Sea of Thieves decreases Milestone requirements in response to complaints of grinding

Ahead of Sea of Thieves’ seventh season of content, we got a deep dive video that introduced Milestones. These in-game stat trackers were tied into different gameplay styles, rewarding players for exploration, sailing, trading, and other activities — in theory. In practice, Milestones turned out to be less than perfect, with a percentage of players complaining about the apparent grinding required to complete them.

Thus, developer Rare has implemented some sweeping changes to Milestones, decreasing the requirements across the board. Lead designer Shelley Preston announced the changes in a blog post on the game’s website. One common complaint with Milestones is that anything done before Season 7 doesn’t count toward them. “Milestones are not awarded for deeds you have already completed primarily because Milestones are designed to be a progression system specific to Captaincy,” Preston explained.

“They are for actions you have completed while aboard a Captained ship, much like Pirate Legend Commendations that require you to be a Pirate Legend to unlock them.” Preston also points out that these Milestones are uncapped, meaning players can do them repeatedly for continual rewards. Even so, Preston says that “there are definitely changes that we can make to address the feedback around the Milestones being too much of an investment without compromising the original vision for these as a longer-term progression system.”

The blog post contains a long list of the changes related to specific Milestones. The majority of requirements have been lowered, with the exception of gold-earning challenges. For example, “Treasures Sold” for The Gold Seeker Alignment is being decreased from 450 to 400, while “Gold Earned” in the same Alignment is increasing from 90,000 to 200,000. Every Milestone for every Alignment has been tweaked in a similar manner.

These adjustments may make things wonky at first. “In cases where we’ve decreased a requirement, you’ll see an increase in your Class,” Preston says. “However, should this make you eligible for an automatic reward, please note that you will need to earn one more Class in that Alignment for the unlock to take place.” You can check out our Milestone Alignments guide for more information on the various Alignments and their Classes.