News, updates and info from the Sea of Thieves.

We’ll have to wait a little longer for Pets

They’re not quite ready for prime time. News
Eagle eyed observers would have noticed that Pets were conspicuously absent from the Anniversary Update trailer on Wednesday. At the time, I postulated that, since the mega update was a free update, pets (which will cost real money) were intentionally omitted to avoid confusion. Nope. Executive Producer, Joe Neate, confirmed on Twitter that pets aren’t quite where Rare would like them to be, so they’re taking the time to ensure they get it right. We’re not quite happy with where Pets are at yet. Been testing them with Insiders, taken feedback, had internal reviews, and not confident they’d meet our…

Sea of Thieves announces major “Anniversary Update”

The update will arrive on April 30th. News
The team from Sea of Thieves announced the details of their “mega update” today – now officially called the Anniversary Update. As well as The Arena (most of the details of which we’ve know since it was announced) the video, announcement and promo page give us some more details about things we know, and tip us off to some new things. Tall Tales – Shores of Gold introduces a new epic storyline to the world of Sea of Thieves, delving deeper into the lore of our favourite pirate paradise. Follow a series of narrative adventures surrounding existing and all-new characters, taking you…

Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update Trailer

Let’s break it down! Trailer and Announcement Videos
It’s finally here! And Rare have now confirmed that the Anniversary Update (RIP, mega update) will arrive on April 30th. Have you watched it yet? Click above to give it another watch then let’s get into a breakdown below. FISHING CONFIRMED! And is there something cooking in that pot? Here we see this chest opening. What’s inside? The pirate on the left is holding his compass, how did they find the chest? A lot of new cosmetics on display here. We get our first look at harpoons (we were right). Fishing again (hooray!). And the woman pirate on deck has…

Release Notes – 1.4.5

Happy Birthday, Sea of Thieves! Minor Releases
Come and join us as we celebrate Sea of Thieves’ first anniversary with a treasure trove of gifts for you all! While the full-sized Anniversary Update is coming a little further down the line, today’s build brings some special time-limited items to mark one year since launch. Whether you’ve been sailing with us since day one or since yesterday, there’s something special here to help you enjoy the festivities. [Link] MERCENARY VOYAGES Reaper’s Run of Shipwreck Bay – Duke offers another treacherous Reaper’s Run Voyage costing 5 Doubloons to challenge daring pirates. Any crew willing to accept this challenge must brave the waters surrounding Shipwreck…

Top 10 Sh*t Ideas from the development of Sea of Thieves

Press X to talk to Melto. Roundups
In the midst of his ongoing series of tweets covering the development of Sea of Thieves (full roundup here), Rare designer Gregg Mayles also starting a top ten list of sh*t ideas the team came up with that ultimately didn’t make it to the game. Sometimes you have to fully test an idea in context to get a real handle on how good/fun/worthwhile it is – so don’t view these too harshly. Hindsight is 20/20, after all. 1.  Magic Monkey’s Wonder Window Some ideas we tried were hilariously bad. Setting sail with #1 is ‘Magic Monkey’s Wonder Window’, which allowed…

Developer Update

Mouse and Keyboard support is on the way. Dev Update Videos
Notes of interest: The Gold and Glory weekend awards double gold and double rep. March 20th will bring a trailer for the Mega Update along with a confirmed release date. More details about the Mega Update will come via a series of live-streams. Another game update will come March 20th too, bringing: New Mercenary Voyages, replacing the existing voyages (including the Reaper’s Run voyage and time limited cosmetics) Mouse and Keyboard support for console Xbox chat-pad support Removal of the “weapon equip” delay after a sprint

The Sea of Thieves Insider Program is now live

RIP, Pioneers. News
After a slight delay, the Sea of Thieves Insider Program is now live! (Note: some users may have issues registering or getting the Insider build for the next day or so. Be patient, it’s not going anywhere.) Previously group of players with access to pre-release test builds of the game was known as Pioneers. This was a relatively small, closed group, made up of players originally from the early Alpha testing phases. With the Mega Update on the horizon, which will bring a huge amount of substantial changes to the game, along with the fact that some previous updates had…

A Gold+Rep boost weekend is on the way (updated)

Gold and Glory Weekend: March 15th-18th! Tidbits
Updated: 14 March 2019 The Gold and Glory weekend has now been announced and the countdown is live on the Sea of Thieves site. Pirates who sell loot to any trading company during the event will receive a “huge boost in gold and reputation rewards”. Orignal post: It seems as though some seaofthieves.com site code leaked out a little bit early. This image has popped up on Reddit, and shows a countdown for an upcoming event called “the Gold and Glory weekend”. With “Glory” probably referring to Trading Company Reputation, and “Gold” referring to… well, gold… we expect this to…

