Smugglers’ Tide: Act 3
New blood brings new opportunities as The Smugglers’ League settle into the shadows of the Sea of Thieves! To learn more about this Season’s headline features, head over to our dedicated Season 17 page.
Reaper Fortresses
Skeleton Forts across the seas have been upgraded to Reaper Fortresses with devilish traps and reinforced defences. These new encounters will be signalled by a menacing new Skull Cloud visible across the waves.
With these Fortresses now an active battleground between The Reaper’s Bones and the Dark Brethren, players looking for loot must battle through the surrounding Ghost Ships before making landfall and taking on both Phantoms and Order of Bone and Blade Skeletons.
During the siege, defeating the Master of Arms will award players with the Skull of Arms. This serves as the key to a nearby Weapons Cache, providing useful munitions and supplies to help turn the tide.
Crews will encounter these new Reaper Fortresses emergently in the form of regular World Events. Pirate Legends can also begin a Legendary Raid for Athena’s Fortune from the Quest Table.
For the duration of Act 3, Reaper Fortresses have a chance for their Vaults to be boosted by a Mega Stash, replacing the contents with an immense treasure pile of significantly higher-value rewards.
Both emergent Reaper Fortresses and on-demand Athena’s Fortune Raid Voyages on High Seas can award a Mega Stash. However, the chance of this boost is much higher when encountering an emergent Reaper Fortress in the world.
Smugglers’ Tide: Act 3 Commendations and Rewards
Act 3 introduces new Adventures At Sea Commendations, challenging crews to take on the deadly Reaper Fortresses. Completing these Commendations unlocks access to items in the Brethren’s Masquerade ship set, along with the ‘Brethren of Shadow’ and ‘Gaunt and Gnarled’ Trinkets.
Crews completing Act 3’s Deeds can also earn the ‘Banner of Bone and Blade’ Ornament to commemorate their feats.
Chest of Fortune
During Act 3, the Chest of Fortune will reside in the Vaults of Reaper Fortresses and can only be obtained by overcoming these newly contested battlegrounds.
View game pagePirate 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 to browse and buy the latest additions!
New Items – Now in Stock!
Alter Ego Ship Collection and Ship’s Crest
Alter Ego Weapon Bundle
Alter Ego Costume Set
Alter Ego Concertina
Skeleton Toucan
Crimson Crypt Cabin Bundle
Expanded Jack O’ Looter Collection: Collector’s Figurehead, Collector’s Sails, Ship’s Crest, Trinket and Lantern
Expanded Silver Sepulchre Collection: Double Barrel Pistol and Throwing Knives
Pocket Bat Emote
See No Evil Emote (free!)
Outpost Cosmetics
New Outpost Stock!
The shipwrights have restocked with the new Orange Resolute Hull, Sails and Flag.
The Outpost weaponsmiths now offer the Lucky Rover Pistol, Cutlass, Blunderbuss, Eye of Reach, Heavy Sword and Rapier.
Gameplay Improvements
Retrieving Items from Skeletons
Players can now retrieve items being held by allied skeletons more easily. Hitting the skeleton anywhere with a Grapple Gun or harpoon will retrieve the item, even if the skeleton is facing away from the player.
Performance Improvements
This update includes a system-level optimisation to CPU performance across the whole experience, to reduce the frequency of framerate drops and provide a smoother framerate during gameplay.
Further optimisations have been made to the way treasure items floating in water are managed, to improve performance on the server.
Updates
Second Chance Policy
Following the recent enforcement policy update, Sea of Thieves will now offer some players who were banned for lesser infringements under our old enforcement policy a second chance to sail the seas.
This new policy is designed as a balance between giving some players another chance and ensuring we continue to protect all players from malicious acts and the bad actors who conduct them. For more details on why we’ve introduced this new policy and how the behaviour of returning players will be managed, see this new article on our Second Chance Policy.
Fixed Issues
Gameplay
Further improvements have been made to the display of a Captained ship’s name on the Ship’s Crest, Captain’s Logbook and Banners after a crew migrates across servers.
