Welcome to another edition of This Month in Sea of Thieves, and August’s turn to take a star turn in the spotlight. It’s a big month for us here at Rare as the studio’s 40th anniversary swings into focus, and we’ve got a ton of seafaring fun to put the wind in your sails and add spice to your sailing sessions!

It’s a packed few weeks, with not just the anniversary celebrations but a new Season and a couple of exciting events too – so let’s not waste any time getting down to details…

Rare’s 40th Anniversary – from Monday, August 4th

The studio turns 40 years old imminently – so to celebrate, we’ve got a boatload of things to share with fans and players. Starting from August 4th, we’ve organised a suite of Ruby-themed gifts and tie-ins!

For Xbox Game Pass Ultimate players, the sparkling Rare Ruby Emote will be available as an XGPU Perk all the way through to October 4th. The roguish Rare Ruby Hat will also be earnable via Microsoft Rewards, and from August 6th there’ll be huge Pirate Emporium discounts on Sea of Thieves sets inspired by classic Rare titles (see full sale info below).

The free Rare Ruby Eyepatch will be on offer as a celebratory Sea of Thieves login bonus starting from the launch of Season 17 on August 14th and running right through to the September update – and a grab bag of new ruby-tinted Outpost stock will be available to pick up with your in-game gold from the same date.

Rare-inspired cosmetics will also be purchasable in a mega-bundle from August 14th, while the glorious Ruby Reaper’s Mark Sails will be made available as a time-limited Pirate Emporium offering. Meanwhile, the optional Season 17 Plunder Pass will allow players to unlock the classically themed Rare Regalia ship set and clothing as they power through those levels of Seasonal Renown!

There’s also more on offer in Season 17’s Rare-themed Community Weekend – but more on that later…

Pirate Emporium Rare Anniversary Sale – Wednesday, August 6th – Monday, August 11th

A major milestone deserves a major sale, so you can expect a huge range of deals to explore in the Pirate Emporium while this one is live! The Emporium has no shortage of ship sets, costumes, weapons and Trinkets inspired by Rare’s games and characters from the last 40 years, and most if not all of them are part of this special sale. From Bear & Bird to Paradise Garden, Night Wulf to Huntress and everything in between, there’s a look here for everyone to enjoy!

‘Smugglers’ Tide’ Release – Friday, August 8th

The official Sea of Thieves soundtrack that’s streamable and downloadable from your choice of music provider gets another of its regular additions, this time the moody signature music from the upcoming Smuggler-driven Season. Check it out from August 8th, ahead of the Season’s launch a little under a week later…

Gold & Glory Weekend – Friday, August 8th – Monday, August 11th

Our boosted rewards Event beckons players in over the second weekend of the month, giving persistent pirates a perfect opportunity to hit level 100 Renown in Season 16 before it ends! Gold, reputation, Allegiance and Renown will all be boosted for the duration of the Event, so make sure you’re heading out on the waves to make the most of these gains.

Season 17 Launch – Thursday, August 14th

Announced at the Xbox Games Showcase[www.seaofthieves.com] back in June, Smugglers’ Tide finally comes to Sea of Thieves’ shores later this month. With explosive Black Powder Barrels, fresh faces to meet and interact with, Smugglers’ Route Runs and new Deeds, Commendations, rewards and treasures, our smuggling-themed Season is all set to offer pirates new ways to make their fortune.

Stay tuned to Sea of Thieves social channels for more information on what’s to come as part of Season 17’s package.

Pirate Profiles Launch – Thursday, August 14th

Also launching alongside Season 17 are Pirate Profiles, which players will be able to pick up from the Pirate Emporium! For those of you who like the idea of having multiple pirate personas to roleplay with – or if you just fancy taking on new challenges with a fresh-faced pirate (and no worries about overwriting your old one) – you’ll find this feature just the thing to help you scratch that itch.

Season 17 Community Weekend – Saturday, August 30th – Monday, September 1st

Remember a few paragraphs ago, when we mentioned the next Community Weekend? Well, that’s all set to happen nice and early in the Season 17 calendar, with rewards and Pop-Up Plunder both themed to our 40th anniversary milestone. As usual, the Community Emissary Grade will be powered by hours of Sea of Thieves watched on Twitch – with a suite of Twitch Drops on offer for folks tuning in. Picture Walls will return to Outposts with a special ruby-red flavour, with one at The Reaper’s Hideout also back in action for the 48 hours of this Event.

Pirates who pop in during the Weekend will receive two glorious login bonuses: the Season 17 Community Weekend Flag and the Paper Cutout Emote. And, if 100,000 World Events are completed during Community Weekend, a special Ruby Legend Figurehead will be unlocked for all participants. It’s set to be a stunning celebration of all things Rare, so make sure to mark the dates in your diary now to avoid disappointment.

And that’s all for August! We hope to see you on the seas in honour of our studio’s milestone anniversary, and our thanks, as always, to those of you who have set sail with us at any stage of this unforgettable journey.

