Sea of Thieves Season 1 Live, Patch Notes Revealed

Sea of Thieves has today finally kicked off its new seasonal format. Season 1, which is live right [...]

By Logan Moore

Sea of Thieves has today finally kicked off its new seasonal format. Season 1, which is live right now, brings with it a handful of unlockables, cosmetics, and other goodies to obtain for those still playing the pirate sim. In addition, a major new patch has also rolled out which brings about a number of new changes.

Season 1 of Sea of Thieves will finally switch the game into a format where, like many other titles on the market, a battle;e pass is being implemented. This "Plunder Pass", as it is being called, will contain exclusive items that cannot be obtained in any other manner. Outside of this Plunder Pass, though, all players will gain access to an entirely free pass that will contain 100 tiers. Each level will bring with it a new item of some sort for you to utilize in-game.

On the new content front, Season 1 also adds new events to Sea of Thieves. Rather than simply resorting to Trials like in the past, these events will give players specific objectives to complete within one month. And as normal, completing these objectives will result in unique rewards.

Lastly, as for the major changes that have also rolled out with Season 1 today, the latest patch for Sea of Thieves has brought with it a number of bug fixes and gameplay improvements. One of the most notable additions in this patch though is likely that of 120hz support. If you have a monitor that can take advantage of this, Sea of Thieves can now support 120hz on Xbox Series X consoles. The update in total ranges between 6GB and 8GB depending on your platform.

Sea of Thieves is available right now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. If you'd like to keep up with all of our upcoming coverage on Season 1, you can follow along right here.

Be sure to keep reading along below if you'd like to check out the full patch notes from today's update!

Gameplay Improvements

Arena Communication

  • To create a more welcoming experience when joining The Arena, changes have been made to how crews can communicate in this mode – find out more in this developer Forum post.
  • In the Arena tavern and during active Arena gameplay, cross-crew voice chat and cross-crew text chat are now restricted, leaving non-verbal as the only cross-crew communication option.
  • Players can continue to communicate within their own crew using all available communication options.

Recommended Crew Size

  • When browsing the Ship Selection Screen, each ship now indicates the crew size recommended to operate the vessel.

Updates

120Hz Performance Mode

  • On the Xbox Series X console, a performance mode is available supporting 120Hz at 1080p. Some TVs do not support 120Hz and HDR simultaneously, so HDR may need to be disabled from the Console Settings.

Larinna's Black Market

  • The Black Market 'Goodies for Gold' tab has been removed and the Ritual Skull Stash Voyage moved to the Doubloon store.

Fixed Issues

Gameplay

  • Reduced the frequency of players encountering an extended black screen or becoming stuck when using a mermaid or returning from the Ferry of the Damned.
  • Skeleton ships should now take hull damage when on fire.
  • When performing consecutive heavy cutlass strikes, the lunge animation should now show correctly when blocking between each strike.
  • Opening or closing a Collector's Chest held by another player should now correctly show as opened or closed for the player holding it.
  • Items inside a Collector's Chest should now only be retrievable when the chest is open.
  • Washed-up items should no longer appear to hover above ground when leaving the area and coming back.
  • The Frozen Horizon and Nightshine Parrot Wheels have been modified to make it more obvious when the ship is sailing straight.
  • The Sailor Cannon Flare now has the correct name and description.

Pirate Emporium

  • The Soulflame Ship Bundle now uses the correct local currency pricing.

Mysterious Notes

  • Notes should now read correctly, even when shown to others.
  • Stowing a Mysterious Note and re-equipping it from the radial should result in it being wielded as expected.

Tall Tales

  • Vault Totems acquired during a Tall Tale can no longer be sold to representatives of the Gold Hoarders or Reaper's Bones.
  • 'Shores of Gold' – While exploring the Shores of Gold, if another crew starts the Tall Tale the medallions should no longer appear in the air within the Vault.

Localization

  • To improve readability, the font size in Korean and Chinese languages has been increased in a range of areas along with additional punctuation.

Environment

  • During the Fort of the Damned encounter, a number of areas where Graymarrow could become stuck on the surrounding environment have been improved.
  • Players should no longer get stuck on a broken staircase after exiting the Gold Hoarder Throne Room.
  • Players should no longer be able to fall or see through the environment on Shark Bait Cove.
  • Players should no longer get stuck and teleported when attempting to ascend the stairs in a tavern.
  • Players should no longer be able to swim under the map on Plunder Outpost.

Visual and Audio

  • Sound should no longer become distorted and increase in volume when a player surfaces from water or is briefly submerged by a wave.
  • During a Ghost Ship encounter, Captain Ghost Ships should now use portals to spawn and teleport.
  • The sails equipped on Skeleton and Ghost Ships now consistently appear in high quality.
  • The Castaway Bilge Rat Eyepatch icon has been updated.
  • The Confusion and Face, Meet Palm emotes should now have appropriate iconography.
  • Having multiple Riddle Quests for one island should no longer cause music to trigger multiple times.
  • Approaching a lit beacon with an unraised lit lantern should no longer show an empty tooltip.
  • Island banners should now have appropriate iconography in The Ancient Isles and The Shores of Plenty.
  • Buying items, Voyages and Titles should no longer cause a black grid to flash up on the screen.

Performance and Stability

  • When trying to join a crew that has disbanded, players should now receive an appropriate error message.
  • While Sea of Thieves is suspended, joining a game should no longer cause instability.
  • Further improvements made to server performance, reducing latency during gameplay.
  • Improvements made to server stability, reducing disconnections during gameplay.

Known Issues

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection

  • In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While improvements continue to be delivered during our content updates, this continues to be a key priority for the team.

Players Impacted Following Server Migration

  • We are currently tracking a number of player-impacting issues which can occur following a server migration. These include crews migrating near Outposts finding themselves moved to a location where another ship is already present, and issues with ship interaction points following a migration.

Stuck UI Menus

  • When interacting with a barrel and moving quickly through its inventory, players may find that the barrel's state is not updated as items are removed. Players can also experience Game Options becoming stuck on screen when exiting a barrel in this state.
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