Season 2 Chorus of Havoc is finally upon us, and with this update we're bringing new content, plenty of changes, improvements, and fixes.

Highlights

Seasonal Content: Chorus of Havoc

• Commanding their Chorus Fleet, the flamboyant yet deadly twins Armand and Bertrand Hubac have been sent to the Indian Ocean alongside the Compagnie Royale to eradicate the Helm and the growing pirate threat.

• In completing the Seasonal contracts, players will be rewarded with a Helm Lease. Players may use it to exchange for an available Manufactory of their choosing. The choice of Manufactory depends on the Lease type: Faction, Regional, or World.

Episode 1: The Pirate's Lament

• Starting from Week 1 onward.
• Fend off the Chorus Fleet's invasion and protect your growing Helm Empire.
• Complete Episode 1 Seasonal contracts from Yanita Nara and William Blackwood to obtain a Helm Lease, a new weapon: Mine Spring Loader I and new furniture: Spring Loader Furnace I and Spring Loader Powder House I.
• Take on new Bounty Contracts placed on Armand Hubac, Bertrand Hubac, and the Elite Warship Soleil Royal.
  • Note that the bounties for Armand and Bertrand Hubac will be limited to the first week and will be become available again in the later episodes.

Episode 2: The Rebellion's Symphony

• Starting from Week 3 onward.
• The Chorus Fleet expands their reach to the East Indies where Helm assets continue to be targeted.
• As the Helm drives to compete in this technological arms race against the Compagnie, complete Episode 2 Seasonal contracts from Yanita Nara and William Blackwood to obtain more Helm Leases, the Mine Spring Loader II and the Faule Ilse. Plus, a new Figurehead: Death Forsworn.
• Take on Bounty Contracts placed on Bertrand Hubac, the Elite Warship Soleil Royal, and new sea monster, Mega Lestari.

Episode 3: Shadow Sonata

• Starting from Week 5 onward.
• Reports make mention of Compagnie ships gathering around key locations, indicating that the Twins are preparing for something big. Meanwhile, rumours of a lingering plague and poison resurface along with sightings of a deadly new weapon, La Piqure - La Peste and his Plaguebringers stir.
• Complete Episode 3 Seasonal contracts from Yanita Nara to obtain Helm Leases, a new weapon, La Piqure and more key materials to craft Season 2 equipment.
• Take on Bounty Contracts placed on Armand Hubac, Bertrand Hubac, the Elite Warship Soleil Royal, and sea monster, Mega Lestari.
• The Soleil Royal holds 2 new furniture to bolster your strength while Mega Lestari's hide will allow you to craft a new Epic Armour, the Leviathan to clad your hull with.

Episode 4:The Pirate's Overture

• Starting from Week 7 onward.
• Fend off the collective might of the Hubac Twins and their Chorus Fleet against the all-out assault on the region.
• Complete Episode 4 Seasonal contracts from Yanita Nara and be rewarded with Helm Leases, a new Springloader, Little Grace and the Hubac Strongbox.
• Take on Bounty Contracts placed on the Hubac Twins (new!), Armand Hubac, Bertrand Hubac, the Elite Warship Soleil Royal, and sea monster, Mega Lestari. The Blighted Bastion, Kumaharibu, and Rode Maangodin make their return once again.

New Ship: Brig

• Fast and agile, this support ship excels at deploying minefields and repair buoys using the new Springloader weapon. Available free from completing Smuggler Pass challenges.

• Perk: Artificer

  • Consecutive weapon hits to targets increases effectiveness of subsequent Buoys by 2%, capping at 30%. Resets if more than 12 seconds pass between hits.
  • Reduces reload time of Auxiliary weapons by 10%, as well as for nearby friendly ships.

• Available upgrades:

  • Better navigation stats - increased top speed and turning speed.
  • More furniture slots.
  • Secondary Perk: Evolved - Buoys you deploy lasts longer.

New Weapon Type: Mine Springloader

• Launches floating buoys that create minefields. These minefields deal damage to enemy ships and destroy torpedoes that collide into the minefield.
• Slot: Auxiliary
• New stats for Springloaders include Operation Range, Operation Time, Buoy Health, Number of Buoys.

