Sea of Thieves Season 20 adds Custom Seas private mode

Rare, developer of Sea of Thieves, launched Custom Seas with Season 20, a private sandbox mode that gives session hosts granular control over in-game rules and player placement. The feature is available in the live game across Xbox and PC and is accessible to players on subscription services that carry the title.

Hosts can enable or disable specific creatures and hazards, limit which weapons players may equip, and change the time of day for a session. The mode provides instant spawning of enemies, items and treasure, and the ability to teleport players and ships to chosen locations. A join-code system allows hosts to restrict access to invited players.

The mode supports up to 24 players in a single session. Hosts can assign the full group to crews as they choose, enabling setups such as multiple players on a single sloop or large custom fleet engagements. Hosts may also grant invited players permission to use the administrative tools during a session.

Custom Seas introduces a scoring metric called Silver that appears on dedicated scoreboards for crews or individual players. Silver is not a spendable currency; hosts define which actions gain or lose Silver, such as handing in treasure, damaging a ship’s mast, or sinking a vessel. Victory conditions are set with score limits or time limits according to the host’s chosen rules.

The mode includes director-focused tools, including a Free Camera with adjustable field of view and other settings for cinematic views. Certain Legendary Locations that are normally closed to public matchmaking can be opened inside Custom Seas, giving hosts additional options for staging encounters or events.

Rare posted setup guides and recipe sheets on the Sea of Thieves website to help players create custom rulesets and events. The developer outlined plans for a season schedule that includes recurring Events such as a Community Weekend and a Bilge Rats Weekender.

Season 20 also updated the Season Pass to use Seasonal Renown for unlocking cosmetics, Voyages and other in-game rewards. The Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition lists additional digital bonuses-an original soundtrack, an audiobook and an eBook-that are available through a Sea of Thieves website login.