Release Notes – 1.4.4

Reaper’s Run of the Wanderer’s Refuge Minor Releases
[Link] MERCENARY VOYAGES Reaper’s Run of the Wanderer’s Refuge – Duke’s shop now holds a treacherous new ‘Reaper’s Run Voyage’ costing 5 Doubloons. Any crew willing to accept this challenge must brave the waters surrounding Wanderers Refuge – with multiple crews all heading to the same location, prepare to do battle! Reaper’s Mark Challenge – Looking for more of a challenge? Equip your Reapers Mark Flag before you set sail in order to warn rival crews of your presence. Pirates who complete The Reaper’s Run of Wanderers Refuge with their Reaper’s Mark raised high will unlock progress towards a Legendary Commendation ‘Legendary…

Developer Update (video)

Game update incoming on March 6th… Dev Update Videos
Notes of interest: The next game update is March 6th. Miss sword swings will incur a delay penalty. Bugs with blocking have been fixed. More balancing may come with small tweaks in future updates. New Mercenary voyages (plural!). One voyage forces you to fly the Reaper’s Mark. The current Mercenary ship cosmetics will leave the game on March 6. Pioneers will become an opt-in program with this update (functionality will be turned on after March 6th though).  The Mercenary clothing and equipment will come into the game to be purchased with gold – this will be in a future update…

We figured out the ship cutouts!

And there’s prototype footage of the feature in action. Tidbits
🚨  Although this is sourced from public information, it may contain heavy spoilers about those cutouts, so if you’re precious about potentially being spoiled, turn back now.  🚨 Since the inclusion of the cut outs at the bow of the ships in the latest build of the game, observers have been trying to figure out what the might be for. Some figure they’re confirmation of fishing, or potentially for mortars, perhaps for swivel guns, or even for deck-mounted harpoons. Eagle eyed reader @PersonalC0ffee reached out to me via Twitter DM with some interesting images captured from early prototype Sea of Thieves gameplay footage….

Everything we know about the upcoming Mega Update

AKA the Anniversary Update! Roundups
Updated March 20th 2019: We now know that the upcoming “mega update” will officially be called the Anniversary Update, to be released on April 30th 2019. Watch the official Anniversary Update trailer and check out our trailer breakdown. Read up on the full Anniversary Update announcement. Original post, Feb 20th 2019: At Inside Xbox in February, Sea of Thieves executive producer, Joe Neate, confirmed that on March 20th, 2019 – the one year anniversary of the launch of the game – Rare will announce everything that’s coming in their next major update, referred to as the Mega Update! It’s been several…

Fan art: check out this incredible pirate diorama

3D artist Miguel Delgado commemorates his 2-man crew. Community
Something many pirates have requested as a merch option for Sea of Thieves is the ability to purchase a figurine of your pirate – something you can sit on your desk, or next to your gaming set up at home. 3D artist Miguel Delgado took matters into his own very talented hands by designing, printing, crafting and painting a diorama of his two-man crew! Miguel did the digital 3D work with Zbrush & Maya, then 3D printed and hand-painted the final work. The result is stunning! We got in touch with Miguel who graciously took to the time for a quick…

Developer Update (video)

More Mercenary Voyages are on the way. Dev Update Videos
In this week’s dev update, Joe confirms what he broadly discussed on Major Nelson’s podcast last week, about bringing more Mercenary Voyage variations into the game as a way to drive interesting player behaviour without a huge amount of dev overhead (while the studio works on bringing out the big stuff). Here’s what Joe said about Mercenary Voyages during that show: We brought in Mercenary voyages [with the latest update]. You go to Duke in the tavern, and there’s one voyage in there at the moment […] but that’s just the first one to celebrate Friends Play Free. As we…

Release Notes – 1.4.3

Weapons balancing and Mercenary Voyages. Minor Releases
[Link] MERCENARY VOYAGE OF THE RUM RUNNER Duke’s in the tavern, offering a lucrative voyage for would-be mercenaries. Recruit some new pirates for your crew and start grabbing loot! New Mercenary Voyage – Purchaseable from Duke for the low price of five Doubloons, this voyage challenges pirates to seek out the stash of a notorious Rum Runner, collecting rewards valuable to all the Trading Companies. This voyage can be repeated to your heart’s content once completed, just purchase another from Duke! Loyal to the Coin – A new ‘Mercenary Voyage’ section has been added to the Reputation tab along with our first…