I’ve been really into Sea of Thieves again recently and the hours I’ve been putting in, have been great. However, with all games, there’s always room for improvement. Rare clearly understand this as they’ve just released the latest patch for the game. Bringing with it some nice tweaks and changes.
Most interesting to me personally is the ship speed balancing. As a regular Sea of Thieves Sloop captain, I’ve always been confident in my speed advantages, and that definitely still exists when going into headwind. But it’s all about being more tactical when trying to sail away from a hot pursuit.
Below is the full breakdown of the new patch for Sea of Thieves.
Sea of Thieves gameplay improvements
Here is the main gameplay improvements from the latest Sea of Thieves patch:
Ship speed rebalancing
- The Sloop, Brigantine and Galleon have all received a set of speed changes, balancing each ship type and placing more emphasis on ship direction and sail management during naval encounters.
- In a straight tailwind scenario, the Galleon with its three sails angled to the wind will now gain the advantage, followed by the Brigantine, then Sloop.
- In a straight headwind, the Sloop will have less wind resistance from its single sail and will be at an advantage over the Brigantine, and then the slower Galleon.
- Sidewind and crosswind scenarios will also now favour the Galleon when all sails are catching the maximum amount of wind. However, Galleon crews who mismanage the wind will suffer the largest penalty.
Sailing into a headwind
- Ships heading into a direct headwind will now be required to angle the sails to reduce the wind resistance and maintain their speed over longer distances. Sailing with sails flat into the wind will no longer be optimal.
Double barrel pistol balancing
- The damage of standard and charged shots from the Double Barrel Pistol has been increased.
- A charged shot now takes less time to charge, allowing players to prepare this heavy-damage attack more quickly.
- Hip-firing the Double Barrel Pistol is now slightly more accurate.
- Reload time has been reduced, allowing players to reload more quickly and get back into the action.
War chest commendation balancing
- Following the launch of Season 12, the team has adjusted a number of Commendations from the War Chest, reducing the criteria needed to unlock the various Grades. Players with progress already above the newly rebalanced levels will be required to perform one more action to refresh the Commendation progress.
- When using the Double Barrel Pistol to defeat enemy threats, the Blown-Away Bones, Blam of the Damned and Double Deep Trouble Commendations will now progress more quickly.
- Utilising throwing knives to attack Gunpowder Skeletons will now progress the Keg Knife Kaboom Commendation more quickly.
- Players using scattershot against enemy threats will find the Holey Wood Holes, Scatter Bones, Spooky Spread and Peppered Meg Commendations have been made easier to obtain.
- Using the Bone Caller to attack Skeleton Ships will now progress the Skeleton Squared Commendation more quickly.
- Crews cashing in the Horn of Fair Winds will now find the amount needed for the Storm Sale Commendation has been reduced.
- Players using harpoon tightropes to transfer treasure to their ship will now progress the Carry On Lootin’ Commendation much more quickly.
- The Rib Roast and Title Fight Commendations requiring players to best Skeleton Lords in combat have now been switched to provide progress to the whole crew when defeated, rather than only rewarding a single player.
Hit registration improvements
- Recent improvements to hit registration for player encounters have now been brought to threats encountered within the world, providing an improved ranged combat experience against skeletons, Phantoms and Ocean Crawlers.
Sea of Thieves Pirate Emporium
Show off your personal style with purchases from the Sea of Thieves 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 Sea of Thieves Pirate Emporium page to browse and buy the latest additions!
New items – Now in stock!
- Pet Protector Ship Collection
- Dire Dark Warsmith Ship Collection
- Dire Dark Warsmith Ship’s Crest
- Dire Dark Warsmith Weapon Bundle
- Dire Dark Warsmith Costume Set
- Paradise Garden Costume Set
- Paradise Garden Weapon Bundle
- Painted Cat Collector’s Pet
- Storm Strike Curse
- Stormfish Chaser Clothing Bundle (returning from Season Ten Plunder Pass)
- Baleful Bloom Costume Set (returning from Season Seven Plunder Pass)
- Tiny Tree Emote (free!)
