Sea of Thieves Round-Up: April 2021
Posted in: General Updates on 08 May 2021
As we entered April, we waved farewell to Season One of Sea of Thieves, like proud parents sending a child off to university, only for Season Two to show up so we could begin the fun all over again. This month saw us unlocking the new Forts of Fortune, opening up the Commodities market with Merchant Alliance Trade Routes and causing all sorts of barrel-based shenanigans like some sort of cheeky cooper with the new Barrel Disguise Emote. Let us wind back the clock and round up all of April’s assorted antics…
Content Update
With us teasing the arrival of Season Two earlier in the month, it gave plucky treasure hunters that final push to raid Treasure Vaults for the Gold Hoarders and snag those shiny weapons before the end of the Vault Raiders Event. Soon after that we kicked off Season Two, and in terms of Events, this one brought Reapers vs. the World – which spans several weeks, and sees the Trading Companies facing off against the Reaper’s Bones in an ocean-wide game of cat and mouse!
For those looking to show off their fortitude (while enjoying abysmal puns), Forts of Fortune also arrived as part of Season Two, promising a serious challenge for pirates brave enough to take on their souped-up skeleton hordes. Meanwhile for fiscally minded privateers, the new Trade Routes allow savvy Merchant Alliance Emissaries to profit from buying and selling Commodity Crates at Outposts up and down the Sea of Thieves.
It was out with the old and in with the new over in the Pirate Emporium, with a brand new Plunder Pass, a raft of new cosmetics and yet another free emote added to its storefront. Those looking to give their fellow corsairs a jolly good fright could kit themselves out with the smouldering Dark Warsmith Costume, weapons and ship set, while the Reaper’s Heart Dog and Dagger Tricks Emote Bundle expanded your pet and emote options. Remember kids, our pirates are trained professionals, so don’t try juggling your mum’s kitchen knives at home. For an exact blow-by-blow of all the Season Two additions, the release notes remain your first port of call.
News and Features
The release of Season Two was obviously headline news for April, but additional stories throughout the month were also worth shouting about. We announced that the second issue of the Sea of Thieves: Origins comic miniseries following the adventures of Sir Arthur Pendragon was on its way – it’s now available to download from comiXology for the low, low price of free! For all you tabletop RPG fans who want to tell their own Tall Tales, ‘A Tale of Two Captains’ is the newest expansion to the Sea of Thieves Roleplaying Game available to pre-order, complete with a unique set of in-game sails based on the Bonny Belle which features prominently in the expansion. Just looking for soothing sounds of the sea to wash over you? ‘Tranquil Tides’ was April’s addition to the official Sea of Thieves soundtrack available for your listening pleasure.
A new Season of course meant a brand new landing page, as well as an update to the Events Hub for Reapers vs. the World. As Season Two also brought with it new activities for Trading Company Emissaries, we caught up with Senior Designer Chris to update our Emissary lowdown, adding to the list of frequently asked questions. Season Two also intersects with our first Prime Gaming content drops, where pirates who link their Sea of Thieves and Prime Gaming accounts can pick up packs of cosmetics, emotes and currency. New drops will be introduced regularly over the next few months, so get ‘em while they’re hot!
On the fundraising front, we totted up the cash raised by the Sails of Hope in the Pirate Emporium and you beneficent buccaneers raised more than $110,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity! Thanks again to everyone who contributed – who said pirates weren’t generous? Also on our News pages, April’s Community and Creator Spotlights saw us chatting to dedicated Discord mod and screenshotter extraordinaire Taaamas, as well as streamer and self-proclaimed Legendary Supplirate Smexi, about their adventures on the Sea of Thieves. Now it’s time to sound the ‘buttery smooth segue’ klaxon as we talk about…
Videos and Streams
Videos and streams! Of course, the main focus of this month was the Season Two trailer, where we outlined all the fun additions coming in this update – from the Forts of Fortune to Trade Routes, Reapers vs. the World with its own video at launch a week later, and the all-new stock in the Pirate Emporium.
Sea of Thieves official podcasts also made a triumphant return in the form of the Sea of Thieves Official Podcast, with the debut episode’s main topic being – you guessed it – Season Two! As well as a video version, it’s available on all good podcast services, and don’t forget to send in questions on social channels with the hashtag #SoTPodcast and you could have yours answered in an upcoming episode! Please make sure they’re Sea of Thieves-related though, we’re not going to tackle stuff like “What should I have for my tea?” because the answer’s obviously a fish finger sandwich.
Also related to streaming was the latest wave of Twitch Drops with the arrival of Season Two, putting a new selection of Gilded Phoenix gear up for grabs, along with the new Drum Show-Off emote for those with a proclivity for proudly presenting their personal percussion instrument. Okay, that’s enough of that.
Social Channels
As you can imagine with a new Season coming out, the Sea of Thieves social channels were bustling throughout April. We somehow managed to fit in two rounds of our regular #SoTShot contest on Twitter and Instagram – the first edition dedicated to photos from in and around the Ancient Isles, and then second all about Skeleton Forts and the chaos that comes with them. In true pirate fashion, some winners from both rounds featured massive explosions.
Our usual hashtags chugged along nicely as well: #SundayVibes had with us moored up at the Glorious Sea Dog Tavern with a Reaper’s Chest waiting in the distance, watching the sun rise over a quiet Kraken’s Fall, exploring Crook’s Hollow while the scarred skull of a Fort of Fortune loomed in the distance, before finishing up with a stop at Wanderers Refuge – complete with the relaxing grunts and gurgles of some passing skeletons. For those looking for the deeper Sea of Thieves lore, #TriviaTuesday shed light on the Ashen Lord Old Horatio, the summoning of Graymarrow, the Reapers’ dislike of the Trading Companies and the construction of The Reaper’s Hideout.
There was also no shortage of other social shenanigans: we proved on the first day of the month that the Shrouded Ghost is indeed real, showed off the mathematical formula for a great Sea of Thieves session, showed our appreciation for the Ferryman and asked – anyone seen the big fella? There was also the frantic hunt to unlock a mysterious chest, which resulted in another weird note that’s in need of deciphering. Our bet is that this one is Flameheart’s shopping list.
As we leave the April showers behind and stride into May, we’re battening down the hatches to start preparing for a busy summer! To see what’s coming over the horizon, keep your spyglass trained on all our Sea of Thieves channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and the official Forums and Discord server. We may go really retro one day and start delivering these round-ups via semaphore.
