Sea of Thieves News

The fifth anniversary of Sea of Thieves is almost upon us! If you were able to tune in to the preview livestream on Twitch or YouTube, you’ll already know that the celebrations are already well underway – but if not, have no fear! We’re here to sum up everything that’s happening in the next few weeks and fill you in on how you can get involved, unlocking a pile of rewards for yourself in the process.

The party kicked off on March 6th, with the Marauder’s Medley Event. Spanning 10 days, this Event revisits some of Sea of Thieves’ greatest updates by offering a themed collection of Challenges to undertake. Keep checking in and ticking off at least one Goal per Challenge to unlock classic cosmetic rewards from anniversaries past, as well as the stylish new Fabulous Five Eyepatch. For a full breakdown of the Challenges, check out our dedicated Marauder’s Medley page!



Those aren’t the only cosmetics you can snag this anniversary: log in between March 17th and March 22nd (10am UTC) and you’ll find the Lustrous Legend Figurehead waiting for you in your Ship Customisation Chest. Alternatively, if you’re in the market for a specific cosmetic, you might be interested in our Anniversary Sale! From March 17th–28th, a sprawling selection of items from sets including those themed around classic Rare games and Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life – our 2021 collaboration with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean – will be on sale in the Pirate Emporium.

Even if you’re low on Ancient Coins, you can always swing by the Emporium during the sale to grab the free Down the Hatch Emote and share a few celebratory grogs with friends. Thanks to all the freebies and rewards being dished out this month, you’ll have no shortage of material when posing for pirate selfies at the fifth anniversary picture wall – a temporary addition to New Golden Sands Outpost from March 20th!



For those of you in search of something to watch rather than play, we’ve got plenty to keep you entertained. Twitch Drops will be available for all participating streamers (not just Sea of Thieves Partners) to offer between March 16th and 20th, so tune in then to your Sea of Thieves creator of choice to earn the latest batch of rewards.

Then, from the world of Twitch streams to the big screen, we’re going cinematic with our next announcement: the feature-length documentary Sea of Thieves: Voyage of a Lifetime will be premiering on the day of the fifth anniversary, March 20th! Featuring new interviews and never-before-seen footage, the film looks back on the highs and lows of developing Sea of Thieves and lifts the curtain on all the work that’s gone into making the game what it is today.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Of course, there’s no way to celebrate our anniversary without also celebrating the tremendous community that has been with us throughout the last five years. That’s why we’re going to be holding not just a Community Day, but an extra-special Community Weekend from March 25th–27th! Anyone who logs in during this event will be treated to multiple freebies: the latest event flag (this time in tasteful gold and black), the delicious Baker’s Barrel Disguise Emote and a free Pirate Legend Voyage to explore at leisure.

Like previous Community Days, players can bump up the shared Community Emissary Grade via social media, with increasing rewards and boosts available at each Grade passed. As a special Anniversary treat, hitting Grade Five will not only grant all players boosted gold, reputation, Seasonal Renown and Faction Allegiance, it’ll also cause more Ancient Skeletons to start appearing across the seas. Together they’ll have 50 million Ancient Coins for the taking, so if you’ve been eyeing anything in the Pirate Emporium you can’t quite afford, now’s the time to get involved!

And finally, as if all these Anniversary celebrations weren’t enough to get excited about, Sea of Thieves Season Nine is right around the corner. Due to land on March 16th, the new Season introduces more loot opportunities and prestigious rewards, a host of new and upgraded features requested by the community, 100 levels of Seasonal progression to climb by raising Renown, and of course an Emporium restock including a brand new Plunder Pass. We’ll have a dedicated article on launch day, but for now keep an eye on our social channels for more, and dive into the newly released Content Update video for a glimpse at what’s coming up!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The time has come once again to take a peek behind the curtain of one of our latest in-game cosmetic collections. After shedding light on the Snowbound Ship Lantern and unpicking the punk biker aesthetic of the Islehopper Outlaw set in previous instalments, we thought that this time we’d head in a slightly more… sinister direction. Enter the assassin-inspired Ravenwood collection, available through the Season Eight Plunder Pass!

