Sea of Thieves News

The past month has seen big news in the form of the Season Seven Captaincy announcement, now mere weeks away. Until then, you can enjoy the fruits of your ‘Lost Sands’ labour as New Golden Sands Outpost begins its recovery, impress people with amber from the Pirate Emporium and pick apart a new stack of adjustments and improvements. And one last time, remind yourself of the features that came front-loaded into Season Six via the trailer below!

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Ready to move forward? Then take our hand (not the hooked one, for your own sake) and let us show you exactly what’s new in the latest update...

[h3]Adventures
[/h3]
The fifth time-limited Adventure is here, and following a Megalodon melee in ‘The Shrouded Deep’ and a war of attrition in ‘Lost Sands’, many pirates were probably hoping for some downtime. As was Merrick, but things are rarely so simple on the Sea of Thieves...

‘The Forsaken Hunter’ (June 30th – July 14th)

• After recently putting himself on the front line, helping Belle retrieve the Veil of the Ancients and rallying traders and pirates alike in the rebuilding of Golden Sands Outpost, Merrick has gone missing under mysterious circumstances.
  
• With several days having passed since he was last seen, many are worried about his whereabouts. Speak to Larinna to begin this next Adventure and search for the missing Hunter before it’s too late!
  
• Pirates who fully complete the Adventure will earn an exclusive Title and a cosmetic reward to serve as a Memento of their quest.

[h3]World Changes
[/h3]
The world of Sea of Thieves doesn’t stay still for long, from major regional discoveries down to the smallest island alterations. And with certain Adventures comes a new way to bring about change – driven by the decisions of pirate crews!

New Golden Sands Outpost

• After tireless work from all its supporters, Golden Sands Outpost has been saved. Merrick and the Outpost residents are eternally grateful to those pirates who joined their cause.
  
• The enshrouding fog has lifted and island life is beginning to return to normal, although the scars of battle remain. The residents have begun to make repairs and are more than happy to resume trading!
  
• However, the Pirate Lord and Golden Sands’ traders will not stop there. They have plans to protect the island from future threats, meaning that more changes will emerge over time.
  
• To commemorate the rebuilding, all have agreed that the island will from now on be known as New Golden Sands Outpost.

[h3]Pirate Emporium
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Bring millennia-old prizes into the present with the Prehistoric Plunderer collection, comprising a ship set, costume, weapons and lantern. You can double dip on new emotes too, and this time it really is your last chance at this Season’s Plunder Pass!

Season Six Plunder Pass

• Anyone wishing to take full advantage of Season Six rewards can still buy the Plunder Pass. Any rewards unlocked will become available upon purchase, so players who have raised their Renown throughout Season Six can instantly see their hard work rewarded before the Season ends.
  
• This Season’s Plunder Pass offers early access to the complete Spring Blossom ship set, the evolving Forest's Blessing Costume and other items of upcoming Emporium stock, and can be purchased at any time through the Pirate Log, Pirate Emporium or Steam Item Store.

Prehistoric Plunderer Ship Collection

• Emerging from the depths of time, this ship collection brings the majesty of prehistory to the seas. In addition to the main bundle, a ferocious Collector’s figurehead and Collector’s sails can be purchased separately.
  
• A Prehistoric Plunderer Essential Ship Bundle is also on offer, including just the core ship cosmetics at a discount.

Prehistoric Plunderer Costume

• Studded with dinosaur bones and turning your skin to amber, this costume urges you to let out your finest primeval roar!
  
• While wearing this ferocious outfit, players can perform the Amber Inspector Emote.

Prehistoric Plunderer Weapons

• Feel the brutal bite of beasts from a land before time with these four fossilised weapons.

Prehistoric Plunderer Lantern

• It’s amazing to think the tiny creature encased in this lantern evolves into a mighty Megalodon. Truly, life finds a way.

