Sea of Thieves News

Here at Rare, we know we have an incredibly special and unique Sea of Thieves community. From fan art and fundraisers to lifelong friendships being formed, not a day goes by where we don’t log in and see a sea of inspiring acts and perfect plays (and stunning puns, which we also enjoy). You constantly make our day – which is why this January, we’re making a concerted effort to make yours.

Yes, the start of 2022 sees us holding our first ever Sea of Thieves Community Day as part of Season Five! This momentous occasion is all about rewarding and celebrating you, our brilliant and spirited sailors – and we’d really love for you to join us for the party on Sunday, January 30th. We have quite the list of ways you can get involved, gathered into this delightful article right here for you all to digest. Scroll on for the full roster of shenanigans!



[h3]We Shall Tweet Together
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For the first time ever, we’ll be putting the gold and reputation levels in your hands. That’s right: as the community, you will have the power to affect in-game rewards through the power of social media.

Just hop onto Twitter and tweet using the hashtag #SeaOfThievesCommunityDay between Sunday, January 30th and Monday, January 31st (10am GMT both days) to play your part in boosting the Community Emissary Grade. Every time a cumulative community tweet total is hit, we’ll notch up the multiplier on in-game rewards – so the more you all tweet, the more gold and reputation you’ll be able to earn!

We’ll keep you posted on your progress live on the day itself, so make sure you’re following us ahead of time. We’re excited to see how quickly you can level up, as we know you can be quite the noisy bunch when you want to be! As an added bonus, Renown will be boosted too – so there’s lots to play for.

We want to see all your favourite stories and screenshots shared with the hashtag, so make sure you come well-equipped with content to show off. However, if you don’t have any screenshots to hand, don’t worry – on the day, you’ll be able to head to our Community Hub for a shiny share card to signpost your involvement in the festivities.

Tweeting hard as a community will see you hit our top target for the top Emissary Grade and unlock our highest ever reward multiplier – making your treasure an astonishing three-and-a-half times more valuable than it would be during a regular session. Not only that, but the usual reward boosts will apply if you’re sailing as a regular Emissary, meaning huge potential for big gains. Think of what you could do with all that gold – maybe even treat yourself to a Dark Adventurers item! The multiplier will be in effect for a full 24 hours, so you’ll have until 10am GMT on January 31st to hit the seas and rack up some hefty hauls.

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[h3]Bag a Fancy Flag
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By way of gentle encouragement to set sail and join us, you’ll be greeted with a couple of in-game bonuses upon waking up in the tavern. The Power Chord Emote will be awarded so that you can rock around the Sea of Thieves with your fellow crewmates, but the day’s crowning glory of bonuses is the Season Five Community Day Flag: an exclusive item that will only be available during this Event.

Make sure you take the time to climb your mast and equip the flag when you set sail. We want to see everyone flying their friendly flags high during any special Community Day sessions (even if they have slightly less friendly intentions)!

[h3]Watch and Wear Sea of Thieves
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We’re keen for players all over the internet to able to benefit from our inaugural Sea of Thieves Community Day, which is why we’re planning some shenanigans on Twitch too. From January 30th to 31st (10am GMT both days), the Gilded Phoenix Tankard will be a Twitch Drop for everyone! This means you can log in and watch any participating streamers play Sea of Thieves for 20 minutes to score yourself a fancy new item. Prepare yourself by heading to our Twitch Drops page if you’ve yet to link your Twitch and Sea of Thieves accounts.

We’ll even be running a special celebratory sale on our Sea of Thieves merchandise store, where for one day only, all products of a piratical persuasion will be discounted by 30% – so if you’ve got your keen corsair eye on some Sea of Thieves-themed merch, shopping on January 30th will ensure your coin travels that little bit further. Just use COMMUNITYDAY at checkout to ensure your discount is applied! As the icing on the cake we’ll be launching a beautiful bespoke Community Day t-shirt, which will only be on sale that day – so you’ll need to be quick if you want to bag this piece of special swag.



[h3]Hat’s the Way (Uh-huh Uh-huh) We Like It
[/h3]Sea of Thieves’ first Community Day will also see us sing the praises of some presently unsung community heroes. Since we went big on #BeMorePirate as a way to show off and share Sea of Thieves feats and creations, we’ve been wowed by (and rewarded many of) your arty and ingenious acts, but for this special day we’re upping the generosity once again. On January 30th, we’ll take a moment to award the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame to a host of players who’ve stood out to us as unfeasibly glorious pirates in recent months.

