What is Sea of Bones?
Season 8: Sea of Bones plans to invigorate the Sea of Thieves sandbox by introducing opt in, ship vs ship, PVP on-demand in Adventure. This new gameplay will be rich with roleplay potential, new in-game goals, and watchable sharable moments! For a full detailed breakdown sail on over to HERE

Will you have to choose which faction to be aligned with to get their curse and other rewards, or can you play both sides and eventually unlock both?

You can play both and unlock both.

How does skill based matchmaking work?

Our skill-based matchmaking is based on a variant of the Elo system which is generally considered the best way to ensure decent ranking. This system rose to prominence in chess tournaments and is widely used in skill-based matchmaking for competitive gaming.

Effectively this works by seeing the outcome of a battle and then adjusting the ranking of the players accordingly. So simply put, if you win an encounter your matchmaking ranking will rise, if you lose it will fall. Where this approach stands out is that it takes the relative skills of the crews into account. If you fight against a crew with a higher ranking then you’ll gain more ranking from beating them and lose less when defeated. If you fight against a crew with a lower ranking then you’ll gain less ranking from beating them and lose more when defeated. It works to quickly place you relative to other players.

One of the factors that really helps here is that the PVP bounties give us a nice clearly defined battle. We update the matchmaking rank based on the result of the battle from when the invading ship (or ships) come out of the water. This way we are assured that the battle is relatively evenly matched and no crew is at a significant disadvantage – as they could be for random encounters on the sea.

All this should ensure that the opt in PVP gives good match ups regardless of your skill level. It should make it more accessible for new players and more challenging for the experienced Reapers out there.

Does Skill based matchmaking include your / open crew?

This Skill based matchmaking does not affect which Crew you will be matched with when selecting 'Open Crew'. Skill based matchmaking takes effect when you have a Crew and are actively going to do a PVP encounter.

So if you join an Open Crew and you align yourselves to a Faction, when doing PVP matchmaking it will take into consideration the skill of the entire Crew to ensure a fair fight Crew vs Crew. This should ensure that if you are paired with a less experienced player their Skill will be taken into account when choosing a Crew to attack.

Will there be unique character cosmetics for Athena’s fortune players like the skeletons of reapers bones?

There will be new Pirate Lord Faction cosmetics for the Pirate Lord Faction (Protectors of Athena's Fortune).

Can I switch between Factions and have both hideouts?

You can unlock all cosmetics for each Faction and you can unlock and enter both Faction Hideouts once the required level is achieved.

Is it possible to gain these rewards without PVP?

No. You must join a Faction to earn any Allegiance. Once players have joined a Faction, they can be invaded by the rival Faction.

Players can Join a Faction and choose to just do PVE activities like cashing in Chests to earn a very small amount of Allegiance, but they will always still be under risk of being invaded by players.

Are we able to sail our ship in and out of the hideouts?

You do not Sail into the Faction Hideouts no they are spaces players walk to on the existing Islands. More of this to come soon!

How does this tie in with normal Adventure?

PVP Battles will take place on normal Adventure Servers
There are 3 core ways Battles can play out:

Aggressive vs Aggressive - Both Crews have used the War Map to do PVP on-demand - they are both matched together on a new Adventure Server which will be backfilled by normal Adventure Crews.

Aggressive vs Passive - One Crew (Passive) (That has opted into joining the fight for a Faction) is invaded by another Crew (Aggressive) that have used the War Map to do PVP on-demand. In this scenario, the Aggressive Crew will migrate onto the Passive Crews Adventure Server.

Passive vs Passive - Both Crews happen to be on the same Server and emergently and organically see each other and fight (exactly how the game works now).
All normal Ship combat will still take place in Adventure servers as normal whether you have opted into this way of play or not.

Players will NOT be invaded by PVP on-demand Crews unless they have joined the Fight for a Faction where they opt into this way of play.

Is there a chance some of those legacy Arena achievements would become earn-able again?

