News, updates and info from the Sea of Thieves.

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…

Skeleton pets!

Get ready for the bones brigade. Tidbits
The Fort of the Damned update is due to go live tomorrow, but we’ve already got our first hint of some incoming cosmetics. The Pirate Emporium page on the official Sea of Thieves website received a stealth update to the banner earlier today, with an image highlighting two new pet variations – both of the skeletal variety. These will no doubt be available to purchase with Ancient Coin, but we’re yet to find out if they’re time-limited. It’s certainly possible given the spooky theme of this month’s update. If you pull out your spy glass you’ll also note the Killer…

Talk Like a Pirate Day: Twitch Drops

Watch a Twitch stream, get some cannons! Tidbits
Talk Like a Pirate Day is arrrrrrrrrrrlmost upon us. To celebrate, Sea of Thieves is partnering with Twitch to give away these spiffy Obsidian Cannons! (We knew they were coming eventually). It’s easy to get these lovely boom-shooters. Here’s how: Head to seaofthieves.com/twitch-drops and link your Sea of Thieves account with your Twitch account. Watch any of the listed streams on Thursday 19th of September (10am BST on September 19th until 10am BST on September 20th) for at least 30 minutes. TIP: You can watch the official weekly Sea of Thieves stream with Captain Falcore as part of the promotion….

Sightings: Ancient Skeletons

Shoot them quick! Tidbits
As part of the introduction of the Pirate Emporium, Rare also brought a new enemy to the game – the Ancient Skeleton. As you explore the world in both Adventure and Arena, you’ll have a rare chance of encountering this beastie. He’ll dig out of the ground with a flourish and make a run for it. If you can capture him, you – and your crew – will earn some Ancient Coin (Rare’s in-game currency available to buy with real money). Now, we’re starting to see live encounters from the game. Reddit user TruEdits killed on on Shipwreck Bay with…

Join the Creator Crew

Rare launches a suite of tools and assets for Creators. News
As promised in a Dev Update video a couple of weeks ago, Sea of Thieves has officially launched its Creator Crew program. The team explained their motivation for rolling out this new program, as well as the details of the program itself, in a news post on the Sea of Thieves site. Since launch, 593,000 players have livestreamed the game, with hundreds of thousands more sharing content across Xbox Live, social media or YouTube. The creativity, humour and storytelling ability shown by our creators has been an inspiration to us, and they’ve played a huge role in making Sea of Thieves the…

Release Notes – 2.0.7

Smugglers Fortune! Pets! Pirate Emporium! More! Regular Releases
[Link] In addition to new Voyages, updates and general improvements, Smuggler’s Fortune ushers in the Pirate Emporium, where players can get their hooks on a feathery or furry personal friend alongside new emotes and ship cosmetics. With the opening of Duke’s Black Market too, Smuggler’s Fortune promises plenty of opportunities to further personalise your pirate adventures. SMUGGLER’S FORTUNE Following the delivery of Reaper’s Chests to Duke during Dark Relics, he’s now managed to crack open the chests and reap the valuable items inside. Unfortunately, alongside all the treasures, it turns out that many of the Reaper’s Chests simply contained bones, rags and shards that…