Sea of Thieves News

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

[h3]Content Update[/h3]
If you were able to join us at various points throughout April, you’ll have noticed a couple of Season Nine Voyages usually reserved for Pirate Legends landing in your inventory. These free login bonuses treated all pirates to a Search for the Skull of Destiny Voyage and a Black Powder Stash Voyage to be enjoyed at leisure. Did you get the chance to dig up a disco skull of your own? Or, less profitably, maybe you ended up blowing your pirate sky high with a misplaced keg? It’s alright, we’ve all been there.

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

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

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[h3]News and Features[/h3]
After we closed out March with our first ever 48-hour Community Weekend, it seemed only fitting to start April with a fond look back on everything achieved throughout the event. From a lucrative Ancient Skelly surge to selfies at the fifth anniversary Picture Wall, the weekend was a delight to reflect on and celebrate.

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

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


[h3]Videos and Streams[/h3]
April was a busy month for our Video team, bringing you not one but two new instalments of Sea of Thieves News, catching you up on all the latest gossip and sharing some of the phenomenal creations our community members have sent our way. We even played around with a football in the Tavern! It… didn’t go well.

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

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

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[h3]Social Channels [/h3]
The month started off strong on Twitter, with pirates sharing their favourite stories from the Season Nine update, but rapidly descended into disappointment when our followers let us down twice in a row. Even when we left clear instructions, we found ourselves beset with selfies. Outrageous.

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

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


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

[hr][/hr][h3]Previously in 2023: [/h3]
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2023 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2023 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2023

Sea of Thieves Season Nine is already in full swing, and that can mean only one thing: another Style of Thieves contest is glinting on the horizon. So it’s time to turn our spyglasses towards the next wave of themes, and deliver a refresh of our top tips for capturing your pirate’s best side with this latest chance to snag a pair of Fashionista’s Finery Gloves.

There will be just 24 hours to enter each theme via social media channels, so be sure to raid your chests and prepare your screenshots in time! Once a theme opens for entry, get sharing your screenshots, and make sure you include the name of the theme you’re entering in your post. See the How to Enter section below for the full rundown of rules.

Once a theme has closed, our crew will whittle down the entries to select the sailors they felt found the perfect fit. We’re excited to invite back special guest judges from our Art team, who will have the final decision on the 12 winning marauders, with three pirates per category taking home their own pair of gloves.


[h3]The Themes[/h3]
Each theme will start at 9am UTC on the dates detailed below with entries accepted via social media for a full 24 hours.

RPG Classes
Draw inspiration from RPG archetypes and show us your pirate as a mage, paladin, druid, warrior or whichever class takes your fancy!
Entry date: May 15th

Romantic
Show off the clothes you’d choose to woo a select scoundrel, or maybe even what your pirate would wear down the aisle in this passionate topic.
Entry date: May 16th

Spring Style
Florals, sunny colours and dressing for the warmer weather – embrace the change of season with a wardrobe refresh.
Entry date: May 17th

The Elements
Water, earth, fire, air – put together an outfit that reflects one of the elements, making sure you tell us which one in your caption!
Entry date: May 18th

Image credit: @CapitanoTiger on Twitter

[h3]How to Enter[/h3]
We’ve got eyes everywhere, so you’re free to submit on a variety of social channels, but each comes with its own quirks as follows:

• To enter on Twitter, make sure you include @SeaOfThieves and #StyleOfThieves.
  
• For Instagram, you just need to post using #StyleOfThieves.
  
• Add your entry as a reply to that day’s theme post on Facebook.
  
• Post your entry with #StyleOfThieves in the #pirate-fashion channel of our official Discord server.

Be sure to include the name of the theme you’re entering in your post, along with any extra info called for by the theme.

[h3]Picture Perfection[/h3]
We’ve put together some handy hints and rules to help you capture your pirate’s best side:

• No Costumes on the catwalk – we want to see your creativity and individuality in how you mix and match items, so no all-in-one Costumes or complete cosmetic sets.
  
• Unless a theme calls for it, all shots should be solo snaps, not crews. Only the pirate in the picture will be eligible for the prize.
  
