Sea of Thieves is gearing up for a 2023 that’ll see it celebrating five years of pirate adventure out on the waves, but before all that, it’s hoisting anchor and setting sail with a mid-season update bringing pet rocks, a new limited-time adventure, and more.
Starting with that “and more”, a major chunk of Sea of Thieves’ new update – which arrives tomorrow, 19th January – is dedicated to improving the matchmaking system introduced as part of the game’s new on-demand PvP functionality at the end of last year.
Eye-wateringly long wait times have been a major complaint since the feature’s arrival in Season 8, and Rare is looking to remedy the issue by, firstly, allowing same-faction battles when matchmaking is taking too long. It’s also introducing what it calls “cross-stamp migration” to make it easier for players to be paired. Some additional information on the changes can be found in a dev blog from December.
Other PvP improvements coming tomorrow will see players getting increased compensation when their ship sinks after losing a battle, plus increased compensation for crews that sail as Servants of the Flame while flying the Reaper’s Bones flag. Additionally, players that sink by sailing out of bounds will also get compensation rewards.