Have you ever looked at your ship’s sails and thought “those would be 100% better with a reference to our crew’s inside joke about Flameheart having a puppy called Hot Dog”? Of course you have, and now’s your chance to prove it!

Our first ever Sail Design Competition is your invitation to sketch and share your dream set of sheets, with the potential for them to be added to Sea of Thieves, and other pirates’ customisation chests, as part of our ninth anniversary celebrations next March.

From now until October 23rd, pirates of all artistic ability are invited to use the template below (which you can download by clicking here[rare-assets.azureedge.net]), or whatever tools and canvas they have to hand, to draw their own set of sails (sticking to the number of sheets and relative size you’d see on a Sea of Thieves Galleon – make sure every sail is visible)!

Once you have your sketch, enter by simply posting your piece to Twitter/X[x.com], Bluesky[bsky.app], Instagram[www.instagram.com], TikTok[www.tiktok.com] or Threads[www.threads.com] with the tag #SoTSailDesignComp, or sharing your image in the dedicated #sot-sail-design-comp channel on the official Sea of Thieves Discord server.[discord.com]

From all the entries posted to social channels, an internal team of artists at Rare will choose their three favourites that they feel stand out in terms of creativity and originality, but are also designs they feel would be a good fit to be spotted on the horizon when sailing the Sea of Thieves.

A final concept for these three sets of sails will then be agreed in collaboration with the original artist, and shared as a community vote that will run in the Sea of Thieves Community Hub[www.seaofthieves.com] during January 2027. The winning entry from this poll will go on to become an in-game cosmetic that all players will be able to acquire during our ninth anniversary celebrations starting in March.

And that’s not the only prize! Alongside the top-voted sails appearing in the game, with a chance for their creator to be referenced in the item name or description, we’ll also award enough Ancient Coins for a year’s worth of Season Pass: Premium Tiers, covering all the Seasons that begin between our ninth and tenth anniversaries.

The two other sail scribblers who make it to the poll stage won’t be left adrift either – both artists will also receive a stack of 999 Ancient Coins, enough to cover the purchase of a Season Pass: Premium Tier or a couple of choice goodies from the Pirate Emporium.
While the sails are planned for distribution as part of our anniversary activities, that’s not a design direction your entries need to adhere to. The brief is simply ‘design some sails’ – we want to see the creativity that this broad direction brings.

There’s also no limit to the number of entries you can submit, so you can keep them coming with every wave of inspiration that strikes you! With that said, there are of course some restrictions barring the use of other companies’ IP, licensed content and generative AI in the creation of an entry, among other rules. Please refer to the full competition terms and conditions[www.seaofthieves.com] for all the details.

So, whether it is indeed a rendition of your crew’s Flameheart pooch headcanon, a patchwork dedication to your favourite rock, the Battle for Golden Sands retold in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry or simply a singular abstract artistic creation that only you could reel up from the depths of your piratey soul, we can’t wait to see what you design. Have fun, and good luck!

Looking for your next adventure? You won’t need to look far in Sea of Thieves Season 21! With a breathless schedule of Live Events and enhancements to Custom Seas each month, it’s a Season full of things to catch your attention and keep the boosts and rewards rolling in.

In keeping with Season 20’s looser structure, Season 21 doesn’t feature distinct headline Acts and so the updates in months two and three will focus on bug fixes, additional Events and refinements to the Custom Seas experience. The Season itself launches on September 17th and brings a refreshed Season Pass and optional Season Pass: Premium Tier, as well as a bolstered range of new cosmetics coming to Outpost stores – and the first of the Season’s special Events!

Season 21’s packed schedule of Events promises constant opportunities for reward boosts, time-limited activities and exclusive cosmetics to unlock. In terms of recurring Events, the weekly boosts offered by Fight Nights and Emissaries of Fortune will continue throughout the Season, giving you regular chances to get ahead with your Factions and Trading Companies of choice.

Then there’s a selection of monthly or Seasonal Events including Bilge Rats Weekenders, Season 21 Community Weekend and the return of Last Ship Standing: Sloops. We’ll be sharing more information about each Event closer to the time, so keep an eye on the Events Hub[www.seaofthieves.com] and Sea of Thieves social channels for all the details.

