Sea of Thieves 1.2.4 update heralds cursed cannonballs for pirates, a PVP flag, and more

Following an extended four week run, the Sea of Thieves Cursed Sails event has come to a close.
But to spice up the three-week break until Forsaken Shores hits the deck, Rare has introduced a brand new Bilge Rat Adventure with this week's 1.2.4 update alongside a host of new features.

The cursed cannonballs that were exclusive to skeleton ships have now been made available to players. Found in barrels and crates, these cannonballs come in 11 flavors, and to handle the introduction, Rare has implemented the new Barrel 2.0 inventory system. A megathread for sharing feedback on the new system can be found here.

The aforementioned Bilge Rat Adventure ties into these new cannon balls as well as the new Reapers Mark flag. Built for players looking for PVP action, the menacing red flag acts as a beacon to all other crews on the map once it is raised. There are of course cosmetic, doubloon, commendation, and title rewards up for grabs with this Bilge Rat run as well.

As for some other highlights, skeleton ships have been made a permanent part of the game as a new emergent threat, while the discounts that arrived with the Cursed Sails campaign have now become permanent, lessening the grind for cosmetics.

Here are the rest of the changes in this update:

• Beached Treasures - Banana Crates, Cannonball Crates and Wood Crates will now wash up more frequently on beaches.
• Supply & Demand - Banana Crates, Cannonball Crates and Wood Crates have an increased value when sold to the Merchant Alliance.
• Message in Bottles - Banana Crates, Cannonball Crates and Wood Crates are now more likely to be part of Voyages discovered in a Message in a Bottle.
• Map Table Alliance Flags - Alliance flag colours for both your ship and allied ships now appear on your map table’s off-screen marker.
• Commendation Changes - Some Commendation requirements have been rebalanced. This change was made due to community feedback. Players who have met the new conditions will need to complete the requirement one more time to trigger the Commendation.
• Controller Sensitivity - Sensitivity settings have now been doubled. The new '5' sensitivity is equivalent to the previous '10'. Players may have to adjust their settings when they next launch the game.
• Shop Purchase Updates - The flow of purchasing items from shops has been improved, featuring some shiny UI updates.
• Light It Up - Lanterns must now be lit in order to trigger riddle steps.
• Hair & Beards - New animations have been added to the Vanity Chest when trying on beards and hairstyles, to better show them off!

And as usual, Rare also shared what bugs were fixed as well as the known issues to keep an eye out for in this update:

Fixed Issues

• The Kraken has been unleashed upon the seas once again.
• Alliances can now contain more than two crews.
• When offered an Alliance by multiple crews, acceptance now only allies you with the closest ship.
• Merchant Crates no longer display an incorrect maximum capacity when being filled.
• Titles from shops are correctly removed when purchased.
• Viewing the Brigantine from a far distance no longer makes its crow's nest appear to be on the front mast.
• Skeletons will no longer dash through and get stuck in walls, causing issues with hidden skeletons in Forts and Order of Souls voyages.
• Players can no longer scuttle their own ship and teleport chests back to their new spawn point.
• Players can no longer glitch through the hull of the Brigantine to enter the ship.
• The Brigantine stairs have been updated to stop players getting stuck underneath them and ejected from the ship.
• Cannon explosions will no longer randomly be heard out of nowhere during normal gameplay.
• Players on PC will now be able to select 'Options' after being invited to a game.
• Corrected clipping issues with the Hunter Shirt, Hunter Pocket Watch and Bone Crusher Tankard.

Known Issues

• Bounty Skulls which are washed up on islands cannot be picked up.
  • We have a fix for this coming in a future update.
• Players can come back from the Ferry of the Damned as a skeleton.
  • We have identified the issue and we're working on a fix.
• Merchant Alliance crates which sink will not float to the surface and cannot be picked up.
• The Hunter Jacket & Trousers are incorrectly Purple.
  • This will be corrected to red in a future update.

The 1.2.4 update is larger than usual, coming in at around 3.75GB for both platforms, but since the servers are already up and running, pirates can jump into the game right now.

Sea of Thieves is available for purchase via the Microsoft Store for Xbox One family of consoles and Windows 10 PCs. Xbox Game Pass subscribers also get complete access to the title.