Year 2 of Skull and Bones kicks off with a bang; the stakes are higher than ever before. Tensions rise across the Indian Ocean as Year 1 Season 4 ended with the unsettling reports that the DMC are attempting to seize the opportunity to strengthen its position in the Indian Ocean. Kicking off an arms race with the Compagnie, these two Megacorporations find themselves in a war over control of the Indian Ocean, with new technology fuelling a new age of warfare.

Weren't able to watch our Year 2 Showcase live? Catch up on it here:

Highlights

Season Reset

• Note - Pieces of Eight will be removed from chests/caches that have been obtained prior to Y2S1 in all players' inventory.
• At Blackwood, players may choose to convert Seasonal Currency into Sovereigns at the rate of 100 Seasonal Currency (only applicable to current season's Kupfer Bars) to 50 Sovereigns.
• Silver will not be reset.

What's New

Item Ascension

The Indian Ocean is set ablaze by the war between the Megacorporations, with each side looking to gain an advantage over the other by using increasingly powerful weapons. The origins of these ascended weapons remain a mystery, but what is known is that acquiring them may be vital to surviving the coming onslaught.

• Pre-requisites: Players will need to be at least Infamy Tier 9 when a mail will be sent to the mailbox. Read the mail to start the quest "Ascension and Modification" and then make your way to the Blacksmith to unlock the Item Ascension feature.

• The Blacksmiths can now Ascend your weapons, with powerful modifications.

• There are three modification grades:

  • Basic - General improvements
  • Advanced - Noteworthy improvements
  • Special - Powerful improvements with unique properties

• Modification Slots are assigned based on the weapon rarity:

  • Common - 2 Basic, 1 Advanced, 1 Special
  • Uncommon - 1 Basic, 1 Advanced, 1 Special
  • Rare - 2 Basic, 1 Special
  • Epic - 1 Basic, 1 Advanced

• Equipment rarity will determine the number and grade of Ascension Slots

Cost to unlock (Ascension Pieces)

How to Ascend Weapons:

• Using Ascension Modules, materials (Refined Materials, Specialized Material, Helm Materials, among others), Silver and Pieces of Eight, unlock modification slots for your weapons. Upon unlocking a modification slot, a random modification is automatically granted.
• Ascension Modules can be obtained from:
  • Mythic-difficulty Chance to obtain from final stand Seasonal Sea Lord chests in World Tier 1: Shallow Waters.
  • Guaranteed to obtain from Final Stand Seasonal Sea Lord chest and Faction Elite Warship (i.e. Vanderkill, Rode Maangodin) in World Tier 2: Cutthroat Seas.
  • Purchasable from Blackwood and Yanita (limited stocks, weekly refresh).

• Reforging: Using Upgrade Parts and some Silver, replace existing modifications with a random new modification. Try different combinations of modifications for your ascended weapons to fit your unique playstyle!
• To unlock modification in the final slot of each equipment, an additional toolkit is required: Masterwork Kit.
• Obtain Masterwork Kits from:
  • Successfully plundering Grand Fort and Oosten Fort in World Tier 2.
  • Chance to obtain from Seasonal Sea Lord Strongboxes in World Tier 2.
  • Chance to obtain from Ah Pak's cargo.

• Different weapon types will have different modifications pools to reforge from.
• Rockets, Demi-cannons have a lesser variant of the mod with lower proc chances to compensate. Likewise certain modifications will only be allowed on certain weapons. This list is available when you open the weapon ascension service at the blacksmith.
• Here are some examples of modifications:

• The sequence in which you reforge modifications will have some impact on your future mods. This can influence your odds of getting certain mods.
  • For example, reforging Incendiary on your Common Culverins will add Fire damage as a percentage of weapon damage. As a result, the weapon will henceforth be able to reforge Amplified Burning.
• Care is to be taken in such a situation, if you reforge Incendiary away then Amplified Burning would remain on your weapon and the benefits would be limited.
• It is possible to reforge the same modifications on the specific unique weapon.
  • Each weapon will have a limit on Reforge Attempts.
  • Each unique weapon starts off at 60 points on the Reforge Attempt. Once the Reforge attempt is used up, modifications can no longer be changed for the unique weapon.
  • Each reforge will use up 1 attempt.
  • Adding a modification onto an empty slot does not cost a Reforge Attempt (only occurs when you unlock a new slot on the Ascended Weapon).
• Ascended equipment may be dropped as loot by enemies from World Tier 2. In addition, enemies that are of SR18+ may drop Ascended equipment boasting modifications with high potential that are stronger than the baseline modifications forged from using the Blacksmith's service.
  • Existing modification on looted Ascended equipment can be replaced by using the Blacksmith's service.
• Ascended equipment, whether obtained through loot or by using the Blacksmith's service, will be bound to the player. Bound Ascended equipment cannot be:
  • Traded with another player
  • Jettisoned
  • Obtained from another player via PvP
• Bound Ascended equipment can be:
  • Salvaged to recover materials - recover Upgrade Parts and a chance to recover Ascension Modules.
  • Sold for Silver
  • Destroyed
• Dev Note: Weapon Ascension is a feature created for you to push the limits of your weapons and create synergies around your build. One of our observations in Year 1 was that builds between players didn't have the level of variance or creativity that could bring about fun. Weapons would often have a single trick, and you had to play it in a particular way.
• With Weapon ascension, a simple Carronade can now serve different playstyles and help you to make your build special. At the same time, it gives you to have a wider selection of weapons when it comes to exploring builds.
• Likewise, a common Culverin V could be ascended to greatness and become a supplement for you to be creative with your weaponry.
• All modifications are made to be useful. But some will be highly coveted. It will take both the skill to identify what is synergistic and some luck to assemble the perfect weapons for your build, and separate good ascensions from truly great ascended weapons.
• There was also the consideration of randomness. Having the power to choose specific modifications meant that everyone would have access to the great ascended weapons. We want these great ascensions to be rare - this makes the great ascensions special and something to work towards. However, a fully random system was tedious and meant bloating the item drops. To achieve this, we have opted for the combination of reforge limits and given the ability to target modifications and reforge the less desirable mods. This is a balancing point between full randomness and choice.
• We are not truly done with Ascension yet. We expect players to push this system into the unknown and find builds that might require further tuning.  In our future updates, we are exploring modifications that would make build-making special, ways to trade ascended items, exploring methods for you to manipulate the level of randomness and ways to extend the reforge limit, perhaps even modify modification slots - at a cost. The community feedback in this area will help us steer this forward.

