Letter from the Producer

Greetings, Captains!

In our previous letter, we shared an update on our plans for Year 2 Season 2 and Faction War more specifically. We renewed our commitment to quality, while strengthening the game's core experience and putting community feedback at the heart of everything we do.  

Since then, the team has been hard at work building and improving the foundations of the Faction War experience, and we are confident things are heading in the right direction. Today, we are excited to confirm the release of this anticipated new end game feature with the launch of Year 2 Season 3 in October. This update will also include several new additions and improvements as we continue to focus on what we believe makes Skull and Bones unique: its naval combat.

YEAR 2 SEASON 3

For now, we'd like to share with you a high-level overview of the major features and improvements we have planned for Year 2 Season 3. We will follow up with more details and progress, through dedicated Devblogs as well as the full patch notes which will be made available closer to the launch date. So, let's take a first look at Year 2 Season 3: Guts and Glory.

FACTION WAR

Our vision for Faction War remains the same: a new community driven endgame experience in which players pick a side and fight for control over the Indian Ocean. Here is a brief overview of what the core gameplay loop will look like for Faction War in initial release.

• Pick a side at the beginning of the season: Compagnie Royale or the Dutch Merchant Company, the choice is yours.
• Participate in various activities to collect War Assets and push your faction closer to victory. 
• During each battle phase, aid your faction by capturing and defending contested territories.
• Earn unique rewards for your efforts. Should your faction be victorious at the end of the war, you'll earn yourself more spoils.
• Whether the faction you chose to side with is victorious or not, you'll need to prepare yourself for the next fight; for dominance begins on a clean slate.

These are just the foundations for what we envision as a new, long-term, evolving end game experience, which your feedback will help us shape throughout future seasons of Skull and Bones.

It will also open the door for new features and more fearsome threats that we will touch on at the end of this letter. For more in-depth information about Faction War, keep an eye for our dedicated Devblog coming soon.

SLOOP-OF-WAR - THE POISON SPREADER

Year 2 Season 3 will bring a new medium ship that excels at dealing damage over time through its efficiency in the updated poison weapon archetype. If you like watching your enemies slowly wither away while you stay just out of reach, this ship is built for you. We will share more details about Sloop-of-War soon, so stay tuned!

NARRATIVE

As the conflict between the DMC and Compagnie intensifies, this season's story takes a darker turn - unveiling a secret that will plunge you deeper into the heart of the war. Someone's been pulling the strings all along... but who - and why?

By taking on this season's quests and contracts, you'll be the one to bring some secrets to light.

NEW WEAPONS, ARMOR AND FURNITURE

Year 2 Season 3 will introduce new weapons, armor and furniture. Some of which are designed to shine on the Sloop-of-War.

TIME-LIMITED EVENTS

Season 3 will bring back time-limited events with new twists. Requiem of the Lost returns to haunt the seas with its eerie atmosphere just in time for Halloween, while Azure Solstice will once again challenge Captains to face the frozen convoys. If you have participated in these events before, you can look forward to the brand-new rewards. For captains joining for the first time, you'll have a chance to get rewards from the previous edition.

MYTHIC LA PESTE

Face off against La Peste, now imbued with renewed power, unleashing wider devastation as his new weapons spread a toxic plague during his deadly ramming phase. This encounter gives you a chance to secure loadout that perfectly complements our new ship, Sloop-of-War.

QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES

Through our focus on delivering quality and depth to our Naval Combat, we've identified many areas of improvement thanks to your thoughts and suggestions. Today we'd like to highlight a few we believe you have been waiting for:

ASCENSION-LOCKING

Since the introduction of Weapon Ascension, one highly requested feature was to have the ability to lock specific mods and reforge specific stats. You asked, and we listened. Prior to reforging a modification, you'll be able to pin it to lock the chosen stat in place, enabling you to reroll the value without losing what you already had.

ARMOR ASCENSION

With Year 2 Season 3, the Blacksmith will offer the extension of the Ascension service. Another popular request you have been asking for, Armor Ascension, will finally be available.

In addition to Ascension-Locking and Armor Ascension, future updates will bring a wave of quality-of-life improvements aiming to enhance your core gameplay experience. Here's a quick look at some of the highlights:

• Increased Reforge Attempts: We've increased the number of reforge attempts from 60 to 75. If you use all the attempts on specific items, they'll all gain 15 more.
• Sailing & Navigation: We've added a new optical indicator and improved visual effects to help you sail smarter. When your ship is properly aligned with the wind, you'll now see clear indicators showing that you're gaining a bonus to sailing speed.
• Map Improvements: In Y2S3, we're improving how key markers are filtered and prioritized on the mini map, so you can navigate more easily. Based on your feedback after the dark map mode was introduced, we also adjusted the colors of the map to a lighter blue and added more visual elements like clouds and tides to make the map feel more dynamic, here are some early versions from the development:

• Domains: As part of our ongoing changes to reduce the clutter on the map, we've made some changes to the encounters with Sea Lords and Sea Monsters. Domains are areas where you'll be able to sail to, draw out the Sea Lords and Sea Monsters to battle with them.
• Seasonal Hub & Seasonal Journey: With Year 2 Season 3, we'll be introducing a new seasonal ecosystem to the game. The goal of this feature is to give players easy access to all currently available events, store offers, and engagement systems on one single screen. We're also introducing the Seasonal Journey, which provides buffs for the duration of the season for completing quests.

• Waterspouts: Originally planned for Year 2 Season 3, it is a new feature that creates opportunities to slingshot you across the water on the edges of the spout or wreck your sails if you get caught on it. We're continuing to polish this feature to ensure its quality at launch and there's a chance it may release slightly later than Season 3. We'll keep you updated on its progress.

COSMETICS

We remain committed to delivering cosmetics and content shaped by your feedback, with a strong focus on darker and grittier cosmetic designs. In Year 2 Season 3, you can expect even more striking looks.

LOOKING BEYOND YEAR 2 SEASON 3

The development of Skull and Bones has always been an evolving process, building an experience for you and with you. Our goal is to keep you updated as progress unfolds, and we'll have more to share soon.

By laying the foundation for Faction War in Year 2 Season 3, we're building the framework needed to introduce even more fearsome threats and new features in the future. We want everything to feel connected, which is why getting the first iteration of Faction War right is our priority. Once this groundwork is solid, we can expand the Skull and Bones world in new directions.

That being said, we know you love sneak peeks (and we promised one at the start of this letter!). So, here it is:

A brand-new large ship, the Corvette, is currently in development and planned to make its grand entrance in Year 2 Season 4. Please note that what you're seeing is early concept art and subject to change as we continue to refine its design.

And speaking of threats...

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There's a bitter chill borne on the winds of Sainte-Anne; a whisper carried through the cobbles in the dark of night. Foreboding. A sense of fear - trepidation, even. Something is coming, Captain.

"Fear its great power, or soon you shall be devoured. Taken you shall be."

There's an unusual odour in the air at Dutchman's Camp in Season 3. Whatever could it be?

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Join us live on September 10^th at 2:00 AM UTC for our next Deck livestream on the Ubisoft Twitch channel. We will be showcasing gameplay videos and taking the opportunity to answer your questions.

Not sure what time that is for you? Click here to check your local time.

See you on the high seas, Captains!