Sea of Thieves Season 8 Is the Best Update Ever

In the Sea of Thieves, there’s always been a bit of a struggle between people who want PvE and people who want PvP. In previous seasons, this has mostly been random. You can’t tell if someone wants a fight until you’re already in one. While the Battle Flag and playing as Reaper’s Bones emissaries is one way to show that you want to fight, you can’t guarantee that anyone wants to fight you back.

Season 8 flips this all on its head. Finally, there is now a way to get a guaranteed fight with someone else who also wants a fight. With the flip of an hourglass and a vote on the map, you can sail into open waters, dive into the depths and find another ship, just as eager as you are for splintered wood and death. PvP matchmaking, perfect for any vicious captain.

Easy PvP

If you want to fight, all you need to do is pick a side, then vote to go into battle. After a short waiting time, (depending on time of day and which faction you are), you’ll erupt from the waves, facing your new enemy, someone using the same crew size as you are, to ensure a fair fight. After that, it’s up to you what happens, whether you bring down their masts, fire yourself on board to murder in person, or just go with the tried and true cannon ball onslaught.

And the way the PvP fighting works is also amazing to look at. The second you join matchmaking, your ship becomes magic and dives beneath the waves. You sail underwater, looking at ruined ships, coral and baby kraken, then, once a match is found, you resurface with your prey right in front of you, ready for battle. While the underwater search can go on a bit (if there aren’t a lot of players), it’s still awesome diving and rising from the water.

There is an alternative to direct combat. You can use the hourglass to pick up loot for your chosen faction. However, every level of treasure-holding will summon enemy ships your way, and you have to defend your loot. However, this is much slower than direct combat.

As for the rewards? Two amazing curses. The Servants of the Flame can turn you into an immortal skeleton, while the Guardians of Fortune get a ghost curse, matching what everyone wears in Athena’s Fortune, the Pirate Legend chill-out spot. Both curses are cool, but the skeleton one is better, in my opinion. It just fits so well with being Reaper’s Bones emissaries. They do take a while to get, though. As is the way with all new cosmetics.

Good for PvE people as well.

The addition of matchmaking helps a lot for people who don’t want to PvP. While you can still battle other ships without using matchmaking, you can at least sail a bit safer, since many would-be attackers are too busy attacking each other.

But I think, more importantly the matchmaking system allows a PvE player to attempt PvP without risking too much. One of the worst things to being a PvE ship is that it’s easy to lose all your loot. However, as long as you have cannonballs, this is the perfect chance to practice PvP, so you can get better yourself. Even if you aren’t very good, you can always re-queue and try again.

There are some caveats though.

While the whole new matchmaking system is great, I wonder how long will it last. The rewards for PvP are quite slow and grindy, especially if you lose a lot. The skeleton and ghost curses are only available at level 100, and it takes a while to get there. For obvious reasons, of course, since the devs don’t want people to progress too quickly. However, as of writing, there’s massive hype because the matchmaking is new and people want new stuff. But what happens after Season 8? Will there still be plenty of players in Seasons 9 and beyond? I do hope so, but the devs will need to be careful and to keep the Servants VS Guardians battle system relevant, even once Flameheart returns from the grave.

Still, this update is absolutely awesome, and the Stormcloud is ready and rearing to go. After all, there are now plenty of other ships to destroy…