Alongside things like angry cannons and boxes of bones, Season 16 has introduced the spike-fanatic skeletons known as the Order of Bone and Blade, who are surprisingly helpful despite their getups resembling medieval torture devices. Yes, they are a bit one-note in the clothing department, so now it’s time for you lot to show them that fashion options do extend beyond red and metal for those willing to shop around. To be fair, being buried for an indeterminate amount of time probably isn’t the most lucrative position to be in, and maybe they’d pop a nice hat on if a pirate would just offer them a few coins and a lift to the Outpost…

Anyway, forget that as it’s not those skeletons doing any dressing up, that duty falls to you when Season 16’s #StyleOfThieves contest takes place from July 21st–24th 2025! Will you walk away with one of the 16 pairs of Fashionista’s Finery Gloves up for grabs? Potentially! If you enter, that is. If you don’t enter then it’s a no, but you’re planning to enter, right? Okay good, just checking.

The format of the contest remains unchanged for now: 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 contest is open. Your task is then to rummage through your equipment chest and grab a stylish screenshot of your pirate dressed in gear relating to that day’s prompt, trying to stand out from the crowd in the process (that’s the hardest part). To enter, simply take a screenshot or two showing your full outfit (including your boots) and share your entry on your social media channel of choice, stating the name of the theme in your post to help with our team’s judging.

Each theme will be open to entries for 24 hours, after which time our team will create a shortlist of their top entries, carve them into a chocolate mould and use this to create a single bar. Said confectionery directory will then be positioned in direct sunlight before the Art team are told its location, putting them in a race against heat to reach the cocoa catalogue before it melts into a delicious pool of chic corsairs’ broken dreams. Should they get to the list in time, they’ll be able to choose their 16 overall winners for us to reveal on July 31st.

Before we reveal the themes, we’d just like to reiterate that 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. It’s really just a pirate dress-up game when we boil it down, right? So embrace it!
Image credit: banhosabado on X/Twitter

And now, without any more re-re-re-tweaked preamble, here are Season 16’s #StyleOfThieves 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.

ApocalypticImagine the world has come to an end and, in fiction-established fashion, nobody is making new clothes that don’t come pre-ripped, accessorised with metal or both.
Entry date: July 21st

DebonairHowever you said ‘Debonair’ in your head just then, translate that instinctively suave pronunciation into fashion form.
Entry date: July 22nd

MagicalFrom wizards and witches to beings made of magic, put a spell on us with some enchanting attire that says “I could distract you with a card trick while my crewmate nicks your Chest of Legends”.
Entry date: July 23rd

Vibrant
Go against Season 16’s dour style by putting on the brightest colours you can find! Making them match is optional, but encouraged.
Entry date: July 24th

Image credit: nexusgamingv1 on X/Twitter

There are of course rules to follow if you want to create a valid contest entry. For a refresher on these, and how to enter via any of the applicable channels, please navigate back to last Season’s Style of Thieves article – remembering of course that Season 16’s themes are all new! 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.

As an additional stipulation to ensure a level playing field, entries may only use the retail version of Sea of Thieves and not the Insider build, following the lifting of the Insider Programme NDA (see our 2025 Community Direct[www.seaofthieves.com] for more on that).

Bang! And the article’s done. Well, done aside from this rambling final bit. Imagine if we had just ended it on ‘done’, we bet you’d have felt slighted. Not that this paragraph is adding any helpful information to the article. If anything, it’s adding unnecessary fluff, but if there’s anywhere aside from a winter duvet where unnecessary fluff is acceptable, it’s in the final part of a pirate game fashion contest theme announcement article that very few people will read.

If you’re one of the few, we hope this is on the endearing side of things, but only you can be the judge of that. Unlike #StyleOfThieves, which we’ll be the judges of from July 21st–24th! Bosh, effortlessly back on track. See you on the social catwalks!

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[www.seaofthieves.com].

Followers of the Flame Voyage

• The Reaper’s Bones offer a new on-demand Voyage: Followers of the Flame.

• This Voyage tasks crews with using the Follower’s Flame Lantern to find and resurrect the Order of Bone and Blade and perform a dark ritual to create the new Chest of Bones.

• Embarking on all Voyages 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.

Chest of Bones

• Once recovered from the ritual, the Chest of Bones can also be unsealed to release waves of Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons to aid the crew.

• The Chest of Bones will release fewer skeletons than its more powerful Reaper’s Chest counterpart, and does not contain Skeleton Captains.

Ashen Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage

• The Reaper’s Bones Voyages have now expanded into The Devil’s Roar, introducing an Ashen Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage that offers higher-value rewards for venturing into the flames.

• The Order of Bone and Blade are now helpfully immune to damage from geysers.

Reaper’s Chest Balancing

• The skeleton waves released when unsealing a Reaper’s Chest on a rival ship now dynamically scale to the size of the ship. A Sloop will be limited to two skeletons, three on a Brigantine and four on a Galleon.

• A Reaper’s Chest unsealed in any other location or when used defensively on a player’s own ship will use the existing limit of six.

• The appearance of Skeleton Captains has also been limited, with a total of four now able to be released from a single Reaper’s Chest. When a Skeleton Captain has appeared, no further Captains can be summoned until it has been dispatched.

Stealing the Search for Ancient Secrets

• It is now possible for rival crews to steal the Skull of the Banished during the Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage.

• Once the sarcophagus has been discovered by the crew on the Voyage, rival crews can now continue digging, open the sarcophagus and take the skull for themselves. This promptly ends the Voyage for the starting crew and grants their rivals progress towards the Reaper Rivals Commendation.

