Sea of Thieves 2.8.1 patch notes: Welcome Port Merrick, refreshed Pirate Emporium, gameplay improvements and more 

With Sea of Thieves Season 9 well on its way, the developers at Rare have pushed another update for the game. Patch 2.8.1 deals with a variety of gameplay tweaks, including Ghost Fleet encounter balancing, Ashen Voyage availability, a ban on the ability to bypass the purchase limit at the shipwright, improvements to Captains features, and more.

The update also sees the Pirate Emporium get refreshed for the countless swashbuckling buccaneers to better dress their characters. The Sawbones Ship Collection, Clothing, and Weapon bundles are available to be purchased by players.

The official Sea of Thieves Twitter handle also revealed that the transformation of the New Golden Sands Outpost into Port Merrick is now complete. The location houses "a fancy fountain" and a "not-so-mysterious statue." The fate of the outpost was decided in June of last year when players were given the option to save the outpost or destroy it.

Without further ado, here are the official patch notes for update 2.8.1 in Sea of Thieves.

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Sea of Thieves official patch notes for update 2.8.1

Pirate Emporium

Season Nine Plunder Pass

• Anyone wishing to take full advantage of Season Nine rewards can still buy the Plunder Pass. Any rewards unlocked will become available upon purchase, so players who have raised their Renown throughout Season Nine can instantly see their hard work rewarded before the Season ends.
• This Season’s Plunder Pass offers early access to the complete Sting Tide Ship Collection and evolving Sting Tide Costume, and can be purchased at any time through the Pirate Log, Pirate Emporium, Microsoft Store or Steam Item Store.

Sawbones Ship Collection

• Spread your medical 'expertise' across the Sea of Thieves with the Sawbones Ship Collection. Collector's Sails and Figurehead are available to purchase separately.
• Pirates looking for the bare necessities can instead choose the Sawbones Essential Ship Bundle, containing the core components at a discount.

Sawbones Clothing Bundle

• Don the mask of those who do not falter in the face of pestilence with these well-worn items of medical gear. Pirates are free to purchase the hat, gloves, belt and jacket individually, or all four items bundled together at a discount.

Sawbones Weapon Bundle

• This bundle of weapons might have seen better days, but they'll never fail to get the job done.

Sawbones Trinket

• Captains in dire need of a flask of eyeballs to decorate their ship can now pick up this grim Trinket at the Emporium.

Quick Draw Weapon Pose Emote

• A pirate knows better than to enter any situation unarmed, so be ready to react with this weapon-specific emote in Sea of Thieves.

Freebie Encouraging Clap Emote

• Collect this freebie from the Emporium and show enthusiasm for your crew’s most impressive feats. Or explosions.

Sawbones’ Surgery Bundle (Store Only)

• Medical science is a developing field, but still as rough and ready as anything else on the Sea of Thieves. For now, you can at least look the part and come equipped for spontaneous procedures! The Sawbones' Surgery Bundle contains the Sawbones Clothing Bundle and Weapon Bundle, the Quick Draw Weapon Pose Emote, 550 Ancient Coins to spend in the Pirate Emporium and a free bonus of 25,000 gold. Head to the Microsoft Store or Steam Item Store to find out more.

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Outpost Cosmetics

Order of Souls Cosmetics

• Gain Madame Olivia’s approval within the Order by saving up for a selection of clothing, weapons and equipment now in stock at the Outpost shops.

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Updates

Ghost Fleet Encounter Balancing

• The damage required to defeat Captain’s Ships and the Burning Blade during a Ghost Fleet encounter has now been reduced.
• The number of Wraith Cannonballs rewarded for completing the encounter has now been increased in Sea of Thieves.

Ashen Voyage Availability

• Ashen Voyages purchasable from the shipwright no longer have a Trading Company reputation requirement, allowing all Captains access to these new Voyages delivered in Season Nine.

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Accessibility

Narration Playback Speed

• Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ now have additional control within the Settings Menu to adjust the speed of the narration. This will allow players to set a speed that is the most convenient and comfortable for them in Sea of Thieves.

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Events

Twitch Drops

• Continue to unlock cosmetics throughout Season Nine with Twitch Drops! Stay tuned to Sea of Thieves social channels to find out when Twitch Drops will be active for Partnered streamers, allowing players to earn a selection of items from the Eastern Winds Sapphire set.
• Find out how to link your accounts and more on our dedicated Twitch Drops page.

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Fixed Issues

Gameplay

• Seagulls now appear over treasure dropped when defeating a Megalodon.
• Supply barrels jettisoned from a ship will no longer sink while players are nearby.
• Supply barrels harpooned onto a ship will no longer disappear when sailing away from the area where they were collected.
• Players are no longer able to bypass the purchase limit at the shipwright and retrieve multiple supplies.
• Crews are now granted the correct Emissary Grade progression when bringing treasure onto their ship using a harpoon in Sea of Thieves.
• Players below deck caught by the blast from a Trident of Dark Tides as it hits the outside of the ship’s hull will now take reduced damage as intended.
• Rowboats containing treasure will no longer leave items floating in the air when undocked from the Sovereigns’ dock.
• When taking part in a Skeleton Fleet battle, player ships in close proximity to each other will no longer prevent the fleet from appearing from the depths in Sea of Thieves.
• Players discovering the Chest of Legends at the final dig site during a Search for Cursed Treasure will now find the Voyage completes as intended.
• Pirates are now prevented from retrieving multiple Voyages from a Mysterious Journal.
• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Crews are now prevented from using the cage key on a nearby door, which would block them from being able to complete the Tall Tale.
• ‘Revenge of the Morningstar’ – Crews are no longer rewarded when cashing in the Skull of Captain Douglas or Chalice of Resurrection.

