see their thumb correctly gripping the handle of the Boarhunter Blunderbuss.
  
• The Scrolls of Charted Waters should no longer intersect when placed on the ground.
  
• The Scrolls of Shrouded Waters should no longer intersect with a Collector’s Chest when placed inside.
  
• Crews uncovering the treasure during an Order of Souls Siren Treasury Raid Voyage will now find the skulls arranged in the correct direction.
  
• Players interacting with the map in the Chronicler’s room of the Pirate Legend Hideout should now stand on the ground correctly.
  
• ‘Dark Brethren’ – Captain Jack Sparrow will now be facing the correct direction when players talk to him.
  
• Monkeys wearing the Outfit of Plenty will no longer experience issues where the outfit intersects with parts of the body.
  
• When aiming the Cronch Pistol, shots fired now more accurately line up with the barrel.
  
• Players should no longer see their hands moving inside the Sawbones Blunderbuss.
  
• The Graveyard Grim Whippet no longer has a noticeable seam around its neck.
  
• The Hoarder Reliquary will no longer intersect with the player’s hand when held.
  
• The Golden Sailor Blunderbuss will no longer push into the camera when fired.
  
• The Piranha Poodle now has the correct eyes and amended tongue animation.
  
• If players place down more than one proposal on the Quest Table, the second proposal no longer overlaps with the Hourglass of Fate.

Text and Localisation

• A sweep across all non-English languages has been completed to address inconsistencies with terminology used across a range of items, locations and characters. Some incorrectly localised location names and types have now been returned to English for consistency.
  
• Instances of overlapping and truncated text have been addressed in Quest Books across a range of Tall Tales and Bounty Maps issued by the Order of Souls in non-English languages.
  
• The Saviour of Siren Song Commendation no longer displays placeholder text within the Pirate Log.
  
• The Captain's Voyage Storage section has now been removed from Info & Tips.
  
• The description for the Lord of Gold Commendation should now display the correct unlock requirements.
  
• The Merchant Alliance Company shop should now display correctly in non-English languages.
  
• The Crate of Elegant Cloth no longer appears with placeholder text in the name.
  
• Crates of Luxurious Cloth are now correctly labelled.
  
• Rag & Bone Crates no longer appear with care instructions.
  
• The description for The Legendary Guardian Title now states the correct Pirate Alignment.
  
• The description for the My Booming Bones Commendation now appears correctly after unlocking it.

Performance and Stability

• Crews leaving the game while diving to an experience should no longer cause server instability.
  
• Improved game stability to reduce scenarios where players experience an unexpected exit from the game.
  
• Improved server stability to avoid instances where players are disconnected from their session.

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: 10.49 GB

The first month of 2024 is officially over, which means it’s once again time for us to huddle close around our lanterns and rake over the latest gossip on what’s been happening across the seas. Settle in and brace yourselves…

After the back-to-back content updates of Season Ten throughout the tail end of 2023, you might have expected a quiet few months while we recovered. But no! It was back into the fray upon our return to the office, hustling to deliver an entirely new Season straight out of the gate.

Season 11 swept in with a complete overhaul to how you choose your adventures, complementing the new Quest Table with a rework of reputation and loot across the game. Trying to break down all the changes involved would take too long for this quick round-up, so have a flick through the release notes for the full story. If nothing else, remember possibly the most important detail of Season 11: the rock that has definitely always been there.

The new Season also brought in a fresh Plunder Pass packed with stylish cosmetics to unlock alongside all the other new additions to the Pirate Emporium, plus a variety of wonderful items available to earn via the regular Renown track. All that on top of the new treasure types, new Trading Company costumes and even new Trinket space…


As always, a new Season necessitated a new launch article to help direct readers to the most important information as smoothly as possible. We even tried out a bit of an extended format this time to make sure you had all the vital nuggets of information in one place. You’re welcome!

We also took the opportunity to add to the ever-growing collection of Spotlights. This time, that meant coaxing Dead-Eye Dray onto the stage and grilling them on their experiences as a writer within the community. Ever wondered what goes into supporting fan-run resources like Merfolk’s Lullaby or Golden Sands Blogpost? This’ll give you some idea!

If you’re more into reading than writing, the very end of the month saw the release of the second chapter in the Sea Dog’s Search comic miniseries, continuing Lesedi’s determined hunt for her brother’s soul. Downloading the comic is free, so what are you waiting for?

As a side note for news fans, newsletter subscribers get reminders of all the cool stuff going on in Sea of Thieves and we’ve sent out dozens of issues of the handy Pirate Times email round-up too, so if you haven’t already…


The video team are always busy bees when we have a new Season to get out, and January was no different. The latest schedule kicked into gear with the first proper look at what everyone could expect from Season 11 in the form of a Content Update video, followed by a much more detailed Deep Dive in which the dev team were subjected to ruthless questioning about what they’ve been up to.

Once our pirate audience was firmly in the anticipatory spirit, it was time to push the update out and release the third and fourth parts of the video puzzle: the Season 11 Launch Trailer and January’s Pirate Emporium update! Just listen to that rousing music and try to pretend you don’t feel a desperate desire to set sail.

And on the subject of rousing music, January’s streamable addition to the Sea of Thieves soundtrack collection was the phenomenal ‘Becalmed –Shores of Gold’. Listen to that chorus swell! Perfection.


Over on our social channels, we wanted to start the year with the big questions: what’s the most satisfying sound on the Sea of Thieves, which dig spot should we pick and, most importantly of all, who is eating all these burnt grubs? Seriously, we just want to talk. Once everyone was put off their lunch, we continued to probe public opinion with musings on top-tier title screens and just how many skeletons have fallen victim to you over your long pirating careers.

To lighten that slightly morbid mood, we rapidly moved onto something a little more celebratory: a Community Hub update! For double the delight, we even threw in a second Hub update later in the month, spreading the intense love for the new Fog-Piercing Frog Lantern. Photographic pioneers weren’t left out either, as a #SoTShot competition delighted us with countless Calm Captures embracing the quieter side of the pirate life.

