Another major update has descended on Sea of Thieves, one that is quite a bit different than previous free expansions. Shrouded Spoils focuses on improving the current adventure experience of the title instead of introducing a whole new threat to take on akin to earlier updates.
Fog is now a new weather phenomenon, rolling in and blanketing entire areas of the map. Pirate crews sailing in fog will need to make use of their ships" crows nest to see further out for any threats, shores, or even the massive stone slabs that populate the seas.
The Kraken and Megaladon bosses have been revamped as part of the update as well. Kraken attacks won"t be so rare from now on and the tentacled monster will make use of new attacks to try and sink ships even harder than before. Meanwhile, the Megaladons that roam the seas now come in various flavors, making them look more distinct and menacing. The types are "Crested Queen, Shadowmaw, Ancient Terror and the extremely rare Shrouded Ghost."
Also, as many players have been requesting for a while, both bosses will now drop loot when they are defeated.
Moreover, Skeleton ships are now roaming the seas instead of just staying in their corner of the map, giving pirates another challenge to take on if they run into one. They won"t all be the same old skeleton infested galleons, however, as now highly agile skeleton sloops have also entered the world. As an added bonus on the other hand, any floating treasure will now glint, making sure no one misses valuable loot anymore after a good battle.
Skeleton stronghold raids can now pop up on six more islands than before, bumping up the total number to nine. All of these forts will also have a new loot type as a reward named Crate of Ancient Bone Dust. To help with dealing with all these upgraded threats, or just to mess with other players, now there is a much more powerful version of the explosive gunpowder keg, aptly named the Mega-Keg. These can also be found in skeleton forts.
Mermaid statues, which were temporarily removed due to performance issues, have made a come back as well, and now they also drop loot in the form of gems.
Over on the cosmetics department, ship customization has received a major overhaul, where cosmetics can now be applied to a ship"s cannons, wheel, and capstan (the bit that controls the anchor.) See the image below to get a better look at one of the new sets.
Here"s a list of some additional changes Rare has implemented in the update.
- Cannonball Radial - When docked to a cannon, players can now select which type of cannonball to load from the nifty new radial menu.
- Achievement Rebalancing - We"ve listened to feedback and adjusted the requirements of some of the achievements related to cashing in items. These are: Black Powder Merchant, Merchant Voyager, Merchant Forager, Voyager of Lost Souls, Golden Voyager, Hoarder of Barnacled Gold, Hoarder of the Captain’s Gold and Master Hunter of Villainous Skulls. Players who earned those achievements before the rebalance will receive an exclusive in-game item to mark their prowess over the next couple of weeks. If you find you now meet the requirements, just cash in one more item to trigger your achievement!
- Devil"s Roar Rebalancing - Based on player feedback and data analysis, The Devil"s Roar has cooled off a little. Volcanoes will now erupt less frequently and volcanic rocks will hit players and their ships less frequently.
- Gunpowder Barrels - Explosions from Gunpowder Barrels now damage Kraken tentacles.
- Treasure Glint - Sunken or floating treasure will now glint to make it easier to spot.
- Rowboat Push - The angle from which you can push a stuck Rowboat has been improved, which should make it easier to get it out of tight spots!
- Hear That Grog - Players will now hear the hearty slosh of their grog as they jump with, walk with or raise their tankard. Cheers!
- Rowboat Docking - Players can now dock/detach the Rowboat from their ship while sitting in the Rowboat.
And here"s the massive list of bug fixes and what known issues players will need to look out for:
Fixed Issues
Gameplay
- Smashed rum bottles will still appear smashed when returning from the Ferry of the Damned.
- The ship"s bell is correctly affected by the wind and turbulence in a storm.
- In Trading Company shops in non-English languages, Company items will now have the required rank translated.
- Stats that contribute to Commendations are now tracked when completing Skeleton Ship battles as a Pirate Legend.
- Player camera angles can no longer become incorrectly clamped after being grabbed by a Kraken tentacle.