As well as a corvid-themed ship design, the Ravenwood collection features our latest evolving costume with three stages to be unlocked through the Season, reflecting your progress. But how did the whole set come into being? Let’s find out…

[h3]CONCEPT[/h3]
Pirates and dagger-wielding assassins might have no real historical relationship to one another, but it’s fair to say they scratch a similar cultural itch for the ‘high adventure with swords’ genre of fiction. With that in mind, it was inevitable that we’d bring the two together sooner or later.

Unsurprisingly, both the Ravenwood ship set and costume are filled with raven motifs, favouring the blacks, blues and purples of a pirate who prefers to keep to the shadows. It was the costume that came first this time, as Senior Concept Artist Ine T'Sjoen elaborates:

“The Ravenwood set started out as part of a concept jam. This is when the Concept team have a few days to come up with as many ideas as we can for future cosmetics. The idea of a raven was tossed around until one of our talented artists created the costume, combining it with an assassin theme to evoke a raven in a way that was less like a literal bird. The costume then inspired the rest of the ship set and other items. As we worked on these, we thought of how we could make the ship feel like the lair of an assassin who uses ravens as a calling card.”



The assassin theme really comes into its own with the evolving Ravenwood Costume. With three stages to unlock, the outfit consists of a maskless version, one with a white mask and a final variant in which the mask turns black. Designing these evolving costumes isn’t as simple as it might first appear, however. According to Ine, creating three unique but equally appealing designs can be a tricky balance:

“Costumes are designed as part of a set that, from the Art team’s point of view, may at some point appear in the Pirate Emporium. So when we design the additional two versions for the Plunder Pass, we always try to find the balance between making a new version that feels like a step in an evolution, but has as much value as the other two costumes. It is at times tricky and some sets lean into the evolving part, whereas in the Ravenwood set, we put more emphasis on making sure players had three different roleplay options.

“We had the idea to add a bird mask to the costume early on. From a role-playing aspect, it made sense to give a mysterious character something to hide their face behind. But we also wanted to give players the chance to remove the mask and equip their own hairstyle, beard and hat. So even though not much else changes between the three costumes in this case, it gives more freedom to players to choose how they want to use their cosmetics.”


[h3]CREATION[/h3]
Once the corvid aesthetic had been nailed down, the team got to work bringing the collection to life in-game. First up, Principal Environment Artist Andy Betts describes how the team developed the ever-shifting colour palette of a raven’s feathers:

“Once again, the challenges involved in the 3D creation of the Ravenwood set were similar to those we face when making any set, in that we first need a new shader from Tech Art to convey a special element or feature found on the items. This can be anything such as a new type of glow or transparency, or in this case the oily reflections seen on the materials to replicate that sheen found on raven feathers. We already had the tech available to achieve a similar look on the ship’s sails.

“Senior Environment Artist Sophie Ingledew and I handled the creation of this set both internally and externally. When we had the cannon, wheel etc. viewable in our in-game lighting and almost finished, it gave us a good opportunity to work alongside the Character and Tech teams to tweak the shaders some more, adjusting the colours used to get the right look.”



Fortunately, the team didn’t have to start from scratch when it came to perfecting the signature raven feather shimmer. Emmett Green from the Technical Art team explains how pre-existing work was able to offer a helping hand:

“We had an iridescent material used for Kraken ink already, so we decided to use that as a baseline and adjust the look from there, using an alpha mask for intensity. The iridescent look uses the normal map on the feathers and cloth.

“We often separate materials for props and characters, which makes it important to pay extra attention to how characters look next to the rest of a set. Our props and character materials were slightly different this time – one material had the ability to use custom roughness and metallic values while the other didn’t, so I needed to add those options to balance everything and give our artists more control. We ended up using a greyscale metallic map for visual interest, as full metallic gave us darker values with too much contrast, whereas no metallic felt too washed out.”