Warehouse Increase

• Warehouse storage has been increased to 500 slots

World Tiers

The Schaduw's treasure may be lost to the depths, but rumours around the fabled artefact persist. It is said that its influence has weakened the boundaries between realms, opening the path to the domains of more powerful enemies, and in turn, the opportunity for greater rewards.

Challenge yourself in a new World Tier boasting content with higher difficulty all around. The pre-existing world is now considered World Tier 1. Upon reaching the Kingpin Infamy Tier, players will receive the "World Ascension" Infamy Quest. Complete this quest to gain access to this World Tier 2: Cutthroat Seas.

• In World Tier 2, there are more Loot and Resources to match with increased difficulty. For example, drops from world events, plunder, ships and towers are increased.
  • Increased rewards from Helm Empires Opportunities are specific to Raider Chest/Cache.
  • Weapons dropped from Chests obtained in World Tier 2 will have a chance of being Ascended.
  • World Tier 2 High Ship Rank World Events have a chance to drop ascended items with better values. (If you fight Kingpin World Event you can get exclusive modifications that cannot be obtained from Blacksmith).

Ascension Mastery

The fleets of the Sea Lords have cemented their dominance in different regions of the Indian Ocean, controlling the major trade routes and its flow of Ascension Modules. The lieutenants of the fleet and elite warships have bolstered their firepower and now are ripe for acquiring Masterwork Kits.

Upon entering World Tier 2: Cutthroat Seas, players will receive the "Ascension Mastery" Infamy Quest. Complete this quest to work towards ascending your weapon or ship to its highest tier.

• Battles in World Tier 2: Cutthroat Seas are more dangerous and tend to escalate quicker.

• Enemy types like Ships, World Event Bosses, Forts, and Towers have been adjusted.

• Spyglassing a ship or tower now reveals the secondary damage types as well as the secondary damage resistances.

• The time to kill and damage dealt should be like what was in Year 1 Season 4.

• Ship Rank 11+ enemies have been adjusted for World Tier 2 and Weapon Ascension.

• These enemies will apply almost similar damage as before but now a greater proportion of which comes from secondary types.

• Have slightly more health and armour rating to account for Weapon Ascension. With Weapon Ascension, time-to-kill will feel familiar and slightly faster in most circumstances.

• Have more secondary damage resistances.

• Spawns start at Ship Rank 12. Overall, they do more secondary damage and have significant resistances to secondary damage.

• Increased hostility, faction hostility now builds up 100% faster.

• Enemy Ships that can fire flares to summon reinforcements will start at 80% hull health up from 33%. Are more likely to summon reinforcements when they feel threatened.

  • The cooldown after interrupting a flare is now 15 seconds down from 60 seconds.

• Enemies in World Tier 2 will gain an affix. These affixes will grant an Enemy combat advantages. This will be based on their faction and enemy classification (for e.g. Ship/Sea Monster/Tower).

• Major Affixes will grant significant combat advantages to these enemies. Paying attention to these major affixes can influence the outcome of your success.

• Minor Affixes offer lesser combat advantages to these enemies. These are less threatening challenges that can generally be overcome.

• Check out the type affixes you can encounter in an area using the world map by hovering over the region name.

• Spyglassing will display the target's affixes.

Accessing World Tier 2

• Players can enter World Tier 2 (WT2) from:
  • Main menu > Change World Tiers > "Cutthroat Seas"
  • In-game > From the den: either Telok Penjarah (Palka Buta) or Sainte-Anne (Le Pont Muet) > "Change World Tier" entity > Select 'Cutthroat Seas'
• Group Rules:
  • Only the Leader can change World Tiers.
    • A vote will be triggered when the Group Leader selects a different World Tier.
    • All group members must accept in order for the entire group to enter the new World Tier server.
    • The group vote automatically fails if any of the group members do not accept within 10 seconds.
    • When in WT2, the group leader may also invite players who have not unlocked WT2 to the server. When you are grouped up with a leader that has unlocked WT2, you will have the option to enter WT2.
• Update to Mythic Vikram Rajan world event: "The Great Shadow" has been moved to WT2: Cutthroat Seas. The Ship Rank of Vikram Rajan in this world event is now 20.
• Dev Note: With the arrival of Weapon Ascension, we wanted to inject a new tier of challenge for players to push their ship builds. World Tier 2 brings the challenge to a baseline and in addition brings affixes for the enemies. Mythic Vikram Rajan has been moved from World Tier 1 to World Tier 2 and will represent the epitome of challenge in Y2S1. It is recommended to attempt Mythic Vikram Rajan with a Ship Rank 15 and to bring an appropriate loadout.

