Captains, a maintenance is incoming. Tuesday, September 17th, the Indian Ocean of Skull and Bones will be temporarily unavailable. ⏰ 8AM CEST / 4PM AET / (16 SEPT) 11PM PT ⏱~ 2h Update 3.1 will be deployed. Check out the full patch notes here 👉https://skullandbonesgame.com/y1s3_1_patch_notes Chaos and turmoil continue to escalate across the Indian Ocean with the emboldened Phoenix’s Talon forces taking on the Dragon’s Claw. Update 3.1 arrives as a new phase of the Season 3 story begins, bringing along with it plenty of content updates and bug fixes. [h2]HIGHLIGHT[/h2] [h3]EPISODE 3: CALM BEFORE THE STORM, STARTING WEEK 5[/h3][list] [*] Reward – Imperial Jade [*] Bounty: "[b]The Serpent's Wrath[/b]" [*] First time rewards: 1 x Commander Zhang's Chest, 10000 x Silver [*] Chance to obtain from Phoenix's Talon Strongbox - Epic Major Furniture "[b]Cannonball Carving Station[/b]". [*] Hitting a weakpoint applies Taunting Charge on the target. [*] Increases "[b]Taunt[/b]" duration by 15%. [*] Reduces Reload time of Piercing weapons by 5%. [*] Bounty: “[b]Flames of the Phoenix[/b]” [*] First Time rewards: 6 x Upgrade Kits, 1 x Phoenix's Talon Chest, 13000 Silver [*] “Flicker of Destiny” contract reward: Blueprint of Epic Ballista “[b]Bane of Ten Suns[/b]”. [*] [b]Unrelenting Drill[/b]: Fires a drill-bolt that travels in a straight path, piercing multiple targets. Drill-bolts deal additional 50% to subsequent targets after hitting the first target. [*] [b]Long Draw[/b]: This weapon can be charged for up to 420% increased damage and 900m increased range [*] [b]Piercing III[/b]: Adds 30% of damage as Piercing Damage. Increases damage to weakpoints by 100%. [/list] [h3]EVENTS & GIVEAWAYS[/h3][list] [*] “[b]Talk like a Pirate Day[/b]” giveaway: available from [b]17/09/2024 to 24/09/24[/b]. You may redeem your free gifts from [b]Ubisoft Connect[/b]! [*] Precision Drilling Bit x7 [*] Rubber x7 [*] Torsion Spring x7 [*] Sky Barrage (Firework) x1 [*] Cannon Smoker (Emblem) x1 [*] Hephaestus's Tears (Sail Pattern) x1 [*] More fireworks, emotes, and ship vanities are also available in the Store, be sure to check it out! [*] Talk like a pirate firework 1: “Arrgh” [*] Talk like a pirate firework 2: “Crossed Swords” [*] Talk like a pirate emblem: “Thick Skull” [*] Midnight Sail Colour: “Skyclad” [*] Midnight Hull Colour: “Moon Shadow” [*] To celebrate “Talk like a Pirate Day”, a D[b]ouble Infamy[/b] event will take place from [b]September 19th (06:00 UTC) to September 23rd (06:00 UTC)[/b]. [/list] [h2]GAMEPLAY UPDATES[/h2] [h3]SEASON 3 EXTENSION[/h3][list] [*] In-game calendar for Season 3 has been extended by a week so as to reflect the Season's end date on the 19th of November, 6:00am UTC. [/list] [h3]MAP FILTER[/h3] [i][b]Dev note[/b]: In Patch 2.2, we introduced changes to make World Events accessible on a fixed schedule. We have since been closely observing player feedback, and while the scheduling changes were generally well-received, we also noted that the community felt that the map was getting increasingly cluttered, making it difficult to locate relevant content. In Patch 3.1, we’re making some visual tweaks to the World Event markers to reduce the space occupied, as well as making some changes to the default visibility of World Events on the map. Only the closest active World Event of each type will be shown on the map border. You may choose to adjust this behaviour through the Customize User Interface section in the settings menu to suit your preferences.[/i][list] [*] Updated visuals of World Event markers on the map. [*] Added 3 new settings to customize the display of World Events on the map. [*] World Event Edge Clamp (On/Off). [*] World event status (All/Active only). [*] [b]All[/b]: Shows all World Events including those that will start soon. [*[b]] Active Only[/b]: Shows World Events that are currently active [*] World event range (All/Closest only). [*] [b]All[/b]: Shows all World Events including multiple instances of the same type. [*] [b]Closest Only[/b]: Limits showing the closest World Event per type. [*] Curate World Events that are displayed on the map through filtering by relevance (by player progression). [*] World Events far above your current ship rank or