Following a year of bigger, yet less-frequent updates, Rare’s Sea of Thieves will be focusing on regular monthly updates going forward. This kicked off last month with the Black Powder Stashes, and now the latest update, entitled Dark Relics, has dropped. As the name implies, Dark Relics asks players to retrieve a series of powerful relics from those pesky skeletons, but the update will also include some permanent additions to Sea of Thieves, including improved hit detection, harpoon-equipped rowboats, a new type of chest, and more! You can check out a trailer for all the new Dark Relics additions, below.

　　Here’s a rundown of all the new content and features included in the Dark Relics update:

　　Dark Relic Voyages – The Order of Souls’ representatives have begun to experience visions of skeleton activity across the sea, including rituals performed with the Dark Relics and what appear to be Ritual Skulls. They want those Dark Relics back before something catastrophic happens, and will pay good money to anyone who can retrieve them. Duke has been tipped off to the potential locations of these artefacts, and will offer pirates a range of Voyages costing five Doubloons to seek and retrieve them. All Dark Relic Voyages are time-limited for the duration of the Dark Relics update.Dark Relic Athena's Fortune Voyage – Pirate Legends are tasked with a Voyage to head into The Devil’s Roar to collect more of these artefacts. Costing 10 Doubloons, these Athena Voyages yield more Dark Relics than a regular Voyage. The Mysterious Stranger is also very curious about the Ritual Skulls and will personally take them off the hands of Pirate Legends. All Dark Relic Voyages are time-limited for the duration of the Dark Relics update.Dark Relics Commendations and Rewards – A range of Mercenary Commendations are available to unlock for hunting down these dangerous artefacts. Earn Doubloons, unlock the new Relic Hunter and Relic Collector Titles and purchase the Mercenary Cannon, Mercenary Wheel and Mercenary Capstan ship cosmetics for taking part in the search. All Dark Relic Voyage Commendations, Doubloons, Titles and rewards time-limited for the duration of the Dark Relics update.The Reaper’s Chest – Keep an eye on the horizon for an eerie pillar of light reaching skyward. Upon reaching its source, players can obtain a new Reaper’s Chest and the pillar of light will be extinguished. But beware: once collected, the Reaper’s Chest will appear on the ship’s map of all rival crews on the seas! Return these chests to Duke if you can, who will take them off your hands in return for Doubloons. Following the Dark Relics update, the Reaper’s Chest and Doubloon rewards will persist as an emergent encounter in the world along with a way to earn Doubloons regularly.Reaper’s Chest Commendations and Rewards – Returning Reaper’s Chests to Duke will unlock a range of Mercenary Commendations and Doubloon rewards along with the new Death Defier Title. Following the Dark Relics update, the Reaper’s Chest Commendations, Doubloon rewards and Title will still be unlockable and obtainable.Ranged and Melee Hit Detection – Sea of Thieves players will now find that engaging in combat with other players out in the world is much more responsive. When targeting a rival player or skeleton then taking a shot or swinging a sword, players should find that the hits are more consistently registered and damage applied as expected. Hit detection improvements across the game include ship-to-ship, ship-to-water and water-to-water player encounters.A Rowboat with a Harpoon?! – Players may come across a rare new type of Rowboat abandoned throughout the world. These come with a harpoon attached, allowing rowers and their passengers to have even more fun on the sea!Barrels of PLENTY! – Players can now find a greater range of items within floating Barrels of Plenty. Be sure to stop and check them out as you may find skulls, artefacts, chests, Merchant Crates, Mermaid Gems, Messages in a Bottle or even gunpowder kegs – why not use these inconspicuous floating ‘mines’ to your advantage against rival crews?Harpoon That Meat! – Floating meat left behind by defeated sea creatures can now be harpooned back to your ship.Harpoon That Keg! – Harpoons can now latch onto gunpowder kegs to enable you to pull them back to your ship.Tall Tales: Legendary Storyteller – New Puzzle Locations – The Legendary Storyteller Tall Tale has had a range of new puzzle variants added to new islands for a more varied experience during each playthrough.Tall Tales: Fate of the Morningstar – New Puzzle Locations – The Fate of the Morningstar Tall Tale has had a new island setup for a more varied experience during each playthrough.Arena Matchmaking Improvements – When entering The Arena as an open crew, players will now be prioritised to load into a tavern waiting to start rather than an active contest. This should ensure contests start more quickly and come closer to our full crew and player count, while also ensuring players start contests at the beginning to maximise their chance of competing.Configuring Controller Look Deadzone – A new setting has been added named ‘Gamepad Look Deadzone’, allowing players to change the size of the deadzone on their controller’s right stick. When you push the right stick, it will not change your in-game viewing angle until it has left this deadzone. You can find a more detailed guide to this new configuration option in our Support Article.Configuring Controller Response Curve – A new setting has been added named ‘Gamepad Response Curve’, allowing players to tweak the response curve of their controller’s right stick. You can find a more detailed guide to this new configuration option in our Support Article.Improvements to Muting Other Players – The Game Options menu has been restructured to split the ‘My Crew’ and ‘Other Crews’ pages. In Adventure these settings remain unchanged, but in The Arena all players currently playing on your server are shown in the ‘Other Crews’ list. This makes it easier to see who is on your Arena server and provides the ability to mute their voice, text and phrases individually in addition to the global ‘All Other Crews’ settings supported previously.Replace Gamertags – Players now have a new option to ‘Replace Gamertags’. When enabled, this replaces your gamertag, your crew members’ gamertags and any gamertags of pirates you meet in the open world. If anyone else on your server enables this feature, the replaced names will match for everyone allowing players to strategize and shot call as before. If you encounter another player in the world who has chosen to replace their gamertag, their true gamertag will still be visible to you to ensure you know who you are playing with.Hide Crew Gamertags – A new setting has been added called ‘Show Nameplates Above My Crewmates’. This setting allows players to show/hide the nameplates/gamertags of all their crew members as a further aid to reducing the impact of stream sniping.Keybinding for ‘Hide Non-Crew Gamertags’ – Players can now assign a keybind for the ‘Show Nameplates Above Other Crews’ option. This allows fast access to showing/hiding the gamertags of rival players should you need to identify them.Audio Experience – Various improvements have been made to the overall audio experience, including effects for digging up bait and cannonball impacts on wood.That’s a lot of new stuff! Of course this latest Sea of Thieves update also comes with the usual assortment of bug fixes and balance changes. You can check out the full, unabridged patch notes, right here.

　　Sea of Thieves is available now on PC and Xbox One.