Skull and Bones Season 2 is right around the corner, and Ubisoft just dropped the detailed patch notes for it. The notes highlight every major feature shipping with the Season 2 update. Dubbed Chorus of Havoc, the latest Season will not only bring a new story act and seasonal rewards but also a boatload of new stuff for you to dig through.
Without further ado, let us dive straight into the official patch notes and what's new in Skull and Bones Season 2: Chorus of Havoc.
Everything new coming with Skull and Bones Season 2
New Ship: Brig
- Fast and agile, the support ship 'Brig' excels at deploying minefields and repair buoys using the new Springloader weapon. Available free from completing Smuggler Pass challenges.
Perk: Artificer
- Consecutive weapon hits to targets increases effectiveness of subsequent Buoys by 2%, capping at 30%. Resets if more than 12 seconds pass between hits.
- Reduces reload time of Auxiliary weapons by 10%, as well as for nearby friendly ships.
Upgrades:
- Better navigation stats - increased top speed and turning speed.
- More furniture slots.
- Secondary Perk: Evolved - Buoys you deploy lasts longer.
New weapon type: Mine Springloader
- The Mine Springloader launches floating buoys that create minefields. These minefields deal damage to enemy ships and destroy torpedoes that collide into the minefield.
- Slot: Auxiliary
- New stats for Springloaders include Operation Range, Operation Time, Buoy Health, Number of Buoys.
- Springloader variant 'Little Grace' can be obtained from the Seasonal main contract "Curtain Call". Launches floating buoys that repair and restore the integrity of damaged hulls and masts.
- Springloader variant 'Infernal Maw' can be obtained from the Smuggler Pass. Launches Sea Fire Mines, that deal fire damage to enemy ships and destroy torpedoes that collide into the minefield. These buoys also carry volatile sea fire that erupts when destroyed, dealing 300% damage.
New weapon variants
The first three variants listed here can be obtained from the Black Market.
- Demi-Cannon variant Faule Ilse - Shrapnel fired from this weapon ricochets to nearby targets on impact. 75% of the original damage is dealt upon secondary hit.
- Rocket variant The Warhammer - Fires a volley of 10 heavy explosive rockets from above.
- Torpedo variant Endless Requiem - Highly advanced torpedoes with target-seeking capability.
- Long Gun variant La Piqure - A malicious weapon wielded by La Peste's cronies. It fires tainted shells that drain Crew Stamina. Adds 20% damage that cannot be blocked.
New Armour: Rhapsody of the Deep
- A powerful armour that provides protection against Torpedoes, and it can completely counter the effects of Flooding for as long as the player keeps bracing. Available free from completing Smuggler Pass challenges in Skull and Bones.
Perks:
- Unsinkable: While bracing the effects of being afflicting with "Flooded" is negated.
- Iron Plastron: Reduced damage from Torpedoes by 25% and by an additional 25% while bracing.
New Armour Variants
- Stormwoven Symphony with the new armour perk: Crescendo. Holding brace charges up a sonic attack that damages surrounding enemies. Available from the Black Market.
- The Buccaneer's Oath and Abyssal are available from the Black Market.
- Leviathan will be available as a reward from the Lestari Bounty.
New Game Mode: Manufactory Buyout
A solo (non-competitive) opportunity where players fulfill the demands of a Helm agent in a race against time to secure a Manufactory.
- Upon accepting the Buyout Opportunity, the player should travel to the target outpost where the Overseas Smuggler is located.
- When the warm-up countdown timer is up, the Smuggler will reveal the item(s) they require in exchange for ownership of said Manufactory. The target manufactory will also be revealed at this point. The requested items may range from: Commodities, Contraband, Currencies and Equipment, etc.
- Gather the required item(s) and submit them to the Smuggler within the time limit to complete the Buyout and obtain the manufactory!
New Game Mode: Manufactory Defense
Here's what the developer had to say, describing this mode:
"Safeguard your Manufactory against faction rivals looking to cripple your Empire network."
