Sea of Thieves News

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Another year is almost over, both here and on the shores of the Sea of Thieves, where the Festival of Giving is about to get underway! Everyone’s invited to join the festivities in the latest free Sea of Thieves update, available today on Steam.

Brand new Events and fan-favorite Voyages mingle with incentives such as login gifts and Twitch Drops as the festive season sweeps across the seas, from The Shores of Plenty to The Devil’s Roar. And before getting started, you can grab some stats on your piratical performance in 2020 by checking out Your Story So Far!


[h3]Holiday Happenings[/h3]

During the inevitable end-of-year visits to the tavern, Sea of Thieves’ pirates will find Larinna offering two more Voyage options, both returning favorites. Reserved for special occasions, Gilded Voyages come with the promise of seriously boosted bounty, while the explosive Black Powder Stashes have widened their scope to include more recent toys like the Chest of Rage and Ashen Winds Skull.



Meanwhile, in true Festival of Giving spirit, a line-up of time-limited Events will let pirates rake in the riches and a range of cosmetic prizes. In the 12 Deeds of Giving Event running through to January 20, beating Challenges based on a familiar festive song (with a Sea of Thieves twist) grants goodies with a new and effortlessly elegant Eastern Winds Jade theme.

Alongside this, pirates are encouraged to give generosity a go in Plundered Presents, which brings bonus payouts and Gold Hoarder goods in return for gifting treasure to other crews. On December 30 this makes way for Grogmanay, a fiery line-up of half a dozen new Challenges with their own rewards to send pirates roaring into the new year!

[h3]Cold Store
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Players expecting the Pirate Emporium to be full of wintry wonders this December will be in their element. The latest livery is the Frozen Horizon Ship Collection, with matching weapons also available to buy – so if you claim the Twitch Drops clothing rewards throughout the month and the free Frozen Horizon Tankard just for logging in and playing, you’ll have all the glacial gear you could need!



Glacial also applies to the Curse now afflicting the Inu and Ragamuffin pets in the Emporium, but they don’t seem too bothered by the drop in body temperature and are perfectly cool with being pirate sidekicks. There are Festival of Giving outfits for pets of all shapes and sizes – a seasonal collection that also includes weapons and emotes – while the Bonechiller Costume offers a much darker twist with the chance to cosplay as a creepy, crimson-clothed Skeleton Lord. And as the end of the year approaches, you can light up the seas with fireworks courtesy of the brand new Cannon Flare options!

[h3]Find Out More[/h3]

For more information on the Festival of Giving update, including full release notes, visit the Sea of Thieves website. The update is available for free to all Sea of Thieves players who have bought the game on Steam, simply download and install the latest Sea of Thieves update to get access.

New to Sea of Thieves? Join the fun with our Maiden Voyage, a narrative-driven tutorial experience. New players will begin their travels within this scenario – and more tips can be picked up from our online Pirate Academy, which provides invaluable information on topics ranging from sailing to swordplay. Learn more about Sea of Thieves at www.xbox.com/seaofthieves, or join the ongoing adventure at www.seaofthieves.com where you can embark on an epic journey with one of gaming’s most welcoming communities!

From November 26 to December 1, players can purchase Sea of Thieves on Steam at a 25% discount, and will also receive a number of glorious gifts along with the game. This time-limited bundle includes a set of feast-themed musical instruments based around the game’s Festival of Plenty and a golden Reaper’s Heart weapon set to show your affection, pirate-style!



A Cloudy Capuchin pet is also invited to the party as part of the bundle, along with a suitable Capuchin Outfit of Plenty to wear. Additionally, you’ll receive 550 Ancient Coins to spend in the Pirate Emporium, a place where premium outfits and weapons, pet costumes and much more are available to purchase. Plenty of reasons to celebrate with family and friends on the Sea of Thieves!

As we approach the end of a strange year, we as a team are proud of the amount of free content rolled out to all Sea of Thieves players in 2020 despite all the changes and challenges of remote working. To continue to deliver on this throughout the year has been testament to the team spirit and culture we have here, and the way everyone on the team has supported each other throughout it all has made me even more proud to be a part of Team Rare.

We’ve been busy with more than the regular updates you’ve already experienced: we’re hard at work behind the scenes on some significant changes that will lead us into 2021, with plans in motion for how we continue supporting the game and some major news still to come. Sea of Thieves isn’t slowing down any time soon.

However, it does mean that we’ve had to slightly rethink our end-of-year updates to lay some groundwork and allow us to focus on things beyond the immediate future. So November’s update is more of a quality of life update, largely focused on bug fixes and improving the core Sea of Thieves experience for all players. However, we’ve made sure there’s still plenty to do in terms of events and in-game activities, extending some events and building on the success of others, while the Pirate Emporium team have also restocked the shelves with more of the endlessly creative things they’ve been working on.

The progression of weekly Challenges and Voyages throughout the Fate of the Damned update led to a point where all Challenges and Voyages were unlocked and available, so those will stay in the game until December 9th for players to embark upon and earn rewards including Soulflame weapons and gear. Talk to Larinna at the tavern or visit the Fate of the Damned Event page for details on what you can get and how to get it!

If you enjoyed September’s Vault of the Ancients update, you’ll be pleased to know we’ve continued to add to that, and The Devil’s Roar region has now joined the list of possible Treasure Vault locations. So one of those Voyages picked up from the Gold Hoarders could now be made even more epic by superheated seas and fire from the sky! And if you tackle a Treasure Vault Voyage over Thanksgiving, you could get rich quick as that’s when we’ll be running the next Gold & Glory Weekend, with double gold and reputation on offer for all treasure handed in.



November’s Emporium update puts the Fightin’ Frogs Ship Set up for anyone to buy, if they haven’t already earned it by playing through Act I of the new Battletoads. Joining it are our latest unique pets, The Hunter’s Call Forager Parrot and Monkey – but we couldn’t overlook the other pets, so there are also Bone Crusher Outfits available for all species including cats and dogs. The popular Festival of Plenty pet outfits and musical instruments make a return to mark this time of year. Meanwhile, players always looking for new ways to express themselves should enjoy the all-in-one Varied Weapon Pose Emote, along with new Barrel Emotes and the Fightin’ Frogs Flex Emote that we’re making available as a freebie for everyone.

So even with a lighter update than usual, there’s still plenty to get your teeth into! Full release notes will accompany the update as usual on Wednesday November 18th, so you can see everything that’s new and all the latest performance and quality of life fixes, while the Pirate Emporium and Events Hub pages will be brought right up to date.

We hope you enjoy it, and also hope you’re looking forward to the end-of-year celebrations and Sea of Thieves’ next stage of adventure that lies beyond. We’ve got a special edition of SoT News coming in the next few weeks that will talk about the December update, and we’ll also be talking about our plans heading into the new year. We have some significant and exciting changes coming as we move into what’s likely to be Sea of Thieves’ biggest year yet, and we’re excited to share our thoughts with you all soon!

From October 28 to November 3, players who purchase a digital copy of Sea of Thieves on Xbox, Windows 10 or Steam will also receive a number of blood-curdling bonuses along with the game. This time-limited bundle includes the Collector’s Soulflame Ship set, which you can use to transform your pirate vessel into something truly terrifying, as well as a faithful Skeleton Alsatian pet who’ll accompany you on your adventures across the sea.



You’ll also receive 550 Ancient Coins to spend in the Pirate Emporium, a place where premium outfits and weapons, pet costumes and much more are available for purchase. Scarily good value!