Sea of Thieves News

The end of the year is creeping ever closer and now that we’re in the final stretch, we’ve got a few more jobs to do before we sign off for the holidays. Like this one: filling you in on everything you may have missed in November! It was a surprisingly busy month for a mid-Season update, so let’s get right to business…

[h3]Content Update[/h3]
Due to earlier issues with some Season 14 launch content, the November update ended up including a whole host of postponed features, including traps, hanging points and the much-missed disguises. We later hotfixed in a few other minor changes to buff out some lingering issues, but then it was full speed ahead with the Season of mischief.

With all those sneaky features back in players’ hands, it was time for a celebration. Enter Season 14 Community Weekend, with a shared Community Emissary Grade to boost rewards, Twitch Drops, Picture Walls, Pop-Up Plunder – and its new cousin, Pop-Up Blunder – and so much more. It was great to see so many people joining us and taking part, even the pirates we couldn’t see. We’d wondered where all those extra chests and barrels were coming from.

Further afield, there were some out-of-game releases to shout about too. The music for a certain flaming ritual was added to the Sea of Thieves soundtrack for streaming in all the usual places, ready for whenever you feel like reliving that time you lost all your skin and flesh. At the same time, new Making Mischief designs made it to the Xbox Gear Store and a few lucky viewers were among the first to get their hands on the new colouring book as a livestream giveaway prize! Crayons out, pirates – we’re ready to see all your colourful creations.

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[h3]News and Features[/h3]
As always, a Community Weekend has so many moving parts that a news article was the best way to lay out all the details up front, including which cosmetics were up for grabs, how to get involved and what that Community Emissary Grade can do for you. If you haven’t joined us for a Community Weekend before, this is a good place to start getting to grips with what they’re all about ahead of the next one.

Sticking with the community theme, the Community Spotlight shone down again in November: this time we were exchanging words with SoT UK admin heroine MrsPabl0 to find out what goes into helping to run a Sea of Thieves Affiliate Alliance group!

We also tried something new with the first instalment of This Month in Sea of Thieves. While dates are always fluid as Events and updates get shuffled around, we’re trying out this new series to put all the information you need about the upcoming month in one easy-to-read place. By the time you read this, December’s article will have landed too, so you may want to give it a peek – just beware spoilers for next month’s round-up!


[h3]Videos and Streams[/h3]
The Video team started their month with a fresh instalment of Sea of Thieves News, but the very next day they were back again with the latest Explainer! This episode tackled the topic of the nature of Seasons and how players can earn, buy and win cosmetics to personalise their pirate however they see fit.

With the November update rapidly approaching, Drew hopped in front of a camera to deliver our first Developer Update in a while, teeing everyone up for what was to come in the rest of the month and giving a peek behind the scenes at what we’re working on. The video set us up nicely for the Monthly Update – complete with the full complement of trailers and Pirate Emporium reveals that you’ll have come to expect.

For Community Weekend, a cast of Community team members regrouped in the Tavern for some suitably chaotic stream fun, but not before we were done investigating this suspicious barrel we found… That left just one more thing to publish before the month was out, in the form of a somewhat belated official podcast episode! Give it a listen if you’re curious what might be coming next for the game or you want to hear some very serious, professional conversations about booty. No, really.

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[h3]Social Channels[/h3]
November on socials started with a spooky bang as we revealed the winners of the Ghouls and Ghosts round of #SoTShot! We really needed that one last scare before we shook off the lingering shivers of October. More player creativity was celebrated with a refresh of the Community Hub, but we may have gotten a bit preoccupied using Season 14’s new loadout additions to cause mayhem for much else. Fortunately it wasn’t long before the brand new Compass of Chaos made its debut and delivered a much more organised mayhem strategy for everyone to be getting on with.

The increased efficiency freed up some time to complete a second round of #SoTShot – this time putting everyone’s recently improved stealth abilities to the test with a Sneaky Sailors theme – but alas, some pirates mysteriously went missing during the process. Maybe they were just too sneaky.

