Sea Of Thieves' Free Fate Of The Damned October Update Now Live

Sea of Thieves' free October update, Fate of the Damned, is now live. The Halloween-themed update introduces a wealth of new content to Rare's shared-world pirate game, including some ghoulish new Voyages to undertake, as well as new pets, cosmetics, and other rewards to earn.

Chief among the new content are the aforementioned Voyages, which will send you in search of Larinna's missing Bilge Rat crew. As Rare warns, however, "an advancing threat spreads across the seas," and you'll have to contend with the Shadows of Fate as you explore the world.

There are also new challenges to complete and rewards to earn as part of the Fate of the Damned event. Rare says that additional challenges will be rolled out as the event rolls on, and new rewards will be made available, including the Soulflame weapons and lantern.

On top of that, the update introduces two new types of pets to go along with last year's skeleton bird and marmoset: a skeleton cat and skeleton dog. You can acquire them from the Pirate Emporium. The Soulflame Ship Set has also been added to the Emporium, as have other cosmetics like new facepaints and the free Lantern Dance Emote.

Beyond that, the Fate of the Damned update also makes a variety of other changes and improvements, including fixing a number of bugs in the game. You can read the patch notes for the update below.

Fate Of The Damned Release Notes

Gameplay Improvements

Mysterious Notes

• When waking up at the start of a session, players may now find Mysterious Notes left beside them. Follow these notes to be directed to the various activities across the Sea of Thieves with each new content update.
• When collecting a Mysterious Note, a pop-up will now appear as the note is added to your inventory. All Mysterious Notes collected can be browsed within a new section in the Quest Radial.

In-Game Event Tracking

• The in-game menu now contains an Events tab, showcasing the current events taking place across the Sea of Thieves and tracking your progress through them.

Flameheart's Range

• When a Flameheart Ghost Ship encounter is active, the area in which music and menacing remarks from Flameheart can be heard around the islands has been reduced.

Ashen Lords Balancing

• Ashen Lords now have reduced health.
• Cashing in an Ashen Winds Skull is now worth double the gold.
• When defeating an Ashen Lord, players will be guaranteed a Chest of Rage and a Ritual Skull as rewards, with all rewards gained from this encounter increased in value.

Emergent Captain Balancing

• Skeleton Captains, Key Masters and Guardians that appear emergently on islands have been reduced in difficulty.

Updates

Oh Gourd!

• With the Festival of the Damned season in full swing, Outposts are decorated with pumpkins in celebration of the ne’er-forgotten soul of the Ferryman.

Skipping the Intro Cutscene

• Players can now opt to skip the front end intro animation by enabling ‘Auto-skip Intro Animatic’ in Video Settings.

Shark Hunter Ship Set

• The previously unavailable Cannons, Capstan, Figurehead, Flag and Wheel are now purchasable for gold at any Outpost shipwright.

Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S Optimisations

• Sea of Thieves has been optimised in preparation for the next generation of Xbox consoles with Series S and Series X.

Accessibility

Auto-Move Accessibility

• Players can now bind a key to ‘Auto Move’, allowing their pirate to move forward in that direction until stopped.
• ‘Auto Move’ functions as expected while traversing land or swimming, but also applies forward motion to actions such as raising the capstan and climbing ladders. While players will still need to interact with these items to begin, the use of ‘Auto Move’ can remove the need for a held action during the interaction.

Narrate Emotes

• When ‘Let Games Read to Me’ is enabled, emotes performed by other pirates will now be narrated and described to the player.
• Hiding emotes that hide the player’s gamertag will not be narrated.

Fixed Issues

Gameplay

• When performing an emote, you should now consistently perform that action for any players observing you.
• When a Megalodon appears alongside a Sloop, it should now circle the ship and more frequently find opportunities to attack while the ship is moving.
• Reaper’s Chests earned from the Fort of the Damned should now have a Reaper’s Beacon.
• Ashen Artifacts dropped by Ashen Skeletons now provide Emissary Grade progression when taken.
• Firebombs should now deal consistent damage to animals.
• When a player has acquired the maximum number of food items, the number shown should now be marked in red.
• After lighting all the Flame of Fate beacons at the Fort of the Damned, Graymarrow should climb out of the ground instead of appearing from nowhere.
• There is now a loading screen while going through the Pirate Legend Hideout waterfall entrance.
• When at Ancient Spire Outpost, players should now safely teleport to the intended location.
• The Legendary Skeleton Exploder Commendation should now be visible to players in their reputation page under Gunpowder Skeletons in the Bilge Rats tab.
• The Commendation counters shown on the reputation pages now more accurately represent players’ progress with a Trading Company.
• Quickly pressing the primary use button/key while holding a pet should no longer disable the ‘give pet’ animation.
• The ‘Drop Capstan’ tutorial prompt now resets properly if the player’s ship sinks while on-screen within the radius of the Maiden Voyage island.
• When playing with Korean language settings, players are once again able to offer their soul to the Ferryman to skip the revival duration.