Of course, things never stay quiet for long around here and it was hardly any time at all before we had you representing your ships with GIFs and singing the praises of the Sea of Thieves’ wonderful geology. That vibe continued with a salute to everyone’s favourite rock right after we checked in on how pirates were doing with the newly expanded Company reputation levels. Have you earned your first precious Distinction Rings yet?


All of which neatly delivers us to February and whatever new excitements are in store for the rest of the month. We hope you’ve had a wonderful start to the new year – and the new Season! As always, if you want to keep up to date with all the latest developments as they happen, drop by and see us on all the usual social channels: Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, and the official Forums and Discord. For now, we’ve got to dash before the shipwright catches up with us. Go chase that horizon!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: December 2023

Hello sailors! With a new Season comes a new Community Weekend – and February’s event is jam-packed, ready to entertain you with lots of in-game and stream-based antics across the world wide web. If that sounds good to you, then congratulations, you are correct: it’s excellent news, and we’re here to tell you exactly what to expect from the latest 48-hour shindig we’re throwing in honour of you, our wonderful community.

But before we get into everything involved with this Season’s community-oriented shenanigans, we need to share the most crucial bit: the date and times of proceedings! Season 11’s Community Weekend will start on Saturday, February 24th 2024 at 11am UTC and will finish at the same time on Monday, February 26th – giving you two full days to collect your Twitch Drops, maximise your gold, rep and Renown gains and swipe some shiny treasures via Pop-Up Plunder.

The event also conveniently falls across GameBlast 2024, so we’ll be focusing a lot of our efforts on amplifying and raising money for the wonderful folks over at SpecialEffect. The Sea of Thieves Twitch channel will be alive and ready to shine a light on so many of our amazing community and creator heroes, so make sure you’re following over there to join in the fun.


Season 11’s Community Weekend is another promising piratical party providing a plethora of profitable prospects for players heading online during the period. Let’s get into what you can expect…

For those of you who are new here or haven’t participated in a Community Weekend before, let us quickly give you the lowdown on how these Events work. Simply put: this is where we put the power to affect in-game rewards into the hands of you, our players.

To raise the Community Emissary Grade (and the associated in-game reward multiplier), our community are tasked with tuning in to Twitch to level up the generosity, with the total watch time powering Grade progress. So all you need to do to help raise the Emissary Grade is watch any of your favourite content creators within the Sea of Thieves category while the Event is live. We can heartily recommend tuning in to our special GameBlast24 Community Stream Team or browsing our Partner Directory if you’re stuck for folks to watch!

Every time the Community Emissary Grade levels up, so does the boost to gold, reputation, Seasonal Renown, Allegiance and Guild Reputation – with the top Grade offering two-and-a-half times the rewards for your work. However, it’s crucial to note that these bumper-sized bonuses will only be available to pirates sailing on High Seas, not Safer Seas. Community Weekends are designed to be super-social affairs, so to enjoy all the benefits they bring, make sure you hop onto those shared servers – and remember to keep an eye on the horizon!


So would you like some free items to go with your free boosts? Excellent. All players setting sail during this Event can score the latest Community Weekend Flag in beautiful white and red to adorn the top of their masts, while also finding the very silly, very sweet Paw Wave Emote popping into their Vanity Chests.

And that’s not all, as it wouldn’t be Community Weekend with shiny new Twitch Drops to snag – and there are some stunning pieces on offer over this Event! Watching Sea of Thieves streams during Community Weekend will help you unlock four special Drops: the Scarlet Sailor Hurdy-Gurdy, Eastern Winds Ruby Silken Gloves, Hurdy-Gurdy Show-Off Emote and Eastern Winds Ruby Short Jacket.

There’s a brand new bonus goal in town too, which is dive-focused in celebration of Season 11. If players can collectively dive to 100,000 Voyages from their Quest Tables over the course of the weekend, the Obsidian Captain’s Drapes will be unlocked as a bonus fifth Twitch Drop to earn! We’ll be keeping you all informed on how you’re tracking against this additional Community Spirit goal on social media channels, so stay tuned during the Event for updates. We’ll be cheering you on.


Everyone’s favourite game of dig spot roulette returns for Season 11 Community Weekend with a whole host of loot on offer, plus a brand new set of social media clues. Every few hours we’ll drop a map on Sea of Thieves channels such as Twitter/X and Instagram to persuade you to seek out and swipe some time-limited treasure. As always, our maps will vary in difficulty – so if you’re having trouble solving them, you’re welcome to swing by our Discord server to discuss the clues.

Even when you’ve solved the relevant map-based conundrum, the fun doesn’t stop there – if someone else on your server has worked out where the treasure lies, you might have a scrap on your hands once the loot’s been located. We find it's best to have both shovel and sword at the ready, just in case. Or, perhaps, you can flip for it – one of the more ingenious uses of the Coin Toss Emote.

As with previous Events, there are no guarantees for what loot lies at the end of your journey! So if you want to find out what’s on offer, you’re going to have put in the work (or steal the stash once someone else has done it).

Hopefully you all know by now that over a Community Weekend, we love to sing the praises of our unsung community heroes – and the way we do that is by handing out the very special Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame at an accelerated rate to some of the wonderful pirates we see in and around our social spaces.

Whether you’ve performed an astonishing feat on the seas and would like us to tip the hat in your direction, or you’d like to shout out a crewmate or friend who embodies the Be More Pirate mantra, we’ll be taking nominations all the way up to and during the Event. This is something you can get involved in starting from now – so if there’s something or someone you’d like to draw our attention to, tell us about it on Sea of Thieves social channels (the more info the better) using the #BeMorePirate hashtag!


As Sea of Thieves continues to evolve alongside you, our glorious community of corsairs, we want to take a moment to once again thank you for making our seas such a splendid place to be. February is set to be a big month for pirates, both on our own shores and slightly more distant ones. There’s never been a better time to be of the pirating persuasion, but there’s something special about those of you who specifically sail the Sea of Thieves. This Community Weekend, let’s show them all how it’s done; let’s not just Be More Pirate, but Be Most Pirate!

