Sea Of Thieves Is Blowing Up One Of Its Most Beloved Islands

Rare has pulled back the curtain on its plans for Sea of Thieves in 2022, and Golden Sands Outpost is in the firing line.

In a 22-minute roadmap event, Rare has detailed new features and story elements coming to the game in February and beyond. These include new Sea Forts, and a new evolving campaign called Shrouded Islands.

The Shrouded Islands campaign will mark the first major step in the long-running Flameheart storyline since the Heart of Fire Tall Tale in March 2020. According to game designer Mike Chapman, the new Shrouded Islands stories are curated mysteries that will see numerous islands in the game enveloped by a sinister mist not dissimilar to the Fort of the Damned.

Indeed, the Fort of the Damned was the first time Rare shrouded an existing island. Previously, the Fort of the Damned was Old Boot Fort, a fort universally reviled among the community for its angular geography. Its lack of convenient unloading points in the era before harpoons was also a serious pain point. Rare destroyed the island and turned it into the Fort of the Damned in 2019.

In 2022, Sea of Thieves players will find the same fate has befallen Golden Sands Outpost. When players log in after the next major update in February, they will find they can no longer spawn in at Golden Sands. Larinna, the leader of the Bilge Rats stationed at every outpost, will urge players to investigate the site of Golden Sands Outpost as word as reached her of a disaster. Arriving at the island reveals its fate: a thick cloud of fog from the Sea of the Dead, and beyond it, total devastation. Its inhabitants are gone, the island now bearing only the scars of a terrible battle.

Unravelling the mystery of what has happened to Golden Sands Outpost forms the first of Sea of Thieves new approach to campaign content. A revised version of the Tall Tale stories that have served as the game’s campaign, these new Mysteries will affect the game world for all players. Further, according to Chapman, future stages of the story will be affected by the choices players make in each. This first mystery involves solving the murder of a well-known, but as yet unnamed, Sea of Thieves character.

Our money is on Duke, the former Bilge Rat whose descent into madness saw him side with the Dark Brethren during the A Pirate’s Life campaign last year. It’s not inconceivable that Duke has outlived his usefulness and has been put down at last.

Each new Mystery will be accompanied by a new lore trailer before launch. You can see the first of these trailers embedded below:

This first trailer introduces Belle, a character that has appeared in the Sea of Thieves novels. Belle was the original Mysterious Stranger, the shadowy figure in the tavern that accepts your Athena loot, but was changed before launch. Now, she finally makes her first appearance in-game. Belle’s arrival was teased over Christmas when she fleetingly appeared in a holiday live stream, warming her hands by a fireplace.

The coming update also teases the arrival of Sea Forts, new raid-type events that are somewhat more sheltered than the standard Fort world events. What was initially expected to be a hardcore PvP raid turned out to be sort of the opposite. Sea Forts appear to be built for solo players, or those who want to more easily avoid direct combat while still receiving a solid loot payout.

It’s hard to tell from Chapman’s description if other players will be able to see when a Sea Fort is active, or if it the world event cloud will be single-crew only. Also unclear: how much loot players stand to claim from Sea Forts. Our expectation would be similar to that of the standard skeleton fort, but we’ll have to wait and see. PvP players are already looking forward to assessing the stealability of these new forts.

Though the fate of Golden Sands will be sealed on February 17th, the first of Sea of Thieves‘ major 2022 updates will arrive when Season 6 begins in March.