Fortunately, most people came out of hiding for Community Weekend, highlighting their loyal crewmates and taking a moment to snap a quick pic at the Picture Walls to mark the occasion. There were even fireworks to enjoy – for some of us, at least…


All of which brings us to the end of November – and very nearly the year! This’ll be the last time you see the round-up crew (or at least, the writing crew with their round-up hats on) until next year when we’ll be recollecting all the adventures deployed in December. Until then, as always, you can find us on all the standard social channels – as well as Bluesky now! – over on Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, or via the official Forums and Discord. Drop us a line in any of those places with any feedback but otherwise, happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year! Sail responsibly!
[hr][/hr][h3]Previously in 2024: [/h3]
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: October 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: September 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: August 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: July 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: June 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: May 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: April 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2024 Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2024

As we sail into December, the Sea of Thieves is alive with fresh adventures and holiday cheer! From thrilling events to brand new features, there’s plenty in store to keep you voyaging through the season: prepare for festive challenges, unique rewards and community events to end the year with a bang.

Holiday Decorations – from Sunday, December 1st

Kick off December with some suitable festive cheer, as Sea of Thieves’ Outposts get into the holiday spirit!

Legends Week – Monday, December 2nd – Monday, December 9th

Seasoned sailors are in for a treat with the next Legends Week. Get double gold and reputation for handing in Athena's Fortune treasure, seek Legendary Messages in a Bottle and complete the Voyages within to earn rewards (and unlock the Life of a Legend Tattoo). Tackle Legendary Daily Deeds for additional payouts too!

Holiday Hauls – Friday, December 6th – Sunday, December 22nd

Gift giving for all! Sea of Thieves Partners, Affiliate Alliance leaders and Deckhands will be setting sail under the Generous Gift Sails during this period, spreading holiday cheer and delivering a delightful array of gifts to those fortunate enough to cross their path! 

Support a Streamer – Friday, December 6th – Sunday, December 22nd

Sea of Thieves is partnering with Twitch for December's Support a Streamer event. Twitch viewers can receive rewards for gifting subscriptions to participating streamers!

Viewers who gift two qualifying subscriptions will receive the Celestial Steed ship cosmetics, while those who gift three qualifying subscriptions will also receive the Obsidian Capstan. Keep an eye on our social channels for more details when the campaign goes live!

December Monthly Update – Thursday, December 12th

A fresh update drops this month, bringing in improvements and fixes for a variety of features, accompanied by new Emporium and Outpost stock! Check the release notes page when the update goes live for the complete rundown.

Once again, players who jump in during the first week after this release will be awarded a bonus stash of gold and Doubloons, and all players will find another Voyage of Luck waiting for them at the Quest Table.

Love to show off the latest emote? You can also claim the Ice Sculpture Emote for free when you visit the Pirate Emporium in December.

Your Story So Far – Thursday, December 12th

The pirate performance checkpoint returns, providing statistics on everything from gold earned and distance sailed to an eye-opening look at your fighting, singing and cooking preferences – and your engagement with new Seasonal features released in 2024.

Your final figures for the year are captured when you visit the page, so as soon as you’re ready, jump in and see how you did!

Festival of Giving – Wednesday, December 18th – Monday, December 30th

The Festival of Giving returns for another year with a treasure trove of daily gifts! Each day, pirates can claim a Gilded Voyage and a Voyage of Luck, drawing from an exclusive pool of these rare Voyages. But remember, they must be completed the same day, as they won't stack or carry over!

Adding to the festive bounty, a daily gold and reputation multiplier will boost rewards for the Trading Companies in turn. Across the 12-day event, each participating Company (Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, Merchant Alliance and Athena’s Fortune) will have three special days with increased rewards, giving crews a generous holiday haul for their efforts.

Holiday Sale – Wednesday, December 18th – Monday, January 6th

This year's Holiday Sale in the Pirate Emporium arrives with an animal theme, slashing prices on the Pet Protector, Boarhunter, Soaring Oracle sets and more, in addition to offering deals on some Collector’s Pets and all standard pets. Swing by the Emporium when the sale is live to see the full selection!

