Sea of Thieves Round-Up: May 2021
Posted in: General Updates on 09 Jun 2021
In May, April showers gave way to… May showers, but at least in Sea of Thieves, Season Two continues come rain or shine! Our ocean-wide game of ‘Capture The Emissary Flag’ continued in Reapers vs. the World, a fresh injection of cosmetics made their way to the Pirate Emporium and we even spied the elusive Loot Snake out in the wild. Flip that magic hourglass and let’s jump back in time to recap May’s memorable moments…
Content Update
Season Two’s big Reapers vs. the World Event continued to rage across the Sea of Thieves in May, with both the Order of Souls and Merchant Alliance getting a chance to prove their skills against the ravenous Reaper’s Bones. At the midpoint of the event it was the Gold Hoarders holding the unenviable title of Most Raided Trading Company, but as we type it’s still all to play for.
Don’t forget that alongside Reapers vs. the World, Season Two rolled out Trade Routes and Commodity Chests and saw the Trading Companies refreshing their rewards for those who place highly in their Emissary Ledgers – while a crop of fresh Trials and Deeds was introduced for keen corsairs to sink their gold teeth into. Can you finish them all up before the end of Season Two?
Otherwise, as the second month of a Season, this one was fairly quiet for new content outside of some shiny new stock over at the Pirate Emporium and a Spring Sale later in the month, and a li’l hotfix to smash some bugs hidden in our ship’s biscuits. For the full breakdown of changes, you can always pore over our May release notes.
News and Features
For those looking for a ripping pirate yarn to keep them entertained on a long Voyage, May saw the audiobook of the official Sea of Thieves novel Athena’s Fortune made available to stream for free on select streaming services or download from retailers such as Audible, while the second issue of our Champion of Souls miniseries was released for free over on comiXology, chronicling more of the exciting tales of Sir Arthur Pendragon. On the musical side, you could relive that fateful struggle at Tribute Peak as the latest Sea of Thieves track ‘Gold Hoarder’ was released on all major music platforms, and real-life glinting finery was on offer in the new Seasonal Collection from the Rare store.
On the SoT site, we continued our regular Community and Creator Spotlights and had a good old chinwag with Discord mod and period costume enthusiast Edwardian Fox, along with filmmaker, foodie and fearless freebooter Azuki. For studious sailors, there was an update to the Pirate Academy with a bunch of new lessons on game basics from hosts Nine-Cat Nura and Seamark, on topics ranging from combat to life aboard your trusty vessel.
Long-time pirate followers will be familiar with the #BeMorePirate hashtag launched back in the mists of 2017, acting as a steady port in the social media maelstrom for all things Sea of Thieves. In another of May’s articles we decided to up the stakes a little and zhoosh up the hashtag with something special: a fancy hat! Share your cool clips, fan art, real-life pirate tattoos and everything in between with the hashtag #BeMorePirate on the social media platform of your choice, and you may be the new owner of the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame sometime soon.
We’ve reached that time in the round-up, folks – time for an incredibly slick and not at all forced segue into…
Videos and Streams
Yes! Episode 2 of the reborn Sea of Thieves Podcast went live in May, tackling topics such as private servers, features that never made it into the final game and the not remotely controversial topic of PvP vs. PvE. We’re sure the comments section stayed civil and polite on the whole discussion. If you want to watch the Podcast as an actual video and see all our lovely faces, you can catch it on YouTube. Otherwise, you can find the audio version on all good podcast services for some perfect ‘making the dinner’ listening.
If you have a burning Sea of Thieves-related question, tweet in with the hashtag #SoTPodcast and you may get it answered on a future episode. We wouldn’t be mad if you just asked “please show us your pets” though, as that’s some primo video material right there.
Meanwhile, avid stream watchers were able to continue earning a steady drip-feed of new Gilded Phoenix gear thanks to May’s Twitch Drops, and we also added the aforementioned Athena’s Fortune audiobook to YouTube as a full playlist – should you wish to listen chapter by chapter, presumably interspersed with cat videos.
Social Channels
Like a lighthouse in a raging storm, the Sea of Thieves social channels remained a beaming beacon of quality content throughout May. With Reapers vs. the World occupying many a pirate’s thoughts, our #SoTShot contest for May focused on The Reaper’s Bones – with our winners really highlighting the dastardly deeds that they get up to while roaming the seas. The next round is all about towering scenes, thanks to Twitter finally removing its cropping on vertical images. Screenshot sharers and social media managers are celebrating around the world.
Speaking of regular hashtags, our other old reliables ticked along like clockwork. #SundayVibes had us seeing the sun set and a storm roll by on Cannon Cove, watching Flameheart’s massive head guarding a Reaper’s Chest at the Shores of Plenty, enjoying a Skeleton Sloop doing manoeuvres around Sailor’s Knot Stronghold, chilling on the beach at Barnacle Cay and finally luxuriating near an island stream over at Sunken Grove. And for all you trivia buffs, #TriviaTuesday shared the goss on Ashen Lords Captain Grimm and Warden Chi, sunken Merchant Alliance ships and the Ancients that once called the Sea of Thieves their home.
As always, there were other jolly social japes to be found including calling on people to (wrongly) name this ship set, enjoying a cat selfie and asking that embarrassing question: have you ever been trapped in a Treasure Vault? We also had Wild Henry asking for 100 pictures of pirates with bananas, which then led to an ocean-wide riddle hunt and the reveal of another mystery rune page. What’s that all about, eh?
And that was May. While the sun may finally be out, we’re inside hard at work to ensure a bustling summer for you all in Sea of Thieves! If you want to be among the first to see what we’ve got coming, follow us at any or all of the usual social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and the official Forums and Discord server. We’ve hired a skywriter for the next round-up, so expect an incredibly long message appearing in the heavens near you sometime in July.
