Sea of Thieves is still sailing, five years after it launched. And to keep it afloat, developer Rare has been putting out regular patches, introducing new seasonal content and squashing any bugs that have emerged. Now there’s a new patch and if you’re wondering what it does, here are all the Sea of Thieves update 2.9.0 patch notes.
Here’s What Sea of Thieves Update 2.9.0 Changes
Update 2.9.0 kicks off Season 10 of Sea of Thieves but it doesn’t add in every Season 10 feature. Instead, this patch adds Guilds, which allows up to 24 players to form their own piratical company. We’re sure there’ll be absolutely no arguments.
Related: The Anatomy of Sea of Thieves
A particularly neat feature, tied into Guilds, is that people within a guild can choose whether other players can sail their ships in their absence.
It’s a brave pirate who’d just hand over the wheel like that but if you’re trusting enough (we’re talking about pirates here, after all), the option’s there. Rare has helpfully provided an official video to help you learn more.
There are other Season 10-related rewards, but they aren’t the most interesting thing about this Sea of Thieves patch. Instead, the most exciting feature is that hit detection has been improved.
That’s right, whether you’re taking on ships, pirates or both, Rare promises “..accuracy improvements across a range of combat scenarios.”
That means no more blaming the game when you miss, though Rare says they’re taking measures to improve hit detection even further.
Sword combat has also been given a kick in the pants, so that the player who gets the first strike in has the upper hand. That might sound slightly unfair, but blocking has also been improved so sword-fighting should be more fun.
Related: Best Boat and Sea-Themed Games
Speaking of fairness, auto-aim has been tweaked, levelling the playing field between players on a controller and those using a mouse or keyboard. I can see this being a contentious change.
Other improvements include letting players repair rowboats, retaining your supplies when your connection causes you to disconnect and many other (mostly) player-friendly changes.
If you want to know absolutely everything this patch does, here are the patch notes in full.
Guilds
The first of Season Ten’s major features to arrive, Guilds builds on Sea of Thieves’ previous Captaincy update and allows players to expand their bonds with friends, enjoy asynchronous progression and work together under a shared banner to earn exclusive rewards. Available now!
Introducing Guilds
- A new feature that encourages groups of up to 24 like-minded players to band together under a Guild with its own name, motto and branding, and a shared approach to sailing the Sea of Thieves.
- Any player can create a Guild and invite other players to join, and all Guild Members can contribute to the collective Guild Reputation, unlocking fantastic new rewards. Those who choose to sail as Guild Emissaries can claim even more prizes from the Guild Ledger.
- Captains who pledge ships to the Guild can choose whether other Guild Members are able to sail those ships in their absence, progressing Ship Milestones on their behalf!
- To learn more about all that Guilds has to offer, head to our dedicated Season Ten page or check out the official Guilds Explained video.
Season Ten
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! Read on for more on all this plus details of the quality of life improvements landing with this Season’s launch…
Season Ten Rewards and Plunder Pass
- Progressing through Season Ten will reward pirates with the Intrepid Explorer clothing set and unique Season Ten specials alongside time-limited Gilded Sovereign collectibles.
- Purchase the Plunder Pass to gain access to a plethora of unlockable, never-before-seen rewards from the Stormfish Chaser set, all available to earn by climbing the levels of Seasonal progression.
Season Ten Emissary Ledger Rewards
- This Season, the Trading Companies each offer a themed Compass and Shovel to Emissaries who represent them well and perform proudly in the Ledgers.
Chest of Fortune
- For the duration of Season Ten, the Chest of Fortune has been locked away in the Vault of the Fort of the Damned and can only be obtained by triumphing over this formidable encounter.
- Crews who retrieve the Chest of Fortune can now earn the next grade of the Fortune’s Favour Commendation, unlocking access to the Fates of Fortune clothing.