• Find a simple or plain background to pose against to let your outfit pop. Backgrounds and locations will not be considered when judging the outfit.
  
• Lighting is key, so find a well-lit spot to fully show off your picks – any coloured or tactical lighting won’t be considered part of the outfit.
  
• Toggle off your HUD for that clean finish!
  
• Screenshots should be true to the game – no editing or filters.
  
• Keep your submissions to a 16:9 or 1:1 ratio, making sure your entire outfit is in shot, to help us when framing the winners.
  
• While emotes are allowed, any features added to the outfit via the emote won’t be taken into consideration during judging.
  
• One shortlist will be compiled per theme, using entries across all platforms, meaning it’s not necessary to post your submission to all channels. If you make sure you use the correct tags, we will see it!

Image credit: @mystcasual on Twitter

And there you have it, everything you need to know to enter the next round of Style of Thieves. So get primped and prep your poses, and we’ll see you on stage from May 15th! Good luck.

Ahoy, Pirate Captains! In Season Seven, we introduced the ability to become a Captain in Sea of Thieves. Since then, we’ve really enjoyed seeing all those Captained ships out on the seas and spotting the banners through our spyglass when out adventuring.

We’ve also been listening to player feedback and internally assessing Captaincy and its rewards, and as a result there are some exciting permanent adjustments coming soon.

The changes below are all set to be released in June alongside a Captain’s Week Event. Read on for a summary of what’s coming to the world of Captaincy!

[h3]Milestone Balancing Adjustments[/h3]
A large number of Pirate and Ship Milestones will be rebalanced to make gaining Classes easier. This means that reaching Legendary status in any Milestone Alignment will also be significantly easier, as it will be easier to earn a total of 50 Classes from any of the Milestones within the Alignment.

Any Milestone progress you have already earned will automatically be converted, so you can continue to earn progress and any relevant Milestone Classes will go up when these changes are applied.

[h3]Trinket Unlock Adjustments[/h3]
The number of classes required to buy the four tiers of Trinkets will be significantly reduced. Previously the four tiers were unlocked at Class 10, 20, 50 and 100. These will now be unlocked at Class 5, 10, 20 and 30.

[h3]Saving Your Ship Cosmetics [/h3]
The cost for saving cosmetics to your ship will now be free!

[h3]Trinket and Decoration Pricing Adjustments[/h3]
The gold cost for ship decorations and Trinkets will be significantly reduced.


[h3]Captain’s Cosmetics Adjustments[/h3]
The gold cost for Captain’s ship cosmetics will be significantly reduced. This includes Captain’s Tables, Drapes, Beds, Rugs, Chairs, Chandeliers and Curtains.

Any Captain’s Beds that unlock through Milestones also now unlock at Class 2 instead of Class 5, so you can rest on plush bedding earlier in your journey!

[h3]Captain’s Week[/h3]
All the above adjustments are permanent additions, and they will be introduced in June with a special Captain’s Week Event. During this event, you will be able to earn cosmetic rewards and enjoy a gold multiplier when playing on Captained ships.

[h3]Gilded Sovereign Captain’s Table[/h3]
To honour Captains of high standing, we are awarding an exclusive cosmetic, the Gilded Sovereign Captain’s Table, to any player who accomplishes certain Pirate Milestones before Captain’s Week begins in June.

You will automatically be awarded this exclusive reward if you have earned Class 50 in any individual Pirate Milestone from The Gold Seeker, The Voyager, The Emissary, The Hunter, The Feared, The Guardian or The Servant, with the exception of the following specific Milestones: Nautical Miles Sailed, Days at Sea, Provisions Cooked, Provisions Eaten and Cannons Fired.

We’re giving you advance notice of these changes so you can plan your adventures and spending at the Outposts accordingly!

See you on the seas, Captains!

Treasure seekers, now is your time to shine! Starting on Thursday, May 11th, Sea of Thieves’ second Mystery will set players the task of solving a mysterious set of clues from elusive puppet master known only as ‘H’. Mixing out-of-game puzzles and in-game Voyages, it offers the first player to finish this treasure hunt the one-of-a-kind prize of a replica Gold Hoarder skull – with additional physical prizes on offer for crew members and runners-up.

