Sea of Thieves Update 2.8.1 Patch Notes

Gameplay

• Seagulls now appear over treasure dropped when defeating a Megalodon.
• Supply barrels jettisoned from a ship will no longer sink while players are nearby.
• Supply barrels harpooned onto a ship will no longer disappear when sailing away from the area where they were collected.
• Players can no longer bypass the purchase limit at the shipwright and retrieve multiple supplies.
• Crews are now granted the correct Emissary Grade progression when bringing treasure onto their ship using a harpoon.
• Players below deck caught by the blast from a Trident of Dark Tides as it hits the outside of the ship’s hull will now take reduced damage as intended.
• Rowboats containing treasure will no longer leave items floating in the air when undocked from the Sovereigns’ dock.
• When participating in a Skeleton Fleet battle, player ships in close proximity to each other will no longer prevent the fleet from appearing from the depths.
• Players discovering the Chest of Legends at the final dig site during a Search for Cursed Treasure will now find the Voyage completes as intended.
• Pirates are now prevented from retrieving multiple Voyages from a Mysterious Journal.
• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Crews are now prevented from using the cage key on a nearby door, which would block them from being able to complete the Tall Tale.
• ‘Revenge of the Morningstar’ – Crews are no longer rewarded when cashing in the Skull of Captain Douglas or Chalice of Resurrection.

Battle for the Sea of Thieves

• Crewmates who join during a battle and are held on the Ferry of the Damned are no longer awarded Allegiance when the battle ends.
• Players who lose a battle while on the Ferry of the Damned should no longer encounter the rare scenario where they appear beneath the waves after returning from the Ferry.

Captains of Adventure

• Further improvements were made to saving ship customizations, reducing scenarios where Captains saving a livery, decoration, or Trinket would result in their chosen customizations not persisting between sessions.
• A Captain’s Logbook will now maintain a consistent record of events after migrating across servers.
• Players should no longer find that events recorded in a Logbook found floating at sea suddenly become blank after reading.
• A Captain’s Logbook will now retain its customized appearance after being placed in a Collector’s Chest, or after being dropped and picked up.
• A Captain’s Logbook will now show the correct events pages after being placed in a Collector’s Chest.
• Players holding a Captain’s Logbook can no longer retrieve treasure from a Collector’s Chest.

Pirate Emporium

• While browsing the Emporium, players can now preview the King’s Ransom Crown on their pirate.
• The glowing eyes on the Frostbite Figurehead are now much more visible at a distance.
• The Sea Serpent Collector’s Sails now use the correct tile art.
• The Labyrinth Looter Weapon Bundle now displays the correct iconography.

Environment

• Pirates can no longer intersect with the environment within the basements of Sea Forts.
• Within the Pirate Legend Hideout, pirates should no longer be able to push through the environment into the sea.
• Pets can now follow players around the new areas of the Pirate Legend Hideout.
• ‘Shores of Gold’ – Players can no longer bypass the traps and reach the Gold Hoarder’s vault by passing through the environment.
• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Rocks found within the tunnels that lead to Sailor’s Grave now appear correctly.

User Interface

• Players on lower-spec hardware should no longer experience graphical issues or missing UI imagery after leaving a session and quickly joining a new session.
• After raising and lowering an Emissary Flag, bringing up a radial menu should no longer show an active Emissary.
• After switching categories within the shipwright’s Voyage shop, players making a purchase will no longer find the category is reset.
• Storage Crates for single resources, such as Cannonball Crates, no longer display additional UI elements within the storage limits space.
• Browsing the Trials section within the Pirate’s Log now correctly displays the selected page.
• The name of a player’s pet is now displayed correctly in the chat notification pane.

Accessibility

• When enabling the extended audio range of sea rocks to improve sailing audio cues, players using headphones will no longer hear audio effects in both ears simultaneously.
• Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ will no longer hear punctuation narrated within the Custom Server menus.
• Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ will no longer hear incorrect or repeated narration while navigating the ‘Info and Tips’ section.

Visual and Audio

• When boarding a ship from the sea, players can no longer muffle the boarding audio effects by grabbing the ladder while aiming down sights, ensuring nearby players will always hear someone boarding from the ocean.
• Pirates striking another ship with cannon fire will no longer hear other game music quieten for an extended period.
• Players shooting, sprinting, and aiming in quick succession with an Eye of Reach should no longer encounter rare scenarios where the weapon animation becomes stuck and prevents aiming down sights.
• When a Skeleton Fleet battle is active, players moving around The Reaper’s Hideout will no longer hear the audio effects cutting out.
• After speaking with various characters found across the world, players leaving the conversation will now hear the correct ending phrase.
• Equipping the Lucky Hand Dress no longer causes a pirate’s tattoos to appear cut off.
• The Sweet Treat Capstan now blends more seamlessly with the pool of chocolate when being raised and lowered.
• White corners are no longer visible on the Season Nine title screen.
• The Mysterious Stranger will now consistently appear at the intended level of detail when visited in the tavern.
• Players with a buried treasure map will now see the correct iconography on the map after migrating servers.

Text and Localization

• All ‘Vote to Scuttle’ options within the Settings Menu no longer display debug text strings and are translated into all non-English languages.
• The description for the Fortune’s Favour Commendation has now been corrected to reflect that handing in the Chest of Fortune at various locations will still count towards progressing the Commendation.
• Players attempting to equip invalid decorations to a Sloop will now see a translated error message in the player’s preferred language.
• The Emissary tutorials now mention that Doubloons, as well as gold and reputation, are increased based on Emissary Grade when selling items as an Emissary.
• When players speak to Larinna, she will now mention the new features introduced in Season Nine.

Performance and Stability

• Improved server stability to reduce instances where players are disconnected from their session.

After reading through the patch notes for the Sea of Thieves update 2.8.1, you can find the game available on PC, Xbox One & Series X|S. Outside the Sea of Thieves update patch notes, head to the Sea of Thieves official website to follow future updates. Lastly, you can follow the team at Rare and learn about any other projects they might have in the works on their development website.