The Anniversary Update of Sea of Thieves has finally arrived, carrying with it the biggest content drop to the adventure title since its launch. The update carries three distinct chunks of content: Tall Tales - Shores of Gold, the new story-based quest line; the separate Arena module, offering competitive treasure hunting; and The Hunter"s Call, a new trading company that deals in fishing and hunting.
Tall Tales - Shores of Gold is perhaps the most special addition included in the massive update, providing players with story quests that are still played out in the fully multiplayer world of Sea of Thieves. Rare says this is only the start of these narrative adventures, with more Tall Tales planned for the future.
Crews will meet new characters, explore a brand new island, try and avoid the newly implemented traps, as well as fight new enemies and bosses while experiencing these events.
Now, moving on to the Arena mode, unlike the other two components, this content is a separate experience from the main adventure mode. Arena puts together five Galleons with full crews and gives them all the exact same treasure maps. Players can focus on finding and delivering treasure, or go for more aggressive/sneaky routes and plunder other crews" hard-earned loot.
The crew with the most gold at the end of the 24 minute-lasting round wins the match, earning them loot (for use in Adventure mode) as well as reputation with the new Sea Dogs Trading Company.
And lastly, there"s the Hunter"s Call, a new Adventure Mode Trading Company all set up by good old Merrick, rewarding pirates that want to fish, hunt, and cook. As a part of this, fishing is one of the brand new additions to the game, with different fish types available to catch on various locations, all needing particular types of bait.
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There are now multiple variants of fruits to be found across the world as well, and all animals drop meat for players. Sea monsters like the Kraken and Megaladon also drop meat now, worth a high price if cooked correctly before selling.
Ship combat has also received an overhaul across the board. With well-placed shots or explosives, masts can break and come down, while the wheel and capstan can get damaged. Holes on the hull can also enlarge and let more water in if multiple cannonballs hit the same spot.
All ships now have harpoons attached to them, giving pirates the opportunity to latch on to other ships, grab small objects from a distance, or even use it as a maneuvering tool by attaching it on rocks and such at high speeds.
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Moreover, thanks to the addition of the two new trading companies, players now have more choices on how to achieve Pirate Legend status, which is given to those who achieve reputation level 50 on any three trading companies.
The 2.0 Anniversary Update"s full patch notes are massive, and can be found over here. The update - weighing in at around 9GB - has already gone live on Windows 10 and Xbox One, so all players can jump in straight away, assuming the servers haven"t crashed already under the strain.
For those interested in picking up Sea of Thieves, Microsoft has dropped the game"s price by 10$ and also attached a free cosmetics pack to it - as scheduled this time. This Sea of Thieves Anniversary Edition is now available via the Microsoft Store with a $49.99 price tag. Don"t forget the game is also part of the Xbox Game Pass.