While one part of the team focused on making sure they could replicate the unique colours needed, others set to work creating the 3D model. With so many customisation options for pirates’ appearance available in the game, Principal Character Artist Lorenzo Melizza explains how they account for players’ different styles:

“Starting from a great-looking concept, the translation to 3D always poses a threat. We have to be faithful to the original idea but make sure the model will still work within our system and look good with all the different pirates’ shapes. Keeping a good silhouette and maintaining good colour was vital here to keep the original mean look of this concept.

“The feathers on this costume are key to its design, so we had to be very careful while working on them. Our Tech Art team always comes through and helps us achieve the best look possible with every material we use, and this is another good example of our teams’ collaboration.

“The mask was a task of its own, as is often the case with these more complex costumes. We went through several iterations, initially allowing the mask’s shapes to follow every possible pirate face shape, but that proved impossible in the end. This just shows how much variety we have in terms of pirates’ face shapes, as accommodating all of them with the mask gave us some real ‘monsters’!”

Over on the animation side of things, we couldn’t have a costume set this cool without giving it an equally exciting emote, could we? To that end, the team put together the suitably threatening In for the Kill Emote. You might not have anticipated its humble origins, however, as Lead Animator Andrew Burt lets us into a secret:

“The emote was actually based on me twiddling dinner knives in my misspent youth. Our outsource team then made it look better!”

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
With the collection taking shape, it was time for a little bit of wordsmithing from the writing team to bring everything together and flesh out the lore with item descriptions. Editorial Lead Leigh Loveday goes into a little more detail:

“When a new Plunder Pass launches, that means a whole new Season is launching too and there’ll be a lot of cosmetics to cover in the combined text tracker doc, from Emporium additions and Outpost shop stock to Seasonal progression rewards and Emissary Ledger exclusives. So it was a bonus in a busy month when the Ravenwood set fell into our laps pretty much fully formed.

“Usually the name is placeholder and we start by brainstorming new ones, but in this case Ravenwood felt perfectly fitting (others on the table were along similar lines like Raven Wing, Ravenbone and Raven’s Trail). And the ‘raven assassin with a ship as a lair’ theme offered plenty to work with – we used the descriptions to formalise the Ravenwood order as an actual mysterious institution, one that regarded the costume’s birdlike masks as a system of rank and prestige. As for the ship set, the figurehead descriptions were probably the most entertaining to write as you can’t really go wrong with something that manages to cram in birds, skulls, coffins and daggers.”


[h3]RECEPTION[/h3]
When all the pieces came together, the end result was the wonderfully gothic, intimidating Ravenwood set we see today. Andy Betts sums it up:

“I think everyone was really pleased with how this set turned out, and it’s another good example of how pushing that unique element or feature can make a set that little bit more special.”

With the models polished, copy locked in, assets prepared and everything ready to go, all that was left was to set it loose. As a Plunder Pass exclusive, the set was revealed with the announcement of Season Eight, and arrived in-game as we kicked off the Battle for the Sea of Thieves in November.

The response to the Season release as a whole was hugely positive, but happily the Ravenwood set didn’t get lost in the noise. Olivia Arnell from the Production team was pleased with the reaction:

“Players really seemed to enjoy this set, with the bonus of it being an interesting break from the colour schemes of sets we've released in previous Plunder Passes. Many of them loved the built-in mask and the option to wear the costume without it, we saw some great screenshots shared of crews wearing the costume and getting into some roleplay!”



Social Media Lead James Bowden agrees: “We saw lots of players, including Kit on our official Discord, noting the dark colours as a cause for their affection – while others, like Surprise (also of Discord), took the time to let us know that they’re outfitting their ship with its pleasingly angular cannons.

