Sea of Thieves

Reapers Rising

Set sail on Voyages for The Reaper’s Bones, roll out the Cannon of Rage and enlist Captain Flameheart’s Order of Bone and Blade! To learn more about this Season’s headline features, head over to our dedicated Season 16 page.

Reaper’s Chests Unsealed

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  Upon discovering a Reaper’s Chest, players can now break the seal to release waves of Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons. These allies will defend the crew in possession of the chest and even follow if the chest is brought along for the ride.
  
  
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  Once defeated, new skeletons will emerge until no charges remain. These waves will only appear when the chest is placed firmly on the ground or a ship’s deck, so defenders should look to throw the perilous chest overboard to halt the onslaught!
  

Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage Improvements

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  Additional buried pillar locations have been added to the Voyage, providing greater variation and addressing issues with multiple crews taking on the Voyage at the same location.
  
  
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  Crews will once again be able to venture to Plunder Valley when starting the Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage.
  

Skeleton Mercenaries at Forts

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  Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons can now be discovered and unearthed at Skeleton Forts, providing handy reinforcements for the siege.
  

Cannon of Rage Cash-In

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  The Cannon of Rage can now be sold to the Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls and Hunter’s Call in addition to the existing locations at the Merchant Alliance and Reaper’s Bones. The Sovereigns also offer their services for Captains looking to efficiently sell surplus Cannons of Rage!
  

Reapers Rising Commendations and Rewards

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  New Reapers Rising Commendations have been added within the Reputation tab, tasking players with seeking out the newly enhanced Reaper’s Chests. Crews taking on this challenge can unlock access to Reaper’s Bones instruments.
  

Season 16

Hunter’s Call Emissary Ledger Rewards

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  The Hunter’s Call Emissary Ledger now offers the Hunter’s Call ship livery and figurehead, along with the Assailant of the Dreaded Deep Title. These new rewards are earnable by Hunters representing the Company proudly when the Ledgers close at the end of the month.
  

Gameplay Improvements

Cross-Region Matchmaking Support

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  Sea of Thieves matchmaking now supports the ability for crews to be migrated to suitable regions nearby, should server availability or worthy opponents not be found in their home region.
  
  
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  When diving to a Faction battle, for example, crews will initially search for suitable rivals in their home region. However, if a suitable match isn’t found, additional regions nearby will be gradually added to the search to reduce matchmaking times.
  
  
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  Cross-Region Matchmaking will utilise network data to control each home region’s fallback behaviour, and once rolled out this will be monitored and optimised by player feedback.
  
  
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  Cross-Region Matchmaking will support crews diving to Faction battles or Voyages, entering the Tunnels of the Damned for Tall Tales and scuttling a ship. Safer Seas does not support Cross-Region Matchmaking.
  

Skull of Siren Song Balancing

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  Crews joining the Skull of Siren Song Voyage will now only benefit from the reduced ship respawn distance when sinking close to a Voyage objective. These objectives include the island locations holding a quest item, and the Key, Chest and Skull of Siren Song themselves when being transported.
  
  
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  Crews joining the Skull of Siren Song Voyage and sinking at a distance from a Voyage objective will now follow the existing ship respawn rules.
  

Pirate Emporium

Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

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  Dashing Duellist Ship Collection
  
  
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  Dashing Duellist Weapon Bundle
  
  
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  Dashing Duellist Costume
  
  
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  Dashing Duellist Banjo
  
  
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  Comical Weapon Pose Emote
  
  
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  Sore Loser Emote (free!)
  
  
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  Eclipse Ship Collection (returning from Season 13 Plunder Pass)
  
  
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  Eclipse Clothing: Hat, Jacket and Gloves (returning from Season 13 Plunder Pass)
  
  
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  Eclipse Weapons: Pistol, Blunderbuss, Eye of Reach and Cutlass
  

Deadlock Jailer Costume Update

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  Wearing the Deadlock Jailer Costume now allows players to perform the Prisoner’s Woe Emote.
  

Outpost Cosmetics

New Outpost Stock!

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  The Outpost weaponsmiths now stock the Golden Chaser Pistol, Cutlass, Blunderbuss, Eye of Reach, Heavy Sword and Rapier.
  
  
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  The shipwrights have also restocked with the new Yellow Resolute Hull, Sails and Flag.
  

Updates

Text Chat Filtering

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  Messages sent to players via text chat will now pass through an improved profanity filtering system that can be updated outside Sea of Thieves’ regular updates, for a faster response to inappropriate language being reported by players.
  
  
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  This has been running behind the scenes to allow the team to configure the strictness of the system using real chat data. Once activated as part of this update, the system will be updated by the Player Support team to ensure a safe but fair chat experience for all players.
  

Disabling Game Invites

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  Players on Steam, PlayStation®5 and Battle.net® now have access to a new HUD setting, providing the ability to Disable Invite Notifications from being displayed when a party invite is received from another player. This setting prevents game invites from being shown both while in-game and on the front-end menu.
  

Game Integrity Improvements

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  Following improvements to game file integrity on PC, as part of this update any players with previously modified game settings will find those affected settings have now been reset to permitted levels.
  

Events

Fight Nights (June 19th–26th)

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  Load the cannons and brace yourself as the Battle for the Sea of Thieves rages on! During Fight Nights, pirates who engage in Faction battles using the Hourglass of Fate will receive double Allegiance and gold for their dedication.
  
  
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  Racking up victories in the name of both Factions during Fight Nights will allow players to unlock two exclusive Trinkets: ‘A Golden Victory’ and ‘Fire and Ash’!
  

Fixed Issues

Gameplay

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  Players venturing into The Reaper’s Hideout or Pirate Legend Hideout will now find that the war map once again shows the live state of the battle between the Guardians of Fortune and Servants of the Flame.
  
  
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  Players can no longer drop or give items while attempting to cash in at a vendor.
  
  
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  Players attempting to use both controller and keyboard together to turn the ship’s wheel will no longer find they can bypass the turning speed restriction of a damaged wheel.
  
  
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  The vortex above an Ashen Lord encounter now fades away consistently once the encounter ends.
  
  
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  The Lamplighter Double Barrel Pistol has had its aiming improved to ensure shots now align with the tip of the iron sights.
  
  
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  A Tracker’s Megalodon Hunt Voyage no longer ends prematurely, meaning the Voyage will no longer end on its own or resolve as failed after half an hour.
  
  
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  Skeletons operating cannons should once again be able to hit their targets nearby.
  
  
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  ‘The Cursed Rogue’ – Briggsy’s ritual music now starts at the correct time.
  

Performance and Stability

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  Players receiving a large number of game invites should now find their game remains stable.
  
  
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  Further improvements have been made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly exit the game or become disconnected from their session.
  

Reapers Rising

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  Players on Steam will no longer be awarded the Bony Bodyguard and Voyager of Bones achievements when loading into the game, and will now be required to meet the necessary criteria.
  
  
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  Players meeting the necessary criteria should now consistently unlock the Mobile Cannoneer achievement or Trophy depending on their platform.
  
  
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  Players stealing a Skull of the Banished buried by a rival crew will now find they make progress towards the Reaper Rivals Commendation.
  
  
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  The Dusty Hair of Boneward Blade now appears in the correct place in players’ Vanity Chests.
  

Hunting Spear

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  Hunting spears thrown at targets below deck now consistently deal the intended damage.
  
  
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  Players can no longer use various methods to duplicate their stock of hunting spears.
  
  
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  Hunting spears can now be consistently picked up from inside the ship even when standing in shallow water.
  

Cannon of Rage

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  Players are now consistently prevented from interacting with a cannon while it is being retracted or deployed.
  
  
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  Retracting a cannon will now consistently play the correct audio effects.
  
  
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  Players and skeletons carrying a Cannon of Rage will now hold the cannons correctly in their hands.
  

Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage

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  Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons can now consistently dig to unearth a pillar after a crew has migrated across servers during the Voyage.
  
  
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  All players should see the sarcophagus in the correct state even when arriving partway through the sequence.
  
  
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  After unearthing a pillar, crews should now be able to view it in the correct state after leaving and returning to the island.
  
  
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  The map clues now more closely match the pillar locations when voyaging on Lone Cove.
  
  
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  Various audio improvements have been made across the Voyage experience.
  
  
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  The dig locations for the pillars have been tightened to avoid the pillar being raised outside the intended area.
  

Environment

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  Improvements have been made to the geometry at Crescent Isle and Marauder’s Arch to address crews using these locations to hide their ship and shelter from attacks during Faction battles.
  
  
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  Players using the Grapple Gun around the Sovereigns’ tent should no longer find they hit invisible walls that prevent them from grappling their target.
  
  
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  Players should no longer be able to walk through and hide items inside gates at Port Merrick.
  
  
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  Players should no longer be able to hide inside rocks on Thieves’ Haven and Lone Cove.
  
  
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  ‘Shores of Gold’ – Various improvements have been made to the environment to prevent players using the Grapple Gun to bypass large areas of the Tale.
  

Visual and Audio

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  Many blunderbusses have been amended to prevent the weapon from intersecting with the player’s camera during the kickback while firing.
  
  
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  A range of swords have been reviewed and had their slash visual effects re-enabled.
  
  
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  If a Voyage is cancelled upon arrival in the Tunnels of the Damned, players should no longer hear the portal audio when returning to the inactive portal.
  
  
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  The Guild Plaque’s Distinction Medal will no longer shift position when observed at different distances.
  
  
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  Skeleton Mercenaries given a Reaper’s Urn or Reaper’s Chest will now hold them correctly in their bony hands.
  
  
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  Belts can no longer be equipped over the Hunter’s Call Emissary Costume.
  
  
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  The Islehopper Outlaw Blunderbuss is now wielded and aimed at the correct distance from the player and will not intersect with the camera when used.
  
  
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  Digging in front of the Pirate Lord on the Maiden Voyage no longer causes the chest to appear with the same texture as sand.
  

User Interface

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  The Discover tab on the Quest Table should no longer display a random Voyage when selected, and should consistently provide a curated list based on a player’s journey.
  
  
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  Filters within the Reputation tab’s Commendations menus now appear consistently across all platforms.
  
  
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  Navigating the front-end menu with a 21:9 or 32:9 aspect ratio display now shows the front end correctly.
  

Text and Localisation

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  All Hunter’s Call Distinction Rings now show the correct text when viewed in the Clothing Chest.
  

Accessibility

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  Players using High Contrast ‘X Marks the Spot’ will now find the fishing maps use high-contrast icons for improved accessibility.
  
  
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  Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ should now find the initial menu screens shown to new pirates are fully narrated.
  
  
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  Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ should now hear the Select a Ship screen narrated when navigating the front-end menu.
  

Known Issues

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.

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Even though it’s been mere weeks since Sea of Thieves swept into Season 16, the annual Xbox Games Showcase is an occasion that embraces gaming highlights still to come. So on Sunday, June 8th, the 2025 Showcase came loaded with the first sighting of Season 17, now in development and on course to land with a bang in August.

