Sea of Thieves will be sailing into an era of adventures in 2022

Sea of Thieves In 2022, the ship will travel through unknown waters. Rare has released an overview video on Thursday that shows how the next year will unfold for the game. It also details significant changes to the pirate sandbox, which is focused on telling great stories and bringing the world alive.

Adventures and Mysteries will be two major new storytelling elements in the game. These three new updates, along with the Seasons already in place, will be the foundation of the next year. Sea of Thieves.

Rare launched Seasons at the start of 2021. This three-month update cycle introduces new mechanics to your sandbox. Seasons will stick around, as it’s been a largely successful experiment. The sixth season will start in March. It introduces stone sea forts from the Sea of the Damned that plague the mortal plane. This is an easy solo experience that can meet up with players. However, anyone can defeat the angry ghosts to earn sweet loot.

Image: Rare/Microsoft Game Studios

It’s adventure time

Adventures is the latest addition to the cycle. Adventures are stories-driven, live events which take place every month and usually last 2 weeks. “It’s an idea of what experience we can build, beyond just mechanically,” said Mike Chapman, creative director at Rare, in an interview with Polygon. “The idea is that each adventure is a chapter in an episodic, epic story that is always unfolding.”

Adventures can bring about a feeling of constant danger and provide a way for veterans to find some newness, while still being familiar. “Why do you want to engage with a story and these adventures? It’s not just because you’re going to get a cool cosmetic at the end of it,” said Chapman. “It’s because you want the world to feel bigger. You want it to feel like a rich place that you’ve got a part of in moving forwards.”

Image: Rare/Microsoft Game Studios

Since the beginning, slow and episodic storytelling was common. Sea of Thieves launched in 2018; long-time players might remember the slow story of Captain Flameheart’s rise to power, or the excitement of seeing a whole server suddenly agree to cooperate and summon a massive megalodon. The idea behind adventures is to make such moments more accessible and consistent. Trailers of cinematic legend will add to the excitement, connecting players with new characters and their allies as well as catching up on old tales.

The stories will evolve and older parts of the world will constantly be refreshed. It will also become more important that the community decides how to end the story at crucial moments. The narrative will be influenced by player data. If pirates decide to choose one side, then the whole world will change accordingly.

First Adventure begins with Golden Sands Outpost being engulfed by fog and everyone inside having vanished. Pirate Legends will get replayable challenges and the opportunity to explore haunted island or shipwreck cemeteries. Players must solve this case. Other Adventures are based around bringing pirate-y experiences into the game. For example, smuggling valuable items past hostile antagonists.

Image: Rare/Microsoft Game Studios

Mysteries

Mysteries are sort of parallel narratives that run alongside Adventures; they’re meant to unravel slowly over the course of months. You will find clues both inside and outside of the game. Inspiration is taken from other reality games. The first one will be a good ol’ fashioned murder mystery, and a beloved in-game character will be the victim.

Rare states that mystery are easier than adventure. Rare suggests it will focus on determining when players are solving puzzles, moving forward, or getting lost.

“The advantage of using out-of-game elements is that it makes the world feel like it doesn’t have the boundaries of just the game,” said Chapman. “It feels like the world exists off the screen. So tonally, what you’re doing outside of game, how that feeds back to the theme of the mystery needs to be complementary. We’re not gonna throw in a mechanic that wouldn’t even make sense in [the Sea of Thieves] world.”

The goal of these content pillars is to be made together. Sea of Thieves feel less like a playground and more like a living world, even if it’s an over-the-top and dramatic one.

“There’s a future ahead that’s unknown,” said Chapman. “But you are part of that timeline moving forward. It’s not just a static world; [the players are] going to be part of that unfolding history.”