A new Season arrives on the shores of the Sea of Thieves! On January 23rd, Season 11 introduces
some exciting changes and improvements to how you sail the seas, enabling you to dive into adventure faster than ever before while vastly expanding the rewards and progression pathways on offer.

In this latest free update, multiple systems have been refreshed to streamline your experience as you sail or dive swiftly from one Voyage, Event or Tall Tale to the next. Onboarding has also been expanded with new in-game tutorials featuring the Pirate Lord, removing some of the hurdles for newer players seeking to get to grips with life on the seas!

The primary feature of Season 11 is the revamp of the traditional Voyage loop, and that starts with the Quest Table. Rather than having to return to an Outpost to buy new Voyages from the Trading Companies, you’ll now be able to access all available Voyages and Tall Tales directly from your ship. Using the redesigned Discover Tab, you can see what activities are on offer and browse suggested Voyages suited to your personal stage of progression!

Once a choice is made, you now have the option to take the plunge and dive to your destination, throwing you straight into the action. As always, loot can’t be carried with you during a dive, but rewards are no longer fully tied to handing in your treasure; instead, a small amount of Company reputation will now be awarded immediately on completion of a Voyage. You’ll still need to cash in your loot if you want the full payout, but all is not lost if you can’t make it to an Outpost!

Of course, diving to your destination might speed up how much you’re able to get done, but setting sail across the Sea of Thieves in the traditional way is perfectly valid, and there are still plenty of reasons to do so. Rewards for completing discoverable events like a shipwreck or Message in a Bottle have been reworked and rebalanced across the board, guaranteeing there’s always something worth finding as you explore.


Trading Company representatives may no longer be the source of new Voyages, but you’ll still want to stop by from time to time. Promotions will only be accessible directly from the relevant representatives, for instance. They’re also where you’ll find a revamped cosmetics shop, allowing you to browse all Trading Company clothing and items in a single place.

At the same time, the Trading Companies have undergone a major expansion to allow even established players to continue progressing with their Company of choice, as reputation now increases up to level 100 for all Companies apart from The Hunter’s Call. Reach that momentous milestone and you’ll earn one of five new Distinctions, resetting your reputation with that Company while unlocking a prestigious Distinction Ring for your pirate to wear!

To help you in this pursuit, Raid Voyages have been added to the Quest Table and will become available as you climb the Trading Company ranks, offering a twist on familiar World Events. Rather than the randomised loot selection from these Events when encountered emergently, Raid Voyages come in Company-themed flavours. Choose to undertake these Events and you can work towards a high-value loot pool of items specific to your chosen Company, and the reputation boost that comes with it.


With a new Season underway, a fresh 100 levels of Seasonal Renown are ready to be climbed by dedicated sailors. As always, that means a wealth of gold, Doubloons and Ancient Coins to be earned, as well as a range of clothing, ship and item cosmetics to be claimed as you advance. And, of course, Plunder Pass purchasers can enjoy extra goodies in the form of 750 more Ancient Coins and the complete Well-Travelled Trader collection including Collector’s items.

The Pirate Emporium and Outpost shops are expanding their wares too! The imposing Boarhunter collection has entered the Emporium, containing a ship set, weapon bundle and clothing bundle for pirates with an interest in porcine pursuits. Over in the Outpost stores, the Maestro clothing set might be of interest if you’re a melodic marauder, to ensure your outfit elicits a fanfare everywhere you go.


For more information on the Sea of Thieves Season 11 update, including full release notes, visit the Sea of Thieves website. The update is available for free to all Sea of Thieves players on Steam. Simply download and install the latest Sea of Thieves update to start playing.

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 the ongoing adventure at https://www.seaofthieves.com/ where you can embark on an epic journey with one of gaming’s most welcoming communities!

Access all the adventure you crave more quickly than ever before with Season 11’s overhaul of Voyages and encounters! Explore a redesigned Quest system, major expansions to most Trading Companies and new rewards and Distinctions to earn as you progress.

On Demand

• With a Quest Table on board each ship now providing the ability to choose from all available outings and dive directly to the scene of a Voyage, Tall Tale or new Raid Voyage, players have unprecedented freedom to explore everything the seas can offer. The refreshed Discover Tab is also on hand with tailored suggestions!
  
• Raid Voyages are new Trading Company-themed versions of World Events with unique treasure types on offer, unlocked from the Quest Table as players climb the Company ranks.
  
• For the first time, some reputation is now earned at the point of Voyage completion, but treasure must still be handed in for maximum profit as anything on board is lost if a player chooses to dive again.
  
• The majority of Trading Companies have raised their level cap to 100. Reaching Company reputation level 100 now unlocks a Distinction, providing a reward and resetting a player’s level with that Company to allow progress towards the next Distinction.
  
• To improve the onboarding experience, new Tutorial Voyages led by the Pirate Lord are in place for new players, covering the Gold Hoarders, Merchant Alliance and Order of Souls. These can be revisited from the Quest Table.
  
• To learn more about this new Season’s headline features, head over to our dedicated Season 11 page.

Another Season means 100 new levels to climb by raising your Renown, with racks full of rewards to snag along the way – and an optional Plunder Pass adding even more! Read on for more on all this plus details of the quality of life improvements landing with this Season’s launch...

Season 11 Rewards and Plunder Pass

• Progressing through Season 11 will reward players with the Cunning Serpent clothing set and unique Season 11 specials alongside time-limited Swift-Winged Wayfarer collectibles. Head to the Seasons profile page to browse the new rewards and check your pirate’s progress!
  
• Purchase the Plunder Pass to gain access to a plethora of unlockable, never-before-seen rewards from the Well-Travelled Trader set, all available to earn by climbing the levels of Seasonal progression. Purchase in-game through the Pirate Log or Pirate Emporium, or via the Pirate Emporium webpage or Steam Item Store.