Skeleton Mercenary Improvements

• Order of Bone and Blade Skeleton Mercenaries now show a status tag next to their name, visually showing what they are doing when viewed at a distance. Players can now also see clearly when a Skeleton Mercenary has been downed and needs reviving.

• When a buried Skeleton Mercenary is uncovered by a pirate, the other members of the crew will now be notified of the discovery.

Reapers Rising Commendations and Rewards

• New Reapers Rising Commendations have been added within the Reputation tab, tasking players with taking on the Followers of the Flame Voyage. Crews who brave this challenge can unlock access to a set of Reaper’s Bones Masks.

The Devil’s Roar Rebalancing

• The Devil’s Roar has been rebalanced to reduce frustration while adventuring in this region, but still retains the atmosphere and risk that comes from sailing in such a dangerous part of the seas.

• Geysers that appear on islands should no longer directly target players, and the number of them that surface is now scaled to the size of the crew exploring the island.

• Volcanoes now signal their eruption for a longer time, allowing players more time to react.

• A live volcano now erupts for a shorter time before subsiding, and while erupting the chance that nearby ships will be hit with volcanic rocks has been reduced.

Responsive Health Bar Improvements

• The UI health bar has been improved to be more responsive during combat. Players taking damage and healing will now see the health bar move to the new health value much more quickly.

• Players with critically low health will now consistently see their health bar switch to green when they gain enough health to move out of the critical zone.

• After healing fully, a player’s health bar now remains visible for a longer period before being hidden.

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.

Performance Improvements

• This update includes a system-level optimisation to CPU performance across the broad experience, to reduce the frequency of framerate drops and provide a smoother framerate during gameplay.

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[www.seaofthieves.com] to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

• Bosun Brewmaster Ship Collection and Ship’s Crest

• Bosun Brewmaster Weapon Bundle

• Bosun Brewmaster Costume

• Bosun Brewmaster Tankard

• Touring Tavern Emote Bundle

• Ashen Curse Toucan Collector’s Pet

• Sting Tide Weapon Bundle

New Outpost Stock!

• The Outpost shops now stock the Golden Chaser equipment and instruments.

• The shipwrights have also restocked with the new Green Resolute Hull, Sails and Flag.

Legends Unleashed (July 17th–31st)

• This lengthy Event sees the Pirate Lord rally his Pirate Legends against the growing Reaper threat, with a comeback by The Reaper’s Bones in the second week. Increased loot payouts, special Event Goals and unlockable rewards are all available. Visit the dedicated Legends Unleashed page[www.seaofthieves.com] to find out more.

• In addition to the time-limited aspects of this Event, Athena’s Fortune now offer three new Legendary searches which will remain as permanent additions to the Quest Table. These are A Legendary Treasure Map Search, A Legendary Riddle Quest Search and A Legendary Skeleton Bounty Search.

• These Voyages provide a shorter experience and therefore less risk than the existing Athena’s Fortune Voyages, providing reduced rewards in comparison to their more perilous counterparts.

• Athena’s Fortune Letters of Recommendation can now be purchased from Larinna, providing a boost to reputation each month. These will remain a permanent addition after this Event.

Gameplay

• Storage Crates found through Skeleton’s Orders can now be sold to the Merchant Alliance as intended.

• Players stowing a throwing knife while charging a stab attack will find the stab is now cancelled.

• Treasure harpooned from the water can now be consistently picked up from the deck.

• Improvements have been made to the Ashen Executive’s Lost Shipment Voyage, addressing issues where the location of the shipwreck, Captain’s Key and Manifest were appearing inconsistently during the Voyage, halting progress.

• A Grapple Gun can no longer be used to drag the Key or Chest of Siren Song into The Reaper’s Hideout.

• Restoring a ship at the shipwright should no longer cause the ship’s wheel to spin rapidly.

• Players attempting to grab on to a ladder while using a spyglass should no longer find the vignette effect lingers.

• Players are now prevented from selling a hunting spear while attempting to throw it.

• Attempting to throw a hunting spear and crouching should no longer cause controller vibration effects to persist.

• Attempting to grapple the Key or Chest of Siren Song while standing inside an Outpost tavern no longer causes the Grapple Gun to become stuck while firing.

• ‘The Revenge of the Morningstar’ – Items dropped on Graymarrow’s altar during this Tall Tale will no longer vanish unexpectedly.

Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage

• Ancient Phantoms no longer flicker into view when moving through other enemies.

• Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons should now move correctly when digging out the Ancient Pillars.

• Players should consistently be provided with the Skull of the Banished when retrieving it from the sarcophagus.

• The fog effects visible on this Voyage now appear correctly for other crews observing at a distance.

Cannon of Rage

• A player loaded into a Cannon of Rage will now be removed if it is retracted by another player.

• Players will now be prevented from climbing into a Cannon of Rage while it is being deployed.

• A retracted Cannon of Rage will no longer block cannonball damage when fired upon.

• The Cannon of Rage no longer consumes loaded cannonballs when being retracted.

• Cannons of Rage now consistently display the fuse after being buried and dug up.

• The overheating effect on Cannons of Rage now transitions more smoothly between stages.