The Hoarder’s Hunt takes on a slightly different format and flavour to the first Sea of Thieves Mystery, Who Killed DeMarco? That Mystery also encouraged players to team up with other members of the community, setting out to solve the murder of a beloved Sea Dog. Using a variety of social media mechanisms, ARG elements and in-game clues, it unfolded over four months, with each step unlocking dynamically as players hit key milestones.

However, this new Mystery seeks to be a little snappier in delivering clues – with the key twist to the tale being that the fastest players to complete the final Stage will bag themselves seriously cool real-world rewards.

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How It Works
Proceedings will kick off on Thursday, May 11th, when the first clue will drop at www.seaofthieves.com. This will kick off Stage One of The Hoarder’s Hunt – entitled Skin of Gold – and send players out to obscure corners of the internet to find and solve the first set of clues. Keen-eyed, sharp-minded puzzlers will ultimately discover a keyword to submit back at the Sea of Thieves website. If correct, that will unlock access to an in-game Voyage, which the successful solver can collect from Larinna. Seeing the Voyage through to the end will complete that Stage of the Mystery.

There will be four Stages in total: Skin of Gold, A Feathered Fortune, Portrait of Plunder and The Crowning Glory. Each comprises an ARG clue hunt and in-game Voyage – and every time, the Voyage entitlement will need to be unlocked by a successful keyword.

The final Stage will see pirates who’ve solved every step thus far embark on a fraught and frantic race to obtain a special in-game golden key. This key is required to complete the Mystery – with the first eligible pirate to propose and successfully complete the last Voyage bagging the headline prize. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, wait until you’ve seen the clues…

A Tribute to Treasure Hunting
Inspired by real-world treasure hunts and pop culture classics such as Ready Player One, The Hoarder’s Hunt is an epic adventure which offers an unforgettable and unique treasure. This Mystery pulls together the best of what we learned from Who Killed DeMarco? while also paying homage to famous Easter eggs and treasure hunts that came before.

From the story of Olivier Levasseur, the pirate who, just before his untimely end, threw a cryptogram into a crowd that clued the recipient into the location of an outrageous hidden pirate fortune, to Atari’s famous Swordquest, which also rewarded its best players with real-world treasures, The Hoarder’s Hunt is a celebration of clues and puzzles – and those who can’t resist unravelling them.

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Prizes and Rewards Galore
Of course, the coolest prize up for grabs is a recreation of the Gold Hoarder’s skull awarded to the first pirate to complete the Mystery. The skull’s accompanying gold keys are designed to be shared with crewmates who joined the winner for every step of the journey.

Those who solve The Hoarder’s Hunt hot on the heels of the first crew to complete the challenge will also receive real-world prizes, with 10 runners-up receiving exclusive silver keys and 100 third-place pirates getting their hands on Reaper’s Mark medallions. With such glittering prizes on offer, we’re hoping you’ll feel compelled to tackle the clues that ‘H’ will be leaving behind.

For players who don’t quite qualify for the physical prizes, there are still in-game Titles, Trinkets and gold rewards to collect – plus, for the duration of the Mystery, washed-up Bullion Crowns will appear across the world. Players stumbling across these can hand them in to the Gold Hoarders for a handsome payoff so even if you’re not directly tackling the treasure hunt, you can still benefit from it as you travel across the map!

Who Can Play?
With such a complex and global treasure hunt, those who want to tackle The Hoarder’s Hunt will need to opt in to be eligible for the final prizes and to move through each of the Stages. For the finer details on who can or can’t compete in The Hoarder’s Hunt, full terms and conditions will be available when our dedicated Mystery page goes live on May 11th.

The Race Is On!
So, now you know: Sea of Thieves' second Mystery kicks off next week! Stay tuned to our social channels for updates as it progresses – you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitch, and share suggestions and theories on the official Forums or Discord.