Reaper’s Chests
- In Season Ten, crews coveting the precious Reaper’s Chest or Reaper’s Bounty can now earn the next grade of the Reaper’s Riches Commendation and start unlocking access to the Fates of Fortune vanity items.
Combat Improvements
Hit Detection Improvements
- Season Ten brings together a suite of improvements to hit detection that provide accuracy improvements across a range of combat scenarios, including island and ship encounters.
- While this provides an overall improvement to the accuracy of hit detection, we are aware of scenarios where it can still underperform. A focused team continues to work on optimising this experience further in future updates.
Sword Combat Flow
- Improvements have been made to the flow of sword combat when two opponents are duelling, ensuring that the player to land the first strike retains the upper hand in the encounter.
- An attacker landing the first strike now consistently retains the upper hand and can land the second and third hits of their combo. The defending player is now interrupted from counterattacking and encouraged to switch to defence, using the block or moving to avoid strikes.
Sword Block
- To improve the reliability of blocking with a sword, improvements have been made to the angle and range of a defender’s block. Players should now find that blocking is a much more consistent experience and caters to a wide range of defensive scenarios.
Sword Hit Detection and Feedback
- Improvements to hit detection should now provide consistent visual and audio feedback that a strike has landed and damaged an opponent, when attacking players with a sword at the maximum strike range.
- Players attacking with a heavy strike will now only be penalised with a stun effect when missing an opponent. Players connecting with an opponent at any point during the heavy strike will no longer find themselves confusingly stunned.
Quick Switching Removal
- Players equipping two ranged weapons are no longer able to perform a technique to cancel the weapon wield animation and fire two shots in quick succession. While players may still find they can cancel the wield animation in some scenarios, there is no longer a competitive advantage to doing so and it may even extend the time between firing shots compared to a regular weapon switch.
Controller Aim Assist
- Controller players on console and PC will now have access to aiming assistance, improving balance between controller and mouse/keyboard inputs. Aim Assist is only active for ranged combat encounters against other players and enemy threats, and will not expose players hiding in the environment.
- Players using Aim Assist have access to a range of settings to refine the sensitivity of both Hip Fire and Aim Down Sights independently, and can also choose whether this applies to members of an Alliance to better configure the experience to their liking.
Gameplay Improvements
Colourful Rowboats
- Players will now find a range of different coloured Rowboats washed up on shores. Seek them out in the Azure Scout, Flaming Jackal, Golden Chaser, Lucky Rover, Regal Hound and rare Good Boy liveries.
Saving Rowboats
- Captains who discover and dock a Rowboat to their ship during a game session will now find their Rowboat is saved, ready for them to set sail next time. Losing the ship, however, will also mean losing that precious Rowboat…
Repairing Rowboats
- Players can now repair a damaged Rowboat! With a plank in hand, the sizeable crack in the floor of the boat can now be patched, rescuing it from a murky fate.
- Rowboats docked to a Captained ship can now be repaired by the shipwright for free. Leaving a game session with a damaged Rowboat docked will also repair it ready for the next session.
Retaining Supplies Following Disconnection
- Players who are offered the chance to rejoin a session after being disconnected from the game due to a sudden exit, game crash or network issue will now find that the supplies in their inventory are retained, allowing them to pick up exactly where they left off.
Mermaids During Hourglass of Fate Battles
- Players who find themselves in the sea during an Hourglass of Fate Battle will now find that the mermaids appear much sooner and closer, helping them return to their ship more quickly.
Collector’s Chest Improvements
- Players holding a Collector’s Chest can now scoop up small treasures directly from the ground, allowing them to store items more quickly.
Clear All Map Markers
- Players can now quickly clear all map markers placed by their crew. Simply hover over a placed marker and select ‘Clear All Map Markers’.
Cashing In Recovered Resource Crates
- Crews who ‘recover’ stolen Resource Crates are now able to sell them back to the Merchant Alliance or Sovereigns at any Outpost. Crews who purchase the crates are still prevented from selling them back directly!
