Sea of Thieves devs working to improve access issues, player rewards and achievement delays

Sea of Thieves has had a busy week. Launched last Tuesday, a surge of players forced Rare to temporarily suspend new faces from joining the pirate sim's servers. A controversial death tax was tabled and subsequently scrapped, and player rewards—a service that grants players gold and reputation when cashing in rewards—haven't surfaced for some players. 

The developer's Joe Neate and Craig Duncan address the latter in their latest developer update:

At the time of writing, Sea of Thieves' servers are down for maintenance, which is when Rare hopes to tweak everything mentioned above. This blog post identifies player rewards as the developer's "key priority from an in-game experience perspective", and advises players refrain from quitting and restarting during peak times. "If you continue playing," says the post, "rewards should flow through eventually." 

The post adds that, all going well, achievements will be reactivated by the end of this week; while those struggling to connect during peak times—"9pm–2am BST/4pm–9pm EDT/1pm–6pm PDT"—should find the process easier following today's update. 

In the meantime, Rare suggests players "try matchmaking into a crew that is already out on an adventure, as you will join an in-progress session rather than going through the server matchmaking flow."

Point your compass at Tyler's Sea of Thieves review. Learn more about voyages, factions, and making money here.

Deputy Editor, PC Gaming Show
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