Sea of Thieves Adds Private Crews in Newest Patch, Alongside Other Quality of Life Fixes

Sea of Thieves has had a pretty glaring problem since its launch—lack of content aside. Players were not able to limit their crews to friends only and in turn, random players would join crews which led to griefing in the form of locking random players in the brig until they left the game. Now, via Patch 1.0.7, the function of open and closed crews is an option to players everywhere.

The “Open Crew” option works much like the old matchmaking did, in that ships are populated at random if there is an open spot in either the two-person sloop or the four-person galleon. The “Closed Crew” option allows a single player to begin a game in either ship type and their crew will only become populated with friends. This will also help when disconnection issues arise because disconnecting from a game prior to the patch meant that it was highly unlikely that a player would be able to rejoin their initial crew. Also, this crew type now takes the place of the single-player sloop and three-player galleon in the main menu.

Rare’s patch notes specify that even more options are coming in a later patch that will allow players to switch from open to closed crews dynamically, in game, also adding the option to make a gameplay session fully private. This would prevent friends from joining, which is interesting because it means that the possibility to sail a galleon all by one’s lonesome could become an in-game reality.

Alongside the fix to crew options, updates to the sound of the Flintlock Pistol and the health bar UI are also included in Patch 1.0.7. Player icons are now hidden when underwater in the hope that swimming underwater will become an option for stealth in both combat and exploration. Numerous bug fixes and small performance tweaks are included in the patch as well to help further the game’s quality of life.

Sea of Thieves may lack in content, but it is assuredly not lacking in developer and community support. There may not be much to do in the game, but there is a lot to admire both in and out of the game’s world. Here’s to hoping that the first big content drop, The Hungering Deep, can steer this ship back into the tides of quality endgame content.

Below is a developer diary that details the game’s new patch in its entirety.