The Sea of Thieves Developer Update for July 2025 is here, with the final update for Season 16, Reaper’s Rule. Hosted by Production Director Drew Stevens, he took a minute at the top of the video to talk about the recent cancellation of Everwild, as well as reassuring fans that the widespread layoffs across Xbox and Microsoft had not affected Sea of Thieves.
The rest of the developer update continued as normal, covering what was coming in this month’s update for Sea of Thieves.
First up is the addition of the final voyage for the Reaper’s Bones: Followers of the Flame, which will reward players with the new Chest of Bones. “Alongside this new voyage, the team has been busy taking on board your feedback and improving the features delivered as part of the season,” Drew added. There are also some adjustments to Ancient Secrets voyages, and the number of skeletons that are summoned from a Chest of Bones is now based on the size of the ship it is placed on when used to attack. When defending, whether on board your ship or anywhere else in the world, a full force will still come to your aid.
Following that is a reworking of the Devil’s Roar that intends to “retain the atmosphere and threat” of the region while dealing with some of the more frustrating issues players have when undertaking voyages there. Players can look forward to less targeted geysers, more warning before a volcanic eruption, as well as fewer direct hits from volcano projectiles.
Some players may be disappointed by this next inclusion, which sees the devs removing the ability to hold a charged stab on a throwing knife when switching weapons, appropriately named by the community as the Touch of Death. “Sorry,” said Drew, “while the name was cool, we weren’t going to let this one hang around too long.”
Cross-region matchmaking, which was introduced in June, will get an “opt-out” option for players to give them more control over their preferences regarding latency and matchmaking.
“Next up, our favorite topic: field of view,” said Drew with a grin. Work has begun on allowing players to set their FOV as high as 110, but it will be some time before it is fully implemented into the game, likely sometime in August/September. These changes, along with some smaller adjustments coming to the game, will be introduced via the Insiders Program first for live testing before full implementation.
Speaking of the Sea of Thieves Insiders Program, the NDA has been lifted as of today, allowing players to not only talk about their experiences but also share footage of their gameplay! This was originally brought up in the Community Direct the team held last week, but today’s announcement seems to come as a surprise to the team as well as the fans.
Those are the highlights from the Sea of Thieves Developer Update for July 2025. For full details on the update, you can watch the video here.
What are your thoughts on the July update for Sea of Thieves? Did you use the Touch of Death? Will you join the Insiders Program? Let us know in the comments below.
