Ahoy, pirates! Are you ready to set sail into the latest adventure? Sea of Thieves has just launched its much-awaited Season 15, packed with thrilling new content that will keep you coming back for more. Seriously, I can’t wait to share all the juicy details!
This season is introducing The Hunter’s Call Voyages, which means you’ll have new quests to tackle that revolve around the culinary delights of the game. Yes, you heard me right! You will be hunting down some fantastic seafood while encountering intriguing creatures. What could be better than cooking up a storm on your ship while battling against waves and foes?
Adding fresh tools to aid in your pirate life means there’s always something new at your disposal. Whether you’re perfecting your fishing skills or trying out new strategies, this update is sure to shake things up.
If you want all the nitty-gritty details about what’s included in this patch, head over to the official announcement on Sea of Thieves’ website. Trust me; you won’t want to miss it! As for the under-the-hood details, you can check below:
Wild Seas
Heed the call in Season 15, which brings a wealth of new incentives to The Hunter’s Call while introducing new wildlife both harmless and hostile. For an overview of the fierce features due to roll out over the course of this Season, head to our dedicated Season 15 page!
Ancient Megalodon Encounters
- Ancient Megalodons have torn through from the Sea of the Damned and begun terrorising pirate crews with their terrifying powers. Hunters should keep a keen eye on the waves for these deadly new foes.
- The Feared Redmaw is a ferocious beast with fiery attacks. Crews must quell its supercharged assault by damaging it to release its pressure and avoid a cataclysmic explosion.
- The menacing Barnacled Dread must have its coral armour removed before the beast can be defeated. Look out for its shocking bite and ability to summon Eel-ectric Ocean Crawlers onto your ship!
On-Demand Hunter’s Call Voyages
- The Quest Table now offers a range of Voyages on demand for The Hunter’s Call, allowing crews to sail or dive to their location.
- New Fishing Voyages provide hunters with the locations of Treasured Fish where they gather near islands, tasking them to retrieve these new fish for the Company.
- The Treasured Fish caught from these Voyages are unique and highly valuable, so they cannot be cooked, eaten or stored in a player’s inventory. They can be handed in for gold and reputation, but beware – they can also be stolen by other pirates!
- Hunter’s Call Raid Voyages allow players to experience any of the eight existing Raids on demand, while awarding new Hunter’s Call treasure.
Emissaries for The Hunter’s Call
- Crews can now represent The Hunter’s Call as an Emissary, boosting their rewards as they go hunting across the seas. On reaching Emissary Grade 5, crews should keep an eye on the ship’s map as recent sightings of Ancient Megalodons will now be shown.
- Players sailing as an Emissary will now appear on The Hunter’s Call Emissary Ledger and be eligible to earn new rewards.
Hunter’s Call Trading Company Expansion
- Players can now climb to rank 100 with The Hunter’s Call, with new rewards from the Killer Whale set to unlock as they progress. Reaching the lofty rank of 100 will unlock the Hunter’s Call Costume along with a Distinction Ring, allowing players to continue representing the Company towards their next Distinction.
Wild Seas Commendations and Rewards
- With ferocious new encounters to face and Hunter’s Call treasure on offer, a range of new Commendations have been added within the Reputation tab to challenge would-be hunters. Explore the challenges under Wild Seas to unlock rewards from the new Eternal Hunt set.
- With the introduction of Hunter’s Call Emissary play, The Reaper’s Bones are now offering the Disgraced Hunter’s Hat for crews willing to claim the Flags of fallen Hunter’s Call Emissaries.
- Four new Pirate Milestones have also been added with Wild Seas, unlocking access to new Trinkets: the ‘Fearsome Flame’, ‘Coral Calamity’ and ‘Tides of Tranquillity’ Trophies along with the ‘Gone Fishin’’ Painting.
Season 15
Another Season means 100 new levels to climb by raising your Renown, with racks full of rewards to snag along the way – and an optional Plunder Pass adding even more!