• A damaged Cannon of Rage will now visibly swell while overheating, even after being retracted.

Reaper’s Chests Unsealed

• Skeletons released from a Reaper’s Chest at an Outpost now move consistently to keep up with their crew.

• Skeletons emerging from Reaper’s Chests will now consistently show their nameplates.

• Reaper’s Chests now emit a bone-rattling sound when sealed.

• Leaving the area of an unsealed Reaper’s Chest and returning no longer causes the lid to reappear.

• The red glow inside the enhanced Reaper’s Chest now displays properly when other players are holding it.

• Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons released at The Reaper’s Hideout will now be able to descend into the lower areas if the chest is taken down on the lift.

Skeleton Mercenaries

• Order of Bone and Blade Skeleton Mercenaries now thank players when revived from their bone piles.

• Skeleton Mercenaries engaging in combat should no longer drop items into areas they cannot reach themselves.

• Skeleton Mercenaries now appear closer to their bone piles when revived.

• Skeletons now appear to move correctly after dropping an item.

• Long grass should no longer cover bone piles, hiding Skeleton Mercenaries.

Environment

• Improvements have been made to the environment at Port Merrick, Dagger Tooth Outpost and Shark Bait Cove to address crews using these locations to hide their ship and shelter from attacks during Faction battles.

• Improvements have been made to the environment during the ‘The Lair of LeChuck’, ‘Shores of Gold’ and ‘A Pirate’s Life’ Tall Tales to prevent players from using a Grapple Gun to leave the designated areas.

• Players can no longer use the Cannon of Rage to bypass the doors to Skeleton Forts, the Fort of the Damned or Glitterbeard’s Cave.

• Players should no longer be able to retrieve items from the Fort of the Damned using a Grapple Gun without first unlocking the Vault.

• Players can no longer fall out of the environment by using the Grapple Gun to navigate within Ancient Vaults.

• Players can no longer pass through Royal Crest Fortress’ ceiling by interacting with the Map Table on a different floor.

Visual and Audio

• Several shovels that were missing dig visual effects now show the correct effects.

• Players carrying Mermaid Gems in various lighting conditions will now find their glare has been reduced.

• Players wearing the Spinal Costume should no longer find it intersects with various disguises.

• The Gilded Phoenix Hurdy-Gurdy now has the instrument’s keys in the correct location.

• Using a disguise while wearing the Regal Fortune Boots should now correctly show the player’s feet.

• Female pirates equipping the Skeleton Curse and Reaper’s Bones Skull will now retain their skull shape.

• Players wearing the Veil of the Ancients Costume should no longer find the gems react too brightly to sunlight.

• Performing a stab with a throwing knife should now consistently show the knife at the correct orientation.

• The Dashing Duellist Banjo and Blowpipe now fit correctly in a pirate’s hands when wielded.

• The Lamplighter Pistol now fits correctly in a pirate’s hands when wielded.

• ‘A Pirate's Life’ – Ghost pirates now appear as intended at key parts of the Tall Tale.

User Interface

• The front-end intro video now appears correctly when playing without visible black borders.

• Event times shown on the Quest Table are now shown in players’ local time instead of UTC.

• Players using a Trident of Dark Tides for the first time will no longer see a ‘Refill Ammo’ notification after firing.

• Maps shown in the Quest Radial will now consistently show their icon in the even if the map owner dies and returns from the Ferry of the Damned.

• Attempting to sell a Bounty Skull to Flameheart now correctly guides players to the right hand-in location.

• Players navigating between the title screen and front-end menu should now hear music at a consistent volume.

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.

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[support.seaofthieves.com].

The sweltering press of July is upon us, which means we have one last thing to do before we let June pass over the horizon: round up everything you might have missed! But this time we’re doing a little streamlining to your regular round-up, focusing on just the best bits and taking up no more of your time than we need to. So with that in mind, please take your seat, prepare your eyes and get reading…

June’s free monthly content update[www.seaofthieves.com] (following a cheeky hotfix[www.seaofthieves.com]) introduced another mix of features, Events, fixes and cosmetics, most notably enabling players to unseal Reaper’s Chests[www.tiktok.com] for the very first time. Just as everyone was adapting to the new friends[www.tiktok.com] they gained as a result, our Events team sailed in with a Gold & Glory Weekend[x.com] and a full week’s worth of Fight Nights[x.com]! Once again, pirates across the seas would battle to the death to win increased Allegiance, exclusive Trinkets and that all-important glory.

And of course June was Pride Month, always an important time for Sea of Thieves, and our latest updates reflected that: we were thrilled to be able to introduce the Progress Pride Flag[x.com] to the seas for broader player representation, while real-world Pride-themed items[x.com] made a time-limited return to the Xbox Gear Shop!

We started the month, as always, with a preview[www.seaofthieves.com] of everything that players could expect in June, followed a week later by something we hadn’t mentioned: a sneak peek at Season 17[www.seaofthieves.com] during the Xbox Games Showcase. Before we get to August and the arrival of Smugglers’ Tide, however, there’s plenty to be getting on with – including the reopening of Affiliate Alliance applications[x.com]. If you think your Sea of Thieves community could benefit from becoming part of the programme, give the guidelines[www.seaofthieves.com] a read!