New Weapon Variants

Springloader Variants

• Little Grace - Launches floating buoys that repair and restore the integrity of damaged hulls and masts.
  • Available from the Seasonal main contract "Curtain Call".
• Infernal Maw - Launches Sea Fire Mines, that deal fire damage to enemy ships and destroy torpedoes that collide into the minefield. These buoys also carry volatile sea fire that erupts when destroyed, dealing 300% damage.
  • Available from the Smuggler Pass

Demi-Cannon Variant

• Faule Ilse - Shrapnel fired from this weapon ricochets to nearby targets on impact. 75% of the original damage is dealt upon secondary hit.
  • Available in the Black Market.

Rocket Variant

• The Warhammer - Fires a volley of 10 heavy explosive rockets from above.
  • Available in the Black Market.

Torpedo Variant

• Endless Requiem - Highly advanced torpedoes with target seeking capability.
  • Available in the Black Market.

Long Gun Variant

• La Piqure - A malicious weapon wielded by La Peste's cronies. It fires tainted shells that drains Crew Stamina. Adds 20% damage that cannot be blocked.

New Armour: Rhapsody of the Deep

• A powerful armour that provides protection against Torpedoes, and which can completely counter the effects of Flooding for as long as the player keeps bracing.
  • Available free from completing Smuggler Pass challenges.
• Perks:
  • Unsinkable: While bracing the effects of being afflicting with "Flooded" is negated.
  • Iron Plastron: Reduced damage from Torpedoes by 25% and by an additional 25% while bracing.

New Armour Variants

• Stormwoven Symphony with the new armour perk: Crescendo.
  • Holding brace charges up a sonic attack that damages surrounding enemies
  • Available from the Black Market.
• The Buccaneer's Oath and Abyssal are available from the Black Market.
• Leviathan will be available as a reward from the Lestari Bounty.

New Game Modes: Manufactory Buyout & Manufactory Defense

• Manufactory Buyout:
  It is a solo (non-competitive) opportunity where players fulfil the demands of a Helm agent in a race against time to secure a Manufactory.

  • Upon accepting the Buyout Opportunity, the player should travel to the target outpost where the Overseas Smuggler is located.
  • When the warm-up countdown timer is up, the Smuggler will reveal the item(s) they require in exchange for ownership of said Manufactory. The target manufactory will also be revealed at this point. The requested items may range from: Commodities, Contraband, Currencies and Equipment, etc.
  • Gather the required item(s) and submit them to the Smuggler within the time limit to complete the Buyout and obtain the manufactory!

• Manufactory Defense:
  Safeguard your Manufactory against faction rivals looking to cripple your Empire network.

  • Upon accepting the Manufactory Defense opportunity, the player should travel to the targeted Manufactory.
  • The player will need to remain within the area and defend their manufactory against incoming waves of enemies. There will be 5 waves of enemies, each with increasing difficulty.
  • Mix of ships that prioritize either targeting the player or the manufactory.
  • Ensure that your Manufactory's HP does not reach 0 at the end of all 5 enemy waves.
  • Upon successfully defending their manufactory, the player will receive the following rewards.

• Manufactory Defense Rewards

Manufactory Health	Manufactory State upon Reward	Rewards
>0% HP	· Manufactory is funded while receiving the rewards	· Manufactory Boost (supply boost) · 5000 Silver · 1x Gold Raider's Cache
>0% HP	· Manufactory is NOT funded while receiving the rewards	· 8000 Silver · 1x Gold Raider's Cache

• The Gold Raider's Cache contains Silver, Pieces of Eight, Enhanced Repair Kits, Helm materials, chance of some refined Helm Wares and a chance to obtain a World Helm Lease.
• If the player fails at defending their manufactory, production of Pieces of Eight will cease temporarily while the manufactory recovers. At level 1, the damaged manufactory will remain "in repairs" for 1 hour. With each increasing Manufactory level, there is a corresponding increase in the duration of Po8 production downtime, up to the max downtime of 14 hours for a level 10 manufactory.
• This opportunity will only generate for players that meet the following conditions: Owns at least 5 manufactories, the last defense opportunity was completed at least 4 hours ago.

Manufactory Level	Time to Repair
Level 1	1 hour
Level 2	2 hours
Level 3	3 hours
Level 4	4 hours
Level 5	5 hours
Level 6	6 hours
Level 7	8 hours
Level 8	10 hours
Level 9	12 hours
Level 10	14 hours

New Sea Monsters: Lestari & Mega Lestari

• The contract "The Vanishing" will be available from the Seapeople Huntmaster at Lanitra outpost.
• Subdue Lestari to obtain monster fangs which can be exchanged at the Huntmaster for an Epic Lestari Armour, a special dish, and a firework. Turning in the contract also awards a silver reward.
• Pick up bounty contract "Silent Death" at the dens - but be warned, the Mega Lestari is not to be trifled with (recommended Ship Rank: 13).
• Complete the bounty to receive the Bounty Chest, which contains pieces of the vanity set "Legend of Lestari" and captain vanity set "Lestari Hunter".