Sea of Thieves Outpost Cosmetics
Looking for new Sea of Thieves cosmetics to stand out from other crews?
New outpost stock!
- The Sea of Thieves Outpost weapon shops now stock a further range of Heavy Swords and Rapiers from the Ocean Crawler, Deep Ocean Crawler and Azure Ocean Crawler sets, locked behind their associated Commendations.
- The Crustacean Courtly Jacket is also available from the Outpost clothing shops for those with enough gold to spare.
- Players who have reached reputation level 65 with the Gold Hoarders will now unlock access to the Gold Hoarders Boots, currently found in the Outpost clothing shops but moving to the Gold Hoarders representatives in a future update.
Other Sea of Thieves updates
Here is a breakdown of some other updates in the latest Sea of Thieves patch:
Front end pirate log access
- The Pirate Log is now conveniently accessible from the front end menu when launching Sea of Thieves! Players can now more easily check their Season and reputation progress before joining a session on the seas.
Player reporting improvements
- A QR code has been added to the Report a Player menu to provide easier access for console players wishing to submit a report via a mobile device.
Sea of Thieves fixed issues
And finally, a whole bunch of Sea of Thieves bugs have been fixed:
Sea of Thieves gameplay
- ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Players will no longer become stuck after the LeChuck fight or the wedding ceremony and can now once again consistently complete the Tall Tale.
- Crews purchasing Captain’s Supplies from the shipwright should now consistently find their supplies are delivered to their ship’s barrels.
- Players can no longer achieve full billow with the Horn of Fair Winds without it losing its charge when used.
- Players should no longer find themselves joining a session in an empty grey scene when attempting to rejoin a previous session.
- Attacking a Chest of Rage with a range of weapon types will now consistently enrage the chest.
- Players are no longer able to swap between platforms in rapid succession and gain access to exclusive cosmetics in their session.
- Selling Ashen Chests recovered from Ancient Vaults will now progress the correct Ship and Pirate Milestones.
- Players using inverted mouse controls will no longer find their input switched when diving or surfacing for a Faction battle.
- Food items will no longer appear in Cannonball Barrels at Skeleton Forts.
- When starting an Ashen Emissary Voyage as an Athena’s Fortune Emissary, the island chosen for the map will no longer be situated outside The Devil’s Roar.
- The Ashen Chest found inside the Vault at emergent Skeleton Fort encounters will now be unlocked by default.
- ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Players will no longer be able to defeat LeChuck while inside the church before he has a chance to retaliate.
- ‘Shores of Gold’ – Diving to a Tall Tale checkpoint should no longer return the crew to a nearby Outpost.
Emporium Extravaganza event
- The Ancient Coin Trinket erroneously granted to some players during this Event has now been removed from those inventories. Players who legitimately obtained the Trinket are unaffected and will retain their reward (please raise a ticket with our Support team if you encounter any issues with this).
Throwing knives
- Players will now be able to jump freely if they stow their throwing knife while charging a heavy strike.
- Players will now be able to run if they stow their throwing knife while aiming.
- Throwing knives embedded in ships’ ladders will no longer prevent players from grabbing onto the ladders.
- Throwing knives at a Gunpowder Barrel held by a player will now consistently cause the keg to explode on impact.
- Players fighting the Ghost of Graymarrow with throwing knives will now deal the intended amount of damage.
- Players engaging in Raid Voyages with throwing knives will now deal the intended amount of damage to enemy threats.
Double barrel pistol
- Players holding aim and fire while reloading will now consistently see the weapon switch to an aimed state and begin to charge.
- Players holding aim and fire then releasing while reloading should no longer see the weapon briefly switch to an aimed state before returning to idle.
- Players are no longer able to skip the animation for pulling back the second hammer when firing.