June’s Community Spotlight zeroed in on singing completionist EliEelEye[www.seaofthieves.com], while two rounds[x.com] of Community Hub[x.com] entries and two #SoTShot categories – Chaotic Captures[x.com] and Stunning Skeletons[www.instagram.com] – saw community creatives claiming some coveted cosmetics. And we couldn’t end June without one last salute[www.seaofthieves.com] to Pride Month 2025, guest-written by one of our new Affiliate Alliance communities, The Pride Brigade.

We were also lucky enough to land a couple of wins[x.com] for Sea of Thieves at the MCV Develop Awards in London later in the month, for Ongoing Innovation of the Year and Accessibility Innovation of the Year. An honour! Now, back to keeping that ongoing content coming as we set up those highly explosive new barrels the Smugglers may have mentioned…

The reveal of Season 17 wouldn’t have been much fun without a trailer, and that was by no means June’s only trailer: a new monthly content update necessitated its own Update Trailer, as well as a showcase of the latest Pirate Emporium stock. Trailer fans must surely have been beside themselves.

But there were still some of the usual suspects to unveil: Sea of Thieves News laid out what to expect from the June update while divulging details of the upcoming Pirate Profiles, and a few days later, June’s Developer Update shared some of our behind-the-scenes thinking and priorities moving forwards. And finally, we couldn’t let the masterful musical melodies of Season 16 go underappreciated, so ‘The Ancient Pillars’[x.com] made its streaming soundtrack debut for pirates to enjoy to their hearts’ content!

https://youtu.be/vHLhi7RJx1Y?si=ejacjttvsk9f5-LyAnd as promised, that’s your trimmed-down round-up. There’ll be plenty more to talk about throughout July, so be sure to keep an eye on all our usual social channels – Twitter/X[x.com], Bluesky[bsky.app], Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com], TikTok[www.tiktok.com], YouTube, Threads[www.threads.com] and Twitch[www.twitch.tv], as well as the official Forums[www.seaofthieves.com] and Discord[discord.com] – and drop any thoughts and feedback there. Until we see you again, happy sailing and don’t forget to have fun[www.tiktok.com]!

Sea of Thieves Round-Up: May 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

Today saw the broadcast of our very first Community Direct, a long-form sit down with key crew members to discuss all things Sea of Thieves over the next six months or so. Covering game health, upcoming changes to the Insider Programme, our evolving approach to Seasons and more, it was also an opportunity to reveal an incredibly exciting premium feature coming to Sea of Thieves’ shores in early 2026: custom servers.

Your host, Head of Video Production John McMurtrie, was joined by Head of Community and Communications Christina McFairholme, Associate Design Director Shelley Preston, Creative Director Mike Chapman and Production Director Drew Stevens to talk through all of the above and more. If you’ve got 51 minutes to spare, you can watch the Direct in full below. But if you can’t watch right now, we’ve compiled the key takeaways right here in this handy article!

Before the gang got into what to expect from Sea of Thieves moving forward, there was some reflection on the last few Seasons. Our last major content releases brought a significant focus on enriching the sandbox; player feedback we’d received last year pointed to the sandbox being perhaps in need of reinvigoration with new tools and opportunities, and the last few Seasons of content worked towards this with a plethora of new ways to play.

We’ve also been making a concerted effort to provide more detail and context to our players via the reintroduction of the Developer Update, a video series now fronted by Production Director Drew Stevens. This has proved a great vehicle for us to talk about things in a more transparent and reactive manner, and we’ve been heartened by the response. We’re also planning to deliver a Community Direct every six months as part of this openness with our community – so expect another sit-down with the crew early next year.

That’s not to say there hasn’t been room for improvement; we know we haven’t hit the mark our players were hoping for in terms of game health and performance, especially when it comes to being reactive to cheating and the game experience on PC. We’re also cognisant that we could be more attuned to the desires and experiences of our player base, and we’ll be working hard to remedy this in future. We’ve learned a lot from the past year, and we’re ready to put those insights into action.

The partnership we have with our players is incredibly important to us, as is taking on board feedback that doesn’t just help us shape a feature but define it in the first instance. This is why we’re taking the bold step to lift the NDA from the Sea of Thieves Insider Programme. We want to inspire more conversation at scale about what we’re up to and how we can improve the experience. This means that while players will still have to register to be an Insider, they will be able to talk openly about the Insider build – as well as stream and capture it.

This is only the first step in opening us up to more community input, as starting from next Season we’re also planning a Seasonal Big Listen with our Insider Programme members. We’ll be asking how you found the content we’ve recently released, and more broadly how you’re finding the whole package: performance, cheaters, bugs, enjoyability and more. This will allow us to better track sentiment over time and identify gaps for content that addresses a desire or opportunity within our current feature set. And, of course, in line with this focus on transparency, we’ll share the results of these surveys with you, our players.

We’re also working on relaunching the Insider Programme in 2026 to make it more engaging and rewarding for participants. This reboot will fold in a number of different community programmes and make the Insider Programme a home and a hub for our most engaged players to get the most out of their playtime.