Grab your magnifying glass, practise your puzzle-solving and set a course for Sea of Thieves on May 11th, when The Hoarder’s Hunt will drop its first conundrum…

We’re once again rummaging behind the scenes, causing chaos and hunting for the best nuggets of content. After our recent deep dive into the sinister Ravenwood set, we thought this time we’d broaden our horizons by investigating the keystone of any Captained ship: the Ship’s Crest! These little bits of furniture have been adorning purchased ships since the release of Season Seven, allowing Captains to frame their vessel’s chosen name in pride of place.

More recently, Season Nine brought the first new Ship’s Crest design to the Sea of Thieves since their inception. So for this From Concept to Cosmetic article, we decided to commemorate the occasion by diving into the thought process behind Ship’s Crests and how that ultimately coalesced into the shiny new Lodestar variant. So, without any further ado, let’s ask some people in the know how Ship’s Crests came to Sea of Thieves…

[h3]CONCEPT[/h3]
From the Sailor Ship’s Crest freely available to all, right up to the recently released Lodestar Ship’s Crest, all Captained ships come with a Crest. A range of unique designs allows players to personalise theirs and ensure that the vessel’s name will be remembered.

The idea of using Ship’s Crests to display ship names had been in the works for a long time, but when it came to readying them for launch, one of the first questions that needed to be answered was where to have them displayed on each ship. As Principal Environment Artist Andy Betts explains, the decision required some thought:

“I did a bit of initial R&D to see where the Crests would sit best on the three ship types. The Galleon was fairly straightforward, but the Brigantine was less so, and eventually we settled on the front-facing Crest placed on the wheel balustrade area. This was after initially testing it on the masts, but it obstructed the player view somewhat.”



“Similarly with the Sloop and the rear-facing crest, there was a little bit of testing to find a good spot, what with the open canopy nature of the Sloop, and not wanting to place the Crest where the Rowboat would dock. We eventually settled on placing it just under the canopy, at the top so it could be easily seen, but there was still enough room for the player to exit the ship.”

With the location decided, attention turned to designing the very first Crest, available to all players who bought a Captained ship: the Sailor Ship’s Crest. As Senior Concept Artist Tom Mahon describes:

“It was important to keep the default Ship’s Crest quite neutral, and to feel cohesive with the default ship set, so there are few distinguishing features or motifs. The Crest was designed with enough width in mind for longer ship names, and we used this as a rough template for future designs.”

This Crest’s minimal design didn’t necessarily mean it was simple to implement, however. Senior Environment Artist Sophie Ingledew elaborates:

“Funnily enough, the original Sailor Ship’s Crest model was one of the trickiest to set up for Captaincy. Environment Artist Tim Burroughs had the delicate task of reworking the curved nameplate area to allow the text to run along the model smoothly, which is a particular challenge when the model has already been textured and has been on players’ Galleons since launch.

“This task involved tweaking the UVs, a process in which a 2D texture is mapped to the surface of a 3D model, somewhat similar to pattern-making in sewing. The name comes from the two axes in the 2D texture, U and V, used as coordinates to assign pixels to a position on the 3D model.”

Once the base Crest had been decided, the team had 33 more they wanted to bundle in with the launch of Season Seven: five in the Pirate Emporium, and 28 waiting to be unlocked by Captains progressing through the various Ship Alignment tracks. While the quantity meant that a lot of designs had to be put together, the Concept Art team weren’t fazed, as Tom explains:

“One of the most enjoyable assets to design are the Crests, because of the amount of flexibility we have. Capstans and wheels, for example, have a very specific purpose and mechanic, so we can't stray too far from their original form or else we break their function. Crests, on the other hand, are essentially just nameplates, so we can go a bit wilder with incorporating the different sets’ motifs and using interesting silhouettes. The space we're allowed to play with is a lot more generous than most assets.”



Even the more uniform Crests available through Ship Alignment progression offered their own unique challenges and twists:

“For the Captaincy Milestone Crests we used a similar base template for all of them, close to the original Crest. Introducing a placard attached to the top made sure we could incorporate different symbols for the different Milestones. We also added some model and design variation based on each Alignment you can pursue, as we wanted to give players a nice visual difference that reflects their style of play.