Extra Cooking Stoves
- Each ship now offers two stoves for players to cook up a hearty meal for their crew.
Fruit Crate Contents
- Fruit Crates purchased from the Merchant Alliance will now contain a variety of fruits, instead of just bananas.
Bait Keybinding
- Keen anglers can now assign a keybind to their bait, allowing them to cycle through the different bait types and be ready to cast more quickly.
Updates
Reputation Menu Improvements
- The Reputation pane within the Pirate’s Log has now been redesigned, providing an improved overview of the various Trading Companies and player progression.
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.
New Items – Now in Stock!
- Silver Sepulchre Ship Collection
- Silver Sepulchre Weapon Bundle
- Silver Sepulchre Clothing Bundle
- Silver Sepulchre Lantern
- Crimson Crypt Ship’s Crest
- Friend or Fright Emote
- Graveyard Grim Pets (time-limited for Halloween, will return next year)
- Skeleton Pets Return (time-limited for Halloween, will return next year)
- Paradise Garden Blunderbuss (free!)
- Crypts and Creatures Bundle (Microsoft, Xbox and Steam Stores only)
Outpost Cosmetics
New Outpost Stock!
- The Outpost weaponsmiths and shipwrights have received a shipment of items from the brand new Gold Leaf set. Players are able to purchase the Gold Leaf ship set and weapons, all available for gold.
Season Three Legacy Cosmetics
- Cosmetics previously available during Season Three have now arrived in Outpost shops and can be yours in exchange for Doubloons!
- Pirates can purchase the Daring Deceiver clothing set, along with a range of unique one-off items that were available during this Season. Pirate Legends can also purchase Sudds’ Jacket and the Ferry of the Damned Figurehead.
- The time-limited Blue Horizon items, however, remain exclusive to players who participated in Season Three.
Fixed Issues
Gameplay
- The Legendary Search for the Skull of Destiny Voyage is once again available from the Pirate Lord and shipwrights!
- Players who complete all Commendations across the three Legend of Monkey Island Tall Tales will now obtain the Legend of Monkey Island Commendation and gain access to the Monkey Island Shanty.
- Crews who sneak aboard a rival ship and place a Gunpowder Barrel will no longer cause a ‘Treasure Donated’ notification to be shown to the rival crew. Consider a more thoughtful ‘donation’ next time!
‘The Quest for Guybrush’
- Pickpocketing Guybrush should now have an appropriate animation and show updated iconography.
- The rings of fire in the circus will continue to appear lit when viewed from above.
- Players can no longer see through the environment near the top of the waterfall next to the troll’s bridge.
‘The Lair of LeChuck’
- Crews returning to this Tall Tale from a checkpoint will now see characters in the correct locations and the correct notifications as they play through it.
- A range of visual, audio and animation improvements have been made across the Tale to improve the level of polish.
- If the Mad Monkey ship sinks during the fight, the Root Beer Cannonballs will no longer revert to regular cannonballs.
- Guybrush will now stay closer to players when moving through the catacombs.
- Guybrush and Elaine now fire Root Beer Cannonballs instead of regular cannonballs.
- Players can now use the three-hit sword combo when fighting LeChuck in the church.
- Passing through a lava waterfall during the ship chase will now cause players to take damage as intended.
- Admiral Coco can now be interacted with after the Golden Monkey Idol retrieved from the Mast Trap has been placed.
- Players are now able to push the cannon after greasing it with the Banana Grease.
- Players can still use the Primitive Art after placing all the Golden Monkey Idols.
- Players can no longer climb into the front-facing cannons aboard the Headless Monkey while other characters are using them.
- The notification when finding the Stockade Key now appears properly for all players.
- Text improvements have been made across the tale to improve localisation, ensure dialogue and subtitles are correct and any placeholder text has been removed.
