Remember Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s beleaguered pirate adventure? Having been announced in 2017, the game finally released in February of last year after numerous delays and setbacks. However, Skull and Bones failed to make positive waves on its debut, with players calling out the underwhelming gameplay and poorly designed end game, among other gripes.
Since its release, Skull and Bones has pretty much fallen off the radar, to be honest. At the time of writing, the game currently boasts 221 players on Steam, and while that is obviously not a complete overview (the game released on other platforms, as well) it still isn’t an especially auspicious number .
But despite all this, Ubisoft is still updating Skull and Bones (perhaps tinkering away with the engine and such while it gets ready for the yet-to-be-announced, but much desired and heavily rumoured piratical remake of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag).
Last night, Skull and Bones’ team released patch notes for the first season of the game’s second year, known as Ascent into Chaos. This new season kicks off today, 15th April, and includes things like a new ship (a Schooner), a new status effect (Shell-Shocked), new upgrade tree and a new pet in the form of a tiger cub.
Item Ascension will also arrive this season, with the accompanying lore blurb reading:
“The Indian Ocean is set ablaze by the war between the Megacorporations, with each side looking to gain an advantage over the other by using increasingly powerful weapons. The origins of these ascended weapons remain a mystery, but what is known is that acquiring them may be vital to surviving the coming onslaught.”
You will need to have made your way up to Infamy Tier 9 at a minimum to be able to make use of Item Ascension. When you reach this, though, you can expect to recieve some mail which will enable you to begin the Ascension and Modification quest. Once you do that, you will then need to pop over to the Blacksmith to unlock the Item Ascension feature.
There are three modification grades, Ubisoft explains. These are:
- Basic – General improvements
- Advanced – Noteworthy improvements
- Special – Powerful improvements with unique properties
Modification Slots, meanwhile, are assigned based on the weapon rarity:
- Common – 2 Basic, 1 Advanced, 1 Special
- Uncommon – 1 Basic, 1 Advanced, 1 Special
- Rare – 2 Basic, 1 Special
- Epic – 1 Basic, 1 Advanced
You can find full details in Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones blog post.
In an accompanying Skull and Bones: Year 2 Showcase video, senior community developer Alexis Cretton thanked the game’s community, adding Ubisoft was “committed to support Skull and Bones for years ahead”.
You can check out the full showcase below.
On its release last year, our Matt complimented Skull and Bones’ “beautiful world” and “bombastic ship-to-ship combat”. However, he was less enamoured with the game’s boring busywork and tedious traversal.
As he wrote in Eurogamer’s two star Skull and Bones review: “No game, let alone a swashbuckling pirate adventure, should be so consistently dull.”