Sea of Thieves Adds Exploding Skeletons, Full Patch Notes

The developers over at Rare Ltd continue to build upon their shared-world adventure, Sea of Thieves. The game, though met with a rough reception for its simplicity, has since then built upon the world as we knew it at launch with more content and more reasons to play. Apparently that quest of new content continues in the name of exploding skeletons. Yeesh ...

As explained in the developer update video above, these "Gunpowder Skeletons" have more uses than to just be a pain in your behind. Players can actually use these enemies to their advantage by pitting them against enemy players and making that "splodey" magic rain justice from above. Or just take out an enemy ship, you know - dealer's choice.

"This week introduces the second Bilge Rat Adventure – Gunpowder Skeletons – and ends the Skeleton Thrones adventure," reads the developer letter to fans alongside the latest patch. "Those time-limited cosmetic and Doubloon rewards are now at an end, but for anyone who earned Doubloons during the event, they will remain in your wallet. The Skeleton Thrones themselves will also remain part of the world, along with both the Commendations and Titles, so if you encounter a new pirate to the world of Sea of Thieves don't forget to point at the Thrones and let them know how many attempts it took you to reach Marauder's Arch!"

• Gunpowder Skeletons Event – Carrying a gunpowder keg, skeletons can now rush towards you, light their fuse and... BOOM, off to the Ferry you go! The Bilge Rats are challenging all brave pirates to defeat them in various ways, some less conventional than others! Keep an ear perked for a burning fuse, and a finger on the trigger... good luck!
• Explosive Force - When detonated, gunpowder kegs now have the force to rock and push ships.
• Fuses - When holding a gunpowder keg, players can now light a five-second fuse by pressing the primary action button (Right Trigger on controller or left click on mouse).
• Bilge Rat Doubloons – Each Gunpowder Skeleton Commendation on the progress screen details the number of Bilge Rat Doubloons it rewards. Players have until the 10th of July to complete the Commendations and earn up to 150 Bilge Rat Doubloons.
• Bilge Rat Cosmetics – The Bone Crusher Sword, Pistol, Blunderbuss and Eye of Reach, priced at 15 Doubloons per item, are available until the 10th of July.
• Letters of Recommendation – Letters of Recommendation now grant a full level in the chosen Trading Company. Opting to spend your hard-earned Doubloons on reputation with the Trading Companies? This just got better!
• Bilge Rat Titles – Completing the Gunpowder Skeletons Commendations will unlock two new Pirate Titles. These titles will unlock straight into your Vanity Chest for maximum bragging rights.
• Legendary Commendations - Legendary Commendation to earn an additional 50 Doubloons!
  These Legendary Commendations have been added based on player feedback requesting replayability.

For the full patch notes:

• Megalodon - Megalodon behaviours have been updated and improved.
• Skeleton Accuracy - Skeletons wielding a blunderbuss or pistol have had their accuracy reduced.
  This was tweaked due to player feedback.
• Joinable Status - Players can now make themselves unjoinable from the new Crew Management tab within Settings. This will mean that even friends can no longer join your session.
• Bilge Rat UI - The reputation summary and icon have been updated with improved visuals.

Performance

• Reduced client memory usage on PC.
• Improved network bandwidth usage which may in turn reduce latency experienced by players in busy scenarios.
• Improved server performance which will reduce latency for all players.
• Multiple server and client crash fixes.
  Further improvements and optimisations for all platforms are ongoing.

Fixed Issues

• Some players travel in an unintended direction when fired from a cannon.
• Bilge Rat Doubloons have not been correctly rewarded to a number of players who earned them through the Skeleton Thrones event.
  We are investigating a resolution for this and will share information when available.
• The Hungering Deep rewards were not received by a number of players who earned them.
  We are currently rolling out a fix for this issue which will award missing rewards from The Hungering Deep. This will take some time, so keep an eye on the weekly patch notes to see when the rollout is complete.
• Resource barrels on ships will periodically re-stock if they are below the default level of stock.