Recent Sea of Thieves Seasons have expanded the roles of existing Companies: Season 15 charted the growth of The Hunter’s Call to meet new oceanic threats, while Season 16 exposes the ceaseless schemes of The Reaper’s Bones, forever in thrall to Captain Flameheart. But things are a little different in Season 17, which brings in some brand new blood under the banner of The Smuggler’s League. Watch the trailer below to learn a little more about their motivations…

Here’s the official description released alongside the Showcase trailer:

A new gang of nefarious troublemakers have infiltrated the Sea of Thieves! Known as The Smuggler’s League, they’re recruiting pirates willing to deal with dangers others are afraid to handle, including weapons and some of the most powerful explosives ever seen on the seas. Crews that think they’re up to the challenge can embark on new Smuggler’s Voyages to salvage – or steal – these hot properties and see them safely into the wrong hands, but one false move could spell disaster. Sparks are sure to fly when Season 17: Smugglers’ Tide launches in August, free for all players.

While there are a couple of months to wait for the Smugglers’ arrival, gaming’s summer season of shows and announcements mean there’s plenty going on to keep players occupied – not to mention the ferocious features of Sea of Thieves’ own current Season, all set to receive further free expansions in June and July. Stay tuned for more on those very soon!

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Summer is finally here! The sun is blazing bright over the Sea of Thieves, which means it’s time to bid a fond farewell to the darling buds of May – but not before we’ve gotten you up to speed on everything you might have missed. So settle down on your favourite pirate beach and lose yourself for a while in this latest round-up…

Content Update

The seas were teeming with activity throughout May, from the very first day when we kicked things off with a hotfix for some of the additions in late April. From there it was straight into the latest Festival of Fishing Event, celebrating the recent expansion of The Hunter’s Call and setting up some tasty rewards to be reeled in along the way!

All of which left us in a great position to unleash Season 16 a few days later, revolving around the Reapers and all that they and their master Flameheart have been working towards since his resurrection. The Reaper’s Bones revealed their very first Voyage, while the devastating portable Cannon of Rage started appearing on island shores. At the same time, the seas welcomed in a new wave of players from [URL='https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2FBattle.net%C2%AE']Battle.net®[/URL] with a unique set of sails offered for free to anyone who sets sail this Season!

News and Features

With updates and events happening left and right, a quick summary was needed at the beginning of the month in the form of May’s This Month in SoT article, as well as a couple of State of Play Forum posts from Production Director Drew to explain what all those updates were about. But there was also time to unveil our latest Community Spotlight, peering into the world of twin creative crafters, ChloeSaurasCrafts!

It was a big month for book lovers too: in celebration of a new Reaper-themed Season, Sea of Thieves novel Heart of Fire was temporarily available for free from all of the places you can expect to find ebooks, while artistic souls were well served by the arrival of Sea of Thieves: The Art of Piracy! The second art book we’ve released, this tome highlights more work from the phenomenal artists who’ve helped to craft the visual style of our shared pirate paradise.

Videos and Streams

With The Reaper’s Bones preparing to make their move in Season 16, we wanted to ensure everyone had a chance to get up to speed on the story so far. To that end, some of the Rare crew gathered in the Tavern for a special lore-centric podcast, while Sea of Thieves Partner Captain Falcore relayed the history of Captain Flameheart. And, while we were all in the Reaper spirit, we just couldn’t wait to release the ominous music behind the Season 16 title screen, ‘Reaper’s Requiem’.

That left a tiny amount of time to squeeze in May’s episode of Sea of Thieves News, before diving right into the business of the content update, launch, Emporium overview and unlockable cosmetics videos that come with the arrival of every new Season. There was even a new Developer Update in the same week with more behind-the-scenes details!

Social Channels

May was no slouch in the community competition department, with not only a new Community Hub update and a #SoTShot round on Wild Things, but the Season 15 Style of Thieves contest that sashayed in just before the Season ended. Fashion-focused pirates could strut their stuff in the categories of Hunter, Duvet Day, Regal and Monstrous, with the winning ensembles well deserving of a hearty round of applause.

It wasn’t all competitions though; we started the month by asking the Big Questions, and closed the month in much the same way, albeit with some Crewmates hijinks, skeleton friends and a bit of light thievery along the way. Really now, what did you expect from pirates?

And on that altogether unsurprising bombshell, we must depart. We’ll be back again as always next month with new delights to round up for you all, but until then, why not drop by and see us on the social channel of your choice? You can find us on Twitter/X, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, the official Forums and Discord, so feel free to come and say hello. But with that we’ll have to leave you – The Reaper’s Bones have been making quite the mess and you wouldn’t believe how hard it can be to scrub paint off sea rocks. At least the Megalodon plush is here to help.

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Previously in 2025:

Sea of Thieves Round-Up: April 2025

Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2025

Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2025

Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2025

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Welcome to a brand new month of Sea of Thieves fun! There are a quite a few bits and bobs for buccaneers to get their teeth into over these next few weeks, so grab your map and let us help you plot a course for all the Events, features and bonuses that June has to offer.

Gold & Glory Weekend – Friday, June 6th – Monday, June 9th

The pirate life isn’t just about the gold, it’s also about the glory – except for when we have an Event on, and it’s actually about both. Hit the High Seas from June 6th–9th to get boosted gold, reputation, Renown and Allegiance in return for your hard work.

Pirate Emporium Gone Fishin’ Sale – Wednesday, June 11th – Monday, June 16th

While Season 15 is now in the rear view mirror, our love of The Hunter’s Call and their fishy friends remains. This month’s Emporium sale discounts some of the more marine life-related designs, including items from the Wrecker Wrangler, Stormfish Chaser, Lionfish and Ruby Splashtail sets. With discounts as deep as 50%, it’s an excellent time to snag yourself a bargain.

‘The Ancient Pillars’ Release – Friday, June 13th

Our latest Sea of Thieves soundtrack addition is the dramatic, driving anthem ‘The Ancient Pillars’, which will be available to stream on Spotify or the alternative streaming service of your choice from June 13th. Guaranteed to make the completion of any task feel grander!

June Monthly Update – Thursday, June 19th

Season 16’s second content update releases on June 19th, bringing with it revamped Reaper’s Chests! As Flameheart’s power and influence grows, these once mysteriously locked chests can now be unsealed – unleashing Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons to protect your crew and attack any foes nearby.

Of course, a new monthly update also brings fancy new wares to the Pirate Emporium and a Voyage of Luck to all players for free, so there’ll be plenty to set sail for when June’s update drops.

Fight Nights Event – Thursday, June 19th – Thursday, June 26th

After making their debut late last year, Fight Nights return! Seek out combat with your Hourglass of Fate and earn double the usual Allegiance and gold for every Faction battle fought during this Event. These boosts will fast-forward your progress towards both the Blessing of Athena’s Fortune and the Skeleton Curse, so put your best foot forward and get ready for some solid seafaring scrapping.

Twitch Drops – Friday, June 20th – Friday, June 27th

Twitch Drops return to accompany June’s content update, kicking off the following day. This set of swag will be available to unlock and claim for seven days, with gold, Seasonal Renown, Voyages and cosmetics all part of the package. There’ll be more information on the specific goodies included later in the month.

Drops are available by linking your accounts and watching any Sea of Thieves Partner on Twitch for the required amount of time. If you’re not sure who to watch, check our Partner Directory to see who’s online and available to tune in to once those Drops go live!

Sails of Bonded Brawlers – throughout Season 16

Players who have yet to set sail in Season 16 are still able to bag the beautiful blue Sails of Bonded Brawlers. Released in celebration of Sea of Thieves’ launch on Battle.net®, these snazzy sheets remain available to claim for free over the course of Season 16. Just head to the Ship Customisation Chest to find and equip them.

Pride Month – throughout June
Of course, June is also Pride Month, which gives us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all our sailors’ differences and reaffirm our commitment to Sea of Thieves’ Pirate Code. If you’re unfamiliar with the Pirate Code or just need a refresher, you can take a look here.

This year, we’re thrilled to announce that players can pick up the Progress Pride Flag from the ever-reliable Larinna outside the tavern, for the noteworthy total of 1969 gold. Proud pirates in participating territories will now be able to attach this fabulous fabric to their flagpole forevermore – as while it’s introduced as part of our Pride Month 2025 activities, it’ll stay in Sea of Thieves permanently and be available from the shipwright at any Outpost after June has passed.

We also have other celebratory events planned throughout the month, including a special stream from the studio. So stay tuned for more on what to expect as we honour our queer creators and communities! The sea calls to, and will always welcome, all pirates who wish to sail on it – and from this month onwards, you’ll be able to proudly represent the community with a beautiful banner too.

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Fixed Issues
Cannon of Rage

• Players being fired from a Cannon of Rage deployed on a moving ship will no longer find their trajectory is affected by the ship’s movement while travelling through the air.
  
• Cannons deployed on the lift at The Reaper’s Hideout will no longer appear flattened.
  
• Cannons of Rage can now be consistently interacted with once deployed. (Released previously as part of an interim update.)

Search for Ancient Secrets

• The Skull of the Banished can no longer be placed inside a Treasure Chest and have its marker hidden from the ship’s map.
  
• Players will now be rewarded with Caskets of Verdant Bones when progressing through the Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage, allowing them to work towards the Reaper of Servant’s Offerings Commendations.
  
• Crews will no longer be directed to Plunder Valley when starting the Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage.

Performance and Stability

• Further security improvements have been made to protect against players attempting to bypass game integrity checks.
  
• Improvements have been made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly become disconnected from their session. (Released previously as part of an interim update.)

Known Issues
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.

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

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Season 16 has arrived in Sea of Thieves! It’s been a little while since the fearsome Captain Flameheart regained his physical form, but the time has now come for him to expand the reach of his loyal followers and strengthen the standing of The Reaper’s Bones.

In this latest free Seasonal update, pirates will be able to set out on their first ever Voyages for The Reaper’s Bones and work together with the legendary skeletons of the Order of Bone and Blade to uncover Ancient secrets – and that’s just the beginning…

Stronger Bones
With their leader Captain Flameheart returned to full strength and armed with forbidden knowledge thieved from Ancient Temples, The Reaper’s Bones are making their move on the Sea of Thieves! This Season, for the first time, they’ll be offering Voyages for pirates to undertake, beginning with the Search for Ancient Secrets.

In this Voyage, players will need to work with a lost crew of skeletons from the fabled Order of Bone and Blade to unearth long-buried Ancient Sarcophagi. Along the way, Ancient Phantoms will emerge to defend their hidden secrets. You’ll need to fight them off to finish activating the mechanisms and uncover a Skull of the Banished to take back to the Servant of the Flame.

Voyaging for The Reaper’s Bones isn’t quite so simple, however: Flameheart values strength and dominance above all else, so if you want to sail in his name, you’ll have to fly a Reaper’s Mark Flag! The flag will be raised automatically whenever you undertake a Voyage for The Reaper’s Bones, revealing the location of your ship to all other nearby crews and inviting them to come and claim your loot for themselves, if they have what it takes…

Emergent Excitements
The growing influence of The Reaper’s Bones is having an impact on emergent activities too. Their cunning weaponsmiths have devised a way of tapping the raw power of the Chest of Rage to construct a new, devastating weapon: the Cannon of Rage.

This portable armament grants pirates who find it the freedom to fire cannonballs from almost anywhere, then pack up the cannon and carry it on to a new location for redeployment. There’s a risk, however: whenever the Cannon of Rage fires or takes damage, it starts to overheat. Fail to give it time to cool down (or speed up the cooling process with water), and it’ll live up to its name with a violent explosion that’s liable to sink the ship you’re standing on!