Season 11 Emissary Ledger Rewards

• This Season, the Trading Companies each offer a themed Speaking Trumpet and Lantern to Emissaries who represent them well and perform proudly in the Ledgers. Log in and track your performance on the Emissary Ledgers page!

Chest of Fortune

• For the duration of Season 11, the Chest of Fortune will surface following the defeat of an emergent Fleet of Fortune. These special Skeleton Fleet encounters are signified by a glowing red cloud in the sky when active.
  
• Crews who retrieve Chests of Fortune can now earn the next Grade of the Fortune’s Favour Commendation, unlocking access to the Fates of Fortune Cannon, Flag, Capstan and Wheel.

Reaper’s Chests

• In Season 11, crews coveting the precious Reaper’s Chest or Reaper’s Bounty can earn the next Grade of the Reaper’s Riches Commendation and start unlocking access to the Fates of Fortune Blunderbuss and Eye of Reach.

Improved Hit Markers

• Players now have further control over the hit markers shown when striking targets with a projectile weapon. The game settings now enable switching from the existing client-predicted markers to server-confirmed markers, which only display hits confirmed directly by the server for improved accuracy.

Bounty Voyage Improvements

• A new Order of Souls Bounty Voyage has been added which tasks crews with hunting a Skeleton Lord that drops Dark Relics.
  
• A new Ghost Ship Voyage within The Devil’s Roar is now available from the Order of Souls.
  
• Bounty contracts now provide the landmark location of the target along with the island to help guide players to the correct location.
  
• The difficulty of all Bounty Voyages has been rebalanced to make them more satisfying to play.

Emissary Voyage Improvements

• Emissary Voyages have been improved for each Trading Company with a focus on reduced sailing times and smaller quantities of higher-value treasure to transport, refreshing the gameplay and delivering improved rewards for participation.
  
• Upon reaching Emissary Grade V for a Trading Company, crews can now head to Morrow’s Peak Outpost and speak to their Company representative for an Emissary Voyage in The Devil’s Roar that will yield Ashen-themed rewards.
  
• Emissary Voyages are now lost if the ship sinks or the Emissary Flag is lowered at the Outpost.

Merchant Cargo Run Improvements

• Delivery notes on cargo now provide care instructions which help players to protect their valuable goods.
  
• Cargo Run Quests now remind players how many items need to be collected and where to collect them, ensuring they pack all necessary items before setting sail. Supporting information is also now shown on the delivery note.
  
• Cloth Crates being held while swimming on the surface will no longer become drenched.

Merchant Contract Improvements

• Contracts to recover specific animals now show players which island they need to head to in order to fulfil the contract.
  
• Crews now recover the required Animal Crates from the beaches on the contracted island.
  
• All requested animals are now guaranteed to be found on the contracted island, including the various rarities.
  
• Crews will no longer trigger emergent skeleton encounters on their contracted island, to reduce scenarios where animals are caught in the crossfire.
  
• Contracts now complete when the crew returns them to the Outpost, rather than upon catching the animals on the island.

Treasure Vault Improvements

• Treasure Vaults now scale the available raiding time to the size of the crew – the smaller the crew, the more time to collect the treasure.
  
• Treasure Vault Quests now send crews to the nearest possible Vault once the Totem is recovered.
  
• The braziers surrounding the Vault’s altar are now extinguished over time as an indicator of how long the crew has left before the door slams shut.

Skeleton Encounter Balancing

• Skeleton encounters across the emergent world and on Voyages have been rebalanced, providing a more fun encounter with these bony fiends.
  
• Ambush skeleton groups now dynamically scale based on the size of the crew – the bigger the crew, the more ambush skeletons to fight!

Emergent Phantom Encounters

• Players leaving the ship to explore islands will now only encounter Phantoms at night.

Message in a Bottle Rewards

• Quests from a Message in a Bottle are now significantly more rewarding and likely more valuable than the Voyage already underway – so be sure to go exploring, you’ll be handsomely rewarded for your time!
  
• These Quests also have been refreshed with a focus on reduced sailing times and smaller quantities of higher-value treasure to transport, improving the overall experience.

Skeleton Captain Rewards

• Defeating a Skeleton Captain now yields increased rewards and ammunition, with the potential to recover Reaper’s Chests and Reaper’s Bounty, Gunpowder Barrels and ammunition-stocked Resource Crates. These new rewards are also recoverable from the same island as the encounter!

Shipwreck Rewards

• The rewards found within a sunken shipwreck have now been improved.

Ashen Guardian Rewards

• Crews defeating an Ashen Guardian will now be rewarded with a map to an Ashen Chest on the same island along with a Key to unlock it, no longer requiring them to seek out a Key Master.

Captain’s Bookshelf

• Captains can now adorn the Bookshelf where their Voyages were once stored with Trinkets instead!

Tutorial Notifications

• Tutorial notifications have been added to a range of experiences to assist new players’ onboarding. Quest archetypes, Tall Tales, Cargo Crates and even encounters with different skeleton forms now provide contextual tutorials.

Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium page to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

• Boarhunter Ship Collection
  
• Boarhunter Weapon Bundle
  
• Boarhunter Clothing Bundle
  
• Boarhunter Trinket
  
• Collector’s Lunar Festival Dragon Sails and Figurehead
  
• Exercise Emote Bundle
  
• Paradise Garden Eye of Reach (free!)
  
• Boars and Bounty Bundle (Steam Store)

New Outpost Stock!

• The Outpost clothing shops have received a new shipment of items from the Maestro set. Players are now able to purchase the Maestro clothing after unlocking The Artistic Souls Commendation.

Season Four Legacy Cosmetics

• Cosmetics previously available during Season Four have arrived in Outpost shops and can now be yours in exchange for Doubloons!
  
• Players can purchase the Wicked Web clothing set, along with a range of unique one-off items that were available during this Season. Pirate Legends can also purchase the Cursed Adventurer Cutlass and Wanda’s Spyglass.
  
