What Does “The World is Changing” Mean in Sea Of Thieves

Sometimes a message beginning with “The world is changing, new dangers there be…” may appear on screen in Sea of Thieves. The game may appear to lag or be frozen briefly at that time. The reason for this message is quite simple.

Rare has done an excellent job of creating a seamless world in Sea of Thieves. Players can easily move from land to ship to sea and back without any loading screens or interruptions to their gameplay whatsoever. The only jarring exception to that is when a cryptic message appears on screen, momentarily freezing the game, and leading to some confusion among the pirate community.

The World is Changing

The message, shown in the screenshot above and transcribed below, will appear at random times during gameplay and slowly materialize on screen. Credit to Rare, the message does seem like it is part of the game, like some cryptic clue to some long forgotten treasure, perhaps. Sadly, it is not that exciting. Let’s have a closer look at what it says.

The world is changing, new dangers there be

Between boundless sky and treacherous sea

On rolling waves with sails unfurled

Ships come to plunder this new world

Ignoring the pirate speak and lovely wordsmithing, the message essentially speaks of ships coming to a new world. What is the “world” in technical terms for a game like this? Well, it’s the server instance that you and your crew are currently connected to. So the message, in short, means that the game has moved your crew to a new world, a new server instance.

Since Sea of Thieves does not have any detailed matchmaking or server selection, the game’s back-end infrastructure will occasionally check the player count on server instances and make adjustments as needed. Part of the purpose of the game is the interaction with other players, so when players leave a game, it’s possible that some crews are left all alone in their world, and that’s no fun.

So if you’re seeing this “The world is changing…” message in-game, don’t fret, just sit tight and wait while the game transitions you to a more populated server instance. Of course, if you’ve been enjoying the peace and quiet of the seas, be aware that you now share the world with other, potentially hostile, players. For more of our Sea of Thieves guides, visit our Sea of Thieves Guide Hub.