- Upon accepting the Manufactory Defense opportunity, the player should travel to the targeted Manufactory.
- The player will need to remain within the area and defend their manufactory against incoming waves of enemies. There will be 5 waves of enemies, each with increasing difficulty.
- Mix of ships that prioritize either targeting the player or the manufactory.
- Ensure that your Manufactory's HP does not reach 0 at the end of all 5 enemy waves.
- Upon successfully defending their manufactory, the player will receive Manufactory Boost (supply boost), 5000 Silver, 1x Gold Raider's Cache if funded. If not funded, the rewards are 8000 Silver and 1x Gold Raider's Cache instead.
- The Gold Raider's Cache contains Silver, Pieces of Eight, Enhanced Repair Kits, Helm materials, chance of some refined Helm Wares and a chance to obtain a World Helm Lease.
- If the player fails at defending their manufactory, production of Pieces of Eight will cease temporarily while the manufactory recovers. At level 1, the damaged manufactory will remain "in repairs" for 1 hour. With each increasing Manufactory level, there is a corresponding increase in the duration of Po8 production downtime, up to the max downtime of 14 hours for a level 10 manufactory.
- This opportunity will only generate for players that meet the following conditions: Owns at least 5 manufactories, the last defense opportunity was completed at least 4 hours ago.
New Sea monsters: Lestari & Mega Lestari
- The contract "The Vanishing" will be available from the Seapeople Huntmaster at Lanitra outpost.
- Subdue Lestari to obtain monster fangs which can be exchanged at the Huntmaster for an Epic Lestari Armour, a special dish, and a firework. Turning in the contract also awards a silver reward.
- Pick up bounty contract "Silent Death" at the dens - but be warned, the Mega Lestari is not to be trifled with (recommended Ship Rank: 13).
- Complete the bounty to receive the Bounty Chest, which contains pieces of the vanity set "Legend of Lestari" and captain vanity set "Lestari Hunter".
Time-limited Event: Dragon's Regatta
- Available from 28th May to 18th June.
- Over the span of 3 weeks, participate in 3 different races across 3 different regions.
- Make your way to the Race Official ship or the floating buoy and interact with them to start the race. Once the timer starts, the checkpoints will be marked. To complete the race, meet all the checkpoints (in any order) before the timer runs out!
- Within the race routes, players can activate Speed boosters and Stamina boosters that will appear throughout the course.
- Your best time will be recorded and players who have completed all 3 races will be ranked on the Dragon's Regatta Leaderboard based on their best time. At the end of this time limited event, the top 100 players will be awarded the Golden Lemur pet.
- For each race completed, players can earn Regatta Tokens and a Regatta Chest containing: Pieces of Eight, new food item Rice Dumpling, materials and chance for a new Epic Furniture, Secret Cache I.
- Players may use their tokens to exchange for Regatta ship and captain vanity sets.
Time-limited Event: Summer Fiesta
- Available from 2nd July to 16th July.
- More information on this event will be shared closer to its availability.
New Feature: Ship Upgrades
- The shipwright will now provide upgrades for ships of players that have reached Kingpin status if they have the necessary silver and materials required, including a new item: Upgrade Parts.
- The highest Ship Rank is now 13, attainable on all small and medium ships, except the Dhow.
- All ships in Skull and Bones (except Dhow) have access to 6 tiers of Upgrades, with each tier granting improvements such as new perks, additional furniture slots, enhanced ship stats like hull health, cargo space, speed, and ship rank score. Small ships are brought up to par with medium ships through these upgrades and gain access to weapon slots previously only available on medium ship.
- At upgrade tier 3/6, medium ships gain a new perk - "Deep Blue" - that increases manoeuvrability when traversing seas.
- At upgrade tier 4/6, small ships gain a new perk - "River Rat" - that increases speed and manoeuvrability when traversing rivers.
- All fully upgraded ships will also unlock a new unique ship perk that provide additional bonuses for each ship.
