Sea of Thieves announces Anniversary Update with free items and new quests

Sea of Thieves fans will get free items, new quests, a competitive mode and a new trading company as part of an update to mark a year since the popular shared-world adventure title was released.

The Anniversary Update will be available next month, with the makers of the pirate-themed game calling it a “game changer”.

Joe Neate, Executive Producer at Rare, announced a collection of story-rich quests called Tall Tales that are played out in the shared world and can be completed alone or with a crew. The first collection of Tall Tales will be called Shores of Gold, “an epic adventure of love, honour and betrayal in search of the mythical Shores of Gold. This is Sea of Thieves like you’ve never seen it before,” Neate added.

Rare is also introducing a new trading company, named The Hunter’s Call, which will give players new ways to play and progress towards their ultimate aim of becoming a Pirate Legend.

Finally, The Arena will pit rival crews against each other as they race to find bounties and treasure. Each match will be “fun, frenetic and action-packed”, Xbox has previously said. The Arena will also add a new tavern area and another Trading Company – the Sea Dogs – which will offer new goals and rewards.

“Today, we are celebrating a year of adventures in Sea of Thieves,” Neate wrote in a blog post. “It’s been both humbling and awe-inspiring to see millions of players from all over the world set sail and create their own stories on the Sea of Thieves. On behalf of everyone at Rare, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s played and made Sea of Thieves what it is today.

“While it’s been an amazing first year, we’re not done yet. With four major updates, nine time-limited events and more than 30 game updates, we’re still just getting started. We’re as excited about Sea of Thieves today as we were a year ago, and I’m pleased to be able to share with you a big reason why – The Anniversary Update, our biggest content update so far, will be coming free to all players on April 30.

“The Anniversary Update is a game changer that takes Sea of Thieves to a whole new level.”

Millions of gamers have played Sea of Thieves since its launch on Xbox, Windows 10 PC and on Game Pass last year. It has also racked up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube and tens of millions of live broadcast hours on streaming service Twitch.

To say thank you to Sea of Thieves fans, Rare also announced a range of new in-game items and features:

• New Mercenary Voyages offering medleys in The Shores of Plenty and Devil’s Roar, together with a new Reaper’s Run voyage, commendations and cosmetics. There’s also a special Gilded Mercenary Voyage of Legends for Pirate Legends
• Captain Bones’ Original Pirate Cutlass has been added to the weapons chest for any player who played Sea of Thieves in the past year
• Any player who attained Pirate Legends status during Year One will receive a Golden Legendary Tankard, a Golden Legendary Hurdy Gurdy, a Golden Legendary Blunderbuss and Golden Legendary ship customisations including a sail, hull and figurehead
• All players will be able to purchase the Golden Sailor Hat and Golden Sailor Cannons from any Outpost shop for just 320 gold until the launch of the Anniversary Update
• A range of Sea of Thieves themed Gamerpics that players can use to personalise their Xbox Live page

Rare is also releasing the Sea of Thieves song We Shall Sail Together free through Spotify, Deezer, Google Play, iTunes, Amazon Music and Tidal.

More information on the Anniversary Update will be revealed during a series of livestreams on Mixer, Twitch and YouTube:

• The Arena – Wednesday, April 10 at 5pm (BST)
• The Hunter’s Call – Tuesday, April 16 at 5pm (BST)
• Tall Tales – Shores of Gold – Tuesday, April 23 at 5pm (BST)