New Ship: Schooner

• Available after 45 Tiers unlocked in the Smuggler Pass
• Medium sized, DPS-Explosive
• A DPS focus ship that excels with dealing damage with its broadsides and is especially efficient with Explosive weapons.
• Perk: Fury
  • Weapon hits have a 30% chance to trigger Fury on yourself. Fury will last for 15 seconds.
  • Once Fury is active, increase broadside weapon damage by 25% and broadside hits will trigger an explosion on target which deal 1000 damage within 100m blast radius (An explosion can be triggered every 3 secs).
  • Increase damage to structure by 50% and hitting a structure will cause it to take 30% more weak point damage for 10 seconds.
• Upgrade the Schooner to unlock Secondary Perk: Volatile
  • Available at Ship Upgrade Rank 6.
  • All weapons equipped the broadsides on this ship will deal bonus 20% explosive damage and decreases Explosive weapon reload time by 10%.

New Status Effect: Shell-Shocked

• Shell-shocked is applied to targets when using explosive weapons.
• Upon activation, it disarms the target for a brief period which lasts for 5 seconds. The attack also deals AOE damage.

Smuggler Pass Highlights

• Epic Explosive Long Gun, Lange Kartouwe
  • Impending Boom: Hits have a 15% chance to inflict a delayed explosion that deals 7500 damage in a 65m radius after 4 seconds. Chance increases to 100%. when hitting a weakpoint. May only inflict one delayed attack per target.
  • Siege: Increases damage to structures by 50%.
  • Explosive II: Adds 20% of damage as Explosive Damage in a 35m Blast Radius.
  • Piercing I: Adds 10% of damage as Piercing Damage. Increases damage to weakpoints by 50%.
• Epic Major Furniture, Wyrm's Breath Churner
  • Triggering Shell-shocked on the target increases the Reload Time of their weapons by 25% for 20s.
  • Increases Secondary Damage of Explosive Weapons by 25%.
  • Increases weapon damage of Explosive Weapons by 5%.
• Epic Major Furniture, Emergency Locker
  • Reduces duration of all damaging status effects applied to your ship by 50% but increases damage dealt by these effects by 15%.
  • Reduces incoming Secondary Damage by 10%.
  • Increases Max Hull Health by 6%.
• Epic Armour, Silver Sentinel
  • Timed Block: During the first 2s of Bracing, any damage taken is reduced by 3000.
  • Blast Proof: Reduced damage taken from Explosive weapons by 15%.
  • General stat: Damage reduction of 200 while bracing outside of Timed Block.
  • Increases Crew Stamina consumption while Bracing to 200%.
• Rare Armour, Titan's Cuirass
  • Shelter: Reduces damage received from Shell Shocked by 25% and its duration by 50%.
• Teuling's Favours: Seasonal Spoils and Rising Heat
• Ascension Modules and Upgrade Parts

New Teuling's Favours

• Seasonal Spoils: Gain bonus event currency when sinking event ships.
  • Lasts 3 hours upon use
• Rising Heat: Reduce time taken to refine objects at the refinery
  • Lasts 8 hours upon use.
  • The effect does not apply on refinery items that were already in progress upon the booster's activation.

New Pet: Tiger Cub

• Introducing the rambunctious pet Tiger cub!
• Tejas will be available from the Smuggler Pass after unlocking 70 Tiers.

Seasonal Currency: Kupfer Bars

• Spend Kupfer Bars at Blackwood to obtain new equipment, vanity and more!

New Equipment at Blackwood

• Seasonal items Weekly quantity refresh of items
• Time limited item will be rotated and refreshed weekly
• Epic Ballista, Alecto
  • Triple Threat: Fires 3 shots at once. Deals additional 400 fire damage (per shot) if all 3 shots hit the same target.
  • Draw: This weapon can be charged for increased damage and range. At maximum charge, damage increases to 300% and range to 900m.
  • Burning II: Adds 20% damage as Burning Damage.
  • Piercing I: Adds 10% of damage as Piercing Damage. Increases damage to weakpoints by 50%.
• Epic Demi-Cannon, Urban's Great Gun
  • Unison: Allows all weapons in the same quadrant to fire simultaneously
  • Tearing III: Increases damage by 75% when hitting sails.
• Epic Armour, Nocturne Heart
  • Euphoria: Increases Weapon Damage by 15% while Hull Health is above 75%.
• Epic Armour, Heyden's Guard
  • Cindershield: While bracing, the effects of being afflicted with Ablaze are negated.
  • Ember Ward: Reduces damage from Burning weapons by 25% and by an additional 25% while bracing.
• Epic Major Furniture, Bilgefire Barrels
  • Weapon hits against a target with a damaging status effect have a 5% chance to fully recharge those status effects. This effect has a 30s cooldown.
  • Increases Secondary Damage of Broadside weapons by 10%.
  • Increase Broadside weapons damage by 5%.
• Epic Major Furniture, Mark of the Wolf
  • Triggering Ablaze on the target also increases Shell-shocked charge rate by 100% for 10s.
  • Increases Fire Rate of Explosive weapons by 20%.
  • Increases damage to structures by 5%.
• Epic Minor Furniture, Breechlock Furnace
  • Increases Secondary damage dealt by up to 30% the closer the target is, reduced by 3% per 50m to the target.
  • Increases Charge Rate of the Shell-Shocked effect on the enemy ships by 7%.
  • Increases damage dealt by the Shell-Shocked status effect on a target by 5%.
• Epic Minor Furniture, Dynamic Ballast Control
  • Reduces incoming Secondary Damage for every 100m to attacker, capped at 40% at 600m and beyond.
  • Reduces incoming Piercing Charge from enemy ships by 8%.
  • Increases Armour Rating of equipped armour by 3%.
• Rare Minor Furniture, Ramrod Workshop
  • Decreases Reload time of Broadside weapons by 15%.
  • Increases Secondary Damage deal by Broadside weapons by 10%.