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 be taking nominations for this mega hat drive all the way up to the big day. This is something you can get involved in starting from now – so if there’s something or someone you’d like to draw our attention to, tell us about it on our social channels (the more info the better) with the #BeMorePirate tag. We’ll be watching!

[h3]Come Together, Right Now, Over Sea
[/h3]Finally, the most important thing you need to do to prepare for the Season Five Community Day is contact your crew – or, if you’re a lone wolf, mark some time in your diary for a serious bit of solo Sloopin’. Plan a session for Sunday, January 30th and plot a course for adventure alongside all our other wonderful pirates in this celebration of Sea of Thieves’ super community. The seas would be a very boring place without our players, and on January 30th, we want to take the time to shine a spotlight on all of you – so be there!

It's 2022 and we're in the future! But as the purpose of this round-up is to revisit the recent past, from Season Five's arrival through to Grogmanay and a year-ending bout of Gold & Glory, we encourage you future folk to deactivate your smart eyepatches and dismiss your robot monkey butlers for a few minutes. Then join us, your time-travelling pals, for a quaint look back at the last leg of 2021 in the world of Sea of Thieves...

[h2]Content Update
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December was another Seasonal launch month, unleashing 2021's fifth in-game Season in the form of, cleverly, Sea of Thieves Season Five. And jam-packed with new features it was too, from the long-awaited arrival of a treasure-burying mechanic and accompanying Quest Board to the crates of fireworks rushed in ready for the festive season. And dice! And rats! And Cannon Rowboats! Haven't played for a while and want the full breakdown? You can see everything, Patrick Stewart-style, on our Season Five landing page or in the remorseless detail of the release notes.

Yes, there were time-limited Events too: the customary pairing of the Festival of Giving across the middle of the month and Grogmanay bouncing blearily off the walls as New Year approached. The Festival of Giving also brought the gift of Gilded Voyages, while Grogmanay debuted an Annual Tankard for strong-stomached repeat participants.

And what should turn up in December's Pirate Emporium restock but a surprise new batch of cosmetics inspired by Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, comprising a Captain Barbossa Costume, Royal Revenge ship set and matching Royal Revenge weapons – and even the now-traditional roleplaying pet in the form of the Mutinous Mutt! All that plus a particularly packed Plunder Pass, and if you're quick you can still jump in and grab your freebie Festive Tree Emote, although it's fair to say you may have missed the moment for using it in-game.

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[h2]News and Features
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Continuing the theme of "Blimey O'Reilly O'Rourke, a lot happened in December considering a chunk of it was Christmas" was our news coverage, with the Sea of Thieves website celebrating charitable proceeds from the Sails of Sharing, cheering the milestone of five million Steam sales and encouraging players to rub their noses in our Season Five Deep Dive with bonus article-based enthusiasm from the Design team.

Alongside those sat another pair of player profiles – a Creator Spotlight on Shrouded Ghost slayer Sotus and a Community Spotlight on SoT France fan film favourite Gatas – plus a final 2021 batch of Community Hub player stories, not forgetting our fourth Fan Art Gallery Showcase over on the Rare site. Meanwhile we encouraged players to share their own stories via the slinky medium of stats, spun up by 2021's incarnation of the Your Story So Far page! Light a fire under your filthy Bilge Rat Boots and you can still swipe your own stats before the page goes under...

We also embarked upon a team-up with Streamheroes, knocked through another wall to add more merch to our online store (including Sea of Thieves shoes, what a time to be alive) and ushered in the festive season with the latest streamable soundtrack addition, 'Call of the Bells'. And we were over the moon to receive a Most Improved accessibility award from Can I Play That? in the light of our ongoing efforts in this area – you'll regularly see Accessibility updates in our release notes (archived on the What's New page, release note enthusiasts).

And of course we couldn't ignore the return of famous Halo star Mister Chafe in December, saluting his rash-inducing escapades with this launch day crossover artwork alongside the time-limited Noble Spartan Sails and Flag offered to freshen up your UNSC livery. UNSC... of Thieves. Sorry. Look, stop that, we can't do a proper segue into the video section if you're going to throw things.



[h2]Videos and Streams
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Now, December wasn't just about Season Five's big video hitters, the hype-inciting content update trailer and the talking-head-tastic Deep Dive. No, there were other bits of footage sent out to ensnare your flighty attention spans – like our 2021 Year in Review video, a visual reminder of what was in the last 12 months' worth of free updates shipped onto the seas. Or the fun-sized launch trailers for the Festival of Giving and Grogmanay Events. No? What about our lovingly crafted video accompaniment to the 'Call of the Bells' track? Still no? Honestly.

