After some delays last week, the Sea of Thieves Ashen Winds update finally went live today, bringing a host of hot-tempered enemies to the game. Known as Ashen Lords, the undead fire-wielding enemies are the result of Captain Flameheart’s meddling in supernatural rituals. Besides the Ashen Lord threat, Rare also tweaked combat mechanics, added new shop items, and made other general improvements.
The Ashen Lords take the spotlight for this monthly update, as they are complex new enemies with special items to obtain. The game goes into plenty of lore about them, but their loot is sure to attract the most attention. Rare showed off a powerful and valuable skull that can be collected from fallen Ashen Lords. The item can be cashed in with a vendor or used to wield fire against enemies. Weaponizing the item of course decreases the skull’s value over time as the charge will slowly deplete.
The bustling in-game shop known as the Pirate Emporium received various new items in addition to a “ship sail sale” in celebration of Rare’s 35 anniversary. Ashen Curse pets are available and you can get Kraken Outfits for your cat. Players more interested in customizing themselves can find plenty of new emotes, which Rare describes as great for role play. If all of this is too cute for you, slay some Ashen Lords to earn some fierce new tattoos.
Take aim and fire true
There’s a long list of changes and improvements to read about in the official patch notes, but a few stand out. Improved hit registration should cause a sigh of relief for everyone. However, with that said, you also need to be more aware of your surroundings. Projectiles can pass through select objects now. Quick thinking pirates should be able to use heavy cover effectively, while pressing the attack on poorly concealed enemies. The patch notes are very specific about these rules, so we recommend referring to them.
Skeleton ships now offer different loot drops as well, and inactive ships or rival crews instantly sink to avoid silver farming. Furthermore, emotes are easier to use and player muting options are faster to enable.
Accessibility is also improved, with Polish and Korean language support in addition to single-stick control, speech to-text-override, and improved introductory tutorials.
Sea of Thieves is currently for PC on Steam and through the Microsoft Store. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can download the game for free and play with an active subscription. The update clocks in at 6.5 GB for Windows players, while Steam players can expect 4.47 GB. According to Steam, the Sea of Thieves Ashen Winds update brings the game’s file size up to around 50 GBs.