Another thing that we’ve heard our players are missing is consistency in our worldbuilding endeavours, and we’ll be striving to renew our focus on the story of the Sea of Thieves to satisfy different player motivations. We appreciate that we’ve allowed the momentum of the story to slow down as we focused on the sandbox, but looking ahead, we plan on having a much better balance of narrative and features – as well as including story beats within a Season, rather than just at the start.

We’re crafting a new structure for the team to allow us to deliver across all these areas. While dedicated teams already exist for Seasons, Pirate Emporium and Game Health, we've committed to expanding our Game Health team to ensure we continue improving the core playability and stability of the main game, alongside introducing new experiences. These teams are now set up and ready to go, with some improvements already in the bag and being enjoyed by our players.

We’re also changing the way think about our Seasonal content, as well as how we deliver it through a three-month period. We want players to always have something new to look forward to throughout a Season – and when we've released the majority of the content at the beginning of the Season, that hasn’t always been the case. So we’re committing to a clearer structure that means there will be a predictable rhythm of play to each Season, that looks a little like this:

Month 1: more sandbox features and worldbuilding setup

Month 2: headline live Event, upscaled and expanded with lore elements

Month 3: ‘call to action’ moment for players, revisiting and revitalising sandbox content

This comes on top of our existing live Events: we will now always run a Community Weekend in the first month of a Season, and a Gold & Glory in the last month to ensure players have an opportunity to catch up if they’ve struggled to find game time.

This shift does require a transitionary period to put into practice though, and as a result we will not be running a Community Weekend for Season 16. However, Season 17’s Community Weekend will land early in August to ensure you don’t go too long without that Community Emissary Grade multiplier goodness!

Season 17

Those of you who caught the Xbox Games Showcase trailer will have learned that the upcoming Season is all about The Smugglers’ League, a band of pirates new to the Sea of Thieves’ shores. The first month of the Season will introduce this ragtag bunch and key features like smugglers’ hideouts, new loot types and Smugglers’ Runs.

Month 2 will bring a headline live Event in the form of a heist, while Month 3 refreshes the Skeleton Fort experience – a feature that’s remained unchanged for some time. A Community Weekend celebrating Rare’s 40th anniversary will land at the very beginning of the Season, and Gold & Glory near the end will offer that all-important catch-up moment before Season 18 kicks off. You can also expect all the usual Seasonal rewards, Twitch Drops, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks and more as we roll out a suite of cool stuff to get involved in.

We can’t wait to show you more of what to expect of Season 17, so stay tuned for more details on what players will be facing from August onwards!

It wouldn’t be a Sea of Thieves broadcast without a little bit of Sea of Tease – and so our Community Direct took a quick dip into what players can expect from Season 18. With a focus on The Devil’s Roar, this Season promises to boost Emissary play along with general activity in the region. New Ancient Shrines and expanded Smugglers’ League gameplay will form part of this, as well as a thrilling headline Event…

But more on that later – for now, it’s time to talk about the much-requested community feature we’ve been working on behind the scenes.

We recognise that Sea of Thieves, at its heart, is about player storytelling – and so over the past year we have been developing a brand new toolset designed to unleash community creativity. These Custom Server features will be available to players in early 2026 as part of a new subscription model, and will come with a whole host of other benefits as part of the premium package.

Custom Servers will offer a range of different features, including a private customisable sandbox. With switches, toggles and commands to curate the server experience, subscribers will be able to do things such as spawn enemies and loot on command, turn off AI enemies and ensure that the environment is fit for whatever shenanigans they want to set up.

They’ll also be able to run Safer Seas Fleets, filling a server full of friends and larking about to their heart’s content, all while earning rewards at the same levels available in the solo version of Safer Seas. And finally, a cinematic camera will offer players a toolset similar to that used by our very own Video team when they’re putting together those beautiful gameplay trailers.

Although this subscription service is landing next year, we’ve taken the decision to announce it nice and early so that our Partners and creative communities can start making plans sooner rather than later. We want to build this toolset in partnership with the community, and running it as a subscription model means that we can ensure ongoing investment into and development of Custom Servers as a platform.

We can’t wait to get this feature into players’ hands and build a toolset that empowers all facets of Sea of Thieves’ player base – creative, competitive or otherwise – to craft even more amazing experiences that they can share with their communities.

Custom Servers will of course fall outside the Seasonal team’s delivery of regular in-game content, and that’s an area of focus for us moving forward too. There’s a dedicated team looking at bigger projects and opportunities beyond Seasons, and how we can deliver these features alongside our Seasonal releases. This resource will look at things like our core progression system, the Pirate Legend experience, community storytelling, ship overhauls, world updates and other areas of this scale and ambition.

We’ll share more about our focuses in this space when we’re ready, but we’ve set up our team structure in a way that now allows us to more elegantly deliver different types of content alongside one another, rather than having to sacrifice something in one area for the sake of another. We think this is the best way to keep Sea of Thieves feeling fresh and giving players lots of different things to look forward to.

If you got this far through the article, congratulations! It’s been quite the whirlwind of information, so thanks for staying with us. We’d love to hear what you think of our plans for the months ahead, so please head over to our social channels[linktr.ee] or our Discord server[www.discord.gg] to share your thoughts – we try our best to read all your comments, and we want to make sure that we keep an open dialogue on how our designs are landing with players.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about what’s to come for Sea of Thieves, and we’re looking forward to sharing more detail on what we’ve discussed as these features get closer to release. And, of course, we’ll see you in around six months’ time for another Community Direct to dive deep into the next wave of exciting plans!

