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
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.
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
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.
Crews will once again be able to venture to Plunder Valley when starting the Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage.
Skeleton Mercenaries at Forts
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
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
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.
Hunter’s Call Emissary Ledger Rewards
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.
Cross-Region Matchmaking Support
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
Dashing Duellist Ship Collection
Dashing Duellist Weapon Bundle
Dashing Duellist Costume
Dashing Duellist Banjo
Comical Weapon Pose Emote
Sore Loser Emote (free!)
Eclipse Ship Collection (returning from Season 13 Plunder Pass)
Eclipse Clothing: Hat, Jacket and Gloves (returning from Season 13 Plunder Pass)
Eclipse Weapons: Pistol, Blunderbuss, Eye of Reach and Cutlass
Deadlock Jailer Costume Update
Wearing the Deadlock Jailer Costume now allows players to perform the Prisoner’s Woe Emote.
New Outpost Stock!
The Outpost weaponsmiths now stock the Golden Chaser Pistol, Cutlass, Blunderbuss, Eye of Reach, Heavy Sword and Rapier.
The shipwrights have also restocked with the new Yellow Resolute Hull, Sails and Flag.
Text Chat Filtering
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.
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
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
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.
Fight Nights (June 19th–26th)
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.
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’!
Gameplay
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.
Players can no longer drop or give items while attempting to cash in at a vendor.
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.
The vortex above an Ashen Lord encounter now fades away consistently once the encounter ends.
The Lamplighter Double Barrel Pistol has had its aiming improved to ensure shots now align with the tip of the iron sights.
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.
Skeletons operating cannons should once again be able to hit their targets nearby.
‘The Cursed Rogue’ – Briggsy’s ritual music now starts at the correct time.
Performance and Stability
Players receiving a large number of game invites should now find their game remains stable.
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
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.
Players meeting the necessary criteria should now consistently unlock the Mobile Cannoneer achievement or Trophy depending on their platform.
Players stealing a Skull of the Banished buried by a rival crew will now find they make progress towards the Reaper Rivals Commendation.
The Dusty Hair of Boneward Blade now appears in the correct place in players’ Vanity Chests.
Hunting Spear
Hunting spears thrown at targets below deck now consistently deal the intended damage.
Players can no longer use various methods to duplicate their stock of hunting spears.
Hunting spears can now be consistently picked up from inside the ship even when standing in shallow water.
Cannon of Rage
Players are now consistently prevented from interacting with a cannon while it is being retracted or deployed.
Retracting a cannon will now consistently play the correct audio effects.
Players and skeletons carrying a Cannon of Rage will now hold the cannons correctly in their hands.
Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage
Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons can now consistently dig to unearth a pillar after a crew has migrated across servers during the Voyage.
All players should see the sarcophagus in the correct state even when arriving partway through the sequence.
After unearthing a pillar, crews should now be able to view it in the correct state after leaving and returning to the island.
The map clues now more closely match the pillar locations when voyaging on Lone Cove.
Various audio improvements have been made across the Voyage experience.
The dig locations for the pillars have been tightened to avoid the pillar being raised outside the intended area.
Environment
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.
Players using the Grapple Gun around the Sovereigns’ tent should no longer find they hit invisible walls that prevent them from grappling their target.
Players should no longer be able to walk through and hide items inside gates at Port Merrick.
Players should no longer be able to hide inside rocks on Thieves’ Haven and Lone Cove.
‘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
Many blunderbusses have been amended to prevent the weapon from intersecting with the player’s camera during the kickback while firing.
A range of swords have been reviewed and had their slash visual effects re-enabled.
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.
The Guild Plaque’s Distinction Medal will no longer shift position when observed at different distances.
Skeleton Mercenaries given a Reaper’s Urn or Reaper’s Chest will now hold them correctly in their bony hands.
Belts can no longer be equipped over the Hunter’s Call Emissary Costume.
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.
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
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.
Filters within the Reputation tab’s Commendations menus now appear consistently across all platforms.
Navigating the front-end menu with a 21:9 or 32:9 aspect ratio display now shows the front end correctly.
Text and Localisation
All Hunter’s Call Distinction Rings now show the correct text when viewed in the Clothing Chest.
Accessibility
Players using High Contrast ‘X Marks the Spot’ will now find the fishing maps use high-contrast icons for improved accessibility.
Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ should now find the initial menu screens shown to new pirates are fully narrated.
Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ should now hear the Select a Ship screen narrated when navigating the front-end menu.
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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