With updates 1.2.5 and 1.3.0, the new barrel menus saw significant improvements. They opened/closed faster, got an external “empty” label, added a “take all/store all” option, would “auto-advance” to the next available resource when your pockets were full of one kind, and would clearly shadow-out resources you couldn’t carry any more of. With the initial Barrels 2.0 update, the community was in uproar demanding the change be reverted, but with the quality of life refinements in subsequent updates, resource management became faster than ever. Now with things like fishing bait, food varieties, and throwable weapons, it’s hard to imagine ever going back to the old barrles, and that’s why we ranked it #4.

#3 Open/Closed Crew settings (May ‘18)

At launch, the crew management settings were lacking. All crews were “open crews”, so if you loaded into a Galleon without all your friends at the same time, any empty spots on your crew would be filled by randoms. You couldn’t save the spot for a friend, so you’d have to ask that random to leave or lock them in the brig if they refused.

That’s completely unthinkable today, and might be shocking to players that haven’t been around long enough to experience this. In update 1.0.7, Rare added the “open/closed” split in the main menu, allowing you to choose whether empty crew spots would be filled by random matchmaking, or saved for your friends to join. It can’t be understated how much this improved the quality of game life, and that’s why it’s on our list.

Imagine not having this option… *shudder*

#2 The Shrouded Spoils Update (Nov ‘18)

This entry is kind of cheating because we’re not talking about any singular change to the game. The Shrouded Spoils update was the fourth “major” content update, and unlike the previous three it wasn’t as centered around any big new features- instead it comprehensively enhanced all of the game’s existing features with a shipload of tweaks and improvements.

Shipwrights could now customize cannons/capstans/wheels. Mermaid Statues returned and now dropped Gems. Megalodons came in multiple colors and dropped loot when killed. Krakens could now attack sloops (as opposed to just Galleons and Brigs), and could drop loot. EVERY stronghold could now become active (while six of them had been unused since launch), and their vaults now hold high tier merchant items (ancient bone dust and the new Stronghold Gunpowder barrel). Skeleton Ships could roam the seas individually outside of ship cloud fleets. A radial when mounting a cannon let you select your ammo. Etc etc etc.

Although it got less publicity at the time, Shrouded Spoils’ focus on improving the game feel over adding entirely new features made it the most impactful update of Sea of Thieves first year, making the game feel entirely brand new and incredibly satisfying. That’s why we couldn’t pick just one of its many improvements- Shrouded Spoils as a complete package was a huge leap forward for quality of life.

#1 Accessibility options (Ongoing)

Video games are for everyone. However, a large percentage of the population qualify as disabled while even more suffer from other long term or temporary conditions that impact their ability to play video games — and not all video games account for this in their design. Color blindness, reading difficulty, impairments to speech or hearing, motor limitations, etc can all make a game experience difficult or impossible to be included in- and Sea of Thieves has stepped up since launch in an ongoing effort to address this.

The accessibility settings in Sea of Thieves have been added to and improved upon continuously since launch, and this page on their website includes guides to ten accessibility options that are updated as new improvements are made- even as recently as this month. SpecialEffect, a charity aimed at improving the quality of life of gamers with disabilities, made this post detailing some of Sea of Thieves’ accessibility options added post-launch.

This may be a surprising pick in the #1 spot as the majority of players may not even use the game’s robust accessibility options. For the players that do use them however, they have a greater impact than any other update and could be the difference maker that allows them to play Sea of Thieves at all. That’s why we chose accessibility as the top quality of life improvement in the game to date.