Contents

• A First Peek into the Season 2 End Game Improvements
  • Fleet Management
  • Ship Upgrades
  • Helm Lease
• New Game Modes
  • Buyout
  • Manufactory Defense

During Season 1, you've been introduced to the Helm and many of you already have the foundation of your Empire well on its way.

A first peek into the Season 2 End Game improvements

Season 2 will introduce changes and improvements to Skull and Bones in general, but we want to give you a sneak peek into some of the additions coming to the End Game.

The tools to build your Empire, which you are probably well-versed in by now, include quite a few aspects of the game.

Throughout the seasons, we want to encourage you to take advantage of the mechanics and skills you learned during your rise to Kingpin. Use your experience and your wits to create an Empire that will be able to survive the waves of unexpected events, opportunities, and threats that will challenge your position as Kingpin within the world of Skull and Bones.

We want to improve the way you operate your Empire, creating more ways for you to build it, and giving you more freedom.
With that objective in mind, we've re-adjusted the cost of running Manufactories, to be more accessible and allow you to spend more time enjoying the content planned with Season 2. We will also bring the ability to fast travel when you carry Pieces of Eight, so long are you are not currently participating in a Helm Wager.
We intend, as well, to make your life as Kingpin easier, by adding with this new season the first steps toward automating some of the repeatable actions of the Endgame loop, making more relevant the ships in your fleet, and encouraging you to build more.

The World is changing

You can expect that the world state of Skull and Bones will keep on evolving Season after Season and the Helm will do so as well.
The world, as you've known it during Season 1, will change with the arrival of the Hubac Twins and the Chorus Fleet.

The Hubac Twins are threatening all the smuggling operations in the Indian Ocean.
It means that the Helm will change the way they provide their services to keep up with the world state.
You will need to fulfil different requirements when expanding & maintaining your operations.

The threat of the Twins and the Compagnie Royale is very real and making a tangible impact on the local scene. Owning Manufactories will become more challenging and taking them over will require you to prove yourself a lot more to those around you. Though it's only a temporary setback as you know you'll be able to take advantage of and upgrade the services provided by the Helm.

Some of the upgrades available to you will change, new services will appear, and some will see their pricing revisited.

What contraband the factions could provide will become more challenging to produce and increase in worth, or as some are in demand - be it by the Compagnie Royale or otherwise - their price will decrease. Owning the right Manufactory will be paramount to the increase of your wealth.

It'll be up to you to explore the possibilities and manage your Empire to turn them into an opportunity in spite of the Hubac Twin's threat.

Fleet Management

You have strived and fought to build your own fleet and soon it'll be in your grasp.

From Season 2 onward, you will have access to Fleet Management which will allow you to automate the collection of Pieces of Eight from your manufactories.

This is the first iteration of the feature, and, with future seasons, we plan to add more functionalities and expand on what your fleet can bring for you and your Empire.

The basics of the mechanic are as follow:

• Once your Manufactory is level 4, you'll gain access to the feature.
• When opening the menu of the Manufactory you want to assign a ship to, you will have access to another tab that will allow you to select one of your current ships and assign it to the Manufactory.
• Once assigned, and so long as a Manufactory is funded, the ship will make the voyage.
• Depending on your ship's level and the distance from the Manufactory, you will be provided with a risk level from low to very high for each Manufactory you assign a ship to. So, choose wisely as with greater risk comes a higher chance of some of your Pieces of Eight being plundered by Rogues and your ship being damaged.

You can currently assign one ship to one Manufactory. The ship, every time its cargo hold is full, will carry on - whether you are online or offline - travelling between the Manufactory and the Den. It will do so, so long as the Manufactory has silver funding it, the ship is assigned to it and not in needs of repairs.

It does mean that while the ship is assigned, it is not available to use for other activities.

You can unassign a ship at any point. A ship remains docked until the maximum amount of Pieces of Eight it can carry is reached, so if you unassign it while it's docked, you'll be able to use your ship instantly. On the other hand, if you unassign it while it is doing a delivery it'll finish delivering the Pieces of Eight it carries to the closest Den before becoming available to use. To make sure you unassign it at an optimal time, you can check on its status within the Manufactory menu but also directly via the status icon on the map.

As stated above, Fleet Management will see additional improvements with time and we're keen to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the topic.

Ship Upgrades

In addition to the improvements we brought to the ships during Season 1, we're bringing with this new season the ability to upgrade your ship.
It'll allow you to improve your ship stats and gain new perks and will be unlocked once you reach the rank of Kingpin.

Building on the system already in place, we aim to make the ships you've built as you progress more relevant and diversify your possibilities when putting together a loadout. We intend to make playstyles more relevant, increasing your ship level while taking full advantage of unique aspects of smaller ships you already own - allowing you to tackle tougher content with them.

To start on an upgrade, you will need a visit to the shipwright, some materials, and silver or Pieces of Eight.

Within the Shipwright menu, you will have the option to Upgrade Ships.
Each ship which is in your fleet will have 6 upgrade levels. For each upgrade level you will need different resources depending on which ship you choose.

The upgrades will grant improvements to ships stats such as hull, health, speed, cargo space but will also affect your furniture slot and add a new perk depending on the ship selected and the upgrade level.