“The option to wear the costume without the mask so players could leave their pirate’s scowling mug in full view was a hit (one example being SaltRageJoe who expressed a simple declaration of love for the feathered outfit on Twitter, while others like Fiensonix were happy to keep the mask on and brood in the shadows), and it’s always fun for us to see so many players across social channels having fun with the built-in emote!”

While the collection included a full ship livery and evolving costume, any well-equipped pirate will know that leaves certain things conspicuously missing, begging the question: are we going to be seeing Ravenwood weapon or equipment sets any time soon? We pressed Olivia for info:

“For fans of the Ravenwood cosmetics, we definitely have something exciting coming to the Pirate Emporium in the future. We have indeed created weapons and an equipment item to go with this set, you’ll just have to wait a little longer to get your hands on them!”



And that’s the story of the Ravenwood set! Thank you as always to all the different teams for walking us through the work that goes into developing these cosmetics. If you’re interested in acquiring the Ravenwood collection for yourself, be sure to drop into your local branch of the Pirate Emporium and pick up a Season Eight Plunder Pass before the Season ends a little later in March! After that, the masked assassins and their ships will sail back into the shadows – and while it’s likely they’ll re-emerge in the Emporium in future, there’s no telling when…

For more behind-the-scenes insights, you can find the previous entries in this series in our News section, as well as a range of other content covering everything going on with Sea of Thieves. To hear new announcements as they come, you’ll want to be following our social channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok or getting involved in our official Forums or Discord server. Feel free to let us know which recent cosmetic sets you’d like to see covered in this series too!

As we storm into the twilight of Season Eight, get set to salivate over this month’s heavy-hitting Emporium update along with more improvements to ship combat matchmaking following changes made in the last update. Need a quick refresher on the Battle for the Sea of Thieves? Hit play on that trailer...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Ready to see exactly what’s new? Future fashion, Faction action and, er, a frying pan await you in the full release notes for this update below!

[h3]Pirate Emporium[/h3]
The future comes calling on the shopkeepers of the Pirate Emporium this month with a supply drop containing the Halo-inspired Infinite Depths collection. Costume, ship set, weapons and heroic poses – it's a treasure trove of Sea of Thieves-styled cosmetics fit for a chief.

Season Eight Plunder Pass

• Anyone wishing to take full advantage of Season Eight rewards can still buy the Plunder Pass. Any rewards unlocked will become available upon purchase, so players who have raised their Renown throughout Season Eight can instantly see their hard work rewarded before the Season ends.
  
• This Season’s Plunder Pass offers early access to the complete Ravenwood Ship Collection and evolving Ravenwood Costume, and can be purchased at any time through the Pirate Log, Pirate Emporium or Steam Item Store.

Infinite Depths Ship Collection

• Follow in the footsteps of fellow outlaws beneath distant stars with this rebellious ship set. The Collector’s Sails and Figurehead are available to purchase separately.
  
• Pirates looking for just the core components of this ship set can purchase them in an Essential Bundle at a reduced cost.

Infinite Depths Costume

• Blending traditional armour and piratical style, this costume makes a masterful addition to any pirate’s Clothing Chest.
  
• Players wearing this costume can also use the Constant Companion Emote. Even in the toughest of battles, the figure inside this music box brings you comfort.

Infinite Depths Weapons

• With their unearthly sheen, these alien designs aren't quite like anything else you can find on the Sea of Thieves.

Infinite Depths Weapon Pose Emote

• Face anything the future can throw at you with this supply of weapon-specific emotes.

Freebie Armour Mock Emote

• While it's a reach to say this borrowed move will protect you from anything, it does at least make you feel a bit safer.

[h3]The Battle for the Sea of Thieves[/h3]
Matchmaking Improvements

• Further improvements in this area have now increased the size of the matchmaking pools, allowing players to find more crews who have joined the fight. These improvements work towards reducing matchmaking times and improving the suitability of skill-based matches.

