Sea of Thieves is a naval multiplayer game that takes players on adventurous voyages. The game recently received its 2.0.18 update, which added a bunch of exciting stuff to spice up the pirate adventure.
Fans already love Sea of Thieves for its interesting concept, but developer Rare continues to surprise fans by supporting and improving the game. Last month at Gamescom, Rare hinted at the 2.0.18 update and now it's here for players to enjoy.
After installing the new update, players can accept new quests from Gold Hoarders. Gold Hoarders are concerned about skeletons who may break into their secret vaults. Players will also be sailing across the vast ocean in search of map pieces that will lead them to an ancient vault and a secret key. After finding the map and the secret key, players have a choice of either returning them to the Gold Hoarders or plunder the vault for themselves. However, choosing to loot the Vault of the Ancients will present players with a variety of traps that are meant to keep thieves away.
Additionally, players can also take quests from Larinna, the leader of the Bilge Rats. According to Rare, Larinna will also offer lucrative deals via the Black Market, which should keep players busy for months. In addition to the Vaults of the Ancients and Black Market, Sea of Thieves now also has dogs. While fans are excited to go on long voyages along with their four-legged friends, Rare has also warned that players will need to clean the deck a bit more due to any nuisance their pups may cause.
The list of additions doesn't end there, Sea of Thieves now also has new emotes such as a dancing dog emote. All this new content should offer players interesting opportunities to explore the vast seas.
Sea of Thieves Update 2.0.18 Patch Notes
Read the full patch notes here or below:
VAULTS OF THE ANCIENTS
- With Flameheart unleashing ever more powerful servants onto the Sea of Thieves, the Gold Hoarders have lost faith in the security of their gold-filled Treasure Vaults. Only the most trusted adventurers are tasked with tracking down the hidden Vault Keys and bringing them home to the Hoarders... or going out and finding the locks they open!
PIRATE EMPORIUM
- Loyal canine companions are now available from the Pirate Emporium along with a truly fearsome ship set, new ways to purchase and plenty more!
BLACK MARKET
- The founder of the Bilge Rats, Larinna, has returned to Outpost society. She’s taken over Bilge Rat operations and has plans for the future, but for now she continues to offer Voyages, bring new stock to the Black Market and uphold the Black Market Archive in Duke’s stead.
Gameplay Improvements
Slimline Island Banners
- Island name banners shown when approaching islands can now be reconfigured with new slimline banners (a simpler design using less screen space) or disabled completely.
- Banners can be selected by game mode in Gameplay Settings. ‘Island Banners in Adventure’ defaults to cinematic banners, while ‘Island Banners in Arena’ defaults to slimline.
Emissary Ledger Value
- When players hand in items while representing as an Emissary, there will now be an Emissary meter in the bottom left to show the value they’ve contributed to the Emissary Ledger and the increase after handing in items.
Updates
Loot Haul Memory Saving
- When collecting notable hauls of different loot in a single place, the game will now reach a threshold where it will optimise performance by changing the appearance of certain loot items. Items will return to their standard visuals when optimisation allows.
Accessibility
Single Stick Camera Accessibility
- Using the Left Trigger in Single Stick mode will swap player movement to the camera to enable looking around. When using this, players will be locked in place and only able to look around.
- If desired, the Left Trigger can be mapped to a different button. This feature also allows players to choose whether the button needs to be held, toggled or turned off.
- Players also have the option to turn off ‘Auto-Float’ and ‘Auto-Center Camera’ to enable swimming down into shipwrecks.
Accessible UI Navigation
- ‘Circular Navigation’ option has been added to Accessibility Settings.
- When navigating any UI menu and reaching the end of a section with this setting enabled, players will now wrap around and return to the beginning.
- Scrolling off the bottom of a list of settings will now return to the top, while navigating off the right of a shop grid will now return to the left side of the grid.
Toggle to Talk?
- Sea of Thieves is continuing to improve accessibility by reducing ‘held’ actions. Previously ‘Push to Talk’ required the button to be held. Players now have the option to toggle it on and off instead.
Fixed Issues
- When opening the Quest Radial via a key binding, the ‘More’ button will now be present in the event of multiple pages of quests.
- The Pirate Chat Radial should no longer get stuck on the screen when using a ship interaction point.
- Sharks will deal damage to players floating on the water’s surface when attacking.
- Fixing a broken ship’s mast will no longer leave behind incorrect collision on the mast.
- Ghost Ships will no longer spawn at islands already populated by players.
- Players will now be ‘safe teleported’ if they become stuck on the Shores of Gold.
- Players should no longer be able to get underneath the island near Lost Gold Fort.
- Players should now be able to navigate out of the deep pit on Salty Sands.
- Players should no longer get stuck on the torch near the Gold Hoarders’ representative at Ancient Spire Outpost.
- Skeletons should no longer become stuck when exiting the cave on Ashen Reaches.
Combat and Hit Registration
- Players should no longer reach an invulnerable state if interacted with while reviving.
- Improved hit registration when standing on top of a ladder and shooting rival players directly below, such as on the crow’s nest and boarding ladders.
- Fire on the stairs of the sloop should now be much easier to extinguish.
- Skeletons now animate correctly when eating a banana during combat.
- Further improvements made to cannonball hit registration when firing at rival ships.
Visual and Audio
- The ‘Mute All Other Crew’ voice chat option should no longer become enabled during a game session or when transitioning between Arena contests.
Performance and Stability
- When an ethernet cable is disconnected, the game should now handle the error gracefully.
- Optimised Devil’s Roar islands to improve performance.
Sea of Thieves is available on PC and Xbox One, and is included in Xbox Game Pass.