Stage Dive Emotes

• Hide in the most dramatic fashion possible with this set of outrageous yet somehow stealthy emotes.

Sports Day Emotes

• Let’s get physical with this selection of athletic emotes. Don’t forget to warm up properly!

Freebie Rant and Rave Emote

• This petulant display is often followed by a colourful tirade through the speaking trumpet.

Fossil Frenzy Bundle (Store Only)

• Available only from the Steam Store for Steam players, this bundle contains the Prehistoric Plunderer Costume, Lantern and Weapon Bundle, 550 Ancient Coins and a free 25,000 gold bonus for use in the Outpost shops! Head to the Steam Item Store to find out more.

Emporium Summer Sale (starts June 24th)

• Fabulous discounts are available on a range of Pirate Emporium items from June 24th–July 11th. Pirates will be able to pick up sizzling deals on Collector’s Pets and a wide range of emotes!

[h3]Events[/h3]

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock even more cosmetics throughout Season Six 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 more items from the Twilight Hunter set. Find out how to link your accounts and more on our dedicated Twitch Drops page.

[h3]Outpost Cosmetics
[/h3]

Plucky Ruffian Sea Dog Set

• The Outpost clothing shops now stock the Plucky Ruffian Sea Dog set, available to purchase for gold.

[h3]Accessibility[/h3]

Swapping Analogue Sticks

• Players using a controller can now swap the actions performed by the two analogue sticks using ‘Swap Sticks’ under Input Settings. When enabled, the Left Stick will be used to look around, while the Right Stick will be used to move.

[h3]Gameplay Improvements
[/h3]

Skeleton Fort Improvements

• Food Barrels in Skeleton Forts are now stocked with a wider range of food, and each barrel contains a larger supply.
  
• Barrels holding cannonballs in Skeleton Forts now use the Cannonball Barrel’s visual appearance.
  Island Threat Balancing
  
• Skeletons encountered while exploring islands have had their damage slightly reduced.

[h3]Updates
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Emissary Flags and Tunnels of the Damned

• Following the discovery of a gameplay exploit, active Emissaries passing into a Tunnel of the Damned will no longer drop a broken Emissary Flag upon leaving the server. This is a temporary mitigation which will be replaced by a permanent fix in a future update.

Pirate Legend Hideout Shops

• The shop in the Pirate Legend Hideout now offers the Veil of the Ancients Costume to those Legendary pirates who have earned the required promotion. This costume is no longer available from the Pirate Lord.

[h3]Fixed Issues
[/h3]

Gameplay

• Players should no longer experience an extended wait time on the Ferry of the Damned before the portal opens.
  
• Players should once again be able to deliver Fruit Crates and Wood Crates to the Merchant Alliance, and no longer be redirected to Merrick.
  
• After passing through the Tunnels of the Damned, crews should find that other players they encounter in the world can still be muted when using ‘Mute All Other Crews Voice Chat’ from the Settings menu.
  
• The ‘Place Map Bundle’ tooltip should no longer be shown on the Captain’s Table when a player is not in possession of a Map Bundle.

Legend of the Veil Voyage

• Playing through the Legend of the Veil Voyage and then migrating servers will no longer cause players to lose their progress.
  
• Treasure items left untouched following a Haunted Island encounter should no longer disappear if the Veil Stone is used prior to collecting the rewards.
  
• Ancients summoned during the Haunted Island ritual can now be heard speaking during the final battle.
  
• Purchasing a Legend of the Veil Voyage from the Pirate Lord now displays the correct iconography in the confirmation window.
  
• Players exploring a Shipwreck Graveyard will now encounter sharks.
  
• Treasure Crates discovered while exploring a Shipwreck Graveyard should now always be retrievable.
  
• Improved grammar in the Shipwreck Graveyard quest book pages and tooltips.
  
• The Veil Stone treasure chest recovered from a Shipwreck Graveyard can now be opened while being held.
  
