Sea of Thieves Season One is now live, delivering a battle pass, new voyage and more

The first major Sea of Thieves update of 2021 has landed, bringing the promised battle pass progression system, a brand new Merchant Alliance voyage, fresh events, a performance mode for Xbox Series X, and much more to the pirate adventure game.

Full details on the free and paid tracks of the Season One battle pass can be found here. Essentially, there are 100 cosmetic items to unlock for free by simply playing the game, while paying $10 will get pirates 11 premium items as part of the Plunder Pass.

The latest piece of new content arriving with the new season - which will last for three months - is the Lost Shipments voyage. This is a brand new addition to the Merchant Alliance group that players above rank 25 can accept. The voyage has players tracking down missing shipments, where they are given the original route of the lost ship, which they must follow and gather clues until a wreck is discovered. Players can also plunder the captain's cabin of the ship during the voyage if they happen to locate the key for additional rewards.

Rare has a number of game events planned to kick off during the season as well, with the Champion of Souls being available now, which puts pirates up against skeletons and ghost ships for earning soul fragments. Check the Event Hub on the game's website or the in-game one to find out what's happening when.

Moreover, Xbox Series X players will also now find a new performance mode available that lets them enjoy Sea of Thieves at even higher frame rates. Playing at 120Hz at 1080p is an option now, though keep in mind the display needs to support this frame rate, and the studio said HDR may need to be disabled as well. The full patch notes for this update can be seen here.

Sea of Thieves owners and Xbox Game Pass subscribers can now jump back into the newly restarted servers after updating to Season One. Xbox Series X, Xbox One X, and Microsoft Store PC players will find the update weighs around 9GB, while Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and Steam players will only have a 6GB update waiting for them.