These will not be added. This is a new immersive addition to the Sea of Thieves sandbox.

What are the rewards obtainable through this update and beyond?

Factions have a soft cap of level 100 where the Curses will be unlocked and access to the Faction Hideouts will be attainable but there will be additional things to aspire to after this limit.

    New cosmetics from level 100 upward for each Faction.

    New commendations for each Faction (some on the journey to 100 and some beyond that encourage the use of the Curses).

    Gold will be an evergreen reward with the PVP on-demand feature. Even at the maximum rank for each Faction players can always partake in - PVP on-demand and run the gauntlet to earn as much Gold as they dare.

    Faction levels will continue to tick up far, far beyond Rank 100 for players to showcase how far they can travel up the Allegiance Ranks.

Are you matched with same ship size?

Ship Size AND Crew Size are taken into account with PVP encounters, so if your a solo slooper you'll face off against a solo slooper.
However... there are plans to allow an additional option on the War Map for the Sloop and Brigantine Ships that will allow those Crews to opt into a PVP Battle with a larger Ship than theirs for additional Allegiance.

This will advertised as a 'Hardcore' option but provides players the option if they feel they want to take on this additional challenge.

Will you also get Allegiance for defending your ship from invasion?

There will be bonus Allegiance gains for players that defend their ship from an Invasion.

Players will earn additional Allegiance for:

    Defending their Ship from Invasion, encouraging them to stand their ground and fight.
    Defending their Ship from Invasion with loot on-board, the more loot on-board the more Allegiance earned for your Faction.
    Players will earn a 'Compensation' bonus of Allegiance if they lose a Battle meaning they will ALWAYS be making progress for their Faction, although this will be a much slower rate.

If you opt-in will your ship will be marked on the map so enemy faction ships can find you?

Your Ship will be marked on the World Map Table when you reach a Streak of 5 or more and become a 'Boss Ship'. Until then it does not show on the Map.
Once players unlock the Faction Hideouts there is a Faction World Map Table that will display the location of all Faction Ships on the server.

Remember though, whether a Faction Ship is on your server or not, it doesn't matter. The War Map gives you and your Crew access to PVP on-demand! Even if there is not a rival faction on your server, you can simply Vote on the War Map, your Ship dives into the ocean and emerges on a new server where your opponent will be facing you.

With Sea of Bones you no longer have to hop servers or sail around the open ocean for an opponent, its at your fingertips ready to go when you want it against an opponent that has opted into the fight also!

How do the Bonesmith cosmetics work?

The Bonesmith will sell:

    Skeleton Heads
    Skeleton Torsos
    Skeleton Lower Bodies
    Skeleton Bone Colours

The existing Player Cosmetics are not supported with the Skeleton Curse, instead clothing elements are part of the individual skeleton customization options themselves.

If you decide to Vote on the War Map what happens to loot on the ship?

It works the same way as Portals.

You keep:

    Hourglass of Fate progress

    Emissary Flag

You Drop:

    Any loot on-board

    A Copy of your Emissary Flag

The Hourglass of Fate allows players to streak back to back Battles without ever visiting an Outpost as it accumulates Gold inside it for each Ship you sink. When you leave the Fight at any Outpost, you receive the Gold Value inside your Hourglass of Fate.

If I am a big pirate, will my skeleton be skinny?

The 'ISG' (Infinite Skelly Generator) does take into account your existing Pirate so larger Pirates will be larger Skeletons too! :D
Further to that think of the Skeleton Curse as a different loadout for your Pirate, so you’ll have your Pirate loadout and your Skeleton loadout.

When you equip the Skeleton curse it remembers what skeleton cosmetics you had on, when you take the curse off it remembers what you last wore as a pirate!

What about the Ghost Curse?

The Ghost curse works more like a traditional curse. You can use all of your existing pirate cosmetics with it!
Neither curse is time limited.

Will hats work with the Skeleton Curse?

No, they will not work, you’ll see why when you see some of the Skeleton Skulls you can unlock.