Players should no longer be able to throw a blunderbomb or other throwable item instantly after firing a ranged weapon.
Throwables such as blunderbombs targeting the rear hull of a Galleon will now consistently impact the hull’s surface and not pass through certain areas to land inside the ship.
The Legendary Guild Emissary Ledger reward for Season 17 has been updated to ‘The Unseen Deal’, and players who have unlocked this reward already will find that the correct item has been provided to them.
Ships diving beneath the waves with skeletons on board will now cause them to gracefully be destroyed.
Skeleton Lords no longer take knockback or become stunned when hit with Ashen Winds Skulls, Obsidian Ashen Winds Skulls or the Horn of Fair Winds.
The Cannon of Rage now always sets Sloops on fire when it explodes.
Deploying a Cannon of Rage on a burning deck will now cause it to begin overheating.
Jumping while retracting a Cannon of Rage now interrupts the action.
Moving too far away when reviving an allied Order of Bone and Blade Skeleton now interrupts the action.
Treasure on board the Burning Blade will now be released after returning the ship to Captain Flameheart.
Smugglers’ Tide
Players can now consistently unlock the Captain of Smugglers’ Tides Commendation when meeting the required criteria across both Safer Seas and High Seas.
Black Powder Barrels from Voyages now consistently progress the ‘Treasures Sold’ Pirate Milestone.
Rum Crates found within Smugglers’ Caches can now be damaged by player-instigated explosives. However, they will remain undamaged by volcanic activity until collected by players.
Traps within the Smugglers’ Hideouts will now consistently trigger when players trip the pressure plates.
‘The Smugglers’ Run’ painting can now be found in the shipwright’s shop for players eligible to purchase it.
Environment
Further improvements have been made to the environment in ‘A Pirate’s Life’, ‘The Journey to Mêlée Island’ and ‘The Quest for Guybrush’ Tall Tales and within Skeleton Camps to prevent players from using a Grapple Gun to leave the designated areas.
Players can no longer cause themselves to instantly return to their ship at some locations on Shark Bait Cove.
Allied skeletons carrying a Reaper’s Chest should no longer become stuck when navigating a Galleon staircase.
Players firing themselves from cannons at Hidden Spring Keep will no longer collide with the tower’s pillar.
Visual and Audio
Players wearing the Master of the High Seas Shirt alongside a jacket should now find their pirate appears as intended.
Players interacting with a Captain’s Logbook should now find they consistently hold the book at their intended field of view.
During the Captaincy onboarding, the Pirate Lord now looks at the player.
The pillar in the Search for Ancient Secrets Voyage now rises smoothly from the ground.
Players performing emotes while wielding the Stalwart Sea Dog Cutlass should no longer find their camera stutters.
A thrown Throwing Knife of Faraway Shores now retains the correct model after being picked up.
Standing behind Aifrick no longer causes her head to turn at an unnatural angle.
‘Heart of Fire’ – Flameheart’s voiceover can now be heard consistently during the Tall Tale.
User Interface
Guild Members will no longer appear as ‘Anonymous’ on the list.
Players using Swap Back and Select actions should now be able to accept crew invite and controller disconnected notifications.
Text and Localisation
Skeletons summoned by a Reaper’s Chest will no longer display duplicate names.
Performance and Stability
Game stability has been improved while navigating the front-end menu on Steam Deck.
Further improvements have been made to game stability to reduce scenarios where players unexpectedly exit the game or become disconnected from their session.
Known Issues
Smugglers’ Tide: Act 3 Commendations and Rewards
Players may have found their Reaper Fortress Commendation completion inaccurately reflected with today's update, making rewards such as the Brethren's Masquerade ship items available to purchase ahead of time. The ability to purchase or equip these items has been temporarily removed while the team work to reinstate the correct criteria.
To learn more about known issues in Sea of Thieves currently being tracked and their status, head over to our Known Issues support site article.