Sea of Thieves News

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This month’s Sea of Thieves content is being served up hot – literally! Captain Flameheart’s manipulation of Stitcher Jim, Duke and countless other pirates on the seas has finally granted him the knowledge and resources he needs to transform some of his most trusted underlings into Ashen Lords. This July, pirates are tasked with taking down a fearsome foursome in Sea of Thieves’ latest monthly update Ashen Winds, available today for all Sea of Thieves players across Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam and with Xbox Game Pass.

[h2]Lording It Up[/h2]



July’s update centers on the rise of the Ashen Lords: four of Flameheart’s followers boosted by the blistering energy of the Ashen Curse, leaving them capable of causing huge destruction. These powerful skeletal foes have emerged across the Sea of Thieves and will strike back with fire, ash and flaming rocks at any pirates who dare to challenge them. The Ashen Lords have distinct personalities and different abilities to anything else seen on the seas, so seafarers must stay sharp at all times to ensure their defeat.

These emergent enemies will appear on islands indicated on the horizon by a raging tornado cloud, and will remain on the Sea of Thieves as a permanent threat to pirates. The Ashen Lords’ fires are far from burning out, and their hot-headed ways are set to rain fiery terror down on players for months to come!

[h2]All the Hot Gossip[/h2]



In combat, an Ashen Lord can spit flame at its opponents – but even after defeat, it’s rumoured that the Ashen Winds Skull left behind is potent enough to use as a deadly weapon. Take the cursed cranium and aim it at your enemies to use its fire for your own purposes, but be warned: constant use will drain its power, and reduce its substantial value to the Order of Souls. So if it’s the gold and reputation you’re after, a little restraint will go a long way. If not… fire at will!

[h2]Accessibility Additions[/h2]

In a continued push to open the seas to everyone, more accessibility options are being added to Sea of Thieves this month. The most notable is support for play with a single analog stick, where players can opt to, well, play with just a single analog stick. All ship, pirate and menu controls are moved to your stick of choice, allowing anyone not comfortable with a traditional controller to reduce the number of held inputs required to set sail.

In addition there’s a new auto-centering camera option that ensures it always tends towards the horizon, and an auto-float mode to keep pirates with a dislike of the watery depths bobbing on the surface in a virtual lifejacket. With the number of options in the menu, there’s also a handy button to reset all accessibility options to their default state.

[h2]Pirate Emporium Scorchers[/h2]

Ashen Curse pets are sizzling onto the scene with July’s update, and these charmingly charred critters are joined in the Emporium by new roleplay emotes for your pirates, based on the mannerisms of some of your favorite Sea of Thieves characters. If you’ve ever wanted to prop up the bar just like Duke or delve deeper into roleplaying as a Trading Company Emissary, you’re in luck.



Meanwhile, if you’ve been hankering to dress your four-legged friend in something that reminds you of your many-tentacled enemies, look no further: Kraken cat outfits have reached the Emporium, so your cute kitty can trot about in a dapper new outfit inspired by a terrible behemoth!

There’s also a sale coming to the ship livery aisle of the Pirate Emporium, with a range of Rare-inspired ship bundles (paying tribute to games as diverse as Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata and Perfect Dark) getting a sweet 35% discount to mark Rare’s 35th anniversary. Check out the Pirate Emporium page for all your window shopping needs.

[h2]Find Out More[/h2]

For more information on the Ashen Winds 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 Xbox One, on Windows 10 PC or via Steam, or players who have access to it with Xbox Game Pass. 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 separate from Adventure and Arena modes. New Sea of Thieves players will begin their travels within this scenario, which provides guidance and information to fledgling sailors. 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!

It’s both thrilling and humbling to share with you that Sea of Thieves has been played by more than fifteen million players since our launch in March 2018.

The way that the game and its community has continued to grow has been amazing to see. It was only in January of this year when we shared that 10 million people had played the game! We’re also humbled that more people have played Sea of Thieves in the first six months of 2020 than who played in the whole of 2019, which was more than 2018.

Last month – June 2020 – was also the biggest month so far for Sea of Thieves in terms of active players, with more than 3.3M players setting sail. A contributing factor to this growth has been our recent launch on Steam. We’ve been blown away by the support we’ve seen from the Steam community, with over 1M copies of the game having been sold so far and the game regularly appearing in the top selling and most played games charts.

On behalf of all of us at Rare, I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who’s ever played Sea of Thieves for helping to get us this far. It’s a game that we love making, and there’s plenty more to come. See you on the seas.

- Joe Neate, Executive Producer at Rare

One of the many things we have always loved about Sea of Thieves is being able to witness the creativity of our players within the sandbox we provide. We’ve seen so many things from legendary races, fashion shows and fishing competitions through to entirely new games like SkullBall, The Pirate Games and countless others. We love the energy and variety this brings to our community, not only if you find yourself lucky enough to take part, but because these are just great to watch.