[h3]Gameplay Improvements[/h3]
Athena’s Fortune Emissary Flags

• In the Battle for the Sea of Thieves, Athena’s Fortune Emissary Flags won from same Faction battles can now be handed to the Mysterious Stranger in return for gold and reputation. This ensures that players can profit from same Faction battles as well as rival Faction battles.

Ghost Ship Damage Balancing

• Player ships colliding with a Ghost Ship during an encounter will now result in reduced hull damage.

Hiding Ship Names

• Captains now have access to a new setting, providing creators with more control over their Ship’s Crest, Banner and Logbook. Captains enabling ‘Hide My Ship Name From Others’ will now find the ship’s name is replaced when their ship is viewed by any other player.
  
• The existing settings for replacing gamertags, ship names and Captains’ gamertags have all been renamed to improve consistency.

[h3]Outpost Cosmetics[/h3]
Mauve Majestic Sovereign Clothing

• The Outpost clothing shops now stock the Mauve Majestic Sovereign clothing set, available to purchase for gold.

New Vanity Items

• A selection of additional items have arrived at the Outpost clothing shops, giving pirates more options to customise their look. The Cascade Hair, Twin Tails Beard and Ancient Ward Tattoo can now be purchased with gold.

[h3]Events[/h3]
Free Pancake Puzzler Emote

• Countless pancakes are tossed, caught and eaten in the lands beyond the Devil's Shroud at this time of year, and pirates have decided they want in on the action.
  
• Set sail on the Sea of Thieves between February 17th and February 24th (10am UTC) to have the free Pancake Puzzler Emote delivered to your Vanity Chest, allowing you to join in with the pancake-flipping festivities! The catching, not so much...

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock even more cosmetics throughout Season Eight with Twitch Drops! Stay tuned to Sea of Thieves social channels to find out when Twitch Drops will be active for Partnered streamers, allowing players to earn Eastern Winds Sapphire items.
  
• Find out how to link your accounts and more on our dedicated Twitch Drops page.

[h3]Fixed Issues[/h3]
Gameplay

• Ammo Crates being held by another pirate can now be harpooned.
  
• Players attempting to stand on a barrel attached to a ship’s harpoon will now find they slip off into the water.
  
• Players using the ship’s harpoon while migrating across servers will now find the harpoon remains usable on arrival.
  
• Pirates travelling through the Tunnels of the Damned with a barrel attached to their harpoon will now find they can release the item and continue to use the harpoon when reaching their destination.
  
• Gunpowder Barrels aboard a ship will now be detonated by attacks from Ghost Ships, Megalodons and Krakens.
  
• Taking resources or fireworks from a crate and then using a Sunken Merfolk Statue to return to the ship will no longer refill the crate with items.
  
• The contents of storage containers will no longer revert to default values after migrating to a new server.
  
• Exclusive Athena’s Fortune items from the Legend of the Veil Voyage will now progress the Hider of Legendary Secrets Commendation.
  
• Pondies will no longer appear in the lower level of Sea Forts.

The Battle for the Sea of Thieves

• Dropping treasure off the side of the ship while sailing below the waves no longer causes the item to float away above the ship.
  
• Players can no longer beach their ship on an island during a battle to be moved outside the battle area.
  
• Dying when diving below the waves to hunt another crew will no longer cause the battle to fail for both crews.
  
• The Commendations entitled His Favourite Crew and Risk It All now have updated descriptions, clarifying that any Faction ship destroyed will progress this Commendation.
  
• The Commendations entitled Quite the Collection and Souvenir! now display all requirements in their descriptions.

Captains of Adventure

• Captains saving a livery, decoration or Trinket should now consistently find their saved customisations persist between sessions.
  
• Crews will no longer find their ship fails to release a Captain’s Logbook when sinking, even when the server already contains many Ruined Logbooks.
  
• When browsing the Shipwright’s shop, backing out of a shop type will now return to the previous page instead of closing the menu.
  
