Sea of Thieves Season Four is available now as a free download on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. The new Season expands the game downwards, rather than outwards, by tasking players with exploring The Sunken Kingdom. There are six all-new Siren Shrines hiding beneath the waves, each housing unique Coral treasures that pirates can sell to Trading Companies. That’s not all, though — a lot is new in SoT Season 4, as Rare details in the full Sea of Thieves update 2.3.0 patch notes.
All Sea of Thieves update 2.3.0 patch notes list
Here are all of the changes in the Sea of Thieves patch 2.3.0 update:
The Sunken Kingdom
- Siren Shrines
- Created by the Sirens themselves, these newly uncovered Shrines were built with a wicked purpose. Their locations are charted on the ship’s map, and players reaching the marked spot will need to dive deep and swim through aerated waters to reach these mysterious monuments.
- Siren Shrines pose a challenge to players’ puzzle-solving skills as they navigate obstacles to access hidden locations within these sunken structures. Coral treasures can be claimed along the way, and more determined explorers will find ever more treasure for the taking…
- Players can visit six Siren Shrines: the Shrine of Hungering and Shrine of Flooded Embrace in The Wilds, the Shrine of Ocean’s Fortune and Shrine of the Coral Tomb in The Shores of Plenty, and the Shrine of Ancient Tears and Shrine of Tribute in The Ancient Isles.
- Siren Treasuries
- Siren Treasuries are additional undersea locations that will test pirates’ combat skills against a range of enemy threats. Players can expect to battle waves of hideous Ocean Crawlers, deadly Sirens, and Coral Skeletons to unlock the Vault and escape with their Coral treasures.
- Players can visit three Siren Treasuries: the Treasury of Sunken Shores in The Shores of Plenty, the Treasury of the Secret Wilds in The Wilds, and the Treasury of the Lost Ancients in The Ancient Isles.
- Coral Treasures
- Exploring Siren Shrines and Siren Treasuries will reward players with new Coral treasures. Skulls can be returned to the Order of Souls, Coffers go to the Merchant Alliance, and Chests, Artifacts, and Trinkets are gladly received by the Gold Hoarders. Siren Gems can be returned to any Trading Company representative.
- While exploring the Sunken Kingdom, crews will be aided by friendly merfolk sworn to help those in need, in the form of Sunken Merfolk Statues. These statues allow players to deposit treasure for safekeeping while they explore an area.
- Upon returning to the surface, players will be greeted by merfolk holding their collected Sunken Treasure in a clamshell on their back. When a player is ready to gather their spoils, only they can release this treasure for collection.
- Coral Message in a Bottle Quests
- As the Sunken Kingdom emerges from the depths, new items have begun washing up onshore across the Sea of Thieves. The familiar glint of glass may now lead players to a Coral Message in a Bottle, containing a note leading down to the Sunken Kingdom and the riches hidden beneath the waves.
- By following these, players can uncover a unique treasure: the Breath of the Sea. Derived from the same power held inside Mermaid and Siren Gems, this can be handed in to any Trading Company for a generous reward! Three different rarities can be found, each worth more than the last: Sapphire, Emerald, and Ruby.
- Mysteries of the Sunken Kingdom
- Scattered throughout the Siren Shrines, journals written by intrepid adventurers seeking the mysteries of the Sunken Kingdom await discovery by new explorers.
- Players who locate all journals and learn the mysteries of the Sunken Kingdom should return to Larinna for a Legend of the Sunken Kingdom Voyage, offering an Enchanted Compass and a note leading to the first clue.
- Players bold enough to forego the scholar’s warnings and unearth knowledge of the sorrowful secrets on the sea bed can seek an even greater prize, displaying their time spent below the surface…
- Sunken Kingdom Commendations and Rewards
- Within the Bilge Rats Reputation tab, new Commendations have been added for players seeking the waterlogged riches of the Sunken Kingdom. Completing these Commendations will unlock access to the remaining coral-encrusted items of the Sunken Sorrow ship and weapon sets currently held in the Outpost stores.
- Sunken Kingdom Achievements
- New Xbox and Steam Achievements can be unlocked by progressing through the new in-game Commendations. A total of 200 Gamerscore is available to earn from this update, and these Achievements will remain in the game indefinitely.
Season Four
- Seasonal Progression and Rewards
- Progressing through Season Four will reward pirates with the Wicked Web clothing set, unique Season Four specials alongside time-limited Siren’s Wrath collectibles.
