News, updates and info from the Sea of Thieves.

Hunter’s Haul – Fishing Event

Feb 24th – March 10th, 2020. News
Surprise! Sea of Thieves just launched a fishing event, and it’s live right now! Hunter’s Haul is a 2 week event that tracks three fishy milestones. Week 1 – Feb 24th to March 2nd Sell 120 of any fish type to the Hunter’s Call and receive 250 Doubloons. Week 2 – March 2nd to March 10th Sell 60 trophy fish of any type to receive a 300 Doubloon reward. Campaign Reward – February 24th to March 10th Sell a total of 180 Ruby Splashtails during the event to earn the Gold Hauler figurehead. What’s more, those who somehow manage to…

Chain-shot is coming to Sea of Thieves

“Load your guns with chain shot! Aim for their rigging!” Tidbits
Every month the Sea of Thieves Creator Crew page is updated with an assets pack for the release, allowing creators to use images, sounds, gifs and renders from the update. Earlier today. eagle eyed creator Ritchie SH discovered that the most recent pack (now removed from the page) contained this image: Obviously originally intended as key visuals for this – or a future – update, it somehow snuck its way into the assets zip file. The image shows a pirate in the foreground holding what looks like a split cannonball connected by a short length of chain – a projectile…

How many people are really playing Sea of Thieves?

There’s been “10 million players”. But does that mean anything? News
In January Joe Neate announced (via Xbox Wire) that Sea of Thieves had passed 10 million players since launch. We’re excited and humbled to share that Sea of Thieves has now been played by more than ten million players, reinforcing its status as the most successful new IP from Xbox this generation. The news was met with some scattered derision around Reddit and other venues. Commentary has ranged from skepticism that the number is even real, to anger that Rare is trying to make it sound like the game is more popular than it is. Many said that reporting 10 million…

Yes, you can finally change your Pirate in Sea of Thieves!

So are you going extra-thin, or extra-wide? News
In today’s Sea of Thieves News video (check out the new format), Joe announced that players will finally be able to change their pirates appearance while maintaining their progression! Until now, players have had one chance to choose their pirate’s look using the Infinite Pirate Generator (IPG). The IPG randomly (mostly) rolls fully formed characters including gender, size and a huge amount of other traits. The only way to get a new look for your pirate was to delete them entirely and begin the game again. Over time this has become an issue for many pirates who either missed the…

Release Notes: 2.0.10

Festival of Giving Regular Releases
[Link] FESTIVAL OF GIVING The Outpost taverns have been dressed in jolly decorations – it’s time for the season of giving! Mysterious gifts of unknown origin have appeared throughout the Sea of Thieves, and Stitcher Jim has tasked crews with retrieving them. Rewards are on offer for delivering them to his beloved, currently camped near the wreckage of Merrick’s ship on the Uncharted Reef, now being referred to as The Reapers’ Hideout. Jim is also becoming increasingly fascinated by the secrets held within the Ashen Tomes. With rumours of a new volume of Tomes, skeleton crews have become even more…

Dev Update (video)

The swords they are a-changin’. Dev Update Videos
The next game update is due December 11th, so Joe’s here to cover some incoming quality-of-life changes. Expect more information about the “appropriately themed” (🎅) update next week. But for now, here’s a summary: Sword combat changes. The overall goal of these changes is to make sword combat more fluid. Joe clarifies this is “one step along the path to improving personal combat”. Changes include: Reduced cool-down for missed swings Successfully blocking removes your own stun-lock (meaning you can block and move while absorbing hits) A brief delay when equipping the sword (brings it in line with gun wielding). Ed:…

Golden Skull Sails

A Black Friday Sail. News
To celebrate Black Friday, Sea of Thieves have release a very time-limited set of Black Friday Sails (get it!?). These are available to purchase on the Microsoft store (with real money) for USD $7.99. The sale runs from Thursday morning (00:00 GMT) till midnight on Tuesday, so get in quick! Note: I recommend signing up for Microsoft Rewards. There’s a wide range of simple activities you can do to earn Rewards points (including simply playing Sea of Thieves), and the $5 and $10 Xbox gift cards are easy to get every month or two. Perfect for occasional Ancient Coin purchases….