Emporium Extravaganza – Wednesday, December 18th – Monday, January 6th

The Extravaganza is back: during the Holiday Sale period, Emporium shoppers can unlock the Ancient Coin Flag by spending at least 450 Ancient Coins, offering a stylish way to enhance their ship’s appearance. Similarly, the Ancient Coin Sails can be unlocked by spending 2000 Ancient Coins, allowing pirates to stand out on the high seas with style.

Gold & Glory – Monday, December 30th – Monday, January 6th

Gold and Glory returns to end the year, offering a final boost to all your treasure-hunting endeavours. For the duration of this Event, all pirates can earn increased gold and reputation, making it the perfect time to stack up your riches and climb the ranks of your chosen Trading Company!

Golden Scallywag Awards – ending Tuesday, December 31st

To ensure you have time to make the most of Season 14's features in this contest, the Golden Scallywag Awards have been extended a final time, until December 31st! See the complete contest details here.
[hr][/hr]As December wraps up, we look forward to seeing you all again in January! With fresh challenges, time-limited Events and festive cheer still to come, there’s plenty to keep you on your toes as you sail into 2025. So hoist your sails high, gather your crew and make this holiday season one to remember!

[h3]Fixed Issues[/h3]
Traps

• Players are no longer able to retrieve additional resources when disarming an item-loaded trap.
  
• Traps deployed should now remain in place and not disappear unexpectedly during gameplay. Once deployed, a trap should now last for hours if left undisturbed and only be removed when triggered, replaced by a new trap when players reach their limit of two or when players leave the server.
  
• Players are consistently limited to deploying two traps and can no longer place additional traps by disconnecting and rejoining a session.
  
• Traps deployed by other crews will now consistently be removed when they dive to a new server, scuttle to new seas or migrate naturally to another server.

Voyage of Luck

• Crews diving for the Voyage of Luck should no longer experience an extended wait while underwater.

Performance and Stability

• Further improvements have been made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly exit the game or become disconnected from their session.

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
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]Full Release Notes[/h3]
These release notes cover a hotfix. For full details on recently added game features, see the release notes on our latest content update.

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

• Steam: 1.32 GB

Happy Community Weekend Week, everyone! As we detailed at the start of the month, this Season’s Community Weekend runs from November 23rd from 25th, with a boatload of thrilling things going on to excite seasoned sailors and swabbies alike. This 48-hour frenzy of fun kicks off at 11am UTC on Saturday 23rd and ends 11am UTC on Monday 25th.

If you’d like to keep the Event’s shenanigans a secret until you log in on Saturday, now’s the time to stop reading – but if you’re intrigued by what’s on offer, then please, read on…

[h3]Persuade the Emissary Grade[/h3]
If you’re new here and aren’t sure how the Community Emissary Grade works, don’t worry, we’re here to tell you! To raise this special Grade, players are tasked with tuning in to Twitch to level up the generosity of the multiplier, with the total Sea of Thieves watch time powering its progress. Simply put: all you need to do to help raise this Grade – and increase in-game rewards – is watch any of your favourite content creators within the Sea of Thieves category during the Event period.

Every time the Community Emissary Grade levels up, so does the boost to gold, reputation, Seasonal Renown, Allegiance and Guild Reputation for not just you but all players sailing on High Seas – with the top Grade offering a sweet two-and-a-half times the rewards for your efforts!


[h3]Drops for the Ocean[/h3]
As usual there’s a range of Twitch Drops for folks tuning in, with the Eastern Winds Ruby Jacket and Hook and the Seasoned Sailor Hurdy-Gurdy and Pocket Watch all on offer to those who spend a chunk of time watching Sea of Thieves creators over the weekend. And we mean any Sea of Thieves creator on Twitch – these Drops are earnable on all participating channels, not just our Partners’ channels – so maybe take some time this weekend to swing by a couple of new streams and say hi.

The special Drop that will be unlocked after the magic goal of 100,000 World Events collectively dived to and completed will be the Obsidian Captain’s Chandelier – another brand new Obsidian item debuting with this special Event! We hope you all like fancy lighting, because this stunning piece will brighten up the Captain’s quarters of any Galleon.