• Quest Book pages provided by the Pirate Lord to seek out Belle during a Haunted Island quest now use correct landmark names.

Environment

• The pet cage aboard a Sloop has been moved back to give players easier access to the Map Table.
  
• Players who attempt to jump on the bookcase in a Sloop should no longer be loaded back onto the ship.
  
• Players should no longer find a floating candle above an interactable barrel at Shark Bait Cove.
  
• Grog bottles in Old Brinestone Fortress no longer float above the ground.
  
• Pets can now be placed on the Sloop’s bed.
  
• When swimming in deep water or flooded rooms, players’ pets should no longer walk around underwater.
  
• Players should no longer be able to walk through pillars next to the Storeroom in Sea Forts.
  
• The rug at Mercy’s End Sea Fort should no longer intersect with the floor.
  
• Players should no longer be able to walk through wooden crates at Imperial Fortress, Traitor’s Fate Fortress and Mercy’s End Fortress.
  
• Players can no longer pass through the hanging barrels near the Treasury room at Imperial Crown Fortress and Old Brinestone Fortress.
  
• Within the Pirate Legend Hideout, players should no longer be able to push through the sea floor and appear in the open sea.

Visual and Audio

• Players should no longer be able to strike at a location where another player may be respawning and hear an audio effect, confirming that player’s location.
  
• Legendary Luke in the Pirate Legend Hideout now has voiceover lines when speaking.
  
• Players and pets should now sit correctly inside the Magpie’s Glory and Silent Barnacle Cannons when loaded.
  
• Equipping the Spring Blossom Figurehead or Collector’s Spring Blossom Figurehead on a Sloop should no longer show floating objects beneath the figurehead.
  
• During the Maiden Voyage, the Rowboat lantern is now connected correctly to the Rowboat.
  
• Pets offered food will now move smoothly to the right position before taking a bite.
  
• The Eternal Freedom Wheel now casts a shadow on the deck.
  
• While holding an Instrument of the Damned, looking at smoke should no longer cause the smoke to appear in front of the instrument.
  
• Walking over wooden planks in Old Brinestone Fortress should now cause the correct sound to be heard.
  
• Players should no longer see an option to sit in mid-air when on the west side dock at Dagger Tooth Outpost.
  
• Players should no longer encounter oversized projectiles fired from a Trident of Dark Tides.

Text and Localisation

• Skeleton Captain names shown on Bounty Quests from the Order of Souls now display correctly in Japanese.
  
• Description for the Eastern Winds Jade Shovel has been revised.

Performance and Stability

• Improvements made to reduce scenarios where players can experience extended black screen loading times when using a mermaid or returning from the Ferry of the Damned.
  
• Improvements made to the accuracy of a player’s firing location when shooting a ranged weapon. This is intended to improve hit detection across a range of gameplay scenarios where the player is moving while firing.
  
• 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.
  
• Server stability has been improved, reducing scenarios where crews are removed from a game session.

[h3]Known Issues
[/h3]

Reduced Server Performance

• Players may experience scenarios where they encounter ping spikes at random while playing, resulting in rubberbanding or client stutters. While more improvements have been released in update 2.5.3, the team continue to work on further improvements for future updates.

Steam Achievement Unlocking Issues

• Some Steam players may find that after an achievement is unlocked in the game, it is not unlocked within Steam.

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: 9.51 GB

May! A month stuffed to its extremities with Adventure, from the last stretch of 'The Shrouded Deep' to the opening gambits of 'Lost Sands'. And in the space between them we managed to pack in this Season's Community Day and the launch of the very first Sea of Thieves Mystery. There has, as DCI Taggart used to say, been a murrr-der, and it's better if we get these obscure British references out of our system here than in an in-game weapon description or something. Now then: let's recap!

