Five and a half years and endless requests from the community later, Rare has announced it'll finally be adding private servers to Sea of Thieves - meaning a single crew of up to four players can explore the world without fear of PvP encounters - starting this December, as part of the multiplayer pirate adventure's Season 10.

Season 10 itself gets underway on 19th October, and will introduce a major new feature each month ahead of 2024 - essentially meaning all content originally planned for 2023 will arrive before the end of the year, despite a painfully protracted, seven-month-long Season 9.

First up, on 19th October, Sea of Thieves will introduce Guilds, described as a "new way for players to form meaningful bonds beyond their immediate crew". Essentially, any player that's reached Captain status and has their own ship can start a guild - picking a name, logo, and emblem when then do so - which can then support up to 24 invited players.

All captains in the guild can pledge their ships for use by members while they're offline, meaning everyone in the guild can admire their tasteful ship decor and help progress that vessel's Captaincy milestones, even when the owner is away in the real-world.

Additionally, as guild members adventure in Sea of Thieves, they'll be able to help progress a new Guild reputation track - which unlocks unique rewards for all members and a special Distinction every 100 levels bringing further rewards. Is yet another passive progression track the answer to livening up Sea of Thieves' somewhat stale sandbox? Probably not, but Guilds should, if nothing else, help larger groups of friends, who're unable to all play on the same server, feel a bit more connected in-game.

Things get considerably more action-packed, however, in November when Rare rolls in a new competitive voyage type known as The Skull of the Siren Song. This is essentially a server-wide race to find a treasure that begins when a ghostly note randomly appears on every crew's ship's mast during play. Anyone that wants in on the action can interact with the note, whereupon Captain Briggsy will appear to get proceedings underway.

At this point, all opted-in crews will receive two maps - one pointing to a chest containing the fabled Skull of the Siren Song and the other to the key required to open it - and then it's simply a (likely very messy) dash to retrieve both, unlock the chest, and grab the skull. However, that's still not quite the end of it; once a crew has the skull, they'll need to turn it in to an outpost to claim their reward - but, unfortunately, its cursed nature means the vessel it's on will be significantly slowed down, likely making for a chaotic tug of war as it passes back and forth between ships on the way home.

And that brings us to December and the third permanent addition to Sea of Thieves coming in Season 10: the aforementioned private servers - which Rare describe as "complementary" to the existing shared world mode. Private servers will arrive as a new play option known as Safer Seas (the classic experience is being renamed High Seas), and, once selected, will allow up to four friends to play together in private world.

Here, players can undertake Sea of Thieves' PvE content - everything from Trading Company quests to emergent events and narrative-driven Tall Tales - without the constant looming pressure of an encounter with a hostile crew.

Safer Seas does, however, come with a number of restrictions and missing features. For starters, Safer Seas players won't have access to Guilds, Hourglass Factions, or live-service events such as Gold & Glory. Rare is also capping Trading Company progression at 40 in Safer Seas, meaning it won't be possible to reach Pirate Legend status (which requires reaching level 50 in three companies) outside of High Seas. Nor will it be possible to earn gold or reputation for Athena's Fortune or their Reaper's Bones counterpart. Weirdly, too, Captains won't be able to use their customised ships in Safer Seas mode, so if you've invested time making your own little home on the ocean and were hoping to enjoy it in a more relaxed environment, that's a bit of a - frankly inexplicable - nope from Rare.

The big restriction, though, is the massively reduced payout rate for reputation and gold in Safer Seas - which is capped at 30% of the amount you'd ordinarily earn in High Seas mode. That's going to make for a pretty joyless progression slog if you were hoping to utilise Safer Seas to tackle Trading Companies away from the frequently obnoxious PvP encounters of High Seas mode, but you can at least still work through all applicable Commendations and Achievements, and, most importantly, seasonal renown is rewarded at the same rate as High Seas.

So to recap! Guilds are coming on 19th October, The Skull of the Siren Song arrives in November, and private servers will be available in December. Expect more details of the smaller features coming as part of Season 10 - such as the saveable rowboats teased last night - as its launch on Xbox and PC approaches. And don't forget that the third and final part of Rare's wonderful Monkey Island adventure arrives next week.