- Existing Pirate Legends or those who earn this lofty title during Season Four will also be able to unlock the Cursed Adventurer Cutlass and Wanda’s Spyglass.
- Reaching certain Tiers of Seasonal progression will award a unique Title that shows off your success for all to see!
- Season Four Trials and Deeds
- Players seeking to accelerate their progress through a Season should consider taking on Trials: themed sets of tasks known as Deeds that will test adventuring, exploring, and battling capabilities.
- Season Four contains a refreshed set of Seasonal Trials for new and experienced pirates alike, while also introducing Weekly and Monthly Trials that bring in further feats to tackle and Renown boosts to earn as the Season progresses.
- Weekly Trials are refreshed every Thursday (10 am UTC), while Monthly Trials are refreshed on the last Thursday of the month (also 10 am UTC).
- Daily Deeds have been revamped in Season Four, serving players short session experiences of varying lengths: Swift Deeds designed to be tackled in 5-10 minutes and Standard Deeds likely to take around twice as long, all awarding suitable Seasonal Renown gains on completion.
- Season Four Emissary Ledger Rewards
- Representing the Gold Hoarders in their Ledger can now earn players the Tribute Peak Capstan, Flag, and Sails.
- Players seeking out the secrets of the Order of Souls can earn the Relic of Darkness Capstan, Flag, and Sails from their Ledger performance.
- The Merchant Alliance honor their high-performing Ledger representatives with the Merchant Ambassador Capstan, Flag, and Sails.
- Flying the flag of The Reaper’s Bones and earning a high rank in their Ledger can earn players the Masked Renegade Capstan, Flag, and Sails.
- Legendary pirates representing Athena’s Fortune in their Ledger can earn the Magpie’s Glory Capstan and Wheel to show their allegiance to the Pirate Lord.
Game Events
- Fury of the Damned
- Sea of Thieves’ annual event in honor of the Ferryman is back! This year’s event runs across four weeks, with each themed week asking crews to undertake different actions to earn the Bilge Rats’ Favour, from tackling fiendish Forts to fighting ghastly Phantoms and smashing skeletons.
- Overcoming the undead forces threatening the seas by completing Challenges to earn Favour will award items from the Wicked Web set.
- Keep an eye on Sea of Thieves’ social channels for updates, and check the Events Hub for all the info when this Event drops!
- Twitch Drops
- Continue to unlock even more cosmetics throughout Season Four with Twitch Drops! Stay tuned for more news on when Twitch Drops will be active for Partnered streamers, allowing players to earn items from the Twilight Hunter set. Find out how to link your accounts and more on the dedicated Twitch Drops page.
- Prime Gaming
- Cosmetics, currency, and emotes are up for grabs in the last of the time-limited packs available to Prime Gaming members! Visit the Prime Gaming page to find out how to link your Amazon Prime account and claim while you still can.
Pirate Emporium
- Season Four Plunder Pass
- Purchase the latest Plunder Pass to add 11 never-before-seen rewards to the pool available to earn by climbing the levels of Seasonal progression, along with Ancient Coin drops at each Tier.
- The Season Four Plunder Pass is entirely stocked with early access items. It unlocks the ability to earn parts of the brand new Jack O’ Looter ship set, a matching Costume, a full selection of weapons, and more!
- The Season Four Plunder Pass is available to purchase through the Pirate Log, Pirate Emporium, Microsoft Store, or Steam Item Store.
- Golden Nile Ship Collection
- Embellish your ship as you so wish from the new Golden Nile Ship Collection. In addition to the main Golden Nile Ship Bundle, a majestic Collector’s Figurehead and glorious Collector’s Sails can be purchased separately for top-tier showboating!
- A Golden Nile Essential Ship Bundle is also on offer, including just the core ship cosmetics at a lower price.
- Golden Nile Costume
- Look sharp and snappy in the new crocodile-crowned Golden Nile Costume, and while wearing it you can perform the built-in Sand Shaker Emote!
- Golden Nile Weapon Bundle
- Impress your enemies as much as your own crewmates with these glittering Golden Nile weapons.
- Golden Nile Lantern
- Illuminate the path of piracy that lies ahead with the ornate Golden Nile Lantern.
- Victorious Weapon Pose Emote
- Strike a heroic pose and show off any equipped weapon with this triumphant all-in-one emote!
- Absolute Joker Emotes
- Bring hilarious japes to any long Voyage with these four emotes designed for pranksters.
- Freebie Drama Emote
- Raise your exasperation into the realm of true drama with this free emote.
