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While October was certainly an eventful month on the Sea of Thieves, the waves are looking a little calmer as we head into November. That means we’re ready to look ahead and share a calendar of the events coming your way over the next month!

Golden Scallywag Awards – extended to Monday, November 25th

Following Season 14’s slightly shaky start, the entry period for the Golden Scallywag Awards has been extended. Mischievous pirates now have until November 25th to submit their sneaks, tucks, traps and more to be in with a chance of scooping a real-life statuette and in-game Trinket and Title. For more information, see the competition {LINK REMOVED}announcement article.

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Pirates of Mischief As shared in our recent Season 14 update, the team disabled a number of features in order to protect players from high-impact issues and for the team to work on improving the quality bar. With this hotfix, crouching is once again available. The Known Issues section identifies issues that will be addressed in future updates.

Crouching and Stealth

• Players will once again be able to switch their stance from standing to a low crouch, slowing their movement, hiding them from some nearby enemy threats, concealing their player name and generally making them stealthier for the purposes of sneaking around.
  
• Crouched players will be harder to hit as they can duck shots in combat and will be braced against knockback, reducing its effect.

Fixed Issues Gameplay

• Players will once again be prevented from walking directly through enemy threats.
  
• Players are now preve...

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Following the long-awaited arrival of Captain Flameheart and his Burning Blade flagship in Season 13, this subsequent Season sees the focus shift back to expanding the sandbox with more tools and features, delivering new ways to play and options for achieving your devious pirate goals. Read on to find out exactly what’s possible as Season 14 slips out of the shadows…


The Armoury Expands For the second time this year, two new loadout options have arrived to complement the classic Sea of Thieves arsenal. In line with Season 14’s stealthy theme, these latest additions are the versatile Grapple Gun and the near-silent blowpipe, both offering alternatives to the traditionally quite direct pirate approach to looting and fighting.

Despite the name, the Grapple Gun functions more like a tool than a weapon. It can tar... Read more

Pirates of Mischief Ready to get stealthy? Season 14 delivers tools, weapons, tricks and abilities that open up ingenious new ways to achieve your aims on the Sea of Thieves! For an overview of this Season’s furtive new features, head to our dedicated {LINK REMOVED}Season 14 page.

Grapple Gun

• The Armoury now stocks the Grapple Gun which players can choose for one of their two loadout slots, replacing a combat-focused weapon with a new traversal tool. This tool comes with five arrowheads and can be reloaded at any Ammo Crate.
  
• Players can grapple items or other ...

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The rains of autumn are rolling in over the green fields of Rare HQ, which means it’s once again time to set pen to paper and share with you all the latest news from the Sea of Thieves. September was a hectic month of updates, events and glimpses at the upcoming Season 14, so there’s no shortage of things to cover…

Content Update We kept the September update pretty lean and mean ahead of the upcoming full Season release, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t well-stocked with adjustments, improvements and ironclad cosmetics. As always, you can have a read of the {LINK REMOVED}release notes – and the {LINK REMOVED}... Read more

The Sea of Thieves community thrives on its creativity, but we also know you’re not immune to skulduggery and shenanigans when the opportunity arises – that’s part of being a pirate, after all. That’s why, with Season 14 just over the horizon, we’ve decided the time is right to celebrate the most audacious antics you have to offer with a dedicated set of awards. (We might even wear bowties, you’ll have to wait and see.)

Why now? Well, the theme of Season 14 is ‘Making Mischief’ – not to mention its subtitle, which is a choice we’ve made to cut to the heart of each Season so everyone can tell at a glance what its focus will be. We’ll be offering detailed looks at the upcoming tricks and traps over the next week, but there’s no reason not to start stretching those prank-playing muscles right away, especially if you’ve already got something to show that you’re particularly proud of.

In a nutshell, we’ll be scouring social channels for entries that fall into one of... Read more

Season 13 has sure been a hot one, and not just because it ran over actual real-world summer. In game, the Burning Blade and its huge fireballs {LINK REMOVED}burst onto the seas, offering a brand new type of World Event and spreading heat-tinged combat in its wake. Elsewhere, the heat continued with Production Director Drew delivering information often referred to as containing some level of spice, with a change to the blunderbuss being considered high on the Scoville charts.

It's time to bring the... Read more

Fixed Issues
Throwing Knives

• Knives thrown at a crewmate will now pass through them rather than becoming stuck to the player.
  
• Knives will no longer become stuck in a capstan or other ship interaction point when thrown.

The Burning Blade

• For crews pledged to the Burning Blade, there is now a short grace period after the Captain leaves the game before the ship begins to sink, to protect from temporary disconnections.
  
• When a crew in control of the Burning Blade purposefully leaves the game, the ship will now sink naturally and will not appear to others to have been handed in at The Reaper’s Hideout.
  
• Crews pledged to the Burning Blade who use a Mermaid or Statue to return to their ship will no longer find their Obsidian Skeleton crew missing.

Player Communication

• Text chat now protects players from anyone attempting to s...

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Gameplay Improvements Sprinting with One-Handed Items

• Players are now able to sprint while carrying one-handed treasure items and discovered weapons. During sprinting, the item will now be stowed on a player’s belt, fully visible to other players.
  
• The majority of held weapons discoverable around the world can now also be stowed while sprinting, such as the Trident of Dark Tides and Ashen Winds Skull. The Skull of Siren Song is the exception, and players will not be able to sprint while wielding it.

Blunderbuss Balancing

• With the new identity of the Blunderbuss now settling into live play, the team have been fine-tuning the weapon’s power. The focus here remains in defensive play styles, with these changes further swaying the knockback powe...

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It had to be this particular weekend, of course, following on from Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th. So brace for impact because we’re about to come at you again with the latest celebratory get-together on the seas, running from 11am UTC on Saturday, September 21st to the same time on Monday, September 23rd!