Does not 'opting in' remove the PvP threat on the Seas?

Players will only be targeted if they have opted in, and vice versa. Emergent, organic PVP remains unaffected, but it'll be fascinating to see the impact of opt-in, sanctioned and rewarded PVP on the rest of the sandbox. You could opt in to sail for either Flameheart or the Pirate Lord and just continue doing Voyages and World Events with the increased risk that you could be 'invaded', or you could choose to go on the hunt and dive below the waves.

Does the system account for what a "passive" boat is doing when matchmaking occurs? Is it possible to have an aggressor appear while your crew is ashore, or while you're already engaged in PvP (or with a skeleton fleet, for example)? Or will it wait for a quiet moment at sea to try and create a fair fight?

It will take into account some things yes, like being attacked by a Kraken, Meg or Skeleton Ship for example, but not everything. Opting into the fight the Crew knows they can be invaded and must factor this into their play and strategy!

Can you use this as a tool to escape encounters?

No, there are certain parameters in-game that will prevent you from voting to do PVP on demand, here are few but not all examples…

    Being close to another rival Faction Ship.

    Already being in an active PVP Battle (whether you invaded or were invaded)

    If you have a PVE world event targeting you (Meg, Kraken, Skeleton Ship etc)

A lot of thought and effort has gone into not allowing players avenues to exploit this system, and we can’t wait to get it into your hands to see if there are any holes remaining.

Do these server invasions create any kind of boundary or just take place in regular space on the invaded server? Open Seas? Around the islands? Are these instanced so the two ships are the only parties or can a passer by jump in?

No it does none of this, it just puts the two rival Factions together to fight. There is no zone, it’s just like Ship combat as it stands today. Other ships could rock up, skeleton ships could spawn etc.

How will you ensure alliance servers wont use this system to get ships in?

Speaking openly about this we have no current way to prevent this, so in theory players could continue to skip servers to try and create server alliances, this is something players can already do by quitting out and re-joining existing servers.

Server alliances are a very, very small subset of our entire sea of thieves audience. We’ll continue to think around this space but we don’t have any current solution to prevent this behaviour.

Is this essentially going to be a 1v1 scenario?

This will be 1 vs 1 for launch. Not to say we couldn’t do more with this system in the future given more time.

What about amassing supplies?

This is an immersive addition to the Adventure sandbox. Its not a new game mode. Therefor players will collect resources in the same way they always have done i.e. visiting Sea Forts or barrels on Outposts and Islands.

With the introduction of Captaincy players can re-stock their Ship with resources at the Shipwright!

Can non-Pirate Legends access the new hideouts?

You will still only be able to access the Legend Hideout if you are a Pirate Legend and will need to become rank 100 for the Pirate Lord Faction AND be a Pirate Legend to access the Athena Faction Hideout section of the Pirate Legend Hideout.

It's going to be quite a sight diving your ship, but isn't this considered 'leaving the fight'? - thus ending your streak?

Leaving the fight means leaving the Faction. This is done at the Outposts. The Crew get together and vote to leave the fight together. This removes them from the Faction and pays out the Hourglass of Fate rewards.

Diving is something you do whilst in the fight whilst fighting for your Faction.

There will be rules on when players can and cannot dive. We're working out the rules for this still and will likely test out a few scenarios in Insiders shortly.

For example we may say "If you have invaded another Faction and you are on the hunt you cannot dive again until they sink or they leave the fight" But this may be problematic if they are running forever, so we may have some concept of a time in a Battle where if you've been in a battle for long enough and not engaged you can start a new battle.

Is there reward for killing other players, and what about spawn camping in general?

There are no plans to reward players for killing players.

All rewards and streaks will be based on Ship Combat only. Sinking Ships is the objective and we've tried to ensure there is no incentive to kill players in anyway shape or form in this inclusion.

Spawn camping is still an issue in Sea of Thieves that we're continuing to investigate and attempt to fix. Its unlikely this will land for the release of Season 8.