Ahoy, pirates! Sea of Thieves' momentous Anniversary Update is here, surging in on a tide of new features designed to cater to every kind of player. You've got a brand new competitive mode to enjoy as crews go up against each other in The Arena, an intriguing story-driven adventure to follow in Tall Tales – Shores of Gold, and the introduction of fishing, hunting and cooking to coincide with the arrival of The Hunter's Call!

As there's such a lot to take in, we've separated out the release notes for each part of the Anniversary Update below. Click on each of the buttons to see what's new.

Enjoy Sea of Thieves' biggest and boldest update yet!

Tall Tales - Shores of Gold

Grand adventures, vast riches to plunder, ancient secrets to uncover… stories of piracy and wild encounters on the waves. The Sea of Thieves is bigger and stranger than anyone knows. Tall Tales – Shores of Gold brings this pirate world into even more vibrant focus, leading you deep into long-lost legend and mystery. Are you ready to follow our trail of tales?

The Arena

Experience the thrill of competition and engage in explosive encounters in The Arena – a place dedicated to contests of seafaring skill on the Sea of Thieves! The proudest pirates love to show off their abilities and The Arena is the ideal place for it. Trust in your crew and test your mettle in this dedicated new game mode.

The Hunter's Call

Pirate bard Merrick, a true survivor of the Sea of Thieves, has decided to build on his experiences by founding a new Trading Company known as The Hunter’s Call. This ragtag band boasts experts in hunting, fishing and cooking and would like all pirates to master the same skills. Handsome rewards await those who can catch the rarest creatures and cook the finest dishes!

Anniversary Update

The Sea of Thieves Anniversary Update also brings along various world improvements to enhance the core experience. Expanded ship damage means that your beloved vessel can suffer a broken mast, capstan or even wheel, meaning that sailing and escaping battle could become very tricky indeed.

Performance Improvements

Xbox One S Improvements – Performance on the Xbox One S has been improved.

Improved Loading Times – Time taken to initially load in to Sea of Thieves has been reduced.

Game Stability – Resolved a number of client and server stability issues.

We are constantly reviewing the performance and stability of each release and providing performance optimisations and stability improvements.

Fixed Issues

Gameplay


  • 'Push to Talk' functionality now works correctly on Xbox One when set up in Audio Settings.
  • Chest of Sorrows no longer fills up a ship when placed on a docked Rowboat that is then detached from the ship.
  • When fighting the Kraken, moving into a safe space while it attempts to snatch you up from the ship will no longer cause you to be pulled through the environment.
  • If the game is unable to delete your pirate from the front end settings screen, it will no longer cause an infinite loading screen.
  • It is no longer possible to interact with items while holding a chest.
  • After undocking from a ship-based interactive item, you will now be able to correctly tap the quest radial or item radial to return to the previously wielded item.
  • Resolved an edge case where a Closed Crew could become an Open Crew when the crew owner leaves.
  • Resolved an issue preventing Xbox One players using a mouse from turning their camera.
  • When using the pirate chat radial, closing the second page of the radial without selecting a message will no longer automatically send a message.

UI


  • Players with unlocked Commendations for previous Mercenary Voyages will once again see their Commendations in the Reputation pages.
  • The Title counts on the Bilge Rats Reputation page will now correctly count the Titles available to players.
  • During the new player onboarding tutorial, handing your tutorial chest to another player and having them cash it in for you will no longer leave tutorial messages stuck on-screen.

Audio and Visual


  • Waterfall SFX at Plunder Valley no longer cut out.
  • Fauna now renders at the correct level of detail when players are in close proximity.
  • Shanties now play as expected when played during a server migration.

Environment


  • Angled palm trees found in the Shores of Plenty region now render correctly.
  • The cannon next to the beacon on Devil’s Ridge can now be climbed into.
  • The ship’s flag on the Ferry of the Damned is now correctly attached.
  • There are no longer palm leaves stuck to the beach at Mermaid’s Hideaway.
  • Players can no longer walk beneath the water on Crescent Isle.
  • It no longer rains in the Pirate Legend Hideout at Plunder Outpost.
  • It’s no longer possible to get stuck inside rocks at Thieves’ Haven.
  • Players can no longer get stuck between the wharf and the tree at Plunder Outpost.
  • It’s no longer possible to get stuck on rocks at Ancient Spire Outpost.

Known Issues

The Arena Tavern Wait Times – During times of heavy server load, crews using Tavern matchmaking in The Arena may experience an extended delay when waiting to begin a contest. To get back into the action quickly, anyone experiencing this issue should leave the Tavern, return to the front end and matchmake into another Arena session.

Health Bar UI Delays – When regenerating health from cooked food, taking damage may cause the health bar to be delayed in updating.

Sea Dogs Tavern Purchase Delays – Players who purchase an item from the Sea Dogs Tavern shop shortly before migrating to a new server will not immediately see the purchase in their inventory. The purchase has been successful, but will only be shown when the player returns to the Tavern after their next contest.

Sailor of Athena’s Fortune Commendation Progress – Players do not receive progress towards the Sailor of Athena’s Fortune Commendation while their crew have both an Athena’s Fortune Voyage and a Tall Tale active at the same time.

Quest Item Loss in ‘The Shores of Gold’ – Losing the Gold Hoarders Coin during ‘The Shores of Gold’ Tall Tale will not automatically fail the Tall Tale, but your crew will be unable to progress.

Missing Phrases on Food Items – Some food items show available phrases in the pirate chat radial, but selecting them will not correctly send them to other players.

Incorrect Ship Flag Icons on Arena Map Table – Following consecutive contests in The Arena, the ship’s map table may show incorrect ship flag iconography for rival crews.

Extended Black Screen on Loading – In this build we’ve resolved a number of cases where players could be held indefinitely on the black loading screen when returning from the Ferry of the Damned or a mermaid. However, some instances of this may still be present, which we will continue to investigate. If you encounter this issue, please raise a support ticket with as much detail as you can provide.

We are continuing to work on resolutions for all these issues for a future update.

Download and Installation

Download size:

Xbox One: 8.55GB
Xbox One X: 8.90GB
Windows 10: 8.90GB

XBOX INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE.
PC INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Forum Discussion

You can discuss these release notes in the Forums here.

You can leave your feedback on the game in general here.

Looking For Crew?

Looking for new crewmates? We've got a bunch of places you can visit to seek out like-minded pirates, so sail on over to these official Sea of Thieves hangouts: