Release Notes

The next free Sea of Thieves content update is here! In Vaults of the Ancients, the Gold Hoarders are tasking worthy pirates with seeking the keys to Treasure Vaults scattered across the seas. Finding these keys and the riches held within the Vaults will prove to be a challenge...

Read the release notes below to find out more about what’s included in the Vaults of the Ancients update, including gameplay and accessibility improvements and, of course, the canine corsairs stealing hearts over in the Pirate Emporium!

Slimline Island Banners

• Island name banners shown when approaching islands can now be reconfigured with new slimline banners (a simpler design using less screen space) or disabled completely.

• Banners can be selected by game mode in Gameplay Settings. ‘Island Banners in Adventure’ defaults to cinematic banners, while ‘Island Banners in Arena’ defaults to slimline.

Emissary Ledger Value

• When players hand in items while representing as an Emissary, there will now be an Emissary meter in the bottom left to show the value they’ve contributed to the Emissary Ledger and the increase after handing in items.

Loot Haul Memory Saving

• When collecting notable hauls of different loot in a single place, the game will now reach a threshold where it will optimise performance by changing the appearance of certain loot items. Items will return to their standard visuals when optimisation allows.

Single Stick Camera Accessibility 

• Using the Left Trigger in Single Stick mode will swap player movement to the camera to enable looking around. When using this, players will be locked in place and only able to look around.

• If desired, the Left Trigger can be mapped to a different button. This feature also allows players to choose whether the button needs to be held, toggled or turned off.

• Players also have the option to turn off ‘Auto-Float’ and ‘Auto-Centre Camera’ to enable swimming down into shipwrecks.

Accessible UI Navigation

• ‘Circular Navigation’ option has been added to Accessibility Settings.

• When navigating any UI menu and reaching the end of a section with this setting enabled, players will now wrap around and return to the beginning.

• Scrolling off the bottom of a list of settings will now return to the top, while navigating off the right of a shop grid will now return to the left side of the grid.

Toggle to Talk?

• Sea of Thieves is continuing to improve accessibility by reducing ‘held’ actions. Previously ‘Push to Talk’ required the button to be held. Players now have the option to toggle it on and off instead.

Gameplay

• When opening the Quest Radial via a key binding, the ‘More’ button will now be present in the event of multiple pages of quests.

• The Pirate Chat Radial should no longer get stuck on the screen when using a ship interaction point.

• Sharks will deal damage to players floating on the water’s surface when attacking.

• Fixing a broken ship’s mast will no longer leave behind incorrect collision on the mast.

• Ghost Ships will no longer spawn at islands already populated by players.

• Players will now be ‘safe teleported’ if they become stuck on the Shores of Gold. 

• Players should no longer be able to get underneath the island near Lost Gold Fort.

• Players should now be able to navigate out of the deep pit on Salty Sands.

• Players should no longer get stuck on the torch near the Gold Hoarders’ representative at Ancient Spire Outpost.

• Skeletons should no longer become stuck when exiting the cave on Ashen Reaches.

Combat and Hit Registration

• Players should no longer reach an invulnerable state if interacted with while reviving.

• Improved hit registration when standing on top of a ladder and shooting rival players directly below, such as on the crow’s nest and boarding ladders.

• Fire on the stairs of the sloop should now be much easier to extinguish.

• Skeletons now animate correctly when eating a banana during combat.

• Further improvements made to cannonball hit registration when firing at rival ships.

Visual and Audio

• The ‘Mute All Other Crew’ voice chat option should no longer become enabled during a game session or when transitioning between Arena contests.

Performance and Stability

• When an ethernet cable is disconnected, the game should now handle the error gracefully.

• Optimised Devil’s Roar islands to improve performance.

Treasure Vault Door Closing

• When raiding a Treasure Vault, crews may find that on rare occasion the Vault door appears to slam shut prematurely. This is purely a visual issue and the door can still be passed through until the timer reaches zero and the door shuts fully.

Mysterious Notes Availability

• When starting a session, players will not currently be issued with a Mysterious Note. This feature is being polished for introduction in a future content update.

Players Impacted Following Server Migration

• We are currently tracking a number of player-impacting issues which can occur following a server migration. These include crews migrating near Outposts finding themselves moved to a location where another ship is already present, and issues with ship interaction points following a migration.

Increased Latency and Server Correction

• In cases of high server density, some servers can exhibit performance hits leading to increased latency. This may result in lag spikes during gameplay, rubberbanding and server correction.

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection 

• In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While improvements continue to be delivered during our content updates, this continues to be a key priority for the team.

Stuck UI Menus 

• When interacting with a barrel and moving quickly through its inventory, players may find that the barrel’s state is not updated as items are removed. Players can also experience Game Options becoming stuck on screen when exiting a barrel in this state.

To learn more about known issues in Sea of Thieves currently being tracked and their status, head over to our Known Issues support site article.

Download size:

Xbox One: 6.8 GB
Xbox One X: 6.8 GB
Windows 10: 6.61 GB
Steam: 4.36 GB

XBOX INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

PC INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

You can discuss these release notes in the Forums here.

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

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:

• Forums
• Xbox Club
• Verified Discord