Sea of Thieves: What are Seasons?
How to Progress, What to Unlock
Sea of Thieves follows a Season-based release cycle: large features come every 3-ish months, and smaller monthly updates happen in between, adding new cosmetics and in game events.
Along with this cycle is a Progression System that refreshes every season, allowing players to level up and earn new rewards all the time- read on to learn how this works!
What are Seasons?
This graphic shows Season One’s rewards, but the gist is the same for every season!
- Seasons last about 3 months, with each month bringing new quality of life updates, bug fixes, Pirate Emporium restocks, and Events/Challenges to complete. Larger new features are added at the start of the Season
- Seasons introduce a new Progression Track called Season Renown that is separate from the Trading Companies. This refreshes at the start of each Season, and is FREE TO ALL PLAYERS.
Level up a ladder of 100 Rewards, including cosmetics and currencies - Some of these rewards will be exclusive to the Season, others will become available in shops in the future.
- To level up, players earn Renown by completing basic actions during gameplay (more on Renown below)
What is Renown?
Renown is like your “XP” for leveling up the 100 Levels of the Season. Unlike “Reputation” with the Trading Companies, Renown isn’t just earned by turning in treasure, it’s much easier than that!
How Do I Get Renown?
Renown is rewarded for completing very basic gameplay actions, like sailing, visiting islands, fighting skeletons, digging up treasure, completing voyages/world events, etc etc.
In fact, there are hundreds of actions that can earn renown.
Renown basically rewards you JUST FOR PLAYING, no matter how you choose to play.
Make progress EVERY SESSION, even if a crew or kraken sinks your ship!
Note: If you find the Renown earning Pop-Ups to be distracting, you can turn these off in the game settings!
What About Trials?
Within the Season tab of the Pirate Log, you’ll find a tab named Trials.
- Trials are a checklist of dozens of optional challenges to complete during the Season. They are divided into Seasonal Trials, Monthly Trials, and Weekly Trials, so the list of available trials cycles throughout the weeks and months
- Each Trial consists of several “Deeds” to complete that will earn a large sum of Renown towards your Season progress
- Completing all Deeds in a Trial will reward an even larger sum of Renown
There is no reward for completing Trials besides earning extra Renown
It is not intended for players to complete every Trial or change their play habits around completing Trials, which is why there are no Titles or Cosmetics tied exclusively to completing Trials. Trial progress will reset each Season. They are simply an optional way to progress the Season faster, and many of them are activities you will complete during normal gameplay!
Completing Trials, Earning Renown, Leveling up 100 Levels, and Earning 100+ Season Rewards is FREE TO ALL PLAYERS, NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
There is however an optional paid pass in addition to all of the above free content- The Plunder Pass
What is the Plunder Pass?
- The Plunder Pass costs 999 Ancient Coins- this is premium currency that requires real world money to purchase
- Buying the Pass adds extra cosmetic rewards to the Season Progression Track that you’ll need to level up to unlock. It also adds small bundles of Ancient Coins, totaling 750 you can earn back by leveling up!
- All Rewards are items from the Pirate Emporium premium shop
They are early previews of items that will become available in the shop sometime after the Season ends - If you purchase the Plunder Pass partway through a season after already progressing, you’ll automatically unlock all the rewards you’ve leveled passed
None of the rewards are exclusives to the Plunder Pass, all are/will be available for separate purchase.
The Plunder Pass is simply a discount bundle of Pirate Emporium Items you have to play the season to unlock
Seasoned veterans and newcomers alike can enjoy Sea of Thieves: Seasons for absolutely free, making every session of gameplay more rewarding and engaging, and those who shop in the Pirate Emporium will enjoy the discounted rewards made available in the Plunder Pass.