Time-Limited Event: The Honorless

Available from 6th May to 10th June

• Pirates are turning on each other for exotic hallucinogens, whose supply is tightly controlled by the megacorporations looking to exploit locals for their own ends. Dubbed the Honorless, these scoundrels can be found heading to receive their coveted supplies - a prime opportunity for an ambush. Defeat them to earn lucrative rewards, available at the event vendor:

• Epic Bombard, Divine Wind

  • After-Shock: Summons a Lightning strike after 2 seconds at the location a shot lands, dealing 2000 Electric Damage.
  • Explosive II: Adds 20% damage as Explosive Damage in a 35m Blast Radius.
  • Electric I: Adds 10% damage as Electric Damage.

• Epic Demi-Cannon, Kleine Kartouwe

  • Imminent Bang: Hits have a 3% chance to inflict delayed explosion that deals 7500 damage in a 65m radius after 4 seconds. May only inflict one delayed attack per target.
  • Combustion III: Adds 30% of damage as Explosive Damage.

• Rare Minor Furniture, Fuse-Fusing Station

  • Decreases Reload Time of Front Weapons and Rear Weapons by 12%.
  • Increases Secondary Damage dealt by Front and Rear weapons by 15%.

Lightning Storms

• Keep an eye out and avoid being struck by lightning while sailing!
• Lightning now strikes while in stormy weather.
• You will see the water surface crackle with energy before the lightning eventually strikes.

Hide Armour

• You can now hide your armour from the Hide Armor function in the Ship Cosmetics menu. This disables the armour visuals on your own ship while maintaining the gameplay effects.
• For gameplay purposes, you can choose to disable "Display Armor Skins of other players" from the game settings menu under gameplay, this will override hide armour or armour skins on other ships.

Gameplay Updates

Ship Gear Score Re-Balancing, Ship Upgrades, Ship Rank, & Base Ship Rank Requirements Progression Updates

• The maximum ship rank has been raised from Ship Rank 13 to Ship Rank 15.

Updates to Ship Upgrade

• Ship Upgrade level 7 is now available. The Masterwork Kit is required, among the other upgrade requirements, to reach Ship Upgrade level 7.
• Ship Upgrade 7 focuses on defences with more ship rank points, hull health, brace strength and different base resistances depending on the ship.
• The cost of Ship Upgrade 1 to 3 has been reduced significantly to make Ship upgrades more accessible.
• The overall cost of upgrading ships has been reduced.
• Ship Upgrade feature is now available for captains at Infamy Tier 6.

Shifting weightage on how Gear score influences SR

• Gear score coming from ships and ship upgrades have been significantly increased.
• Gear score coming from weapons and armour have been significantly reduced.

Base Ship Rank Requirements on Items

• From Year 2 Season 1, weapons, armour and furniture will have a required base ship rank.

• You can only equip an item if it the targeted ship has a based ship rank is higher than that of the item's required ship rank.

• The requirement on each item will vary but will cap out at Ship Rank 4.

  • Note - If you had equipped an item before Year 2 Season 1, it will remain equipped and fully functional. However, if you were to un-equip that item, it cannot be re-equipped until the base ship rank requirement has been met.

• Dev Note: Throughout Year 1 with the content we've added, we noticed there were some situations having an increasing impact:

• Firstly, most of the Gear Score composition previously came from equipped Weapons and Armour. For low Ship Ranks, equipping a single armour can disproportionately increase the Ship Rank. Gear Score on auxiliary weapons was notably lower - coming from a pre-ship upgrade era where only very few ships had auxiliary slots. This has created a perception that they are less valuable, when they are just as powerful as quadrant weapons. While Ship Upgrades in Season 2 helped mitigate this, it hasn't quite been enough.

• Second, the state of the Indian Ocean today (now called World Tier 1), is tailored for players looking for entry level challenge. While it is great for onboarding, it makes most adversaries at endgame too easy once players have progressed. It has also led to players naturally skipping Ship Upgrades as these do not have the intended impact when facing higher difficulty challenges.