Season 15 Rewards and Plunder Pass
- As The Hunter’s Call expands this Season, players can now earn Renown when defeating new threats and cashing in the new treasures on offer.
- Progressing through the 100 levels of Renown in Season 15 will reward players with the Hungering One Hunter’s clothing set and unique Season 15 rewards, alongside time-limited Call of the Seas collectibles. Head to the Seasons profile page to browse the new rewards and check your pirate’s progress!
- Pick up the latest Plunder Pass to gain access to a plethora of additional unlockable cosmetics from the Dynasty of the Deep set, including a ship set with Collector’s items and a selection of themed clothing, all available to earn by raising your Renown. Purchase a Pass in-game through the Pirate Log or Pirate Emporium, or via the Pirate Emporium webpage, Microsoft Store, PlayStation™Store or Steam Item Store.
Season 15 Emissary Ledger Rewards
- This Season, the Guild Emissary Ledgers offer the ‘Circle of Death’ Painting, ‘Rock Hopper’ Ornament and Guild of Piratical Predators Title to Guilds who perform proudly in the Ledgers.
- The initial rewards for the new Hunter’s Call Emissary Ledger include the Assailant of the Abyss Title, Hunter’s Call Inaugural Explorer Sails and Hunter’s Call Inaugural Forager Sails.
- In line with the regular rhythm of Emissary Ledgers, these rewards will be earnable from the start of the next month, March 1st.
Chest of Fortune
- For the duration of Season 15, the Chest of Fortune has been returned to the Vault of the Fort of Fortune.
- Crews who retrieve Chests of Fortune can now earn the next Grade of the Fortune’s Favour Commendation, unlocking access to Regal Fortune clothing items.
Reaper’s Chests
- Crews chasing down the telltale beacon of the Reaper’s Chest or Reaper’s Bounty can earn the next grade of the Reaper’s Riches Commendation, and start unlocking access to the Regal Fortune Hook, Pegleg, Tattoo and Eyepatch.
Gameplay Improvements
Performance Improvements
- Sea of Thieves servers now support multithreading and have received the first phase of performance improvements. Parts of the physics and network systems are now directed to a different core and can run in parallel to the main game.
- Performance improvements have been made to how treasure is populated within shipwrecks, ensuring that it’s only placed when crews engage with it and more readily cleaned up to improve server performance if items are left behind.
- Broad performance improvements have been made for players across both PC and console when playing at higher framerates, improving loading behind the scenes based on the client framerate. These improvements have been tuned to target framerates between 60fps and 120fps, but may also provide some improvements for higher framerates where supported.
- Performance optimisations have taken place on all islands across the Sea of Thieves, with each island receiving a pass. There will be no visible changes to the islands as part of these optimisations.
- Performance optimisations have been made when selling treasure to Trading Company representatives while representing as an Emissary.
- Further performance improvements have been made to how Trinkets are loaded when approaching Captained ships, optimising the experience on PlayStation®5 and Xbox Series consoles.
- The appearance of the Burning Blade is now much rarer on the seas, with the other World Events now increased in rotation.
- In addition to the above areas, this update includes a range of smaller optimisations to game performance providing improvements across the broader experience.
Blowpipe Improvements
- Switching between dart types is now much more responsive and allows for quicker switching before firing.
Trap Inventory
- Traps have now been separated from throwables in the player’s inventory. Players can now carry a maximum of two traps and five other throwables. These revised trap limits are now shown by a separate Trap category in the player’s inventory.
- Traps will now be included when cycling through throwables by using the available hotkey.
- When using a cannon, traps have been removed from the cannonball radial menu.
Addressing Unsinkable Ship Locations
- Changes have been made to a range of islands where ships have been reported to become unsinkable when partially beached in shallow areas, with players taking advantage of this during Faction battles.
- The following islands have been improved to address these shallow spots: Dagger Tooth Outpost, Kraken’s Fall, Shark Tooth Key and Port Merrick.