• After migrating to a different server, the ‘Placed by’ information for a Trinket will now show the correct gamertag.
  
• Players can no longer equip the same Trinket in multiple locations over the maximum limit.
  
• The Treasured Memento Mori will now appear in the Trinket Box after purchasing.
  
• Skeleton Orders found while doing a Fort of Fortune and then completed will now update the Pirate Milestone for Discovered Quests Completed.
  
• Pirates’ hands will no longer intersect with the Captain’s Logbook the first time players interact with it.

Legend of the Veil

• Starting and cancelling Legend of the Veil Voyages should now ensure that treasure from Shipwreck Graveyards is removed from the world.

Pirate Emporium

• The icon for the Labyrinth Looter Cannons has now been improved.
  
• The icon for the Mandrake Cannon Flare has been updated to its finalised form.

Environment

• Harpoons located at the Sovereigns will once again be able to fire down at all angles to retrieve treasure from the ships below without hitting an invisible surface.
  
• An active Skeleton Fort at Old Brinestone Fortress once again fires its cannons at ships on approach.
  
• Chests can no longer fall under a wooden platform outside the tavern at Sanctuary Outpost.

User Interface

• Cycling through throwables using an assigned hotkey will no longer cause the cannonball section on a player’s radial to disappear.

Accessibility

• The ‘Disable Blur’ option now continues to function after travelling through the Tunnels of the Damned.

Visual and Audio

• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ - The Cursed Captain’s skull will no longer appear to float if a player buries then digs him back up.
  
• ‘The Shroudbreaker’ - The opening dialogue with the Mysterious Stranger is now present when starting the Tall Tale at New Golden Sands Outpost.
  
• Players whispering using the Speaking Trumpet while using non-verbal chat will now find their message is only sent a short distance, matching the distance of a whispered voice.
  
• When observing a pirate fishing, players should no longer see their arms move unnaturally across a range of body types.
  
• A floating book can no longer be seen at Smugglers’ Bay.
  
• Pirates’ mouths no longer intersect with the Craggy Beard when worn.
  
• Pressure plate audio effects should no longer be triggered when moving around a specific location in the Pirate Legend Hideout.
  
• A spherical visual effect is no longer present when viewing patches of verdant growth at Marauder’s Arch.

Text and Localisation

• ‘Dark Brethren’ - Text within the Quest Book now appears correctly across a range of languages.

Performance and Stability

• Further server optimisations made to reduce the frequency of server performance spikes, which can result in players experiencing lag spikes, rubberbanding and server correction during gameplay.
  
• Players on lower-performing hardware may notice a small improvement to the speed at which textures load in when approaching an island.
  
• Improved server stability to help prevent instances where using the harpoon could cause players to be disconnected from their session.

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
Localisation Issues

• The text for some newly added Emporium and Outpost cosmetics is not currently available in all languages, and will temporarily appear in English until this is resolved.

Reduced Server Performance

• Players may experience scenarios where they encounter ping spikes at random while playing, resulting in rubberbanding or client stutters. While improvements were most recently released in update 2.7.3, the team continue to work on further improvements for future updates.

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection

• In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While small improvements continue to be delivered during our regular updates, we are continuing to investigate and identify further improvements to the player combat experience.

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.

[h3]Download and Installation[/h3]
Download Size:

• Steam: 6.75 GB

Welcome to 2023! Would you believe it’s already been over a month since the start of the new year? Well, turns out it has because we’re back with another round-up of all the goings-on and happenings of January, all together in one convenient place. If you’d thought we’d have a quiet few weeks after the holiday break excitement then you couldn’t be more wrong. Let’s get into it…

[h3]Content Update[/h3]
The big event in January was, of course, our latest time-limited Adventure. ‘The Secret Wilds’ had players following in the footsteps of Captain Briggsy as her memories took form throughout The Wilds and beyond. Using her old mask, now imbued with mystical powers by Madame Olivia, pirates were able to find shapes in the stars and uncover the legend of a cure to the curse that afflicts Tasha. Whether or not those efforts will succeed remains to be seen…