• Third, the ability to obtain more powerful weapons, whether through trading or other players dropping equipment, means all players regardless of their progression can significantly increase their Ship Rank very quickly. This access to more powerful weapons, including Epic Weapons, as early as before the onboarding is having an impact on the pace of progression, your sense of challenge, and impact on rewards obtained as you progress.

• Rewards from the Smuggler Pass and World Events are meant to have a high impact. To allow players rapid developments in their loadouts, these rewards are given out quite early in the endgame. However, equipping epic items also meant rapid Ship Rank growth very early on followed by a long progression towards Ship Rank 13.

• Fourth, for most players' their Helm Empire fleet tend to be equipped with a blend of spare items to reach the intended ship rank for the assigned Manufactory. This takes away from the experience of assembling a deadly pirate fleet. The ability to put together these builds to reach the required Ship Rank has taken away the need to upgrade ships and created a situation where these ships are rarely swapped.

• These issues are relatively harmless individually but together created an environment of inconsistencies in progression, challenge and variations in skill level. Challenges amounted to increasing the number of ships at a world event and more damage output. Which consequently meant that players could quickly eliminate ships and take on onslaughts of similarly ranked content at once but then also get sunk equally fast.

• With Y2S1, we have an opportunity to address some of these concerns. The adversaries of World Tier 2 will start to deal more damage and in more unique ways. As such we put emphasis on Ship Upgrades by shifting the weight of gear score toward ships and ship upgrades. This change is intended to make ship upgrades more meaningful as a gradual form of progression while also highlighting the importance of the base ship defences against the challenge of World Tier 2. For some players it will also encourage them to try different ships.

• This is a big change which will have wide reaching effects on multiple areas of the game. We considered smaller changes over a longer period, but since Ship Rank is a system widely integrated into progression and endgame it means some areas feel awkward in terms of balance. Hence, we decided to make a few big changes at once instead to ensure a smoother transition.

• These changes would undoubtedly impact the progression of multiple loadouts. In some cases, your Ship Rank would drop if you had not upgraded before. In other cases, your Ship Rank would go up, assuming you had upgraded but not equipped rare and epic items.

• Since the case where Ship Rank drops is of greater impact. We wanted to expound on two key areas.

  • The first key area is where player's Active Ship Loadout is used as the main combat ship. At this point it's important we make something very clear: losing Ship Ranks does NOT mean a decrease in damage or defensive stats. These adjustments simply ensure that Ship Rank more accurately reflects combat potential.
  • The second key area is ships assigned in your Helm Empire. Most ships used in the Helm Empire have a greater proportion of being un-upgraded.

• We want to share some of the steps taken to reduce the effects of this change.

• The biggest one is that Ship upgrade costs have been overall lowered and more drastically for the first 3 ship upgrades.

• To ease this transition, we will be compensating players with Ship Upgrade Chests, which will contain currencies and high-end materials needed to upgrade your ships. Players will receive one Upgrade Chest for each ship class, containing enough resources to upgrade one ship of that class from level 0 to level 3. Take note, this chest does not contain the materials for crafting the base ship. Combined with the reduced upgrade costs, this will help ensure that your ships are combat-ready.  Note to be eligible for this, you'll need to have played Skull and Bones anytime during Seasons 2, 3, and/or 4.

• For the Helm Empire, we have adjusted the risk level of assigning ships, lower tiered Manufactories have now lower risks. High tiered manufactories will maintain their levels of risk, to reward players dedicated to upgrading their fleet.

• Finally, Manufactories will be able to produce crafting materials, as covered in our Helm Empire - Year 2 Changes & Improvements DevBlog. With strategic planning, Manufactories can serve as a passive source of crafting materials to upgrade your ships.

• Ship Rank is a fundamental system in Skull and Bones, we believe that by taking these steps it will create a better state of balance that should feel more consistent across the various systems as you explore the endgame challenge

Want to know more? Check out our Deep Dive into the Global Progression Rebalance.

Ship Upgrade Changes

• All ships can now be upgraded up till Lv.7.

  • The Masterwork Kit is part of the materials required to upgrade ships from Lv.6 to Lv.7.

• Increased Brace Strength Recovery by 12.5% for Ship Upgrade 6 for all ships except the Snow.

• Increased Brace Strength Recovery by 25% for Ship Upgrade 7 for all ships except the Snow.

• The following changes have been applied to the Snow:

  • Ship Upgrade 6:
    • Hull Health increased to 66,000
    • Brace Strength increased to 33,000
  • Ship Upgrade 7:
    • Hull Health increased to 79,200
    • Brace Strength increased to 39,600

• Base ramming damage of all ships will increase by 20% when they are upgraded to Lv.7.

Dev Note: Ramming as a mechanic hasn't had significant updates throughout Year 1 short of a few furniture additions. As of now, there are very limited ways to improve ramming and have it grow with your progression. A lack of ramming specific weapons and weapon ascensions to make it uninteresting as a playstyle as of now. These changes for ramming are just small changes to make ramming a little more viable in World Tier 2 as we explore more updates in the future.

Manufactory Production Diversification

New developments and intel stolen from the megacorporations have proved a boon for the Indian Ocean's rogues, unlocking various improvements in the way you manage your smuggling empire.

• In addition to producing contraband, Manufactories will now start producing other materials like Refined, Specialised, Exotic materials, etc

Helm Empire Upgrade Tree

• Unlock Helm Empire upgrades and combine different specialization to adapt to your playstyle.

