Looking Back at Festival of Giving

Last month we delved deeper into all manner of flame-filled records set by the community in The Seabound Soul lookback article, finding out who managed to tame the flames and how many pirates succumbed to them. With Legends of the Sea just around the corner, what better way to celebrate our first content update of the new year than by looking at all the festive goings-on from our Festival of Giving update?

For the seasonal period, pirates were tasked with delivering stolen gifts to Stitcher Jim’s masked love at The Reaper’s Hideout, and were also offered an introduction to the Sea of Thieves in the Maiden Voyage, featuring the Pirate Lord himself and a mysterious unexplored island…

Getting oneself into the festive spirit can be achieved through various means, but incapacitating yourself by eating too much food is always a winner. A whopping 110,351,025 pieces of food were devoured during the Festival up to the point our stats were taken on January 9th, likely resulting in many lethargically fought battles at sea. However, it was the gluttonous pirate Lady Miaa who ate, chomped and cronched their way to the top to become our biggest overall eater of December’s update. If you went below deck and found a food barrel left barren, this individual is probably the culprit.

The festive season isn’t just about eating yourselves into a food-fuelled slumber though – it’s just as important to treat yourself to that blunderbuss you’ve been eyeballing. Stashes of gold were clearly burning a hole in the pockets of our busy buccaneers, with 126,264,069,634 coins being spent during the Festival. Gold wasn’t the only currency helping keep the pirate economy booming, with Doubloons contributing an impressive 290,240,978 to the Black Market. Should keep the Bilge Rats afloat for a while.

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While many seafarers took the opportunity to get in a merry mood, there were others who saw this as a chance to catch rivals with their guards down. CatchiestBus63 shot and slashed through a wealth of enemies to become the Grinch of the seas, but what cunning pirate wouldn’t? On the flip side, one merry marauder spread cheer throughout the season in a highly intoxicated state: the jolly RETRATOO chugged through the most tankards of grog, and as a result probably has no recollection of what happened…

Forts were still in full swing with hauls aplenty just waiting to be liberated from the clutches of dastardly skeletons. 95,933 Alliances were formed, and since we don’t know for sure, let’s just assume you all honoured them and sailed away friends, shall we?

Festival of Giving may be almost over now, but before you say goodbye, why not peruse the valuable knowledge we pried out of Lead Designer Andrew Preston about the Maiden Voyage in this behind-the-scenes feature? Then prepare yourselves for Legends of the Sea, where you’ll set sail to hunt down player immortalisations, remnants of familiar pirates who have left their mark on the Sea of Thieves. You’ll meet with the intrepid scribe Umbra, who will give you some pointers on where to start your quest for new Commendations and cosmetics. Grab your crew and weigh anchor in the newest free Sea of Thieves update when it goes live on January 15th!