After suffering a short delay, Sea of Thieves received its major content update for August today, with Rare pushing out Ashen Winds. The seas are getting even more fired up with this update, as new emergent skeleton bosses, an expensive skull that functions as a flamethrower, new events, cosmetics, and more have appeared.
Ashen Lords arrive as the new skeleton captain threat. These four mighty opponents can appear randomly during other voyages, or tackled specifically by looking for fire tornados that mark their arrival. These Lords come with unique attacks as well, such as raining flaming rocks, summoning an ash cloud, and breathing fire.
Completing an Ashen Lord encounter will award players with an Ashen Winds Skull, which is that flamethrower mentioned previously, letting players set fire to ships and players alike. The gems visible on its inside are what indicates how much flame belching capabilities are left on the object. The less power the gems have, the less gold pirates will receive for turning the skull in.
In other changes, Rare has fixed damage being dealt through solid surfaces on ships, decreased the time between skeleton waves during fort raids, and added further accessibility options. There is a free emote to grab on the Pirate Emporium as well, alongside a sale celebrating Rare’s 35th anniversary.
Find the full changelog of update 2.0.17 over here. The Sea of Thieves Ashen Winds will use up around 6.5GB of space on Xbox One and Windows 10, while Steam users will see a 4.5GB update. The servers are now back up from their maintenance as well.
Moreover, it was revealed recently that the Steam launch of the title has been immensely successful, selling over a million copies on the store following its launch in early June.