Sea of Thieves Update 2.8 Patch Notes (Season 9)

Treasure in the Devil’s Shroud

• Treasure left behind in the Devil’s Shroud will no longer remain out of reach and will be transported to a safer location for retrieval.

Seagulls Above Sunken Treasure

• As well as gathering above shipwrecks and floating barrels, seagulls can now be spotted circling over any treasure left behind at sea.

Six Ships on the Horizon

• Following performance improvements delivered in recent updates, all servers have now returned to supporting six crews. When starting a session or migrating, servers will now actively matchmake six crews of different sizes in order to meet both six-crew and 17-player limits.
• The team will continue to monitor server performance following launch and adjust the player limit outside the update process to optimise the experience.

Stashing Quests

• Unwanted Quests can now be stashed away, allowing players to tidy up their Quest Radial and only show those they are interested in. Stashed Quests can be unhidden at any time.

Improved Collector’s Chest Selling

• Pirates can now sell all treasure items inside a Collector’s Chest without having to remove them one by one. Trading Company representatives can now cash in all items they accept from within the chest.
• Captains looking to speed up the experience even further can sell everything inside the Collector’s Chest to the Sovereigns, leaving the crew with the chest itself for future use.

Musical Hit Audio Effects

• Within the Audio Settings, players now have direct control of musical effects heard when attacking ships and striking enemies. A new ‘Musical Hit Notification Volume’ slider offers this control while allowing other game music to be adjusted independently.
• Players will also hear a distinctive new audio effect when striking a rival ship with a cannonball, clearly indicating a successful hit. This new effect can also be controlled with the ‘Musical Hit Notification Volume’ slider.

Harpoon Improvements

• When using a ship’s harpoon, players will now find that treasure will instantly detach from their harpoon onto the deck, removing the need to stop and remove it manually.
• Rowboats equipped with a harpoon will also place any harpooned treasure in the middle of the Rowboat, and the Sovereigns’ hut harpoon will place treasure on the lift platform even if the platform is down, making it even easier to cash in there.

Bait Crates

• A new type of resource crate is now on offer from the Merchant Alliance and The Hunter’s Call: the Bait Crate. These crates are filled with enough grubs, worms and leeches to keep any fishing enthusiast happy for days!
• Bait Crates will set players back 5000 gold and can also be sold back to the Merchant Alliance, The Hunter’s Call, The Reaper’s Bones and the Sovereigns.

Fishing Bait Radial

• When wielding a fishing rod, players can now access a Bait Radial using the Left Trigger on controller or right mouse button when using keyboard and mouse to select the preferred bait before casting.

Food Radial

• When holding an item of food, players can now access a Food Radial using the B button on controller or R on keyboard to quickly select a specific food from their inventory.

Ship Scuttle Improvements

• Crews wishing to scuttle their ship will now be presented with two options. Crews can ‘Scuttle the Ship and Change Seas’ which will move them to a fresh server, providing a predictable way of leaving a server behind for a fresh encounter on likely calmer waters. Crews are still free to choose the original ‘Scuttle Ship’ option, which destroys their vessel while keeping them on the same server.

Trading Company Voyages

• When purchasing Trading Company Voyages, the Company representatives will no longer only refresh their choice of Voyages after a day but will now offer fresh Voyages as soon as one has been purchased.
• When browsing the range of Voyages available for your rank, every type of Voyage is now offered on the selection page for purchase.
• Pirates can now also purchase and hold up to 12 Voyages in their inventory. Bilge Rat Voyages (excluding the Athena’s Run) will not be counted towards this limit.
• Players visiting the Pirate Lord are also now presented with two full pages of Voyages to choose from.

The Reaper’s Bones Outpost Representative

• The Reaper’s Bones skeleton hanging out at the Outpost will now accept Emissary Flags ‘recovered’ by cutthroat pirate crews, in return for gold and reputation. Crews aligned with the Servants of the Flame will also earn Allegiance when cashing in these Flags.

Selling Tridents of Dark Tides

• Crews can now cash in a Trident of Dark Tides at their local Merchant Alliance, Sovereign or Hunter’s Call representative in return for gold and Seasonal Renown.

Cursed Mermaid Statue Rewards

• Cursed Mermaid Statues have now been rebalanced, allowing all sizes of crew the ability to destroy them for the precious gems inside. Sapphire, Emerald and Ruby statues no longer require multiple crewmates to defeat.
• All Cursed Mermaid Statues now offer better rewards when destroyed, with a chance of multiple Gems for lucky crews.
• With Mermaid Gems becoming more readily available from statues, pirates will no longer find them washed up on islands, and only Sapphire Gems can now be discovered within shipwrecks.

New Hunter’s Call Representative

• Stephen’s Spoils has felt empty since Merrick was lured away to his fate by the Dark Brethren. To help fill the void in pirates’ hearts, a new member of The Hunter’s Call has arrived to call Stephen’s Spoils home: Adelrick is now stationed at Merrick’s old post, continuing to trade on behalf of the family business.

Flags

• Tired of climbing up all the way to the crow’s nest? Pirates can now equip flags from the Ship Customisation Chest near the shipwright in the same way as equipping other ship customisations.

Resource Container Limits

• All resource containers, including barrels, Merchant crates and Rowboat seats, now clearly show the total number of items in each category that are being stored. As pirates fill these containers, they can easily see how close a category is to reaching its limit.

Brightness and Contrast Settings

• Within the Video Settings menu, players can now use sliders to increase and decrease the brightness and contrast of the game to further customise their Sea of Thieves experience.

Disable Trinket and Sitting Points

• Players can now choose to reduce the interaction points found around a ship. Interaction points for sitting locations and areas for placing Trinkets can be disabled independently via the Input Settings menu.

Starting Outpost Location

• Crews arriving on the seas at the start of a session will now begin at a wider variety of Outpost locations, and no longer emerge so frequently in The Wilds.

Barrels of Plenty Balancing

• The number of floating barrels that appear in a group has now been reduced. However, the likelihood of finding rare items in these barrels has been increased.

Chest of Sorrow Balancing

• Crews recovering a Chest of Sorrow during their journey will now find that the weeping fills the ship at a much slower rate.

Skeleton Form Balancing

• When protected by their metal casing, Gold Skeletons will now take reduced damage from blunderbuss and flintlock shots. Weaken them with water before attacking!

SEASON NINE