Sea of Thieves launches on the PlayStation 5 today, and the pirate game is getting a patch packed full of new tools. In Sea of Thieves, players take up the role of a pirate crew, manning a sloop, brigantine, or galleon to go on adventures and battle nautical foes like the kraken and skeleton ships. The game’s new season introduces a ton of new toys to try on the high seas, and they’re guaranteed to cause some chaos.
First off, there are two new weapons: an extra damaging double-barrel pistol, and throwing knives to toss — but which then must be picked up or refilled. These join other pirate standards from the arsenal, like a saber, a sniper rifle, a pistol, and a blunderbuss.
The Bone Caller is an intriguing new bauble. When it’s smashed — either by throwing it at your feet, or launching it into an enemy ship via cannon — it summons some friendly skeletons to hack and slash on behalf of your crew. The Horn of Fair Winds is another bauble that, when blown upon, sends out a gust of wind. Pirates can use it to slow their fall, blast away enemies, or fill their sails. The trick is that it applies to both allies and enemies, so be careful to not send your crew overboard with a mistimed gust.
There are also two new options for ship-to-ship combat. Scattershot is short range, which makes it harder to nail an enemy vessel, but it has a chance to create multiple holes, which are a pain for the enemy crew to patch up.
For those prepared to board, the harpoon tightrope creates a very narrow bridge between ships. Up until now, players have had to sneak up the ladders on the side of a ship, or launch themselves aboard with clever use of a cannon. The harpoon tightrope creates a new option, which should help make naval combat riskier for both parties.
Finally, ziplines first showed up in the Monkey Island crossover campaign content, but now they’ll be available in the open world. Ziplines are a great way to zip through larger islands and avoid long runs.
The new update also has seasonal rewards, including new ship parts and pirate cosmetics, and items in the pirate emporium cash shop. This includes a new owl pet, which looks like it’ll be a hoot.
