Sea of Thieves

Smugglers’ Tide: Act 3

New blood brings new opportunities as The Smugglers’ League settle into the shadows of the Sea of Thieves! To learn more about this Season’s headline features, head over to our dedicated Season 17 page.

Reaper Fortresses

Skeleton Forts across the seas have been upgraded to Reaper Fortresses with devilish traps and reinforced defences. These new encounters will be signalled by a menacing new Skull Cloud visible across the waves.

With these Fortresses now an active battleground between The Reaper’s Bones and the Dark Brethren, players looking for loot must battle through the surrounding Ghost Ships before making landfall and taking on both Phantoms and Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons.

During the siege, defeating the Master of Arms will award players with the Skull of Arms. This serves as the key to a nearby Weapons Cache, providing useful munitions and supplies to help turn the tide.

Crews will encounter these new Reaper Fortresses emergently in the form of regular World Events. Pirate Legends can also begin a Legendary Raid for Athena’s Fortune from the Quest Table.

For the duration of Act 3, Reaper Fortresses have a chance for their Vaults to be boosted by a Mega Stash, replacing the contents with an immense treasure pile of significantly higher-value rewards.

Both emergent Reaper Fortresses and on-demand Athena’s Fortune Raid Voyages on High Seas can award a Mega Stash. However, the chance of this boost is much higher when encountering an emergent Reaper Fortress in the world.

Smugglers’ Tide: Act 3 Commendations and Rewards

Act 3 introduces new Adventures At Sea Commendations, challenging crews to take on the deadly Reaper Fortresses. Completing these Commendations unlocks access to items in the Brethren’s Masquerade ship set, along with the ‘Brethren of Shadow’ and ‘Gaunt and Gnarled’ Trinkets.

Crews completing Act 3’s Deeds can also earn the ‘Banner of Bone and Blade’ Ornament to commemorate their feats.

Chest of Fortune

During Act 3, the Chest of Fortune will reside in the Vaults of Reaper Fortresses and can only be obtained by overcoming these newly contested battlegrounds.

[dynamiclink href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhrIsEoPNG0"][/dynamiclink]Pirate Emporium

Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium to browse and buy the latest additions!

New Items – Now in Stock!

Alter Ego Ship Collection and Ship’s Crest

Alter Ego Weapon Bundle

Alter Ego Costume Set

Alter Ego Concertina

Skeleton Toucan

Crimson Crypt Cabin Bundle

Expanded Jack O’ Looter Collection: Collector’s Figurehead, Collector’s Sails, Ship’s Crest, Trinket and Lantern

Expanded Silver Sepulchre Collection: Double Barrel Pistol and Throwing Knives

Pocket Bat Emote

See No Evil Emote (free!)

Outpost Cosmetics

New Outpost Stock!

The shipwrights have restocked with the new Orange Resolute Hull, Sails and Flag.

The Outpost weaponsmiths now offer the Lucky Rover Pistol, Cutlass, Blunderbuss, Eye of Reach, Heavy Sword and Rapier.

Gameplay Improvements

Retrieving Items from Skeletons

Players can now retrieve items being held by allied skeletons more easily. Hitting the skeleton anywhere with a Grapple Gun or harpoon will retrieve the item, even if the skeleton is facing away from the player.

Performance Improvements

This update includes a system-level optimisation to CPU performance across the whole experience, to reduce the frequency of framerate drops and provide a smoother framerate during gameplay.

Further optimisations have been made to the way treasure items floating in water are managed, to improve performance on the server.

Updates

Second Chance Policy

Following the recent enforcement policy update, Sea of Thieves will now offer some players who were banned for lesser infringements under our old enforcement policy a second chance to sail the seas.

This new policy is designed as a balance between giving some players another chance and ensuring we continue to protect all players from malicious acts and the bad actors who conduct them. For more details on why we’ve introduced this new policy and how the behaviour of returning players will be managed, see this new article on our Second Chance Policy.