The first Sea of Thieves content update since Rare began working from home landed today in the form of Ships of Fortune. The free update is a massive one compared to more recent arrivals, delivering a completely new leveling system for Trading Companies that flaunt more risk as well as rewards. Moreover, a new battle-focused Trading Company, cats as pets, and more features have landed too.
Starting off with the biggest addition, players can now choose a Trading Company to become an Emissary with for 20,000 Gold per session. Once joined, completing voyages for that company will net increased rewards while also leveling up the Emissary Grade during that session. The higher the Grade goes, the better the reward multiplier for voyages.
To stop these Emissaries from hoarding too much Gold, Rare has introduced Reaper's Bones as a new and aggressive trading company. Players can join it through the same Emissary method and earn rewards for sinking ships of Emissaries from other companies and delivering their broken flag back to the Reaper's Bones headquarters on Reaper's Hideout. The higher level victims will obviously net better rewards here too.
Leveling up the Emissary Grade to maximum nets a high-reward voyage from the Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, Merchant Alliance, or Athena’s Fortune companies. However, a fully leveled up Reaper's Bones Emissary will get the ability to see all other Emissary vessels on their ship's map for easy tracking and planning.
Sea of Thieves' Arena mode has gotten a change up too, with treasure maps being replaced by a single chest that emits a beacon skyward at all times. Reductions to the arena sizes and duration have also been made to increase the tenacity of battles.
In the tamer parts of the update, cats can now be purchased as pets from the Pirate Emporium. There are three different breeds to choose from, and other than serving as companions on ships, they all can be dressed up in various outfits too. In addition, to make death a little less time consuming with the whole Ferry of the Damned business, players who die will now hover around for a short time during which a crew member can revive them.
The Ships of Fortune update is now available on Windows 10 and Xbox One consoles. The complete patch notes for today's 2.0.14 update are found here. Sea of Thieves is also heading towards a Steam release soon. The store page is already up but what's still missing is a release date.