- Bite and Brighten Bundle
- Available only from the Xbox, Microsoft, and Steam Stores. This bundle contains the Golden Nile Lantern and Collector’s Figurehead, 1000 Ancient Coins, and a free 25,000 gold bonus for use in the Outpost shops! Head to the Microsoft Store or Steam Item Store to find out more.
Outpost Cosmetics
- Olive Majestic Sovereign Set
- The Outpost clothing shops now stock the Olive Majestic Sovereign clothing set, available to purchase for gold.
Accessibility
- Nautical Narration
- Nautical Narration is a feature to help players navigate the seas using their handheld compass or ship-mounted compass, announcing the direction being faced when “Let Games Read to Me” is enabled.
- There are four different options: “Off,” “One Shot Narration,” “Continuous,” and “Continuous When Equipped.”
- “One Shot Narration” means the direction your pirate is facing will be narrated once when using the compass. When using the ship’s wheel, players will need to press E on the keyboard or the Y button on a controller to narrate the ship’s current direction. This can be rebound within the game settings.
- “Continuous” will narrate the direction your pirate is facing as you turn while using the compass.
- “Continuous When Equipped” will continually narrate direction without the player needing to raise the compass.
- For “Continuous” narration options, the delay between narration can be configured within the Accessibility Settings.
Gameplay Improvements
- Island Enemy Encounters
- When encountering emergent threats while exploring smaller resource islands, crews will now only encounter a specific type of enemy in a wave rather than facing waves of mixed enemy types.
- Deep Sea Enemy Encounters
- When groups of players swim into deep water, the number of Sirens that can appear has been reduced.
- Swimming Upwards
- Players can now hold down the Space Bar on a keyboard or the A button on a controller to swim directly up when underwater. This keybind is remappable so that players can change it to their own preference.
Updates
- Dynamic Resolution on Xbox Series X
- On Xbox Series X consoles, Sea of Thieves will now dynamically scale resolution in order to maintain a smooth 60 FPS experience during periods of high activity.
- Front End Messaging
- The game’s front end now supports the display of notifications sent from Sea of Thieves Support, used to communicate issues that may affect active or incoming players.
- Muting Copyrighted Audio in A Pirate’s Life
- A new option can be found in the Audio Settings allowing content creators to mute all copyrighted audio heard throughout the Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life Tall Tales.
- When “Mute Copyrighted Audio” is enabled, any music cues, sound effects or audio taken from or based on Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies or attraction will be muted, including the “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” shanty when played by players.
- Replace Gamertags Keybind
- The option to keybind “Toggle Replace Gamertags” for quick use has now been re-enabled.
Fixed Issues
- Gameplay
- Ocean Crawlers should no longer appear and disrupt the Legend of Glitterbeard experience.
- Players can no longer cancel the self-douse animations while using the bucket in order to throw water into their face more rapidly than intended.
- Players should no longer be able to mitigate damage dealt by other players during a game stall.
- Players should no longer be able to extend the distance when fired from a cannon during a game stall.
- Using a ship’s harpoon prior to server migration should no longer cause that harpoon to become unusable following migration.
- Devil’s Roar Merchant Cargo Voyages now consistently lead to a character in The Devil’s Roar to collect the required cargo.
- Completing the Devil’s Ridge Wayfinder Voyages for the Gold Hoarders should now count towards the Golden Devil’s Voyager Commendation within The Forsaken Shores.
- When starting a Lost Shipments Voyage, the first parchment that players receive should now display text correctly.
- When playing with an AZERTY keyboard layout, the 1 and 2 keys will now quick swap to the appropriate items.
- When selecting the Condemned Captain Monkey in the Pet Chest, no clothing should be selectable from the Outfit tab.
- Tall Tales
- “Fate of the Morningstar” — The Quest Book now better supports Japanese localization without some characters appearing cut off.
- “Fate of the Morningstar” — The “Open Sarcophagus” tooltip should no longer remain on-screen after opening the sarcophagus.
- “A Pirate’s Life” — Players are no longer able to leave a Galleon traveling through the Tunnels of the Damned.
- “A Pirate’s Life” — Improved server stability when releasing the Cursed Captain from his cage.
- “A Pirate’s Life” — The Flying Dutchman will appear correctly alongside the Ferry of the Damned with complete visual effects and accompanying voiceover from Davy Jones.
- “A Pirate’s Life” and “Captains of the Damned” — Players should no longer be able to activate a Voyage after transitioning through the Tunnels of the Damned.