Time Limited Event: Dragon's Regatta

• Available from 28th May to 18th June.
• Over the span of 3 weeks, participate in 3 different races across 3 different regions.

• Make your way to the Race Official ship or the floating buoy and interact with them to start the race. Once the timer starts, the checkpoints will be marked. To complete the race, meet all the checkpoints (in any order) before the timer runs out!
• Within the race routes, players can activate Speed boosters and Stamina boosters that will appear throughout the course.
• Your best time will be recorded and players who have completed all 3 races will be ranked on the Dragon's Regatta Leaderboard based on their best time. At the end of this time limited event, the top 100 players will be awarded the Golden Lemur pet.
• For each race completed, players can earn Regatta Tokens and a Regatta Chest containing: Pieces of Eight, new food item Rice Dumpling, materials and chance for a new Epic Furniture, Secret Cache I.
• Players may use their tokens to exchange for Regatta ship and captain vanity sets.

Time Limited Event: Summer Fiesta

• Available from 2nd July to 16th July.
• More information on this event will be shared closer to its availability.

Ship Upgrades

• The shipwright will now provide upgrades for ships of players that have reached Kingpin status if they have the necessary silver and materials required, including a new item: Upgrade Parts.
• The highest Ship Rank is now 13, attainable on all small and medium ships, except the Dhow.
• All ships (except Dhow) have access to 6 tiers of Upgrades, with each tier granting improvements such as new perks, additional furniture slots, enhanced ship stats like hull health, cargo space, speed, and ship rank score. Small ships are brought up to par with medium ships through these upgrades and gain access to weapon slots previously only available on medium ship.
• At upgrade tier 3/6, medium ships gain a new perk - "Deep Blue" - that increases manoeuvrability when traversing seas.
• At upgrade tier 4/6, small ships gain a new perk - "River Rat" - that increases speed and manoeuvrability when traversing rivers.
• All fully upgraded ships will also unlock a new unique ship perk that provide additional bonuses for each ship:

Ship	Perk (Lv 6)	Function
Bedar	Jousting	Ramming a target reduces its armour rating by 150 for 30 secs and increases own weapon damage by 10%.
Hulk	Ironwill	Increases Armour Rating by 150 for yourself and nearby allies.
Cutter	Unsparing	Increases Repair Effectiveness of allies by 30% after repairing.
Barge	Devouring	Applies Torn Sails status effect when hitting a target with Ablaze.
Sloop	Ruin	Explosive Damage hits decrease enemy's weapon damage by 10%
Padewakang	Siege	At half-sails or anchored, increase weapon damage by 20% and decrease reload time by 20% for Explosive weapon.
Snow	Vindictive	After bracing, increases weapon damage by 20% for 20 seconds.
Brigantine	Headstrong	When moving at 14 knots and above, increase ram damage by 30%.
Sambuk	Firebug	Decrease fire weapon reload time by 25%
Barque	Mend	Increase Repair Amount of Repair Weapons by 40% for ships with less than 33% of Hull Health.
Brig	Evolved	Deployed buoys last longer.

Upgrade Parts

• Captains can obtain Upgrade Parts from:
  • Completing seasonal boss bounties and the new Main Contracts.
  • Trade with Scurlock, Rahma.
  • Completing Smuggler Pass challenges.
  • Chance drop from recurring bounty chest such as the Rode Maangodin, Lestari.
  • End of Season rewards based on the progression made in Empire game mode.

Fleet Management

• Assign your ships to an owned Manufactory and have your fleet collect Pieces of Eight for you! The fleet will collect Po8 on a cycle.
• The duration of the collection run depends on the Manufactory's distance from the nearest Den. While in operation, you will not be able to use the assigned ship or change its loadout.
• Ships can only be assigned to manufactories that have reached level 4 and above.
• Before you assign your ship, ensure that the assigned ship's rank meets the recommended levels. Otherwise, your assigned ships would be at risk of encountering rival ships that would attack your assigned ship and try to loot your Pieces of Eight!
  • Repairing the damaged ship will cost Silver.
• With each ship rank increment, you have increased efficiency - allowing the ship to carry more Po8 at one time.

Fleet Management: Selling Ships

• You can now sell your ships at the shipwright for silver.

