Sea of Thieves recently received the ‘Ships of Fortune’ update and it brings in new features and much needed changes to the game. From the new Trading Company to gameplay changes, here is everything that pirate crews need to know about ‘Ships of Fortune,’ including the cute new cats.
When players lost all of their health, they would get sent straight to the Ferry of the Damned. It would make the player wait around thirty seconds until they would respawn back to the island they died on or their own ship.If a player was killed in PVE by a skeleton in a Fort or a Tall Tale, they would still have to wait a bit before spawning back. Rare fixes this issue by allowing crews to revive each other, briefly before giving their soul to the Ferry. This new feature can make any adventure more bearable as players don’t need to be needlessly sent to the Ferry from a wayward explosion or a devastating shotgun blast. As long as a teammate is nearby, revives will be possible.
If players enable the new ‘Crew Status Tags’ in the options, they will be able to see what their crew is doing through a small icon next to their gamertag. The icon will change depending on what the crew member is currently doing, such as steering the ship, carrying treasure, fishing, and firing cannons. The markers are especially helpful if someone wants to know what the team is doing at all times, no matter the distance.Another feature that can be changed in the options is the ‘Tall Tale Map Markers.’ When doing a Tall Tale with this option on, the ship’s map will show Tall Tale locations without players fumbling too much with the clues.
Each of the main Trading Companies will now allow players to become emissaries by paying 20,000 gold for an emissary flag. The companies include the Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, Merchant Alliance, Athena’s Fortune, and the Reaper’s Bones.Players must go to the company representative found on each outpost and opt-in to the emissary to gain rewards unique for the company. The rewards include costumes, ship parts, equipment, and guaranteed loot.Pirates can see other crews who have joined an emissary in the session by looking at the emissary table in front of each company. This is handy for marking competition or making alliances with like-minded people.As players do voyages and quests related to the emissary that’s opted into, the Emissary Grade that’s found above the player’s health will go up a tick, multiplying the rewards for that session. If players reach Emissary Grade 5, they gain a special Emissary Voyage in which to partake; this will guarantee players a ton of gold. However, there is a catch: if the players’ ship sinks at any time, their emissary flag will break off and will reset their grade. Fortunately, the Emissary Flag is useful to the new trading company, the Reaper’s Bones.
Reaper’s Bones is the new trading company dedicated to PVP and will be found in the Reaper’s Hideout. The company will happily take stolen loot from other ships and will buy the treasure at a marked-up price. This is a rewarding faction for those who are capable enough to sink ships belonging to those who have been on a long voyage.Emissary grades for the Reaper’s Bones are gained for generally stealing treasure through PVP combat. While not every ship will have loot on them, a guaranteed hit would be from another emissary ship as stealing other emissary flags and bringing them to the Servant of the Flame will grant more money and grades. This is easier said than done, as using the Reaper’s Bones’ emissary flag will mark the crew’s ship red and noticeable on any pirate’s map. If the crew is able to reach grade 5, however, the crew’s map will mark every other emissary ship in the session visible. With this, reapers can target whoever they want and will likely find plenty of loot.
More changes are made to accommodate the emissaries. Players that use the cutlass will deal a bit more damage with normal swings now dealing 25 damage instead of 20 while heavy swings deal 60 damage instead of 50. This is probably due to players relying on using the unlimited ammo crates in forts and spamming their guns. Dealing more damage can also streamline some sword fights in PVP matches as they can get hectic.Skeleton Forts will find less gifts and mermaid gems from the main vault. This is likely because Emissaries require more variety of the normal loot to upgrade player emissary ranks.Emergent encounters such as Skeleton ships, Megalodon, or Kraken will give higher-value loot drops. This means players will likely see less of the normal marauder chests and more of the unique higher-tier loot.Additionally, cursed cannonballs will have an improved visual effect that lets players know that what’s been hit has been afflicted by the curse.
Finally, to end the list of important changes is the introduction of a new pet type, cats! Cats can be bought from the Pirate Emporium for 499 ancient coins and will walk around, meow, and ask for fish around the ship. Thanks to the new update, players from other crews will also be able to interact with each other’s pets so they can admire their companions no matter what crew from which they hail. That’s everything pirates need to know about the Ships of Fortune update, stay tuned for the next Sea of Thieves update.
A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.