“My favourite out of the Milestone Crests is The Rogue and how the banjos are incorporated, a treat for the shanty lovers out there!”

With the release of Season Nine, the first new Crest design was added to the pool via the Pirate Emporium: the astral Lodestar Ship’s Crest. With a regal purple-and-gold design, it’s the latest addition to the fan-favourite Lodestar set. Tom explains the challenges involved in incorporating pre-existing design motifs:

“With Captaincy we wanted to return to some of the popular ship sets and give them their own Crests. Whenever we make a new asset for an existing set, we try to incorporate the colours and motifs of the original set as much as possible. In this case we felt the crescent moons and stars were important to include, as well as the beautiful starfield shader!

“We always want to explore a range of ideas, so we did include an option where the ship’s name was on wood like a more traditional Crest, but the starfield was just too cool to not use. This is one of the only ship sets that uses floating elements, so we had a lot of fun incorporating those floating moons into the design. Overall, I love how it came out and it’s very satisfying to see it on players’ ships.”



As the designs for Crests started to take shape, the modelling team turned its attention to the challenge of bringing them to life in the game…

[h3]CREATION[/h3]
With 34 Ship’s Crests to build ahead of the release of Season Seven, the team had a lot of designs to work through. While Crests in the same set share similar designs, the more unique ones required their own finishing touches and flourishes, as Sophie recalls:

“The Crests unlockable through Captaincy such as the Emissary Crests or Gold Seeker Crests were relatively straightforward to bring into 3D, as they are all based on the original Sailor Ship’s Crest with a bit of variation thrown in.

“The Big Game Hunter Crest was quite a tricky one due to the wooden board where the ship’s name is being a unique shape from the rest of our Crests. It took a bit of trial and error to fit the name onto the plank in the middle. The Kraken bones protrude a fair bit too, and went through some iteration to ensure they didn’t get in the way too much as you were walking around the ship.

“One of our biggest priorities outside of making the Crest look great is to ensure that its presence doesn’t interfere with gameplay. On all three ships we try to minimise how much of the Crest you can see from the helm of the ship. Another aspect we’ve had to be mindful of across the team are elements that go above or below the nameplate, to avoid clipping with the deck of the Brig and the canopy on the Sloop.”

On a technical level, a lot of work went into ensuring that the Crests were always able to blend into the ship as a whole, as Lead Technical Artist Andrew Catling discusses:

“For the Tech Art team, the main challenge was ensuring that Crests with painted areas are able to pick up changes to paint colours from the rest of the ship livery. That meant incorporating all the livery functionality from the ship hull shader into the material for the Crest.

“Here’s a little more technical info on how we handle the Crests: to allow the ship name to follow the curve of the Crest, we map the UVs so they are aligned in a straight line in texture space. We found the best way to do that was to transfer a clean set of UVs from a curved plane onto the UVs of the base mesh.”



“This results in UVs that allow us to render the ship name to an off-screen texture and have it display curved on the in-game model.

“Once we have a black-and-white render of the ship name, we run a few passes over that to produce additional textures for the subtle darkening around the text and the normal to make it look carved into the surface.

“The other contribution from Tech Art was to set up the magical reveal effect when the Pirate Lord first applies the name to your ship. This is using a wipe from left to right in texture space, with noise added to break up the gradient.”

After the sheer volume of Crests involved in Season Seven, putting the sparkling new Lodestar Ship’s Crest together gave the team a little more breathing room to perfect the model. Focusing on a single Crest in this instance, they were able to bring all their experience from Season Seven to bear in ensuring that the new design lived up to the rest of the Lodestar collection.

One of the core facets of this Crest’s design had to be perfecting the parallax effect. All items in the Lodestar set feature this effect, setting them apart from other cosmetics with similar colours and granting them an air of cosmic beauty as the stars within seem to move independently from the item itself. As Andrew Catling tells us, implementing the effect wasn’t simply a matter of copy and paste:

“From a Tech Art point of view, most of the Crests work the same way – so once we had one working how we wanted, it was straightforward to apply that to other Crests. The Lodestar Ship’s Crest has been the main exception to that because it has a different treatment, using floating text rather than carved. For that, we needed to make a new material and also apply the starfield effect to the background.”