Meanwhile, skeletal members of the long-lost Order of Bone and Blade have started clawing their way up towards the sandy surfaces of islands, waiting to be fully unearthed by curious passers-by. Rescue them and you’ll be friends for life – or at least until they fall in battle, as they’ll happily throw in their lot with the next pirate to revive them. You’ll find they’re also unable to leave the island to which their bones are bound! Until then, though, they can lend a hand with whatever needs doing, whether it’s demystifying tricky treasure maps, digging up treasure or helping to carry your haul to safety.

More to Come
The Season 16 additions don’t end with May’s update. Over the next few months, new features will be arriving as part of our staggered Season delivery, including a second Voyage for The Reaper’s Bones and the introduction of breakable seals on Reaper’s Chests! If a crew decides to take the plunge and investigate what’s actually inside these strange glowing boxes, they might just find themselves with a sturdy crew of skeletons ready to defend their new companions to the death.

The Followers of the Flame Voyage also focuses on these mysterious treasures favoured by The Reaper’s Bones. Pirates will be tasked with using an enchanted lantern known as the Follower’s Flame to search for a new kind of Reaper’s Chest in need of recovery, helped along the way by some of Flameheart’s loyal forces.

These further additions will be arriving throughout Season 16, so be sure to keep an eye on our social channels for more news on each update as it approaches!

Flaming Fashions
Any expansion to The Reaper’s Bones wouldn’t be complete without a fresh round of Commendations to work towards and the rewards unlocked by doing so. Season 16 introduces a wealth of new Reaper-inspired cosmetics to personalise your pirate, ensuring you can always show your allegiance via your wardrobe. Pirate Captains will also find that they have new Captaincy Milestones awaiting them to keep track of their contributions to Flameheart’s plans.

Beyond Commendations, Season 16 promises everything you’d expect from a new Sea of Thieves Season, including another 100 levels of Renown to climb through with daring deeds and a rich bounty of cosmetics, gold, Doubloons and Ancient Coins to earn along the way. For pirates who already have some Ancient Coins ready to spend, the Pirate Emporium is ready to light up the night with its latest array of offerings, while the Season 16 Plunder Pass includes the luxurious Oyster’s Prize ship set (including Collector’s items) and matching Oyster’s Prize Eyepatch, Jacket and Belt!

The seas will be abuzz with activity during Season 16 as the Reapers roll out their plans, so keep your eye on the horizon for everything that’s coming. For a full breakdown of the features included and improvements made in this month’s update, check out the latest release notes. More information about the features coming later in the Season will be revealed in the weeks ahead, so follow Sea of Thieves on the social media platform of your choice to get all the latest updates. Good luck out there, and may the Flame burn!

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Reapers Rising
Set sail on Voyages for The Reaper’s Bones, roll out the Cannon of Rage and enlist Captain Flameheart’s Order of Bone and Blade! To learn more about this new Season’s headline features, head over to our dedicated Season 16 page.

Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage

• The Reaper’s Bones now offer an on-demand Voyage from the Quest Table: the Search for Ancient Secrets.
  
• This Voyage tasks crews with uncovering long-lost skeletons from the fabled Order of Bone and Blade and working with them to unearth Ancient Sarcophagi, while fighting back against Ancient Phantoms dead set on defending their secrets.
  
• Embarking on a Voyage for The Reaper’s Bones will automatically raise a Reaper’s Mark Flag on the ship, announcing your location to other crews via their Map Table.

Cannon of Rage

• The Cannon of Rage is a powerful portable cannon that can be positioned and redeployed for a wide range of tactical uses.
  
• Once deployed, it can be loaded and fired like a regular cannon, but with each shot fired the cannon generates heat and will need cooling down to prevent overheating. Players can delay their shots to allow the cannon to cool naturally, or douse it with water to speed up the process.
  
• The cannon will also overheat when taking damage, becoming a potential target for rival crews. Should the cannon reach critical heat levels, either through overuse or damage, it will result in a devastating explosion that damages anything nearby.
  
• These cannons can be found as a guaranteed reward within the Vaults of emergent Skeleton Forts, the Fort of Fortune and the Fort of the Damned. Crews may also find themselves lucky and discover them hidden in Sea Forts or washed up on beaches. Raid Voyages won’t award these volatile contraptions, so keep an eye on the horizon for those events!

Skeleton Mercenaries

• Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons can now be found partially buried on islands across the Sea of Thieves, and will assist pirates who revive them. Crews can recover multiple allies as they explore, and may even uncover an Order of Bone and Blade Captain, a more formidable defender.
  
• As allies, the Order of Bone and Blade will join the fray to protect their adopted crew. While they can fall during a fight, they can also be revived to rejoin the battle. But be warned that these mercenaries will side with whoever revives them, even if that's a rival crew!
  
• These mercenaries will follow and assist the adopted crew on their island adventures. However, their bones are bound to the island where they’re found, so they’re unable to accompany pirates on their onward journey!

Reaper’s Chest Value

• The Reaper’s Bones are seeking the power held within the Reaper’s Chest and Reaper’s Bounty to fulfil their needs, and now award increased gold and reputation to crews delivering these to The Reaper’s Hideout.

Reapers Rising Commendations and Rewards

• A range of new Reapers Rising Commendations have been added within the Reputation tab to challenge pirates. Explore the challenges under the Reaper’s Bones and Bilge Rat Commendation tabs in the Pirate Log.
  
• The Reaper’s Bones representatives now offer access to Reaper’s Bones weapons, clothing and equipment unlocked through their Commendations. These items will arrive over the course of the Season.
  
• Servants of the Flame can earn access to new Skeleton Curse cosmetics through the Bonesmith, unlocking the Skull, Upper and Lower Body parts for the Order of Bone and Blade and Captain variants along with the Rusted Raw Bones.
  
• The Outpost shipwrights offer two new items for Captains, in the form of the ‘Essence of Red Death’ and ‘Resurrection of Secrets’ Ornaments.
  
• Reapers tackling the new Pirate Milestone within the Voyager alignment can unlock access to the new ‘Digging for Victory’ Painting.

Season 16
Another Season means 100 new levels to climb by raising your Renown, with racks full of rewards to snag along the way – and an optional Plunder Pass adding even more!

Season 16 Rewards and Plunder Pass

• Progressing through the 100 levels of Renown in Season 16 will reward players with Boneward Blade clothing items and unique Season 16 rewards, alongside time-limited Bone and Blade collectibles. Head to the Seasons profile page to browse the new rewards and check your pirate’s progress!
  
• Pick up the latest Plunder Pass to gain access to a plethora of additional unlockable cosmetics from the Oyster’s Prize collection, including a ship set with Collector’s items and a selection of themed clothing, all available to earn by raising your Renown. Purchase a Pass in-game through the Pirate Log or Pirate Emporium, or via the Pirate Emporium webpage or Steam Item Store.

Season 16 Emissary Ledger Rewards

• This Season, the Guild Emissary Ledgers offer the ‘Forbidden Knowledge’ Painting, ‘Blade to the Bone’ Ornament and Guild of Elevated Evil Title to Guilds who represent them well and perform proudly in the Ledgers.

Chest of Fortune

• The Chest of Fortune remains within the Vault of the Fort of Fortune for this season.
  
• Crews who retrieve Chests of Fortune can now earn the next Grade of the Fortune’s Favour Commendation, unlocking access to the Regal Fortune Cannons, Capstan, Wheel and Flag.

Reaper’s Chests

• Crews chasing down the tell-tale beacon of the Reaper’s Chest or Reaper’s Bounty can earn the next Grade of the Reaper’s Riches Commendation, and start unlocking access to the Regal Fortune Blunderbuss, Eye of Reach and Throwing Knives.

Pirate Emporium
Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

• Lamplighter Ship Collection and Ship’s Crest
  
• Lamplighter Weapon Bundle
  
• Lamplighter Costume
  
• Lamplighter Lantern
  
• Reaper’s Heart Toucan
  
• Dark Warsmith Cabin Bundle
  
• Sting Tide Eye of Reach (free!)

Outpost Cosmetics
New Outpost Stock!

• The Outpost weaponsmiths now stock the Party Boat Throwing Knives, Double Barrel Pistol, Grapple Gun and Blowpipe.

Season Nine Legacy Cosmetics

• Cosmetics previously available during Season Nine have arrived in Outpost shops and can now be yours in exchange for Doubloons!
  
• Players can now purchase the Prosperous Privateer clothing set, along with a range of unique one-off items first available during this Season. Pirate Legends can also pick up the Legendary Bone Hunter Jacket and Spyglass.
  
• The time-limited Gilded Age items, however, remain exclusive to players who participated in Season Nine.

Gameplay Improvements
Performance Improvements

• This update includes a range of smaller system-level optimisations to game performance, networking and memory, providing improvements across the broader experience.

Tightrope Improvements

• Players traversing a harpoon tightrope are now free to look up and down while balancing.

Updates
Game Integrity Improvements

• Improvements to game integrity on PC now detect and prevent players from manipulating game files to modify the game experience.

Network Connection Indicator

• Players experiencing an unstable network connection will now be shown an indicator within the game HUD. While this is enabled by default, it can be disabled within the HUD settings.

Improved GPU Crash Reporting

• Players on PC will find a new option in the game settings allowing extra information to be gathered when experiencing a GPU-related game crash. While this is disabled by default, it can be enabled through the Video Options settings.

Fixed Issues
Gameplay

• Captains restoring their ship at a shipwright will now consistently find the ship is returned to pristine condition.
  
• During Faction Battles, ships that are beached in shallow waters around islands can now be consistently sunk by rival crews. Once sufficient damage has been dealt to a ship, it will be considered sunk and moved to the wreckage tunnel.
  
• Players firing themselves from cannons into island shallows should no longer find they are sometimes pushed through the geometry and underneath the island.
  
• The Barnacled Dread no longer flees from an encounter when struck by a Lure Dart.
  
• Players will no longer find their ship sometimes takes damage from sea rocks when surfacing from a dive in certain world locations.
  
• Detonating a Gunpowder Barrel held by a skeleton should now consistently cause nearby Gunpowder Barrels to explode.
  
• Damage from a firebomb now consistently forces players out of a sitting spot.
  
• Storage Crates dug up from Skeletons’ Orders can now be sold at Outposts.
  
• ‘Revenge of the Morningstar’ – Starting this Tall Tale from a checkpoint and choosing to dive to the location now consistently places the required Tale items on the Quest Table.

Hunting Spear

• Hunting spears can now be sold to The Reaper’s Bones.
  
• Players are now prevented from placing a hunting spear in a Merfolk Statue while charging a throw.
  
• Hunting spears that float to the ocean’s surface after being thrown can now consistently be picked up.
  
• Hunting spears should no longer be destroyed when thrown or carried while inside the Tunnels of the Damned or when diving.
  
• Players using ‘Reduce Hold to Use item’ will find it now supports charging a hunting spear’s throw.

Megalodon Hunting Voyage

• The enraged Megalodon encountered while on this Voyage should no longer attempt to attack the ship immediately after surfacing.
  
• Appropriate battle music should now be heard during the Voyage when the Megalodon surfaces.