Leaderboard Revamp

• Leaderboard rankings will now be based on your Infamy earned per season.

• At the end of the week and season, the leaderboard rankings will be reset. Players will maintain their existing Infamy Tiers outside of the leaderboard.

• Instead of rewarding Sovereigns for weekly and seasonal leaderboard achievements, Seasonal Currency will be awarded in place.

• Dev Note: In Year 1, your Helm Empire was solely focused on producing Pieces of Eight, competing against other players to climb the leaderboard, which limited rewarding diverse playstyles and required multitasking to obtain all rewards.

• To streamline gameplay and with the transition to a persistent Helm Empire, we've shifted the focus to players' achievements in world activities. Infamy, as a common factor between Contracts, World Events, and ship combat, is the most suitable as the new metric for the leaderboard.

Smuggler Pass

• Once 90 Smuggler's Marks is obtained in a Season, a Smuggler's Chest will be awarded for every 1000 Smuggler Points earned thereafter.

Contracts and Quests

• As the Indian Ocean becomes an ever more deadly place, engage in Infamy Quests to prove your mettle before taking on newfound challenges.

• Through Infamy Quests, you will learn more about new features, vendors, mechanics and more awaiting you in your pirate journey.

• Contracts are now quests, quest = 1 time. Contracts are repeatable.

Rebalance of Enhanced Repair Kits

Repair Kit Name	Repair Amount	Cooldown (s)	Y1S4 -> Y2S1
Repair Kit I	6000	30	Cooldown increased from 20s
Repair Kit II	16000	60	Repair amount decreased from 18000
Repair Kit III	27000	90	Unchanged
Enhanced Repair Kit I	20%	30	Repair amount lowered from 50%, cooldown decreased from 40s
Enhanced Repair Kit II	50%	60	Repair amount lowered from 70%, cooldown decreased from 80s
Enhanced Repair Kit III	80%	90	Repair amount lowered from 90%, cooldown decreased from 120s

Combat and Equipment Rebalancing

• Punctured status effect rebalanced. The status effect now applies a 30% armour reduction rate to the target (a 50% armour reduction was previously applied).

• All (AI) enemy ships take 50% increased damage from Ramming.

Weapons

• Long Guns:

  • The DPS for all Long Guns in the game has been reduced by ~15%.

• Torpedoes:

  • The Max Range of all Torpedoes has increased to 675m, except for Endless Requiem, which have increased to 540m.

Armour

• Immortal Vessel:
  • The window of immunity has been reduced from 10s to 5s
• Wrathful Ward:
  • When your ship gets hit while Bracing, a noxious cloud is released around your ship that deals 4500. Poison damage and depletes Crew Stamina. Has a cooldown of 10 seconds.
  • Radius increased to 140m
  • Crew Stamina drained from targets by 45
• Leviathan:
  • Every knot of Sailing Speed increases Armor by 1.3%. Reduces Weakpoint Damage by 25%
• Pishacha:
  • Ramming a target repairs your ship's Hull Health by 138% of damage inflicted

Furniture

• Gunner's Quadrant:
  • Decreases Reload Time by 15% for the same weapon used to hit (changed from destroy) a weakpoint from at least 160m range. The effect after hitting a weakpoint lasts for 10 seconds and the effect applies only to the first shot.
• Dummy Springloader:
  • Reduces duration of incoming Torn Sails effect by 25%. Reduces incoming Flooding Charge by 20%.
• Freeman's Embrace:
  • Reduces incoming damage from damaging status effects on self by 30%.
• Chained Links:
  • While trimming sails, reduces incoming Weakpoint Damage by 60% at the cost of 10 Crew Stamina per hit. Reduces incoming damage to weakpoints by 20%.
• Chains Locker:
  • Increases duration of the Torn Sails effect on enemy ships by 20%.
• Debris Locker:
  • Increases the Charge Rate of the Flooded status effect on enemy targets already affected by the Torn Sails status effect by 50%. Increases Charge Rate of the Torn Sails status effect on a target by 16%.
• Cannonball-Charging Station:
  • Increases the Charge Rate of the Stormstruck status effect on enemy targets already affected by the Punctured status effect by 50%. Increases Charge Rate of the Punctured status effect on a target by 16%.
• Riffled Barrel Workshop:
  • Increases the Charge Rate of the Punctured status effect on enemy targets already affected by the Flooded status effect by 50%. Increases Charge Rate of the Flooded status effect on a target by 16%.
• Machinist Table (Mines):
  • Increases Minefield Buoy Damage by 20%. Increases Area-of-Operation Radius of Minefield Buoys by 20%.