The new year also meant new fashions, and the Pirate Emporium was ready to oblige. The latest collection to charge onto the scene was the Labyrinth Looter set, taking its cue from a monstrous creature of myth. Meanwhile, the Pocket Pebble Emote granted players a singularly sturdy new pet and the Oar-Inspiring Emote Bundle showed off the multifunctionality of your favourite Rowboat accessory. Throw in the usual free monthly emote silently beckoning you over and it was a good month to pad out your emote radial.

That wasn’t all for January, with the Battle for the Sea of Thieves introduced at the start of Season Eight also getting a brace of updates and improvements. See the release notes for the full story!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]News and Features[/h3]
You’re likely familiar with the drill by now: with a new Adventure to explore, there was, of course, an Adventures Ahead article to catch you up to speed on the story so far. This time we were delving into the hidden power of Briggsy’s mask and the history behind the Skeleton Curse.

In community news, we wasted no time in getting back to our ongoing series of Spotlights. First in line was a Community Spotlight on illustrious illustrator Shabby to talk about how Sea of Thieves has helped to inspire his artwork; then, towards the end of the month, a new Creator Spotlight centered on the famously hirsute Beardageddon, discussing how he came to the Sea of Thieves and relaying some of his favourite memories from the game.

January also saw a host of new entries into the Community Hub, including a suitably wintry festive ship design and a mind-boggling trick of perspective. Meanwhile, the Rare Store celebrated Lunar New Year with a selection of Year of the Rabbit goodies, while snack lovers were offered another way to pick up some striking new ship parts!



[h3]Videos and Streams[/h3]
After the excitement of Grogmanay finished off the Festival of Giving for another year, we started looking ahead at what’s coming with 2023’s first instalment of Sea of Thieves News – hosted by a new face too, in keeping with this season of new beginnings.

Anyone looking to fill out their Eastern Winds Sapphire collection will have enjoyed January’s Twitch Drops, with the entire ship set – and a bonus tankard – available to anyone who tuned in to Partnered Sea of Thieves streamers. On the other hand, if you’re more into listening to things than watching them, don’t forget to check out the newly released ‘Factions of Fate’ soundtrack addition for all your battle music needs.

Closing out the month, we took the opportunity to welcome new and returning players to the sea with 10 Things You Need To Know about Sea of Thieves in 2023 before setting sail. You wouldn’t think you could cram all that information into seven minutes or less, but pirates can be sneaky like that.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Social Channels[/h3]
We came into the new year fighting fit and looking for a battle cry to match. With the Battle for the Sea of Thieves raging on, starting a fight is easier than ever, so it’s good to have a few lined up whenever you weigh anchor!

In less combative news, players remembered the revelries of Grogmanay with the first #SoTShot competition of the year. Under the Pirate Party theme, players across the sea got creative with fireworks and festivities, leading to a submissions folder overflowing with colourful scenes and joyous celebrations before the focus moved on to recreating Movie Moments.

The Festival of Giving didn’t slow down construction of our new port town – pirate builders being surprisingly work-conscious – so we took a look back on how far Golden Sands has come and even revealed a few new secrets you might not have found. Out on the water, we paused in taking advantage of reduced price crates to have a brief crisis about the deck layout of our Sloop. Fortunately we just had to look at some frogs to calm ourselves down, and from there we moved on to intriguing history lessons delivered by #TriviaTuesday and exploration by way of #SundayVibes.



All of which brings us now to February! January was obviously just the start of what we’ve got planned for 2023, so keep your ears open to get all the news as it comes. To make sure you don’t miss anything, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, or join the official Forums or Discord. See you there! Or here! Or everywhere!

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Previously: [/h3]
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: December 2022