Welcome to another month of Sea of Thieves plans, events and revelry! There’s plenty of action headed your way as Sea of Thieves advances into July with all sails unfurled. So grab a cuppa and your diary as we take a good look at the line-up…
 
Community Direct – Thursday, July 10th

It's been a while since we sat down and shared our plans for Sea of Thieves, so we thought: we should do that soon. And we are! On July 10th, join Head of Video Production John McMurtrie, Head of Community and Communications Christina McFairholme, Associate Design Director Shelley Preston, Creative Director Mike Chapman and Production Director Drew Stevens as they talk about upcoming Seasons, big Insider Programme changes and a much-requested feature that’s recently been ticking away in development.

You’ll be able to watch our debut Community Direct via YouTube Premiere on the Sea of Thieves YouTube channel, or live on our official Twitch channel[www.twitch.tv] – so be sure to subscribe for the all-important notification when we go live.

Pirate Emporium Staff Picks Sale – Thursday, July 10th – Tuesday, July 15th

This month’s Emporium sale is a precursor to Rare’s anniversary celebrations, featuring some of the team’s favourite sets and stellar specials! Our bold Pirate Emporium squad canvassed the studio to arrive at the selection featured in this sale. From the ever-popular Lodestar set to the irresistible Pocket Crab Emote, you won’t want to miss the opportunity to browse this bucketload of bargains.

July Monthly Update – Thursday, July 17th

The third and final content update of this Season introduces Followers of the Flame, another new Voyage for The Reaper’s Bones, that sends crews in search of a new kind of Reaper’s Chest with enchanted items leading the way. The Pirate Emporium is also expecting an influx of new stock, including the Bosun Brewmaster set for true tavern aficionados and the darkly delightful Ashen Curse Toucan.

July’s inbound Outpost stock includes the Green Resolute Hull, Flag and Sails, plus the glorious Golden Chaser equipment and instruments. And, as is now customary, a new Voyage of Luck awaits all pirates who jump in to enjoy this latest free update.

Legends Unleashed Event – Thursday, July 17th – Thursday, July 31st

It’s not just a content update going live on July 17th – once the game is back up from maintenance, Legends Unleashed also kicks off! This Event will last for a fortnight, rallying the patrons of Athena’s Fortune against the rise of the Reapers. There’ll be Athena’s Fortune reputation and gold boosts, Daily Goals offering additional payouts, emergent Legendary Message in a Bottle Voyages (with a Trinket reward for completing three) and the possibility of Ashen Mega Stashes once again appearing in Fort Vaults.

Week two of the Event will bring the Reapers’ resurgence, complete with their own themed Daily Goals and boosts on Athena’s Fortune treasure delivered to The Reaper’s Hideout (with another unlockable Trinket for doing so). For a real payout, any Athena’s Fortune Emissary Flags captured and handed in will be worth 10 times the usual amount!

Shorter Athena’s Fortune Voyages and Letters of Recommendation from Larinna will also be introduced with this Event, becoming a permanent feature of the game – so there’s ample opportunity down the line to raise your standing as a Pirate Legend, or attain that lofty goal if you haven’t already.

Twitch Drops – Friday, July 18th – Friday, July 25th

Tune in to any Sea of Thieves streaming Partner during this week to unlock more Twitch Drop treasures. This set of Drops features some fan favourites including the Shuffle Dance Emote and Rising Morningstar Trousers, as well as a Raid on a Dark Fortress Voyage, the brand new Amethyst Mercenary Jacket and more. Stay tuned for the full suite of swag and info on how to earn it all later in the month.

Drops are available by linking your accounts[www.seaofthieves.com] 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[www.seaofthieves.com] to see who’s online and available to tune in to once those Drops go live!

Season 16 Style of Thieves – Monday, July 21st – Thursday, July 24th

Of course, no Season is complete without a fashion-focused Style of Thieves contest, and that time is almost upon us once again. Show us your best fits on our social channels during this entry period dated above, with a heads-up on this Season’s themes arriving a little earlier to help you get planning! We look forward to seeing all your snazzy outfits and giving away more pairs of the coveted Fashionista’s Finery Gloves.

Sails of Bonded Brawlers – throughout Season 16

July will be the last full month to get the free Sails of Bonded Brawlers, a set of beautiful blue sheets designed in honour of Sea of Thieves’

launch on Battle.net®[Battle.net®] alongside Season 16. Just log in at least once before Season 17 kicks off to find these in your Ship Customisation Chest.

Although it’s not our own event, we must also give an honourable mention to SoTFest 2025 taking place this month: we hope everyone making their way to the UK for this fantastic fan event has a wonderful time, and we have a strong Rare contingent turning up to enjoy the vibes and participate in a few panels. So for those of you going, we’ll see you there!