[h3]Content Update
[/h3]
Yes, 'The Shrouded Deep' – our third time-limited Adventure, and first finale Adventure running to three weeks instead of two – still had half its runtime to go as we moved into May. Only when the monthly update landed on the 12th, with a suite of wild Emporium additions (Lionfish! Crab! Rat!) and bunches of bugfixes and improvements, did the grand Ghost hunt draw to a close.

It wasn't quiet for long, of course, with Mysteries making their Season Six debut as promised earlier in the year. So are we seeing things? Or hearing things? Who can say – Mysteries aren't about having the answers laid out in plain sight or explained in detail, so stay sharp for clues both in-game and out, leaving your deerstalker and/or handlebar moustache wax within grabbing distance. No, you maniacs, they're just detective references, not clues.

Two weeks after the end of 'The Shrouded Deep', our next update introduced the fourth Adventure, 'Lost Sands'. While the bombast of battling Megalodons receded into a more prolonged power struggle, emotions were still running just as high. The fervent back-and-forth over whether to #SaveGoldenSands or #RuinGoldenSands was stoked by updates on the state of play after the first weekend, and a breakdown of actions that players could take to swing the balance. The outcome wouldn't be known until 'Lost Sands' ended on June 9th, so players seized the opportunity to change the world and, just as importantly, blag some sweet Mementos while they were at it.

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[h3]News and Features
[/h3]
In the world of words delicately whittled or sometimes rancorously hammered into the shape of news posts, 'Lost Sands' was preceded by the regular Adventures Ahead primer to get everyone up to speed ahead of the new Adventure, while our dedicated Mysteries article saw Creative Director Mike carefully set the scene without straying into a morass of spoilers. Upcoming social contest Style of Thieves got its own editorial exposé on Community Day, and we canvassed another convocation of artists and producers to give you a From Concept to Cosmetic breakdown of the Islehopper Outlaw set.

The Spotlight schedule didn't falter in the face of all this, adopting an accidental food theme in May as Captain Peachy rolled into the ranks of Community Spotlights while KatLikesTacos packed her single-item shopping list for a Creator Spotlight outing. Our second Spotlight Showcase settled into place on Steam too, rounding up all the recent Spotlight activity for news hunters of those geyser-pocked wildlands.

And – and! – we rolled out a whole new section to help folks stay on top of Who's Who on the Sea of Thieves, as our Adventures and Tall Tales and Mysteries continue to usher characters in and out of the limelight. And – and! – May's musical release returned to us from a Voyage deep into the pixellated past, as the enduring 'We Shall Sail Together' was adorably demade for a Retro Mix.




[h3]Videos and Streams
[/h3]
Plenty going on here in May too: central to it all was the double bill of Adventure-based trailers, with the 'Lost Sands' cinematic dropping a few days ahead of the Adventure to build hype before the launch trailer landed alongside the game content itself. Would have been weird if it didn't, really.

In the wake of a full introductory video for Mysteries, video clips have already gone on to become an integral part of how these stories will feed out hints and revelations – beginning with a clip that had no name except for a simple, sad skull emoji. RIP, you bombastic old peacock. We have no doubt that the truth of this tragic tale will eventually come to light, as the pirate community is bristling with eagle-eyed investigators.

Back before any of this in the first half of May, episode 7 of the Official SoT Podcast turned the tavern into a bathysphere exploring previous Adventure 'The Shrouded Deep', while a fresh episode of Sea of Thieves News divulged details of Community Day along with a bundle of end-of-month Twitch Drops, easing the transition as a knackered May tagged in June.

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[h3]Social Channels
[/h3]
Community Day was of course May's pivotal point on our social channels, arriving as it does only once a Season, and arriving this time surrounded by orifice-sealing nervousness over the spectre of Strawberrybeards. Thankfully all was well from go-live time onwards, with Community Emissary Grade Five triggering a monster Renown multiplier well before the halfway mark, at which point we dropped some sweet, sweet stats. There was also free stuff to be had, sales, a fancy banjo – even a bespoke challenge list, checklist, score card and smart screenshot frames to help players share whatever they were up to. The latter idea then carried over to the 'Lost Sands' Adventure, where another clutch of assets assisted efforts to #SaveGoldenSands or #RuinGoldenSands.

