With the recent launch of its Hungering Deep expansion, Sea of Thieves has gotten a bunch of new features, including a mysterious new monster that now stalks the game’s open waters. In its latest developer update video, Rare offered a few hints about what that new monster is and how it will affect the game world over the long term.
The new deep sea monster is tied into The Hungering Deep’s limited-time story campaign (the monster itself is a permanent addition), a campaign which involves a crusty old pirate named “Merry” Merrick who knows a little more about massive undersea terrors than he’d care to. According to Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neate, who discusses the new monster briefly in the below video, the new monster will naturally take the efforts of multiple players to defeat, and it could also serve as the catalyst for more organic player-driven adventures once the Hungering Deep’s story event is over:
“Hopefully we should start seeing some of the adventures and people discovering what might be in there. We’re trying something a little bit different with our time-limited campaign, and with having to discover this AI threat that we’ve put into the world. We’re trying to encourage players to kind of come together to uncover and take down this AI threat with the new features that we’ve put in there.”
While Rare has been careful not to reveal the identity of the new monster, hints dropped in the video along with a recent tweet from the official Xbox twitter account suggest that it is in fact a giant shark. The monster’s identity is also teased via some of the new cosmetic items players can earn in The Hungering Deep, items such as a ‘Shark Hunter’ figurehead, sails, flag, hull, and livery set.
Set sail for The Hungering Deep. A new foe has arrived in the Sea of Thieves. https://t.co/mAJJvHZI1F pic.twitter.com/IJVKyPe2qN
— Xbox (@Xbox) May 29, 2018