Every New Feature in the Anniversary Update

A shipload of them

The Anniversary Update (2.0) for Sea of Thieves brings the biggest changes to the game yet, adding in a new competitive mode, new objectives and ways to play, crafted story quests, and so much more. Here you’ll find every new feature explained. For in depth guides on specific features, check out:

Spoiler-Lite Guide to Tall Tales: Shores of Gold
Guide to Fishing, Cooking & The Hunter’s Call
Guide to The Arena and Sea Dogs

THE MAIN MENU

A spiffy new Main Menu gives us a look at What’s New to the game and a tease for the coming soon “Pirate Emporium”, which will likely be the shop for buying Pets and other microtransaction items. Most notably however, you’ll see two different mode options before launching the game.

Adventure Mode is the traditional mode that we’ve been playing since the game’s release, which puts you into an active wide open server of the Sea of Thieves world for you to experience however you wish.
Arena Mode is an all new competitive mode, with 24 minute timed matches between several crews in smaller confined subsections of the Sea of Thieves map.

THE ARENA

Check out my separate GUIDE TO THE ARENA & SEA DOGS here

The Arena pits crews against each other in direct competition. Every crew is given identical treasure maps, and has 24 minutes to amass as much silver as possible. You earn silver by finding and selling treasure chests, but also from engaging in combat with other crews.

Between matches of The Arena, all crews spawn in the Sea Dog Tavern, a large gathering space where you can buy cosmetics or just socialize. The Sea Dogs are also a new Trading Company.
See REPUTATION & TRADING COMPANIES below

THE SHIP

You’ll notice several changes to the Ship gameplay in the Anniversary Update.

Harpoon Guns

Now attached to the front of every ship. Harpoons can be mounted and aimed like a cannon, and shot out at any object in your path. The primary action button shoots the harpoon, and if you don’t hit anything it will automatically return. But, if you manage to hit:

Large Static Objects- (islands, ships, rocks, megalodons, etc) the harpoon will attach itself and tether your ship to the object. You can use the secondary action button to reel it in, pulling the object to your ship or vice versa, and the primary action button releases and returns the harpoon. Use this for hard turns while sailing or to catch a ship that is escaping.
Small Kinetic Objects- (barrels, players, items, etc) the harpoon will automatically reel the object in. If you hit a player pirate, they land on the deck beside you. Floating resource barrels or loot items will reel in but remain attached to the harpoon, where they can be interacted with in the usual ways. You can nab treasure right out of player’s hands or off of their deck. Hitting Gun Powder detonates it.

Cooking Pans

Now usable on the stove top below deck.
See COOKING AND FISHING below

Ship Damage

Cannon fire no longer produces only uniform holes beneath deck. Deck fire will now create miniature holes which repair faster and leak slower, but additional hits to the same location will make the holes bigger, allowing water in faster and taking longer to repair.

Additionally, various ship functions can take damage too:
The Wheel- loses handle pegs, slowing down turn radius. Repair each handle with a plank of wood
The Capstan- loses handle pegs and can make the anchor drop. Repair each handle with a plank of wood
The Masts- each can withstand three hits before collapsing. Hoist a fallen mast at the “Raise Sails” rope function, and then repair with wood planks at the base. Each has three hit points, taking three wood planks to repair fully, or less wood planks to remain vulnerable and topple again easier.

THE WORLD

Resource Barrels get a number of updates. The inventory grid has expanded to 4x4 from 3x4, and UI has been added to show each of the inventory categories and how many you are holding. Cursed Cannonballs are now limited to holding 10, and there a some new resources to find in the world:

Bait

Bait is used in Fishing, and comes in three varieties (Leeches, Earthworms, and Grubs). Pirates can hold up to 5 pieces of bait at a time.
See COOKING AND FISHING below

Food Variety

Bananas have been downgraded to make way for new fruit types, each more rare and replenishing than the last:
Bananas < Coconuts < Pomegranates < Mangoes < Pineapples
Pineapples even last for two bites, making each one incredibly useful.

Besides fruit, you can find Meat rarely in barrels, or dropped after an animal dies. Pigs, Chickens, Snakes, Sharks, Megalodons, and Krakens all drop meat when slain, which will take up one of the five slots of your food inventory.
See COOKING AND FISHING below

Collector’s Chests

Appearing randomly in the world, Collector’s Chests can be opened with a button press to claim a sum of gold inside. Once emptied, they can be carried around and filled with other items. Skulls, trinkets, keys, etc can be put in the chest, up to three items, saving time in moving items around the world.

