Sea of Thieves' Season 2 adds lucrative new fort event, crafty barrel disguise emote, more

Sea of Thieves, having swabbed the deck and washed away the remnants of its inaugural season, is now embarking on its next adventure, with Season 2 introducing the lucrative Forts of Fortune world event, Emissary improvements, a new trade route system, and more.

The flagship addition this season - if only because it takes the form of a bloody enormous red skull cloud that's not exactly easy to miss - is the new Forts of Fortune world event. Quite whether or not it'll be enough of a change from the existing skeleton forts to justify a third re-skin of the long-running feature remains to be seen, but Rare is promising tougher waves of enemies, including Skeleton Lords, and a final "even fiercer" foe. The pay-off for all this is increased rewards, including items to boost Athena's Fortune reputation.

Elsewhere, the Merchant Alliance and Emissaries get additional tweaks, with the latter receiving a new Trade Routes mechanic. Here, players can purchase Commodity Crates from an outpost and check the nearby Merchant Inventory, which provides an ever-changing list of destinations that sell low and buy high for those looking to earn a bit of extra gold.

Emissaries, meanwhile, now features a number of additional rewards for those that represent a Trading Company particularly well over the course of a month, with a new hull and figurehead being awarded to those that reach the top two tiers.

Reading between the lines, Season 2 appears to be aiming to give Sea of Thieves' PvP a kick up the bum, which might not enamour it to those favouring more leisurely PvE adventuring. Skeletons Forts are now the most frequent form of world event, there's an exceptionally sneaky (and PvP-friendly) new disguise-yourself-as-a-barrel emote as part of the free progression track, and crews can now use gold to purchase Cannonball, Fruit and Wood Crates from outposts - which, on paper, sounds like it might horribly advantage long-term players with lots of savings, despite purchases being limited to once every three in-game days. Time will tell!

That's not quite it for PvP stuff either; Season 2's first limited-time event is Reapers Vs. the World, running rom 22nd April to 22nd June. Here Reaper's Bones players will be encouraged to ride out and take on Emissary representatives from a specific, constantly rotating Trading Company, with various rewards unlocking for those that complete specific activities on both sides - as detailed on Seas of Thieves' Event Hub.

All that, of course, comes alongside the aforementioned free 100 levels of player progression and associated rewards (plus another selection of premium tier rewards as part of the paid Plunder Pass), as well as regular updates to the premium Pirate Emporium.

Sea of Thieves' second season is now underway on PC and Xbox and full patch notes are available for those wishing to learn more.

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