We’re less than two weeks away from the official launch of Sea of Thieves on March 20th. The game has been going through many iterations of alphas, closed betas, and stress tests since 2016, and this weekend will feature the culmination of all that hard work and preparation by development studio Rare. Until March 11th at 10am GMT, players will be able to brave the seas in the game’s final and open beta.

Everyone’s Invited!

Players no longer require an official invite to test out Sea of Thieves and will be able to access the beta freely via the Xbox One Marketplace or the Microsoft Store (Editor’s note: Yuck). The only restriction is the need for an Xbox account on PC, and if you’re playing on your Xbox One, you will of course have to have a Gold membership to get online.

What’s Included?

While previous betas have been admittedly limited in regards to the amount of activities available, this final beta takes off the shackles. New vendors and ferry missions will be available, in addition to the Gold Hoarders’ voyages. You can think of some of these new missions as the trucking simulation part of Sea of Thieves. Don’t expect to just load up your sloop with a bunch of chickens though. They will need to be cared for in order to survive the rather rough seas. Some of the team here at TL;DR Games got legitimately sea sick, so imagine what those chickens must be going through!

While we’ve got some suggestion for improvements, we are excited to try out Sea of Thieves again this weekend and are looking forward to the final game. Be sure to keep an eye out for our review in the near future! In the meantime, we have some must-read advice for new pirates, including how to speak properly, in our Sea of Thieves Guide Hub.

“We are also introducing an intense, emergent opportunity into the world with the chance of a Skeleton Fort now being occupied. Watch out for that telltale skull cloud above a fort which indicates the chance of great rewards but also great risk. Will other players have seen it? Might they even be there already? Will you work together or against each other?” – Joe “Three Sheets” Neate, Executive Producer