COOKING & FISHING

Cooking

The stove pan in the deck of the ship is now interactive, as are pans on campfires all around the Sea of Thieves world. Food items can be put in the pan to cook them, though there’s no benefit to cooking fruit or bait. Meat however, including caught fish or the remains of a chicken, pig, snake, shark, megalodon, or kraken, will make you sick if you eat it raw. It can be cooked to make it heal better, and cooked meat also fills a “Health Regen” bar- a pool of health beyond the normal health bar that empties into the regular bar when you take damage. Cooking for too long will burn food though, ruining its usefulness. All cooked meat is worth 2 Bites, and can be sold to The Hunter’s Call on Sea Posts to earn reputation.
Check out my separate GUIDE TO FISHING, COOKING, & THE HUNTER’S CALL here

Fishing

A Fishing Rod has been added to the second page of the Equipment Wheel. Casting this rod into any body of water will cause Fish to bite, and with the Equipment Wheel you can hook bait before casting as well. Different varieties of Fish will bring different health gains and different value when sold to The Hunter’s Call on Sea Posts, and the kind of Fish you hook depends on the location you cast and bait that’s used, as well as different RNG values. Once a Fish is hooked, you’ll need to catch it by leaning the rod against the direction it pushes until you tire it out, which allows you to reel in without losing the fish. Like other meats, a fish can be cooked to get greater value and usefulness.
Check out my separate GUIDE TO FISHING, COOKING, & THE HUNTER’S CALL here

REPUTATION & TRADING COMPANIES

The Reputation menu tab has three new pages: Tall Tales, The Hunter’s Call, and The Sea Dogs.

Tall Tales

Tall Tales is not a Trading Company to level up, but it is a new category of voyages, with commendations and cosmetics to unlock. The new voyage types are like a “story mode”, with voyages telling a pre-written narrative that involves solving puzzles, navigating dungeons, and even fighting Skeleton Lords. The first set of Tall Tales, titled “The Shores of Gold”, tell a continuous story over nine voyages.

Check out my separate SPOILER-LITE GUIDE TO TALL TALES: THE SHORES OF GOLD here

The Hunter’s Call

A new Trading Company equal to the Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, and Merchant Alliance. Unlike the others, the vendors for this company are not found on Outposts, they are found on Seaposts. Selling them Fish or Cooked Meats will earn you reputation, which let’s you level up from level 1 to 50. Similar to the other companies, there are Hunter’s Call commendations that earn reputation, titles, and access to cosmetics, and other cosmetics and titles are earned by leveling up.

Check out my separate GUIDE TO FISHING, COOKING &THE HUNTER’S CALL here

The Sea Dogs

A new Trading Company equal to the Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, and Merchant Alliance. Unlike the others, the vendors for this company are not found on Outposts, they are found in The Arena mode. Completing matches of The Arena will earn you reputation, which let’s you level up from level 1 to 50. The better you place in the match’s standings, the more reputation you earn. Similar to the other companies, there are Sea Dog commendations that earn reputation, titles, and access to cosmetics, and other cosmetics and titles are earned by leveling up.

Check out my separate GUIDE TO THE ARENA & SEA DOGS here

The Path to Pirate Legend

The status of Pirate Legend used to require reaching Level 50 Reputation in the original three Trading Companies, but that has changed. It now only requires reaching Level 50 Reputation in any three Trading Companies, as there are now five to choose from. You can choose to ignore any two companies if you wish, but of course all the companies have exclusive cosmetics and titles attached to them.
Additionally, new commendations have been added for Pirate Legends offering yet more new cosmetics, these being tied to the two new Trading Companies.

Achievements

An additional 43 Xbox Achievements have been added to Sea of Thieves focused around the new Anniversary Update features, for a total of 1000 more gamerscore.

Check out the full list of NEW ACHIEVEMENTS here

Cosmetics

There are three new “sets” of cosmetics. The Killer Whale cosmetics are locked behind Hunter’s Call progress and commendations. The Glorious Sea Dog cosmetics are mostly locked behind Sea Dog progress and commendations, though most of the equipment items are available for sale without commendations. Finally, the Parrot Themed cosmetics are all available for sale without commendations (minus the fishing rod). There are additional Pirate Legend Set items locked behind new commendations, and there are also various pieces of new sets given as part of Tall Tales quests, including a new type of cosmetic called ‘Curses’.

OTHER UPDATES

• SHOPS: In game shops now allow you to filter by item
• The distance you can see your crew’s gamertags has been doubled, and the distance you can see other crew’s tags has been halved
• When cashing in multiple items at once, the new UI combines them into one pop-up instead of several
• HDR- Support for High Dynamic Range has been improved on PC, with an HDR Calibration page found under settings
• COMBAT: With the cutlass, striking the environment will no longer continue a three hit combo chain
• Performance, stability, and load times have been improved.