'Sea of Thieves' 2.05 Patch Notes: Update Adds Black Powder Stashes, Monthly Content and a Boatload of Changes

Gaming Sea of thieves Patch notes

The latest patch update for Sea of Thieves brings the multiplayer pirating adventure to version 2.05, introducing Black Powder Stashes and making a host of changes and tweaks to gameplay balance. The new missions in the 2.05 update are the first in an ongoing schedule of planned monthly content updates.

Here's what else is in store with the new Sea of Thieves patch.

Sea of Thieves 2.05 Update Patch Notes: Everything New and Changed in Latest Update

Sea, of, thieves, legendary, storyteller, tall, tales, guide, find, chest, keys, ancient, crown, locations — The "Sea of Thieves" 2.05 update adds lots of fixes, plus new Black Powder Stashes missions. Rare

The main addition to Sea of Thieves in the 2.05 Patch update are Black Powder Stashes: challenging missions to track down explosive stashes, with Gunpowder Kegs and more. The Black Powder Stashes come in a few different forms:

Reaper's Black Powder Runs

A hyper-competitive Reaper's Run, these voyages will send pirate crews from Fort to For to find buried Merchant Crates, Stronghold Kegs and Gunpowder Kegs. There are two possible routes, which makes it possible to give rival crews the slip. Still, the Reaper's Black Powder Runs encourages direct competition by offering "unique rewards" for pirate crews that keep their Reaper's Flag raised, alerting everyone else of your location.

Black Powder Smuggler's Runs

A similar search for hidden caches of explosives, the Smuggler's Runs are designed to be less competitive, sending crews off on solo voyages to track down Gunpowder and Stronghold Kegs, plus Merchant Crates.

gunpowder-update-sea-thieves — Kegs abound in the new "Sea of Thieves" update. Rare / Xbox Game Studios

The new update also offers new venues for selling your looted goods, with The Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls and Merchant Alliance Trading Companies rewarding players handsomely for Kegs. Stronghold Kegs can also be brought to the Mysterious Stranger, who offers Athena's Fortune company reputation points to Pirate Legends already in with the other three companies.

The Black Powder Runs are available from Duke, who will also tell players of new Mermaid Gems scattered around the world, especially inside Skeleton Fort Vaults, Sunken Shipwrecks and inside of krakens and megalodons. Happy hunting.

Of course, new runs call for new Mercenary Commendations and Rewards, including Doubloons, new Titles and new items, including The Inevitable Reaper Flag, The Inevitable Reaper Sails and the Mercenary Figurehead.

Sea of Thieves Update 2.05 Patch Notes: Game Balance

Changes to gameplay balancing of Sea of Thieves is a big part of the 2.05 update.

Hunter's Call Rewards - More Gold and Reputation for fish and meat.

Tall Tales Skeleton Lords - Captain Briggsy, Captain Graymarrow and the Gold Hoarder have been rebalanced for two and three-player Crews.

'The Shores of Gold' Gold Hoard Encounter - More time has been added to the final encounter countdown.

Sunken Shipwreck Rewards - Sunken shipwrecks now have the chance to include Gunpowder Kegs, Resource Crates and Mermaid Gems.

Improved Resource Crates - More fruit, more cannonballs, more wooden planks.

Mermaid 'Return to Ship' Fixes - Mermaids appear more quickly and closer, making them more helpful.

Cursed Cannonballs - The duration of effects of all player curses have been reduced. Effect duration has also been reduced for Peaceball, Riggingball and Ballastball. Anchorball no longer has a cooldown period. Helmball and Barrelball are unchanged.

Skeleton Ships - Skeleton Ships now fire Cursed Cannonballs less frequently.

Megalodons - Described as a "wide balancing pass," Megalodon encounters have been redesigned to more clearly inform players of the shark's intentions, allowing for more strategic responses. It will also be possible to flee a Megalodon by heading to a nearby island. Megalodons should now be manageable for Crews aboard Sloops and Brigs.

Sloop Mast - A damaged Sloop mast takes only half the time resurrect.

Skeletons - Skeletons wielding the Eye of Reach rifle no longer spawn randomly, but instead are part of the crew complement aboard a Skeleton Ship. Island skeletons are now less accurate with cannons and have a slower respawn rate. Skeleton Ships won't chase for as long.

Devil's Roar Nature Hazards - The geysers on Morrow's Peak Outpost have a much less frequent spawn rate, while Devil's Roar Volcanoes are less likely to hit ships.

Sea of Thieves Update 2.05 Improvements and Fixes

Crew members will receive a notification when a player joins or leaves the Crew
New puzzle variants join other variability fixes to the "Shroudbreaker," "Revenge of the Morningstar" and "Cursed Rogue" Tall Tales
Digging on beaches, shorelines and grassy areas can now yield Bait.
New player-controlled hatches have been added to Sloops and Brigantines.
Tavern ambient audio has been enhanced, along with the audio heard during Pirate Selection.
A new UI panel shows choices already made while setting up your session.
The controller and keyboard settings menu has been improved.

The new 2.05 update for Sea of Thieves also makes dozens of bug fixes and a number of accessibility improvements, which can be found in the full Patch Notes released by Rare.