Hidden Skeleton Fort Vaults
- The Vaults beneath all Skeleton Forts including the Fort of the Damned have been hidden, with players no longer able to see through the cracks from the floors above to spy the Vault treasures waiting to be claimed.
Menu Navigation on Controller
- Navigating through the game’s various menus has been improved when using a controller, providing a more fluid experience when navigating in diagonal movements and held directions now scrolling across larger areas.
- These menu navigation improvements can be customised further in the game’s input settings as ‘Controller Menu Deadzone’ and ‘Controller Menu Repeat Speed’.
Pirate Emporium
Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium page to browse and buy the latest additions!
New Items – Now in Stock!
- Pig Pets: Oatmeal, Pomegranate, Truffle, Cinnamon and Mulberry
- Rococo Ship Collection
- Rococo Ship’s Crest
- Rococo Costume Bundle
- Rococo Weapon Bundle
- Culinary Cadet Emote Bundle
- Sting Tide Pistol (free!)
Outpost Cosmetics
New Outpost Stock!
- Fans of the Lucky Hand set can now find the instruments available at Outpost equipment shops.
Season Eight Legacy Cosmetics
- Cosmetics previously available during Season Eight have arrived in Outpost shops and can now be yours in exchange for Doubloons!
- Players can now purchase the Cursed Bone clothing set, along with a range of unique one-off items first available during this Season. Pirate Legends can also pick up Flameheart’s Hat and Cutlass.
- The time-limited Cursed Bone Flag, Sails, Makeup, Tattoo and Scar, however, remain exclusive to players who participated in Season Eight.
Updates
Detection Improvements for Ban Evasion
- Further detection improvements continue to roll out behind the scenes targeting players who evade game bans to regain access to Sea of Thieves. These improvements will continue to be deployed in phases over the coming months to systematically crack down on banned players and prevent them from returning to the seas.
Quest Table Voyage Cooldowns
- Following the introduction of the Quest Table and the refreshed Voyages delivered in Season 11, players have discovered techniques to increase their progression and gold acquisition in unintended, accelerated ways. The Sea of Thieves team now has the ability to apply cooldowns to specific Voyages should crews start and cancel the same Voyage repeatedly in a short space of time.
- While no Voyage restrictions have yet been placed as part of this update, the team will continue to monitor player behaviour and target specific Voyages as part of future updates.
Temporary Voyage Locking
- The Sea of Thieves live team now has the ability to temporarily lock a Voyage and prevent it from being started on the Quest Table. This allows the team to react quickly and protect players in the live environment should a high-impact issue occur, without the need to take the game down for maintenance.
Accessibility
Custom Text Overlay
- A new accessibility feature has been introduced to improve the readability of Riddle Maps. Within the Language settings of the game menu, players can enable a Custom Text Overlay and further customise the appearance, adjusting screen position, font size, background and text colours.
- After preferences have been saved, the overlay will be applied when viewing any Riddle Map, with a scroll bar available for longer text.
Fixed Issues
Gameplay
- When players dive to a Faction battle, the enemy ship will now consistently appear visible upon surfacing to begin the encounter.
- Players using a Grapple Gun to pull another player while in the water can no longer cause their target to rotate.
- The audio effects for scooping and throwing water when bailing should now play consistently when performed in quick succession.
- The audio effects for a ship filling and creaking when taking on water are now prioritised over other effects, ensuring that these cues are always clear to players.
- Damage marks shown on the outside of a ship’s hull will now appear correctly based on the damage dealt.
- Throwables such as blunderbombs targeting the rear hull of the Galleon will now consistently impact the hull’s surface and not pass through certain areas to land inside the ship.
- Blowpipe darts embedded in moving ships are now more easily targeted and can be consistently destroyed through player actions.
- The prior fix to the Armoury (3.2.3) that addressed players being unable to switch weapons after receiving knockback damage has been reverted to prevent further impact. This issue will be addressed in a future update.