Battle for the Sea of Thieves

• Crewmates who join during a battle and are held on the Ferry of the Damned are no longer awarded Allegiance when the battle ends.
• Players who lose a battle while on the Ferry of the Damned should no longer encounter the rare scenario where they appear beneath the waves after returning from the Ferry.

Captains of Adventure

• Further improvements made to saving ship customisations, reducing scenarios where Captains saving a livery, decoration or Trinket would result in their chosen customisations not persisting between sessions.
• A Captain's Logbook will now maintain a consistent record of events after migrating across servers.
• Players should no longer find that events recorded in a Logbook found floating at sea suddenly become blank after reading.
• A Captain's Logbook will now retain its customised appearance after being placed in a Collector’s Chest, or after being dropped and picked up.
• A Captain's Logbook will now show the correct events pages after being placed in a Collector’s Chest.
• Players holding a Captain's Logbook will no longer be offered the option to retrieve treasure from a Collector's Chest in Sea of Thieves.

Pirate Emporium

• Players are now able to preview the King’s Ransom Crown on their pirate while browsing the Emporium.
• The glowing eyes on the Frostbite Figurehead are now much more visible at a distance.
• The Sea Serpent Collector’s Sails now use the correct tile art.
• The Labyrinth Looter Weapon Bundle now displays the correct iconography in Sea of Thieves.

Environment

• Pirates can no longer intersect with the environment within the basements of Sea Forts.
• Within the Pirate Legend Hideout, pirates should no longer be able to push through the environment into the sea.
• Pets can now follow players around the new areas of the Pirate Legend Hideout.
• ‘Shores of Gold’ – Players are no longer able to bypass the traps and reach the Gold Hoarder’s vault by passing through the environment in Sea of Thieves.
• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Rocks found within the tunnels that lead to Sailor's Grave now appear correctly.

User Interface

• Players on lower-spec hardware should no longer experience graphical issues or missing UI imagery after leaving a session and quickly joining a new session.
• After raising and lowering an Emissary Flag, bringing up a radial menu should no longer show an active Emissary.
• After switching categories within the shipwright’s Voyage shop, players making a purchase will no longer find the category is reset.
• Storage Crates for single resources such as Cannonball Crates no longer display additional UI elements within the storage limits space.
• Browsing the Trials section within the Pirate’s Log now correctly displays the selected page.
• The name of a player's pet is now displayed correctly in the chat notification pane in Sea of Thieves.

Accessibility

• When enabling the extended audio range of sea rocks to improve sailing audio cues, players using headphones will no longer hear audio effects in both ears at the same time.
• Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ will no longer hear punctuation narrated within the Custom Server menus.
• Players using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ will no longer hear incorrect or repeated narration while navigating the ‘Info and Tips’ section.

Visual and Audio

• When boarding a ship from the sea, players are no longer able to muffle the boarding audio effects by grabbing the ladder while aiming down sights, ensuring nearby players will always hear someone boarding from the ocean in Sea of Thieves.
• Pirates striking another ship with cannon fire will no longer hear other game music quieten for an extended period.
• Players shooting, sprinting and aiming in quick succession with an Eye of Reach should no longer encounter rare scenarios where the weapon animation becomes stuck and prevents aiming down sights.
• When a Skeleton Fleet battle is active, players moving around The Reaper's Hideout will no longer hear the audio effects cutting out in Sea of Thieves.
• After speaking with various characters found across the world, players leaving the conversation will now hear the correct ending phrase.
• Equipping the Lucky Hand Dress no longer causes a pirate’s tattoos to appear cut off.
• The Sweet Treat Capstan now blends more seamlessly with the pool of chocolate when being raised and lowered.
• White corners are no longer visible on the Season Nine title screen.
• The Mysterious Stranger will now consistently appear at the intended level of detail when visited in the tavern.
• Players with a buried treasure map will now see the correct iconography on the map after migrating servers in Sea of Thieves.

Text and Localisation

• All ‘Vote to Scuttle’ options within the Settings Menu no longer display debug text strings and are translated to all non-English languages.
• The description for the Fortune's Favour Commendation has now been corrected to reflect that handing in the Chest of Fortune at a variety of locations will still count towards progressing the Commendation.
• Players attempting to equip invalid decorations to a Sloop will now see a translated error message in the player’s preferred language in Sea of Thieves.
• The Emissary tutorials now mention that Doubloons as well as gold and reputation are increased based on Emissary Grade when selling items as an Emissary.
• When players speak to Larinna, she will now mention the new features introduced as part of Season Nine.

Performance and Stability

• Improved server stability to reduce instances where players are disconnected from their session in Sea of Thieves.

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Known Issues

Sawbones Clothing Visual Issues

• Elements of the Sawbones Jacket and Sawbones Belt are not affected by the Blessing of Athena’s Fortune, and will currently remain solid in appearance.

Reduced Server Performance

• Sea of Thieves players may experience scenarios where they encounter ping spikes at random while playing, resulting in rubberbanding or client stutters. While improvements were most recently released in update 2.7.3, the team continue to work on further improvements for future updates.

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection

• In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While small improvements continue to be delivered during our regular updates, we are continuing to investigate and identify further improvements to the player combat experience.

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The download size for the Sea of Thieves update is 8 GB on the Xbox Series X, 5.15 GB on the Xbox Series S & One, 7.1 GB on Steam, and 7.4 GB on the Microsoft Store, according to the official announcement.