Together with its floating gold frame, the effect works to create a unique, stunning addition to the range of Ship’s Crests available to players. Once finalised and built, the Lodestar Ship’s Crest was ready for release with the Season Nine update, hitting Pirate Emporium shelves in March 2023.

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[h3]RECEPTION[/h3]
The release of Captaincy was a defining moment for Sea of Thieves, granting players the ability to really make a ship their own and take to the waves as a true Captain. Within that, Ship’s Crests were the framing for how players could immortalise their carefully chosen names and display them to all as they ventured out across the sea. Producer Louise Roberts tells us:

“Ship customisations are very popular in Sea of Thieves generally, and Crests have continued that trend. Ships tell other players a lot about who you are as a pirate: are you scary and tough, are you fun and colourful? Whatever you like! Crests add to that, both as another part of your ship you can customise and how you present the all-important name of your ship to the wider world.”

The Crests aren’t only shared in-game either, as our Social Media Lead James Bowden points out:

“Whenever we see pirates sharing their Captained ship names across social media (which we always love seeing, by the way, so please keep doing it), it seems quite clear to us that a Ship’s Crest can often be a strong source of inspiration for what gets etched onto the plaque.

“DraconLevia’s upstanding Royal Coronet Ship’s Crest used for their ship The Arrt Gallery. Drazx2’s use of the Lodestar Ship’s Crest for their referential moniker The Orville. The Crest we see more than any other, the skull-mounted boards earned by increasing a ship’s Milestones in The Feared (which doesn’t surprise us, given how many cannonballs you all tend to shoot off on any given day on the seas), used to hold intimidating titles such as Broodmother, Redcap’s Revenge and HMS Interceptor. It’s clear to us that an elaborate nameplate can often be the ornate cherry atop a whole ship’s designation.”



As the first new addition to the Crest selection since they were introduced, and a new element of a very popular set, all eyes have been on the Lodestar Ship’s Crest to see if it can live up to people’s expectations. Fortunately, initial reactions have been very positive, even amongst the Rare team, as Louise tells us:

“The Lodestar Crest is proving to be as popular as the rest of the set from our early sales information. It’s a mesmerising set, we spent quite a while in our playtests just going ‘oooooooh’ and panning around to see the stars move.”

So, with the first new Crest release since Season Seven a success, is the Lodestar Ship’s Crest indicative of more designs to come? We checked back in with Louise to find out:

“We do have plans for more Crests! The initial set of five in the Pirate Emporium were designed to cover a broad range of styles, while not committing us to adding a Crest to every set we do in the future. But we will be revisiting some of our most popular sets, including Dark Warsmith.”

And while you await future Crest developments, we’ll leave the last word for now with Lead Designer Shelley Preston…

“The empty Crest has sat awaiting a name since Sea of Thieves’ launch and has always felt like an invitation to players’ imaginations. That’s because we always knew that one day, players would be able to name their own ship and have it show on the Crest, and it’s been exciting to finally be able to fulfil this promise.”
[hr][/hr]That wraps up our exploration of the world of Ship’s Crests! The next time you purchase a ship and set its name down, take a moment to appreciate the combined work that went into making sure your vessel looks its best. Thank you to all the team members who helped offer this enticing peek behind the game development curtain. Anyone who’s interested in snagging the new Lodestar Ship’s Crest for themselves can just pop over to the Pirate Emporium and take a look in the Captaincy tab.

If you’ve got more questions about how cosmetics come to life, make sure you check out previous entries in the From Concept to Cosmetic series on our News page. And, of course, if there are any cosmetic items you’re particularly interested in, let us know and they might end up in an article just like this one! In the meantime, catch all the latest news, updates and happenings within Sea of Thieves by following us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok or dropping into our official Forums or Discord server. See you there!