• The time-limited Siren’s Wrath items, however, remain exclusive to players who participated in Season Four.

Skull of Siren Song Rewards

• Cosmetic rewards earned by completing the various Commendations associated with the Skull of Siren Song Voyage can now be found in the respective Outpost shops along with their unlock criteria.
  
• With this change, upon unlocking the relevant Commendation, players will now be required to purchase the reward from the Outpost shop rather than having it automatically awarded.

Maiden Voyage Visual Improvements

• The parting sequence and passage through the Devil’s Shroud during the Maiden Voyage have received a suite of improvements to visual fidelity, enhancing the visuals of the Shroud itself and clarity of direction for players.

Sea Rock Visuals

• Sea rocks have received a polish pass, with weathering and water marks now added to the bases of larger rocks to improve blending into the sea.

Emergent Voyage Changes

• Crews will no longer find emergent Voyage parchments in barrels across the Sea of Thieves and will now find that barrels only contain resources.
  
• Crews will now lose emergent Voyages such as a Message in a Bottle if they dive to a new experience. Emissary Voyages will continue to be retained through diving.

Retired Commendations and Adjusted Rewards

With the introduction of On Demand Voyages in Season 11, several legacy Commendations have been retired, and their associated rewards are now unlocked via different means.

• The Seeker of Lost Maps Title will now unlock via the Seeker of Pirate Plunder Commendation for the Bilge Rats.
  
• The Seeker of Lost Souls Title and ability to purchase the Order of Souls Cutlass, Pistol, Blunderbuss and Eye of Reach from a Company representative will now unlock via the Worthy Emissary of Souls Commendation for the Order of Souls.
  
• The Merchant Adventurer Title will now unlock via the Taker of Stolen Stock Commendation for the Merchant Alliance.
  
• The Seeker of Athena’s Fortune Title will now unlock via the Worthy Emissary of Athena Commendation for Athena’s Fortune.
  
• The Legend of Thieves’ Haven Title will now unlock via the Retreat to the Thrones’ Haven Commendation for the Bilge Rats.
  
• The ability to purchase the Legendary Treasure Seeker costume from the Pirate Legend Hideout will now unlock via the Legendary Treasure Hunter Commendation for Athena’s Fortune.

Additionally, several related achievements have had their completion criteria updated. Players who were working towards completing these achievements will start afresh on a new task, while those who have already unlocked the achievement will retain it.

• Seeker of Lost Maps: Dig up 250 chests whilst on Gold Hoarders X Marks the Spot Voyages.
  
• Merchant Adventurer: Fill 250 Animal Crates while on Merchant Alliance Cargo Run Voyages.
  
• Seeker of Lost Souls: Defeat 500 skeletons while on Order of Souls Bounty Voyages.
  
• A Veteran Voyager: Complete 30 Voyages while sailing aboard a Captained ship.

Gameplay

• Players who attempt to rapidly switch weapons after migrating across servers should no longer find themselves unable to wield the weapon and hear a repeated audio effect when attempting it.
  
• Players should no longer experience scenarios where their equipped items are reset after returning from the Ferry of the Damned or recovering from being stuck.
  
• The Fortress Storage Key and expected quantity of gold pouches should now consistently appear at Sea Forts.
  
• After migrating across servers, players are now able to access the shops at Seaposts.
  
• Samuel will no longer purchase Ashen Keys within the Pirate Legend Hideout.
  
• ‘The Legendary Storyteller’ – All journals for this Tall Tale can now be read as intended.
  
• Unlocked Ship Milestone rewards such as Banners are now once again available for players to equip.

Skull of Siren Song Voyage

• Players placing the Skull of Siren Song in a Harpoon Rowboat dragged behind their ship will continue to be affected by its curse.
  
• Crews who harpoon the open chest with the Skull of Siren Song still inside will now bring the curse’s effects onto their ship along with the Chest and Skull.
  
• Players are no longer able to opt in to the Skull of Siren Song Voyage after the Skull has been revealed.

Guilds

• Crews in a Guild session without the Captain present will now see Ship Milestone progress within the Guild Chronicles.
  
• Earned Guild clothing can now be equipped in any session and is no longer locked to sailing for the Guild that unlocked access to it.
  
• Using a spyglass to observe a Guild ship at range should now consistently display the appropriate Guild name on the Banner.
  
• The correct Guild name should now show consistently on the Guild Emissary Table, Logbook, Guild Plaque and Guild Invite Emote.

‘The Journey to Mêlée Island’

• Players can now head up to the Mansion as soon as the guard leaves his post, and are no longer blocked by parts of the environment.
  
• When players have constructed a body for Murray, any players joining the session after the initial sequence will now be able to see Murray’s body.
  
• Players will no longer see a silhouette of Walt the violin-playing skeleton through the church window.
  
• Fog seen in the Mansion now behaves correctly throughout the location.

‘The Quest for Guybrush’

• Players should no longer see a patch of mist on the stairs near the Lookout Point after the fog has cleared from the mountaintop.

‘The Lair of LeChuck’

• A Quest Book is now present during the ship chase sequence, giving players the option of leaving the Tall Tale during this section.
  
• Herman’s Supply Crate will no longer appear to move around while the player is viewing it.
  
• The front-facing cannons on the Headless Monkey now have more restricted movement to prevent issues with aiming.
  
• The Head of the Navigator can now be taken from another player when offered.
  
• Liquids in the cooking pot now appear to drain correctly when collecting Banana Grease.
  
• The Banana Grease jar will now appear correctly after it has been used.
  
• The notification shown to players when the Chilled Banana Soup has been discovered or lost now references the correct item.
  
• Players will no longer become stuck on the palm tree within Herman's camp.

Environment

• Players should now find a new sea rock near K11, a common location for mysteriously wrecked ships.
  
• The Rowboat dock underneath the tavern on Port Merrick is now fully functional.
  