Captains can get Ship Upgrades from:
- Completing seasonal boss bounties and the new Main Contracts.
- Trade with Scurlock, Rahma.
- Completing Smuggler Pass challenges.
- Chance drop from recurring bounty chest such as the Rode Maangodin, Lestari.
- End of Season rewards based on the progression made in Empire game mode.
New Fleet Management features
- Assign your ships to an owned Manufactory and have your fleet collect Pieces of Eight for you! The fleet will collect Po8 on a cycle.
- The duration of the collection run depends on the Manufactory's distance from the nearest Den. While in operation, you will not be able to use the assigned ship or change its loadout.
- Ships can only be assigned to manufactories that have reached level 4 and above.
- Before you assign your ship, ensure that the assigned ship's rank meets the recommended levels. Otherwise, your assigned ships would be at risk of encountering rival ships that would attack your assigned ship and try to loot your Pieces of Eight!
- Repairing the damaged ship will cost Silver.
- With each ship rank increment, you have increased efficiency - allowing the ship to carry more Po8 at one time.
All gameplay changes in Skull and Bones Season 2 patch notes
Here are all the major gameplay changes in Skull and Bones Season 2, excluding changes that are purely bug fixes:
- You can now view your collection of pets in the Helm office.
- You can now sell your ships at the shipwright for silver.
- Difficulty of Kumaharibu has been increased to account for the Ship Rank rebalancing. Increased damage by 40% and hit Points of Interests by 23%.
- Contract item given during "A Nose for Business" has been renamed to "Writ of Ownership", not to be confused with the new item, Helm Lease.
- Players are now only able to heal other Players that are in the same activity (e.g. Co-Op, Opt-In PvP, out of PvP).
- Players now have a grace period to re-enter the location they are plundering before it goes into recovery state.
- Barque blueprint is now available in the Black Market, among other new items.
- Re-routed La Potence sailing path as it was sometimes sailing too close to Sainte-Anne.
- Placeholder voice no longer present in dialogue at start of "Devil's Gambit" Contract in French.
- Players can no longer heal AI Ships that are hostile to the Player.
- Depleted resource nodes now show the "Depleted" prompt.
- Adjusted maximum microphone volume to mitigate distortion/background noise on voice chat.
- Incorrect reward is displayed in the opportunities information widget for manufactories that are already owned.
- Marking is now enabled in the fast travel map.
- Deathcam: Check out the ship that got the last hit on you before you sank.
- Photo mode: Use the 4 new camera angles to capture your ship's vanity in a new light.
- Photomode no longer exits when crew stamina is completely depleted.
Ship Rank changes
Here's what the developer said about this alteration:
"Ship rank damage modifiers will now be less significant once you are of higher ship rank. The first band starts at ship rank 8 when both entities are above, and the second band starts at ship rank 11."
Player Ship Rank 8-10 vs AI Ship Rank 8+:
- No change in damage taken vs AI of equal SR.
- No change in damage dealt vs AI of equal or lower SR.
- 2-4% increased damage taken vs AI of lower SR depending on SR difference.
- 10-30% reduced damage taken vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.
- 10-30% increased damage dealt vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.
Player Ship Rank 11+ vs AI:
- No change in damage taken vs AI of equal SR.
- No change in damage dealt vs AI of equal or lower SR.
- 4-6% increased damage taken vs AI of lower SR depending on SR difference.
- 20-40% reduced damage taken vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.
- 15-60% increased damage dealt vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.
Additional balance changes to boss encounters:
- Ship Rank 14 content: AI health and damage reduced by 5%.
- Ship Rank 15 content: AI health reduced by 32%, AI damage reduced by 15%.
- Ship Rank 16 content (Season 2): AI health reduced by 25%, AI damage reduced by 15%.
Check out our other guides on this game:
How to get Silver || Hungry Mermaids walkthrough || Skull and Bones Review || Death Mark explained