As you increase in level, the materials and currency you'll need to upgrade will differ, becoming a little more difficult to get your hands on.

Helm Lease

Another addition we're bringing with Season 2 is the ability to use Helm Leases.
Helm Leases are exclusive certificates offered by the Helm that allow you to claim ownership of a Manufactory of your choice.
We intend, with this new feature, to provide you with a greater degree of influence when shaping your empire. We want to encourage a strategic approach to how you use the Manufactories and the contraband they produce for you.

During Season 1, some contraband items were available in a specific region, we're now balancing how some of the contraband is available on the map. With Season 2, we're aiming to encourage your relations with factions. Each faction will have contraband items they specialise in producing.

As it's a new season, and with it will come new enemies, the dynamics of the regions and their factions will evolve.
Some items might be harder to come by, driving the price up, while others will see their price lowered as the market gets flooded. You can expect with every season that products' demand and availability will evolve.

It'll be up to you to monitor the supply and demand, seizing what's coming and turning it into an opportunity. For that purpose, the Helm Leases will play a major role in helping you to make meaningful investments in your Smuggling Empire.
There are multiple ways to obtain Helm Leases, but to name a few, you can obtain some via the Smuggler Pass, through seasonal contracts or even by trading contraband with Scurlock and Rahma.

Once you obtain a Lease, you can claim it by navigating to the Manufactory of your choice and interacting with it.

There will be a 'Redeem Helm Lease' button.
When selecting your Manufactory, have a look at your Helm map, it should give you insights on what contraband items each of them produces.

There are different types of Leases - factional, regional, or worldwide Lease.

• Factional Lease: this type of Lease allows you to acquire a Manufactory from a specific faction.
• Regional: it allows you to claim any Manufactory within a specific region.
• Worldwide: Valid in the whole Indian Ocean, you can choose to acquire any Manufactory within the world of Skull and Bones.

So it's worth checking the validity of the Lease before attempting to claim a manufactory.
To use any of the Leases, you will need to have the region unlocked, otherwise the menu will not appear. Luckily, for those of you who have unlocked the regions within your Empire during Season 1, those will remain available to you.

Once you have obtained a Lease, it'll remain in your possession until you make use of it, be it this season or the next.

They cannot be crafted, jettisoned nor traded and each Lease lasts through the season once redeemed, so make your choices wisely.

New Game Modes

Buyout

Up till now, you could obtain Manufactories via Hostile Takeovers and Legendary Heists. We're now adding another option tailored more toward solo players, called Buyout.
Through the map, locate corrupt officials and bribe your way into controlling a Manufactory.

A buyout will appear at random outposts on the map at regular intervals. Anyone can join; you will not be competing with one another during the event.

Before entering the event, you will be able to see the potential reward but not the items necessary to secure the deal.
Once you agree to enter the event, you will need to travel to the outpost where the Overseas Smuggler is located and until the countdown timer runs out, you will not see which items are requested.

It is once the countdown timer is up that the items necessary to secure the deal are revealed.
The items requested can be commodities, contraband, currencies, materials (refined or raw), or equipment.

You will need to gather the items requested and submit them to the Overseas Smuggler during the time limit given. If you are successful, you will be awarded the Manufactory.

You'll need to be fast to secure a deal before the opportunity ends. These officials are greedy and will not make it easy for you.

Manufactory Defense

Buyout is not the only mode we're bringing to the game with the new season. This new mode called Manufactory Defense is also a solo PvE event.

While a Manufactory is under your supervision, it can come under threat. As you expand your grasp on the Indian Ocean, many will notice your growing influence and will stop at nothing to cripple your smuggling Empire.
Faction ships will try to seize your Manufactories, and it's up to you to safeguard your Helm operations.  When you are offline, your Manufactory cannot be attacked, but do expect, when you are online, that a percentage of Manufactory will come to need some defending every few hours.

Once a Defense pop up, you can choose to refuse or accept it.
Upon accepting a Manufactory Defense, you will need to travel to the Manufactory under threat and defend it from the waves of enemies.

You will face a total of 4 waves of enemies, getting progressively more challenging. As each faction has their patterns of attack, you might want to adapt your ship loadout to optimise the damage you can inflict and defend against, based on their strength and weaknesses.

If you manage to take down all the enemies without your Manufactory's HP reaching 0, you will have successfully defended your Manufactory. You would then be rewarded Helm materials. The rewards differ depending on if your Manufactory was funded or not when you finish the Defense.

• If your Manufactory is funded when receiving the rewards, you will receive a Manufactory boost, 5000 Silver & a Gold Raider's Cache.

• If your Manufactory is not funded when receiving the rewards, you will receive 8000 Silver and a Gold raider's Cache.

On the other hand, if you fail to defend your Manufactory or do not come to its defense, it will suffer significant damage and will need time to repair itself. A damaged Manufactory will not be able to generate Pieces of Eight while it is under repair. It'll also remain "in repairs" for an increased amount of time as your Manufactory level increases.

All those changes will be introduced with season 2, but it is only one of the steps toward the smuggling Empire we're hoping to help you build with time. Our teams will keep on iterating Skull and Bones to bring to you a continuously improving experience in-game as time goes by.

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