It's been a whole year since Sea of Thieves barged in for Xbox One and Windows 10, and to celebrate, Rare is rewarding long-time players and newcomers alike. The studio did say, however, that a separate "full-sized" Anniversary Update is in the works but it will come later.
In addition to a couple of limited-time cosmetics available to buy in Outposts, the free anniversary rewards that pirates can expect to find in the game today are split into two categories: Year One and Year One Pirate Legend rewards.
All players who've jumped into the game in the past year will receive a Captain Bones' Original Pirate Cutlass for free. But, Pirate Legends will be walking away with a whole lot more, including the "Golden Legendary Tankard, Golden Legendary Hurdy-Gurdy, Golden Legendary Blunderbuss, Golden Legendary Sails, Golden Legendary Hull and Golden Legendary Figurehead!"
Duke is offering a new selection of Mercenary Voyages for Doubloons as well in this update, and he also has a Gilded Mercenary Voyage just for Pirate Legends, guaranteeing an enormous treasure haul. As always, he has several new cosmetic items in his collection, which come with their own requirements.
The update also carries official Xbox Mouse and Keyboard support, letting Xbox One players plug in their peripherals of choice to go on their adventures. Beyond that, Xbox Chatpad support is also included, letting them use the in-game chat function with the "T" key by default.
Here are some of the other changes also in this update:
- Molten Sands Fortress – Molten Sands Fortress is now active! Face off against skeleton waves while dodging volcanic rocks and luring them onto geysers before raiding the vault for Ashen Rewards!
- Mercenary Cosmetics Bundle – The previously exclusive Mercenary cosmetic bundle is now available for purchase at Outposts across the world. Head to The Wilds, The Ancient Isles, The Shores of Plenty or The Devil's Roar to purchase the Mercenary clothing, equipment, Pistol and Cutlass from their respective Outpost stores.
- New Player Onboarding Improvements – The final onboarding pop-up informing players where to purchase their first voyage now persists on-screen until the onboarding is complete.
- Inactive Player Detection – Improved detection and disconnection of inactive players wherever they are in the world.
- Construction In Progress – Work appears to have begun around the Arches rock formation. What could they be building?
There is a bunch of fixed and known issues included in the update, and those can be read in the official changelog over here. The update itself is 5.1GB on Windows 10 and Xbox One X, while Xbox One players will only have to download 3.4GB. The servers are also back in action already, so pirates can jump in and grab their anniversary loot and begin their voyages straight away.
Moreover, don't forget that Rare will also be unveiling the upcoming Mega Update to Sea of Thieves later today, including its release date.
