News Hoard: Vaults of the Ancients preview

Releasing September 9th

The latest Sea of Thieves News Video has dropped, giving us a deeper reveal of the upcoming September Update- Vaults of the Ancients. This update is releasing September 9th, and will include a new Gold Hoarder quest type, new “Mysterious Notes”, pet dogs, and more. Read on for a breakdown of what we’ve learned:

News Video

After last week’s Gamescom2020 teasers, which gave us a closer look at pet Dogs coming to Sea of Thieves, the latest News Video from Rare gives us more details on the gameplay changes coming in September’s Update.

Quality of Life Improvements

• Slimline Island Name Banners- by popular demand, the “island name pop-ups” that dominate the screen when you approach an island will be getting new menu options- choose between Cinematic (original), Slimline (pictured below), or turn them Off completely. The Slimline banners do not obtrude your health or ammo UI.

• Single Stick Mode: an accessibility update to the single stick mode allows you to toggle between movement and camera on that single stick.
• Mysterious Notes: Because it can be difficult to keep up with new events and gameplay additions added to Sea of Thieves, a new feature called Mysterious Notes is being added. This subsection of the Quests menu will contain notes that give hints towards what is new and what events there are to do in the game

Gold Hoarder Vault Voyages

• Gold Hoarders need a new place to hide their gold, and they’re using the Ancient Vaults scattered around the Sea of Thieves
• They will send you on a quest to retrieve the Key to the vaults, which seems to involved torn up Fragmented maps, and maybe a Gold Hoarder’s compass.
• Once retrieved you could deliver the key, or if you so wish you can just USE the key to get inside a vault and try to steal as much of their treasure as you can under a time limit
• There’s also a valuable looking new chest locked even deeper in the vault, and finding Medallions will help give clues on the lock combination to retrieve this item

Tease: Larinna the Bilge Rat?

-A “New arrival at the outpost” is coming, and it appears to be Larinna, co-protagonist of the Sea of Thieves’ novel “Athena’s Fortune”. Larinna was previously revealed to be the leader of the Bilge Rats, but we’ll have to wait to find out why she’s arrived at the outpost.

Talk like a Pirate Day 2020

• September 19th is the annual “Talk like a Pirate Day”, and Rare teases that they are “doing a ton to celebrate”. Keep an eye out for potential events or giveaways

That’s all we’ve got for this News Hoard, but rest assured we’ll be bringing you content walkthroughs and guides when Vaults of the Ancients launches on September 9th. Follow us on Twitter @Goldensandsblog so you don’t miss any of our news and walkthrough content!