The Twitch Prime Pirate Pack

Get a free* pet, ship livery, and 3 emotes. News
Sea of Thieves has announced a Twitch Prime promotion that will net pirates a wonderful (and very purple) cosmetic set: The Twitch Prime Pirate Pack. Introducing the @TwitchPrime Pirate Pack! This includes the Amethyst Soul Capuchin, three new emotes and the Celestial Steed Hull, Sails, Flag and Figurehead. Twitch Prime subscribers can tap the link to get this exclusive loot! Yes it had to be purple. 🐵https://t.co/TuhAa47Dus pic.twitter.com/L6dVcosXN7 — Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) November 25, 2019 This is the first broad pet giveaway, so if you haven’t quite managed to kill enough coin-bois to afford one, this is a great…

Release Notes – 2.0.9

The Seabound Soul! Regular Releases
[Link] TALL TALES: THE SEABOUND SOUL Our Tall Tales series first started when we launched the Anniversary Edition earlier this year, and we’re delivering a brand new Tale this month with The Seabound Soul. Brave souls will be led down a dark path to discover the fate of a legendary ship called the Ashen Dragon, with the help of a mysterious gentleman whose name may ring a bell… Tall Tales: The Seabound Soul – The crumbling remains of a once-proud Galleon, the Blackwyche, gave Shipwreck Bay its name. Now a ghostly voice calls out from the wreckage. Journey to Shipwreck Bay and seek the captain’s journal in the heart…

The Seabound Soul Content Update (video)

Fire. Fire. Fire. Trailer and Announcement Videos
The pirates of the Sea of Thieves are no strangers to strangeness, but even they must admit that something has been amiss for a while. The latest rumours speak of Sir Arthur Pendragon returning to the world, a man with his own supernatural history. Meanwhile, the skeletons act to preserve mystical secrets from the past in their Ashen Chests. Even Duke is no longer content to just sit by! What will you do, and how far will you go? Check out the full release notes here.

Making the ‘Sea of Thieves: Origins’ Comics

Bonus: FREE COMICS! Tidbits
On the Sea of Thieves blog this week, the team have detailed the process of bringing the Sea of Thieves: Origins comics to life. Origins is a short series of stand-alone comics that focus on each of the first three Trading Companies. It’s an incredibly collaborative process, with Rare writers suggesting outlines and the comics artists adjusting to the lore and existing game mechanics so the story resonates with players. “The great thing about working on videogame-based comics is finding a new way to celebrate the pre-existing visuals and the narrative. The Sea of Thieves game is rich with striking stylistic characters,…

Adventure Q&A

Chris Davies and Steven Dillon answer questions from the community. Roundups
In October the Sea of Thieves community team hosted a Q&A with Senior Designer Chris Davies and Game Designer Steven Dillon. I’ve collected all of the answered questions below, lightly edited. You should note that a small handful of questions were answered with jokes, or in a decidedly ambiguous fashion – As always, these have been omitted from this roundup, but you can go looking for them here (however I’ve left ones in about Captaincy as these seem to indicate that a Captaincy update is in active development).     Q. “Captaincy for Pirate Legends” that is the question. Chris:…

Dev Update (video)

Ghoul and Glory! Dev Update Videos
A short dev update this week, but a small handful of interesting tidbits. You should watch the video above as always, but here’s a summary for piratical posterity. Fort of the Damned The update has landed really well with players. It’s created a huge variety of player stories, with amazing moments. A Fort Completion hotfix has rolled out which should completely clear up any missed commendations moving forward. (You should note this is not a retroactive fix, which is disappointing). The Arena Duo Sloops has been very popular in Arena, and the overall number of players playing both Galleon and…

Release Notes – 2.0.8

Fort of the Damned! Regular Releases
[Link] FORT OF THE DAMNED An eerie mist rolls into the Sea of Thieves, it transpires that not all the Dark Relics were safely retrieved, and twisted rituals have secretly continued. Dark Forces have begun to emerge from the shadows, seizing an old fort for their evil rituals and opening a window to the Sea of the Damned. Rally your crew and battle through the emerging Shadows of Fate to thwart their evil schemes! Ritual Skull Seeker Bounty Voyages – Stitcher Jim has warned of the presence of a dangerous new type of Shadow Skeletons ambushing pirates across the seas. While…