- Players can no longer potentially be sucked through the ship by the Kraken when targeted.
- Fixed several issues which caused player camera chaos after being thrown by the Kraken.
- Skeleton Ships will no longer ping into the air on occasion.
- Players will no longer be teleported if they run into the head of a Kraken tentacle as it wraps around their ship.
- Upon leaving and returning to a caged pig, it will no longer be difficult to feed when holding a banana.
- If drowned by a Kraken tentacle, players will no longer be locked in a 180 degree camera rotation when spawning on the Ferry of the Damned.
- Equipped ship flags will persist after a crew opts to scuttle their ship.
- Players can no longer buy Letters of Recommendation from Duke when they are already at the max level with the selected Trading Company.
- Snakes in baskets can no longer attack players through the decks of ships.
- During Skeleton Ship battles there will no longer be occasional long delays between waves.
Server Migration
- Players who defeat a Fort and migrate will no longer find the Fort door shut, making it impossible to collect their treasure.
- Migrated treasure will now sink after the standard duration has expired.
- Crews are now eligible for server migration when they have a Rowboat docked to their ship.
- After migrating, players will now once again receive pop-ups when digging up treasure chests for in-progress voyages.
- If ship barrels are empty when players migrate, they will no longer get restocked.
- After server migration, players can no longer get into a state where they can"t loot barrels.
Sound & Visuals
- Whilst selecting a ship, players will now hear sound effects to accompany the character animations on the left side of the screen.
- SFX will no longer incorrectly repeat.
- Smoke VFX will now appear correctly when shooting any gun while swimming on the surface of the water.
- Upon charming and killing a snake, the hissing noise will no longer persist in that location.
- Skeletons on Skeleton Ships will no longer occasionally T-pose when moving around the ship.
- The Ghost Hook will no longer overlap with items held in players" hands.
- Campfire flames no longer clip through the cooking pot at Stephen"s Spoils Seapost.
- The "We Shall Sail Together" music is no longer missing from multiple Hideout entrances.
- When first approaching a Skeleton Galleon, it is no longer temporarily displayed as a player Galleon.
Environment
- When looking at clouds from underwater, they no longer have a dark halo.
- When looking at underwater explosions from above the surface, they no longer have a dark halo.
- Skeleton Ship Clouds will no longer be hidden by other clouds.
- Players will no longer collide with the terrain and fail to fire out of the cannon on the East of Ashen Reaches.
- Players are no longer able to walk up the vertical rock on the West of Morrow"s Peak Outpost.
- Fixed a rock which players could see through on Flintlock Peninsula.
- If there is a Gunpowder Barrel explosion inside a Skeleton Fort keep, it will no longer cause Gunpowder Barrels within the vault to explode.
- The moon no longer appears in front of the clouds.
- Water will no longer temporarily appear gelatinous upon approach.
- Players will no longer be teleported when swimming into the pier on Sanctuary Outpost.
UI
- Commendation pop-ups no longer appear twice.
- Players" titles are now still displayed in the escape menu after they"ve died.
- The top right of the Vanity Chest UI will now correctly update when players equip a different title.
Known Issues
- Players migrated while standing in a Rowboat will be teleported to the middle of the map.
- After buying Company Promotions on the Morrow"s Peak Outpost, traders don"t have new voyages to sell.
- Traders will have voyages if the player rejoins the game, or waits until 6am on the next in-game day.
There"s plenty more included in the update, such as new commendations - some exclusive to Pirate Legends -, titles, time-limited cosmetic items, the ability to raise tankards, and much more. Head to the Shrouded Spoils landing page for a full rundown and a look at all the new cosmetic items, while the changelog can be found here.
Being a major update, Sea of Thieves Shrouded Spoils weighs around 4.22GB on Windows 10 and 3GB on Xbox One, and is now available for all players. Beyond this, the "Arena" multiplayer focused update that was announced during X018 is planned for early next year. It"s unclear if we will get another major update between the current one and Arena.