Ships

• Garuda:
  • Deadeye (Perk) updated: Weapon damage is increased based on how far you are from the target, capped at 80%. When your Hull Health is 40% or lower, increases armour by 500 and trimming no longer cost stamina for 10 seconds. This effect has a cooldown of 40 seconds.
  • Removed from Deadeye Perk: Piercing weapons deal 20% more damage.
  • Revolver (Perk) updated: Increase Piercing weapon damage by 20%. Increase to 30% when hitting a target with Punctured. The Long Gun is no longer a top-deck-only weapon when equipped at the bow. Long guns equipped at the bow will deal 40% less weapon damage and have 60% longer reload time.
• Sambuk:
  • Scorched (Perk) updated: Deal 5000 burning damage when you apply the Ablaze effect to an enemy ship. Ablaze will be applied to enemies in a radius of 150m. Increase damage to ships with Ablaze effect by 30%.
  • Firebug (Perk) updated: Ablaze deals 100% more damage but lasts 50% of the duration. Decrease Fire Weapons Reload time by 12%.
• Padewakang:
  • Siege (Perk) updated: At half sails or anchored, increases weapon damage by 35% and decreases Reload Time by 15% for Explosive Weapons.
• Sloop:
  • Ruin (Perk) updated: Explosive Damage hits decrease enemy's weapon damage by 20%

New Rare and Uncommon Weapons

• The following Rare weapons have been added:
  • Farscourge I to III
    • Perks: Raider I, Flooding I, Piercing I
  • Brickbreaker I to III
    • Perks: Siege, Explosive II
• The following Uncommon weapons have been added:
  • Flooding Bombard I-III
    • Perks: Flooding II, Explosive I
  • Piercing Demi-Cannon I-III
    • Perk: Piercing II
  • Tearing Long Gun I-III
    • Perks: Tearing II, Piercing I
  • Burning Culverin I-III
    • Perk: Burning II
  • Explosive Demi-cannon I-III
    • Perk: Combustion II

Refined World Event Participation Rules

• Players who did not contribute to a world event will now be removed from the event after a time window passes. The default time window is 80 seconds, but this may vary for certain World Events:

  • Convoys: 140 seconds
  • Shadowbeasts & Lestaris: 120 seconds
  • Ghost ships: 140s

• A warning will show up and remain on screen for 30 seconds before the player is disqualified from earning rewards. Contributing to the fight again will dismiss the warning.

• When a player is disqualified, World Event difficulty will also scale accordingly, making the fight easier.

• World Events will now drop loot for players regardless of the players' state.

• Dev Note: We have observed that in Year 1 World Events, many players would land a single hit to qualify for loot and then stop meaningfully contributing to a fight. This caused the boss to scale, get tougher for those actively participating effectively punishing them. We have addressed this with the contribution timeout. Additionally, we have adjusted and removed some rules so that loot drops are consistent. So, whether you are alive, dead, on a loading screen, at a Pirate Den - you will get loot. Just make sure you pick it up before the loot sinks to the depths.

Enemy Archetype Changes

• The following Enemy Ship Archetypes have been added to improve the readability of a faction and archetype

• A Generalist archetype has been created. These represent mixed weapon users.

  • Privateers
  • Tides of Terror

• Existing Enemy Archetype with new Visuals

  • Rammers now have a new ram weakpoint, to differentiate them from Skirmishers.
  • Defender now have a new shield weakpoint.
    • The Defender archetype now braces when it is close to its target.
  • Lancers is a new archetype with 2 crate weakpoints.
    • The lancers use javelin or rocket type weapons, damaging the hull and hitting the sails.
    • Sea People Lancer, replacing javelin using Skirmishers
    • Fara Lancer, replaces javelin using Broadsider
    • Rempah Lancer, replaces rocket using Skirmishers
  • Snipers now have an additional weakpoint in the crow nest this is to make them more visible from afar.
  • Bombardier replaces bombard using Broadsiders, to differentiate them from the cannon using broadsiders within the same faction.
    • Compagnie Bombardier
    • Shadow Legion Bombardier
    • Dragon Claw Bombardier
  • Torpedoer, replaces torpedo using Broadsiders, to differentiate them from the cannon using broadsiders within the same faction.
    • Chorus Fleet Torpedoer
    • Pirate Affair's Torpedoer

• Fara faction

  • The Fara faction now has been replaced with the Bedar and Garuda to make their differentiation from the Rempahnese ships more noticeable.

• Ungwana faction

  • The Ungwana faction now has small burners.

Activity Changes

• Objectives have been reclassified into two distinct categories to better help players identify which objectives are important to progress in the story or activity
  • Quests have been introduced to guide players along scenario-based objectives
  • Contracts now represent repeatable objectives
• A new quest category, Infamy Quests, has been added to better introduce new game activities, features, and services
  • Players can identify new Infamy Quests with the Infamy Quest icon.

• A new quest category, Seasonal Quests, has been added to help players better identify seasonal objectives.
  • These objectives are limited to the season and will expire when the season is over.
  • Players can identify the Seasonal Quests with the Seasonal Quest icon.

UI/UX Updates

• HUD revamp to the Player Status, Weapon Carousel and Action buttons.

• Addition of mini map on the top right corner for ease of navigation.

• Updates to Map and Journal display:

  • The logbook stylistics have been replaced with full map visuals.
  • Map visuals and UI have been updated.
  • Activity icons have been standardized for better readability.

• Journal categorization changes:

  • Revamped Journal categories.
  • The "All" tab no longer lists world events (world events can still be viewed in the Events tab).
  • Objectives in the All tab are no longer grouped by region.
  • A new tab has been added for Infamy Quests.
  • The "Side Quests" tab now includes "Investigations" which were previously found in the "Miscellaneous" tab.
  • Contracts now have a dedicated tab.
  • The dedicated Helm tab has been removed and added as activities and objectives in the other Journal tabs.
  • The "Events" tab now includes Helm Empire takeover opportunity events under the Helm subcategory.
  • The "Miscellaneous" tab is now called "Discoveries" to better reflect the content in this tab.