As Sea of Thieves has grown we’ve been supporting some of these initiatives in the background, helping people get together on the same server to save on that initial setup time for our community events, but we’ve always harboured a desire to do more. We have been working for a while on formalising this support, and in the near future we’re going to bring an early Alpha version of Custom Servers to Sea of Thieves as a tool for selected creators and community groups to utilise for community events.

We will be working with these creators and community groups to test Custom Servers in a live environment, to gather feedback and prioritise future development priorities in this area. At the same time as giving us valuable feedback and data, it’ll make it easier for these groups to run community events like the ones we’ve seen already.

With this in mind, the initial feature set for our Alpha release is absolutely reflective of the goals above: giving these creators and community groups swift access to Custom Servers, an ability to run custom events and invite players from their communities to take part.

· Key features:

• Ability to set up a Custom Adventure Server
  
• Customisation of ship numbers and types prior to starting
  
• Generation of a code to distribute to community members to allow them to join
  
• No gold or reputation progression from Custom Server sessions
  

We will be testing in Insiders, prior to rolling out with our initial creators and groups in the wild. We see a bright future for Custom Servers in Sea of Thieves, but we want to start purposefully with the dual purpose of learning from this initially small audience and expanding the Custom Server toolset before we think about rolling out more widely and what that will entail. The first step is to roll these out in an Alpha state and start learning. We expect this to be a lengthy Alpha phase where we listen, learn and evolve what Custom Servers deliver in terms of tools available to those using them.

To acknowledge some of the questions we expect to see:

· The key purpose of Custom Servers is to allow creative players the opportunity to use our sandbox to create unique experiences for their communities. They are not intended to be used as a PvE server, hence the removal of ability to earn gold and rep.

· We are launching early and to a limited audience for multiple reasons:

• It’s a very bare-bones feature set, and we want to learn with a limited audience (who have already demonstrated drive and creativity in our community) and build it out before considering how we bring it to a wider audience.
  
• Custom Servers cost money to run. Starting small and learning makes sense from a business perspective.
  
• With the above point in mind, it is likely that Custom Servers will eventually be an optional feature that players can access from the Pirate Emporium. We want to learn more about the desired feature set, usage and cost before deciding exactly how to make this something the wider community can access.
  

In the near term, we’ll be continuing to expand our Partner Programme and Affiliate Alliance, and will be keen to hear from people with proposals for new community events that could utilise this formative and growing toolset. Please reach out via our Affiliate Alliance programme if you have a proposal or want to find out more. You can find more details here.

We are excited to start this new part of the adventure with our community and see the future creativity that this unlocks. Your ideas, energy and creativity inspire us every day.

See you on the seas!

– Joe “Three Sheets” Neate

As Sea of Thieves storms into its third year on the seas with the wind fully in its sails, now feels like the perfect moment to celebrate the many tales of bravery, boldness and… bananas that have come about since its launch back in March 2018. From epic adventures and colourful encounters to surprising secrets, life on the Sea of Thieves has inspired countless stories and provided a beautifully rich backdrop for our community to forge lifelong friendships.

That’s why today we’re launching our brand new competition – ‘The Greatest Tales Never Told’ – to encourage pirates everywhere to recreate their own favourite tale of time well spent on the Sea of Thieves. All you need to do to participate is this: record the telling of your most memorable adventure in a way that makes best use of your own creativity and the tools offered below, and share it with us using #SoTTalesContest on Instagram, Twitter or YouTube! Some serious treasure is up for grabs for the production boasting the most wit, suspense and surprise, with the top storytelling submission winning:

• An MSI Trident X Plus 9SF-488EU Gaming PC
• Your pirate featured in an upcoming Sea of Thieves publication

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To help you craft your chronicle, we’ve scoured our archives to offer you a wealth of Sea of Thieves supporting assets including a wide range of in-game artwork – available to download now from the official competition page. And don’t worry if you don’t necessarily have the knowhow to put together a full production, as we’ve created a very special Sea of Thieves Instagram filter that you’re also free to use. Remember, if you use the filter, be sure to use the #SoTTalesContest hashtag on your Instagram story to make it count as an entry.

So there you have it: the challenge to tell your greatest Sea of Thieves tale has been set! When it’s ready, share it using the #SoTTalesContest tag on Instagram, Twitter or YouTube, and enjoy a barrelful of fantastical piratical adventures from your fellow players while you wait to see if you’re a winner. The competition runs from June 22nd to July 3rd – for more FAQs on entry and eligibility, see the official competition page.