• Players can no longer become stuck on the palm tree near the Order of Souls tent at Morrow’s Peak Outpost.
  
• Players can no longer fall through certain areas of the environment around the Treasury of Sunken Shores.
  
• Chests placed near the doorway of the Vault at Kraken Watchtower will no longer disappear through the floor.
  
• Players’ legs will no longer appear to merge into the tower structure when using the sitting spots at Skeleton Forts.
  
• If a player safe teleports while inside the Treasury of Sunken Shores, they will now be placed in a suitable location.
  
• Placing treasure in various Sea Fort windows will no longer cause the item to fall into the environment.
  
• Rain no longer passes through tunnels located at Shark Bait Cove.
  
• Dagger Tooth Outpost’s pier no longer contains invisible obstacles.
  
• The barrel at the shipwright’s shop in Port Merrick no longer appears to merge into the hanging platform.
  
• ‘Shores of Gold’ – Players will no longer be able to walk through parts of the environment inside the various caves.

Visual and Audio

• The visual effects on the Down the Hatch Emote now play as intended.
  
• Players wearing the Soaring Oracle Costume should no longer see equipped jackets showing through the costume.
  
• Visual improvements have been made to the constellations on the Lodestar weapons.
  
• Visual improvements have been made to the Layered Shirt of the Ashen Dragon.
  
• Players with the Order of Souls Hook equipped will now find that they grip the ship’s wheel correctly.
  
• The Snapping Shark Emote and Shark Dance Emote now appear with different icons to avoid confusion.
  
• The Ashen Key now sits in the lock of the Ashen Chest correctly when used.
  
• The Sovereign Ship’s Crest will now attach correctly when equipped on a Brigantine.
  
• The light given off by the Magpie’s Glory Lantern now shines in the correct location.
  
• The Eastern Winds Ruby Bucket will no longer show water inside when empty.
  
• Fog will now appear as intended when entering the Vault at Molten Sands Fortress.
  
• The Sweet Treat Capstan will now display correctly in fog.
  
• ‘Captains of the Damned’ – Pirates in the bayou now hold the candles correctly.

Text and Localisation

• The Stand to Attention Emote no longer has a placeholder title and description in the Vanity Chest.
  
• When speaking to Zharick at Brian’s Bazaar, the dialogue will no longer refer to Golden Sands.
  
• ‘The Legendary Storyteller’ – The 'Fish Friends' puzzle in the Quest Book no longer refers to Golden Sands.
  
• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Captain Jack Sparrow’s name is now present within his subtitles when escaping from the Ferry of the Damned.
  
• ‘Fate of the Morningstar’ – The Ferryman's intended subtitles now appear while he is speaking.

Performance and Stability

• Ongoing improvements made to server stability to reduce instances where players are disconnected from their session.
  
• Improved game stability to reduce scenarios where players experience an unexpected exit from the game.

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: 7.34 GB

Oh yes, that’s right, we’re not quite ready to be finished with 2023 just yet. Still one last round-up to squeeze in! Now, we might have been winding down for the end of the year in December, but that didn’t stop us from delivering a Community Weekend, two in-game Events and a monthly content update, did it? Of course not. So let’s take a look at everything you might have missed…

We wasted no time in kicking off the December excitements by hosting Season Ten Community Weekend right at the beginning of the month. With some distinctly fishy Pop-Up Plunder maps pointing players in the direction of highly desirable loot, a reward multiplier growing in line with Twitch viewership and an exclusive Title on offer for Skull of Siren Song victors, the Weekend was absolutely packed with adventures to get involved in.

From there, our third instalment of Season Ten was ready to go and so we opened the way to the long-awaited Safer Seas! Letting players explore the world of Sea of Thieves alone or with just their own crew of friends for the first time, this new mode offers a liberating alternative approach to the pirate life. Need more info on how it works, along with December’s other additions and fixes? The release notes await.

And of course, we couldn’t make it through the festive season without throwing in a couple of end-of-year Events. First up was a Gifts & Glory Event where players could pick up a festive flag and double rewards from all their expeditions, followed by the traditional Grogmanay celebration offering a new notch for your Annual Tankard as we toasted the new year together.


While everyone was preparing to boost their bonuses and smash some grog, we were able to put the finishing touches on our big December release, and thus we finally arrived at Safer Seas! There were a fair few changes packaged in with this new game mode, so we helped out by posting a handy launch article to go with it.

December is also the month in which we traditionally invite you to check out some of your personal sea-soaked stats in Your Story So Far – still available to view until January 15th! And further contributing to ending the year with a bang was a fresh round of the ever-popular Style of Thieves competition. Before we could get there though, announcing the themes was essential so that pirates could spend the month preparing their perfect outfit.

With all that happening and Community Weekend too, there was only time for one Creator Spotlight in December, so we made sure it was a goodie: meme queen and pirate menace Toxie Sinclaire filled us in on her journey to becoming a Sea of Thieves content creator and highlights of her career. Just don’t ask us what’s going on in some of those Spotlight screenshots. We don’t know and at this point we’re scared to ask.


In the run-up to the release of Safer Seas, we wanted to answer as many of your questions ahead of time as we could, culminating in our official Safer Seas Explained video! Once that had time to do the rounds, it was on to release day with a launch trailer and a look at all the new styles coming to the Pirate Emporium and Outpost shops. And surrounding this, in keeping with the spirit of the Festival of Giving, were no less than three sets of Twitch Drops to snag throughout the month.

With the end of 2023 in our spyglasses, we found ourselves reflecting on Sea of Thieves’ progress throughout the year and what everyone in the community can expect from the next one. With that in mind, some familiar team faces stopped by the Tavern one last time before the holidays to record 2023’s final podcast. Give it a watch or a listen to reminisce over highlights, consider lessons learned and admire how quickly John’s festive quiz gets derailed by seemingly innocuous buzzer sounds.