Gameplay Updates

Seasonal Rewards

• Season 1 reward: "Gilded Sin" captain's vanity set should be found in your inventory if you've reached Diamond tier on the Seasonal Leaderboard at the end of Season 1, 28th May, 2 AM UTC.
• Season 2 reward: "Sovereign" nameplate.

Helm Empire

• Introducing a variety of new Helm Empire upgrades, split by factional benefits. General increased cost of buying upgrades.
  • Dev note: to encourage players to strategize about where they should start building their Empire.

Helm Office

• You can now view your collection of pets in the Helm office.

Rempah and Fara Merchant Convoys

• New Merchant Convoy carrier ships.

Camera Features

• Deathcam: Check out the ship that got the last hit on you before you sank.
• Photo mode: Use the 4 new camera angles to capture your ship's vanity in a new light.

Changes to Ship Rank (SR)

Ship rank damage modifiers will now be less significant once you are of higher ship rank. The first band starts at ship rank 8 when both entities are above, and the second band starts at ship rank 11.

• Dev note: Ship rank damage modification felt artificial and even frustrating at endgame however its usefulness in the main contract path and helping players to quickly understand general the power level of an item. This change enables us to keep the best of the two systems.

Ship Rank modifiers will now be less significant once you are of higher ship rank. These modifiers are separated into three different SR bands:

Player Ship Rank 1-7 vs AI:

• No changes.

Player Ship Rank 8-10 vs AI Ship Rank 8+:

• No change in damage taken vs AI of equal SR.
• No change in damage dealt vs AI of equal or lower SR.
• 2-4% increased damage taken vs AI of lower SR depending on SR difference.
• 10-30% reduced damage taken vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.
• 10-30% increased damage dealt vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.

Player Ship Rank 11+ vs AI:

• No change in damage taken vs AI of equal SR.
• No change in damage dealt vs AI of equal or lower SR.
• 4-6% increased damage taken vs AI of lower SR depending on SR difference.
• 20-40% reduced damage taken vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.
• 15-60% increased damage dealt vs AI of higher SR depending on SR difference.

Additional balance changes to boss encounters:

For Ship Rank 13 content:

• No changes.

For Ship Rank 14 content:

• AI health and damage reduced by 5%.

For Ship Rank 15 content:

• AI health reduced by 32%.
• AI damage reduced by 15%.

For Ship Rank 16 content (Season 2):

• AI health reduced by 25%.
• AI damage reduced by 15%.

Season 2 Rewards

Gameplay Updates

Contracts/ Bounties

• Difficulty of Kumaharibu has been increased to account for the Ship Rank rebalancing. Increased damage by 40% and hit Points of Interests by 23%.
• Contract item given during "A Nose for Business" has been renamed to "Writ of Ownership", not to be confused with the new item, Helm Lease.

Gameplay

• Players are now only able to heal other Players that are in the same activity (e.g. Co-Op, Opt-In PvP, out of PvP).

Plundering

• Players now have a grace period to re-enter the location they are plundering before it goes into recovery state.

The Helm

• Barque blueprint is now available in the Black Market, among other new items.

World Events

• Re-routed La Potence sailing path as it was sometimes sailing too close to Sainte-Anne.

Localisation

• Placeholder voice no longer present in dialogue at start of "Devil's Gambit" Contract in French.

Ship & Ship AI

• Players can no longer heal AI Ships that are hostile to the Player.

Harvesting

• Depleted resource nodes now show the "Depleted" prompt.

Camera

• Photomode no longer exits when crew stamina is completely depleted.

Settings/ Menu

• Adjusted maximum microphone volume to mitigate distortion/background noise on voice chat.

UI/ UX

• Incorrect reward is displayed in the opportunities information widget for manufactories that are already owned.
• Marking is now enabled in the fast travel map.

Fixed

Contracts/ Bounties

• Fixed an issue where Rempah Traitor fails to spawn in "Blue Moon Bribes" Contract. Please note that the fixes implement may reset the players' Contract progression.
• Fixed issue where DMC corrupted officers' ships were not spawning on specified location for Contract "A Clandestine Trail".
• Fixed issue where "Anguish from the Abyss" Contract fails after the Host leaves.
• Rode Maangodin no longer spawns in daytime.

Legendary Heist

• Fixed an issue where a Legendary Heist instantly fails if Player sinks the Convoy target while having a full inventory.

Gameplay

• Fixed incorrect buff duration referenced on the bonfire lit event notification.