Infamy level will not be displayed. [*] Accepting a bounty or directly encountering a world event in the Open World will enable the display of the World Event on the map. [*] The following behaviour remains unchanged: [*] Seasonal World Events, Ghost Ships, Elite Warships, Sea Monsters, and Merchant Convoys will continue to be shown on the map when they are available. [/list] [h3]HELM EMPIRE MANAGEMENT[/h3][list] [*] Players can now add funding to manufactories that are actively generating Pieces of Eight to increase the length of production. The cost will be proportionate to the remainder of the amount of time added on. [b]Players may start funding at a minimum of an additional ten minutes[/b]. [*] Example: After a Manufactory is active for 6 minutes, players cannot add funds to this Manufactory because the minimum add-on funding starts at 10 minutes. [*] Example: A manufactory has been active for 57 minutes. Players will now have the option to add funds to extend production by 50 minutes. Any add-on production time is rounded down to the nearest ten minutes. [*] Players can perform supply runs on manufactories with less than 15 minutes of funding time remaining. The cost of the supply run is scaled proportionally to the funding time remaining. [*] Changed territory collection of Pieces of Eight to deduct (tax) from the collected amount rather than deducting from players’ existing amount of Pieces of Eight. [*] Added faction icon and name to manufactory tooltip. [/list] [h3]MANUFACTORY DEFENSE - REDUCED PENALTIES[/h3][list] [*] Upon failing the Manufactory Defense, the Manufactory production downtime is now 1 hour, regardless of Manufactory level. [/list] [h3]WEAPONS[/h3][list] [*] Repair mortars now affect the player that fired it if they are within the area of effect [*] Updated the description of the Battle Junk’s Perk: “[b]Provoke[/b]” [*] [b]Old[/b]: Weapon-hits within 200m range apply Taunt charges. Applying “[b]Taunt[/b]” with this ship makes target vulnerable to 50% increased weakpoint damage from all sources. [*] [b]New[/b]: Damage dealt within 200m range apply Taunt charges. Applying “[b]Taunt[/b]” with this ship makes target vulnerable to 50% increased weakpoint damage from all sources. [/list] [h3]SEA MONSTERS[/h3] [list][*] Players can now have a chance to encounter the Shadowbeast while sailing around the open world. [/list] [i][b]Dev Note[/b]: We are introducing more dynamism to the open world through chance encounters which include sea monsters and ghost ships to enrich the sense of wonder while sailing out at sea. We acknowledge that these may impact the difficulty of world events should they overlap, and we are actively monitoring community feedback to adjust the rules for triggering these events to achieve a good balance.[/i] [h3]INVENTORY MANAGEMENT[/h3][list] [*] Added stack quantity and splitting/merging stacks in ship customization. [*] Multiple copies of the same weapon, armour, and furniture are now stacked in the Ship Customization screen. [/list] [h3]BOUNTIES[/h3][list] [*] Updated bounties to display location hints in the map. [/list] [h3]JOB BOARD[/h3][list] [*] Improved base Job Board rewards [*] Increased bonus rewards provided by the Helm Upgrades “[b]Sainte-Anne’s Favour[/b]” and “[b]Telok Penjarah’s Favour[/b]”. [/list] [h3]IMPROVED MERCHANT CONVOY REWARDS[/h3][list] [*] Increased drop rates, quantity and added new drops in Merchant Convoy rewards. [*] More materials that are used for ship upgrades will be available e.g. Roselle Cloth, Wood Pitch, Lacquer, Dry Casting Sand, and more. [*] Improved visibility on rewards available in the World Event tooltip. [/list] [h3]RECOMMENDED ACTIVITIES[/h3][list] [*] Added manufactories to the list of rewards shown for Helm Empire Opportunities on Recommended Activities. [/list] [h3]SEASONAL CALENDAR - UI IMPROVEMENTS[/h3][list] [*] Improved visuals to now highlight current week. [*] Updated icons of featured rewards to be displayed in the collapsed view. [*] Increased smoothness while side scrolling through the weeks. [/list] [h2]IMPROVEMENTS AND BUG FIXES[/h2] For the bug fixes coming with update 3.1, be sure to check out the full patch notes here 👉https://skullandbonesgame.com/y1s3_1_patch_notes