Sea of Thieves Update 2.5.3 Patch Notes – June 23, 2022

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock even more cosmetics throughout Season Six with Twitch Drops! Stay tuned to Sea of Thieves social channels to find out when Twitch Drops will be active for Partnered streamers, allowing players to earn more items from the Twilight Hunter set.

Plucky Ruffian Sea Dog Set

• The Outpost clothing shops now stock the Plucky Ruffian Sea Dog set, available to purchase for gold.

Swapping Analogue Sticks

• Players using a controller can now swap the actions performed by the two analogue sticks using ‘Swap Sticks’ under Input Settings. When enabled, the Left Stick will be used to look around, while the Right Stick will be used to move.

Skeleton Fort Improvements

• Food Barrels in Skeleton Forts are now stocked with a wider range of food, and each barrel contains a larger supply.
• Barrels holding cannonballs in Skeleton Forts now use the Cannonball Barrel’s visual appearance.

Island Threat Balancing

• Skeletons encountered while exploring islands have had their damage slightly reduced.

Emissary Flags and Tunnels of the Damned

• Following the discovery of a gameplay exploit, active Emissaries passing into a Tunnel of the Damned will no longer drop a broken Emissary Flag upon leaving the server. This is a temporary mitigation which will be replaced by a permanent fix in a future update.

Pirate Legend Hideout Shops

The shop in the Pirate Legend Hideout now offers the Veil of the Ancients Costume to those Legendary pirates who have earned the required promotion. This costume is no longer available from the Pirate Lord.

Gameplay

• Players should no longer experience an extended wait time on the Ferry of the Damned before the portal opens.
• Players should once again be able to deliver Fruit Crates and Wood Crates to the Merchant Alliance, and no longer be redirected to Merrick.

After passing through the Tunnels of the Damned, crews should find that other players they encounter in the world can still be muted when using ‘Mute All Other Crews Voice Chat’ from the Settings menu.

• When a player is sitting at an angle, moving the first-person camera will now have slightly less vertical movement when looking from side to side.
• The ‘Place Map Bundle’ tooltip should no longer be shown on the Captain’s Table when a player is not in possession of a Map Bundle.

Legend of the Veil Voyage

• Playing through the Legend of the Veil Voyage and then migrating servers will no longer cause players to lose their progress.

Treasure items left untouched following a Haunted Island encounter should no longer disappear if the Veil Stone is used prior to collecting the rewards.

• Ancients summoned during the Haunted Island ritual can now be heard speaking during the final battle.
• Purchasing a Legend of the Veil Voyage from the Pirate Lord now displays the correct iconography in the confirmation window.
• Players exploring a Shipwreck Graveyard will now encounter sharks.
• Treasure Crates discovered while exploring a Shipwreck Graveyard should now always be retrievable.
• Improved grammar in the Shipwreck Graveyard quest book pages and tooltips.
• The Veil Stone treasure chest recovered from a Shipwreck Graveyard can now be opened while being held.
• Quest Book pages provided by the Pirate Lord to seek out Belle during a Haunted Island quest now use correct landmark names.

Environment

• The pet cage aboard a Sloop has been moved back to give players easier access to the Map Table.
• Players who attempt to jump on the bookcase in a Sloop should no longer be loaded back onto the ship.
• Players should no longer find a floating candle above an interactable barrel at Shark Bait Cove.
• Grog bottles in Old Brinestone Fortress no longer float above the ground.
• Pets can now be placed on the Sloop’s bed.
• When swimming in deep water or flooded rooms, players’ pets should no longer walk around underwater.
• Players should no longer be able to walk through pillars next to the Storeroom in Sea Forts.
• The rug at Mercy’s End Sea Fort should no longer intersect with the floor.
• Players should no longer be able to walk through wooden crates at Imperial Fortress, Traitor’s Fate Fortress and Mercy’s End Fortress.
• Players can no longer pass through the hanging barrels near the Treasury room at Imperial Crown Fortress and Old Brinestone Fortress.
• Within the Pirate Legend Hideout, players should no longer be able to push through the sea floor and appear in the open sea.

Visual and Audio

• Players should no longer be able to strike at a location where another player may be respawning and hear an audio effect, confirming that player’s location.
• Legendary Luke in the Pirate Legend Hideout now has voiceover lines when speaking.
• Players and pets should now sit correctly inside the Magpie’s Glory and Silent Barnacle Cannons when loaded.
• Equipping the Spring Blossom Figurehead or Collector’s Spring Blossom Figurehead on a Sloop should no longer show floating objects beneath the figurehead.
• During the Maiden Voyage, the Rowboat lantern is now connected correctly to the Rowboat.
• Pets offered food will now move smoothly to the right position before taking a bite.
• The Eternal Freedom Wheel now casts a shadow on the deck.
• While holding an Instrument of the Damned, looking at smoke should no longer cause the smoke to appear in front of the instrument.
• Walking over wooden planks in Old Brinestone Fortress should now cause the correct sound to be heard.
• Players should no longer see an option to sit in mid-air when on the west side dock at Dagger Tooth Outpost.
• Players should no longer encounter oversized projectiles fired from a Trident of Dark Tides.

Text and Localisation

• Skeleton Captain names shown on Bounty Quests from the Order of Souls now display correctly in Japanese.
• Description for the Eastern Winds Jade Shovel has been revised.

Performance and Stability

Improvements made to reduce scenarios where players can experience extended black screen loading times when using a mermaid or returning from the Ferry of the Damned.

• Improvements made to the accuracy of a player’s firing location when shooting a ranged weapon. This is intended to improve hit detection across a range of gameplay scenarios where the player is moving while firing.
• Server optimisations made to reduce the frequency of server performance spikes, which can result in players experiencing lag spikes, rubberbanding and server correction during gameplay.
• Server stability has been improved, reducing scenarios where crews are removed from a game session.