- “A Pirate’s Life” and “Captains of the Damned” — Rejoining a session after disconnecting while in the Tunnels of the Damned should no longer cause the player to “wake up” at the Tale location, away from their ship.
- “The Sunken Pearl” — When following the debris while swimming down, it should no longer pop into view.
- “The Sunken Pearl” —The water from the stone faces should no longer noticeably restart each time the player’s camera changes position.
- “The Sunken Pearl” — The Mermaid Statue located outside the Throne Room should now have appropriate interaction prompts.
- “The Sunken Pearl” — Players should no longer be able to stand inside the Kraken’s head and attack it with a cutlass.
- “The Sunken Pearl” — Players should no longer be able to skip the mechanisms in the Salvage Room by jumping on coral around the environment.
- “Captains of the Damned”— Players should no longer be able to harpoon the Cursed Captain’s skull from the top of the tavern door.
- “Dark Brethren” — Voiceover lines for various characters should now play correctly throughout the Tale.
- “Dark Brethren” — The statues should appear to be illuminated when joining a crew in progress during the Chamber of Sorrow encounter.
- “Dark Brethren” — Players should no longer be able to get stuck or fall under the map in the Lower Ascending Chamber.
- “Dark Brethren” — The waterfall splash VFX in the Ascending Chamber should no longer become invisible when a player gets close.
- “Lords of the Sea” — The intro cutscene should now play as intended when starting the Tale.
- “Lords of the Sea” — Voiceover for various characters should now play correctly throughout the Tale.
- “Lords of the Sea” — Cancelling or failing the Tale should now cause the Spire and Siren Statues to descend gracefully.
- “Lords of the Sea” — The Storage Crate of the Dark Brethren should now use the correct name on the pick up/open tooltip when viewing it.
- “Lords of the Sea” — After starting and canceling the Tale, the Spire should now animate correctly and no longer sit above the water.
- “Lords of the Sea” — Davy Jones should no longer be missing his voiceover lines after the Flying Dutchman’s defeat.
- Custom Servers
- When creating a Custom Server session, the host can now directly invite friends to the lobby using an in-game option.
- Accessibility
- Players using “Let Games Read to Me” who receive a message from a player with Text To Speech enabled should no longer hear the message narrated twice.
- Environment
- Within the Pirate Legend Hideout, players should no longer be able to push through the environment near the pier and appear in the sea.
- When spawning at Golden Sands Outpost with a Brigantine, the ship should now appear closer to the dock.
- After defeating an Ashen Lord on Shipwreck Bay, the treasure dropped should now be accessible every time.
- At Sailor’s Knot Stronghold, treasure should no longer be able to fall under the environment near the Vault doors.
- The Pirate Emporium at Plunder Outpost and Ancient Spire Outpost should no longer have a peanut bag sticking through the wall.
- Visual and Audio
- The Trident of Dark Tides now has a green glint when viewed from a distance.
- All Merchant Commodities and Bounty Skulls now glint when viewed from a distance.
- Each Trading Company’s Reputation page should now correctly summarise the total number of Titles that can be earned.
- Soulflame Cannon Flare visual effects should now appear as intended to other players present.
- The correct audio sound should now be heard when digging up a treasure chest.
- The Hunter’s Call Forager Parrot should now be suitably sooty after being fired out of a cannon.
- In an active Ancient Vault, water pouring from the statues will now be clearly visible at all times.
- The Relic of Darkness Wheel has been modified to prevent it from blocking players’ ability to see the ship’s compass.
- The Tribute Peak and Relic of Darkness Cannons have been modified to improve aiming visibility when firing.
- Emotes which have a visual effect will now correctly display this effect in the preview within the Pirate Emporium and Vanity Chest.
- The time remaining in the Seasons menu should now correctly represent the time remaining within the Season.
- Performance and Stability
- Further improvements made to server performance, reducing latency during gameplay.
- Improved server stability, reducing scenarios where crews are removed from a game session.
Known Issues
- Legend of the Sunken Kingdom Voyage
- Players are temporarily prevented from using Sunken Merfolk Statues to store quest items such as chests and keys received while on the Legend of the Sunken Kingdom Voyage. Crews are encouraged to keep the Forbidden Coral Chest with them while venturing below the waves and using the keys as soon as they are uncovered to reduce the number of items needing to be carried.
- 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 small improvements continue to be delivered during our regular updates, we are continuing to investigate and identify further improvements to improve the player combat experience.
In other news, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is shaping up nicely. There’s also a new Nintendo Direct stream happening today — could Metroid Prime 4 finally feature?