If streaming's more your thing, Sea of Thieves TV continued its packed pattern of Twitch programming, including the last episode in the current run of riddle-weaponising chase-fest The Gauntlet. Sea of Thieves Season Five does of course come bearing Twitch Drops too, the first of which fell into the laps of diligent stream-watchers right after the Season launched. Keep checking our channels for the next set of Drops so you don't miss the opportunity to look PROPER DAPPER in your Twilight Hunter clobber.

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[h2]Social Channels
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In the odd spare minute between announcing all this malarkey on Sea of Thieves' channels, we like to make sure there's exclusive stuff there too for you to participate in what we won't call 'bants' until we've asked around what the new word for 'bants' is. In December there were special festive giveaways featuring stuff ferreted out of our actual physical office, a stash of downloadable wallpapers emblazoned with recent artwork, some important questions asked and a whole lot of orb pondering because the internet is weird and that's how it decided it wanted to see out 2021. Merry Christmas!

Our regular hashtags also kept the content coming, even when we were all at home weighing up the viability of Ferrero Rocher curry on Boxing Day: #TriviaTuesday coughed up hairballs of info on new features like those Cannon Rowboats and fireworks plus the Dark Brethren and Bell Brigade, while #SoTGear showcased a cheeky five weekly choices of fan-favourite cosmetics ranging from the showroom-fresh Party Boat and Midnight Blades sets to the classic Magpie's Fortune Sails.

Mid-December's #SoTShot entries on the Festive Fun theme sent us spiralling into the usual moral crisis as we tried to pull a list of winners from a ludicrously good shortlist, and then we solicited it all over again with a New Year, New You #SoTShot theme taking us into 2022. And the year's last lot of #SundayVibes skipped specific island locations in favour of ambience from the Season Five splash screen, the Maiden Voyage, the best seat to watch the sun go down and a festive fireplace to warm your cockles afterwards. Doesn't have to be cockles, other disgusting edible bivalves are available.



That's about the sum of it for 2021! You may now resume the future – a future into which you can accompany us by following Sea of Thieves on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, unless you just want to hurl your demented 2022 opinions around like upsetting confetti on our Forums or Discord server, which is fine too, maybe, within reason. Now then shopkeepers, where's our Dark Adventurers Mech Suit and Jetpack of the Wailing Barnacle? What sort of a future is this?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172620/Sea_of_Thieves/

Even as we finish celebrating the grand milestone of 25 million Sea of Thieves players, we’re already rolling out the barrel again as we surpass five million units sold on Steam! With Sea of Thieves being our first game developed in-house for PC as well as Xbox, we’re absolutely delighted to see such a huge influx of new pirates starting their adventures since the game made it to Steam in June last year. No matter which platform you play Sea of Thieves on, it would never have had this success without the support of you, the players – so all we can say is thank you!

We’re overjoyed to see more and more players – regardless of platform, device or where they are in the world – joining us on our pirate odyssey and making the Sea of Thieves an ever more vibrant place. On Steam alone, our thriving community now features over 10,000 discussions, thousands of people seeking others to sail with and close to 500 guides written by you, the players. We’re also especially pleased with the growth of spaces like our official Discord server, which is nearing 300,000 members! If you’re ever looking for fellow crewmates to sail with, lore specialists to muse on your theories or simply a place to hang out, these are welcoming spaces for pirates of all stripes.



As we’re never ones to shy away from a celebration, we’re marking this latest milestone of five million Steam sales with a special gift for the whole community over the next week. All you have to do is jump in and play Sea of Thieves at any time between December 22nd at 14:00 and December 29th at 23:59 (times in GMT), and you’ll receive the All Together Now! Emote for free. Great for keeping the band on beat when you’re out carolling!

If you’ve yet to take the plunge and join us on the seas, you’re in luck as we’re also part of the Steam Winter Sale – perfect for sailors looking to snag a festive bargain.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172620/Sea_of_Thieves/

Whether you’re a console corsair or a Steamboat sailor, there’s plenty coming over the horizon for Sea of Thieves. To see what new features we’ve added to the game in the last 18 months, check out our celebratory Xbox Wire post listing off 25 new things to try. And for incoming updates, keep your spyglasses trained on our collection of social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and the official Forums and Discord server.



Another hearty thank you from all of us on the Sea of Thieves team for helping the game and its community reach this milestone, and we hope to see you on the seas soon!