[h2]Sea of Thieves Store Now Open for Business
[/h2]

If this competition has whetted your appetite for representing the pirate life on social media, why not carry that into the real world with some Sea of Thieves merchandise? The new and official online store launches today, so head over to seaofthieves.store to browse the very latest in piratical fashions and accessories. As it arrives with the introductory discount code WELCOME (valid until July 7th 2020), all quick-off-the-mark Sea of Thieves fans will be able to bag their swag with 15% off.



Enjoy your shopping trip, start thinking about your competition entry and we’ll see you on the seas!

New to Sea of Thieves? Join the fun with our Maiden Voyage, a narrative-driven tutorial experience separate from Adventure and Arena modes. New Sea of Thieves players will begin their travels within this scenario, which provides guidance and information to fledgling sailors. Learn more about Sea of Thieves at www.xbox.com/seaofthieves and our Steam page, 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!

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Prepare for a supernatural encounter on the Sea of Thieves this month as that re-emerging tyrant, Captain Flameheart, makes a new bid for control of the waves! June’s free monthly update Haunted Shores is available now for all Sea of Thieves players on Xbox One, Windows 10 PC and Xbox Game Pass, bringing with it an armada of spectral surprises.

[h2]Ghost Ships Rise to Seek Vengeance [/h2]

We’re pleased to unleash a whole new type of encounter this month and look forward to seeing how well our players react and adapt. Captain Flameheart’s spirit, recently released from captivity, continues to grow in power and has now found a way to rally supernatural support from the Sea of the Damned! His Ghost Ships are the latest threat to reach these seas, and though their phantom forms may be easier to destroy than more earthly ships, they’re fearsomely armed and sure to outnumber living pirates.



Crewed by lost souls, these swift fleets provide a twist on the usual challenges of ship combat as they attack with otherworldly weaponry and drop mines to catch out the unwary. As danger lies in all directions and the ships themselves prove perilous to the touch, agility and crew communication will be just as important as combat skill!

[h2]Flameheart’s Flagship [/h2]

The centerpiece of this update is an emergent event featuring Captain Flameheart’s own ship, the Burning Blade. With the arrival of Haunted Shores, Flameheart’s looming skull will now manifest over islands like the clouds that represent Skeleton Forts or Skeleton Ship battles. However, this particular sign means that the Burning Blade and an armada of Ghost Ships has appeared around an island, as if searching the Sea of Thieves for something…



These will prove to be tough encounters, with Flameheart’s floating skull not just acting as a beacon but giving orders to his ships and berating meddlesome pirates. The Phantom and Wraith Cannonballs fired by the Ghost Ships are as unnerving as they are powerful, but supplies can be claimed by players for their own use after defeating the Burning Blade. There are valuable Damned
treasures to be looted too, plus unique sails to be unlocked by fearless pirates who send enough of these Ghost Ships back to the Sea of the Damned.

[h2]Expanding the Adventure [/h2]

Ghost Ships won’t be fading away after this month’s big event – they’re a permanent addition to the game, providing a new way for pirates to gain gold and reputation with the Order of Souls alongside their usual Skeleton Bounties. Players can accept these Voyages right now from Order of Souls representatives or from Duke in the nearest tavern.

There’s even more to do this month thanks to a refresh of Daily Bounties and other events, all trackable via the Events Hub. Expect a new playlist of Bounties offering bonus gold and Doubloons for completing in-game tasks, plus special time-limited events: The Hunter’s Call, for example, will be boosting rewards for deliveries of cooked meat from sharks and Megalodons, so if anyone falls overboard during a battle with the phantom fleets, they might consider pulling their weight in the shark-hunting stakes instead.



The shanty system also gets a boost in Haunted Shores as instrument-wielding pirates can now use the menus to jump straight to a favourite tune. Better yet, the range of shanties has grown with several new songs for you and your crew to belt out on deck, on shore or in the tavern, including fan favorites such as ‘Maiden Voyage’ and ‘We Shall Sail Together’!

Last but not least, the Pirate Emporium enjoys its usual monthly update, ushering in the appropriately undead-themed Blighted Ship Set for fans of State of Decay. You’ll also find some pets that have been transformed into living treasures by the Gold Curse, a range of new outfits for your furry or feathery sidekicks and even animal-themed pirate dance emotes for players who want to laugh in the face of Flameheart’s threats.

Enjoy exploring all these additions alongside this month’s hair-raising headline challenge – one that’s sure to create some surprises between players once they pick up some of those hard-hitting supernatural cannonballs!

[h2]Find Out More [/h2]

For more information on the Haunted Shores 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 Xbox One, on Windows 10 PC or via Steam, or players who have access to it with Xbox Game Pass. 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 separate from Adventure and Arena modes. New Sea of Thieves players will begin their travels within this scenario, which provides guidance and information to fledgling sailors. 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!