Wild Boars

• Grand Boars found exploring the island should now leave behind fewer items of fruit when left undisturbed.
  
• The health of wild boars now dynamically scales with the crew size in proximity, providing a balanced encounter for all crew sizes.

Environment

• Players should no longer be able to trap themselves at the Dagger Tooth Outpost shipwright when using the Grapple Gun.
  
• Invisible objects found around the environment have been removed from The Reaper’s Hideout.
  
• Improvements have been made to various parts of the environment at Ancient Spire Outpost to address visual issues.
  
• Improvements have been made to the lighting within the Vault at Hidden Spring Keep.

Visual and Audio

• The Skin Scriber Pistol and Double Barrel Pistol have had their aiming improved to ensure shots now align with the tip of the barrel.
  
• Applying tattoos should no longer change the player’s skin tone.
  
• The Stormfish Chaser Blunderbuss now sits correctly in the player’s hands.
  
• The Silent Barnacle Sails no longer have visible floating parts when equipped.
  
• Players equipping a disguise while wearing the Lightbearer Costume should now remain fully hidden.
  
• The lantern near the Sloop’s wheel will now consistently cast a visible light when moving around the ship.

Text and Localisation

• The notification for unlocking the Wild Seas Curse now displays the correct message.
  
• The Pirate of Magnificent Mischief Title now appears with the correct name when equipped.
  
• Japanese translations for the Skin Scriber set have been corrected.

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.

Known Issues
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.

Download and Installation
Download Size:

• Steam: 3 GB

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Faction Battles
Faction Battles Reopened

• With the issues affecting diving to experiences now resolved, Faction battles have been reopened and crews can once again dive into battle using the War Map.

Fixed Issues
Performance and Stability

• Improvements have been made to game stability while diving to experiences. This addresses a recent regression causing black loading screens to become stuck after diving.

Known Issues
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.

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

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Season 15 has been one filled with balance. For all the monstrous maws of Ancient Megalodons, there were seagulls added to accompany your sway across the waves. As ferocious wild boars arrived to send many a pirate to the Ferry of the Damned, new fishing Voyages invited a relaxing session, assuming someone else didn’t fancy your fish. Then the Kraken must have felt a bit left out and unexpectedly started attacking every ship it saw (we calmed it down, don’t worry), so how about we try to have a civilised fashion contest to balance that?

Yep, you read the headline correctly (assuming you read the headline), #StyleOfThieves returns for its Season 15 sashay and it’s happening from May 12th–15th! Pirates of all walks are invited to embrace the swathes of cosmetics at their disposal for a spot of dress-up in the name of fun, fashion and, for 16 lucky winners, a new pair of gloves.

Maintaining the same course as its recent iterations, posts relating to this Season’s themes will appear on Sea of Thieves social media channels around 10am UTC on the dates specified below, signalling that the entry period for that day’s couture contest is open. Your task, as the highly fashionable filibusters you are, is to the show us your pirate dressed in a manner that responds to the day’s prompt, trying to stand out from the crowd in the process. How do you show us? Simple, just take screenshots displaying your full outfit and share them on your social media channel of choice (details below), stating the name of the theme with your screenshot to help with our team’s judging.

Each theme will be open to entries for 24 hours, after which time our team will scour the corners of the internet (well, the advertised avenues for entries on the internet) and pull together a shortlist of their favourite fits. These will then be hidden in a secret room within a shifting mansion that was recently left to us by an eccentric benefactor, with a member of the Art team tasked with solving the house’s secrets in order to locate the list. Assuming they manage this and don’t get stuck in a closet for the rest of eternity, they’ll choose their 16 overall winners for us to reveal on May 21st.

Before we get to the themes, we’d just like to reiterate a necessary reminder: even if you don’t win Style of Thieves, as with all our social media contests, we hope everyone who takes part simply has a good time exploring the fun of fashion within Sea of Thieves. Who knows, you may find the perfect fit for your pirate’s next adventure!

And now, without any more re-tweaked preamble, here are Season 15’s #StyleOfThieves themes:

The Themes
Each theme will start at 10am UTC on the dates detailed below, with entries accepted via a variety of social media channels for a full 24 hours.

Hunter
Dress for the catch you want, not the catch you have! Unless the catch you have is a huge, ferocious monster, in which case you’re probably ready to pose for a screenshot already. Just clean your hands first, please.
Entry date: May 12th

Duvet Day
Even pirates need the occasional rest day, so pay homage to the amicable skive by donning the comfiest trousers and baggiest top you can find! Even if the closest available thing to a sofa is two wooden planks, you can still recline on it looking appropriately ready for nothing.
Entry date: May 13th

Regal
Magnificent. Dignified. Two words we’d find very hard to apply to the vast majority of pirates we meet on the Sea of Thieves, but very much the expectation for the entries in this theme, so… good luck!
Entry date: May 14th

Monstrous
If your outfit doesn’t naturally cause you to snarl and snap at passers-by, it probably needs a few more teeth, gnarly accessories, dark hues or a combination of all three.
Entry date: May 15th

Image credit: TippToppHansiI on X/Twitter

How to Enter
Now into the part of the article that’s the same every time, including the sentence you’re reading now (but with one new point!). We’re all over social media channels, in a friendly ‘enter however you feel comfortable’ kind of way, so you’re free to submit on a variety of channels. That said, each comes with its own quirks you need to adhere to as follows:

• To enter on X/Twitter, make sure you include @SeaOfThieves and #StyleOfThieves in your post.
  
• For Instagram, you just need to post using #StyleOfThieves. Same goes for Bluesky and Threads.
  
• Add your entry as a reply to that day’s theme post on Facebook.
  
• Post your entry with #StyleOfThieves in the #pirate-fashion channel of our official Discord server.

And regardless of where you’re sharing your entry, be sure to include the name of the theme you’re entering in your post, along with any extra info called for by the theme.

Rules of the Runway
We’ve put together some handy hints and rules to make sure you capture your pirate’s best side and don’t accidentally enter an ineligible picture:

• No Costumes on the catwalk – we want to see your creativity and individuality in how you mix and match items, so no all-in-one Costumes.
  
• Complete cosmetic sets are not permitted. Our artists designed those items to go together and, again, we want to see stylish creativity. Ideally, an outfit should contain no more than four items from the same named set, but as long as creativity from multiple styles is evident then your outfit will be accepted.
  
• Unless a theme calls for it, all shots should be solo pirates and not crews. Only the pirate(s) in the picture will be eligible for the prize.
  
• Find a simple or plain background to pose against to let your outfit pop. Backgrounds and locations will not be considered when judging the outfit.
  
• Lighting helps, so find a well-lit spot to fully peacock your picks. Coloured or tactical lighting won’t be considered part of the outfit, and could hurt your chances of consideration.
  
• Toggle off your HUD for a clean snap and avoid a name getting in the way! If you haven’t set it, the Toggle HUD command can be assigned to a button from the HUD category of the Keyboard and Mouse or Controller area of your Settings menu.
  
• Screenshots should be a reflection of the game – no external editing or filters should be applied.
  
• Please try to keep your submissions to a 16:9 or 1:1 ratio, making sure your entire outfit is in shot, including your shoes/toes! This will help us when framing winners, and ensures a degree of parity when comparing submissions.
  
• While you may use any emotes for your shot, any features added to the outfit via the emote (e.g. oars, weapons, sparklers) won’t be taken into consideration as part of an outfit during judging.
  
• One shortlist will be compiled per theme, using entries across all platforms, meaning it’s not necessary to post your submission to all channels. If you make sure you use the correct tags, we will see it! Please note that we will only shortlist one costume per user per theme.
  
• While we don’t dissuade pirates from posting multiple entries on a single theme, if we spot a user sharing an excessive number of entries, they will be at risk of being considered ineligible for that theme through this unsportsmanlike behaviour.
  
• The unique prize means you can’t win more than once in Style of Thieves, but you’re more than welcome to continue entering for the fun of it!

Image credit: JoseteAlm on X/Twitter

And that’s another article in the bag. Not actually in a bag of course, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to read these words. In a more literal universe you’ll be looking at this webpage and all that will be here is an image of an inaccessible satchel, so be sure to have a think today about how lucky you are to be in this universe, able to enjoy such an unnecessary closing paragraph.

Yes, fashion, May 12th–15th, looking forward to seeing what you find. Ta-ra!

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The sun is shining and the wildflowers are running amok, which can only mean we’ve ventured deep into spring! As always, we’re making time for a look back at all the excitements arising in April, neatly summarised in this handy round-up. Let’s find out what you might have missed…

Content Update
Marking the final instalment of Season 15, April’s monthly content update rolled out new Voyages for The Hunter’s Call, sending keen pirates in search of rampaging Megalodons and dangerous wild boars. Check out the release notes for the full rundown on the Hunters’ last update for now! This one arrived fairly late in the month on 24th, but that ensured there was plenty of time to slot in a quick hotfix beforehand to address a few quirks of the March update.

Just before April’s content drop, however, word started getting around that the bony inhabitants of the Skeleton Forts were up to no good, hiding vast quantities of Ashen treasure in some of their Vaults. Fortunately, plenty of pirates proved adept at liberating said fortunes during the Mega Stashes Event that ensued, and earned some lovely new facial hair along the way.

News and Features
Following the regular This Month article to tee up April’s calendar of events, we had some big announcements to unveil, starting with Sea of Thieves’ upcoming arrival on [URL='https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?u=http%3A%2F%2FBattle.net%C2%AE']Battle.net®[/URL]! Our new friends won’t be joining us in full until Season 16 lands later in May, but be sure to give them all a warm welcome when they do. Second on the ballot was a series of substantial changes to our enforcement policy. This is the process by which we ensure that players adhere to our Code of Conduct and keep the seas safe – so the article is well worth checking out for an overview of how the new system works and where to check your own status.

Of course we couldn’t let the month go by without fulfilling a couple of regular features: our latest Community Spotlight featured #SoTShot success story and committed completionist GingerJefferson, while the maestros in Sea of Thieves’ music department seized the opportunity for another soundtrack addition, ‘The Great Meg Chase’! Who doesn’t want a dash of monster-hunting adrenaline in their morning playlist?

Videos and Streams
The Battle.net news came with its own essential announce video in April, while some familiar faces headed on over to the Tavern for the Season 15 edition of our in-house podcast, discussing the Season so far, our ongoing work around game health and a sneak peek at what’s to come later in the year.

And even though we’re all busily lining up a new Season launch in May, the Video team wouldn’t let you miss out on April’s staples: Daryl swung by with a new episode of Sea of Thieves News, as did Drew with the latest Developer Update, alongside all the usual suspects you’d expect from a monthly update including a release trailer and an Emporium overview. News also broke that applications for our Stream Team are once again open, so if you’re an up-and-coming streamer who doesn’t quite yet meet the requirements of becoming a Sea of Thieves Partner, the Stream Team might be the place for you!

Social Channels
We managed to pack two thrilling rounds of #SoTShot entries into April, zeroing in on Celebratory Scenes and Heart-Stopping Horizons, as well as a fresh set of fan creations in the Community Hub. The mayhem-inspiring Compass of Chaos also saw an update introducing a collection of new adventure prompts based on Season 15 features, while the latest set of Twitch Drops offered another incentive to watch streamers exploring the new monthly update.

