Sea of Thieves' long-awaited and slightly delayed season 7 update is nearly here, and Rare is detailing its big new Captaincy addition in a new trailer.
In case you hadn't heard, Sea of Thieves will let you buy and own ships when season 7 goes live on Thursday, August 4. We've known that since Rare surprise-revealed the new feature back during not-E3, but now we know exactly how it all works, including the price of the ships and how you can customize them.
First things first, buying a sloop will run you 250,000 gold, while brigantines will cost 375,000 gold, and galleons are priced at 500,000 gold. Once you become a proud ship owner, you can decide on a name for your vessel and have it displayed prominently. Though, it's best to think hard about what you want your ship to be named, as renaming it will cost you real-life money. It's also worth noting that you'll only be able to own one ship of each type - i.e. sloop, brig, and galleon - until you progress a ship to Legendary status, at which point you can buy and name another of the same type.
Ship ownership grants you more than just a persistent vessel to carry with you across servers - it also unlocks a wealth of new customization options. Whereas the old loaner ships only let you customize the exterior of the ship, you can now dress up the indoor areas as well. For example, you can customize interior furniture like the Captain's bed, table, rug, and drapes, and add trinkets like pictures and trophies to the walls. Just be sure to nudge them back into place when they shift around due to intense battles.
All these decorations will stay on your ship from one session to the next, but so will any damage you take on in your adventures. Thankfully you can have it restored by Scarlett in exchange for gold instead of patching up all of the holes yourself.
There's a new progression system consisting of various Milestones which you can unlock by engaging in all aspects of the game - from the amount of days you've spent at sea to the number of times you've repaired your ship - and that'll give you even more ways to customize your boat.
Season 7 will also add new special voyages exclusive to captains designed to give you more control over how you play. For instance, some Captain's Voyages will be short and sweet, tasking you with finding treasure on a single map, while others will involve several different activities and require a lot more time to complete.
The new Sovereign company will make Captains' lives easier by giving them a single location to turn in all different types of loot, so you can finally stop asking your crewmates where you're supposed to sell the dang Crate of Fine Teas. Can you tell I'm particularly excited about this feature?
Finally, the Captain's Logbook logs everything you and your crew did during your session, but if you're sunk by another crew they'll be able to steal your logbook and sell it at the Reaper's Hideout for gold and reputation.
That about covers it for the Captaincy features. I'm psyched about how it could make progression even more rewarding by letting you hold onto your own customizable ships across sessions instead of scuttling them at the end of the night.
Find out where we ranked Sea of Thieves on our list of the best Xbox Series X games released so far.