That’s all for now, but we look forward to seeing you here this time next month where we’ll be ready to talk about everything happening in August – which will of course include the beginning of Season 17. Get your sneakiest outfits at the ready, crew, we’re going smuggling…

One of the most exciting social additions to the Sea of Thieves calendar is the annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ Pride Month. As part of this, we reached out to three members of one of our newest Affiliate Alliance additions, The Pride Brigade[bsky.app] – a social space created and curated to celebrate diversity and inclusion within our community, giving pirates a safe space to be themselves and be proud of who they are.

So we’ll now hand over to Div_And_Inc, Zom8ie and Serve_with_Ice from The Pride Brigade, who are taking the time to discuss not only their community but the important history of Pride Month, and why it’s still important to make space for these conversations and activities every year!

Article 1 of the Sea of Thieves Pirate Code[www.seaofthieves.com] states “The Sea Calls to Us All”. This hugely resonates with the purposes of LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and the Rare team have always been proud to present their wonderful pirate adventure world as a place where everybody is free to be themselves without the risk of unfair treatment, discrimination or abuse. The freedom of expression that every player has on the Sea of Thieves is a direct example of this, with anyone able to enjoy this world in their own way – be that how they play the game, dress their pirate, decorate their ship or communicate with crewmates and strangers they meet on the waves.

Proud pirates in Sea of Thieves (in participating territories) can now also represent Pride in game with the Progress Pride Flag – find out more in June’s This Month in SoT[www.seaofthieves.com] article. This flag, in its current 2021 iteration, includes the original six colours of the Pride flag representing the LGBTQIA+ community. The triangular colours now included on the left were added to represent the importance of issues affecting BIPOC, transgender, non-binary and intersex people.

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, held in June every year, is a worldwide observance and celebration, commemorating many decades of struggles amongst the LGBTQIA+ community for civil rights and social acceptance. It also signifies the ever-growing pursuit of equal rights for everyone, regardless of who they love or how they identify.

Image credit: heslashthem and murpheylives on Bluesky

Pride began in 1969 in New York City’s Greenwich Village in protest against discriminatory treatment and social injustice. It stood as a pivotal moment in history when members of the LGBTQIA+ community were finally empowered enough to say “we deserve to be treated equally and with respect”. Since then, LGBTQIA+ Pride has evolved into a rich, vibrant global celebration of diversity, inclusivity, respect and love. All the while, it never fails to note the importance of highlighting parts of the world where the LGBTQIA+ community still face dehumanisation, discrimination, persecution and abuse.

It’s also important to highlight that while LGBTQIA+ Pride Month is an opportunity to show loud and colourful support within the LGBTQIA+ community and acceptance of everyone’s individual expression, the celebration of Pride is not exclusive. This is seen in the support given by the fiercest of allies who sit outside the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, and is hugely welcomed around the world as it further demonstrates Pride as a true celebration of inclusion, respect, authenticity, expression and love.

Pride is not only a celebration but continues to be a global protest to show that, though inclusivity has come so far in many parts of the world, there is still a long way to go in ensuring LGBTQIA+ people are safe from exclusion, violence, oppression and abuse. Sea of Thieves recognises that Pride is a wonderful event platform to help educate all of us on the struggles still faced by the community today, as well as making it a safer place for all.

“The Sea Unites Us as One Community” is another article of the Pirate Code that echoes the true sentiment of Pride Month. While Pride Month highlights the struggles faced by the LGBTQIA+ community around the world and online, Pride also stands for everyone being equal, standing together in times of hardship and times of joy. Sea of Thieves offers just that, with a chance to meet new people every time you set sail and work together on group adventures, discovering hidden secrets and embarking on beautiful examples of community-focused gameplay.

Image credit: divandinc on Bluesky
The Sea of Thieves community is a rich combination of pirates from all over the world representing many ethnicities, backgrounds, sexualities and gender identities. The game is designed for all play styles, capabilities and identities to be able to step into a fully inclusive world and adventure with their friends, while also being able to make new friends around the globe.

As a result of this inclusive message within the Pirate Code, a new Sea of Thieves Affiliate Alliance[www.seaofthieves.com] community has grown: The Pride Brigade. This began over three years ago as a small group of LGBTQIA+ pirates learning to play Sea of Thieves for the first time. We soon began to expand with the intention of creating a safe space for all the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as everyone outside the community who would call themselves an ‘ally’.

Through a mutual love of this open-world pirate adventure game, our community has expanded exponentially and has allowed us to support people from all over the world in feeling safe and celebrated as their authentic selves. Our community champions education over intimidation, where kindness, understanding and patience are considered the most important aspects of inclusivity. We host content creators, artists, gamers, musicians and inclusivity experts, all of whom champion the ethos that “everyone deserves to be treated equally and kindly, regardless of who they are or how they identify”.

Now established as one of the newest Sea of Thieves Affiliate Alliance communities in June 2025, we hope to further increase our Pride message and offer many more players a welcoming and safe space, a chance to meet new pirates to sail with safely and a platform to stand proudly and be themselves.

As the celebrations continue through June and beyond, let us all come together as one community and set sail for new horizons as our authentic selves, with nothing but kindness and adventure in our hearts. Happy Pride to everyone. All shall sail together!

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[www.seaofthieves.com].

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[www.seaofthieves.com] 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[support.seaofthieves.com].

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[news.xbox.com] 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[www.seaofthieves.com], all set to receive further free expansions in June and July. Stay tuned for more on those very soon!