As you might expect from a Season focused on wildlife, many of our community conversations this month were about animals – primarily what the new jellyfish like to be called and why we’ll follow Captain Porkers anywhere, regardless of his helmsman skills or lack thereof. Even the Kraken wanted to get in on the discussion! Needless to say, that went off the rails pretty quickly.

So as we head off to check that those excessive Krakenings have been brought under control, we’ll leave it there for another month! You can still find us in all of the social places you’d expect – Twitter/X, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, the official Forums and Discord – but until next time, that’s us. There’s some serious fishing to do before the latest Event ends, after all…

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Previously in 2025:
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2025
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2025
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2025

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“Piracy’s more of an art than a science,” some grizzled old salt probably once said. There’s no way to be completely sure, but do please give us the benefit of the doubt, or this is going to be a very awkward opening paragraph.

One thing we do know for certain is that creating a pirate paradise takes an awful lot of science and art. So much so that in 2018 we were able to release The Art of Sea of Thieves: an entire volume of concept sketches and aesthetic explorations charting the evolution of the game’s distinctively ‘wonky’ graphic style and the creation of its pirates, ships and islands.

So what’s left to show? Plenty, as it happens, as Sea of Thieves has continued to change and expand since launch and many more artistic endeavours have been undertaken. The fundamentals may have been nailed down, providing a platform for more focused creativity, but the game’s ongoing transformation has provided us with a wealth of fresh material to feast your eyes on.

New characters, ship liveries, weapons, pets, threats and destinations… hundreds of unique art pieces have been created for the game’s various updates and Seasons, ranging from on-team concept work bringing ideas to life through to promotional renders that showcase the results. That’s more than enough to fill a second book and chronicle Sea of Thieves’ seven-year journey so far, and that’s where The Art of Piracy comes in.

Due for release on May 20th – and currently available to pre-order from all good retailers, so get that gold pouch ready – Sea of Thieves: The Art of Piracy goes year by year to provide a rich visual history of piratical pursuits, from the carnivorous peril of our first major update The Hungering Deep to the resurrection of Captain Flameheart and beyond.

Want to learn more? Set a course for Titan Books’ website!

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Welcome to May, pirates! There’s a ton of fun planned for you over the next few weeks, so as is now customary, please enjoy this handy rundown of events and dates to look forward to. Grab a pen and your calendar before proceeding, because there’s plenty you won’t want to miss – including the start of a whole new Season…

Battle.net® Closed Beta – Friday, May 2nd – Monday, May 5th

For pirates preparing to set sail on Battle.net, the Sea of Thieves team are running a Closed Beta to help identify and iron out any issues before the global launch date of May 22nd. Players who’ve opted for the Sea of Thieves Deluxe or Premium Edition on Battle.net will be able to set sail on this platform for a long weekend – and, conveniently, will also get to enjoy the Festival of Fishing (see below) if they opt to play on High Seas.

Battle.net players over this period will be setting sail with players on all other platforms, so it’s a great opportunity to learn the ropes with some more experienced pirate pals!

Festival of Fishing Event – Friday, May 2nd – Monday, May 12th

The Festival of Fishing returns, bringing a brand new flavour to an old-school event. Building on the recent expansion of The Hunter’s Call, this Event tasks pirates with hauling in a variety of finned friends to complete an array of Event Goals. Two new Limited Voyages will also be on offer, along with double gold and reputation for fish handed in to The Hunter’s Call during the Event.

Players who participate in everything on offer can expect to bag the fantastic fish-themed Courageous Catch Fishing Rod, and the cracking Connoisseur of Culinary Craft Title.

Season 15 Style of Thieves Contest – Monday, May 12th – Thursday, May 15th

The latest Style of Thieves competition kicks off on May 12th, so keep your eyes trained on our official social media channels for information on the upcoming themes. The opportunity for some of our most well-dressed pirates to win a pair of Fashionista’s Finery Gloves is only a couple of weeks away!

Pirate Emporium Hidden Gems Sale – Thursday, May 15th – Tuesday, May 20th

May’s discount sale will spotlight a suite of items that haven’t been on sale for a while from the Emporium shopkeepers’ stock! Save some Ancient Coins on a range of stunning sets, with healthy discounts on the Checkmate, King’s Ransom and Ancestral Ship Collections. There’ll also be some cut-price Collector’s Pets, clothing, weapons and emotes – so make sure you browse the aisles and see if you can bag yourself a bargain while the sale is live.

Battle.net Early Access Begins – Friday, May 16th

For Battle.net Premium Edition purchasers, the six-day Early Access period will begin on May 16th! These players will be able to enjoy the final few days of Season 15 and earn some of this Season’s cosmetics by simply playing the game and raising their Renown. It’s also another chance to get familiar with the world ahead of Season 16’s launch, all while pocketing some extra gold to spend at the Outposts.

‘Reaper’s Requiem’ Release – Friday, May 16th

Our monthly musical release for May is ‘Reaper’s Requiem’, an anthemic ode to Flameheart’s Trading Company. Stream it straight to your ears via Spotify (or other streaming service of your choice) on May 16th, to get you all fired up for the Reaper-focused Season 16 landing later in the month.

The Art of Piracy Release – Tuesday, May 20th

May also sees the release of the long-awaited second Sea of Thieves art book: The Art of Piracy. Following 2018’s The Art of Sea of Thieves, this new instalment organises the game’s art into year-by-year selections that provide a rich visual history of its seven-year journey so far – featuring artwork for characters, ships, weapons, threats, pets and much more!

Although it releases worldwide on May 20th, the book is available to pre-order now from a number of retailers. Head over to publisher Titan Books’ website for more information.

Season 16 Launch – Thursday, May 22nd

As teased on Season 15’s recent podcast, Season 16 will be all about the Reapers, who are once more out to cause chaos on the Sea of Thieves. The majority of information on this upcoming Season is yet to be revealed, so expect more details in the weeks ahead regarding the Reapers’ aggressive ambitions.

Season 16 will begin on May 22nd, alongside Sea of Thieves’ full launch on Battle.net – so if you haven’t yet raised your Renown all the way to level 100 in Season 15 and earned all the unlockable rewards along the way, that’s your challenge before the big day…

Twitch Drops for Everyone – Friday, May 23rd – Monday, May 26th

With a new Season launch comes a fresh batch of Twitch Drops! Watch any participating channel between these dates to score an assortment of free items over Season 16’s first weekend. Our approach to Twitch Drops is evolving to offer a wider variety of goodies moving forward, so expect to hear more about the items included soon.

Twitch Drops are available by linking your accounts and watching any participating Sea of Thieves streamer on Twitch. Anyone can offer this set of Drops by streaming in the Sea of Thieves category and ensuring they have Drops enabled. If you’re just watching, go ahead and tune in to your favourite participating streamer or check our Partner Directory to see who’s online when these Drops go live!

While Season 15 will be saying its final farewells this month, there’s still plenty to keep you busy on the seas – so plot a course taking in everything that’s piqued your interest, and circle back here next month for a look at what June has in store.

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Wild Seas
Wild Seas Commendation Balancing

• Commendations tasking crews with the delivery of Pristine Tusks, Scales and Teeth have been rebalanced to require fewer items to unlock. While Grades 1-3 remain unchanged, Grade 4 now requires 15 (down from 25) and Grade 5 requires 20 (down from 50).
  
• The following Commendations have been rebalanced: Master Hunter of the Savage Boar, Master Hunter of the Pristine Maw and Master Hunter of Pristine Megalodon Spoils.
  
• Players with partial progress may need to hand in a further Pristine item in order for their correct Grade progress to be shown.

Kraken Encounter Balancing

• While Kraken encounters will retain the ability to occur on a server alongside other World Events, the frequency of these Kraken encounters has now been significantly reduced.

Fixed Issues
Gameplay

• Resource Barrels released from a sunken vessel will once again float to the surface and the resources can be consistently retrieved.
  
• Crews beginning a Faction battle will be unable to receive aid from other crew members who join after the battle has begun. Additional crew members will now be held on the Ferry of the Damned until the battle is complete.

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.

Megalodon Hunting Voyage

• Players with a high-resolution display should no longer find that using the Shrouded Glass creates a picture-in-picture effect.

Hunting Spear

• Players can no longer use various methods to duplicate their stock of hunting spears.

Pirate Emporium

• The King’s Ransom Grapple Gun is no longer shown as ‘On Sale’ and has returned to its correct price of 249 Ancient Coins.

Known Issues
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.

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

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Since Sea of Thieves launched, we’ve taken thousands of enforcement actions against those who’ve acted against our Pirate Code when sailing the seas. When our enforcement system was first designed, we had a lot less experience in the live service arena – and while we were as informed as we could’ve been back then, we didn’t necessarily understand what the impact of this would be years down the line.

Over the last six months or so, we’ve been taking the time to review and analyse our enforcement strategies with a view to evolving how we move forward. While we’ve shared our plans for this in a previous Developer Update (from 7:15 in the video below), today our new policy goes live – so we wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little more about the how and why.

From today, we will be giving players more information on why we’re taking action against their accounts and an opportunity to change their ways. While, unfortunately, there are a few bad eggs in this world who do want to cause harm and distress to others, we’re conscious that some folks might just be having a bad day and immediately regret their actions – and we want to give these players room to learn from their mistakes.

Our Previous System
Our previous enforcement system was a three-strikes-and-out policy – which has worked for us, but has also had some limitations and made it hard to take nuanced action. For example, if a player had received their third strike for a relatively minor offence, under the old system they would have received a lifetime ban – which, after a long and lengthy review on our side, felt perhaps a little too inflexible.

For someone on the end of this enforcement action, under our old policy they would have simply received a Redbeard error message upon their next attempted login, rather than any specific information on what happened and why, resulting in a lack of clarity around our decision-making. In this scenario, a user may have ended up banned without necessarily understanding why, or perhaps even thinking that we’d overreacted to a report about a smaller infraction.

With that in mind, we’ve been developing a new enforcement system that allows us to more accurately capture the nuance of offences committed, and enables us to communicate exactly why action has been taken against someone’s account. Our system is an evolution of the Xbox points system, and we’ve spent a lot of time collaborating and consulting to ensure that the new system addresses our concerns with our previous enforcement policy, while also making sure that punishment of more serious offences carries the right weight.

Newly Introduced Changes
Under our recently introduced policy, every new player begins their journey on the Sea of Thieves with zero points, and can accrue a total of 12 points before receiving a permanent ban on their account. If a report is submitted against them, points will be administered to their account – with clear communication to the offending player(s) as to why. Varying points will be accrued for certain types of offence; the below classifications aren’t an exhaustive list, but we wanted to provide some clear examples.

• Toxic communication over text/voice chat that isn’t of a discriminatory nature (i.e. doesn’t use racist, homophobic, misogynistic or ableist terms) will – depending on the strength of the offence – earn a player from 1-3 points and a corresponding suspension of 1-3 days for each instance of this behaviour.
  
• Discriminatory toxic communication that uses slurs/prejudiced language over text or voice chat will earn players 7 points and a seven-day suspension. This means that previously, under our three-strike system, players had to offend three times to be banned – whereas with these types of offence, it’s now reduced to just two (within a given time period).
  
