Sea of ​​Thieves' Season 11 adds fast-travel in radical voyage overhaul next week

Sea of ​​Thieves' 11th season is right around the corner, and it looks like its arrival next Tuesday, 23rd January, could very bring the most radical overhaul for the multiplayer pirate adventure since its launch back in 2018.

As per Rare's latest developer update, Sea of ​​Thieves' Season 11 makes sweeping changes to the way voyages are accessed and activated. Previously, voyages – essentially self-contained quests directing players to specific themed activities, if you're familiar – could only be purchased from trading company representatives at outposts, meaning a whole lot of time spent engaged in often eventful sailing as you traversed back and forth forth across the map, picking up new voyages, dropping off loot, and on.

From Season 11 onward, however, all voyages will be immediately accessible at any time from the new Quest Table on your ship. Here you get on-demand access to trading company voyages (ranked by length), Tall Tales, meaning you can dive straight into any voyage type you fancy without first needing to take a lengthy trip to the outpost to buy it.

And when I say “dive”, I mean it literally; In a hugely surprising move, Rare is introducing the equivalent of fast-travel to Sea of ​​Thieves, cutting out sailing time almost completely. Once you've selected a voyage, you can either opt to sail there the old fashion time or to immediately sink beneath the waves, popping up right next to your destination.

Rare isn't jettisoning the “sea” bit of Sea of ​​Thieves completely though – which is probably just as well given you'd just be left with an “of” after the introduction of private servers in Season 10 already made it possible to ignore the “thieves” bit of the game; any loot on board your ship when a dive is initiated will immediately be lost as it floats to the service, meaning you'll still need to drop it off at an outposts to claim your full rewards. There is some concession here for the new faster style of play, however: players will earn a small amount of reputation whenever a quest is completed without needing to return to a trading company representative – meaning you can dive again immediately or simply log out without totally forfeiting a reward.

Additionally, all world events – which include the likes of Ashen Lord fights, Sunken Kingdom treasury raids, sea forts, and ghost ship battles – will also be immediately accessible via a new Raid Voyage category. Available event types will slowly unlock as you progress through the ranks of trading companies, and all on-demand world events will reward treasure specific to their associated trading companies.

On top of all these trading company voyages have now been rebalanced and feature new loot types exclusive to voyages – cashing this loot in to their respective companies will also now contribute to unlocking Cartographer's Pistol and Blunderbuss; Additionally, emergent loot – such as that found in shipwrecks or via Message in a Bottles voyages – will now form the form of new “Kingly” treasure, which contributes toward unlocking the Cartographer's Compass and Eye of Reach on delivery.

And that's not all; The maximum level for all trading companies has now been raised from 75 to 100, with new decorative ship rewards including character plushes, a wooden carriage clock, spooky mirror, and more. Additionally, there are new ship crests for Captains to unlock through progression, while reaching level 100 rewards distinctions, unlocking rings for your pirates to flaunt on their fingers.

Elsewhere, there's a new Discover tab available via the Quest Table menu that'll highlight activities relating to your current progression, as well as recently unlocked voyages, even active time-limited events. Rare has even added brand-new tutorials for each of the trading companies – which does, perhaps suggest it might be anticipating an influx of new players needing guidance soon. Could reports that Sea of ​​Thieves is coming to PlayStation and Switch in the not-too-distant future be true?

Season 11 – which also brings 100 new levels of seasonal progression and associated rewards, a new paid Plunder Pass, new earnables for Emissaries, the new Maastro clothing set at Outposts, and various additions to the premium cosmetics store – launches for Xbox and PC next Tuesday, 23rd January, if you fancy diving in.