After its one-year anniversary update, Sea of Thieves developer Rare is set to release the game’s first batch of new content in Adventure mode. The studio’s July 3 developer update shed some light on not just the next Adventure event, but some big potential changes to the PvP Arena mode.
Sea of Thieves is getting a new event called Black Powder Stashes. This patch is currently being tested on the Insider build, and is expected to hit on July 17. Executive producer Joe Neate says that Black Powder Stashes will be closer to the Reaper’s Run mercenary adventures, which gave players a new set of voyages and related commendations that had a unique win condition added. In Reaper’s Runs, the player had to complete the voyage with a Reaper’s Mark flag active. We can assume that Black Powder Stashes will be related to gunpowder barrels, and Neate says that this event will introduce new “social dynamics and behavior.”
The Arena, Sea of Thieves’ PvP mode, is also getting some trial changes. Rare is testing different ship sizes in the Insider build. Currently, players can only compete on the four-player galleon. The two-player sloop and three-player brigantine both play very differently, with slower max speeds and lighter offense but tighter handling and turning. Players who play Arena mode from 9 a.m. British Summer Time on Saturday to midnight BST Sunday on the Insider’s test build will earn doubloons, a special currency for event cosmetics, on their main account.
The July 17 patch is also expected to contain a series of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes.