- Any open radial menus now close when crouching, preventing a range of visual issues caused by attempting to wield items while crouched.
- ‘The Journey to Mêlée Island’ – Emissary Grade progression is no longer awarded when collecting items found within the Tall Tale.
Performance and Stability
- Players on PS5® using cross-play should no longer experience game instability when communicating with other players using voice chat across platforms.
- Players on PS5® who are members of a Distinction 10 Guild will no longer experience game instability when navigating the front end menu.
- Further improvements have been made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly exit the game or become disconnected from their session.
Traps
- Traps should now consistently rest on the ground when placed in a range of locations.
- Traps will now be destroyed when thrown at the outside of a ship’s hull.
- Traps loaded with a Bone Caller will now trigger consistently when sprung.
- Throwing a trap inside a tavern will no longer prevent players from interacting with it or switching to other equipment.
- Players setting the trap will now correctly receive the Red Alert Raider Commendation when meeting the necessary criteria, while those triggering the trap will no longer increase Commendation progress.
User Interface
- Resolved an issue that caused the Quest Table to display an extended loading spinner when browsing for Voyages.
- When using low graphics settings, browsing the Pirate Emporium from the Quick Menu during gameplay should no longer cause textures to fail to load within the Emporium and across the wider game upon exiting.
- Players earning Distinctions for a Trading Company will now see the correct rank when viewing the Pirate’s Log from the front end menu.
Environment
- Skeletons that emerge at Crow’s Nest Fortress and Barnacle Cay Temple should now appear in the correct locations and not become stuck.
- Rain will no longer appear to fall inside buildings at Lookout Point.
- ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Players can no longer become stuck among palm trees during this Tall Tale.
Visual and Audio
- The Tankard of the Damned now visibly runs out of grog when emptied.
- Shadow Skeletons set on fire while in shadow form no longer display distorted visual effects.
- Firing a ship’s cannon equipped with various Cannon Flares at Ghost Ships will no longer cause visual issues to appear within the sails.
- Dying during the final wave of a Siren Treasury encounter will no longer cause the music to overlap.
- The Cardinal Lodestar Flag is now correctly displayed on the Brigantine.
- The Cardinal Lodestar and Lodestar Spyglass now sit correctly in players’ hands across all body sizes.
- Players wearing the Captaincy of Courage Jacket or Dress now appear correctly when observed by others.
- The Horn of Fair Winds and Trident of Dark Tides now appear correctly when viewed at different distances.
- The Kate Capsize hairstyle now fits neatly around tall jackets across all pirate body sizes.
- Fruit held in a player’s hand now casts the correct shadow.
- The Fates of Fortune Pocket Watch now consistently displays the correct time.
- The Tiny Tree Emote’s visual effect now disappears when the emote is cancelled.
- The light effect of the Ancestral Collector’s Figurehead is no longer visible from inside the ship, and the item now appears correctly when lowering the graphic settings.
- The visual effects of the Radiant Comet Collector’s Figurehead now remain visible when viewed at a short distance.
- Green smoke from the Checkmate Cannon Flare is no longer visible to players launched from the cannon.
- ‘Lords of the Sea’ – The Black Pearl now consistently appears with a golden glow at the end of the Tall Tale.
- ‘The Quest for Guybrush’ – Stan’s voiceover should continue to be heard after being locked inside the wardrobe.
- ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Murray’s skeleton now appears correctly once his head is attached.
Text and Localisation
- ‘The Lair of LeChuck’ – Improvements made to the Quest Book to address overlapping text in French and Italian languages.
- Improvements made to consistency in terminology across Simplified Chinese, Thai and Brazilian Portuguese languages.
I love how each season brings something unexpected, keeping us players on our toes! Have any memorable moments from previous seasons? I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Much love to everyone, and have a great day! I am Mihaela and I am glad to be seeing you reading this piece!