As always, the Community Weekend vibe runs both ways and we encourage players to save something to share with us and their fellow pirates while it’s in progress, whether we’re talking adventures, creations, ideas or good old-fashioned sentiment – all while enjoying everything else that’s going on, from freebies and discounts to special Voyages and Plunder. But let’s kick off with that all-important Community Emissary Grade…

Practising Twitchcraft You know the drill: while Community Weekend is live, log in to Twitch and tune in to any streamer in the {LINK REMOVED}... Read more

The sunny delights of August are finally heading over the horizon, which means it’s once more time to have a quick sit down and reminisce over everything we managed to get done last month. Grog rations are always plentiful on the Sea of Thieves, so fill up your tankards, settle in and let’s get right to it…

Content Update Things were a bit warm at the beginning of the month, so naturally sailors might have been a bit hesitant to head into the middle of the {LINK REMOVED}arid, volcanic Devil’s Roar. Sail that way they did, though, when word got around that ... Read more

The Flame Rises Returning the Burning Blade in Battle

• Crews in command of the Burning Blade are now prevented from returning the ship to The Reaper’s Hideout while still in combat. Rival ships in close proximity to the Burning Blade will prevent it from being returned.
  
• A majority vote from the crew will now be required when pledging to become the crew of the Burning Blade, or when returning the ship to The Reaper’s Hideout.
  
• Any crew votes to return the Burning Blade to The Reaper’s Hideout will now be cleared if the ship is sailed away from the island, and the vote will need to be retaken upon returning to the vicinity.

Gameplay Improvements Blunderbuss Rework

• The blunderbuss knockback effects have now been strengthened, with close-...

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In all the excitement of Flameheart’s explosive resurrection and a whole new Season to keep us occupied, we scarcely noticed that the end of July was upon us and it was time to get another monthly round-up off to the printers. Never fear, though, we weren’t going to leave you hanging for long. We’re pirate writers of our word, after all.

Content Update While the main content update of the month was still sneaking over the horizon – as much as an enormous, flaming warship can sneak, anyway – we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the camaraderie that makes this community what it is. To that end, the {LINK REMOVED}... Read more

Fixed Issues Gameplay

• Captain Briggsy’s note will once again appear on the ship’s mast when the Skull of Siren Song Voyage is ready to begin.
  
• Players speaking to Umbra while wearing specific cosmetics intended to unlock Commendations will find that they can once again do so with the desired outcome.

Skeleton Camps

• Multiple crew members entering a Skeleton Camp and attempting to complete a single Ritual at the same time will no longer be awarded additional Rituals. (Released previously as part of an interim hotfix.)
  
• Players interfering with their network connection while completing Rituals will no longer gain additional Rituals. (Released previously as part of an interim hotfix.)

The Burning Blade

• Crews pledging allegiance to Flameheart will no longer be able to form an Alliance with other crews while in control of the Burning Blade.
  
• ...

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The next bumper crop of Spotlight shenanigans is here! After our last instalment packed in a recap of 10 whole Spotlight articles, bringing us closer to catching up with the current day, we’re now back with the all the more recent entries we couldn’t quite cram in there. It’s going to be a whirlwind to get through them, so everyone take a deep breath. Got it? Let’s go!


First up on our list, we’re jumping back to freezing memories of January and our Community Spotlight with roving writer {LINK REMOVED}Dead-Eye Dray. A keen contributor to Golden Sands Blogpost, Ancient Isles University and Merfolk’s Lullaby, it’s amazing that Dray found a s... Read more

The time has come: the resurrected Captain Flameheart is making moves to seize control of the Sea of Thieves. He’s returned from his long banishment with a plan, and his sights are set on retrieving long-forgotten Ancient secrets. Two of the most powerful tools at his disposal as this mission begins are his monstrous flagship, the Burning Blade... and you!


Turn Towards the Dark Yes, not only can the Burning Blade be found roaming the seas with fire in its belly and Obsidian Skeletons swarming its decks, Season 13 allows you to board it and declare yourself its new crew once you’ve dulled its fury with a suitable show of strength.

This means pledging yourself to Flameheart’s service, but the rewards are tempting. With ten cannons, a skeletal support crew, Obsidian Ashen Winds Skulls in the hold and the Ashen Roar fir... Read more

The Flame Rises Captain Flameheart has returned, but the real star of Season 13 is his fiery flagship, awaiting crews who have what it takes to claim it for themselves! For an overview of this new Season’s headline features, head to our dedicated {LINK REMOVED}Season 13 page.

The Burning Blade

• Ready your crew and take on the Burning Blade World Event! Easily spotted from afar with its telltale burning braziers and skyward beacon, this infernal ten-cannon warship will take a seasoned crew to take it on.
  
• Players who subdue the ship’s Obsidian Skeleton crew can c...

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Whether it’s {LINK REMOVED}Season 12, launching on {LINK REMOVED}PlayStation®5, a recent {LINK REMOVED}Community Weekend, tweaks to ship speed... Read more

Hello! It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these lookbacks, so just give us a second to dust off the inkwell and make sure we didn’t leave any pineapple and Pondie sandwiches lurking under the pile of unsolved bottle maps.

All clear. There’s still a bit of a smell but we can’t spot anything… oh well!

Right, Season 12 Community Weekend. From 11am UTC on June 15th to the same time on June 17th, we hosted the second Sea of Thieves Community Weekend of 2024, but the first to welcome in our {LINK REMOVED}pirates on PlayStation®5! How did you all find it? It’s no good talking, these are words typed a few days ago at least, they don’t have ears. Judging from the responses and numbers we’ve seen, though, we’d say a lot of you had a right lovely... Read more

Gameplay Improvements 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.

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