Adding to Twitch Drops, Emporium items and Event rewards in December was a separate bundle of cosmetics available to players with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, who had (and still have) a chance to pick up the Nightshine Parrot Bundle via XGPU Perks. Meanwhile, a select few joined the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame crew when their creations were featured in the Community Hub, and in case that still didn’t prove enough to satisfy the demanding Festival of Giving spirits, Golden Hour Sails were awarded to our favourite #SoTShot entries on the theme of Festive Fun.

We didn’t want to leave everyone hanging for too long after teasing the latest Style of Thieves themes, so we shared the winners ahead of the holidays and rewarded them with the coveted Fashionista’s Finery Gloves. More presents! From there, everything got a bit nostalgic as we all looked back on the year together, inviting you to cast your mind back to when you were first setting out on the seas and what sort of personal legend you’ve built up since then.

By that point we really were coming up on the end of the year, so with a few extra well wishes and final bits of trivia we took our leave for a brief, hard-earned break. Of course, you’re never really far from the seas. Especially when John’s reminding you that you’ve got Tall Tales to complete.


And thus endeth the month, the year and our only-slightly-late December round-up! A lot happened in the past 12 months out on the seas, and we loved sharing every minute of it with you all. If you’re in the mood for more nostalgia, take a look back over the other 11 round-ups from 2023 and feel free to share your thoughts with us on all the usual channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch the official Forums and Discord. Beyond that, a happy new year to all and we hope you look forward to the tempting troves of new features and exciting announcements coming in 2024!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: November 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: October 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: September 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: August 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: July 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: June 2023
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

Gameplay

• Lost Shipments and Prized Merchant Alliance Commission Voyages are once again available for purchase.
  
• Crews taking on a Lost Shipments Voyage should now encounter the correct number of Merchant Crates when unlocking the Captain’s Cabin.

Guilds

• Players who are part of a Guild that has unlocked Guild clothing rewards are once again free to wear the rewards when sailing as part of any other Guild, or outside a Guild session.

Performance and Stability

• Improved server stability to avoid instances of players being disconnected from their session.

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.

These release notes cover a hotfix. For full details on recently added game features, see the release notes on our latest content update.

Download Size:

• Steam: 5.35 GB

Spooky season is officially out the door, which means it’s practically the festive holidays already, right? Well, okay, November isn’t quite the end of the year, but we weren’t going to let that stop us from kicking off the celebrations early with new game content, seasonal fashions and a thoroughly chaotic stream. In case you missed anything, or want a quick refresher on everything that happened last month, take a look…

November heralded the second instalment of the juggernaut that is Season Ten: the competitive Skull of Siren Song Voyage! This new type of World Event calls on players from across the sea to come together and battle it out for the titular ancient artefact. With two treasure maps shared across all participating crews, and a powerful curse slowing down any ship bearing the Skull, the results are frequently as nail-biting as you’d expect. To explore everything in this update, November’s release notes (plus those for the hotfix sliding in at the end of the month) are the place to go.

Beyond the anticipated increase in incidents of mayhem and mischief, this update also brought in new Briggsy-inspired rewards for Voyage victors. At the same time, Ravenwood cosmetics from a Plunder Pass of the past embraced their assassins’ roots as the ship set snuck into the Pirate Emporium – and to ensure that you can carry out your kills without compromising your brand, you can now accessorise with weapons and a stealthy spyglass too.

Our clothing-related ventures didn’t end there, as the merchandise crew decided to get involved and revealed this year’s real-life Sea of Thieves Festival of Giving jumper. See how comfy Daryl looks? That could be you!


Giving everyone a timely overview of the Skull of Siren Song Voyage on launch day was of course our primary news-based concern for November, and dropping some details into our ever-expanding Season Ten page while we were at it.

But the week before that brought another announcement, for the much-anticipated Season Ten Community Weekend at the start of December! After the community smashed it out of the park during our last collaborative celebration, we didn’t want to keep you waiting for details of the next one. With the reveal that Pop-Up Plunder will be making a triumphant (if a tad fishy) return and the promise of more enticing Twitch Drops and login bonuses, the announcement hopefully had you counting down the days.

There was of course more Spotlighting of popular players going in in the midst of all that, as we sat down to catch up with a fishing legend both in and out of the game: CJShiz! From tips for new content creators to finding a work-life balance and fishing up real-life Treacherous Plunder, it’s well worth a read – as are any of the articles from our archive of Community, Creator and Legend Spotlights stretching back through the years.


As November’s new competitive Voyage crested the horizon, people were bound to have questions… and fortunately, our Video team were one step ahead with a Skull of Siren Song Explained video released a few days before the update. That was followed up with the traditional launch trailer and, just in case there could possibly still be any questions left unanswered, a full Deep Dive into how the Voyage came to be.

And if you thought relentless back-to-back feature releases would slow our Video team down, you’d be wrong! Even in amongst all the other demands on their time, they still put together two episodes of Sea of Thieves News during November to keep you up to date on everything going on. We salute their dedication.

Still, the Community team weren’t about to let them hog all the glory, celebrating the arrival of the Skull of Siren Song with a livestream of their own. A couple of technical hitches along the way might have resulted in the stream briefly masquerading as a radio show, but we weren’t about to let a little thing like that dampen the mood. Not with a Voyage to be won…


Setting us up in the competitive spirit early, we kicked off November with a decidedly spooky edition of #SoTShot: Sinister Scenes! Entries were exceptional as always, and we may never sleep again. Good job, everyone. But we learned our lesson, and the next round was the substantially cheerier Favourites category, which made for much more relaxing viewing. Phew.

With our spirits freshly raised, we took the time to crack a few (bad) jokes, encouraged reminiscence over the times you made it away with someone else’s loot and corrected a minor pet peeve. (The writing team is watching you. We know what you did.) After that, it felt only fair to throw in a couple of Community Hub updates to celebrate some players’ astounding creations, before our resident musical maestros stepped away from their instruments to thank you for listening to a few creations of their own. No word yet on whether either of them actually finished their bananas.