It was a three-batch month for Community Hub updates, delivering new drops of player creativity at the start and end of May with one in the middle for luck. Early May #SoTShots, on the other hand, were only interested in Megalodons, with the shortlist as difficult as ever to whittle down even with separate sets of winners on Twitter and Instagram. Once more sticking to the spirit of the live Adventure, the next #SoTShot theme was Rivalry with more sets of winners currently on the cusp, the very cusp of being decided.

#TriviaTuesday kept it relevant to recent updates with info on Ancient Phantoms, the Veil of the Ancients and Ghost Garrisons, plus the Servant of the Flame's history and current cause. And for the weekend wind-down, #SundayVibes swept us off to Fools Lagoon and Golden Sands, bookending a double appearance for Sea Dog's Rest, for reasons of… a Sea Dog… having a nice rest?



And that's an end to it! Thank you for your service, May – off you go, close the door on your way out but be sure to let the cat in first. In a dangerously brave plot twist, the cat's name is June. And if you want to keep up with June's cantankerous edicts then you'd better follow Sea of Thieves on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, the official Forums or our Discord server. And come back here for next month's round-up, when we'll be cross-hatched with cartoon scratch marks from trying to shove June off the chair so someone else can sit down.

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Previously in 2022:
[/h3]
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: April 2022
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2022 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2022
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2022

That’s right, as revealed in our singalong segment at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12th, the long-awaited promise of Captaincy is soon to be fulfilled in Sea of Thieves.

Season Seven arrives in July, and with it comes a whole set of Captaincy features that will not only allow you to name your ship and emblazon it on the crest for all to see, but customise the ship’s interior to your heart’s content and earn a whole host of new progression rewards too. Miss the Showcase event? You can watch the trailer right here…

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Hopefully this gets your buccaneer blood pumping for everything coming to Sea of Thieves in Season Seven. Plenty more detail to be shared as we get closer to launch!

As you’ll have seen in the trailer above, we’re also celebrating the landmark of 30 million players. It’s a truly staggering milestone that means the world to everyone here at the studio. We want to thank you all so much for joining us on the seas since 2018, and we are giddily excited to see how many of you go on to take up the mantle of Captains.

In honour of this 30 million player milestone there’ll be a Gold & Glory Weekend starting on June 17th, offering double gold and reputation and boosted Renown for all treasures cashed in. Before June ends you can also look forward to content updates delivering further improvements and fixes, heaping new treasures onto the Pirate Emporium shelves and ushering in our fifth time-limited Adventure, ‘The Forsaken Hunter’. And then the age of Captaincy will be imminent…

It’s set to be an exhilarating couple of months for Sea of Thieves, so settle into your Captain’s chair, start brainstorming the best ship name on the seas and brace for the next phase of adventure!

While the current state of the seas could be best described as turbulent, with pirates scuffling over the fate of Golden Sands in our latest Adventure ‘Lost Sands’, those with the capacity to cast their minds back to May 14th will remember a pallier period of piracy. A more relaxing event. A Community Day, if you will.

That’s right, the 24-hour period that ran from 10am UTC on Saturday May 14th saw scores of scoundrels setting sail with a view to make the most of boosted gold and reputation for the duration, and of course picking up their free flag and Wing Flap Emote. Alongside in-game actions, many pirates also took to Twitter where they could mingle among the community and share their shenanigans using #SeaOfThievesCommunityDay, with the ultimate aim of boosting Renown gains to previously unseen levels through cumulative use of the hashtag!