• Cheaters will receive 12 points immediately, plus a permanent ban.

Key Changes Beyond the Points System
The important thing with these offences is that the offending player is told that why they’ve received a suspension and points on their account. They won’t just log in to find a Yellowbeard or Redbeard with minimal context, but will be contacted directly with the reasoning behind the action taken.

Another thing we’re introducing with this policy is that, if a player with points has a ‘good’ month – i.e. they do not receive any more reports of poor behaviour – their total points tally will decay by 1. This means that if you receive 2 points for toxic communication, but behave yourself over the following couple of months, you’ll go back down to a total tally of 0. Our hope and intention is to communicate with these players why they received their initial enforcement action, and give them space to reflect and improve upon their conduct.

If that sounds like something it might be hard to keep track of, don’t worry – we’re bringing players’ enforcement status to their https://www.seaofthieves.com/account, so everyone knows exactly where they stand. This will also include when their access to Sea of Thieves will be restored, if they’re currently serving a temporary suspension for an offence.

Previous Offences
For players who have recently offended and received enforcement action on any scale: we’ve had our points system up and running in the background for a little while now, so when this change comes into effect, you’ll see your score reflected when you log in to the website. We’re not wiping the slate clean on previous poor behaviour, but there will be a net benefit in that our approach to further offences will have a better-suited and more nuanced outcome.

For players who’ve experienced poor behaviour, the reporting process will remain largely the same. However, we’ll continue to work on improving the ways you can get reports and information over to us for review. To submit a report about something you’ve encountered on the seas, please head to https://support.seaofthieves.com/ to provide evidence and a summary of what you’ve experienced – or initiate a report via the in-game menu.

An Evolving Process
Although we’ve been monitoring recent enforcement activity in the background through this new lens, we’ll continue to keep an eye on scores and behavioural changes as it comes into effect. We know that there are still a few things we’ll have to refine or work on to ensure fairness across the board, but change has to start somewhere – so we hope you’ll understand and appreciate our move to a much more transparent and flexible system that looks to forgive players who can recognise they’ve made mistakes, while punishing folks who want to undermine the integrity of the Sea of Thieves experience.

While we can appreciate this is quite a significant change in how we approach enforcement, the ultimate goal is to provide transparency on why we take action, and allow players to grow with that feedback instead of rebel against it. We hope – and believe – that this will lead to a better player experience for all pirates.

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Wild Seas
Heed the call in Season 15, which brings a wealth of new incentives to The Hunter’s Call while introducing new wildlife both harmless and hostile. For an overview of the fierce features rolled out over the course of this Season, head to our dedicated Season 15 page!

Megalodon Hunting Voyage

• Crews can now take on a Voyage to track an enraged Megalodon that has been wreaking havoc across the seas, leaving vessels destroyed in its wake. This Voyage can be started from the Quest Table upon reaching rank 20 with The Hunter’s Call.
  
• While hunters will need a keen eye to track the Megalodon by the debris left behind, they'll also be provided with a handy tool: the Shrouded Glass. This enchanted spyglass is capable of showing the trail left by the enraged beast to aid in pursuit.

Wild Boars

• Wild boars now inhabit some islands across the seas. Found in small packs on islands, boars will flee when approached, leaving a trail of hoofprints and fruit. Be warned: while they may appear skittish, they will charge when provoked and can restore health by eating nearby fruit.
  
• Players can hunt wild boars in addition to the larger Grand Boar of the pack. While hunting, all boars reward the crew with meat, while the tougher Grand Boar leaves behind the Boar Tusk – a new treasure item that can be sold to The Hunter’s Call.
  
• Crews looking for loot can sneakily follow boars to their wallows, where treasure they’ve gathered can be retrieved.

Boar Hunting Voyage

• Crews can also be tasked with hunting a fierce Grand Boar in A Pirate’s Boar Hunt, a new on-demand Voyage from The Hunter’s Call available upon reaching rank 15.

Hunting Spear Balancing

• Hunting spears are now considered a resource when brought aboard the ship, and will remain when diving to a Voyage or Faction battle, or when travelling through the Tunnels of the Damned.
  
• A thrown hunting spear now deals increased damage to players, resulting in a one-hit kill on a player at full health.
  
• Hunting spears thrown or fired at creatures now deal additional damage to their target. When used to strike Megalodons or Ancient Megalodons, they now deal even more damage.
  
• Hunting spears fired into a ship’s hull now let in an increased water flow while they remain stuck in place.
  
• Hunting spears lodged in a ship’s hull now require more effort to remove, increasing the time taken to dislodge them.

Kraken and Megalodon Encounter Rewards

• Emergent encounters with Kraken and Megalodon now reward crews with additional treasure items when defeated, including a greater chance of items for The Hunter’s Call.

Megalodon Encounter Balancing

• Encounters with an emergent Megalodon will now pose a greater challenge, with Megalodons acting more aggressively towards nearby vessels.

Kraken Encounter Balancing

• Kraken encounters can now occur on a server alongside some other World Events such as Skeleton Forts. While the frequency of Kraken encounters will remain the same following this change, it allows other World Events to cycle more frequently.

Wild Seas Commendations and Rewards

• With the introduction of wild boars and new Hunting Voyages, new Commendations have been added within the Reputation tab to challenge aspiring hunters.
  
• Players can unlock the Jagged Jaws Throwing Knives after completing all hunting spear Commendations, and unlock the Wild Seas Curse upon completing all Wild Seas Commendations.

Gameplay Improvements
Addressing Movement Exploits

• Players finding ways for their pirate to become stuck inside moving parts of the ship or island lifts will no longer find that they are ejected through the air at abnormal speed. They will still be bumped out of the pinch point, but should no longer be able to gain a tactical advantage from this scenario.

Pirate Emporium
Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

• Skin Scriber Ship Collection and Ship’s Crest
  
• Skin Scriber Costume Bundle
  
• Skin Scriber Weapon Bundle
  
• Skin Scriber Compass
  
• Waltzing Worm Emote Bundle
  
• Relaxed Sit Emote (free!)

Outpost Cosmetics
New Outpost Stock!

• The Outpost shipwrights now have the Blue Resolute Hull, Sails and Flag available for purchase.

Updates
Enforcement Status

• Sea of Thieves has introduced a new enforcement policy, giving players more information when we take action against their account and providing an opportunity to change their ways. For more on why we’ve introduced this new policy, see this article: Sea of Thieves Enforcement Policy Update.
  
• Players who are currently suspended or banned from Sea of Thieves will now be shown their account status when attempting to log in to the game. This shows any current enforcement, time remaining for players temporarily suspended and a QR code directing players to the Sea of Thieves website where they can view further information.
  
• Players navigating to the Sea of Thieves website will now also see their account status, along with the number of points currently on their account.

Disrupting Stream Sniping

• Improvements have been made behind the scenes to further protect our players, including creators, well-known community members and anyone who is vulnerable, by disrupting techniques used by people with malicious intent to search for specific players on the seas.

Detection Improvements for Ban Evasion

• Further detection improvements continue to roll out behind the scenes targeting players who evade game bans to regain access to Sea of Thieves. These improvements will continue to be deployed in phases to systematically crack down on banned players and prevent them from returning to the seas.

Fixed Issues
Gameplay

• An issue causing all tutorial notifications to be reshown to players has now been resolved. Players who have previously completed the criteria for clearing a tutorial will no longer be shown these in future sessions.
  
• Players using the blowpipe should now only be shown the dart switch tutorial until the action is performed, or until the tutorial is shown three times which will hide it for future sessions.
  
• ‘The Legend of Monkey Island’ – Players should no longer be able to leave their Sloop or Brigantine and return to the islands in these Tall Tales while travelling through the Tunnels of the Damned.
  
• The Lightbearer Pistol has had its aiming improved to ensure shots now align with the tip of the iron sights.
  
• Seagulls appearing alongside vessels sailing the seas will now consistently follow the ship for a short while before moving on.

Performance and Stability

• Players on PC should no longer find their DirectX Shader Cache becomes stuck in size, leading to client performance issues.
  
• Further improvements have been made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly exit the game or become disconnected from their session.

Sea of Thieves: Premium Edition

• Players who purchased the Premium Edition of the game should now find the intended Dire Dark Warsmith items in their various Customisation Chests.

The Hunter’s Call

• Hunter’s Call resources can now be picked up later if they were bought in a previous session and not collected.
  
• The Merchant Alliance no longer sell or buy Bait Crates and have passed responsibility to The Hunter’s Call, preventing players from purchasing and then reselling crates on the same island.
  
• The Hunter’s Call Voyage tab now displays icons for all related Voyages.
  
• The Hunter’s Call motto has been updated on the Quest Table.

Hunting Spear

• Players can no longer interact with a ship’s ladder while throwing to duplicate their stock of hunting spears.
  
• Aiming the hunting spear while sprinting will now apply the intended movement slowdown.
  
• Hunting spears fired into damaged areas of a ship will consistently display the correct water effects and sounds.
  
• Spears fired from island cannons should no longer become stuck in the surrounding environment.
  
• Attempting to pick up items from a Collector’s Chest while holding a hunting spear will no longer cause the item to disappear.
  
• Hunting Spears can now be sold to The Reaper’s Bones.
  
• Spears dropped on the ship no longer trigger the ‘Treasure Aboard Ship’ notification.
  
• The audio effects for removing a spear from a ship’s hull now loops as intended when cancelling and quickly restarting the action.
  
• Releasing or cancelling a spear throw when entering the water now consistently shows the intended throw animations.
  
• Pirates aiming a spear and jumping into deep water will now continue to appear aiming.
  
• Hunting spears now produce a splash visual effect when thrown into the water.

Fishing Voyages

• If a player dies while holding a caught fish, Treasured Fish now drop on the ground, while regular fish are added to the player’s inventory if space is available.
  
• Fish still on a fishing rod no longer disappear should the player die.
  
• Frenzy fishing spots should no longer be seen inside the ship when anchoring nearby.

Ancient Megalodons

• Crews engaging an Ancient Megalodon will now consistently hear the appropriate encounter music.
  
• Crews will now progress the Helm of Sea Beast Battles Commendation when defeating Ancient Megalodons.

Environment

• Chests placed on the lifts at Skeleton Camps will now rest properly and not appear to be floating.
  
• ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Players should no longer be able to get underneath the island at various locations.
  
• ‘Captains of the Damned’ – Players are now prevented from using a Grapple Gun to reach unintended areas of the environment.

Visual and Audio

• The Regal Duke Flag now displays correctly when equipped on a Brigantine.
  
• Pigs wearing outfits now appear correctly when viewed at all distances.
  
• During the Maiden Voyage, the Pirate Lord now appears at the intended brightness when arriving on the player’s ship.
  
• Players equipping the Weighty Lower Body parts of the Skeleton Curse should now appear correctly when performing emotes.
  
• Defeating any island animal will now consistently show the appropriate death animation.
  
• The ship’s lantern near the wheel continues to emit light when moving to various locations around the stern.
  
• Firing the Radiant Comet Blunderbuss no longer allows players to see through the stock during the weapon’s recoil.
  
• The Magpie’s Glory Pocket Watch thumbnail now displays the dial in the correct orientation.
  