Achievements/ Challenges

• Fixed an issue where "The People's Person" trophy progresses/unlocks incorrectly after Player interacts with Job/Bounty Board.
• Fixed issue where "East Indies Explorer" Achievement Won't Unlock.

Plundering

• Fixed issue with group member not exiting spyglass when plunder scene has been triggered by another group mate.

The Helm

• Fixed issue where Helm Lease onboarding Contract not placing markers on targeted POIs.
• Fixed issue where Player was unable to fund newly Owned Manufactory.

Multiplayer (Co-Op)

• Fixed an issue where "Pursuing Plague" and "Encroaching Epidemic" were not set to shareable.
• Fixed a bug allowing players that have not reached Kingpin tier to progress past "Growing Ambitions" and access Kingpin tiered content earlier than intended.
• Fixed an issue where "Helm Wager Unsuccessful" notification is missing for group member who failed Helm Wager while their group member successfully completed the Opportunity.
• Fixed an issue where the group member is teleported out of Scurlock's office and causes unintended Contract progression after submitting Leader's Contract item while submitting their own Contract.

Vanity Items

• Fixed an issue where preview for any vanity set is not displayed after visiting store at Vanity Atelier.
• Added Oceanborn vanity to the reward definition for "Fates in the Stars".

World Events

• Fixed an issue where reinforcement ships sometimes fail to detect Player as threat who have joined the World Event.

Captain's Logbook

• Fixed an issue where preview images for Action Wheel and Enemy Flares are missing in Knowledge tab.

Localisation

• Gunner's quadrant French translation has been amended.

Loot/ Items

• Fixed issue where "Clandestine Trail" was giving Rocket Works 1 instead of Rocket Grinder 1.

Ships & Ship AI

• Fixed an issue where reinforcements would fail to spawn during Hostile Takeovers at certain Manufactories.
• Fixed an issue where ships will be pushed underwater after using the Mortar.

Camera

• Decouple Camera settings no longer reset after restarting the game.

UI/ UX

• Fixed issue where contents of menu go missing when Player sets different menu and subtitle language in JP SKU.
• Fixed issue where Players were stuck in the Captain's Creation screen.
• Fixed an issue for Cutthroat Cargo widget where the status on the tracker incorrectly shows the warmup information when the map is already secured.
• Fixed an issue where players may be unable to interact or plunder Ankohonana settlement.
• Fixed an issue where the Contract cosmetic icon is not present on the "Herald's Honor" Contract Compagnie in the Sails tab while completing 1 step of Contract "Delicate Alliance".
• Fixed an issue where the Helm tooltip does not reflect the correct number of supply boost materials needed after using "Extended Supply Run I".
• Fixed an issue where the Player is unable to interact with the Carpenter at Sainte-Anne.
• Fixed an issue where the "Unequip" option is not working for Body Cosmetics at Vanity Atelier.
• Fixed an issue where black screen appears on Map UI when Player opens "View in Map" from "Calls For Help" while accessing Store.
• Fixed an issue where screen turns black after pressing back while scrolling down in Smuggler Pass rewards menu.
• Show preview of health when highlighting a repair kit in the wheel.
• Resolved issue where Contract objectives would sometimes grey out and block progression.
• Fixed select button on the base button bar not displaying after browsing items belonging to a set and exiting after.
• Fixed Ship Info Display Mode "Always On" not showing Ship's UI elements even though the ship's Scouted/Spyglassed.
• Fixed an issue where the out of bounds timer was not showing while fighting an Elite enemy.
• Amended discrepancies and requirements are confirmed as Marauder.

Audio

• Fixed an issue where a robotic voice is present in dialogue at the start and the end of "Devil's Gambit" Contract in French.

Controls

• Fixed an issue where players getting stuck in a bush in Grande Falaise.

Text/ Voice Chat

• Reduced occurrences of "KINGFISHER-4" and "NIGHTINGALE-12C" errors.
• Fixed an issue where incoming speech-to-text works with turned off voice chat.
• Fixed an issue where players are unable to hear group members after switching Crossplay settings.
  • For optimal performance, consider keeping mic sensitivity and voice chat volume at 100%.
• Fixed an issue where players that were kicked from servers for remaining idle, are subsequently unable to hear group members after re-joining a group.
• Fixed social interaction Mute button access to be only available while in a group with voice chat on.

Others

• Fixed an issue where Photomode camera automatically moves to primary camera's default position.
• Fixed an issue where the Player would experience a long loading screen when exiting Yanita's interaction.