The lack of a certain berry-bearded bounder obviously kept morale high, contributing to speedy sharing of the tag and the Community Emissary Grade being raised to its maximum level in under 11 hours, more than an hour quicker than the previous Community Day! We were even trending for a bit, so thanks for helping us raise our flag high. Go ahead and pat yourselves on the back for us. It would take a while for us to get around to all of you.



Speaking of all of you, let’s talk cold hard stats to get a view of what you got up to as a community throughout those 24 hours. Fun and frolics were high on the agenda, with 525,387 fireworks fired, 810,862 pints of grog downed and 1,900,558 instruments played. There were also 205,162 instances of pirates hiding in barrels, though how many of those were for nefarious deeds and how many were simple practical japes, we can’t say. Aside from fireworks, cannons were used to launch a lot of cannonballs (14,474,694 to be exact), a lot of pirates (1,492,407 counts of corsair cannonballs) and a number of projectile pets (71,235).

In terms of the biggest numbers, you’re all clearly very hungry, scoffing a total of 9,212,294 pieces of grub, of which 3,078,249 pieces were the classic banana. But then, treasure hunting is hungry work, and after raking in a cumulative total of 129,420,824,546 gold we can’t blame you for splashing out on a few prime Kraken steaks. You deserve it!

You all also had a lot to say about the most important debate on the Sea of Thieves right now, with 39,746 Pocket Rats whipped out versus 59,527 Pocket Crabs after their recent introduction to the Pirate Emporium. Seems the presence of the pinchy crustaceans in our trailers may have inflated their celebrity status…



Moving away from the big numbers, we also like to use Community Days to bestow the blue bonnet, otherwise known as the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame, on deserving but as-yet-unsung pirates, and this time we gave away more than 30 over this 24-hour period. Dedicated artists such as Ozurian Art, Skeleton Crew Comics, ColourMeFun and Havexis, prop creators like MiniMeMarcLee and Sirbats and Community legends including Capt_Ballzonia, gaming_4nj4, AT0MAC and ItsGummyyBear all found long-overdue fancy caps in their Equipment Chests throughout the day.

We also celebrated a number of sailors doing something special for the day itself. From personal projects such as Cpt_Drasuk’s Community Day skull competition and KlutchxKing518’s concertina effort, to in-game fun inspired by our Challenge List from vznDustBunny and crew, we loved seeing how the community marked the day and we hope they enjoy peacocking about with their new headwear.

Speaking of peacocking, we also snuck in a little announcement during the day, revealing that our new #StyleOfThieves social competition will be launching during Season Seven and offering a way to earn the Fashionista’s Finery Gloves! Fashionable filibusters should hop over to our dedicated article to learn more about that, and keep an eye on social channels following the arrival of the next Season to be sure of seeing the first set of prompts.



We’ve covered a lot and we haven’t even mentioned the Gilded Phoenix Banjo Twitch Drops. Or our special screenshot frames and wallpapers we made for the day. Or how you all told us what Sea of Thieves means to you in a handful of words. Or the fact that our merch store had an actual physical flag available to buy. Or the fun score card we created and saw people using on streams and social media. Or people scouring the seas for crews sailing under the Deckhand and Quartermaster Sails and giving away elusive Obsidian items. Or us calling out everyone looking at their phones instead of handing in loot (we know you do it). As with last time, let’s just say lots happened.

So if you sailed with us at any point during our Season Six Community Day, either on the seas or simply via social media, thank you. Thank you for bringing your creativity, fun and passion for the Sea of Thieves we share, and for making loads of noise in the simple spirit of shouting that affection at the world. The #SeaOfThievesCommunityDay tag remains an archive of your enthusiasm. It’s both heartwarming and humbling for us (and the entire Sea of Thieves team) to see, and certainly puts a big gust of wind in our sails.

We’ll be holding another Sea of Thieves Community Day in Season Seven, so keep your eyes on the horizon and, more helpfully, our social media channels (and Twitter in particular), to find out when that’ll be. We’re already looking forward to seeing how you’ll all impress us again!