- Players fighting the Ghost of Graymarrow with a Double Barrel Pistol will now deal the intended amount of damage.
- Players engaging in Raid Voyages with a Double Barrel Pistol will now deal the intended amount of damage to enemy threats.
Environment
- The cannons on the north side of Kraken Watchtower are now visible when they shoot at vessels.
- Crews diving on a Raid Voyage within the Treasury of the Secret Wilds will no longer discover gold piles which cannot be claimed.
- Players will now consistently be able to pick up and take items from Collector’s Chests inside the Shrine of Ocean’s Fortune.
- Removed a number of areas where players could fall out of the environment within the Pirate Legend Hideout.
- The Glorious Sea Dog Tavern no longer features invisible objects around the island.
- ‘The Legend of Monkey Island’ – A Vanity Chest has been added to the circus stage, enabling players to remove the Skeleton Curse if they have one equipped in order to put on the circus costume.
Visual and audio
- Crews defeated in a Faction battle will now experience a smooth transition into and out of the Tunnels of the Damned.
- Players using the Skull of Siren Song will now animate smoothly between wielding and using the weapon.
- Sprinting onto a harpoon tightrope with a weapon equipped will no longer cause the weapon to be wielded, letting players move smoothly along the rope.
- Lesedi’s Spyglass will no longer change into another spyglass when the player dies or rejoins their session with the item equipped.
- The Barrel Bombardier and Checkmate Cannons now display correctly when viewed at all distances.
- The Deadlock Jailer Costume now better fits pirates of all body types.
- The Flaming Jackal Pocket Watch now displays the correct date.
- PC players using AMD GPUs and DirectX12 should now consistently see visual effects from fireworks when fired.
- ‘The Legend of Monkey Island’ – Items will now appear at the correct size when held by players during the Tall Tales.
- ‘Captains of the Damned’ – When voting on the Tall Tale, one dagger will now appear on the Tall Tale book to show the player selection.
User interface
- Sea of Thieves players should now be able to purchase the relevant promotions once they have reached the required Company reputation level.
- After purchasing a Ship Renaming Deed from the Emporium in the front end, players should be able to rename their ship without needing to restart the game.
- When purchasing a ship, having a ship name rejected will no longer temporarily cause the ship price to appear as free.
- All barrels around the Sea of Thieves will now have category item counters, as intended.
- Players will now see an infinity symbol on replayable Voyages in the Quest Table menu.
- Switching quickly through the What’s New articles should no longer display the incorrect imagery alongside a piece of news.
- The Guild Motto displayed in the Guild Branding screen now consistently matches the one that was selected during Guild creation.
- The pickup interaction for placed pets will now always be visible above the ground.
- Dismantling a ship no longer warns players of losing Captain’s Voyages.
- Playing in windowed mode on a PC will now correctly display the front-end session setup screen.
Text and localisation
- The description of the Quite the Collection Commendation has been updated to include the requirement to be representing the Guardians of Fortune when handing in Reaper’s Bones Emissary Flags.
- Improvements were made to Tall Tale Quest Books to resolve a range of text issues for those playing in Japanese.
- Improvements made to text sizes within Tall Tale Quest Books to resolve overlapping text across a range of non-English languages.
- ‘The Legend of Monkey Island’ – The localisation of the Sword Master has been updated to follow the correct terminology in the Korean language translation.
Sea of Thieves performance and stability
- Players leaving a crew during a session should no longer cause other crew members to be disconnected from the game and experience a Longbeard error.
- Further improvements were made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly exit the game or become disconnected from their session.
- Improvements made to memory management to reduce scenarios where players may experience a sudden disconnection on lower-performance PC and console hardware.
- Sea of Thieves on Steam will no longer unexpectedly close if the game is started on an HDR screen and then dragged to an SDR screen during startup.
- Improvements were made to texture streaming on the front end for lower-performance PC hardware, reducing scenarios where players may experience textures failing to load and leaving them shown at poor quality.
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