• Players’ hands no longer intersect with the Beachcomber’s Bounty Wheel when sailing.
  
• Players performing the Cut the Cake Emote can no longer push the camera inside the barrel.
  
• The Fates of Fortune Eye of Reach scope now appears correctly while reloading.
  
• Pirates of all body sizes now grip the Lucky Hand Double Barrel Pistol correctly.

Text and Localisation

• Improvements have been made to the Fishing Voyage Map to address overlapping text across a range of languages.
  
• The Sovereigns’ tutorial now provides accurate information about the value of selling food at Seaposts.
  
• ‘The Journey to Mêlée Island’ – French text in the Quest Book for this Tall Tale now displays correctly without overlapping.
  
• ‘The Journey to Mêlée Island’ – Overlapping text issues in Stan’s Sales Ledger have been resolved.
  
• ‘The Quest for Guybrush’ – Text within the Quest Book has been improved to address overlapping text in Japanese, Russian and Polish.
  
• ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Text within the Quest Book has been improved to address overlapping text for Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Thai, French and Italian languages.

Known Issues
Ship Resources

• Resource Barrels released from a sunken vessel will no longer float to the surface and will currently remain underwater. However, the resources can still be retrieved from these barrels while underwater.

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.

Download and Installation
Download Size:

• Steam: 2.2 GB

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March has always been a big month for Sea of Thieves due to it being the time of our anniversary. It was all the way back in March 2018 when our pirate playground first opened its doors to players, and every year since, we’ve tried to make the moment feel special. So read on, dear Steam user, to find out all about how we chose to mark this momentous occasion…

Content Update
There was no shortage of things to do throughout the anniversary period this year, from a Seventh Anniversary Celebration in-game Event offering rewards of cosmetics, gold and even Ancient Coins, to three new 2025 Editions of the game and of course a full-blown Season 15 Community Weekend! We even had a crossover moment with Microsoft Casual Games – bet you didn’t see that one coming.

It wasn’t all anniversary delights either. No matter what else was going on, we weren’t about to zip through March without a monthly game update continuing the delivery of Season 15 content. This update added the hunting spear – a new throwable weapon perfect for tackling the aggressive wildlife (and aggressive pirates) of the Sea of Thieves – and an eruption of ambient fauna including ship-following seagulls, lizards, bats and jellyfish. How many have you managed to find out there on the waves?

News and Features
After a cheeky BAFTA nomination to start the month, our This Month in SoT article arrived to announce the calendar of anniversary festivities, and was followed by our very own Head of Community and Comms spilling the beans on what to expect from Season 15 Community Weekend. The community focus also had us in the mood for some more Spotlight goodness, two of which appeared in March: a Community Spotlight on face cataloguer Hans Sprungfild and a Creator Spotlight on VTuber and Stream Team member Róisín!

Once Community Weekend was done and dusted, it was full speed ahead into March’s content update and a new State of Play post from Production Director Drew to fill you in on priorities moving forwards. But until the month was over, the anniversary shenanigans were not officially done, and we closed things out with some Xbox collaborations including anniversary merch in the Xbox Gear Shop, a new Perk for Game Pass Ultimate players and a Sweepstakes competition for a very special controller! Get your entries in now (but please mind the teeth).

Videos and Streams
It’ll come as no surprise that our Video team spent a busy March delivering Sea of Thieves News, a content update trailer, a showcase of our latest – fatefully familiar – Pirate Emporium offerings, and all the other things that accompany a monthly update. Drew also stopped by to film his latest Developer Update, which took particular note of some important changes to our enforcement policies.

There were, of course, anniversary-specific things to enjoy too. The official soundtrack got a thematic addition in the form of ‘Happy Birthday’, while a handy explainer video filled in all the details about the new 2025 Editions of the game. And naturally, we couldn’t let such a momentous Community Weekend pass without a Community team livestream, which is well worth a watch if you want to know what kind of unhinged mischief the team gets into when they’re left unattended in the office on a Saturday…

Social Channels
Celebrations always put us in a giving mood, so it’s little wonder that March rolled out a Community Hub update, a round of Mighty Megalodon #SoTShot winners, some high-spirited Event rewards and even the mysterious Title that everyone was talking about. Don’t ask us, we just work here. Community Weekend alone was packed with little delights (and Twitch Drops including Obsidian beauties unlocked by smashing the cumulative community goal).

With it being anniversary time, many of our monthly musing threads encouraged you to look back on the last seven years. But it wasn’t all about distant memories, as the wild delights of Season 15 were plentiful and invited some burning questions – it was impossible to deny there were some hot Megs and an electric atmosphere out there. After that, introducing a crewmate or two and sharing a cronchy banana seemed like a good way to round things off as we awaited the adventures April would bring.

March was a month filled with celebrations and community goodness, and it was a pleasure to have you all along for the ride – here's to you! Time for us to get back to rolling out April’s updates and adventures, but until we see you back here next time, you can always find us in the usual places: Twitter/X, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, the official Forums and Discord. Otherwise, that’s it from us and we’ll leave you in Steve’s capable hands. Good luck!

---

Previously in 2025:
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2025
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2025

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As we sail on into April, there are new and exciting opportunities in store for pirates all across the Sea of Thieves. From treasure-filled Mega Stashes to a game update bristling with fresh challenges, it’s another action-packed month for seekers of fortune. Read on…

Sails of Woven Wonders – Tuesday, April 8th – Tuesday, April 15th

In the spirit of a Southern Gothic folktale unfolding this month in a distant world, these elegant midnight-blue sails can be claimed for free by anyone who plays Sea of Thieves between April 8th and 15th. Find them in your Ship Customisation Chest and weave new tales as you set sail!

Players who picked up the X Edition of Sea of Thieves will get a special variant of their own, as they find the Misted Sails of Woven Wonders retroactively added to this edition’s cache of extras…

Pirate Emporium Spring Sale – Wednesday, April 16th – Tuesday, April 22nd

Spring has arrived on the Sea of Thieves, bringing a Pirate Emporium sale packed with a vibrant selection of ship sets, costumes, weapons and emotes! Celebrate growth and nature as you wrap your deck in the Mandrake ship set, slip into the Paradise Garden Costume or arm yourself with Beachcomber’s Bounty weapons – all these and more available at healthy discounts.

If you want to be more expressive, expand on your emotes with the Oar-Inspiring and Secret Coconut Emote Bundles. For those seeking a major makeover, the Pirate Appearance Potion is on sale too!

Mega Stashes Event – Thursday, April 17th – Thursday, April 24th

During the Mega Stashes Event, setting sail for Skeleton Forts and clearing them out could lead to even greater rewards. Daring pirates have a chance to uncover Ashen Mega Stashes down in the Vaults – a hoard fit for even the most seasoned treasure hunter. And if you want a memento of your time robbing the skellies’ stashes, conquer enough Skeleton Forts during this Event and you’ll be rewarded with the magnificent Stash Seeker’s Moustache!

‘The Great Meg Chase’ Release – Friday, April 18th

A thrilling new addition breaks the surface to become part of the Sea of Thieves soundtrack! ‘The Great Meg Chase’ will be available to stream on Spotify or the streaming service of your choice from April 18th, bringing the pulse-pounding tension of a Megalodon pursuit straight to your playlist.

April Monthly Update – Thursday, April 24th

The final instalment of Season 15 brings even more adventures to those who sail for The Hunter’s Call. While the seas teem with new life, there are fresh encounters to be had on land too as wild boars now roam the islands!

These scrappy scavengers hoard treasure in their wallows, but if threatened they won’t hesitate to defend their turf with razor-sharp tusks. You may well run into boars while out on your adventures, and The Hunter’s Call will challenge you to track them down as part of additional Company Voyages. The same goes for Megalodons, with Voyages targeting these legendary sea monsters also added to the roster in April. Be ready for a fight!

Twitch Drops – Friday, April 25th – Monday, April 28th

Fancy ending the month with some extra rewards? This set of Twitch Drops allows you to tune in and claim the Stormy Sea Dog Bucket and Drum, Stalwart Sea Dog Cutlass, Seasoned Sailor Rapier and Rising Morningstar Eyepatch.

Drops are available by linking your accounts and watching any Sea of Thieves Partner on Twitch for the required amount of time. If you’re not sure who to watch, check our Partner Directory to see who’s online and available to tune in to once those Drops go live!

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Wild Seas
Hunting Spear Rewards

• With the hunting spear duplication issues now resolved, cashing in a hunting spear at The Hunter’s Call once again awards the originally intended amount of reputation and gold.

Updates
Performance Monitoring

• Following reports of a performance regression with March’s game update, this hotfix includes improvements to performance monitoring behind the scenes to aid in the investigation of these issues.

Fixed Issues
Hunting Spear

• Players can no longer use various methods to duplicate their stock of hunting spears.
  
• After throwing a hunting spear, players can now quickly switch to another weapon or item and aim as intended.
  
• While holding a hunting spear, attempting to retrieve items from a Treasure Chest should no longer cause the item to disappear.
  
• Using a quick tapping method to repeatedly throw hunting spears should no longer cause the next throw to become stuck.
  
• Jumping while aiming a hunting spear will no longer cause the pirate’s aiming animations to snap.

Known Issues
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.

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

Download and Installation
Download Size:

• Steam: 1.3 GB

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Calling all Guardians! Yesterday's update brought the latest content update to Sea of Thieves, and with it, some radiant new additions to the Pirate Emporium – Lightbearer items, inspired by the world and characters of Destiny!

Whether your pirate is as silent as a Hunter, mighty as a Titan or wise as a Warlock, they’ll find a ship set to suit their style, complete with Collector’s cosmetics and a Ship’s Crest. An array of matching weapons and a costume set to round out the range ensures you’ll be ready to take on whatever otherworldly foes may stand in your way.

You can check out the trailer below to see the full Lightbearer assortment, and then visit the Pirate Emporium to gear up and get ready for battle – the seas are counting on you!

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Wild Seas
Heed the call in Season 15, which brings a wealth of new incentives to The Hunter’s Call while introducing new wildlife both harmless and hostile. For an overview of the fierce features due to roll out over the course of this Season, head to our dedicated Season 15 page!

Hunting Spear

• Players can now wield trusty hunting spears which can be aimed and thrown, dealing damage to roaming wildlife and other players alike. Spears can also be retrieved when embedded in a solid surface and thrown again.
  
• Hunting spears can even be loaded into a ship’s cannons for extra power and fired at players or other ships. When fired into a ship, the spear will lodge in the hull, causing a small damage hole. Removing it will increase the hole size, so be prepared to repair!
  
• Hunting parties looking to stock up their ship should visit The Hunter’s Call representatives, who will sell hunting spears up to a limit of five. Hunting spears can also be discovered washed up on shores, within shipwrecks and among the rewards earned when defeating Skeleton Ships.

Ambient Wildlife

• While sailing the open seas, crews may now find they are joined by seagulls who fly alongside the ship as it sails. These birds will disperse if they sense danger!
  
• While out exploring islands, players may now stumble upon small lizards basking in the daytime sun.
  
• Crews creeping into a dark cave may disturb a flock of bats, who will promptly flee from their hiding spot.
  
• Players exploring the shallows near islands may now come face to face with a smack of jellyfish. While these floating jellies may seem threatening, fear not, they’re harmless!

