Sea of Thieves Round-Up: October 2021

As we take down the plastic skeletons, put our costumes back in the wardrobe and get dangerously close to hitting ‘play’ on the Christmas music, now is as good a time as any to look back on all the spooky shenanigans that unfolded in Sea of Thieves during October. We smashed millions of skeletons to quell the Fury of the Damned, watched brave streamers take on the trials of The Gauntlet and caught a glimpse of a true nightmare – multiple Flamehearts screaming at us. Grab whatever remaining Halloween chocolate you have, pour yourself a pumpkin-spiced beverage and join us for a reminder of October’s activities…

Content Update

The whole month was dedicated to this year’s celebration of the Festival of the Damned on the Sea of Thieves, admirably continuing the ‘F-something-of-the-Damned’ Event-naming tradition with Fury of the Damned. Pirates were tasked with taking up arms to shoot, stomp, smash and shatter skeletons wherever they appeared, and you were certainly thorough in your duties as over 150 million skeletons were dispatched as part of the festivities – unlocking both Wicked Web Figureheads for all who took part. We’ll be sure to up the ante next year and request everyone take down a Shrouded Ghost apiece to unlock the final rewards.

Elsewhere, we continued to shore up the Sunken Kingdom with small hotfixes – those Sirens really are a wily bunch, we can tell you. For all the gen on these updates, the release notes for October’s update and later hotfix should be your first port of call. The Pirate Emporium of course received a shipment of suitably macabre cosmetics, as is befitting of the season of scares, along with the arrival of a new charity sail: the Sails of Sharing. The proceeds of these sails’ sales go to help the work of No Kid Hungry, a charity seeking to end childhood hunger. You’ve still just about got time to grab the Sails of Sharing from the store at the time of writing – and we know plenty of you beneficent buccaneers will have risen to the occasion already, so we look forward to seeing how much you’ve made for this cause!

News and Features

We were awash with scuttlebutt, gossip and scandal this month – but we’re saving that for the tabloids. Our devoted nautical news desk was out in all weather, searching for the top stories for those all over the pirating world. For starters, we hit a major milestone this month as Sea of Thieves reached over 25 million players! If we were a nation, that would make us around the 56th most populous in the world. Not only did we roll out some special in-game goodies, including the chance for one lucky corsair to win 25 million in-game gold, there was a special celebratory message from Creative Director Mike Chapman. Onwards and upwards to the next milestone!

Back from its break, SoT News returned for a jam-packed episode in October, detailing new additions like the latest Pirate Emporium update and the aforementioned Sails of Sharing while taking a deep dive into some of Sea of Thieves’ new accessibility features. Mr. James Thomas’ dungarees are also a big highlight – who said we at Rare aren’t fashion icons? We also added a new Sea of Thieves track, ‘Of Mystics and Memories’, to all good streaming services, should you fancy some eerie accompaniment for your next bout of house cleaning.

Meanwhile the hard-working hatters of our dedicated Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame factory continued their important work, with another eight lucky pirates making their way into the Community Hub hall of fame and executive dining suite. We’ve heard tell of one of the hats becoming sentient and recommending candidates, but that may be a mercury-induced hallucination from the factory floor. And we lit up the Community and Creator Spotlight stage again for two sold-out shows, with captain of the Chicken Boat Mother0fChickens and premier pirate poster-maker Aidan McKellan treading the boards. We can only imagine what the movie poster starring these two would look like.

We’ve just checked our watches and at every hand it just says “DO THE SEGUE”, so we’d better comply. Put your hands together as we effortlessly glide into discussing…

Videos and Streams

Videos and streams! Along with the return of SoT News and a trailer dedicated to the Fury of the Damned Event, our regular Pirate Emporium trailer adopted a funky new format to announce the latest monthly wave of additions, and was accompanied by a special trailer dedicated to the Sails of Sharing. We also went that extra mile and, with the help of some Sea of Thieves Partners, held a special 48-hour charity stream to help raise even more for No Kid Hungry. This fruitful marathon had our relay runners trying to accrue as many pineapples as possible, and at the final whistle, you helped raise $23,271 – what an achievement!

Elsewhere in the wild world of streaming, we saw pirates taking on The Gauntlet – a devious series of riddles and challenges that would take them all across the Sea of Thieves, while being harried by a vicious gang of villains. Each week in October saw a new hero stepping up to the plate, with special Twitch Drops up for grabs if our heroes succeeded in their quest. Want to catch up on all the action? You can watch the VODs of each episode over on Twitch’s Crown Channel.

As for other Twitch Drops, stream watchers were able to nab a surfeit of Twilight Hunter equipment if they tuned in during the early days of October. As the nights draw in, you’ll be in your element wielding these pitch-black bits of kit. Just be careful you don’t trip over them in the darkness.

Social Channels

As is customary during October, our social channels were filled with tricks and treats. First and foremost, we held our very first Sea of Thieves Createathon! Throughout the month we posted unique prompts to spark your inspiration, and you definitely delivered – from clay sculptures to cross-stitched pendants and artworks of all different styles. The #SoTCreateathon hashtag is bustling with amazing pieces, and we take our hats off to anyone who took part.

After many of you delved into the depths for underwater images that would please the most grizzled marine explorer, we asked you to don your scariest costumes and capture some truly spooky sights for the next #SoTShot contest. Remember – we asked for spooky, not terrifying, so no pictures of someone nicking your loot or a Kraken attack making you miss your bus to work.

Our triumvirate of other regular hashtags continued their forward march through the content fields, with gorgeous vistas, intriguing trivia and beguiling equipment providing something for every pirate. October’s #SundayVibes tour was almost entirely underwater, visiting the Shrines of Hungering, Flooded Embrace and Tribute and the Treasury of the Lost Ancients. Luckily, the final stop was in front of a roaring fire to help you dry off. For those looking to score big at the next pirate pub quiz, #TriviaTuesday had some insightful nuggets about finding Flames of Fate, the history of the Festival of the Damned and this year’s theme, as well as the history of the Shrine of Ancient Tears.

For aspiring antique appraisers, #SoTGear offered longing gazes at the baleful Soulflame Captain Costume, the spectral Ghost Captain Sails, the bronzed Fearless Bone Crusher Figurehead and the striking Curse of the Order. Also gracing our social channels this month were, among other things, the many emotions of Captain Flameheart, sentences only your fellow freebooters would understand, suggestions on what you would add to Sea of Thieves (owls notwithstanding) and that most obvious of red flags: proclaiming that you’re friendly, honest. We also shared some artwork befitting this season most scary, and, yes, even made it into wonderful wallpapers.

Time to pop on our cosiest jumpers as we trudge through wet leaves into the dark winter nights ahead. If you want to get the latest info from our busy bosuns and deckhands, turn your sights towards the Sea of Thieves social channels – that’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and the official Forums and Discord server. To stave off the cold, we’ll be throwing a big bonfire and writing out the entirety of November’s round-up in the air with a sparkler. Failing that, we’ll do it via smoke signal.

Previously in 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