• General visual improvements to Journal, Input buttons, Tooltips, Menus, Social widget and Navigation Reticle.

Improvements & Bug Fixes

Contract

• Fixed an issue where the "Chorus of Havoc" bounty could not be submitted at Telok Penjarah.

• Fixed an issue where multiple bridging contracts like "Cleansing Fire", "Deafening Verses" and "Talons of Wealth" were not removed or reappeared in the journal after moving to the next contract.

• Fixed an issue where multiple Roving Supply Orders could not be accepted at the Helm Supply Network.

Equipment

• Fixed an issue where the stamina draining effect of the furniture, Drowned One's Toll, persisted upon sustaining severe damage.

World Events

• Fixed an issue where players did not receive loot after dying during world events.

• Fixed an issue where Megafort Oosten's weapon stations and towers did not fire after the first breach was destroyed.

• Reduced Megafort Oosten's reinforcement spawn rate from infinite spawning down to a limited number wave of reinforcement spawning.

• Fixed an issue where the ambushers from the "Flames of Turmoil" contract would spawn outside of the contract area if the player was sunk.

• Fixed an issue where Vikram's barrier would occasionally not shield damage dealt by players.

• Fixed an issue where ramming did not deal damage to Vikram after several successful ram attacks.

• Fixed an issue where players were being hit by projectiles that were not visible while plundering Megafort Oosten.

• Fixed an issue where reduced damage was observed when hitting the center of the Nian's hull.

Buffs

• Fixed an issue where food buff for reducing stamina consumption while trimming stopped working after Fast Travel or Docking.

• Fixed an issue where the buff obtained from lighting a bonfire applied to enemy ships.

Navigation

• Fixed an issue where players may be briefly obstructed when sailing near the Moyenne Crique outpost.

Graphics & Animation

• Fixed an issue where the healing animation from the healing buoy persisted until the ship was docked.

• Fixed several instances where the wheel vanity was not attached to the Brig.

• Fixed an issue where there were duplicate Armand and Bertrand hair cosmetics available.

• Fixed an issue where there were missing structures from the island north of Oubliette.

• Fixed an issue where the assets did not load in the Helm Office.

• Fixed an issue where the structure at the bow of the Battle Junk changed appearance after Fast-Travelling.

• Fixed an issue where the Cage and Chain ornament texture and effects disappeared when zoomed in.

• Fixed an issue where the Battle Junk's deck beams change colours while sailing.

• Fixed an issue where the colours displayed in icon of "Clash and Burn" sail colour vanity did not match with the colours displayed in the preview.

• Fixed an issue where the beam visual effect on dropped loot was clipped.

Vanity Atelier

• Fixed an issue where certain cosmetic pieces displayed an error message "Item not sold by vendor" when previewed in the Vanity Atelier.

Localization

• Fixed a localization issue where the contract "A Beast Among Us" incorrectly mentioned Azurite Lodestone instead of the Idol of the Beast.

• Fixed an issue with perk and blueprint descriptions for Medicine Cabinet which incorrectly omitted the word "Toxic" and/or "Toxic attacks" in German.

• Fixed several instances of text spacing errors in the Smuggler's Pass tabs in the German and English localization.

• Fixed an issue with the Decoy Deck furniture's description in German.

• Fixed an issue where the text 'Flooding Demi-cannon III' overlapped with the weapon type text in Russian language.

UI/UX

• Fixed an issue where interactions with Duister manufactory were blocked when the player had any faction hostile toward them.

• Fixed an issue where the weapon stats are displayed based on the active ship instead of the selected ship for preview.

• Fixed an issue where two separate damage values were shown when player damages any sea monster while using the weapon La Piqûre.

• Fixed an issue where the description of the furniture Freeman's Embrace displays placeholder text.

• Fixed an issue where the background of the profile namecard was not displayed when the 'Unbroken Fiend' nameplate was previewed.

• Fixed an issue where the Drowned Sorrows merchant convoy map tooltip incorrectly displays a DMC chest, instead of Shadow Legion chest as possible loot.

• Fixed several instances in the Codex where the hints to obtain were inaccurate.

• Fixed an issue where the quantity values displayed in the Codex while tracking an item did not reflect the quantity of what the player owns.

• Fixed an issue where the new item marker persisted at Vanity Atelier.

• Fixed an issue where Gin was not visible through the spyglass on Merchant ship that was on trade routes.

• Fixed an issue where the event count down timer shows an inflated value.

• Fixed an issue where the World Event timers displayed looping time.

• Fixed an issue where the reinforcements countdown timer was stuck on 0:00 for the contract "Curtain Call" after being disconnected.

• Fixed an issue where the Gilded Rooster Ornaments were missing the 'emissive' tag.

• Fixed an issue where the crow's nest vanity, Hikmah, was missing the 'emissive' tag.

• Fixed an issue where the event currency was displayed as insufficient despite having enough to purchase.

• Fixed an issue where the UI for plunder was misaligned when playing on the 21:9 screen ratio.

• Fixed an issue where the faction icons for Fort Granbie and Grand Fort were mislabelled in the Helm Supply Network map.

• Fixed an issue where the trade route descriptions contained incorrect names of the Start and End points.

Optimization

• Fixed an issue where the game was frozen after selecting Quit to Desktop on PC.