Wild Seas Commendations and Rewards

• With the introduction of the hunting spear, new Commendations have been added within the Reputation tab to challenge aspiring hunters. Explore the new challenges under Wild Seas to unlock exotic wildlife-themed weapons.

Fishing Voyage Improvements

• The Fishing Maps provided on Captain’s Fishing Voyages now provide crews with only a partial piece of the island near the fishing location, making it more of a challenge to locate the fishing spots.
  
• Crews on a Fishing Voyage will no longer find they are attacked by emergent threats on the island with the fishing spots.

Ancient Megalodon Balancing

• The Feared Redmaw and Barnacled Dread now take reduced damage from a blowpipe’s Poison Dart.

Gameplay Improvements
Performance Improvements

• The Sloop, Brigantine and Galleon have been rebuilt behind the scenes, breaking up each ship into smaller parts, allowing them to be loaded in sections by the server. This work will provide server performance improvements when ships are created at the start of a session, in addition to ships arriving on a server after diving or naturally through server migration.
  
• Performance optimisations have been made to Storage Crates and Resource Barrels, addressing spikes in framerate when repeatedly interacting with their inventories over longer sessions.
  
• Performance improvements have been made to the way treasure items floating in water are managed across the server.
  
• Further performance improvements have been made to how Trinkets are loaded when approaching Captained ships. Trinkets are now gradually loaded in over time and will only fully load when much closer to the ship, further reducing the performance impact when approaching ships at sea.
  
• A new management system is now in operation on the server, controlling the activation of certain events and encounters to ensure that the server has the necessary resources to safely operate the activity. Encounters with an emergent Megalodon are now controlled by this system, with further events to follow in future updates.
  
• In addition to the above areas, this update includes a range of smaller optimisations to game performance that provide improvements across the broader experience.
  
• Players navigating to Frame Rate Lock within the Video settings will now find supporting information clearly advising them to lock their frame rate for a more consistent experience.

Lifting Outpost Trap Restrictions

• Traps can now be placed in and around the Outpost taverns, allowing crews to lie in wait for unsuspecting players.
  
• Players triggering a nearby trap when arriving in the tavern at the start of their game session will remain unharmed and not suffer damage while ‘waking up’.

Grapple Gun Animations

• Players grappling to a location will now have a unique animation, showing their pirate flailing as they’re pulled through the air.

Pirate Emporium
Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

• Lightbearer Ship Collection and Ship’s Crest
  
• Lightbearer Weapon Bundle
  
• Lightbearer Costume Set
  
• Mighty Lightbearer Flag, Hull, Collector’s Figurehead and Collector’s Sails
  
• Silent Lightbearer Flag, Hull, Collector’s Figurehead and Collector’s Sails
  
• Wise Lightbearer Flag, Hull, Collector’s Figurehead and Collector’s Sails
  
• Gold Curse Toucan
  
• Dire Dark Warsmith Weapons: Double Barrel Pistol, Throwing Knives, Grapple Gun and Blowpipe
  
• Pet Pig Outfits: Sovereign, Bilge Rat, Sea Dog, Pirate Legend and Ghost
  
• Over Here! Emote (free!)

Outpost Cosmetics
New Outpost Stock!

• The Outposts now stock equipment, instruments and a range of weapons from the Azure Scout set, available for purchase at their respective shops.

Updates
Pirate Emporium Browsing

• When browsing bundles within the Pirate Emporium, players can now navigate directly to the ‘Browse All’ menu from a shortcut at the bottom of the screen.

Accessibility
Emetophobia Support

• Players who suffer from emetophobia (fear of vomit/vomiting) can now turn off all vomit-related audio effects from the Audio settings, including sounds made by players and pets.

Fixed Issues
Gameplay

• Players grappling to a ship’s ladder should no longer find themselves temporarily appearing in a different location.
  
• Items dropped in various areas of Siren Shrines and Treasuries will no longer float up to unreachable locations.
  
• Items dropped into shallow pools on islands will now float properly instead of hovering high above the surface.
  
• Reaper’s Chests hidden within shipwrecks will once again show their tell-tale beacon from across the seas, and no longer require a crew to approach before they become visible.
  
• All blowpipes have been reviewed and their aiming improved to ensure shots now align with the tip of the blowpipe when fired.
  
• Players can no longer grapple treasure through the open storeroom windows of Sea Forts.
  
• Tall Tale items from locations within the Sea of the Damned can no longer be brought back to the Sea of Thieves.
  
• Melee attacks from a throwing knife below the deck of the ship should no longer appear to hit an invisible surface in various locations.
  
• The Dance Off Danger Commendation will now progress when players use a Bone Caller to target Obsidian Skeletons.

The Hunter’s Call Trading Company

• Captains can now place up to five Banner of the Hunter and Merrick Shipmate Trinkets on their ship once unlocked.
  
• The Orb of Secrets can now be sold to The Hunter’s Call for the same price as other Trading Companies.
  
• Hunter’s Call treasure sold to The Reaper’s Bones no longer increases progress towards Call of the Hunter Commendations.

Fishing Voyages

• Treasured Fish can now be grappled out of other players’ hands.
  
• Players with a Treasured Fish on their line should no longer see the fish reappear in the water when crouching or swapping items before retrieving it.
  
• The fishing spots at Isle of Last Words have been moved further away from the shore to ensure crews can fish successfully.
  
• Treasured Fish now move naturally when swimming towards the fishing float.
  
• Frenzied fishing spots now fade away once all fish are caught and a Voyage is completed.
  
• Fishing spot visual effects no longer appear inside the ship’s hull if the ship stops on the fishing spot.

Ancient Megalodons

• Commendation progress for defeating Ancient Megalodons is now awarded to all crews participating in the encounter by dealing damage, not just the crew that lands the final hit.
  
• While attacks by Ancient Megalodons can occasionally overturn a ship, the frequency of this occurrence has now been reduced.
  
• Ancient Megalodons should now be able to navigate smoothly around the Fort of the Dammed.
  
• Defeating an Ancient Megalodon will now be recorded in the Captain’s Logbook.
  
• Firing a Grapple Gun at the Barnacled Dread will no longer cause the tether to attach to a distant location.
  
• Crews can now progress the Who Needs a Bigger Boat? Commendation when attacking an Ancient Megalodon with a Cannon Rowboat.
  
• Captains defeating an Ancient Megalodon will now progress The Feared Pirate Milestones and Ship Milestones.
  
• Crews defeating an Ancient Megalodon should now consistently find the Hunter of the Feared Redmaw and Hunter of the Barnacled Dread Commendations progress correctly.

Pet Pigs

• Players stroking a pig while jumping will now appear to stroke the pig correctly after landing and the pig will remain in the correct position.
  
• The nameplate for a pet pig will now be shown above the pig.
  
• A pet pig’s shadow will now be shown when holding it.

Performance and Stability

• Crews performing multiple server migrations during a single session should no longer experience rubberbanding and server desync.
  
• Further improvements have been made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly exit the game or become disconnected from their session.

User Interface

• Players who were previously unable to save changes to their game settings should now find that these are saved consistently when leaving a session, and no longer need to be changed at the start of a new session.
  
• Players attempting to open their game settings and the Quest Table at the same time should no longer become stuck.
  
• Using the back button while navigating the Pet Chest with a virtual keyboard on consoles will no longer cause the menu to become stuck, preventing further input.
  
• Browsing many pages of the spotlighted sections in the Pirate Emporium will no longer cause the menu to become unresponsive.
  
• In multiple areas of the experience where a player’s gamertag is shown within a menu, a shortcut button can now be used to summon the player profile on supported platforms.
  
• Switching pirates within the pirate selection screen on the front end should no longer cause the lighting to flicker.

Visual and Audio

• Players using the ship’s wheel on a Brigantine will no longer have their game chat muffled when speaking.
  
• Multiple crews gathering to join the Legend of Glitterbeard will now find the visual effects light consistently with the music.
  
• Players using a disguise while wearing a Curse with visual effects will no longer find those effects give away their disguise by appearing briefly when other players approach.
  
• Players wearing a Stately Shirt should now find that all hairstyles appear correctly.
  
• Players with tattoos wearing a Stately Shirt should now find the tattoos appear correctly.
  
• Previewing a disguise within the Vanity Chest now correctly shows the pirate inside the disguise.
  
• The Dreamers’ Dust Costume has regained its visual effects.
  
• The Hidden in Plain Sight and Be Alluring to Get Ahead Trophies are now correctly sized and positioned when previewed in the shipwright’s shop or a player’s Trinket collection.
  
• Switching from crouching to standing while holding a fishing rod will no longer cause the rod to momentarily appear in the middle of the screen.
  
• The Baleful Bloom Costume now fits correctly on pirates of all body sizes.
  
• The belt of the Dark Adventurers Jacket no longer merges through the pirate when performing emotes.
  
• Players performing the Swashbuckling Story Emote should now correctly see the sword.
  
• Further improvements have been made to a range of existing hairstyles, ensuring they remain visible when wearing certain costumes.
  
• The Party Boat Jacket and Gloves now appear correctly on pirates of all body sizes.
  
• Players wearing Carla’s Costume should now find the medallion appears correctly on pirates of all body sizes.
  
• During the Ritual of the Flame sequence, the liquid in the chalice will now drain correctly.
  
• During the Ritual of the Flame sequence, glowing eyes will no longer be visible on the skeleton during the transition.
  
• The Pirate Lord now displays the correct visual effects when banging his staff during tutorial sequences.
  
• The lower jaw of the Obsidian Ashen Winds Skull now shows the correct material when being fired.
  
• Players using a disguise while wearing the Burning Eyepatch of the Ashen Dragon should no longer see visual effects floating above the disguise when moving.
  
• Glint effects on nearby treasure now appear consistently when moving in and out of range.
  
• After a Skeleton Fort Key is inserted into the Vault door, it will no longer appear to float in the air.
  
• Players wearing the Intrepid Explorer Jacket now appear correctly when performing a range of emotes.
  
• Crews equipping the Fog-Piercing Frog Lantern will now find the visual effects appear correctly after diving.
  
• Performing the Scrappy Weapon Pose or Menacing Weapon Pose Emote with a blowpipe should now trigger the correct emote.
  
• The flowers on Forest’s Blessing Costumes are no longer affected by nearby storms.
  
• The Ghost Ship’s Crest now appears correctly in the Ship Customisation Chest preview.

Environment

• All Skeleton Vaults have received a polish pass, ensuring their contents are completely hidden from the outside and the cracks in the flooring blend with the environment.
  
• Mercy’s End Fortress now has an Armoury for players to change their loadout.
  
• Players making their way onto a Skeleton Sloop will now find they can safely navigate the ship without hitting invisible surfaces.
  
• Walking into skeletons found deep within The Reaper’s Lair should no longer cause the player’s camera to stutter.
  
• When descending to the Shrine of Flooded Embrace, players should no longer find they can pass through certain doors before they are unlocked.

Text and Localisation

• After players dive to and complete a Raid Voyage for The Hunter’s Call, the Captain’s Logbook will now correctly record the arrival location instead of always displaying Discovery Ridge.

Known Issues
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.

Download and Installation
Download Size:

• Steam: 2.9 GB

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