[h3]Freebies and Features[/h3]
Of course, to mark the occasion, everyone who plays during this Event will be gifted the pastel-perfect Season 14 Community Weekend flag – and so that pirates can rank other marauders’ exhibitions of mischief, the Scorecard Emote returns as an accompanying login bonus. Community Spirit Firework Crates will also be available from your local Merchant Alliance representative.

There’ll be a particularly explosive vibe across the Sea of Thieves for the duration of the Event: you’ll find Gunpowder Barrels appearing more frequently on islands, Stronghold Gunpowder Barrels will also be more common and Kegs of Ancient Black Powder may appear in shipwrecks. Business will be booming for the Merchants if you manage to cash these in – and if you don’t, then we guess it’ll be all manner of other stuff booming...

Make a point of checking your Voyages on the Quest Table during this Event too, as you’ll find it offers you a special opportunity – Pirate Legend or not – to tackle an Athena’s Fortune Raid on a Sea Fort for some Legendary loot up to three times over the course of the weekend!


Picture Walls will of course be popping up as usual on every Outpost – perfect for posing against, or for a Community Emissary Grade check given that the attached flags will represent the current Grade (and thus indicate how generous the active multiplier is at that moment). Don’t forget to send your selfies to Sea of Thieves’ social media accounts so we can marvel at how stunning a set of sailors you all are.

[h3]The Joy of a Decoy[/h3]
Pop-Up Plunder returns for Season 14 Community Weekend, but with a cheeky twist: a handful of maps will feature decoy dig spots, also known as Pop-Up Blunder! Some maps – shared on social media, as always – will have more than one X marking the spot, meaning the real treasure will be surrounded by a handful of mischievous duds. Some of these Pop-Up Blunder spots will also contain Gunpowder Barrels, so sorry in advance for the carnage this may cause (but not really).

A new Pop-Up Plunder will spring up every four hours during the event, and the first will be as Community Weekend kicks off. Stay tuned to social media for these clues to drop in!

[h3]Forget Your Troubles, Come On, Get Hatty[/h3]
As is customary with Community Weekend, we love taking the time to bestow both love and rewards upon the unsung heroes and MVPs of our community. The way we do this is to honour a selection of fine folks with the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame – a rare, funny hat worn by the cream of our pirate crop.


Whether you’ve performed an astonishing feat on the seas and would like us to tip the Hat in your direction, or you’d like to shout out a crewmate or friend who embodies the Be More Pirate mantra for less specific but no less worthy reasons, we’ll take nominations all the way up to, and during, the weekend. So, if there’s something or someone you’d like to draw our attention to, tell us about it on Sea of Thieves social channels such as Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram (the more info the better) with the #BeMorePirate tag.

And if you’re wondering: yes, we will be looking at Bluesky for submissions too. Given the recent boom, it’d be rude not to! Tag us over there with the #BeMorePirate hashtag and @seaofthieves.com.

[h3]The Compass of Chaos[/h3]
To maximise your mischief-focused frolics, we’ve also introduced a brand new tool on our website: the Compass of Chaos! Head over and spin the Compass until it suggests a silly or outrageous adventure idea that tickles your fancy, tackle that task and send us your clips of completion to top it off with a chance to be shared and maybe even score the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame. This set of silly, shenanigan-focused tasks is designed to prompt some spectacular scenes, and is set to be added to every Season. Go give it a whirl now! Or save your fun for the weekend…


[h3]Seas the Day![/h3]
While we know the start of Season 14 has been a bit wobbly, we’re glad to be finally hitting our stride – and we’re delighted that we can offer you such a smorgasbord of tantalising treats for this upcoming Event. So we hope you’ll join us in making mischief (and lots of gold) for Season 14 Community Weekend. See you on the seas!

Sea of Thieves Season 14 Community Weekend is taking place in just a few days, from November 23rd-25th (11am UTC)! Join us for free goods, boosted rewards, Pop-Up Plunder (and Blunder) fun and more. More details: https://aka.ms/SoTS14CommWknd

What shenanigans shall you be seeking?