In case things started feeling a little too chummy after all those feelgood moments, we reintroduced a touch of friction with the naming and shaming of crewmates, and toyed with implementing a highly requested feature to keep people on their toes. And, leaving chaos in our wake, it was time to wrap things up with an utterly baffling addition to our TikTok channel and, finally – blessedly – a nice sit down. What a month.


So ended November! It’s a bit of a whirlwind rush from here on as we speed towards the end of the year, with just one more month left to go before we can say our goodbyes to 2023. For now, make sure you stop by and see us on TwiXer, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch or the official Forums or Discord to stay in the loop as things happen. Otherwise, we hope you have an excellent festive season, and we’ll see you again in the new year!

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Sea of Thieves Round-Up: October 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: September 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: August 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: July 2023
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: June 2023
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

Update November 2024: As explained in a recent episode of Sea of Thieves News, Safer Seas mode is undergoing a rebalance. Starting from the December 2024 content update, players on Safer Seas can earn a full 100% of the gold and reputation available to players on High Seas, raised from 30% – but Trading Company progression will be capped at rank 25 instead of 40. This supersedes the figures given in the original article below.

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Original article: After two months of back-to-back content updates, Sea of Thieves completes the trio promised back at the start of Season Ten by introducing a brand new game mode for players to explore: Safer Seas! Allowing exploration and adventure on a single-crew server, either alone or with a crew of chosen friends, this update opens the door to an entirely new way of playing the game.

In Safer Seas, players can elect to sail solo or with a crew of up to three friends, with no other player-controlled crews present in the world. For fresh-faced pirates just starting their journey, this means a chance to learn the ropes without having to keep an eye out for hostile rivals, and an opportunity to understand the world and its key mechanics before diving into the traditional mayhem of the main Sea of Thieves game mode, now known as High Seas.

There’s no shortage of content in Safer Seas for players old or new to tackle. As in High Seas, a wide range of Voyages can be undertaken for the various Trading Companies, while World Events are frequently encountered, from fending off a Megalodon attack to striking down fearsome Ashen Lords. The ability to unlock the corresponding Commendations for these activities will also be present in Safer Seas.

For story-hungry pirates, Safer Seas still gives access to all the game’s narrative-driven Tall Tales, including the crossover experiences that make up 2023’s Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island and 2021’s Pirates of the Caribbean-themed Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life. In the absence of enemy crews, you’ll now be able to immerse yourself in all this lore at your leisure, without the risk of being interrupted by anyone who thinks you might have valuable loot tucked away.


While Safer Seas presents players with a wealth of content to explore at their own pace, there are of course some aspects of the game incompatible with a strictly single-crew experience. As a result, Safer Seas has a slightly reduced range of activities in comparison to High Seas.

For instance, content built around player vs. player interactions has no place in Safer Seas by design, such as Faction battles using the Hourglass of Fate or the competitive Skull of Siren Song Voyage. Similarly, The Reaper’s Bones Trading Company will not be accessible there due to its focus on player combat.

There are also some limits placed on progression within Safer Seas to account for the reduced risk in the absence of other players. Gold and reputation rewards will be accrued at 30% of that awarded in High Seas, and Trading Company reputation levels are capped at 40. This means that players will not be able to obtain the coveted title of Pirate Legend without venturing onto High Seas and, correspondingly, Safer Seas isn’t the place to engage with the Pirate Legend-focused Trading Company, Athena’s Fortune.

These limitations have been put in place to maintain a balance between Safer and High Seas, and to encourage players to try out both modes to see which suits their play style and needs. Even with these in place, however, Safer Seas presents a world alive with opportunities, whether it’s diving into Sea of Thieves lore through the Tall Tales, spending an undisturbed evening working on your fishing skills, or getting to grips with the game’s combat mechanics by taking on veritable hordes of skeletons. After all, Safer Seas isn’t entirely without risk – with or without roving pirate crews, the Sea of Thieves is a perilous place!


One thing remaining consistent across Safer and High Seas is pirate style. The Outpost shops and Pirate Emporium are accessible in either mode, and Ancient Coin earnings won’t be subject to the 30% cap on gold and reputation. Seasonal Renown can also be earned at the same rate across both High Seas and Safer Seas, so your progress towards the active Season’s cosmetic and currency rewards (and the rewards themselves) will be consistent no matter how you choose to play.

If you’ve picked up the Season Ten Plunder Pass, you’ll still be able to work towards unlocking the Stormfish Chaser ship set and clothing alongside all the usual gold, Doubloons and Ancient Coins available through the 100 levels of Renown on offer during this Season.

Over in the Pirate Emporium, a range of time-limited seasonal goodies make a comeback this month, including the Festival of Giving weapons and pet outfits. The Bonechiller Costume is also back for the holidays, and this time it’s bringing with it an entire ship collection and bundle of weapons to fill out that frightfully festive look. Combined with the Ransacking Emote, you shouldn’t have any problem getting into the holiday spirit…


Of course, Safer Seas is far from the only content to explore in Season Ten. December’s monthly update is the third to arrive this Season, following the introduction of Guilds in October and the Skull of Siren Song Voyage in November.

With Guilds, players can team up with fellow sailors beyond the usual limit of a four-person crew. By forming or joining a Guild, pirates can contribute to its shared Guild Reputation and unlock exclusive rewards for all Guild Members as they progress. And, for those of a less collaborative persuasion, the Skull of Siren Song Voyage sees the notorious Captain Briggsy summon pirates from across the waves into a competitive race to claim an ancient and powerful artefact.

All these new updates have been accompanied by a host of improvements and fixes to various areas of Sea of Thieves, to ensure that you’re able to have the experience you want out on the waves. With Safer Seas, that personalized experience is more accessible than ever, and we can’t wait to see you out there!


For more information on this Sea of Thieves update, including full release notes, visit the Sea of Thieves website. The update is available for free to all Sea of Thieves players 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 http://www.seaofthieves.com/ where you can embark on an epic journey with one of gaming’s most welcoming communities!