Sea of Thieves Round-Up: December 2021

It's 2022 and we're in the future! But as the purpose of this round-up is to revisit the recent past, from Season Five's arrival through to Grogmanay and a year-ending bout of Gold & Glory, we encourage you future folk to deactivate your smart eyepatches and dismiss your robot monkey butlers for a few minutes. Then join us, your time-travelling pals, for a quaint look back at the last leg of 2021 in the world of Sea of Thieves...

Content Update

December was another Seasonal launch month, unleashing 2021's fifth in-game Season in the form of, cleverly, Sea of Thieves Season Five. And jam-packed with new features it was too, from the long-awaited arrival of a treasure-burying mechanic and accompanying Quest Board to the crates of fireworks rushed in ready for the festive season. And dice! And rats! And Cannon Rowboats! Haven't played for a while and want the full breakdown? You can see everything, Patrick Stewart-style, on our Season Five landing page or in the remorseless detail of the release notes.

Yes, there were time-limited Events too: the customary pairing of the Festival of Giving across the middle of the month and Grogmanay bouncing blearily off the walls as New Year approached. The Festival of Giving also brought the gift of Gilded Voyages, while Grogmanay debuted an Annual Tankard for strong-stomached repeat participants.

And what should turn up in December's Pirate Emporium restock but a surprise new batch of cosmetics inspired by Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, comprising a Captain Barbossa Costume, Royal Revenge ship set and matching Royal Revenge weapons – and even the now-traditional roleplaying pet in the form of the Mutinous Mutt! All that plus a particularly packed Plunder Pass, and if you're quick you can still jump in and grab your freebie Festive Tree Emote, although it's fair to say you may have missed the moment for using it in-game.

News and Features

Continuing the theme of "Blimey O'Reilly O'Rourke, a lot happened in December considering a chunk of it was Christmas" was our news coverage, with the Sea of Thieves website celebrating charitable proceeds from the Sails of Sharing, cheering the milestone of five million Steam sales and encouraging players to rub their noses in our Season Five Deep Dive with bonus article-based enthusiasm from the Design team.

Alongside those sat another pair of player profiles – a Creator Spotlight on Shrouded Ghost slayer Sotus and a Community Spotlight on SoT France fan film favourite Gatas – plus a final 2021 batch of Community Hub player stories, not forgetting our fourth Fan Art Gallery Showcase over on the Rare site. Meanwhile we encouraged players to share their own stories via the slinky medium of stats, spun up by 2021's incarnation of the Your Story So Far page! Light a fire under your filthy Bilge Rat Boots and you can still swipe your own stats before the page goes under...

We also embarked upon a team-up with Streamheroes, knocked through another wall to add more merch to our online store (including Sea of Thieves shoes, what a time to be alive) and ushered in the festive season with the latest streamable soundtrack addition, 'Call of the Bells'. And we were over the moon to receive a Most Improved accessibility award from Can I Play That? in the light of our ongoing efforts in this area – you'll regularly see Accessibility updates in our release notes (archived on the What's New page, release note enthusiasts).

And of course we couldn't ignore the return of famous Halo star Mister Chafe in December, saluting his rash-inducing escapades with this launch day crossover artwork alongside the time-limited Noble Spartan Sails and Flag offered to freshen up your UNSC livery. UNSC... of Thieves. Sorry. Look, stop that, we can't do a proper segue into the video section if you're going to throw things.

Videos and Streams

Now, December wasn't just about Season Five's big video hitters, the hype-inciting content update trailer and the talking-head-tastic Deep Dive. No, there were other bits of footage sent out to ensnare your flighty attention spans – like our 2021 Year in Review video, a visual reminder of what was in the last 12 months' worth of free updates shipped onto the seas. Or the fun-sized launch trailers for the Festival of Giving and Grogmanay Events. No? What about our lovingly crafted video accompaniment to the 'Call of the Bells' track? Still no? Honestly.

If streaming's more your thing, Sea of Thieves TV continued its packed pattern of Twitch programming, including the last episode in the current run of riddle-weaponising chase-fest The Gauntlet. Sea of Thieves Season Five does of course come bearing Twitch Drops too, the first of which fell into the laps of diligent stream-watchers right after the Season launched. Keep checking our channels for the next set of Drops so you don't miss the opportunity to look PROPER DAPPER in your Twilight Hunter clobber.

Social Channels

In the odd spare minute between announcing all this malarkey on Sea of Thieves' channels, we like to make sure there's exclusive stuff there too for you to participate in what we won't call 'bants' until we've asked around what the new word for 'bants' is. In December there were special festive giveaways featuring stuff ferreted out of our actual physical office, a stash of downloadable wallpapers emblazoned with recent artwork, some important questions asked and a whole lot of orb pondering because the internet is weird and that's how it decided it wanted to see out 2021. Merry Christmas!

Our regular hashtags also kept the content coming, even when we were all at home weighing up the viability of Ferrero Rocher curry on Boxing Day: #TriviaTuesday coughed up hairballs of info on new features like those Cannon Rowboats and fireworks plus the Dark Brethren and Bell Brigade, while #SoTGear showcased a cheeky five weekly choices of fan-favourite cosmetics ranging from the showroom-fresh Party Boat and Midnight Blades sets to the classic Magpie's Fortune Sails.

Mid-December's #SoTShot entries on the Festive Fun theme sent us spiralling into the usual moral crisis as we tried to pull a list of winners from a ludicrously good shortlist, and then we solicited it all over again with a New Year, New You #SoTShot theme taking us into 2022. And the year's last lot of #SundayVibes skipped specific island locations in favour of ambience from the Season Five splash screen, the Maiden Voyage, the best seat to watch the sun go down and a festive fireplace to warm your cockles afterwards. Doesn't have to be cockles, other disgusting edible bivalves are available.

That's about the sum of it for 2021! You may now resume the future – a future into which you can accompany us by following Sea of Thieves on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Twitch, unless you just want to hurl your demented 2022 opinions around like upsetting confetti on our Forums or Discord server, which is fine too, maybe, within reason. Now then shopkeepers, where's our Dark Adventurers Mech Suit and Jetpack of the Wailing Barnacle? What sort of a future is this?

Previously in 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: November 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: October 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: September 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: August 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: July 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: June 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: May 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: April 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: March 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: February 2021
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2021