Ancient Treasure Vaults

• The Ancient Vault Key will now disappear once the Vault is complete.
• If an Ancient Vault is active, that Vault will no longer be selected for use in another crew’s Tall Tale.
• If an Ancient Vault becomes active, other crews will be notified that the Vault is unavailable when approaching the door.
• Rowboats should no longer clip through the Ancient Vault door.
• It should now be less likely for players to have more than one torn map piece per island.

Tall Tales

• ‘Heart of Fire’ – The lever in Stitcher Jim’s Hideout now works repeatedly as intended.
• ‘Heart of Fire’ – Dying and then being revived in lava now properly kills the revived player again.
• ‘Heart of Fire’ – This Tall Tale no longer shows as ‘New’ in the Tall Tales tab.

Pirate Emporium

• Switching currency should now properly update the price in the item preview window.

Environment

• Emergent locations on Discovery Ridge for animal crates and Gunpowder Barrels have been updated to ensure they can be reached by players.
• When engaging the Skeleton Fort on Sailor’s Knot Stronghold, upon reaching the Skeleton Lord players should no longer become stuck in the Fort wall during combat.
• The rocks near Dagger Tooth Outpost now have appropriate collisions.
• Players can no longer get stuck in the Pirate Legend Hideout and appear in the sea near the Sea Dogs’ Arena.
• Players should no longer be safe teleported when moving around the Vault entrances.
• The walls of the tunnel outside the Vault on Mermaid’s Hideaway should be visible at all times.
• The corrupt textures in the Kraken’s Fall Vault have been removed.
• The dust/rock VFX will no longer be floating near the Kraken’s Fall Vault rock door.
• Players should no longer be able to dig the ground inside the weapon and equipment shops on Outposts.
• There is no longer a hole in the western rock outcrop on Shores of Gold.
• The skull lamp at Marauder’s Arch should now be attached to a post and no longer floating in mid-air.

Visual and Audio

• When following an ‘X Marks the Spot’ Map, the ‘thunk’ sound can now be heard upon digging at the right location.
• When the Ashen Curse is equipped, it should now appear while on the Ferry of the Damned.
• The Hunter Figurehead, Crab Figurehead and Parrot Figurehead now have the correct icons when viewed in the Ship Customisation Chest.
• Players should now be able to scroll down to the last option on the Video Settings page.

The Arena

• The last crew to vote for the migration after the contest will no longer be stuck on the ‘recording results’ message and instead migrate as intended.

Custom Servers

• Steam players should now be able to join an active custom server after receiving an invite.
• Players should no longer be able to browse the store at North Star Seapost while on a Custom Server.
• Players should no longer be able to browse Larinna’s Black Market while on a Custom Server.

Steam

• Players who unlocked incorrect achievements on Steam before June 3rd 2020 will now have the incorrect achievements removed upon next login (but if the achievement was legitimately earned since then it will stay).
• Players who have not had their Xbox achievements carried over to Steam will find their achievements correctly synchronised when logging in following the Fate of the Damned update.
• When attempting to join a game without an invite on Steam, players will now be shown the correct notification message.

Performance and Stability

• Improvements to server performance reducing latency, lag spikes, ‘rubberbanding’ and server correction during gameplay.
• Improved client stability when loading into The Arena tavern upon selecting Duo Sloop Open Crew.
• Improved client stability when idling on the Ferry of the Damned for an extended duration.
• Improved server stability when progressing through Tall Tales.
• Improved Xbox loading times from when a player sets sail on the front end to when they arrive in the world.
• Improved and optimised client performance.
• Optimised a range of islands across The Devil’s Roar to improve client performance.
• Camera movement should now feel smoother when using the mouse and keyboard on Xbox consoles.