It’s not just returning Events to look forward to either, as there’ll be celebratory surprises for special occasions scattered across the next few months. First on that list, we need to brush off our pirate dictionaries…

Kicking off this Season’s Live Events roster is a celebration of every sailor’s favourite holiday: Talk Like a Pirate Day! To get you into the spirit, a new Parley Pennant has been added to your Flag Box for informing other crews when you’re just looking to talk. Use it successfully three times during the Event period running from September 17th-22nd and you’ll earn the Parley Proficiency Sails to keep as a mark of your commitment to conversation!

And there should be no shortage of fresh-faced pirates to talk to, as September 17th-21st sees a Free Play Weekend taking place across all platforms, waiving the need for an online subscription such as Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation®Plus. That means everyone will have the chance to set sail for free and get involved in the celebrations, so there’s no better time to convince your family and friends to join your crew.

Those traditional Talk Like a Pirate Day cosmetics, the Pretty Polly Sails, also make a time-limited return to the Emporium to mark the occasion – and this time they’re accompanied by the previously unseen Pretty Polly Hull! Outside the game, Xbox Game Pass subscribers can claim the Vociferous Speaking Trumpet via In-Game Benefits, while new Ancient Coin Bundles available to purchase with Microsoft Rewards Points will also offer the exclusive Loquacious Figurehead. Check out the Xbox Wire post[news.xbox.com] for all the details to make sure you don’t miss out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiA8C7x18tU

Following its release in Season 20, the free Custom Seas toolset will continue to grow throughout Season 21. New and refreshed features are on the horizon, putting ever more power in your hands to craft your own unique, tailored experiences to share with other crews.

In the September update, that means the introduction of Layouts. These grant the ability to save a game state in Custom Seas whenever you choose, recording the spawned items and their locations, so you can hop back into a custom session exactly as you left it. Multiple Layouts can be saved for each location, enabling you to build up a collection of pre-prepared worlds to enjoy at the press of a button, without the need to set them up again each time.

Further work to improve and expand Custom Seas will be ongoing throughout Season 21 and beyond. Keep an eye on our social channels and future release notes[www.seaofthieves.com] for a breakdown of what’s arriving and when!

As always, the new Season promises a host of glittering prizes to be earned. Raise your Renown throughout Season 21 to scale the levels of the free Season Pass, picking up Doubloons, Voyages and cosmetics from the Pirate Emporium archives along the way, while Season Pass: Premium Tier holders can also amass Ancient Coins and the full Mutiny’s Mark ship set. Reach level 50 before the Season ends and you’ll sail away with a Star Prize: the mysterious Fate’s Light Lantern.

Over in the Pirate Emporium, the brooding tale behind the Bleakheart Groom collection may appeal to pirates in search of a darker edge as we approach the eeriest time of year, while a proud pack of wolf pets has also arrived, seeking Pirate Legends to follow into adventure. Feline aficionados may prefer to adopt the Full Moon Cat, but beware: this ethereal beast can only be acquired while Season 21 is live…

Outpost traders are also excited to share their new wares: the Athena’s Fortune shop rolls out the prestigious Courteous Knave clothing set for fashionable Legends, while the Fisherman’s Fable ship set makes waves among the shipwrights, and the weaponsmiths have just finished polishing new Cast Iron weapons. These additions mark the start of a refreshed approach to cosmetic delivery, and you can expect to see a healthy flow of new items competing for your gold in Outpost shops across the rest of the Season and beyond.

Duke and Larinna are also set to shake up their respective Markets over the next few months as they prepare for future Bilge Rats Weekenders, so there’s sure to be something new for anyone who sets sail during Season 21!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7aPYjyMf9sIf you still have questions about what to expect from this Season, you can always browse our dedicated Season 21 page[www.seaofthieves.com] and the latest release notes[www.seaofthieves.com]; or, if watching and listening is more your style, get all the latest in audiovisual form from us on YouTube. We’ll be sharing more about future Live Events on our social channels as they approach, so keep your ear to the ground and enjoy the start of a brand new Season!