Environment
- Environment improvements have been made to prevent players becoming stuck or launched into the air while navigating The Reaper’s Lair, Wanderers Refuge, Molten Sands Fortress, Shark Bait Cove, The North Star Seapost, Dagger Tooth Outpost and the path to the Pirate Legend Hideout.
- Sea Fort keys dropped by defeated Captains should no longer become stuck in the environment.
- During a Skeleton Fort at Skull Keep or Lost Gold Fort, the Skeleton Lord should no longer become stuck within rocks on the island shore.
- Players can no longer get under the environment when shooting themselves out of a cannon at certain points around The Reaper’s Hideout.
- Players who shoot themselves from cannons into stone archways at sea will no longer find themselves stuck in the rocks.
- There will no longer be a dark space visible when the passage is open at the Shrine of the Coral Tomb.
- Fire effects will no longer appear on parts of wooden and metal tavern structures at Morrow’s Peak Outpost.
- The wooden platform at the shipwright’s shop on Ancient Spire Outpost is now fully connected to the ceiling surface.
- Items placed on the edges of the lift to the Reaper’s Lair will no longer have a chance of slipping through the cracks and falling below.
- Players are no longer able to swim under the environment in the Shrine of Ancient Tears.
- Player can no longer walk on the ocean floor east of the Shrine of the Coral Tomb.
- There is no longer an invisible wall blocking the path when exploring Old Sailor Isle during the Maiden Voyage.
- Players visiting Thieves’ Haven will no longer find that rain is falling into caves and affecting combat with Skeleton forms.
- Players can no longer move through the scenery in multiple areas of the Pirate Legend Hideout.
- Players can no longer walk through the table in the Sovereigns’ tents.
- ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Players can now consistently pick up the Cursed Captain’s skull after placing it at Poor Dougie’s grave.
- ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Players should no longer be able to become stuck behind the shipwreck hull after opening the first gate.
- ‘Captains of the Damned’ – Players are no longer able to see through the wall of the Fort in the second chapter.
- ‘Captains of the Damned’ – The lanterns on the Wicked Wench now display correctly.
- ‘Dark Brethren’ – Players can no longer walk through the pipe organ in the Chamber of Sorrow.
- ‘Shores of Gold’ – Players will now be able to retrieve the Gold Hoarder’s skull if placed down by the Vault entrance.
Accessibility
- Within the front end, the ‘Select a Ship Type’ screen is now narrated for players who enable ‘Let Games Read to Me’.
Visual and Audio
- Crews completing a Sea Fort or Skeleton Fort should no longer hear the music for the encounter continue.
- The Merchant Alliance Pistol has been polished and now shows the correct texture on its metal parts.
- Pendragon’s Pocket Watch no longer runs three minutes slow.
- Paintings placed within a Brigantine’s interior should no longer show a nail protruding through the frame.
- The Burning Blade Sails no longer show a floating piece of material.
- Crews equipping the Fearless Servant Figurehead will now see the correct item on their ship.
- The impact hole from a fired cannonball will now appear consistently.
- Textures now appear correctly on the Flaming Jackal Eye of Reach.
- After swigging a tankard of grog, a pirate’s hands will no longer intersect with their bodies when wiping their mouth.
- The Mountain of Crockery Trinket is now seated correctly when placed on shelves.
- Performing the Evildoer Dance Emote now displays the correct animation.
- Performing the Touch Grass Emote will no longer rain down an endless shower of pebbles.
- Players equipping the Gold Curse alongside the Sovereign Jacket will now find the Curse displays correctly on the arms.
- The Ashen Dragon and Shackled Phantom Hulls now glow at a consistent brightness.
Performance and Stability
- Players coming from the Microsoft Store should now consistently be able to begin a session in Open Crew without receiving a Greybeard error.
- Ongoing improvements made to server stability to reduce instances where players are disconnected from their session.
Those are all the Sea of Thieves update 2.9.0 patch notes. You won’t be able to play the game without downloading the patch, but it’s under 9GB in size so it won’t be long before you’re again ready to set sail.
